Time To Get Serious?

This is a blog post that i wrote for the Pierless Music website recently.

It concerns Facebook and how that, although Facebook may well be a huge and influential social media site, it is not the only game in town.

Blog Post - Time To Get Serious?

Watch, Listen, But Not Read?

Are blogs being overtaken by visual and audio content?

Blog post mentioned: http://www.fastcompany.com/3000794/rise-visual-social-media

YouTube video mentioned: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXTcq3Fhiw4

My 'Vinyl Junkie' blog: http://vinyljunkie58.blogspot.co.uk/

AudioBoo - Where Will It Take You?

listen to ‘Where Will It Take You?’ on Audioboo

The power of Social Media & how things come together in a digital age.

Twitter: @twitchhiker @paul_a_smith and @bwitterhiker

Six Years And Counting.

Yes, it's really been that long since i started here on YouTube.
Here are some reflections.

Vinyl Junkie blog: http://vinyljunkie58.blogspot.co.uk/

Moose Musings eBook: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Moose-Musings-ebook/dp/B006RXBRTC/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1345825598&sr=1-1

Uploads vs Downloads.

Talking about content creation, amongst other things.

Here's the link to the video i mentioned:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSXuNY3azCg

I've Got You Under My Skin.

Has your use of Social Media got under your skin?

A Website Too Far?

There's always another website to waste your time on isn't there?
This time it's a new site called Pinterest - http://pinterest.com/

Links to some of the sites mentioned:
Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/andymooseman/
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/andymooseman
AudioBoo: http://audioboo.fm/andymooseman
Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/28547473@N07/

You Can't Tell Lies Anymore.

The Internet will catch you out.

Here's the video i mentioned:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9chNh_baJe0

A Bad Policy.

Some observations after reading a companies IT policy.

Are they all as badly written as this one & does anyone out there really "get" social networking?

Just Because I'm Paranoid....

Social media, work & pleasure.

A beach vlog.

Here's a link to the video i mentioned:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJqbb1yjpVU&list=FLaKCHc74GnlSKNa5N1R7IGw

Ask The Experts.

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

Times Change.

Priorities change & other things come along to take your time.
That's life.

For the video playlists i mentioned in this video.
Go to my channel page on YT, click "Playlists" & the 'Scenic Walks' & 'Vloggers Caravan 2010' links are in there.

Hastings Rock can be heard via the Internet, from Saturday April 30th until Friday May 27th.
Follow the link on the website at:
http://www.hastingsrock.co.uk/
The "Listen Live" link will not appear until we start broadcasting.

The Effect We Have.

Our influence on others, whether we realise it, or not.

SoundCloud link: http://soundcloud.com/andy-gunton

Social Media Journeys: Social Media - Local Connections.

Social Media Journeys: Social Media - Local Connections.: "Recently, i have been involved in helping to organise some local charity events/projects. Some more successfully than others i might add! Bu..."

The surprising, local aspect of social media.

Not The Only Show In Town (Social Media Journeys)

Social Media Journeys: Not The Only Show In Town.: "Talking about how we now migrate between different social media/networking sites. Those older sites are not, now, the only show in town. ..."

A video made especially for my Social Media Journeys blog:
http://socialmediajourneys.blogspot.com/

But, i thought i'd share it here, as i think it's relevant.

A sort of follow up to my recent Walking & Talking video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yJ5Wz...

Where Am I?....

....and do you really care?

This morning i learnt that Facebook had turned on their Facebook Places location device in the UK. Apparently, it's been available in the USA for a while now and is gradually being rolled out across the world. It seems that the UK is one of the first areas to have it enabled. Whether this is a cause for celebration remains to be seen.

This just got me thinking about the whole issue of location applications, or devices and what people actually use them for. And, ultimately, whether they are really of much use to anybody.

There have been several other location based services available for a while now, such as "foursquare" and "Gowalla". But, obviously, now that Facebook have got involved, things have got a little bit more serious.
I suppose that if the big boys have started to get involved in this, the suggestion is that there really must be something in this type of service. I fully expect the other "big boys" not to be too far behind Facebook. After all, they can't afford to be, can they? They are probably all frantically rushing around and finalising their own versions, as i type.

