Then came the age of music videos on YouTube. All of them becoming more and more viral. Katy Perry, Miley Cyrus, Justin Bieber, and Lady Gaga have some of the most viral music videos ever. Bad Romance by Lady Gaga achieved 100 million views in only 18 days. Gangnam Style music video hit the 100 million mark within 51 days.
A major social media initiative was embarked upon by people worldwide with the Kony 2012 campaign and managed to achieved 100 million views in only 6 days! It even attracted a million comments during the campaign.
Lots of people experiment with videos and hope they go viral. This is easily demonstrated with the shear amount of new videos being uploaded every minute to YouTube.
We must not underestimate the power of social media. It has become an integral part of how we live. You want to learn how to do something, you “Google” it, add the word “YouTube” in your search phrase and there is likely a video demonstrating what to do.
YouTube was created by three former PayPal employees in 2005. Only 18 months later, over 65,000 videos per day were being uploaded and it was bought by Google for 1.65 Billion dollars.
Within another year, in 2007, there were over 8 hours of video being uploaded every minute!
Crazy growth! But wait, it doesn’t stop there. In 2008, there were over 13 hours of video uploaded every minute. In 2009 over 1 day worth (24 hours) uploaded every minute.
1 day every minute?!?
Yet it still didn’t stop there. In 2010, over 35 hours every minute, in 2011 over 48 hours every minute, and in 2012, it hit over 72 hours of video every minute.
3 days every minute?!?
Can you imagine what the Google Empire must have to store, process, and make all of this content accessible?
It seems that the rate which uploads are occurring is still increasing with no visible sign of leveling off.
LinkedIn is a business-oriented social network site. It is mainly used for professional networking. Find out key people in businesses, get introduced, get jobs, keep track of colleagues, and have your own “resume” online.
Important Terms
“Connection”– Invite someone to connect to you to be able to view each others profiles and networks.
“Invitation” – Invite someone to connect with you, either existing LinkedIn or new members.
“Network” – A group of users that can contact you through connections up to three degrees away.
“Groups” – A group of users sharing common interests.
“InMail” – Private messages to contact another member directly.
Want people to follow you?
Find people easily through the LinkedIn search. Send them invitations to connect to you. Look at their connections and send invitations to the people you know in common. Once connected, they can easily follow your updates and look at your profile.
Use your real information on LinkedIn. There are no aliases/pseudonyms. When you sign up, it will guide you through a series of steps to populate your profile. Customize your profile with your photo and professional/career information about you. After you are done with your profile, search out and invite people you know to connect to you.
Google+ is a social networking and identity service. Unlike most conventional social networks accessed through a single website, this is being described as a “social layer” covering its many online properties. Google+ also goes by GooglePlus and G+.
Important Terms (Plusisms)
“Plushare(s)” – Short for “Plus-share(s)” which are the various items (posts, photos, videos) in a Plustream along with any comments
“Plustream(s)” – Reverse chronological list of items being shared by the Plushers in your Circles.
“Plusher(s)” – Short for “Plus-sharer(s)” and pronounced like pushers but with pl… – these are the people and organizations sharing on Google+.
“Circles” – Fundamental organizational aspect of Google+ to categorize the plushers in your social network.
“+Mention” – While entering a post, you can type the “+” or “@” keys followed by the name of another plusher to mention them and invite them into the conversation.
“+1” – You can recommend comments, websites, plushares to other plushers (equivalent to FB “Like”).
“Sparks” – News, videos, photos, articles, etc based on your interests..
Want people to follow you? (get circled)
Google+ is a lot more fun when you’ve been added into relevant circles. Circle other people who have similar interests to you. You can find people by topic when using Google+ search and selecting “People and Pages” to see who Google recommends. Circle other pages you find interesting. Comment on posts you like in your stream and share posts with people.
Use your real information on Google+. When you sign up, it will guide you through a series of steps to populate your profile. You will want to begin by adding people you know to your circles.
Customize your profile with photos and information.
Facebook is a social networking site that has become very popular. It helps make the six degrees of separation possible. You can share your favorite posts, photos, videos, and memories with your friends.
Important Terms
“Events” – You can attend and create your own events on Facebook. People are asked if they will be attending or not.
“Groups”- A community of people gathering for a specific caused or interest. You need to be a member of the group to post in it.
“Likes” – Give positive feedback if you like a post. You need to like a page to subscribe to it.
“Status” – Content and updates you post on your wall.
“Timeline” – Your stories. Share and highlight your most memorable posts, photos and life events on your timeline. This is where you can tell your story from beginning, to middle, to now.
“Wall” – The space on your wall where you and those that have Liked your page can post content, make comments and interact.
Want people to follow you?
Get connected with your friends and family. Send out invites to them through Facebook. They will see updates you make to your status and profile. Chances are you’ll get in contact with people you lost touch with.
Use your real information on Facebook. There are no fictional identities. When you sign up, it will guide you through a series of steps to populate your profile.
Customize your profile with photos and information.
TweetDeck http://www.tweetdeck.com/
Rather than logging into Twitter and Facebook, this can post automatically at the same time. This is a Twitter-based tool, so do not make posts that are longer than 140 characters. Remember to press/highlight the Twitter and Facebook tabs on the top area of the TweetDeck to activate and post to those two sites.
Twitter is an information network made up of 140-character messages called Tweets. It’s an easy way to discover the latest news as it’s happening related to subjects you care about.
Important Terms
“Follow” other people (businesses you love, public service accounts, people you know, celebrities, or news sources you read.
Contribute your own content by “tweeting”. This would be a regular post. When you type in a message to Twitter and hit “update” it will be viewable by all the people who are following you.
“Retweet” messages you’ve found and love. These will also be viewable by all people who are following. The person you retweeted will be notified of your post.
“@reply” with your reaction to a tweet. Mention other users in your tweet by including their Twitter username preceded by the @ symbol. The people you mention will be notified of your post.
“Hash Tags” makes your tweets searchable on twitter by placing a “#” in front of a word within your post. Some hashtags trend and are viewed by many people. E.g. #YEG #YYC #Weather #News #Andoid #iPhone
Want people to follow you?
It is difficult to get noticed when you have a new account. You don’t even need to think of your own content in the beginning. Others are more likely to find your tweets if they are retweets, @replies, or include #hashtags. Also many people will follow you back after you follow them.
On Twitter, your username, or handle/alias, is your identity. If your name is Joe Smith, you may pick a username such as joesmith or joe_smith. You may rather go with something like AlbertaMan1960 or PhotoNut2. When referring to your username within twitter, it would be prefixed by the @ sign.
Customize your Twitter page (link to a website, provide a bio and location, upload a photo, connect your Twitter account to your Facebook account) by selecting Edit Profile from the top toolbar once logged in to Twitter.
TweetDeck http://www.tweetdeck.com/
Rather than logging into Twitter, you can have this manage your Tweets and Facebook posts at the same time. This is a Twitter-based tool, so do not make posts that are longer than 140 characters. Remember to press/highlight the Twitter and Facebook tabs on the top area of the TweetDeck to activate and post to those two sites. You can also post only to Twitter and within Twitter Edit Profile, have it connect to Facebook.
Unlike my post regarding the top YouTube videos by most views, there is another aspect which is how increasingly viral videos have become.
YouTube
