Five Years On YouTube.

I have now been making videos on YouTube for five years. Those five years have been very interesting & surprising ones.
Here's a video about those five years:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaAphiFaJDM

Ask The Experts.

YouTube Video - Ask The Experts

A bit of a rant about al those self appointed, so called "experts".
Whether they be in the workplace, on online.

Twitter and Facebook - Wot no link?

This post was originally written for my FaceBook page:

So, it appears & please correct me if i'm wrong, that i can no longer link my Twitter feed to Facebook. Unless, that is, i have a special "Page" account, which is only available for business', bands, celebrities etc.

I've even tried removing the Twitter app & reinstalling it. FB says that the accounts are now linked, but nothing shows up on my FB profile.
So, why do FB allow you to get this far if i'm now not allowed to share my Tweets? And why on earth don't they tell us that they've changed things?

I noticed the other day that my Tweets weren't now appearing on FB.
I realise that this will probably make some people happy, especially if they also follow me on Twitter & see my posts duplicated. But, for me, this was a very useful tool.
Like most people who use both Twitter & FB, i have many different followers & friends on the different accounts. So, being able to link accounts enabled me to communicate with both sets of people, without having to post in two separate places myself. Something i'm certainly not going to bother doing very often.

I use FB in a different way to Twitter. As, i'm sure, do many people.
I have an iPhone & have both Twitter & FB apps installed onto it. But, i find it so much easier to use Twitter on the iPhone, than i do FB. I use the FB app as little as possible as it happens. Which is why i relied on linking the accounts.
I only tend to use FB when i'm actually sitting down at a computer, which probably isn't as often as people might think. I use my iPhone a lot, especially during the day & tend to log onto FB only during the evening. There are obviously exceptions to this "rule", like now!

So, by changing this FB have taken away some of my connectivity & there was me thinking that social networking was all about connections & interactivity?
Or, is it, as i suspect it is, a move to get you to upgrade your account in an effort to sell more advertising & make money? After all, the media has been full of items about the current value of both Twitter & FB recently.

Maybe i'm just being an old cynic & maybe i'm completely wrong about these changes & just haven't figured out how to get around them yet?
After all, some changes were made this week on FB & meant that most people needed to update their settings to enable you to see all posts, by all of your friends here.
Once again, this wasn't advertised by FB & i only found out via a link posted by a friend here on FB.

Why do some sites, companies etc make it so hard for their users?
And why do they keep breaking something that isn't actually broken?

Anyway, rant over & if you don't "see" me on FB quite so much in the future, at least you now know why.

Update:
Well, my Twitter feed is now showing up once again onto Facebok, which is good news.
Still no idea as to why this happened. I noticed that other peoples Tweets were starting to show up, over the past week and then, all of a sudden and with no warning and no idea why, my Tweets re-appeared.
Weird huh?

AudioBoo - Favourite Waste Of Time?

AudioBoo - Favourite Waste Of Time?

Talking Twitter and online communities.

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!

Doing It Once A Day.

Happy New Year.

I was reading a personal blog post by Rich Samuels, one of the contributors to this blog, this morning.

In his post, Rich was saying how, in 2011, he intended to try and post one piece of social media every day. By this he meant either a YouTube video, a blog post, or an AudioBoo.

This was very timely, because i had noticed the other day that that is precisely what i've been tending to do recently myself. This has not been a conscious decision on my part, more a reflection on how often i tend to post onto the social media sites mentioned above.

In my comment on Rich's blog, i mentioned that i haven't even included sites such as Twitter and Facebook in my calculations. Yes, Twitter and Facebook are both social media sites, but they certainly don't require the sort of commitment that posting onto, say, YouTube does. So, i will continue to leave those sites out of the equation, at least for now.

Yesterday also marked a kind of personal social media milestone for me. Which was rather appropriate seeing as it was New Years Day. For yesterday i posted my 300th post onto my personal blog, Moose Musings.

Now don't go getting excited and start thinking that they have all been written blog posts, because they haven't. That is certainly how i used Blogger when i started out, but Moose Musings soon became a collection point for all my social media output. Hence the 300 posts.

I used to post everything onto Posterous as well, but have stopped doing that over time. This is mainly because it is so easy to get bogged down with all the sites we tend to use. Duplicating pieces of social media across several different sites can be very time consuming and you often find that it's the same people subscribed, or following you on all of them anyway.

