Its not that easy is it?.

Ive been using Threadsy a bit, its quite handy, but very busy.

To be fair, I am probably what they call a heavy user, however, there are people who make me look part-time.

So, I watch 5 Gmail accounts, 4 twitter accounts, 1 Facebook, 1 Basecamp project, 6 WordPress Blogs, and now I have a Google Wave account to try and figure out how to work with.

Then there are the background sites you sometimes use, Flickr, Digg, Delicio.us, online banking, the list goes on.

Fun, but only for a while, then you might well go mad with overloading.

So whats all this Google Wave about then ?

Google Wave Fiction… funny stuff… but will it be helpful ?

I am genuinely hoping that Wave is a lot more than some over-hyped geek-babble..  but im being realistic… even if it is, my life will stay pretty complicated.

I do this more often than I recognise. I used to find it very rewarding working with and teaching people who knew much less then me, and it made me think about what it was I was actually teaching them.

Working with the interweb is … just easy for me now. Mac, PC, Linux, HTML/CSS bugs, open source, doc types, user agents, bit-rates, it all makes sense to me.

So when I found these video posted by Google (via penn-olson), I was reminded that the world is full of people who know much less than I assume.

It is no surprise that Google are the people behind this PR / awareness stunt, they are battling to get into the Browser market, and, more importantly, they are aiming to deliver A LOT of media and services through the browser moving forward, to the point of which, the Chrome OS will feel a lot more like a browser than a traditional OS like Windows.

Here’s the spiffy little ‘info-mercial’ they knocked-up to help all those people unable to distinguish a website from a piece of software. (Do they really think any of them will find it ??)

So anyway….  nice of them to help everybody out…  – but, i doubt we will all be so keen to lose our desktops as Google hope…

In the meantime, be sure and choose the right browser for your needs…

*cough* Firefox FTW !

Since then a couple of things have popped onto the radar to further reinforce the fact that social media is a game changer.

In no particular order;

Brands in Public appeared late last week -  launched by Seth Godin,  a joint-founder of squidoo.com – and is well respected in the social media world. The site lets you take a look at how the online social media world views your brand via Tweets, blogs Youtube video and more. This is a more focused version of what Squidoo offers as a ‘lens’, but for brands.

Brands – big ones – are starting to care about how people talk about them online, and solutions and tools for addressing this are sprouting-up.

However, Lisa Barone, herself a well respected social media professional, doesn’t think its such a great idea as her blog-post – Seth Godin tries out brandjackin – sets-out.

Whichever side your on here, the fact is – there is a dialogue going on about how brands are managed in the social sphere.

Then, on friday, I was lucky to catch Owen Stevens, (via Altitude Recruitment – @lauramaddison), for a short talk about branding. Everything was going as it should untill he referenced the Erik Qualman Youtube video about social media (yes the one on the front of this site) in his presentation. It was great to hear someone standing in front of you say that ‘yes, you were doing the right thing’, and that it is worth persevering with trying to get clients and brands to adopt the platform/technology.

And then this morning, Dan Thornton of 140Char posted about Pistachio Consulting, and the Twitter ‘app’ guide they have produced. The thing here is that Pistachio consulting specialise in social media and micro-blogging platforms – good enough for me, that’s a bona-fide business…  and just to make sure, it has its own conferences – Social Media in Business Conference, London and Media140 – reaching right around the world.

So, just to clarify, brands are all over the social media web world, they have tools, are manged, businesses are run solely for this purpose, they have conferences – all around the world – and its gaining more and more momentum and exposure.

*nudge*

Time to talk to someone who knows about this sort of stuff ?

Another social media explanation video via Youtube.

Everyone will have their own take on this, but I see, Tv, internet and mobile as the three core platforms.
And in the last few years, we’ve seen the rise social media.

Social Media

I guess you could say that gaming presents a significant platform (XBox, Playstation Wii), but I wont, not today.

Its been happening for a while, Sky Tv will provide your internet, Orange will also give you a web connection, at home and mobile. Things have been converging for a while. Now it’s happening in the experience too – TV, web and mobile all share the same content, you decide what to consume and how.

Now, one of my current projects actively address’s the old ‘core’ three, mobile, tv and web, but im having issues convincing them that we need to place as much, if not more, focus on social media.

I wasnt sure myself, but ive found a couple of resources that have helped build a picture for me;

Socialnomics. This book was sent to me by one of my followers on twitter, there is a story and an idea, but thats another post. The book lays-bare the facts that we need to know to understand the power of social media. After-all if they can make someone President of the United States, it might have some power.

Next, I found this site. The slide and video below are from that site. They allude to this – we can measure the impact of social media, and therefore it is valid as a channel/platform.
(The slides are in-depth and not necessarily good for everyone, but they are correct. )

Social Media ROI by @brandbuilder from Kipp Bodnar on Vimeo.

