2010 - My Year In Social Media.

After writing my last post for this blog, i started to think about what i had done in the world of social media during 2010. I have been using, what we would call social media, since 2006 and i wondered if 2010 had been any different to the previous years.
So, in the interests of curiosity, i decided to do a little research and thought it only right that i post my findings on a social media site for all to see.

Of course, one of the things that i did do in 2010 was to set up this Social Media Journeys blog. Rather than go through the reasons why all over again, here is a YouTube video i made at the time explaining why.

What i thought i'd do, is to go through the main social media sites that i use and discuss them separately.

First: YouTube.
YouTube was the first social media site that i really got involved with, in August 2006. Yes, i had dabbled with other sites, but none that i could get very excited about.
In 2010 i posted 119 videos on YouTube. My total number of videos on YouTube is now approaching 700 by the way.
This actually surprised me, because i felt that i had slowed down my video output during 2010. But, as i'm sure you can work out yourself, this still averages out at over 2 videos per week. Not a bad total at all.
One of reasons for this higher than expected number, is the Road Trip i did in California, with fellow YouTubers in April and May of 2010. That trip has produced over 20 separate videos alone.
YouTube is still a site that i have a great deal of fondness for, but i do find myself spending less and less time there and also finding myself watching less and less videos there too.
I still intend to make and post videos, mainly because i still really enjoy doing so. Long may that continue.

Next: My personal blog - Moose Musings.
During 2010 i posted 238 posts to this blog. Now, that may sound rather a lot. But, i do use my personal blog as a kind of collection point for all of my social media ramblings. This includes my YouTube videos, AudioBoos and posts from this Social Media Journeys blog.
After taking all of those posts out of the equation, i reckon that i actually only wrote around 40 unique posts for Moose Musings. That's still getting towards one a week, which is about what i might have expected. Especially given all my other online activities.
I know a lot of people have their own personal websites to collect all of their online output and that is something that i have considered. But, for moment at least, i intend to continue with using Moose Musings as a kind of one stop shop for my social media ramblings.
One thing i would like to do in 2011 is more writing. I have noticed that my blogging has tended to decrease, especially towards the end of 2011. But, i know that i can put that down to the next social media site i'm going to mention.

Next: AudioBoo.
I first started using AudioBoo in early 2009. I used it for around 6 months and then did what so many of us do, i stopped using the site and, more or less, forgot about it.
Fast forward to September of 2010 and i noticed that several of my online friends had recently started to post podcasts on AudioBoo themselves. As you can imagine, this re-awakened by interest in the site. After all, if they were using AudioBoo, maybe it's time i went back and had a look at it myself?
Since then i have posted 74 Boos onto the site! So, i think you can safely say that i'm well and truly back on AudioBoo.
I have found it so quick and easy to use, especially with my iPhone. I can podcast from pretty much anywhere, which is one of the beauties of the site. I can think of a topic and within 15 minutes, my AudioBoo is uploaded and available for anyone to listen to. That is certainly not the case, for me anyway, with either YouTube, or Blogger.
Since September i have certainly found myself blogging less and podcasting more, for the reasons i've just mentioned. I expect this will continue into 2011.
If you've not tried AudioBoo why not give it a go? You may well become hooked, like so many others have.

Well, those are the sites where i post the most real content. But, of course i also use several other social media and networking sites as well.
Facebook and Twitter are sites that i use frequently every day. I have been on both since 2008 and strangely enough, they are both sites that i resisted for a while, before being convinced by others to try.

I use Twitter a lot and now find it an invaluable way of keeping in touch with online and real life friends, finding interesting videos, articles, breaking news and people. It is also, like Facebook, a great way of linking your own social media output.
Twitter was certainly a huge help to me after the fire on Hastings Pier, in October. I was able to link my online output very quickly and get almost instant response/feedback from many sources.
Another aspect of Twitter that i like is being able to post photos, via such apps/sites as TwitPic.
Apart from my emails, Twitter is the first thing that i turn to in the morning. I think that shows how much it has crept into my life.

Facebook, on the other hand, is something that i've grown into during 2010.
Even after being dragged there in 2008, i was still to be convinced about the site. That feeling still persisted at the start of 2010. But, i'm now coming around and find myself using the site more and more.
Strangely enough, it is the local aspect of Facebook that has helped me to enjoy it more. I use the site just as much to keep in contact and up to date, with local people, as i do with my Internet friends.
I do use Twitter is a similar way, but the local people i interact with on Facebook are far more likely to be people that i actually know and i feel that makes a lot of difference.

