The Social Path

How to harness HD on YouTube. (Hint: It ain't easy, yet.)

Just as my agency was finishing a recent video project, we saw that YouTube had officially added support for high-definition video. It definitely wasn't the first site to let you upload HD clips, but a lot of people had been waiting to see this change at the Web's No. 1 video site.

So of course, I took this chance to play around with the HD hosting options at YouTube and on lesser-known sites. The result was some frustration and a few good learning experiences, so I figured I'd share the good and the bad with you folks.

Check it out after the jump.

Griner's intro guide to Twitter for business.

I know most of you are probably pretty Twitter-savvy by now, but just in case, I thought I'd share this presentation I delivered to a client's staff yesterday:

The Tao of Twitter: An intro guide

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: twitter social)

I tried to keep it brief, but let me know if you notice some areas that were particularly lacking and that businesses should keep in mind.

Google finally sneaks a peek at Luckie's secret lair.

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That's right, our hometown of Birmingham is finally on Google Maps Street View, which means you can bask in the glory of the Luckie Building.

Or downtown's beloved Five Points:

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Or the classic Alabama Theater:

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Anyway, congrats to Birmingham and our southern neighbor Mobile for making the cut and getting on Street View. Now I never have to leave the comfort of my computer.

Seven bits of backstory.

This morning, PRstore scribe Scott Hepburn "tagged" me with one of those MySpace-y things where you get people to list "seven things most people don't know about you."

It's hard to say no to someone who once called me "cool" and my agency "quirky." So for those who just aren't content with my fascinating two-line bio, here are seven somewhat-obscure (and vaguely social media-related) facts about me.

1. Technically, my degree from the Missouri School of Journalism was in magazine design. To date, I’ve designed zero magazines. But you never know.

2. How I got an advertising job with no advertising experience: I wrote my cover letter as a memo to the boss, dated a year in the future. I was reminiscing about how much we had accomplished since the day he decided to take a gamble on a guy with no advertising experience.

3. How I became a social media strategist: I wrote the job description, then recommended myself for the position.

4. I’m generally open to connecting with all types of folks online. The big exception? High school classmates I don’t remember.

5. My mother’s Wikipedia entry is longer than mine will ever be (if I ever get one at all).

6. Speaking of which, I’ve only ever created one Wikipedia entry. It’s for the guy who used to call me every day when I was a newspaper editor, raving incoherently about how he’d won an Oscar. The day after he hanged himself, I learned he was telling the truth.

7. Some random life goals: Own a bohemian coffee house, buy a Haitian vanilla factory, launch a world-history podcast and write a graphic novel based on H.P. Lovecraft’s "The Lurking Fear." I suppose a book deal would be nice too, but I’m feeling a little more confident in the Haitian vanilla thing.

Why Intel's social media policy is a really big deal. Really.

It’s rare that any corporate policy makes for a good read, but trust me when I tell you that Intel’s new Social Media Guidelines are barn-burning fare.

Here’s why:

Standard business model: No matter how many people work at a company, only a select few employees are allowed to speak to the public.  All statements must be approved by the top brass, who will be sure to suck the life out of any comment until it sounds like good-old corporate PR dreck.

The Intel model: Any employee can speak to the public. And the more interesting your perspective, the better.

This week, Intel announced its new approach to the world by posting its Social Media Guidelines online. And while there are plenty of caveats to ensure that employees respect Intel’s privacy policy and other rules, there’s no denying that this is an astounding bit of empowerment.

What’s incredible is that Intel isn’t just allowing workers to use social media for work purposes; it’s encouraging them to be themselves while doing so.

Here’s a telling excerpt:

The choice to participate in social media is yours. If you do, please follow these guiding principles:

    • Provide unique, individual perspectives on what's going on at Intel and in the world.
    • Post meaningful, respectful comments - in other words, no spam and no remarks that are off-topic or offensive.
    • Reply to comments quickly, when a response is appropriate.
    • Respect proprietary information and confidentiality.
    • When disagreeing with others' opinions, keep it cool.
    • Know and follow the Intel Code of Conduct and the Intel Privacy Policy

After the jump, I go over a few more of my favorite bits.

Social media for the time-starved: How to get started.

One of the major excuses I hear for not embracing social media is that people are simply too busy.

Anyone can be a passive Web browser, maybe reading the occasional blog or watching a few video clips online. But it can seem like a colossal leap to actually start producing your own content or staking your claim in the blogosphere.

Well don't worry. Here are four simple steps that will make you feel socially savvy without making your life even more hectic:

1. Start a blog on Tumblr.
2. Move your résumé onto LinkedIn.
3. Add Delicious to your Web browser.
4. Merge your digital life on FriendFeed.

After the jump, I write a bunch of detailed stuff that you're probably too busy to read.

Could your Flickr photos make it big in Hollywood?

You've probably heard stories about someone's Flickr photos being used — for good or evil — by businesses that stumble across them.

But today's story just about tops them all. Cinematical tells us about a guy whose random picture of a friend ended up being featured prominently in one of the year's hottest movies.

Jeremy Keith of Brighton, England, says he was contacted in March about his Flickr photo called Andy in the VAB. "Please contact me with regard to possibly allowing us to use a part of this image in a feature film," the writer said.

With so little information to go on, Jeremy ignored the initial e-mail and a follow-up.

"I never got around to responding to the emails," Jeremy writes on his blog. "I figured that, whoever it was, if they really wanted to use the picture, they would notice the (Creative Commons) licence and realise that they didn’t have to ask permission."

But the studio persisted, finally pinning him down just weeks before the release of Iron Man. And there you can find it as part of an award ceremony montage just a few minutes into the film.

"It fills the screen," Jeremy writes. "The camera lingers over it while performing its best Ken Burns effect. Not only was Robert Downey Jnr. photoshopped onto the picture, Jeff Bridges was on there too! The Dude!! …On my picture!!!"

Jeremy says he waived any reimbursement, making him a hero to Creative Commons advocates everywhere and a dolt to the remaining 95% of the world. (For the record, I applaud him, but there's no harm in the average Flickr user taking some cash when offered.)

I know many of you folks have been contacted about your photos, songs, writings, etc. that you've posted online. I'd love to hear your stories of strange, creepy or rewarding examples in the comments.

Pownce dies. Jaiku sputters. Can there be only one?

With a flashstorm of lighting and a rousing score by Queen, the bloodied head of Pownce.com rolled down the hillside yesterday as Twitter screamed “THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE!”

Since 2006, a legion of “micro-blogging” sites have launched to compete with Twitter. Despite its chronic server problems and relatively inferior features, Twitter has persevered to become the gold standard of short-form messaging.

Yesterday, Twitter’s dominance was reinforced by the announcement that competing site Pownce will shut down. Its two lead engineers are moving over to Six Apart, parent company of The Social Path’s blog platform, TypePad.

The death of Pownce raises a few key questions. Let’s tackle two of em:

1. How is Twitter outliving services that are actually quite a bit better?
2. What does this mean for the remaining big-name competitor, Google-owned Jaiku?

I'll try to hash it out after the jump.