Post image for Mobile Video Usage Explodes in 2010

Mobile Video Usage Explodes in 2010

by Mike Vallez on December 21, 2010

A few weeks ago YouTube posted unbelievable statistics on their blog regarding the massive amount of video uploads that occur on a daily basis. But how are people consuming this massive amount of video content? Apparently, an ever increasing amount of video is begin watched using mobile devices. According to MeFeedia and Nielsen mobile video usage exploded in 2010 and shows no sign of slowing down. According to Nielsen research users using mobile devices to watch video has climbed upwards of 43% compared to the same time last year.

mobile media and social media

MeFeedia’s research on mobile video consumption targeted the type of device being used to consume mobile video. Not surprisingly the iPhone leads the pack in mobile viewing, Android comes in second and iPad third. The iPhone and iPad account for roughly 52% of devices viewing mobile video. An interesting piece of information from MeFeedia’s research was mobile video engagement was 40% greater than PC/desktop video engagement.

mobile video and social media

What does all this mean? We are fast becoming a technologically mobile society, which will impact the way people obtain and consume information forever. These statistics are only the beginning and I would gather that in a few short years as mobile device technology increases the video consumption on mobile devices will continue to grow exponentially. Do you watch videos on your mobile device? If so how much, how often?

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mobile video

Is your organization ready for the mobile video explosion?

by Mike Vallez on November 13, 2010

A recent article by GoMo News, “Mobile video use explodes for YouTube” is very telling about the increase of mobile video consumption. Even more telling is a recent article by YouTube’s own blog, “Great Scott! Over 35 Hours of Video Uploaded Every Minute to YouTube.” It is rather apparent that we are in the midst of a video content creation explosion the likes that this world has never seen. This may sound dramatic, but lets look at some of the stats these two articles present.

-75% of YouTube users say mobile is their primary way to access YouTube
-35 hours of video uploaded a minute, equates to 2,100 hours of uploaded video in an hour
-50,400 hours of video uploaded daily to YouTube
-70% use YouTube’s mobile site a least once a day

The increased mobile use and the increase in upload of video content goes hand in hand and you can see that YouTube, the worlds largest video social networking site and second largest search engine continues to grow. Some reasons for the increased upload of videos are the increase in length of uploaded videos by YouTube, the continued technological advances in mobile handsets (iPhone, Droid X, etc) and portable video devices (Flip, Kodak, etc.) as well as the increased use of YouTube’s api allowing for upload of videos from other social networking sites, video games, and other online communities. But what does this mean for corporations, law enforcement, and people in general?

One of the biggest issues that corporations, law enforcement agencies, and people are going to have to come to grips with is that video will soon be on the web as fast as Tweets. Now this is already happening to a certain extent with more tech savvy social networkers, but prepare yourself for the masses to become instant reporters of police brutality, poor product performance, failed product performance, poor service and the list goes on. Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube continue to change the way people consume information, but if you notice YouTube videos are shared on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, email, blogs, etc, which allows for continued growth of mobile video consumption and content creation.

Is your organization prepared to deal with the ramifications of the video world? I would like to hear from you if you are experiencing challenges from the new video age we are living in. mike@michaelvallez.com.

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mobile media

Android Bar Codes Make App Downloads/Purchases Seamless, Why Isn’t Apple Doing This?

by Mike Vallez on October 11, 2010

Being a “Fan Boy” of gadgets, mobile devices, and technology overall I was extremely impressed when I scanned an application into my Android “Droid X” smartphone the other day. This was by far one of the coolest things I have experienced since becoming a “technology geek.” The technology is a 2D bar code similar to the bar codes on most products we purchase at stores, but there is a twist. This bar codes is made for cell phones/smartphone cameras. There are several of these types of bar code formats as follows: 1) Semacode, QR Codes and Data Matrix (Wikipedia) which are optimized for cell phones. Here is how it works. I downloaded the CNET Scan and Shop onto my Droid X. Then I went to appbrain.com and selected an application, any one will do. You then take your scanner app open it up to the scan functionality and hold it up to your computer screen. The CNET app makes the sound like you hear at the supermarket during checkout and you are asked if you want to download the application. If it is a paid application you will have to go through the purchase process, but if not you tap install and the app is downloaded onto your device.

