Matt Singley | Social Media Optimization

UPDATE: It seems that the artist in question, Lily Allen, has deleted her anti-piracy blog after getting too much heat about areas she had infringed upon copyright laws.  For a complete update, check out this article on TorrentFreak.

Two interesting items came to my attention today, both related to copyright issues on blogs and/or websites.   One relates to a new company formation using the acronym of a larger (but unrelated) organization in their name and website, the other is the seemingly hypocritical case of a musician that steals blog material to make a point about musical piracy.  After exploring both of these at great length, it became clear to me that most people (myself included) don’t fully understand copyright usage as it pertains to online publications.  I’m going to post some thoughts here, but please understand that I am not an attorney, so this is not legal advice.  Consider this your daily dose of common sense in social media. (more…)

One of the wonderful things about social media is that it’s still a bit of the Wild West.  Sites like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, while all covered nicely with their Terms of Service Agreements, are really very self-governing in terms of what content is produced.  When I talk to thought leaders and everyday users of these spaces about rules and norms, the divide is evenly split, with half saying that there should be rules imposed, the other half saying that it’s free speech all the way.  I tend to fall into the latter camp, although I do have three rules of my own that I try to follow.  Why?  Because I really do believe in social norms, and even though we are interacting with people in a digital sense, we are still interacting…we’re sharing the space and I want to do my part to be a good person.

If that reason isn’t compelling enough and you think I want to just sit around and hold hands with all of my digital friends, singing Kumbaya and roasting S’mores over some UGC campfire, then consider this: what you say online today will likely be searchable (and therefore discoverable) forever.  You may not care about having an outburst on Twitter right now because it doesn’t affect you, but down the road you may be in another position altogether, perhaps looking for a job.

Both of these are reasons enough for me to watch what I publish, so I have adopted these three basic guidelines. (more…)

I didn’t attend the infamous Burning Man celebration last week, but I do know a lot of people that did.  If you couldn’t make it either, this very cool time-lapse video from Ben Wiggins can give you a beautiful visual peek into the legendary festival in just a couple of minutes. This exact video may not be a viral hit, but it’s cool enough to make the cut for Viral Friday anyway.  Enjoy, and make sure you have your speakers turned on, the music really ads to it.

Evolution (Burning Man time lapses) from Delrious on Vimeo.

Time lapses I shot while at Burning Man 2009.

I noticed something strange starting earlier this hour…many people that I follow had their avatars changed to the new Twitter default avatar, a colorful variation of a bird.  At first I thought some were doing this for fun, but soon it became obvious that it wasn’t intentional.

I pinged some of them via Twitter, and not only had their avatar been changed, but some had lost their background image as well!  I’ve been seeing a lot of changes to the CSS and general design of Twitter today, so I’m assuming this is an accident and will probably be reverted back automatically.  As a precaution though, you may want to check your page and re-upload the images you use.  I don’t see any apparent link or common trait of those affected, so I can only assume that this is a system wide failure/issue.

With so much information moving around online communities these days, it’s not often that I watch and then re-watch a 5 minute video. This morning I did just that, with the video embedded below called “Did You Know 4.0″.

You won’t see babies rollerskating or a funny wedding entrance in this…what you will see in a lot of data coming at you quickly. Data that talks about the changing communication landscape, the convergence of media and the massive impact that social networks are having on day to day life. I think it’s all incredibly fascinating, and is a brilliant and useful follow-up to another powerful video, “Shift Happens”. If you are connected to media, social networking, marketing or crowd communication in any way, please check this out and let me know what you think in the comments…not just about the video (which is top quality) but about the concepts and statistics brought up in it.

For many people, particularly those of us in the United States (and especially those on the East Coast that were so close to all of it), 9/11 is a day of remembrance, of tragedy, of persistence and of hope.  There are many ways that people “honor” today.  Some write about what the day would have been like had social media been as prevelant then as it is now, and some consider this day in silence.  I don’t know that there is a right or wrong way.

