Welcome to Week 5 of our 12 week free online social media course.
If you’re newly joining us, a very warm welcome. We’ve already covered 4 other social media tools and you can catch up below….however each lesson can be taken on it’s own as well.
- Overview
- Introduction
- Week 01 – Social Media Strategy
- Week 02 – Facebook
- Week 03 – Twitter
- Week 04 – Blogging
Each week consists of a blog post (such as you’re reading now), a pdf lesson plan (with overview, objectives, activities and questions to consider) and a chat over on the Zestee Facebook page which launches at 8pm Brisbane time each Tuesday . At this time it’s great to have at least a few people online and I’m around for an hour to discuss the topic and answer questions, but you can read through and contribute at any time during the week. I’d love feedback on this lesson or the course in general in a comment below.
So this week we’re talking about YouTube and I’ll get right to it with this week’s lesson plan below:
When researching for this lesson, I read through the history of YouTube on Wikipedia which is worth a look. I particularly like how they do an April Fool’s day prank every year! I’ve not seen any of these previous ones but if I’m using YouTube on April 1 this year I’ll be sure to be on my guard. Also quite interesting that one of the most watched videos ever is a very simple 1 minute video of a baby biting his brother’s finger: Charlie Bit My Finger
Of course I also had to record a video to share for this week…. so here it is (looking rather tired, I’ve had a big week already!):
Zestee Social Media School week 5
I used to be able to embed videos on WordPress (so you can see a little preview screen) but I’m having trouble with that tonight, so I’m going to work on it and share once I figure it out (or maybe someone else can share in a comment below? I think it’s something to do with the HTML tab and getting the embed code from YouTube but for some reason not working for me tonight).
I don’t have a channel yet for Zestee but it’s part of my social media strategy for later in 2012. (This video is uploaded on my Professional Parents channel – this is another aspect of my business offering support to parents balancing business and family) I’d love to create some more instructional videos to add an extra visual element to this course – what are your thoughts on this?
One of the cons of video though is that it can take some time to plan, film and edit. Of course smartphones make this a lot easier but particularly if you want your video to look professional, it can take some time – and possibly money as well.
There are a large number of editing tools out there, I’ve been experimenting with a few over the years. I’ve recently bought a Macbook Pro and have been learning iMovie but haven’t yet got too far on this, quite time consuming to learn and put a video together, but I’m sure once I get the knack of it, won’t take long at all.
On my PC I used the simple Windows Movie Maker and got some good effects for personal videos such as this one I did for my daughter’s first birthday: (almost 4 years ago now!):
This week I also watched a very unique documentary produced by YouTube and Ridley Scott called “Life in A Day”. This is a simple but wonderful concept, where people were asked to film footage and submit this on one day – 24 July 2010. The final version was compiled from 80,000 submissions from 192 countries and I really enjoyed it. You can find out more and watch the movie – for free – on YouTube here.
Just one example of a great way a business is using YouTube is Toddlers to Teen TV. They have over 350 videos and though I haven’t yet had nearly enough time to watch as many as I’d like, it’s a great resource for parents and an admirable use of YouTube.
So that’s just a basic introduction to what is a very powerful and extensive social media tool and I’d love to see some of your videos!
Renee
Zestee 