mobile media

This technology has been around for awhile and In fact I even saw this at Best Buy yesterday while walking down the main isle in the store. Best Buy was using the these bar codes for information on DVD’s and CD’s. In the not to distant future you will be using this at Walmart, Cosco, or any other store to scan your own retail items to determine the cost of those items. More than likely you will be purchasing products at your favorite stores and checking out on your smartphone before you know it. Use your imagination and you can quickly see how powerful smartphones will be as their cameras and overall functionality increase. MV

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How To #Fail At Twitter In 4 Easy Steps

by Mike Vallez on August 7, 2010

Update: 08/09/10 - The failure mentioned in this post was from a personal Twitter persona standpoint. This article chronicles how I lost my way Tweeting on my personal Twitter account with friends, associates, and people I meet on a daily basis. From a corporate perspective I see Twitter activity based on scalability and mission. Additionally, the intent of this blog post is to have a follow-up post that chronicles how I successfully regained my positive Twitter persona in 4 Easy Steps, look for this in a day or two. MV

Prior to 02/2009 I never participated in any social networking sites. Then a friend introduced me to WordPress blogging and Twitter. The result was an injection of social networking into my life that I had never experienced before. I became an active Twitter persona Tweeting daily and meeting new people regularly. There was a satisfaction of connecting with people all over the world with like thoughts and sometimes argumentative thoughts. All the same I was having conversations daily with cool people all who I met on Twitter. Then something happened that one would expect would increase a social networkers presence on Twitter.

July of 2009 I was transitioned into a full-time position as “Social Media Strategist.” Initially, I found myself Tweeting as I had prior to assuming this title, but slowly over a period of 6 or 7 months I fell off the Twitter grid. My failure was not due to lack of social networking enjoyment, it was due to scalability. During this time I had created 2 more personal Twitter accounts and 4 corporate Twitter accounts. As most of you know, trying to keep conversations going on 7 different Twitter accounts is impossible, even using TweetDeck, Seesmic, HootSuite, etc.

Here is how I failed in 4 easy steps:

1) Lost my purpose - The purpose of social media/social networking is to build community and community comes first. The minute you take your eye of this purpose in the social realm you may as well close your Twitter account. I took my eye off community in exchange for a larger community. Due to scalability I #Failed at building community and I lost my purpose on Twitter.

2) Too Many Twitter Accounts – The time it takes to cultivate and nurture conversations on a Twitter profile is significant. To continue an authentic conversation requires time and when I became responsible for 7 Twitter accounts I became overwhelmed. Granted 4 were outward facing communication channels, but nonetheless this contributed to my Twitter #Fail.

3) Went On Auto Pilot – Using HootSuite or another Twitter client to schedule Tweets is great, but once I traveled down this path it led me to lessen my non-automated Twitter activity. I let my accounts become robotic and people don’t respond to this type of social networking interaction. Even if your a Twitter celebrity, people are quickly able to discern the difference between an auto tweet and a real tweet. People want authentic conversations and by going automatic I #Failed.

4) Lost Interest – I know what your thinking, you #Failed on Twitter because you just got bored with it? No, I lost interest due to the 3 reasons above. My Twitter conversations dwindled and people lost interest in me plain and simple. I took myself out of the conversations and found myself a little lost trying to get back into the conversation.

