Study: In social advertising, YouTube converts more customers than anyone else via Venture Beat
When it comes to paid advertising on social platforms, YouTube is the clear winner in introducing new products and helping consumers make their purchasing decisions, according to a new study Aol Platforms released today.
“Noted” items are particularly good finds from my daily reading which I share via all my social media accounts.
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Part of the New Media 101/Blogging 101 series…
A quick clip from this 45 minute presentation — The Why, What and How of Blogging.
Transcript:
The other thing that is great about blogs — you should be reading other blogs as well, which a lot of you probably are, whether you realize you’re reading a blog or not, you probably are. One of the great things you can do is, what we call, reblog and that doesn’t simply putting that blog post on your blog and saying, “Hey, isn’t this net!” I don’t care necessarily about that blog post you’re putting up there. Yes, the information is interesting — the reason you put it on your blog is to give me your take on that information — taking a news story of the day and giving me your, unique thoughts and ideas about that topic. If you look at my blog, you’ll often see I do tend to reblog fairly frequently, but I try to my darndest to make sure I have a good paragraph up top that explains my thoughts about why this was important and interesting to me and what my thoughts are about that particular topic. Why it caught my eye and why I put it in my blog to share with all my readers.
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Previously on New Media 101/Blogging 101:
More information on Douglas E. Welch and Careers in New Media:
Exactly what I recommend to everyone, too! – Douglas
Next Time You Offer Advice, Turn It into a Blog or Podcast via Lifehacker
Those of us more experienced in life sometimes get asked by colleagues to be a mentor and give them some advice. Instead of giving the same answer over again, consider turning it into a podcast or blog post and sharing it with others.
“Noted” items are particularly good finds from my daily reading which I share via all my social media accounts.
Clouds over Los Angeles using the Instagram Hyperlapse program.
More information on Douglas E. Welch and Careers in New Media:
Amazon launches KDP Kids, a tool to help authors self-publish illustrated books via GigaOm
Amazon on Wednesday launched the Kindle Kids’ Book Creator, which is software that helps authors create illustrated ebooks. It could also be a way for Amazon to beef up its subscription program, Kindle Unlimited, with more children’s content.
“Noted” items are particularly good finds from my daily reading which I share via all my social media accounts.
Magisto launches Surprise Me to automatically generate videos from your camera roll via GigaOm
Israel-based video app Magisto is set to officially unveil its Surprise Me feature Friday as part of an update to its iOS and Android apps, which automatically compiles short, shareable video clips based on the videos and photos people have on their smart phones. Surprise Me, which has been beta tested by the company for the last couple of months, uses machine learning to identify the most relevant photos and scenes for each user, and combines them with music and themes to turn them into little stories.
“Noted” items are particularly good finds from my daily reading which I share via all my social media accounts.
I saw notice today that the latest version of WordPress is now available for install on all my WordPress sites (and most likely, yours too). I have been working my way through all 6 blogs, upgrading plugins, themes, etc as necessary and haven’t seen any issues.
Here is a video outlining all the changes and new features.
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Visit the WordPress Codex for complete and detailed information
Facebook, Twitter and other services seem to think that they know what you want to see in your social media streams more than you do.
(See Twitter CFO says a Facebook-style filtered feed is coming, whether you like it or not)
They’re wrong!
While they might try to sell this as a way to make your streams better and easier to use, the benefit lies entirely with them. By shaping streams they control the message, the trends, the advertising, everything.
I see stream shaping as very similar to cable television services that refuse to offer ala carte selection of channels. It is better for their business to force users into “packages” but much, much worse for customers. They use exclusivity and and pricing to force customers to choose all or nothing in their entertainment choices. Do we really want our social media streams being controlled in the same way.
Facebook, Twitter and others need to keep their hands (and supposedly intelligent software) off my social media streams. I will decide what is important to me. I will decide who I want to follow and read. I will decide what has value and interest to me, not them.
If they can’t provide this then I will choose some other source that can. In fact, I can see a very large opening for social media sites that specifically DON’T try to monitor, manipulate and monetize my stream to their advantage.
Facebook has already shown how they will manipulate News Feeds to their advantage in the name of money and control — forcing businesses to “Promote” their posts if they want them seen at all, even though individuals have specificaly said they want to receive those message by Liking and otherwise subscribing to pages and individuals.
Are we really destined to go down the same scarcity-based, authoritarian systems we have lived with for a hundred years, from newspapers, to radio, to television? The Internet’s promise is one of openness, personal control and egalitarianism. Methods like shaped stream and filtered feeds have no place on an open Internet. They are methods from a bygone era, not what we should expect, or accept, from 21st Century companies.
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Part of the New Media 101/Blogging 101 series…
A quick clip from this 45 minute presentation — The Why, What and How of Blogging.