I also link my posts to both Twitter and Facebook anyway. So, Posterous just became a site too far for me. This is, after all, supposed to be fun.

And, because of that, i will not be commiting myself to daily social media posts. Partly because i tend not to make New Year resolutions anyway, but also because i don't wish to put any kind of pressure onto myself.
I have fun and enjoy what i do in the world of social media and i fully intend for that fun to continue.
I have found myself, in the past, feeling that i really ought to post a new YouTube video, or write a new blog post. But, thankfully, i've managed not to let those thoughts get to me. After all, quality is far more important than quantity.

I have no doubt that my social media output will remain the same during 2011 and who knows, it might even increase. But, it will be done at my own pace and i will be fully in control of it.

I wish Rich well in his aim to post once a day and i have no doubt that he is quite capable of producing worthwhile content, every day. I'll certainly be watching, reading and listening on a daily basis.

But, maybe, like so many New Year resolutions, this one will be broken?
And if it is, isn't that what rules and resolutions are there for in the first place. To be broken?

Go on, be a rebel and post when you want. You know it makes sense.

Vlogging and Public Speaking.

I talked in my last post here about starting to vlog and about getting used to speaking into a video camera.

I also mentioned about how vlogging can & probably will, change your life in some way. Now, obviously these changes can take many forms. But, one that i have certainly noticed is how vlogging has helped me when it comes to speaking in public.

The thought of speaking in public is one of those things that makes the majority of people break out into a cold sweat. I know that many people can think of nothing worse, or more scary, to be asked to do.

There are, of course, those for whom this holds no fear. But, i suspect that they are in the minority.
Just think of all of those people who are being, potentially, held back by that fear of public speaking.

Now, when you record a vlog, what are you doing?
Yes, you are speaking in public, albeit with no audience actually in view.

I realise that for a lot of vloggers, being able to hide behind their video camera, or webcam and not actually seeing an audience, is a big bonus. I'm sure that many vloggers would think twice about talking out loud, in front of a real audeince.
But why?

I mentioned in my last blog post about how most of us are not natural extroverts and i would certainly consider myself to be within that number.
But, amongst the many and varied skills that i feel i have learned through vlogging, is an improved ability to speak. And to speak publicly too.
Whether you actually realise it, or not, recording a vlog and speaking in public are not really that dissimilar.

For both, you are the only one speaking and the audience is listening to you alone. You are, in effect, having a one way conversation.
As i said earlier, for a vlog the only thing missing is the visible audience.

So, think about that the next time you are asked to speak in public. And don't think that speaking in public is limited to standing up and giving a speech either.
No, in my view anyway, speaking in public can also mean raising your hand in a meeting and putting your point across. It means not being afraid to speak up and give your opinion.
Just think of all the practise you've had of doing just that, in front of your video camera.

Although i had done some forms of what i consider to be public speaking, before i started vlogging. I know full well, that i am far better at and more confident of, doing it now and i put that down to my experience as a vlogger.

And that experience and improved confidence can help you in the most unlikely settings too.

For those of you who are maybe not aware, my Father died earlier this year. At his funeral, i got up and gave a short speech. I talked about some of his personal history and obviously relayed some personal memories.
Now, as you can imagine, this was not an easy thing to do. But, once again, my experience as a vlogger helped me through.

Although i effectively wrote out what i wanted to say, in case the emotion of the occasion got the better of me. I ended up using those notes only as a guide. I spoke in much the same way as i would have done had i been recording a vlog. I tended to focus on one member of the audience and in a strange way, used that person as my video camera.

For me, treating that speech, more or less as a vlog, made delivering the speech far easier than i could have hoped.

Another recent example concerns a YouTube friend, who shall remain nameless.
Earlier this year, my friend was asked to be the best man at a wedding and, as is normal, they had to make a speech.
Rather like a speech at a funeral, the best mans speech can be a nerve wrecking experience. But, at least with a funeral, you have the sympathy of all who are there. The best mans speech is often thought of as one of the highlights of a wedding. No pressure then?!

During a conversation, i told my friend to try and treat the best mans speech as if it were a vlog. In much the same way as i did at my Fathers funeral.
To cut a long story short. My friend took my advice and it worked. The speech went well and everyone enjoyed it.

So, as you can see, vlogging can help you in ways that you propbably never even considered, or imagined.

Even more reason, surely, to give it a try?

And don't call me Shirley ;)