People are smart and those on Twitter want to be engaged with other’s or they would not be there. Once you lose purpose, try to manage too many Twitter accounts, go on auto pilot you will loose interest in your Twitter activities. The simple reason is we as people can only focus on so many things and doing the above causes things to go out of focus. I encourage you to avoid the 4 steps I list above and keep your Twitter interest alive and well. MV

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social media and law enforcement

Bill Bratton Delivers At 2010 Wired Business Conference

by Mike Vallez on June 22, 2010

I had the opportunity to attend the WIRED Business Conference, Disruptive by Design, on Monday 06/14/10 as a guest of Altegrity Risk International (ARI) Chairman Bill Bratton. He was one of the featured speakers at this conference. WIRED magazine is one of the most respected technological magazines of all time, and is touted as the first truly on-line international publication. Naturally, they are a good fit to oversee a conference focusing on the disruption of current and trending technologies.

Bill Bratton did a live interview during the conference… live in the fact that it was posted and sent out to all of WIRED’s subscriber and partner networks. As one of the nation’s most renowned law enforcement leaders, due to his success in both NYC and LA where he served as police commissioner and chief of police respectively, Bill Bratton was a natural choice for a conference of this kind. The main reason? A great deal of his success was due to crime busting system he pioneered called CompStat. CompStat is an analytical solution that provides real-time intelligence to law enforcement personnel in the field, and in the patrol car, so they can attack hot spots of criminal activity. As Chief Bratton explained how he used “push-pins” and “transparent charts” in CompStat’s early days a hush fell over the tech savvy crowd. Bratton then detailed how in the early 90’s he began to use a top-of-the-line computer for the day, which he purchased from Radio Shack. It was a Commodore 640. This drew applause from the audience and marked Bill as “one of those pioneers of the good old days.”

The method of attacking little crimes in neighborhoods is one of the CompStat systems key components and a big reason for the success of this law enforcement, crime busting ideals. During the interview with Chief Bratton, WIRED contributing editor Noah Shachtman, who also works at the Brookings Institution, kept prodding Bill with questions about the authenticity of the data surrounding CompStat. Shachtman directly asked the Chief how he could be certain the data was not being manipulated. Bratton, hesitated for just a second then replied that they “killed anyone who manipulated the data.” The auditorium erupted in applause and laughter, an outburst from the audience that had not been seen or heard at the conference.

Bill Bratton did an excellent job of demonstrating how “old school” police work with an analytical and accountable system better known as CompStat has effectively reduced crime. One of the best compliments Chief Bratton received was from WIRED Senior Editor Jason Tanz, who sat next to me during Bratton’s interview. Tanz at one point mentioned to me “this guy is great.”

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What is Privacy? 5 Common Sense Tips While Social Networking….

by Mike Vallez on June 4, 2010

social media five-o

What exactly is considered private when it comes to social media and social networking? Since becoming involved in social media about a year and a half ago I have been a little astonished at what people share about themselves. MySpace has been the social networking website where both men and woman pushed the limits on how much skin is showed in uploaded pic’s. Seems like Facebook has surpassed MySpace with lack of clothing pic’s due to the shear number of users 465,564,340 (via http://www.checkfacebook.com/) and the numerous men and women in their undies, bikinis, or less.

I am not a prude and am not against girl’s in bikinis (not into guys in underwear), but there seems to be a lack of modesty and forethought when it comes to information (pics, videos, crazy status updates) being placed on social networking sites. Once information is placed on the web, you should assume it will live on the web forever, yes forever. People can save any images or text with a simple right click of a mouse and don’t assume because your privacy settings are set on Facebook or other social networking sites that any of your risque information won’t show up on the web (so called friends can share your information).

Another security/privacy issue to be considered while participating in social media/social networking is GPS location services. Foursquare, Twitter, Facebook, and most other social networking sites allow you to provide your GPS location. As a retired police officer I do not think this is the best of ideas for personal security reasons. There are websites like pleaserobme.com that are placing your GPS locations on their website once caught off the web from status updates along with the fact that you are not home encouraging criminal activity or at your residence i.e: burglary because you are most likely not at home.

