The Social Path

Watch the Luckie Christmas Story and help a child enjoy the holidays.

At Luckie & Company, we love telling stories, especially if that story helps those in need.

This holiday season, we wanted to come up with a simple and creative way to engage people and donate money to charity. So, “A Luckie Christmas Story” was born — the tale of young Santa, a scruffy-faced, rotund kid teased by his classmates until a special gift changed his life. 
Each time the video is viewed, Luckie will donate $1 to Toys for Tots (up to $5,000).

Click here to view the story and share it with friends and family. The more the link is shared and viewed, the more we can help brighten a child’s Christmas. Please spread the word, because you never know when a simple gift in the hands of a child could end up changing the world.

Kayla Cille Terry is a Digital Content intern at Luckie & Company. You can contact her by email or follow her on Twitter.

Photo credit: Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery on Flickr

Arcade Fire launches HTML5 (oh, and a new album).

If you've felt a bit behind on understanding HTML5, an emerging new standard for Web content, here's a pretty cool way to see the features and potential for yourself.

Indie rock band The Arcade Fire has launched an interactive music video in partnership with Google Chrome to promote both the new album, "The Suburb," and the power of HTML5. The video illustrates techniques such as choreographed windows, interactive flocking, custom-rendered maps, real-time compositing, procedural drawing and 3D canvas rendering. I don't even know what those are, but I now know they are awesome.

Visit TheWildernessDowntown.com to experience the video, which involves some interesting viewer interaction. You'll probably want to try it in Google Chrome, though it theoretically works in Safari too.

Whatever your take on the song, you have to admit it's a pretty inventive concept and a great way for a lesser-known band to hitch its wagon to something so buzzworthy. Between this and Arcade Fire's live-streamed concert earlier this month on YouTube, they might just supplant OK Go as the official band of social media. 

Kammie Avant is a social media planner for Luckie & Company. You can contact her by e-mail or follow @KammieAvant on Twitter.

Video: The newest mind-blowing stats on social media.

In case you haven't seen it yet, here's a newly updated version of the incredible "Social Media Revolution" video that got 1.9 million views over the past year. Obviously, the social media numbers have only gotten more jaw-dropping:

For more, be sure to check out the original and pick up the book behind the videos, Socialnomics.

David Griner is a social media strategist for Luckie and Company and contributing editor for Adweek’s blog, AdFreak.com. You can reach him by e-mail or on Twitter.

Could video game addiction help save the world?

Here's yet another incredible presentation from the folks at TED, this time from video game designer Jane McGonigal. It highlights the untapped potential for the world's most popular online social activity: video games.

A few stats that jumped out at me:

• World of Warcraft players have racked up more than 5.93 million years of total gametime.

• Young people now spend as many hours playing video games (10,000 hours) as they do in school.

• The World of Warcraft Wiki is second only to Wikipedia as the most-used Wikis on Earth.

• There are currently an estimated 500 million gamers on Earth, with another billion on the way in the next decade.

Most adults (especially parents) probably consider these stats "scary," but I think this video helps express how that mindset is changing under Generation Y.

For example, when McGonigal says that the average World of Warcraft player puts in 22 hours of game time a week, your first reaction might be, "What a waste of time!" But compare it to the average American's TV viewing habit of 38 hours a week.

Is it better to spend 20-40 hours a week in a fun, collaborative, interactive environment such as a video game, or just staring passively at a glowing television while you veg out on the couch?

(Full disclosure: I've never played World of Warcraft, nor do I subscribe to cable or satellite TV. My wife and I probably average 8 hours of video game time a week, versus 4 hours of TV via Netflix.)

So what do you think? Does McGonigal make a compelling case for the social potential of video games? Or is she simply trying to find a silver lining in the fact that people are hopelessly addicted to entertainment?

Fans of OK Go are OK to go embed the band's new video.

You may remember January’s minor uproar over the new video by rock band OK Go, whose fans were not allowed to embed the video on their blogs. For a band that broke into the mainstream through low-budget YouTube videos and word of mouth, this was an unforgivable offense in the eyes of their loyal fans.

Lead singer Damian Kulash addressed the issue in an open letter to fans, explaining that OK Go was a victim of backroom revenue deals worked out between Google (parent company of YouTube) and the band's record label, EMI. Google had agreed to pay EMI for each view of the band's videos — as long as they were viewed on YouTube and not embedded on another site.

So what could OK Go do to fix the problem? Find a loophole, of course.

OK Go teamed up with State Farm, which apparently covered the cost that EMI feels it would have lost from shared videos on other blogs. The insurer's logo appears briefly at the beginning and end of a new video for the band's song, "This Too Shall Pass," shown above.