I’m choosing to spend this evening at Twestival San Francisco, a tech event that is helping to raise money for a great cause, Operation Smile.  I attended the 140Smiles event in San Francisco a few months ago, and I think it brought some great awareness to a global issue.  Twestival is a global effort, a remarkable grass roots movement that takes place all over the world and it generally put together in local areas by volunteers.  It is Twitter based (here’s to hoping we don’t see the Fail Whale tonight), so the information that passes around is fast and world wide. The San Francisco Twestival is being coordinated by my Twitter friend Krystyl, and it sounds like she is doing a fabulous job!

If you are in the Bay Area, please consider coming to this great event.  Here is what you need to know: (more…)

Okay, the title of this post may be a bit dramatic and sensational…it’s not that The Internet is dead, it’s just that it doesn’t exist the way it used to.  Instead of being a destination, it is now a container.  No longer do you “get on the internet”, although technically speaking of course you are connecting to the network of computers that does comprise what we call The Internet, but that event is no longer an event itself.  Instead, most people are going to a smaller internet inside the larger container called “The Internet”, and these smaller internets are now destinations of their own.

I recall sitting in a meeting just over a decade ago where I was discussing (okay, arguing) the merits of Th Internet and having a presence there.  The topic du jour was whether or not this company should spend “ridiculous” amounts of money to build a website.  ”After all,” said one particular stodgy gentleman, “we could take all of that money and instead spend it on a larger yellow pages ad.  THAT would be a good use of advertising, and bring us more people”.  You know what?  He meant that, sincerely.  He truly thought that a big, full page ad in the Yellow Pages would bring more business in than some silly, new fangled, johnny-come-lately web site.  The Internet, in his mind (and many others around the table) was a silly place for kids to play, not a place for serious business.  ”The Internet” was still a destination, but not one to be taken seriously. (more…)

To me this is absolutely brilliant.  ”IKEA Heights” is a soap opera style drama (with plenty of over acted, melodramatic action) shot entirely inside the Burbank, CA IKEA apparently without the store’s knowledge.  I’ve visited that particular story many times, it’s usually incredibly busy, so I would imagine it took quite a bit to pull this stealth mission off.

As I watched this 5 minute episode I couldn’t help but notice and laugh at the customers wandering around the store.  I wonder what they were thinking?  I love this kind of creativity, I hope to see more like it in the future.  Episode 1 is embedded below, you can see the rest of them here.

IKEA Heights from DaveAOK on Vimeo.

I’m looking for a photographer that is in San Francisco (or close enough that they could easily get here) for a shoot lasting most of Saturday, September 5th.  I think the ideal photog would be somebody that has a little history with taking pictures of people and places, but hasn’t broken through to the big time yet.  The project will be taking pictures of me and my kids for most of the day, and in return I’m going to promote the heck out of you.  Here is the deal:

The Gig

On Saturday, September 5th I’m going to be hitting some cool points of interest in San Francisco with my four kids.  I would really like to capture it all with pictures, but I’m getting tired of lunking my own camera around everywhere, and frankly it’s a little challenging to get in any of the pictures with them.  We’re going to be going to Alcatraz Island around noon, and after all of that we’ll go for a quick hike/exploration in The Presidio, ending up at an old gun battery pretty near the base of the Golden Gate Bridge.  I’m not really wanting posed photos (although a few would be nice), but rather would have candid shots of the experience…me and my kids, them doing things that kids do…the good and craziness of life with four kids in San Francisco.  The total time commitment for this would be from 11am to about 6pm (maybe a little earlier). (more…)

Zune, the mobile music device from Microsoft, is starting to heat up in the world of social media with the Zune HD giveway sweepstakes.  Considering the very social nature of the Zune track sharing, it’s good to see this happening.

If you’re been around these parts for long, at some point or another you’ve heard me talk about my love of the Zune.  I’m usually met with responses like, “oh, so you’re the guy that bought one!” and other cheeky remarks. (more…)