How to Win at Social Media? Use an Astronaut

Couple of hours ago, a Canadian astronaut who commanded the ISS (International Space Station) had safely returned to earth after his 5 month mission. But wait, what does that have to do with social media? Well, in case you didn't know, he posted a massive amount of videos on YouTube about space, Tweeted from ISS, and hosted a world (space?) first Google+ Hangout from Space Station.

The use of social media as an astronaut while on a space station is excellent publicity and it certainly brings in a lot of attention. Mr. Hadfield is a rather entertaining and knowledgeable fellow. He communicated with many mostly children and students who asked him how are ordinary activities done in space, and he promptly showed them. CSA's (Canadian Space Agency) YouTube channel is filled with many of his videos, flying around the space station, gulping bubbles of water roaming around the room, shaving, and eating spinach. Did you know they even have chocolate cakes and coffee on board? Check out this video:

Commander Hadfield tweeted from ISS, did many informative and fun videos and even played a live concert with participating audience on earth! This is just brilliant. An excellent use of social media to bring media attention, spur interest about space, actually teach us something, and mostly of all see how everyday life aboard the space station looks like. By the way, did you know they recycle 93% of used water? They even recycle their own urine into water, which evidently because ISS is an enclosed environment, the water is actually purer that the water we drink on earth.

Watching his videos makes me excited and wish I was an astronaut. Make sure to check out his video and let me know what you think!

Here's some external articles about Chris and the ISS.

Chris Hadfield and Social Media

Commander Returns to Earth

Would You Pay for YouTube?

There have been many speculations about YouTube offering paid subscriptions and apparently this will be implemented pretty soon.
We all know YouTube as the ultimate free video hosting website, and as much as I would like to keep it that way, I somehow knew that this would not continue on forever.

The service is planning to host couple of pilot channels to test out the changes. Reportedly, the prices can be as "low" as 99 cents and on top of that you get a free 14 day trial. Currently we know that there will be a couple of paid channels, two of which will be Sesame Street and Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC).

To us, the users, this seems ridiculous; they want to us to pay for what we had free for the longest time. However, from the perspective of the broadcasters this obviously can be a good thing, since the more subscribers they have, the more money they will generate, and the more content they can provide.

I have a couple of questions to ask the person who designed this. If I am currently subscribed to UFC, will I be forced to pay to keep my subscription? Will this service be only available to YouTube Partners or will anyone be able to use it? Finally, how will this affect the monetizing of the videos?

I'm pretty sure that I am not the only one concerned about this issue and I guarantee that this will bring problems. I know that initially the amount of subscribers of a paid channel will drop significantly, but who's so say that people won't change their minds about this?

Would you pay for YouTube? I'm interested in what you think.

Why is Reddit so Addictive ?

 

I'm pretty sure everyone knows Reddit, It's one of those sites that drive a lot of attention. It's pretty well known among fellow social media users, as in general it's a collection of the "internet". What is it about this website that drives so much attention? Why does visiting the website eventually becomes a habit?

First off, EVERYTHING that becomes a newest trend is available on Reddit. It is a collection of the internet, all sort of news articles, tips and tricks, funny pictures, videos, AMAs, you name it. What makes it special though is the people on it. If it weren't for the people, this website would not exist. It is them who post and comment. If you think about it, it's a website by the people for the people.

Reddit has gained some recognition lately. The stories from the website were featured on many news stations; celebrities use AMA section as a PR tool where regular people can ask them any question they'd like. The comment section is tremendous. It can be hilarious, emotional; sometimes it drives people apart and sometimes it brings them together.

At this point, I've been on Reddit for so long and for so much that I do not remember what other sites I've been visiting previously... I guess that’s because of how awesome Reddit is, especially r/funny and r/snowboarding subreddits. I think I have to call myself a Reddit addict.

So the question remains, how drawn are you to Reddit?

Facebook and Your Boss

I've read an interesting article lately. It turns out that when a boss asks an employee to friend them on Facebook, most of employees would delete or temporarily suspend their entire Facebook account rather than accept the request.

It looks like users are concerned about their privacy and would like to keep their professional life apart from personal, that I completely understand. I think that in most cases this isn’t exactly the reason. If a person would rather delete their social media website than simply accept boss' invitation, it means that they most likely have a compromising content, that would jeopardize their jobs,

This brings up an issue of privacy and content. Be mindful that this is on the internet; once you post something it'll stay there, even the unwanted stuff...

If your boss sent you a friend request, would you accept?

Facebook Share Prices Drop Again

Since its initial public offering, Facebook shares have been continuously dropping. Last May the price per share was at $38, whereas now, Barron (from Reuters) estimates that it might have dropped even as low as $25, despite its closing on Friday the 3rd.

It turns out that Facebook mobile ads have increased the revenue of the company, however the focus on desktop ads and money spent on it turned out to be a flop.

Facebook strives to increase the value of the shares, however without a solid business model, this task is a great challenge. Lately Facebook hoped to earn money by releasing its Facebook Home App, however it did not do too well.

If this trend continues, it seems that the rumored video ads will become a reality. After all, the stockholders are losing money, and Facebook will do whatever is in their power to satisfy them. I believe that the era of Facebook freedom will soon be over, as we (the users) will be inevitably bombarded with ads from all fronts.

Brace yourselves.

Slow YouTube

What is happening to YouTube lately? For me it's been terribly slow for the past month. It seems that after the new user interface was implemented, the "snappiness" and the speed of YouTube has fallen drastically.

Some videos load faster than others, and I cannot tell why. My first thought was, "maybe it's the length of the video that's the problem...", however after further investigation, this loading and buffering issue seems to affect all lengths of videos. Then my guess was the location of the server the video is located in, but with today's technology and the way YouTube has their servers set up, this is probably not it.

Finally, I stumbled upon this video. It turns out that Time Warner Cable is throttling my bandwidth on YouTube and Vimeo! All I can say that this is ridiculous. I've been looking for a fix to this situation and I found a pretty interesting blog that addresses this issue and poses a solution. Unfortunately after trying to fix it, the problem still persists.

If you have a problem with YouTube loading times, give this blogger's solution a shot. It might work. http://mitchribar.com/2013/02/time-warner-cable-sucks-for-youtube-twitchtv/

Do you have Time Warner Cable or other ISP that is throttling video streaming services? Make sure to give Mitch a try and see if it works for you.