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Specialist Social MediaTuesday 8 July 2014

+This Session

Introduction to Specialist Social Media

YouTube

Break

Vimeo and Vine

+Specialist Social Media

So far we have covered the main social media channels for personal and business use.

However there are other platforms that serve a more specialist function, and they can be used both personally and professionally.

You won’t need to set up accounts on all of them, but you will be sharing content from them on your own platforms – Facebook, Twitter and Google +.

There are far more social media channels than the ones we will be covering, but these are the main ones, or the ones with the most usage.

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YouTube allows users to upload content in video format, which other users can view, rate, comment upon, and share.

There is a range of material available for viewing, including ‘how to’ tutorials, reviews, product launches, video blogs, home videos, movie trailers, music videos, episodes of TV shows and even old movies!

Everyone who uses YouTube has a different reason for doing so because it depends upon what they want to get out of the site.

As a promotional tool, YouTube can be very useful. If your fans give up a thumbs up, it improves your search ranking.

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Vine is an app-based platform that allows users to create and share short videos of six seconds or less.

It is owned by Twitter, which makes sharing videos very easy.

Vine is now used by ad agencies to make stop motion animation clips, while journalists have used it to capture short events where camera equipment would not be suitable. Dunkin Donuts even used a single Vine as a whole TV ad in 2013.

Naturally some users have been abusing the system by posting unsuitable content.

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Vimeo allows users to upload content in video format, which other users can view, rate, comment upon, and share.

However Vimeo also allows users to determine who can view their videos, adding an element of privacy that YouTube lacks.

There is a range of material available for viewing, including ‘how to’ tutorials, reviews, video blogs, home videos, movie trailers, music videos, and short films.

Users can follow users, send messages, post comments etc. There is a real emphasis upon ‘community’ and it feels more professional than YouTube.

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Last.fm and Spotify are both music based services.

They allow you to build lists of artists that you like, and they make recommendations based on these.

Spotify also links with Facebook and lets you see what people on your friends list are listening to, while advertising what you’re listening to. It runs a ‘radio’ so you can choose a station based on a genre.

You can build playlists of albums that you like.

Last.fm also has community forums and groups to join, to add a social networking aspect to the service.

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A social sound platform where anyone can create sounds and share them everywhere.

Recording and uploading sounds to SoundCloud lets people easily share them privately with their friends or publicly.

Share sounds to Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook and Foursquare.

SoundCloud can be accessed anywhere using the official iPhone and Android apps, as well as hundreds of creation and sharing apps built on the SoundCloud platform.

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Flickr allows users to upload photographs, which other users can view, comment upon, and share.

Flickr also has a huge range of groups available, adding a community element and allowing photographers to share images and knowledge.

Images can be organised into sets and categories, and Flickr also makes images available for use by other internet users through The Commons, and Creative Commons.

A real benefit to Flickr is that you can upload images at their original dimensions, and use it as a form of ‘file backup’ because you can re-download them if you need to.

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Pinterest is a visual bookmarking site that works around the principle of ‘notice boards’ and stick pins.

Users can create themed boards and ‘pin’ image-based links to these boards. The pins act as a good visual reminder of the website they came from.

Pins can be sent to other users, commented upon, or ‘liked’. They can be uploaded from a computer or pinned from an existing website.

Many users use Pinterest as a virtual scrapbook or moodboard, and it is particularly favoured by wedding planners and interior decorators.

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Instagram allows users to upload photographs, to which they can apply filters and borders.

Users can follow each other, and post comments on images.

It is essentially a photo-sharing smartphone app which allows amateurs to dabble in photography and share their images with friends.

However businesses can also use Instagram to share images of their premises, products, staff, or things that might be useful to their customers, meaning that they can directly place images in front of fans.

+TASK

Create a new blog post.

Write ‘Specialist Social Media’ as a heading within the post.

State the main specialist channels, and identify reasons for using just four of them for personal use.

Don’t publish just yet, as we’ll be adding to this post later!

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YouTube was first designed and released in 2005.

It has since been bought by Google for $1.65 billion.

It is particularly beneficial to the audio and visual industries; musicians can gain attention by posting videos of their performances, which is cheaper than circulating CDs, while filmmakers can promote themselves by uploading short films.

YouTube is a great way to share showreels, while other businesses use it to promote their products through tutorial videos (that utilise these products) or to promote reviews in which other users have praised their products.

+Using YouTube

The beauty of YouTube is that you don’t need to have an account in order to view videos.

However, if you do have an account, then you can build playlists, subscribe to users for notifications of new content, and upload videos.

All of this is completely free!

Go to www.youtube.com and sign in, using your log in details for Google +. This is another advantage of YouTube – if you already use Google products then you already have an account.

+YouTube

Your home page will display how many videos are available in your Subscriptions tab – the number only shows what is new since the last time you viewed your videos.

You can save videos to watch later.

You can keep track of your own videos through My Channel.

Playlists allow you to group videos according to content.

+YouTube

Simply type into the search box, and YouTube will give you relevant results.

You can filter these results further, or browse according to the number of views, or the length of the video.

+YouTube

The main video window will display the video, an option to subscribe to the channel, a ‘Like’ and ‘Dislike’ button, and information about the number of people who have liked or disliked the video previously.

You can also share the video to other platforms.

+TASK

Make sure you are signed into Twitter.

Spend some time browsing YouTube for a video that you like, or find interesting – make sure it is something you want to share.