Transcript:
A lot of the pushback I get on blogging from people is “It’s too much work. I can’t add all that work. Oh my god, I’ve got to update every day. I can’t do that. That’s too much extra work” And I tell them, it isn’t extra work. Your goal is to simply capture what you are already doing. The fact is, each and every one of us creates content every single hour of every single day. The trouble is, for most of that content, we throw it away. We don’t capture it. We dont’ sit down and write a 4, 5 sentence paragraph of “Wow. I had this problem and this is how I solved it” — and post that to the blog. It just evaporates. This is why people think, “Oh gosh, it’s so much extra work. I have to sit down and look at the blank page and write.” Which is probably secondary to standing up in front of people as one of the biggest fears that a lot of people have. “What do you mean I’ve go to write? I’ve got to write a paragraph. Oh my god, I can’t do that.” The fact is you’re already doing it. What you need to do is capture it. And that means, capturing a 4 to 5 to 6 sentence paragraph of how you solved a particular problem you were faced with today. How you addressed a particular issue for a client.
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Previously on New Media 101/Blogging 101:
More information on Douglas E. Welch and Careers in New Media:
Real World Example: Share your businesses’ “House Music” with Your Patrons via Social Media
Businesses using streaming radio services like Pandora and iTunes Radio have one more great item to share with their patrons, customers, and community through social media
I have had several new, artisanal food businesses open in my neighborhood over the course of the last year. I love to support local, non-chain, businesses whenever I can, so I often spend a lot of time visiting, shopping, eating and sharing the business with as many people as I can.
One thing all business owners try to establish right away is the mood, setting or feeling of their new business. Music is often used to establish this mood — from the raucous beats of pop and rock for a teen clothing store, to the more eclectic sounds of hot jazz or bossa nova for a hip and cool coffee shop.
In the past, most business owners would have simply chosen a local radio station to play and left it at that. The advent of Internet radio services like Pandora, Spotify and iTunes Radio has given business owners an entirely new way to establish music and mood in their businesses while keeping the advertising at bay or removing it completely. Even better, Internet radio stations can be fine tuned by selecting particular artists, particular tracks and particular styles. Using these tools each business owner can create their own unique house sound which grows and changes over time.
Sure, you could buy each piece of music you would like to use and create your own local music “mix”, but playlists with less than 100 or so tracks can quickly grow repetitive for your regular customers (and certainly for your staff). Such a playlist also stagnates quickly without the constant influx of new material — something that Internet radio stations can provide automatically as new, appropriate tracks are added to the overall service. You can also develop different stations for different times of day and easily switch between them to set the mood for the morning rush, the lunchtime crowd or the late nighters.
Finally, one great advantage to using an Internet Radio service is that it is one more item, one more unique part of your business, to share with your patrons. You can share Pandora and iTunes Radio stations via Facebook, Twitter, your company web site, or by using the direct link, anywhere and any anyplace you wish.
For example, you could have a flyer in your business that says,
“Enjoy our music mix in your car or home! Check out the MacLeod Ale Brewing Co station on Pandora – http://url/macleod”
You can, and also should, share this same information via all your social media accounts. You can even share each time you “Like” a new song or a new station and add it to your playlist or when you create an entirely new station to meet each particular mood or time of day.
All businesses are looking for unique things to share on their social media accounts and your Internet Radio stations are just one more piece of your unique brand and personality to add to the mix. Let your customers take a little piece of your business home with them and subtly remind them that they want to return again and again.
Nick Reboot Streams Old Nickelodeon Shows 24 Hours a Day via Lifehacker
If you’re feeling nostalgic for the shows of your childhood, Nick Reboot streams shows like Rocko’s Modern Life, Are You Afraid of the Dark, and Hey Arnold! 24 hours a day, for free.
All you need to do is head to the web site and the stream will start. It will determine where you are and optimize the streaming quality depending on whether you’re closer to the East or West ingest server. You can even chat with other streamers while you watch and reminisce about the good ol’ days.
“Noted” items are particularly good finds from my daily reading which I share via all my social media accounts.
Twitter has released its Twitter analytics dashboard to all users, and it’s completely awesome. (Here’s Twitter’s official guide on how it works.)
“Noted” items are particularly good finds from my daily reading which I share via all my social media accounts.
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Previously in my Instagram Photos…
More information on Douglas E. Welch and Careers in New Media:
Previously in the Dog Days of Podcasting 2014:
What is the Dog Days of Podcasting?
“Essentially, it is a challenge to do a podcast for 30 days in a row.
In 2012 Kreg Steppe was looking to give himself a little push in regards to recording his own personal podcast since he wasn’t recording it very often. That turned into a challenge for himself to record a show everyday for 30 days believing that after 30 days it would turn into a habit. Once it was mentioned to Chuck Tomasi he took the challenge too and they decided it would be a great idea to record starting 30 days before Dragon*Con, culminating with the last episode where they would record it together when they saw each other there.”
