Ever since Steve Chen, Chad Hurley and Jawed Karim created Youtube in 2005, it has been growing into the most powerful online video sharing site, enabling millions of people to share their stories with the world. The founders, who all met while working at Paypal, created Youtube because they wanted to share videos from a dinner party with friends and their email programs couldn’t handle the large size video files.

As with other successful tech stories, like Facebook, Google and Microsoft, the creation of the site came to life from a basic need as consumer and from when the site was launched, it was quickly turned into a big hit by simple word-of-mouth.

The first video featured on Youtube was uploaded by Jawed – a small clip showing him at the Zoo

I found this infographic compiled by Website Monitoring. It shows all the facts and information about Youtube into the five year old timeline:

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On Friday, I am going to visit the SF New Tech – the Big Endless Summer Social event in Los Altos Hills, located in the San Francisco.

About SF New Tech

SF New Tech is the largest and longest running monthly technology event in San Francisco. Since forming in March 2006 more than 5,000 people have signed up to attend monthly standing room only events.

More than 2000 companies have attended  over the years, and more than 200 of them have been to the SF New Tech stage to demo their latest and greatest.

OliveWoo – location based date service

One of the demos that will be held  at tomorrow’s event is for the latest within location based services.

It’s the first location based application for couples that analyzes your interests and mood to find the perfect date idea for you and your significant other.

Basically OliveWoo is a place where you can create, discover, and share exciting date ideas.

On the latest SXSW conference location based services were called out to be the next big thing, and with the most successful location based application ‘Foursquare’ just turning their 100 millions check in, there is a good chance of success for an application combining the location based feature and something that have been driving humans since Adam and Eva: dating.

For a lot of restaurants and other service industries there are interesting business opportunities in OliveWoo when the service gets a large enough critical mass. Being recommended as a great dating venue can mean business.

I have made myself a profile and will pay good attention at the presentation, and do a follow up giving some more specifics to this new service.

What do you think – can you use an location based date service to enhance your dating life?

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Yesterday, the location-based network Foursquare hit the 100 million checkin threshold.

The news of the great milestone was tweeted by Foursquare’s head of business development, Tristan Walker.

The NYC-based startup is only about 1 1/2 year old and has been experiencing immense growth, especially since it was announced as the new dominating technology earlier this year on SXSW conference.

During the last year, Foursquare has experienced almost 1 million checkins taking place each day – so maybe location-based services is about to make it into the mainstream? One of the explanations of Foursquare’s growth may also be due to their partnerships with major brands like Bravo, Zagat and The New York Times, which undoubtedly has helped drive traffic and new users to the site.

I guess, location-based networks will continue to grow alongside the dissemination of smartphones. It doesn’t really make sense to be on board unless you have a smartphone to use it on. But if you have one, and are not already on Foursquare, then check it out.

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As written on my blog, the movie about how Facebook got started in a Harvard dorm room is now scheduled to hit the theaters around the world in October this year.

After reading a bit about the film, especially that it where primary based on the book “The Accidental Billionaires” by Ben Mezrich, I thought it would be a good idea to read the book and so I did.

So what to expect?
The book is actually really good and it’s no surprise that it has ended up on the US national bestseller lists. It’s written as a faced paced style almost like a fiction, I actually had a hard time putting it down. Even though it’s written completely without interviews with Mark Zuckerberg and based on a bunch of other interviews and sources, it seems very objective to all sides of the story.

It starts months before anything called thefacebook.com (the original name of the Facebook site), describing how two of the original founders Mark Zuckerberg and the way less known Eduardo Saverin meet at Harvard and how they by a current of somewhat accidental events ended up creating the most powerful social network and probably one of the most powerful sites and companies in the world right now.

It all happened in less than 12 months, so the intensity in the story speaks for itself. It describes how the business is being done in Silicon Valley and how building a company like Facebook demands fierce fighting, no doubts, full focus and what the costs are in lost friendships and created enemies.

So what can I as a marketer or CEO get from reading the book?
No doubt Facebook is one of the most important platforms for all companies to decide upon using or not. The book will give you an understanding of the personal thinking behind Facebook, some insights in how the all dominating CEO, Mark Zuckerberg is thinking.