The sponsorship is subtle, but the fan excitement over something as simple as embedding  — along with such a complex and awesome video — will create word of mouth that's far more valuable than whatever revenue EMI was hoping to squeeze out of the deal.

Kammie Avant is a social media planner for Luckie & Company. You can contact her by e-mail or follow @KammieAvant on Twitter.

Day 22: Learn 5 things you didn't know about YouTube.

Throughout January, The Social Path is running daily tips on how to improve your social life — online, at least. Click here to learn more.

Watching and sharing videos is the single most popular social activity on the Internet. And roughly two-thirds of that clip consumption occurs on YouTube.

But strangely, few people bother to look under the hood and see what YouTube has to offer, both in terms of viewing and hosting video.

So to help you know your YouTube, here are a few fun facts that might make your video experience a little more useful:

Did you know you can...?

1. Find out if your clips contain copyrighted material.

Simply log in and go to your Account Settings. If any of your clips include known copyrighted material (ie, if you set your wedding video to the tune of "Danger Zone"), you'll see a note that says: "You have videos that may contain content that is owned by someone else. Please review these videos."

Don't worry, this doesn't mean some record label knee-breaker is going to come after you. It doesn't even  mean your clip is going to get yanked off YouTube, but it does let you know that you're at the mercy of the copyright holder. So make sure you have a backup copy of these videos on your hard drive just in case they get pulled. (You can download your clips back from YouTube in the My Videos section.)

YouTube does generally operate under a "three strikes" system, so if you've been notified of a copyright-related takedown on your account in the past, you might want to check whether your account is "in good standing." If you're not, you'll see a description of videos that have been removed:

2. Specify which type of ads you want to see.

Advertising is an inevitable aspect of YouTube, a server-crushing megasite that requires massive investment by Google just to stay afloat. But hey, at least you can decide which categories of targeted ads you want to see.

Just go to Ad Preferences and deselect any categories you never want to see ads for:

You can even add more specific categories of ads, like "Dancing" or "Wildlife" by clicking the "Add interests" button at the bottom of the list!

What good is this feature? To be honest, I'm really not sure, although I suppose it could make the ads you're forced to watch seem a little more palatable. But I'm guessing you'd rather....

3. Opt out of targeted (cookie-based) advertising.

If you're tired of Google tracking your video habits and using them to hit you with related advertising, just hit the big blue Opt out button on the Advertising Privacy page.

The bad news? You'll still watch ads. They'll just be generic messages aimed at anybody, not someone with your interests or viewing habits.

Personally, I like seeing local ads on YouTube clips, and I don't get too worked up about tracking cookies, so I'm still opted in. But it's worth knowing that you always have the option.

4. Force YouTube to show you HD when available.

Luckily, YouTube defaults to a viewing option that sets your video quality "dynamically based on the current connection speed." So if you're on your grandma's dial-up, YouTube will load clips at low resolution.

But if you're a quality-first kind of person, you might want to go ahead and force all videos to top quality, even if it means waiting a bit longer for them to load.

5. Link your YouTube activity to Facebook or Twitter.

First off, let me say I doubt that your friends want to know every time you rate a video or subscribe to a channel, so you might not want to blast the entire YouTube firehose into your other social networks.

But if you're selective with your picks for favorite videos, or you just want folks to know when you've posted a new clip, YouTube's Activity Sharing options might prove useful.

These tips are just a small sample of the options available within YouTube. I hope they've at least inspired you to poke around within the site a bit more and learn how you can make the world's most popular video site answer to you.

Estimated time needed: 10-20 minutes.
Benefits: A streamlined and personalized YouTube experience.

The day the viral music died.

If you were to make a list of the top viral video superstars, Chicago rock band OK Go would be near the top. Their incredibly choreographed video for Here It Goes Again has reaped an astounding 49 million views on YouTube, vaulting the band from obscurity to Grammy-winning stardom.

But that was 2006. Now the band is racing the infuriating reality of 2010.

In an open letter to their fans this week, OK Go had to explain why no one is allowed to embed the band's new YouTube video, This Too Shall Pass, on a blog or social network. Essentially, the very model of sharing that made the band a success is now barred to them due to record label revenue deals with YouTube.

It's an incredible and incredibly frustrating read, a face-palming case study in how corporate desperation is one of the most self-destructive forces in the modern marketplace.

You should read the entire thing over on Gizmodo, but here are some of the most enlightening bits:

We've been flooded with complaints recently because our YouTube videos can't be embedded on websites, and in certain countries can't be seen at all. And we want you to know: we hear you, and we're sorry. We wish there was something we could do. Believe us, we want you to pass our videos around more than you do, but, crazy as it may seem, it's now far harder for bands to make videos accessible online than it was four years ago.

...