Whats happening is new. Brands are communicating with customers in an entirely new way. And that’s all that matters.

The communication drives the change or solution that you need, be it greater revenues, smaller costs, better CRM or launching a new business.

The way you interact with customers through social media provides them with a personal service unlike anything they have had before.

And, importantly, the best thing about social media is – it finds the user/customer.

That’s why its as much of a channel as the long established TV, or the emerging mobile world. And to those who say social media and the internet are the same, let me make that assumption. They will be left behind.

Social media find its own users, by referral, by commenting, by subscribing, by becoming a fan, and much more. But you still have to get into the game, its not the same as having a website, or even a blog.

Video via the Socialnomics website.

Understand the power of social media before you write it off. It’s responsible the for USA having the first non-caucasian president. ever.

This is nothing odd, as ive watched most of the ASP events this year in the exact same way.

But in the corner of my eye for the last 5 days has been the little Hurley/Facebook logo from the corner, announcing that the expression session is going to be live on Facebook.

Curiosity got the better of me and I had to go check it out.

Hurley Logo

It turns out Hurley are pretty on-it in terms of Social Media and Networking…. and the Facebook site is just beginning.

http://www.facebook.com/Hurley

http://www.twitter.com/hurleylive

http://apps.facebook.com/hurleypro/?_fb_fromhash=4f8acfc4f79855cede6e234f91dca3f4

Between the event site, the fan pages, the live event on Facebook, and live updates via Twitter, there is plenty of info out there.

And the most interesting part is how Facebook has become a broadcast and event partner, standing side-by-side with Hurley to present the event. Considering the event winner’s purse was set at $105,000 – ensuring it set a new record – thats quite a big event to be hanging-out with, especially at home in Southern California.

Facebook is really storming-ahead, the lite.facebook site, the @replies functionality, its not Twitter that should be worried – its the market-place as we know it.

They are breaking new ground. We’ll watch as they advance..

Side-note;

If your really keen to get a varied social-media account of the Trestles event, you should check-out the Hobgoods – these guys have also got a good grasp on the Social Media world.

http://www.blog.thegoodss.com/hobgoods-227/

http://twitter.com/hobgoods

http://vimeo.com/user723842

and.. the ASP has a Youtube channel you can get the videos from…  here’s the Expression Session highlights.

I was reading a blog post last night, about why your blog doesn’t get read, most of which i agreed with. Therefore with a spurt of energy, im going to throw myself at writing more frequently and openly. Apparently its the best way.

Whats been taking-up all my time ? well, Agent Lynch has a shiny new website, powered by WordPress, Flickr, Youtube, Facebook and Twitter. We had fun making that happen. It was the first Facebook Connect integration I’ve done and was nice to see it implemented and working. Ms Lynch is a good friend of a couple of friends – if that’s even a sentence – one of whom is Roxy Velvet. It was great to get her a sit up and running that she not only liked visually, but could attack from a content point of view and really enjoy working with.

AgentLynch.com

The Facebook Connect integration was done with relative ease, using a WordPress plugin that needed only a small amount of kicking and hacking to get working as I needed. I did in-fact use two plugins, one for the on-page login, and one for the admin/user prompt login. All the other Twitter/Flickr/Youtube bits and pieces are the standard ones ive used elsewhere.

If 6 Was 9 – its back ! – Randall has got new designs and a new movie. After filming on his trip to the Mentawai’s, he posted the video on the We are If 6 Was 9 blog. The flash site was produced by him, i just helped get the pre-loader, hosting and analytics sorted.

Slatehall Riding Centre

I did a superb little shoot last week to get some shots for a local tourism brochure and book. Slatehall Riding Centre met me on the beach along with Claire from Imapct PR and we had some fun in the shallows. Nice looking shots we all thought. The full Flickr set is here.

Bamburgh Castle

Holy Island Castle

Beach gallop

Farne Island Divers

Finally, over the bank holiday I spent the weekend with the Farne Island Divers crew diving with the seals around the Longstone. A great few days that I recorded with my little Canon compact, and the result was this small but fun video chopped together fro the video clips..

Farne Islands Divers – Diving with Seals – August 2009 from swinhoe on Vimeo.

More once Ive got something to say…

A mere two years later, and I can barely go online without video being an intrinsic part of the daily web experience.

Despite the web being flooded with video content these days, its still easy carve it all up into different kinds. I’ll give that a go below.

First of all, there’s the copyrighted stuff that has been ported to the web -Hulu (which we cant get in the UK, but is like the iPlayer for the US networks), BBC iPlayer and 4OD.

Then you can get live TV and freeview channels on Zattoo.

After the copyrighted stuff we move into a whole new realm, and this is where it gets fun. These are all the sites that allow the syndication and placing of content, a selection of example can be seen below. They come in different shapes and sizes, and mean different things to different people.

Joost

Joost pushes all sorts of content through its site – mostly i dont get a lot out of the selection, but there is some licensed stuff.

