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.

AudioBoo - No Nov Boo Vlog Blog Month.

AudioBoo - No Nov Boo Vlog Blog Month.

November can be a busy month, in the world of social media. Well, if you let it that is.

This was originally posted on my personal blog, Moose Musings. But, i felt that it was relevant here as well.
I hope that you agree.

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.

The Quality of the Conversation

An audioboo regarding the question of quantity and quality in the number of "followers" or "subscribers" an individual has on any social media site (twitter, audioboo, youtube, etc.). It seems to be an answer that most individuals grasp instinctively, but that marketing experts are slow to understand.

Digital Memory Bank.

Originally posted to YouTube on 18th July, 2009.
As with so many other videos, this was inspired by somebody else. On this occasion it was:
http://www.youtube.com/user/atree3

This is her video explaining what she's doing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lprtC_...

My original AudioBoo about this topic:
http://audioboo.fm/boos/44506-a-digit...

Happy archiving.