I have seen many Internet friends of mine using foursquare etc over the past year and, to be honest, i just don't "get it". Why do i want to know exactly where somebody is at any given time?
In fact, i've often found those location based status updates to be rather annoying and i've even gone so far as to hide the status feed of one Facebook friend, mainly because of this unwanted information.
I also know of some who have started to use these services and have then come to the same realisation as myself and stopped using them.
So, just who is using location based services and why?

As with most things on the Internet, i suspect that the bulk of users are young. And therein lies one of the probable reasons as to why this doesn't appeal to me, it's not really meant to.

I can see that knowing somebody's location could be very useful, if you were meeting up with them for a night out, or for a coffee for example. And as all updates are done via the GPS system, they are also very accurate.
This could save you missing out on the good times that your friends are having without you.

I can also see how this could be used as a form of security for worried parents. Those location updates might help a parent know where there child is. Mind you, would any self respecting child want their parents to know that?! Joking aside though, this could help prevent some un-needed false alarms, when a child isn't quite where the parent thought that they might be.

But, one security issue that is a potential concern and has come to the fore recently, is the danger of letting everybody, not just your friends, know where you are. Or, to be more accurate, letting the world know that you are not at home. This has already led to some burglaries being committed. Indeed, there was a recent case in the USA of exactly this kind of crime happening.
It has been suggested that some criminal elements and not just in the USA either, have been checking the location status updates of some people and then raiding their homes, when they know they are not there.
In fact, i understand that the recent crime in the USA was actually committed by a "friend".

As with all things on the Internet. It certainly does pay to think about the amount of information you put "out there". As you are never quite sure who might find it and use it.

But, getting back to the point of this blog post.

The loaction based services so far, foursquare and Gowalla etc, are designed to be used on a mobile device. A cell/mobile phone, blackberry, laptop etc etc. But, i would suggest, that the vast majority of Facebook users actually access Facebook whilst at home. So, therefore, where is the real value here for Facebook, apart from trying to knock out the competion?
Yes, i know that Facebook can be accessed easily via a mobile phone app and i've even used the app myself.
But, my first thought, when reading about this this morning, was "Just how many people actually use Facebook on the move". In fact i even Tweeted exactly that point/question.
It was only then that i did a bit of research and found an article suggesting that up to 45% of time spent on the Internet, on moblie devices, is actually spent on Facebook!!!!

Doh!
Now i get it.
Just don't expect me to start using a location based device, or application any time soon.

By the way, i'm at home.

AudioBoo - Your 15 Minutes Is Up

"Fame" happens in the most unlikely places.

4 Years And Counting.

Today is the 4th anniversary of opening my YouTube account.

I actually posted my first video on 25th August 2006:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSKnhJ...

Is it time for a re-boot?

A woodland vlog.

Putting The "Social" Back Into Social Media.

My personal history with Social Media is a fairly short one. By some peoples standards anyway.

My first experiences probably started off on MySpace and maybe the odd message board. All that was around the 2005/2006 period. It wasn't until the summer of 2006, when i discovered YouTube and started making videos, that i really started to get involved with other people online.

As i said in a recent blog post. I realise that not many people actually regard YouTube as a Social network at all. But, for me, it most certainly is and it is the site that i have used more than any other over the past four years. I have also made more friends there than on any other Internet site.
Please see that previous blog post for more information about my experiences on YouTube.

But, i don't expect i am alone in saying, that i didn't consider what i was doing ,back in those early days, to be Social Networking.
I can't honestly remember when i first heard that term. But, i suspect it was sometime after my first hesitant steps into that world.
For me back then, it was all about having fun and it still is. It was only after a while (early 2007?) that i realised that i was meeting like minded people and was enjoying their company online. That was when the more social side of my online life started to take off. But, i still didn't really think of it as networking.

I think it was around that time, although i could well be wrong, that i first started to hear about Social Networking and Social Media. But, without many exceptions, those terms were always used in a busniess context and that is where i have a problem with all of this.
Yes, we hear on the tv news. or read in our newspapers about "The Social Networking site Facebook", or similar. But, just about anything else you read about Social Media and Social Networking is all about the business aspect of it, or the money making opportunities that can be had.