Click on ‘Share’ and choose the Twitter option.

On Twitter, click on your profile and take a screenshot of the tweet you just posted from YouTube.

Upload to your blog with a short sentence about why you shared it.

+YouTube for Business

If you are promoting yourself as a business or a freelance professional, then you can create and upload videos relevant to your industry. This will give you a ‘Channel’ that other users can subscribe to if they feel your content is valuable to them.

Tutorials, reviews or other videos that empower viewers with knowledge are particularly useful, as they build your brand’s credibility.

Strong brands with lots of views are eligible for YouTube’s revenue sharing program. They will place ads on your videos and you receive income based on the views your videos get.

+YouTube for Professionals

If you are simply looking to network with other professionals within your field, then share videos whose content you believe will benefit those you wish to network.

If you continue to share useful content, you will establish yourself as a professional whose opinion can be trusted, and it will help to build your authority in the field.

You could consider making your own videos to discuss changes in your industry, or try making videos with other professionals – round table discussions, or Q&A videos could be really useful to others.

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Vine is a relatively new form of social media which relies upon six second videos – it launched in January 2013.

It works primarily as a smartphone app, but there is also a desktop version. You can only upload content using the app, making the desktop version less useful.

One of the advantages of using Vine is that if you have a Twitter account, you can simply sign into the service using that, thus eliminating yet another set of log in details.

You can also connect the smartphone app to your address book to see which contacts you have are already using Vine.

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Vine’s primary goal is to capture the brevity of Twitter updates through the medium of the moving image. It allows users to share spontaneous moments, jokes, meaningful events and other aspects of their lives.

The fact that the platform is essentially restricted to the smartphone makes it portable, and democratises making videos by simplifying the software and equipment required.

Vine has been used to create short advertisements by large brands, and if you’re using it for business use, then it can be useful for spreading your adverts among Twitter’s platform.

However you would need to spend a lot of time following other users and building your own network.

+Vine for Personal Use

Vine also has an extra benefit in that it acts as a ‘back up’ for those videos created by users, by saving them in their account and making them available for viewing online.

Even President Obama has shared a short video through Vine, allowing powerful or influential people access to other users through a platform that they use regularly.

Though six seconds may not seem like a very long time, the start and stop filming method gives users the ability to utilise varying camera angles and film methods such as stop-motion animation. 

Videos can also be embedded on Facebook.

+Vine for Business Use

From a professional standpoint, Vine allows companies to build trust with their customers by offering them a look into the company culture and activities behind closed doors, helping them to see the company as more than a cold corporation.

Brands only have six seconds to make their point, which forces them to focus on what they can offer to their customers. It has to be good for users to share the video.

Brands can create a video teaser for a new eBook, download or blog article, and the short length of the video means that they’re quick and cheap to produce.

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By contrast, Vimeo focusses on longer videos, and is often compared with YouTube.

However Vimeo users prefer the higher quality of their videos when shared on Vimeo instead of YouTube.

If a user uploads a widescreen video the screen adapts to that, rather than just showing a huge area of black as YouTube does.

Content is easier to find on Vimeo. If a user searches the site for a song, they will find it. On YouTube, a user might instead find a teenager playing the song on guitar in his bedroom, or an amateur video from a concert.

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YouTube is still the better option if you want content to go viral, and it contains more content.

However Vimeo doesn’t allow videos from TV or DVDs to be uploaded, so content has to have been made by the user, meaning you will find high quality professional videos.

Vimeo has less users, but it does have a more small, niche community of film enthusiasts. The users who visit are more interested in quality uploads, so work that is uploaded is more likely to be appreciated.

In addition, comments are more likely to be helpful, or constructive criticism, compared to the inane nonsense on YouTube.

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Beyond the difference in content quality, Vimeo has a better design aesthetic. The video screen is larger, and the frame is less cluttered, placing more focus on the video itself.

In addition, there are no distracting banners or 30-second adverts before your video starts.

Vimeo also allows you to password-protect your videos, so you can share them with friends before setting them as public. You just need to forward the video to your recipient and make sure they know which password to type in, making it easier to share family videos without making them public.

+Vimeo for Business Use

The problem with YouTube is that it advertises other videos around yours - you may not want some of the video content on YouTube to appear next to your content.

Vimeo has a cleaner design that highlights the videos themselves, providing more focus on your brand.

Vimeo is a more polished environment, and is the go-to choice if you are an artist, filmmaker, musician or other creative professional, granting you access to more like-minded users. They will make comments, offer suggestions and encourage collaborations.

However, you can only promote a standard brand or business on Vimeo if you choose to upgrade to a Pro subscription.

+TASK

Go to www.vimeo.com.

You don’t need to create an account to browse.

Click on ‘Watch’ in the menu bar. You can choose various options, but for now, stick to Categories or Channels.

Choose a category and find a video based on your interests.

Share it on Twitter, Facebook or Google +.

Take a screenshot for your blog.

Explain why you shared it.

+TASK

Now spend some time browsing either YouTube or Vimeo, finding videos.

You can post comments on YouTube videos by logging in with your Google+ account details.

You can also subscribe to channels, and share videos.

You can set up a Vimeo account if you want.

+TASK

Go back to your blog post.

Write ‘The main differences between YouTube, Vine and Vimeo’ as a title.

Write a list of bullet points to expand upon this.

Publish!