Sound effects are the unsung heroes of movies, radio, and haunted houses. Hearing all the detailed sounds makes it feel like the action is happening right next to you. By carefully selecting which sound effects are highlighted, you can create the perfect environment for your audience to experience. In this project, I am going to give you a basic overview of the art of sound effects, and show you how to make them, how to record them, and even how to automate them.
“Noted” items are particularly good finds from my daily reading which I share via all my social media accounts.
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More information on Douglas E. Welch and Careers in New Media:
Previously in the Dog Days of Podcasting 2014:
What is the Dog Days of Podcasting?
“Essentially, it is a challenge to do a podcast for 30 days in a row.
In 2012 Kreg Steppe was looking to give himself a little push in regards to recording his own personal podcast since he wasn’t recording it very often. That turned into a challenge for himself to record a show everyday for 30 days believing that after 30 days it would turn into a habit. Once it was mentioned to Chuck Tomasi he took the challenge too and they decided it would be a great idea to record starting 30 days before Dragon*Con, culminating with the last episode where they would record it together when they saw each other there.”
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Part of the New Media 101/Blogging 101 series…
A quick clip from this 45 minute presentation — The Why, What and How of Blogging.
Transcript:
Your goal in having a blog, in having a podcast, in having a web site, is to gain people’s permission to speak to them on a regular basis. This does not mean spamming them and hoping they read your message. This is getting their permission. One of the adjuncts of a blog is — there is this thing called an RSS feed. Have people heard of RSS feeds? it’s basically a machine-readable version of your web site — of your blog that automatically gets updated that people can then subscribe to in an RSS reader. It sort of looks like an email program. It’s an RSS reader that can then tell them whenever you publish something new. They don’t have to come to your web site saying, “Is there new information? Is there new information? Is there new information?” It comes to them. What that means is, that’s one way for them to give you their permission to you for you to come into their life whenever you have anything interesting to say. Which I always add on, please make sure you have something interesting to say. That’s actually less of a criteria — less of a stumbling block — than you might think.
Previously on New Media 101/Blogging 101:
Loneliness – End of the Day with Douglas E. Welch – Dog Days of Podcasting 2014 – 26/30
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There is a distinct difference between loneliness and solitude, I think. I always think of solitude as a chosen state. I go in search of solitude and quiet and relaxation sometimes so I can return, refreshed, to my work and other efforts towards a better life. Loneliness, though, is an enforced state for the most part. You are faced with loneliness when life, work, or circumstances prevents the time, location or desire to engage with others. Loneliness is often something we feel is chosen for us, not that we choose ourselves. We feel loneliness when our wants, needs and desires aren’t being fulfilled, not matter how much we would like them to be.
In today’s busy, busy, world, I think much loneliness comes from the constant movement, striving and desire that we all face. Even when we might feel like we don’t want to be lonely, we allow life to push us around, distract us from those desires in search of fulfillment elsewhere. When this happens to me, I can recognize it by the emptiness I feel. No matter what I might accomplish in any other realm of my life, if I am feeling lonely nothing can fill that hole. It aches there like a deep muscular pain, clouds my mind and distracts me further and further from other goals. Given enough loneliness, I descend into unproductivity in all aspects of my life. Dishes go unwashed. The garden goes unweeded. The cruft of life starts to build up around me. I risk becoming the dirty hermit living in a cave if I let it continue.
Alone on the trail
The main problem is solving this loneliness, though, is that many other people are feeling and acting the same way. We are all looking for a better life, but that search can lead us astray from some fundamental needs in our lives. When enough of us do this, the cumulative effect isn’t additive (1+1=2) rather the destruction is exponential (10^10= 10,000,000,000) When enough of us are feeling lonely, we fly further and further apart — becoming lonelier both individually and collectively until something breaks in a drastic fashion.
It can be difficult when others don’t recognize your loneliness — and the need to break the cycle, both for you and themselves. Loneliness can easily turn to anger, resentment and recriminations, especially in long term relationships. As the old saying goes, “Familiarity breeds contempt” and we can slowly learn to ignore the wants, needs and desires of those closest to us — and they can do the same to us. It takes an open mind and open heart to prevent loneliness from turning to contempt, but as we often see, it can happen much more quickly and much more easily that we might expect.
Facing deep loneliness yourself? Even in the depths of loneliness you must remember that it is up to you to solve it. If your current community isn’t satisfying your needs for companionship, look elsewhere. Look far afield. Look close to home, but look. We are all fighting our own battles and others may be so involved that they no longer have time for you. Don’t hate them, but don’t wait for them either. They may eventually come out of their own loneliness, but they also may not. You can’t decide that for them, though. You can only face your own battle with loneliness as best you can and move on.