At client meetings I often gets asked questions like – what’s the future for Facebook? Why do they change this and that? Is it reliable? What’s their business strategy? Reading the book absolutely gave me more valid insights to determine my thoughts upon – and so it will for you too if you read the book.

And for the movie – I will of course see it, but no doubt a lot of valuable business insights will be lost in a big motion picture, so if you really want the understanding of Facebook – read the book.

Here’s the trailer for the movie:

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www.howcast.com is a great site to figure out how to do things. I came across this video which gives you a very easy 7-step-by-step on how to use Twitter if you have absolutely no clue about what it is. Twitter can be a valuable social media tool for your business to share information, gather intelligence and build relationships with potential customers, collaborators or the like.

Here’s the 7 steps as explained in the video:

1. Create an account
The first step it describes is to simply create an account. My addition to the first step is: people leave companies, so remember to link the account to a generic email address, and create an account that is not tied to an individual.

2. Personalize: show who you are
Yes, put a face to your profile so people can see who you are. Under settings you can upload a picture, and add names of people who will be tweeting on that account from your company. Space is limited to a one line in the bio section, so use this opportunity to sell your company in a one liner: something radically awesome and concise that will sum up the essence of what your company does, don’t just blab. Look into your company’s vision and mission, and plot that in to allow people within a few seconds to decide whether or not your profile is relevant or not. Make it easy for your customers to make their decision. If you are in need of space, you can also add additional information in the background image under the design tab in ‘settings’.

3. Build relationships: give a feeling
Yes, do what you came here for: to network. Update your profile frequently when you have something relevant to say. Something relevant could be breaking business news, posting links to sites or articles your followers might be interested in, repost other tweets you like, and don’t feel afraid to write a personal tweet saying ‘our team just did a great job wrapping up project xyz, and are now preparing for our final presentation!’ (remember you only have 140 in total). Give a feeling to your followers of what it’s like to be and work at your company, and don’t underestimate how much branding you can get through personalizing your tweets and having an opinion about a tweet, article or link. Show people what you are all about!

4. Listen: get valuable input from your tribe
This should go without saying, but business is very much about listening to customer demands and needs so you as a business are able to meet their expectations and blow their minds with awesome solutions. So when people complain, then stop and listen. Tweet about the complain ONCE it’s resolved to show your customer friendly, solution-based approach to dealing with obstacles. To find out what is being said, type the name of your company, brand or products in the search box.

5. Connect with customers: give replies
Like in number 4, listen to what your customers are saying, and take time to address their concerns. Every interaction with a customer, positive or negative, is an opportunity for you to spread the word about your company, your work ethics and brand yourself. Remember to say thank you, and respond to questions.

6. Give value
Use Twitter to figure out what your customers want – and how to give it to them. Re-read number 4 and 5!

7. Pay attention
Remember to pay attention to what works, and what doesn’t work for your company. It’s all about paying attention and being passionate about your product enough to care and listen when people are upset. So remember to evaluate, interact and engage with your customers in a genuine way.

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The social media landscape may seem complex and intangible so I have been searching the web for some useful infographics to show what is going on with social media – let’s just say that I have been inspired by other great social media blogs.

I quickly stumbled upon a lot of really impressive infographics, but I have chosen these five infographics to illustrate the diffusion of social media on a global scale as well as how social media facilitate the spreading of messages.

– Click the images to see large version -

1. THE WORLD MAP OF SOCIAL NETWORKS
- what networks are popular in which countries?

By Vincos Blog

2. THE SOCIAL MEDIA EFFECT
- see how content travels by networks and people and ends up ranking in Google.

By Infographicworld

3. THE JOURNEY OF A TWEET
- see how a tweet spread across the social web.

By Next Generation Online

4. WHO PARTICIPATES ONLINE
- get an overview of what activities people are doing online, divided according to age groups.

By Bloomberg Businessweek

5. GLOBAL MAP OF SOCIAL WEB INVOLVEMENT
- see a map of what activities people are doing online, in 16 different countries.

By Global Web Index

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I’ve been attending Roskilde Festival. Four days of festival and more than 70,000 festival guests leaves the opportunity to do something social – also when it comes to digital media.