I follow several Social Media blogs and websites. Mashable and TechCrunch being two of the most well known and i do find them very interesting. But, i can also find them very frustrating. Because the vast majority of their posts are all about the business and money making angle and not the social side.

As you might have guessed, this is a topic that i am very interested in and i have read several books about the whole world of Social Media.
I fully realise that there is money to be made out there and that Social Media is the new kid on the block. Therefore, many people are looking for that gap in the market to make their own dotcom fortune.
But, for me at least. The use of the word "Social" is there for a reason. This isn't just all about business and money making. It is also all about people and i do believe that that is often forgotten.

Maybe, i am being unrealistic, expecting things to be any other way?
Maybe, the vast majority of Internet and Social Media users don't care about this in the same way that i do?
Maybe, i am actually being a little hypocritical? After all, i am a YouTube partner and do allow advertising on my videos and blog posts.
Maybe, i'm just plain wrong?

Maybe, that's for somebody else to say?
I just can't help feeling though, that the "Social" side of all of this has been hijacked a little.

Whatever the truth is, i do know know that during my time using Social Networking sites and using Social Media generally, i have met, whether online, or even in real life, some of the best people i have ever had the pleasure of knowing.

Now that's the sort of Social aspect we should be concentrating on.

YouTube Is a Social Network.

Social networking has been in the news once again this week, with the news that Facebook has passed the 500 million users mark. As i mentioned in a blog post the other day, the reporting of this story is not unusual these days.

One thought i did have about this story was, that  i wondered what some people will make of the fact that a jeans and t.shirt wearing 26 year old, runs a website, that if it were a country, would be the worlds third largest? I'm sure that's pretty scary stuff in some quarters.

In the light of the Facebook story, the BBC reported on a recent survey, which compared all of the main social networking sites. It was called "The ups and downs of social networks". All of the usual suspects and major players were there. Facebook, MySpace, Linkedin, Twitter, Bebo, etc etc. Some faring well and others not so.
But, in my opinion at least, there was one major website missing from that survey. YouTube.

For most people, YouTube is perceived as a video sharing website and this it undoubtably is. It has become the number one site for online video viewing. The place where the vast majority of Internet users will go to first if they want to find a silly viral video,  a clip from their favourite tv show, or the latest music video by their favourite artist.
But, for many other people, YouTube is also a social networking site. So, why isn't it ever viewed as such?
Maybe, it is because of YouTube's perceived association with the sillier and less serious side of the Internet?

Whatever the reason, for me at least, YouTube was my first foray into what i would now call social networking.
It was on YouTube that i first started to interact with fellow Internet users, from across the world, in a meaningful way.
It was on YouTube that i first "met" other like minded Internet users, of all ages & backgrounds.
It was because of YouTube that i first met, in real life, fellow Internet users and felt confident in doing so.
It was because of YouTube that i have travelled to the USA on two occasions, exclusively to meet and travel with fellow video makers and have a great holiday into the bargain.
It was on YouTube that i first discovered a shared sense of there being an online Community.
Now, that's what i call social networking.

Maybe, i feel this way because YouTube was the first site of this kind that i stumbled onto?
Although i knew of and visited sites like MySpace when i first started to explore the social side of the Internet. It was YouTube that drew me in and made me dig beneath the surface and explore that little bit more than before.
For me, it was the way that i could see, through their videos, the people that i was interacting with. I could see their faces and look into their eyes. Something that you just don't get on many other, so called, social networking sites. Surely, it is far safer if you can actually see who you are intereacting with? Yes, i'm sure that this can be falsified. But, not nearly as easily as on a mainly text based site.

Since i created my YouTube channel in August 2006 and started making videos there, i have made some great friends. Some i have met in real life and this have often led to real and genuine friendships. Some i have yet to meet. Some, i may well never meet. But, i would still consider them to be friends.

I do wonder that if i was now a newcomer to the world of social networking, whether i might feel differently? After all, sites such as Facebook and Twitter, both of which i now use, were not really on the Internet radar back in 2006.
That question, of course, can never be answered.
All i do know, is that i am more than happy that my first experiences in the world of social networking were through YouTube.
I consider YouTube to be as real a social networking site as any of the others mentioned in this blog post.
I just wish that the rest of the world would view it in the same way. Maybe some day they will?