More information on Douglas E. Welch and Careers in New Media:
Previously in the Dog Days of Podcasting 2014:
What is the Dog Days of Podcasting?
“Essentially, it is a challenge to do a podcast for 30 days in a row.
In 2012 Kreg Steppe was looking to give himself a little push in regards to recording his own personal podcast since he wasn’t recording it very often. That turned into a challenge for himself to record a show everyday for 30 days believing that after 30 days it would turn into a habit. Once it was mentioned to Chuck Tomasi he took the challenge too and they decided it would be a great idea to record starting 30 days before Dragon*Con, culminating with the last episode where they would record it together when they saw each other there.”
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An example video of Instagram Hyperlapse, a new app released by Instagram today for iOS that produces high-quality, motion stabilized time-lapse videos.
More information on Douglas E. Welch and Careers in New Media:
Previously in the Dog Days of Podcasting 2014:
What is the Dog Days of Podcasting?
“Essentially, it is a challenge to do a podcast for 30 days in a row.
In 2012 Kreg Steppe was looking to give himself a little push in regards to recording his own personal podcast since he wasn’t recording it very often. That turned into a challenge for himself to record a show everyday for 30 days believing that after 30 days it would turn into a habit. Once it was mentioned to Chuck Tomasi he took the challenge too and they decided it would be a great idea to record starting 30 days before Dragon*Con, culminating with the last episode where they would record it together when they saw each other there.”
Instagram’s Hyperlapse App Turns Your Videos Into Time-Lapses in Two Taps via Mashable
Instagram launched an app called Hyperlapse on Tuesday that speeds up shaky videos and turns them into time-lapses.
Hyperlapse, which is now available for a free download in the Apple App Store, turns footage stored on your smartphone into time-lapse videos, without requiring pricey tracking rigs that can typically cost up to $15,000.
“Noted” items are particularly good finds from my daily reading which I share via all my social media accounts.
Self Doubt – – End of the Day with Douglas E. Welch – Dog Days of Podcasting 2014 – 26/30
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It always amazes me how one word or small phrase can change my mood from one extreme to another in the passing of a single breath. It happened today, over something small, but one response to something I said sent me into a fit of self-doubt that still lingers even as I write this. Self-doubt is my enemy right now, even more than usual, so it doesn’t take much to trigger it and all the associated responses. As is often the case, no one is tougher on us than ourselves and this is especially true of me. I only need a small shove to head down the path.
I have always been — what might be called — a sensitive person. I don’t think it has ever served me well. I quickly pick up on the moods and attitudes of those around me and begin to feel them, even if I don’t have any particular association with what is happening. Being near someone having an argument or complaining about something is enough to send me out of a coffeehouse or restaurant just to escape the feelings that start to take over. Call it excessive empathy or sensitivity or “having no sense of humor” or “can’t take a joke”, as I have often been accused.
Of course, trying to explain this to others is a futile exercise. It is very hard to understand something like this from the outside. Heck, I barely understand it myself. I only know what I feel and how I react to specific situations, but others often think I am just being silly, or capricious or have some ulterior motive. More likely, I just want to remove myself from the situation or do whatever I can to prevent being in the situation in the first place. It is like I see a train coming own the tracks and I step off the tracks long before everyone else, just to be safe.
Often my trigger points are the verbalization of doubts and fears I am already feeling deeply myself. This suddenly wrenches my thinking back to the problem when I am not prepared to deal with it. Sometimes ignoring a problem is the only way of dealing with it at the moment. Sure, that is not a long term solution, but I know I don’t always have the strength to deal with every issue all the time. I try to make things better when I can, but I also know when it is better to do as Scarlett O’Hara did and “think about it tomorrow.” The trouble with this is that others don’t know when I am capable of dealing with an issue and when I am not, so they only do what they can do and talk about it, or try to solve it. This typically only sends me further down the rabbit hole, though. I am getting better at telling people what is going on within this weird head of mine, but it can still be difficult, especially when I am surprised with a word or turn of phrase that touches that sore spot that no one can really see.
There are days I want to wear a sign that says “It’s not you, it me!”, just so people know that I truly am “not in my right mind” (SMILE) at least in the frame of mind to deal with the larger issues of life and legacy.
More information on Douglas E. Welch and Careers in New Media:
Previously in the Dog Days of Podcasting 2014:
What is the Dog Days of Podcasting?
“Essentially, it is a challenge to do a podcast for 30 days in a row.
In 2012 Kreg Steppe was looking to give himself a little push in regards to recording his own personal podcast since he wasn’t recording it very often. That turned into a challenge for himself to record a show everyday for 30 days believing that after 30 days it would turn into a habit. Once it was mentioned to Chuck Tomasi he took the challenge too and they decided it would be a great idea to record starting 30 days before Dragon*Con, culminating with the last episode where they would record it together when they saw each other there.”