Filmmaker David Sauvage spoke with Social Media Chimps Thursday night about how he became involved in the Occupy Wall Street movement last fall, and the events that eventually led to the creation of Occupy.com, an online media hub for the movement dedicated to hosting multiple forms of media and art in support of the cause.
Sauvage, a director whose work includes music videos and commercials, says that he would never have considered himself an activist before getting involved in Occupy Wall Street. After spending some time in Zuccotti Park in the early days of the occupation, however, Sauvage was impressed by the depth and tone of the dialogue taking place among the occupiers.
He was moved to bring his video camera down to the park, interview a few people, and create a short commercial on what Occupy Wall Street was all about. The video went viral, and through a series of events involving TV appearances and a commercial spot on Fox News Channel, Sauvage eventually ended up spearheading the creation of Occupy.com.
So far, said Sauvage, word of mouth through social media has been an important driver in garnering traffic on the site. He noted that Mother Jones wrote a piece about the site’s launch, but that traffic from that traditional news outlet paled in comparison to clicks driven in from Facebook and Twitter.