Current

Current is a real digital TV channel, and its web content is blended between the TV stuff and the web-only bits. Its mostly news, movies, music and culture, but there is a good selection, including the Viewer Created stuff.

Youtube

What can we say – the original ‘broadcast yourself channel’ the good the bad and the ugly.

Vimeo

Vimeo is the Youtube for designers and creatives… slightly less popular, but nicely done and with good content generally.

Retrocycling Robot from Challenge Your World on Vimeo.

TED

The variety of informative content here is unsurpassed. All videos are talks given to live audiences and relayed to the web. Science, technology, art, culture and more. Superb stuff.

The Onion

Nobody beats The Onion. I think they invented satire. Even before the web-video period these guys rocked. Now its all in moving images.

Advocacy Group Decries PETA’s Inhumane Treatment Of Women

http://www.purepwnage.com

Projects like Pure Pwnage are sprouting up everywhere. The web-based sit-com/reality/weirdness is now being pushed to network TV. Can you say chicken and egg ?

Google video

The home of serious chunks of info. A huge selection and typical Google freedom. I love it solely as it hosts Zeitgeist.

Now, along with all these sites are the application based platforms. Enter Boxee, AppleTv etc… These apps do a selection of extra functions that appeal to users – connect to Online sites such as Youtube, Flickr NetFlix, Pandora, even the Apple movie trailer collection. They also allow you to browse your local machine and load content that you have lying around, and you can do all of this from your armchair, using a remote control.

These are just a selection of the video/content sites that offer a landscape of content, if you look hard there are hundreds more in the vein of comedy, movies, gaming, technology etc…  and we didnt even talk about Vodcasting…  and did i mention live event streams like the ASP World tour events ?.

In a nutshell, along with torrent’s, this is why I dont watch TV anymore. You can pick and choose whatever you want to view, and for the most part totally avoid advertising.

Facebook

Facebook, is by-far the most prominent of all the social networking sites, with the largest saturation and user-base for non-geeky internet types. The site is used by many for as wide a set of uses as you can imagine, with third-party apps, groups and causes flooding your home screen daily.

I personally use Facebook as a reference point for friends and family to keep me in touch with and available to people I might not email or call regularly.

Facebook as been constantly in the public eye for a host of reasons regarding security, privacy and even human rights, but this week I had a entirely new Facebook experience.

Its not uncommon for people to use online networking communities to gather research on individuals, but this is usually limited to the privacy rules set by the individual along with the relevant site, i.e. – you could use Facebook to research somebody, but only if they have privacy set so low that they want the outsied world to get a view of what they are doing.

Rarely, if ever, would you expect to have your details and information surveyed if you believe you have set all the correct measures in place to secure yourself.

Unless someone you know hands over THEIR login details to a third-party to allow them to profile and research you….  which is what happened to me.

Now, all joking aside, I dont have any dirt to be gleamed by hacking my Facebook account, and I wasn’t being hacked maliciously, nor where the perpetrators seeking to base a highly important career decision based on what they found. But they did circumvent one of the most basic privacy protection measures we all have – our own individual login details, and that blew a hole in my personal privacy the size of the Grand Canyon.

What im saying here is;

Dont under-estimate the control you have of your own privacy, and dont EVER give out your login and password details to ANYONE !

Between media scare-mongering and the onslaught of malicious hackers, its ever-more important to keep yourself secure online. Use each part of the internet for its intended purpose, research and find out about how the site or application works and then configure your own settings to meet your needs.

Dont let the technology get the better of you – its a tool there to aid in the achievement of something and used the correct way will provide huge benefits.

But use it safely and confidently.

Working with Ben Southall on his new site has forced me to source answers to issues that I have left un-addressed on my own site.

With Ben leaving to Hamilton Island in 4 days, we had to get his whole new media platform up and running in advance allowing him to fly away, happy and content that he could post text blogs, audio blogs, video blogs and images all to his site and have them all aggregated and drawn together.

BestJobBen.com

So far we’ve been pretty successful, and have only a couple of small outstanding issues, but the run-down looks like this.

WordPress for publishing and standard blogging – you just cant beat it.

Twitter for micro-blogging – not really another alternative with the widespread usage and app development for all platforms.

Flickr for anything image based, utilising some handy hacks and plug-ins to get what we need.

Seesmic – for video-blogging and publishing via some more handy hacks and plug-ins.

Youtube for edited video content.

AudioBoo for audio-blogging and pod-casting.

With all this going on, we’ve had a lot to consider and its no surprise that Google and web searches are pretty intrinsic to the way things panned out. Also, of worthy mention are the rougish fellas I follow online who keep us all in the picture regarding Social Media and digital publishing, and they are (in no particular order…) Christian Payne (@Documentally) , Phil Campbell (@philcampbell) and Dan Thornton (@badgergravling).