How hard do you make it for others to help you? Read this (edited) comment by Laurel Papworth of Online Communities - Australia and Global about how she wanted to tell others about a video she found —one the owners wanted people to see — but was blocked:

Diet Coke’s user generated advertising (Quickie - Australian campaign) is a bit weird. I can’t embed the “Short Films” (read: product placement videos) on MY blog page. I wanted to put the winning one here for you to see. … I can only send or post the link …

[Source : Wanna quickie?]

Part of what we as people like to do is chat about ’stuff’ with others. Have you ever discussed the latest episode of a TV show with a colleague in the lift, or while making a cup of tea? We love to share things we’ve found, explore our reactions and perspectives on those ‘finds’.

Most of the phenomenal success of YouTube is that it’s beyond easy to share and discuss a video you find. Click on the screenshot thumbnail here to see a larger version (at Flickr), or just visit any YouTube video.

Near the video you’ll find obvious links to Share the video, add it to your favorites or Playlists, Flag it (as inappropriate), rate it, make comments on it — in text or even via a video. There’s code right there to copy and paste into your own web page to embed the video, and a clear link to customise that code if you wish.

Nearby are lists of all-kinds of related videos, with links to subscribe.

The whole point of YouTube is to share the videos and to watch more.

Compare that with adding a video clip to your own website. Even if visitors find their way to your site and watch the video, what can they do to share it with friends? Probably at best they can copy the page address from the web browser’s location bar and paste it into an email message or include it as a link in their blog. It’s just not the same. It’s not a shared experience.

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