If you ain’t makin’ waves, you ain’t kickin’ hard enough!

With creative digital media, distribution is always a challenge. In such a vast space, how do you make an impact? Kick harder? The web is an ocean of infinite size and its becoming harder and harder to make an impact. However, there are certain things you can do to help make an impact. Some ideas with great appeal to me are:

Go Open Source
If you have a nice bit of code that you've been working on and its ready for public release why not release the source code to, or at least a stripped back version. You never know who will come across it and they may even help you by giving feedback on you methodology or approach.

Vimeo it
http://www.vimeo.com is a great place to release video relating to digital media items it's a trash free http://www.youtube.com with social networking where you can add to favorites

Create an iPhone App
The iPhone has had a huge take up with more and more apps becoming available ech day. You can leverage this channel by creating a small free iPhone app that somehow compliments your distribution. Beware though iPhone development is in high demand and an average app can cost anywhere between $20,000 to $30,000 and the demand for an iPhone developer out weighs the supply greatly at them moment. For more on this check this link

Make it social
Explore social media and other channels available such as FaceBook, MySpace, flickr and desktop widgets like AIR, Adobe's Integrated Runtime environment, or in english, their way to make and distribute desktop applications. FaceBook has just allowed commercial registration so companies can use FaceBook for promotion. And Myspace is due for a solid makeover which will pull it back up to spec. One particular widget available now for download by the Moonlight Cinema gives people a quick easy way to check what films are playing with details and images saving opening a browser and navigating to the website etc... check out the Moonlight Widget here

Go Viral
You could also create a viral. This is harder than most people imagine. The key to what makes a good viral is to not try to hard and keep it simple. With a simple idea the viral has more power and is quicker and easier spread and the less production the better. A great example is the Gmail video embedded below.



There is no right or wrong way to distribute digital media however there is a smart and a not so smart way. Simply be aware of the user/viewer/audience in whatever form they may be and try and be original. Good ideas generate good ideas so do research and get inspired. Finally have fun! It's no use bashing your head against a wall with so many fun and exciting thing going on in digital media. Find one and pursue it. Get out there and make a splash!