Firstly a BIG thank you to everyone who completed our survey over the last few months. Your insights have been invaluable as has your feedback. Those of you who claimed your account upgrade at the end of the survey should find that your account has now been upgraded. If you are having any issues with this please let us know.
We promised to share the results of the survey with you and what better way to do that than in an infographic.
I don’t know if you have noticed the recent trends on social media towards sharing video and the importance of video on social media sites. Statistically other than Google search YouTube is the most popular video site in the world however Facebook and Twitter now have video embedded into their timelines as well. The difference here is that if you share video directly through these sites rather than by linking to YouTube you will get more views on these sites.
This in itself leads to a question, do you put your video up on YouTube and link to it from the other sites or do you upload it to multiple places… The answer to this is simple, what is the purpose of your video? To reach as many people as possible or to reach friends, family and colleagues… If it is to reach as many people as possible I would recommend that you upload your video to YouTube but also upload to the social media sites separately don’t link out from YouTube to Facebook as you will lose some of your reach.
For more personal video’s that you really just want to share with those close to you share them directly on Facebook or Twitter. You aren’t after views as such but you are after family noticing them or friends so focus on what is important.
Over the next few months you will see that we are updating our digi.me help and how to videos, let me know what subject areas you would find useful for us to record short videos of and we will share them with you on Facebook and here on our blog.
Last week we told you all about SocialSafe v6.5.8 which now allows you to download your Instagram videos to your SocialSafe journal, where they can be viewed, searched and exported, just like your other content.
We’ve recently put together a short video as part of our SocialSafe Features Guide series, which shows you how you can interact with your Instagram videos within SocialSafe:
Your Instagram videos are backed up the same way as your Instagram photos, and all the captions, comments, tags and likes are also downloaded to your SocialSafe journal, and they can be searched just as you would do with any of your other content.
If you’re already backing up Instagram photos with SocialSafe, any videos that you create will be downloaded to your own machine whenever you sync. If you don’t currently use SocialSafe and want a way to download Instagram videos and photos, get the SocialSafe free trial from our website. We also have a video that shows you how to download Instagram photos, which includes how to add an Instagram account to SocialSafe for the first time.
We’re all familiar with the concept of following sports people, musicians, political figures and the stars of film and TV on social networks. The 21st century has given us unbridled access to celebrities and people of note in a manner that makes us feel infinitely more connected to our living heroes than we would be say, only 10 years ago.
Looking at the number of followers celebrities accrue on Twitter, it’s little wonder that owners of famous fictitious characters have now started to utilise social networks to post updates from their creations, and allow fans to interact directly with their favourite protagonist/villain.
Croatian author Goran Racic has created an online persona for Thomas Loud, the hero in his latest novel, Loud Evolution. With the aid of Twitter, YouTube and Minecraft, Racic is involving readers on a multitude of levels that can’t be achieved with just a book alone, and will help to bridge the gap between subsequent novels in the Loud series.
Speaking to Mashable, the author explained his reasoning:
“The overall idea is to have a story that’s unfolding in real life… There’s so much technology available for storytelling. It just feels natural to combine everything… The Twitter feed isn’t a direct continuation of the novel, necessarily. It’s just a collection of [Loud]’s thoughts as he completes different missions and assignments.”
This seems like a great way to engage with readers, and there will be obvious marketing benefits to reap. As a big fan of film and literature, I think the idea of using social media to give audiences an interactive way to delve into a character’s innermost thoughts is a fantastic supplement to the craft laid out on the silver screen or page.
While the digital age has heralded incredible advances in communication abilities, it also leaves us open to the possibility that all the work we put into writing blogs, posting messages on friends’ walls and such like, can all be deleted with one click, never to be seen again. When the time comes to sort through the belongings of a recently deceased friend or loved one, diaries and journals are the sort of things that are kept.
But it’s hard to imagine that the same sense of catharsis will be experienced by a social network – who are essentially landlords of a house full of belongings left for them to deal with by an intestate – when it comes to dealing with the profile of the departed. There is no emotional connection between the host website and the user who posted updates every day for several years, so the likelihood is that they will simply delete it. However the friends of that userwill have an attachment to the photos, the wall posts, the comments from that user on their own updates etc.
And before we spend too much time dwelling on the mortality of man, all of this content could also be lost while someone is still alive. Perhaps digital’s greatest strength is also its greatest weakness. While information can be shared so quickly and in a virtual environment, it also means that it can disappear without a trace just as quickly.
Thankfully backing up social media accounts and taking control of the content you create just got easier. With SocialSafe you can unite your social networks and create your own copy of the digital stories you tell as you forge your own path through the world of online networking. Safely store all the content and contacts from Facebook, Twitter, Viadeo, Instagram, LinkedIn and Google+. For more information about how to start your own offline backup journal visit the SocialSafe website.
