It’s been a couple of weeks since I posted a reel (a film up to 90 seconds long) on Facebook, of my wife in the process of making cucumber kimchi, spicy pickles Korean style, which can be made with a number of different vegetables. We have long had Korean friends, some of who taught Lali the recipe, and it’s been a favorite of ours ever since.
Well, something must have clicked, after years of my posting photos and videos on Facebook and slowly gathering followers and friends. I haven’t bothered to migrate to or add another social media platform, finding my hands full with this one. Suddenly, the numbers of likes, responses, new friend requests and followers suddenly began to shoot up, into what’s called “viral.” That video is now approaching half a million likes, with another hard on its heels and more shooting up. We have added more clips, responded to questions and comments, and have started posting more such video episodes of “Lali’s Cooking Show,” mixing Georgian and foreign cuisine. People can’t get enough.
My followers have gone from 6000 or so to past 11,000. Modest monetization is in the works, and we have a new fan base. It’s quite exhilarating.
We do this both to promote the guest house and to promote happy living in faraway, challenging Svaneti. I’m paying attention to what gets the largest number of responses as fast as possible: it’s definitely Lali’s smiling face and positive demeanor. Yes, there is hard work in running the guest house, and we show that too: dishes and laundry and cleaning up after 20 or so guests have come through for a night and three meals. Videos featuring me, landscapes, cloud time-lapses or whatever get a few thousand likes, too. But Lali’s the star here. We’ll go with that.
It’s not come from studying how to get more people interested; more from stumbling across something which people like, and making more of the same, but not just to make more. The response has been overwhelmingly positive. We won’t get into “flame wars” with any naysayers: that trap must be avoided as a time-waster and joy-vampire, a no-win game.
Khachapuri… kubdari, the Svan meat pie… khashlama, beef stew… gardening… picking fragrant rose petals for tea, liqueur and jam… a tour through the cafe during meal time… introducing my wife in general. All, or mostly, in Georgian, as this is the mother tongue of most of my friends and followers now. It’s fun, as well as the work of thinking of and posting new content.
As the videographer, it’s up to me to check the lighting and spiel and warn her when the 90-second mark is approaching, because that’s all the time we get in this medium. I’m shooting almost entirely in vertical orientation, recognizing that most people will be watching on their phones instead of horizontally-oriented tablet or laptop screens. So this is different for me, but that’s fine. Next, I must learn how to edit the videos more: up until now, they have been one shot each, and usually only one take too. Adding voice-overs, subtitles, stills and joined video snippets will make things more creative. Thankfully, there are plenty of free programs for doing all this on either phone or laptop; there’s just a small learning curve. It’s really an extension of photography and general video work.
What for? Partly for fun; partly to show people how we live up here, as too many Georgians have never set foot in Svaneti. There’s so much here to discover, and we hope to entice people to make the journey and find that it’s worth it, whether they stay with us or not. Come on up!
Blog by Tony Hanmer
Tony Hanmer has lived in Georgia since 1999, in Svaneti since 2007, and been a weekly writer and photographer for GT since early 2011. He runs the “Svaneti Renaissance” Facebook group, now with over 2000 members, at www.facebook.com/groups/SvanetiRenaissance/
He and his wife also run their own guest house in Etseri: www.facebook.com/hanmer.house.svaneti
