Will This "Star Wars: The Last Of The Jedi" Video Have The Force?

Cynthia Kasper is a Facebook friend. Here she is with her son and you can tell they have a great relationhip, and that he’s a joker

She shared with me that he is participating in a contest organized by StoryTubes for their 2008 National Contest which rewards winning contestants with $500 prize money for books, and their sponsoring organization (school, library or designated organization for home-schooled youth) will also receive $1,000 in books. I like this contest already

In addition, she enquired if I would share methods to get this message to the masses to vote for her 12 year old son’s video – and fast.

As a homeschooled student, he created his own book report video and entered it in the "Heroes/Heroines Category" with a video titled: Star Wars: The Last Of The Jedi: Death On Naboo (his video is located in the 2nd last row of videos).

The good news is he was chosen as a finalist and the voting begins tomorrow, May 19th.

Cynthia shared her discovery that previous winners have mobilized large social networks to get in excess of 15,000 votes. WOW!

Feeling especially generous and wanting to encourage her son’s efforts, I detailed my "off the top of my head" game plan for her to deploy right away. After you read my game plan below, I would appreciate your feedback, and especially a strategy or two to help Cynthia and her son get quick exposure and votes. And I’m confident Cynthia would be very grateful for your vote also

So here’s the game plan I shared with Cynthia:

Her Son’s Video:

Cynthia, good on your son for creating the video. This is what I would do, off the top of my head…

Facts:
- He created a video in the "heroes/heroines" topic/category
- He created a video about "Death On Naboo" (Star Wars The Last Of The Jedi)
- The winner wins $ in books and also for institution of choice
- Voting commences May 19 (12 noon EDT) – May 25, 2008
- Past winners have leveraged social networks for votes

Here are my ideas:

1. Video Broadcast:
- I would setup an account at TubeMogul.com, which will broadcast your video to 14 video sharing sites (eg. youtube, google video, blip, etc).
- You would have to register for free accounts at those 14 sites.
- Upload the video to TubeMogul and it’ll broadcast to all of them. This will give more exposure to the video.
- Title the video like how you’ve done it at YouTube. eg. "For StoryTubes Vote: Heroes & Heroines: Star Wars – Death On Naboo"
- Describe the video well. If you can, hyperlink to the category and describe how folks can locate your son’s video to view it. Then link to the voting page and provide details to make it easy for folks to use the data to vote.
***  It wouldn’t hurt to have a page setup on Squidoo.com or HubPages.com that embeds your son’s video, explaining the cause, the prize, what institution your son’s hoping to win books for, plus links to the necessary page for voting – this way you direct everybody there, they get the info they need, get motivated, then click the links to vote.

2. Press Release:
- Write a release sharing the purpose of the event, the cause, the prizes. Then write your point of view, and your son’s point of view (like you’re being interviewed) in it. Then include a link in the release to your Squidoo.com or HubPages.com page. Send your release to PR.com (free) or PRWeb.com (paid).

3. Use Social Media Groups:
- Go to MySpace. Search for "Star Wars" in MySpace Groups. Join them. Then share the details of the program, the cause, the prize, who your son’s trying to win for, and link to the Squidoo/HubPages page for more details and votes.
- Repeat the above process for Facebook Groups.

4. Google "Star Wars fan sites", "Star Wars forums" or related phrases
- Hunt down fan sites or forums, join them, add value and comments, and share what your son is doing with the Star Wars video. If you can email/call the webmaster or admin to feature his cause, with relevance to Star Wars, then that’ll provide a large fan base that will vote for your son just because you’re all Star Wars fans.

5. Homeschool Groups/Organizations
- Email your admins of your homeschool group/org and also other homeschool groups/orgs, detailing the same proposal. Send them to your Squidoo/HubPages page and get them voting for your son.

6. Leverage Sponsor Blogs
- Visit StoryTubes.info, visit all the associated sponsoring organizations and libraries, and hunt down their blogs. Since they are sponsoring the event, they would probably have some type of mention of it on their blogs (hopefully).
- Add comments on their blogs, sharing your excitement and your son’s commitment to winning the prize for his chosen institution. Share a link to your Squidoo/HubPages page, requesting folks to view his video and vote.

7. Other Social Media & Social Bookmarking Sites
- There are a host of Web 2.0 sites you can feature content about your son’s contest journey/experience. Here are some of them: Hubpages, Squidoo, Wetpaint, Faves, Bumpzee, WordPress.com, ClearBlogs, Quizilla, Propeller, Wists, Kaboodle, Digg and many more…

8. Ping
- Use your Squidoo.com/HubPages.com RSS feed URL and get it pinged at Pingoat.com and OnlyWire.com

9. Twitter - Hopefully you already have a good following of friends on Twitter. Broadcast to your friends to vote too!

What do you think? Can you get some momentum from these strategies?

Cheers, Sherman H.

There you have it – my quick-off-the-top-of-head game plan. I’m confident there are a ton of strategies that are free / inexpensive, deliver quick exposure and in turn, leading to votes for her son.

What are your thoughts on what I shared with her? Do you agree? Differ? What would you suggest? Cynthia & I are all ears…