Below are 5 common sense tips on how to prevent from unwanted privacy intrusions:

1) Don’t share naked pictures of yourself unless you are ready for the consequences – Hmm, what will my parents or kids think?
2) Don’t put anything into a status update you don’t want recirculated on the web – My boss John Doe is a #$%^.
3) Ladies turn off your GPS notifications from all social networking sites so you are not advertising that you are alone at a bar at 2am – There are creepers on the web you know.
4) Don’t always trust a picture of an individual on a social networking site because they are attractive – Things are not always as they appear.
5) Don’t list your cell phone number on Twitter, Facebook, or any other social networking website if you don’t want your privacy invaded – Ladies really, weirdos will call you.

As social media continues to change our culture our definition of privacy seems to also be changing. What was private 5 years ago is now a profile picture on Facebook or a status update on Twitter that potentially millions of people can see. I am not throwing rocks from my glass house as I have violated my own common sense rules a time or two, but consider your privacy current or future when participating in social media and social networking sites. Mike Vallez

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US Gov’t Pro Social Media, Law Enforcement Asleep At The Wheel!

by Mike Vallez on March 29, 2010

The US Department of State has jumped into Facebook amid a growing number of federal agencies that are doing the same. Other federal agencies involved in social media are the National Security Agency, US Army, US Navy, US Coast Guard, The White House, and many others. The federal government is clearly becoming a leader in communicating their message through “social networking” sites. But is the federal government setting the standard on how to be involved in “social media?” How about from a national security perspective? There are not a lot of private national security companies for obvious reasons. However, law enforcement is in the business of national security particularly post 09/11. So why is law enforcement so slow to respond to the obvious?

The obvious is that social networking sites offer law enforcement a new way to communicate to their consumers, constituents, and others. The “others” category is a group of people who transcend the the geographical area of a law enforcement agency and consist of web users, the world wide web. Typically law enforcement only communicated to their local citizens by television, news paper, or radio, which was geographically limiting. The web allows for a much broader audience even an international audience. Additionally, it must be assumed that a certain percentage of a law enforcement agencies local constituents are also involved in social networking sites. But, why would a law enforcement agency care to broadcast information to anyone other than their local citizens?

Because prior to the “blow up” of social networking sites in the last few years the web was primarily a reference tool to gather information and was not used as much for “social” online communication. The change in culture that has occurred is epic and is not a fade. People are consuming news from Facebook, Twitter, Digg, and other websites that were not typical news outlets, but are now. We all can agree that how people are accessing information has changed. A quick stat that supports this, “more than 5 billion pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photo albums, etc.) shared each week” on Facebook (Facebook Statistics). It is no wonder the federal government is getting on board with social media. By setting up communication channels on social networking sites they are to reaching out to a growing number of people who are gathering information from places like Facebook and Twitter and not from newspapers or television.

Hopefully law enforcement will see the value in getting their message out through social networking sites. Be it a press release, wanted person information, missing person information, crime prevention information and so on. The US government has invested in communication through social networking sites, specifically from a national security perspective maybe law enforcement will take this cue and get involved as well. Just to be fair, not each and every law enforcement agency is oblivious to using social networking sites. There are some using social networking sites to further their communication, however, in general law enforcement has not overwhelmingly jumped into the conversation just yet. Mike Vallez

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Department of Defense social media policy change on social media Five-O

DoD Takes On Social Media | Gets All Branches Under One Policy

by Mike Vallez on March 5, 2010

The Department of Defense has implemented an encompassing “Responsible and Effective Use
of Internet-based Capabilities Policy” last week to get everyone under their large umbrella on the same “social networking” use page (http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Web-Services-Web-20-and-SOA/Pentagon-Loosens-Reins-Over-Use-of-Facebook-Twitter-Web-20-Apps-448094/). As one could imagine the DoD was going to have to do something sooner than later to get the different organizations under their jurisdiction under the same policy.