When on a festival you actually don’t have much time to be online, but with a smartphone and a few clever apps, digital media can actually help improve the festival experience. For instance I constantly used the Unoffical Festival Guide to keep track of concerts and the schedule instead of carrying around a paper schedule in my pocket. I already had my phone with me, so why not just use a digital version.

One of the most i interesting networks to pay attention to is the location-based service Foursquare, which I think Roskilde Festival made clever use of even though they didn’t have any official badges or business deals. The festival had its own Foursquare profile and had added tips for the different stages. So when I checked in somewhere, a message with some facts of the place I had checked in at popped up on my screen.

Also, right before the closing concert with a packed Orange Stage waiting for Prince, the Roskilde Festival itself checked in at Orange Stage with the message: Thank you for this year’s festival – see you in 2011. It was an easy and effective way for the festival to reach out to its audience and deliver a personal message.

So besides the general advantages of using Foursquare, which allowed me to see what concerts that were more popular in real time, the festival’s use of Foursquare was what surprised me the most.

» Follow Anne on Twitter

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We have stumbled across this useful resource made by the Candadian marketing company Eloqua. The 42 pages long Social Media Playbook contains information and best practices on blogs, Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, YouTube, Wikipedia, Delicious, Flickr, Google Buzz and Geosocial Networks.

The report is to give you information on how to engage and interact more effectively online with the purpose of leveraging best social media practices. The Social Media Playbook has been compiled on experiences and insights from Eloqua’s own team and network using social media.

The report is built on a premise I agree with: that social media is about people and that people in its essence are social beings.

Besides going through the different network the report also presents the dos and don’ts of social media and tips on how to use social media to cultivate leads.

Check out the Slideshare presentation below or download the Social Media Playbook yourself on their website.

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I am a strong believer of social media and the fact that technology can make our social lives more convenient. A huge event like Roskilde Festival that takes place in Denmark 1-4 July is a good example of that.

The festival uses social media with their blog, community, Facebook page and Twitter profile etc., which create better service for you as a guest and makes it possible to find information more efficiently. It also automatically documents some of the many thousands of small experiences taking place during the festival and thereby creates extra value to the festival experience. It can even give those not participating a sense of how it feels to be there. Thereby, social and digital media create more value for everyone, from festival organizer to audience.

But the social media usage arranged by the Roskilde Festival itself is only the tip of the iceberg. Since the event is involving more than 100.000 guests, volunteers and artists, different Facebook and iPhone apps and mashups see its daylight to make things easier in some way or another. For instance you can have Last.fm calculate what festival programme matches your music taste the most based on the music you have been listening to.

A social network that will definitely be used a lot during Roskilde Festival is Foursquare. People will be checking in at different locations, meeting points, camps, stages and so on to let their network know where they are. You can also take part in the competition for becoming The Foursquare Camp of the Year on Facebook. Post the link to your Foursquare camp on Facebook and get people to visit you and check in at the camp. The camp with the most unique check-ins will be the winner.’ Or if you feel like meeting your online friends IRL, you can go for Roskilde TweetUp or for a Foursquare Brunch.

I remember going to Roskilde Festival when people didn’t even have a mobile phone. If you got away from your friends or lost in the crowds, there wasn’t really anything to do about it. In that sense, social media and digital media in general are for sure optimizing the festival experience and also prompting social meetings. With Foursquare I can see where people are and on Twitter I can follow my stream and see where the interesting stuff is happening – everything in real-time.

Let me know if you know other social media initiatives on the festival.

» Follow Anne on twitter

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More and more cultural and governmental institutions embraces social media, and now the time has come for one of the most famous art institutions: The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York.

They have teamed up with YouTube to celebrate digital media and all the great videos that can be found online. Together they have created the project called YouTube Play. I guess they recognize the great value there is in being open and reach out to the public as well as the great creative potential there is to be found on YouTube.

By using a media like YouTube, The Guggenheim Museum is able to reach out to every corners of the world and to let everyone have a chance of making it to the established art world.

It only requires that you put your video on YouTube and submit it to http://youtube.com/play. A jury of experts will then select 20-25 videos that will be shown at the Guggenheim this fall and on the YouTube channel. See this appetizer and learn more:

» Follow Anne on Twitter

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