The labels are hurting and they need every penny they can find, so they've demanded a piece of the action. They got all huffy a couple years ago and threatened all sorts of legal terror and eventually all four majors struck deals with YouTube which pay them tiny, tiny sums of money every time one of their videos gets played.

Seems like a fair enough solution, right? YouTube gets to keep the content, and the labels get some income. The catch: the software that pays out those tiny sums doesn't pay if a video is embedded. This means our label doesn't get their hard-won share of the pie if our video is played on your blog, so (surprise, surprise) they won't let us be on your blog.

....

So we've got this ridiculous situation where the machinery of the old system is frantically trying to contort and reshape and rewire itself to run without actually selling music. It's like a car trying to figure out how to run without gas, or a fish trying to learn to breath air.

...

With or without this embedding problem, we'll never get 50 zillion views on a YouTube video again. That moment – the dawn of internet video – is gone. The internet isn't as anarchic as it was then. Now there are Madison Avenue firms that specialize in "viral marketing" and the success of our videos is now taught in business school.

...

So, for now, here's the bottom line: EMI won't let us let you embed our YouTube videos. It's a decision that bums us out. We've argued with them a lot about it, but we also understand why they're doing it. They're aware that their rules make it harder for people to watch and share our videos, but, while our duty is to our music and our fans, theirs is to their shareholders, and they believe they're doing the right thing.

Of course, since this is a YouTube issue, the band points out that you're welcome to share their video via sites like Vimeo, which I've gone ahead and done below:

OK Go - This Too Shall Pass from OK Go on Vimeo.

Hat tip to my friend Bill for letting me know about this, and to Gizmodo for posting the full transcript.

Day 7: Check in on your YouTube channel.

Throughout January, The Social Path is running daily tips on how to improve your social life — online, at least. Click here to learn more.

In late 2009, YouTube forcibly switched all its users to the new channel format, a look that I find great for corporate purposes but pretty annoying for the average user.

While debate continues about the switch, there's little you can really do at this point except make the most of what YouTube hath wrought.

Essentially, YouTube made its channels feel more like channels, instead of just jumbled piles of boxes. You can watch dozens of videos without ever leaving one YouTube channel, where the old format would generally just steer you to specific video pages.

While I personally think the new change made it a bit more difficult to share videos easily, there's no denying that it's aesthetically a better look.

Before we dive into design issues, here's a quick comparison of the before and after. I'm randomly using ExploreMinnesota as an example, just because I happened to have a pre-change screenshot of their channel.

 

and then...

As you can see, profile information really got the shaft, with your bio info getting kicked below the fold. Again, it's more like a channel, and less like a social network profile.

So here's the real question for those of you already using YouTube: Have you gone back and checked your channel since it got switched over to the new format? If not, you're probably going to want to make some design tweaks.

Editing the new channel is pretty self-explanatory, though please note that some of the most important settings (font colors, background image, etc.) are hidden under "show advanced options" in the "Themes and Colors" tab.

Two other important points about the background image:

1. It's a pretty big pain in the butt. The image size limitation is preposterously small (256K) for the width of background image you'd likely want to use. That's why I went pretty minimal with Luckie's agency channel, the before and after of which are shown at the top of this post.

2. If you want to actually see your background image, be sure to change the two Transparency settings, which will make the channel's frames as translucent as you'd like.

The good news is that you probably won't need a comprehensive redesign. Just tweak your colors and select which info (subscribers, favorites, etc.) you want featured on your channel.

Again, I'm not totally enamored with the new look of YouTube channels, but I will say that it's a cleaner way to watch videos, and it really does open up more design options for those who want their channels to look a little more professional.

For example, I love the look of the channel we created for The Alabama Tourism Department:

If you're an active YouTube user who's been playing with the new channel format for a while now — or you learn something helpful while giving it a shot today — I'd love to hear from you in the comments.

Estimated time needed: 30-45 minutes
Benefits: A cleaner, more professional look for your YouTube presence.

Coming tomorrow:Time to start segmenting all those "friends" on Facebook.

Day 5: Watch this video.

Throughout January, The Social Path is running daily tips on how to improve your social life — online, at least. Click here to learn more. 

In social media, as in life, things rarely go as planned. And no matter how mainstream social media gets, that idea of "losing control" remains one of the scariest things for businesses thinking of getting more social online.

The following video, from Reddit.com founder Alexis Ohanian, is a fantastic tale of one idea that got away from its creators and ended up becoming something bigger than they ever could have hoped — once they learned the zen art of letting go. Plus, it's just 4 minutes long, so relax and enjoy.

Estimated time needed: 4 minutes.
Benefits: A better understanding of how information evolves online. And maybe a few laughs.

Coming tomorrow: It's time to get real about your RSS subscriptions.