I mentioned in my earlier Social Media Journeys blog post about Posterous and the fact that i'd given up using the site, mainly because it had become, for me at least, a site too far.
I was using Posterous in a similar way to how i use my personal blog and found that duplicating my output on yet another site, was just too much.
I would still recommend Posterous for some users, but i don't think it's for me anymore. Who knows though, that may well change at some point in the future.
Like all sites that i tend not to use anymore, i still keep my account open, just in case.

MySpace Now, where do you start with MySpace?
I was never a big fan of the site anyway and have only realy used it because of my involvement with Hastings Rock radio. I look after the stations MySpace page and to be honest,  hardly ever go there these days.
Those visits are likely to be even less frequent after the recent re-design of the site. I know i am not alone in thinking that it's awful. I'm just thankful that my need to use MySpace is becoming less and less, partly due to the emergence of sites like Twitter and Facebook.
Having said that, MySpace can be very useful for posting blog posts about Hastings Rock. There are still a lot of musical people out there who use the site. I suspect though that, like me, they'd happily use an alternative if they could.

Two other sites which i did use, to varying degrees, in 2010 were LinkedIn and Flickr.

I only started using LinkedIn because several people asked me to and i'll be honest, i've yet to get anything out of using the site.
I suspect that i'm not the right type of person to be using it. It appears to be aimed at the higher end of the working population, which is an area that i didn't really move in myself. I fully realise that, like so many other sites, LinkedIn will work well for some and not for others. Horses for courses, as we say in the UK.
I'll keep my profile and maybe even update it from time to time. But, it tends to take an email about the site to remind me of its existence.

Flickr, on the other hand, is another one of those sites that i've used periodically and have now started to use once again. It's a site that i like and i suspect the only reason i've not used it very much in the past is because i've been posting my photos onto my Facebook profile instead. Once again, that thought of duplicating what you're doing and the time that it takes, stops me from doing so.
But, i now have a new DSLR camera and a renewed enthusiasm for taking photos and this has led me back to Flickr.
I've always had an interest in photography and enjoy taking photos, but the lack of a really good camera has often stopped me from taking it more seriously.
As it happens, i was approached, via my Flickr profile, by a website that produces online guides to cities around the world. They wanted to use one of my photos for an online guide to Brighton, in the UK. A town only 35 miles from where i live.
So, i suspect Flickr is a site i'll be using much more in 2011.

And there you have it, a trip through the social media journey that i made in 2010. Sure, i used many other sites as well, but the ones mentioned above are the ones that i posted material onto.

I wonder how my own journey would compare to anyone elses? I suspect that many of the same sites would be used.
As always, i'd love to hear anybody elses own experiences. Who knows, i may well discover some great new social media sites to use in the process?

So, what does 2011 hold and which, if any, new social media sites will i discover and start using during this year? And how many will i stick with?
I've already had a look at the latest buzz site Quora. That seems to have everyone talking, so i guess it's only a matter of time before you'll find me there as well.

Wherever your own social media journey takes you during 2011, i wish you well.
Have a happy and interesting 2011.

PS: For a view of what my "real life" was like in 2010, you may be interested in this video that i made for YouTube recently. Like this blog post, it's an epic, coming in at 14 minutes long!

Power To The People?

I have just read an article in The Word magazine. One of my favourite magazines as it happens.
In the article, the writer mentioned that he just been to see a pre-screening of The Social Network, here in the UK.

Obviously, movie reviewers and journalists have been seeing new movies earlier than the rest of us mere mortals for many years now. But, now some things have changed.

As the journalist mentioned. Before seeing the movie he and every other fellow reviewer, were told that they were forbidden from giving any opinion about the movie in any form, until October 11th. A few days prior to the UK release date. Even though the movie had already been released in the USA.

This embargo covered such social media avenues as Twitter, Facebook, Blog posts etc.
As was pointed out in the article, this was especially ironic, considering the subject matter of the movie.
The Social Network was not allowed to be discussed on any social network. Hmm...

Now, this is by no means the first time that i've heard of these type of controls and effective gagging orders being put onto reviewers and journalists.
As media companies, in their many forms, get increasingly paranoid about potential bad publicity and leaks, these controls are likely to become even more widespread.
But why?

I do understand why companies would be concerned about the potential leaking of their music and movies all over the Internet. And i know that record companies have now started playing new music down the phone to music journalists. Or, inviting them to "special" playback sessions, where they have to leave their phones etc outside. But, stopping a reviewer even talking about a movie is getting a little bit ridiculous, in my opinion.

All of this paranoia does, partly, explain the reason why movies and music are increasingly finding their release dates corresponding, across the world. Similtaneous release dates are becoming far more frequent. Partly as a result of piracy concerns.

But, as with anything out in the big wide world. It is the quality of the product that really matters. As has always been the case.
No amount of gagging orders and secrecy will help to stop the news that you have unleashed a huge turkey of a product onto the unsuspecting public.

