• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Social Media Examiner

Your Guide to the Marketing Jungle

  • 🔥 Free Newsletter
  • 🎙️ Podcasts
    • Social Media Marketing Podcast
    • AI Explored Podcast
    • Social Media Marketing Talk Show
    • Our YouTube Channel
  • 🌟 AI Society
  • 🗓️ Marketing Conference
  • 👋 About Us
    • Marketing Events
  • Search
  • Embrace AI & MarketingGet Ongoing Training & SupportBEGIN YOUR JOURNEY NOW

    Failing and Rapidly Regrouping: The Journey: Season 2, Episode 9

    by Michael Stelzner / November 8, 2018


    social media how toDo you ever come up with a great plan and then it fails? Then watch the Journey, Social Media Examiner's episodic video documentary that shows you what really happens inside a growing business.

    Watch the Journey

    In episode 9, Michael Stelzner (founder of Social Media Examiner) and his team work through a failed launch of their documentary and deal with sales figures that aren’t on track.

    The show opens with Mike sharing a decision to pause promotion of the conference to focus on promotion of season two of The Journey, set for a Sunday launch on Facebook.

    To build an audience for the release of the show, he begins working on an email that not only introduces The Journey but the story behind show itself. He’s betting that readers will be intrigued enough to click through to watch on Facebook and see what it’s all about.

    Monday dawns and the first episode launches on Facebook.

    On Tuesday, Mike calls the marketing team into his office to share the results of the launch. It was a failure. The question is, why?

    He hypothesizes that people simply aren’t watching long-form video content on Facebook. Instead, he thinks they’re watching it on YouTube.

    When he and marketing specialist Mitch Dong dissect the data, a series of startling watch patterns are revealed.

    Of the 4000 views that registered on Facebook, only 1% of those viewers (40 people) watched the entire video. What’s more, watch time patterns show that after 1 minute, the viewers dropped like a rock. In fact, the average watch time on Facebook is just 22 seconds.

    YouTube, on the other hand, tells a different story. Average watch time is 3 minutes and 29 seconds, and 50% of all viewers watched the episode to the end

    The data is clear; it was a mistake to direct the promotions towards Facebook.

    Discussing the outcome with the full marketing team (Jennifer Ballard, Kim Reynolds, and Saidah Murphy) and Social Media Manager Erik Fisher, possible factors are brought forward; the day of the week, the quality of the content itself, and the platform all come into question.

    The team makes a unanimous decision to release future episodes on Thursdays. This means episode 2 will air in two days.

    Later, on his own, Mike acknowledges that he was so enamored with the idea of getting The Journey onto Facebook Watch that he ignored reason and let emotion drive his decision. Rather than listening to the voice in his head that said, “Focus on YouTube for the launch of The Journey.” he focused on Facebook. That was a mistake.

    Next, hoping to help his marketing team embrace a culture of executing quickly, Mike calls them in to listen to an episode of the EntreLeadership podcast.

    In episode #282: Leading with Military Precision, Mark Divine shares some tips and advice that Mike feels will help the team be ready for rapid action. The key takeaways for Mike? It’s important to be aware of what the goal is and where the team is ‘right now.’

    With the podcast fresh in everyone’s mind, Mike clarifies the mission in front of the marketing team. The goal? To sell 341 tickets before the end of the month. Where is the team now? 71 tickets have been sold.

    Mike challenges the team to come back to him with a plan to achieve their goal.

    A brainstorming session yields number of achievable ideas, including an extra promo email and an additional video ad, all of which Saidah will organize into a plan they can quickly set in motion.

    Finally, Mike opens up about the pressure he’s under. He’s spending countless hours in the editing room trying to cut The Journey into episodic segments and he’s realizing it’s simply not scalable. The pressure is driving introspection and Mike begins to wonder why he’s doing The Journey.

    Is this the end?

    Should Mike stop The Journey? What do you think? Let us know in the comments below.

    Key Mentions:

    • EntreLeadership Podcast Episode #282 featuring Mark Divine
    • Social Media Marketing World 2019
    • AI Media

     

    Click here to watch season 2

     

    Don’t miss an episode! Subscribe to The Journey on YouTube.

    Tags: Journey

    About the authorMichael Stelzner

    Michael Stelzner is the founder of Social Media Examiner and the Social Media Marketing World conference. He's host of the Social Media Marketing Podcast and he's founder of the AI Business Society. He also authored the books Launch and Writing White Papers.
    Other posts by Michael Stelzner »

    Get Social Media Examiner’s Future Articles in Your Inbox!

    Get our latest articles delivered to your email inbox and get the FREE Social Media Marketing Industry Report (43 pages, 50+ charts)!

    Industry Report Cover

    Worth Exploring:

    Facebook

    Marketing Help Explore More →

    Instagram

    Marketing Help Explore More →

    YouTube

    Marketing Help Explore More →

    Linkedin

    Marketing Help Explore More →

    AI

    Next Frontier Explore More →

    Social Media Marketing Industry Report

    Get Free Report →

    Social Marketing Trends

    The data you've been missing!

    Need a new plan? Discover how marketers plan to change their social activities in the 17th annual Social Media Marketing Industry Report. It reveals what marketers have planned for their social activities, content marketing, and more! Get this free report now and never miss another great article from us. Join more than 385,000 marketers!

    Simply click the button below to get the free report:

    Footer

    Your Guide to the Marketing Jungle
    Copyright © 2025 Social Media Examiner®
    All Rights Reserved. Terms of Use | Privacy Policy.

    Helpful Links

    • About us
    • Our content via email
    • Our podcasts
    • Our YouTube channel
    • Our live show
    • Our social media marketing industry report
    • Our generative AI marketing industry report
    • Sponsorship opportunities
    • RSS