Understanding Social Media Playlist

Delivering a presentation Saturday to a classroom of professionals studying for a University of San Diego certificate in Nonprofit Management for Visual and Performing Arts Organizations.

Whenever conducting workshops, I like to cite my resources, especially the ones widely available via social media. I compiled this playlist of some of my favorite YouTube-based videos that help explain social media concepts and platforms.

You could watch it all right here (navigate between videos using those arrows on the sides) or click through to see the whole list at once on the YouTube site.

Here's what's in it:

1. Social Media In Plain English by Commmon Craft (3 min. 44 sec.) Excellent conceptual overview
2. Twitter in Plain English by Common Craft (2 min. 25 sec.)
3. Blogs in Plain English by Common Craft (2 min. 58 sec.)
4. RSS in Plain English by Common Craft (3 min. 44 sec.) Explains why/how to use Google Reader to consolidate regularly-updated resources you follow online.
5. Social Bookmarking in Plain English by Common Craft (3 min. 25 sec.) I believe this is one of the more powerful social media tools... the video focuses heavily on del.ic.ious and explains "tagging", which del.ic.ious invented.
6. Social Networking in Plain English by Common Craft (1 min. 48 sec.) Social NETWORKING is distinct from Social MEDIA (the first video), as it refers to web sites, such as MySpace, Facebook, and LinkedIn, that are specifically intended to connect individuals.
7. Hey Oprah! An open letter from the YouTube community (3 min. 15 sec.) When discussing the conversational nature of social media, I often cite Oprah's education when she first started her YouTube channel (the YouTube community expected her to play by their rules, NOT the ones she was used to in broadcasting). This is one of their invitation/protest video responses to her.
8. Larry Lessig: How creativity is being strangled by the law (19 min. 7 sec.) In discussing the fact that information "wants to be free", I often cite mashups as one benefit of this. Collectively, we can turn individual creative efforts into something more--and often more useful to all of us. This delightful presentation by Stanford professor Larry Lessig goes into depth on this concept. (Definitely worth your time.)
9. The Machine is Us/ing Us (4 min. 33 sec.) Thought-expanding conceptual video produced by a professor teaching classes in digital ethnography at Kansas State University. This was a major YouTube hit in 2007. (You'll understand why.)
10. Clay Shirky - Where do people find the time? (Part 1: 7 min. 18 sec.; Part 2: 9 min. 29 sec.) Author of the blog (and book) "Here Comes Everybody", Shirky is one of my favorite thinkers about social media and its effects on our lives, organizations, and culture. He focuses less on the technology and more on what we do as people who use it. It's a much better way to grasp what's going on.
11. Introduction to Google Analytics Webinar (47 min. 5 sec.) For those who really want to geek out... this is a full class in understanding how to use Google Analytics and how you can employ it to understand building online traffic for your organization.