Five Solutions to the Mystery of Interactivity - Walter Sabo

1. If a video is slick, it's scary. Videos that are slick enough for a 35MM screen will win awards, look good in the conference room, impress your boss and get very little engagement from your customers. They are too slick, impersonal and not authentic.

2. Every medium creates its own stars. A TV or movie star performing in an online video usually gets very poor response. It's not because they are untalented, it's because they are not online stars---they are TV or movie stars. Think of all the TV stars who quit their TV shows to become movie stars and vanished. David Caruso. The Internet has created organic, Internet stars we call them Web Stars.

Interactivity online is generated dependably by Web Stars like Mr. Safety, Ray Williams Johns and Tobuscus. Often, brands get sweaty when one of their videos hit 50-100,000 views on YouTube. Web Stars like Community Channel regularly pull over 1,000,000 views per video within 48 hours of posting. They generate those numbers all by themselves, in their houses. No meetings, email memos, annoying guidelines or rules, no agencies, no wasteful executives wearing all black.

They are masters of interactivity because they build the video from conception to prompt engagement, it's not an afterthought.

3. Ken Williams was a genius. He invented TALKSPOT. In the late 1990's TALKSPOT was a platform featuring a live host on video, a chat room and graphics panel. It worked if you had a high speed modem. No one had a high speed modem, it didn't work on dial up. Ken was wise enough to hire one of Rush Limbaugh's first producers. It was the right stage, featuring radio hosts and staff to foster online interactivity. His invention fostered many similar stages.

Today, go to HUFFINGTON POST and click LIVE from the bar menu on top. You will see a brand new interactive content machine. Live hosts, chat room and a row of participants on Skype. Unlike similar ventures, this one is backed with the ENORMOUS resources of AOL. Top producers and hosts have been hired and the crew totals about 100 people turning out LIVE programming from 10 AM-7 PM. I have never seen such a robust start-up in my career. AOL is doing just fine, thank you.

Huffington Post live is an interactive playground. Watch it. The key to success will be hosts and producers who understand what radio stars and executives have understood for decades: If you want massive audience interaction, it's all just a show, nothing really counts.

Two groups of talent and producers truly, transparently understand that all reaction is a miracle: Radio hosts, radio executives, video Web Stars, I hope they hire a few. Yes, of course, I want their business, this isn't a hobby.

4. If you want response from people who have no scripts, don't use a script

5. Mechanics. Interactivity must be mapped out for the viewer. Web Star videos and successful radio shows constantly tell the audience how to participate. Explain the methods of reacting and how to get in touch with the show or how to interact with the video and do it throughout the video, not just once.