And, this brings us to the real crux of the matter.
The reason that we are not being allowed to hear the opinions of reviewers and journalists, is because of the power of social media.

There have already been examples of new and very expensive movies, that have bombed at the box office, because of the power of social media and word of mouth generally.

Word of mouth has always been a very valuable tool to anyone selling a product. But, in these days of increased use of social media, that word of mouth can spread like wildfire and within timescales not before seen.

You may well have been thinking of going to see that brand new blockbuster movie, at the weekend. But, because of your numerous social media connections, your friends and anyone else whose opinion you value, may well be telling you to avoid that new movie like the plague.

We all know that we always tell far more people about something we dislike, than we do about something we've enjoyed.
Now, those opinions are available at the click of a mouse.

So, maybe this is a case of power falling into the hands of the people at last.
No longer do we have to be sucked in by fancy advertising. We can just listen to the opinions of those whose judgement we value, or listen to.

This is what those huge media corporations are really worried about, when they attempt to gag those reviewers and journalists.

But, there is one very easy solution to all of this.
Release good quality products in the first place.

I wonder if that idea will ever catch on?

Citizen Journalists

Yesterday, i became a citizen journalist.

At around 6am yesterday, my wife told me that the radio was reporting that our local pier, here in Hastings, was on fire. So, being the social media junky that i am, i got up, grabbed my iPhone and digital camera and ran out the door as fast as i could. I didn't even brush my teeth!

Now, at this point, my only thought was to take some photos and maybe some video footage, mainly for my own use. If it was any good, i might then post it onto my various social media sites, just in case anyone may be interested. I didn't even bother to take my main video camera.
I also didn't know if the radio reports were true, or not.

It was only when i got down onto the seafront and saw the full extent of the fire, that i realised that this was something a little different. This was big.
As somebody said to me later in the day. Somebody that i only "met" yesterday via Twitter by the way. I was now recording history.
I can't say that i fully realised this at the time. But, i did know, straight away, that i had to record what i could and then pass it on.

So, i quickly took some photos, from a distance and then, literally, jogged along the seafront to get as near to the burning pier as i could.
As soon as i got close to the pier, i took some video footage with my phone and also some more photo's.
I then did something that i would not even have thought about doing, even a few weeks ago. I recorded an AudioBoo podcast
Somehow, i just knew that i should record something, describing what it was i was seeing right in front of my eyes.

So, where did that urge to record this historic event come from. Especially the AudioBoo?

I fully believe that it is my time using social media that did it. Somehow, using social media had prepared me for doing exactly what i did yesterday. Using social media had taught me how to do it. What to record, what to photograph, what to say and how.

Yes, other people were taking photographs and even video footage. But, as far as i'm aware, i was the only person who intended to share them in the way that i did. And i'm almost certain that i was the only person who thought to record some kind of audio commentary as well.
As i suggested earlier. I would never have thought about doing that, if i didn't use AudiBoo in the first place.

It was only then that i realised that there was no media presence around at all. No reporters, no tv crews, no microphones, or obvious news cameramen, or photographers.
I had suddenly become a citizen journalist.
Myself and my fellow onlookers were the only people recording this piece of local history and national news.

It was then that i realised that i needed to get home and get my footage, photo's and audio "out there", as soon as i could.

The first item i posted was the AudioBoo. Within 5 minutes of it going live, i receieved an email from AudioBoo, saying that they had "Featured" my post on their front page.
I then posted some of my photos onto TwitpPic. I followed that by quickly editing my video footage and uploading it to YouTube. All of these uploads were then linked to my Twitter and Facebook accounts.

To cut a long story short. Within an hour, i had been contacted by the BBC, the Brighton Argus newspaper and my local newspaper, who even came to my house to collect my video footage. I was also newly "followed" on Twitter by several radio stations, news organisations, reporters and local people.

My photo's, video and AudioBoo were Tweeted around the World. As well as being used and linked to on many websites. Including the Brighton Argus website, where one of my photos was used as a headline image.


As somebody else, commenting on my AudioBoo, said to me yesterday, "This really shows how journalism exists within the hands of everyone who has the technology"


I couldn't have put it better myself and this goes to show that we are all now potential citizen journalists. We are the people who are normally first on the scene of any major incident, or news story.


Citizen journalism and social media have combined to break and cover major news stories such as the protests in Iran and the Hudson River plane crash, amongst others.


And apart from enabling us to be the first to report the news to the world. Our continued use of social media is actually training us to do so.


We have the technology. So, let's use it.


Just use it wisely and safely please.

Vlog A Day - Social Networking.

Originally posted on YouTube on 19th February, 2009.
Social Networking - Is that term an oxymoron?
Can Social Networking damage your health?
Discuss.