The trouble began last year when the US Army banned the use of several “social networking” sites for their organization. The US Marines followed up with a much harsher version as I wrote about in August of last year “Marines Ban Social Media, But Can They.” The Marines banned the use of all “social networking” sites from all US Marine network computers.

The DoD is the protector of the United States of America and the job involves at most times a high level of secrecy and security around operations, procedures, and intelligence. Naturally, the banning of “social media” by the various organizations in the DoD was as a precautionary measure to protect national security, i.e. the United States. But, apparently after some study and consideration the DoD feels comfortable enough to allow use of “social networking” sites by their massive employee base.

Could the DoD successfully, have banned social media? Perhaps, but policing this would be a very difficult process, one that might take up an inordinate amount of time and take away from the more important mission of protecting the this country. The policy allows for use of “social networking” sites, wiki’s, etc, but there is some wording that allows the DoD to put the “kabash” on” social networking” if necessary. The cause for revoking “social networking” access is mostly common sense based on abuse or “bandwidth” issues.

I applaud the DoD for stepping up and taking the “social media” bull by the horns. An organization this large, especially one that deals in national security may have just set the standard for “social networking” use for the rest of the government and private sector. It ought to be interesting to see how other agencies, corporations, and other government entities deal with the same issue, people using “social networking sites” at work. MFV

http://michaelvallez.com

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Post image for pleaserobme.com | Post Status Updates to Twitter at Your Own Risk #safety #crime

pleaserobme.com | Post Status Updates to Twitter at Your Own Risk #safety #crime

by Mike Vallez on February 26, 2010

Neither Mashable nor pleaserobme.com are fresh on the scene with the common sense notion that criminals are just now getting active in social networking. Criminals have been using social networking sites as a form of communication in their criminal enterprises as well as a place to cultivate job leads (crime leads for those who did not understand that statement).

We are all adults here and common sense should, should tell you that there are a lot of “creepy” people on the world wide web (even if you can’t see them). Have you ever bothered to turn on the “who’s near me” or “location” function on any social networking app for your iPhone or on the computer? You will be surprised how many people pop up near you when you are online. I have done this in Tampa and thousands of people were near me and online at the same time. I guess because all of these people are on Twitter and Facebook that they are like me (law abiding citizens) and okay, WRONG!

So what, who cares who is near me! Okay, lets do some deductive reasoning. How many burglars work 9 to 5 jobs? answer 0 (valid). How many sex predators have been cured? answer 0 (valid). How many of the people viewing my location preferences could be criminals or seeking to be involved in criminal activity? answer everyone who can view your location or status update (valid). Don’t be lulled into thinking that because you cannot see a criminal that they don’t exist. You can say to yourself that “that will never happen to me,” but ladies don’t put a status update at 2:00am while at a bar and think you are safe. Being a former policeman I can tell you a rapist is looking for a “crime of opportunity” and hanging out in an entertainment district for intoxicated females is a no brainer, let alone “here I am over here” status updates.

The real bother about the pleaserobme.com website is the so called “public service” value this website is lending to the web community. They tout that what they are really doing is a public service, but from a law enforcement perspective their website offers “zero public service” usefulness. Yes, the user updates are on available on Twitter, but to RSS feed catch them into a website and head the feed category “new opportunities” and “recent empty houses” is pretty disgusting. Mashable bought into this websites intent and lauded them, or at least appeared neutral to the websites purpose. Their purpose “The goal of this website is to raise some awareness on this issue and have people think about how they use services like Foursquare, Brightkite, Google Buzz etc. Because all this site is, is a dressed up Twitter search page. Everybody can get this information.” If everybody can get it, then why provide it to the criminal and make their criminal activities easier to research? Why name your website pleaserobme.com, which shows as #2 for “Rob Me” search parameters in Google? I can’t seem to connect the dots on this one.

Eventually a crime is going to occur and the criminal will confess that he used pleaserobme.com to commit a burglary, worse a rape, and worse yet a child’s murder. I guess pleaserobme.com will use a public relations campaign as follows: “this information already exists on the web and we in no way encourage criminal activities by posting peoples status updates on the web. The fact that a criminal used our website to cultivate a victim for a heinous crime is unfortunate.” (lawsuit) As new media unfolds opportunities to exploit others information go unchecked because there is no law designed to deal with these new issues. Personally, I feel the owners of pleaserobme.com are just trying to make a buck and they really don’t care if anyone gets hurt in the process. CM

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ToysRUs Great Customer Service | Social Media Squander

by Mike Vallez on January 29, 2010

During the Christmas shopping season my wife and I had a tremendous customer service experience at ToysRUs in Wesley Chapel, Florida. No offense ToysRUs staff reading this, but we ended up at this stores electronics department after coming up short at Best Buy. We had intended on going to ToysRUs to grab some board games, but never really thought of purchasing any electronics at this store.

After grabbing the board games we needed we headed over to the checkout line, until my wife mentioned something about checking out there electronics. I almost brushed this off, but anytime I can check out electronics anywhere I am game. The breadth of electronics selection obviously is not up to par with Best Buy or hhgregg. But the electronics they do sell are reasonably priced. They had a small selection of digital cameras, a nicer selection of iPod compatible radios (better than Best Buy), and a respectable selection of iPod’s. As we wandered around the counters we almost left, but Trevor a customer service fellow asked if we needed help. That little outward offer by this guy to a couple that had no intention on spending any cash on electronics at ToysRUs was the beginning of a great shopping experience.

Trevor was very knowledgeable of the cameras and he helped us get a 12.1 mega pixel camera for our daughter at a magnificent price, less than $100.00. We were unable to match this at Best Buy (sorry, not trying to pick on Best Buy, just saying). Trevor continued to ask if we needed anything else and we were in the market for an iPod Touch. Really, I had no hope of purchasing an iPod Touch at ToysRUs due to the Apple price controls. But, low and behold ToysRUs offered us a discount, not on the iPod Touch, but off the total price of our purchase and the discount was a ToysRUs gift card. That cemented the deal. Another customer service woman (forgot her name, sorry) helped us find a wonderful iPod Touch radio that also was on sale and she was personally knowledgeable of. My wife and I walked out of ToysRUs spending almost $400 with an iPod Touch, a nice digital camera, and an iPod Touch alarm clock radio, with a $25 gift card as well.

My first thought as a social media nut is to tell the world. As you can see I am a little late at that, but non the less I am telling the story. I did however, reach out to ToysRUs through corporate through an email, but got no response. I then scoured their website for any signs of social media (Facebook, Twitter, you know), but found nothing. A check of Alexa.com for ToysRUs shows their website to be the 310th most popular website in the United States, yet no signs of social media efforts. But hold on, ToysRUs does have a robust Facebook Fan Page with almost half a million fans. Weird that the ToysRUs company website does not have the Facebook icon or any mention of Facebook on their website or in any of the commercials I have seen for this toy store giant.

ToysRUs appears to be a company that gets it! When I mean gets it, they have customer service representatives that go out of their way to help customers, which in this day and age is hard to find. But, the squandered opportunity comes from not advertising their social media involvement, i.e. their Facebook Fan Page. Maybe they would have 1.5 million fans instead and increased revenue. A check of Alexa.com a website rating company showed the ToysRUs website to be the 310th most popular website in the United States, which means this is an extremely busy website, again no signs of social media. By not advertising their social media involvement they are probably missing out on thousands if not hundreds of thousands of customer loyalty followers.

My suggestion for ToysRUs is to clearly identify they are on Facebook and consider providing customer service on Twitter. They have a large customer base in stay at home mothers, work mothers, and stay at home fathers who probably spend hours a day on the web. By meeting their customers on Facebook and Twitter they have a huge opportunity to increase their brand and customer loyalty. I am a fan of ToysRUs and will continue to look for electronics at this store before heading to Best Buy, at least at times. CM

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