Just added my first ever post to YouTube. Got to keep your head down in a web design and internet marketing agency with a confession like that, buy hey, I’ve always had people around me to do this kind of thing, I’m not a video person, if you ask me to remember pop songs from 20 years ago I normally can easily, but remember the video, it ain’t going to happen blah blah…

Point is, I did it. And like much “social media”, turns out getting stuck in is the best way to learn. Explaining Twitter, Facebook etc to non-believers is kind of hard, but once they fall, they fall like dominoes.  Like analysing comedy instead of just repeating good jokes, explaining social media is a little beside the point – social media is by definition something you do. It just isn’t social otherwise and often doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.

So, I wanted to show a friend a video clip from a TV show. Now as YouTube point out, you, erm, can’t do this. It’s copyrighted material. Try telling that to the 15-24 year old population of the world with broadband internet, I thought! So ignoring that one, I downloaded a bit of editing software from the web (Googled it and went for the #1 option – which wants me to pay for it after 21 days, so looks like I’ll be finding another choice soon), chopped out my chunk of video (bit fiddly, but only took 10 mins) and joined up.

A couple of clicks and a 5-minute wait later, and my clip (of some good old God-fearing Northern English humour from a favourite TV show) was proudly on YouTube for all to see. I emailed a link to my friend (email? Well, I am still a bit of a heathen) and presto! Done.

I now feel closer to my friend and to the TV show I promoted. Gotta love social media. Next stop, work out how to use the video feature on my phone and do some original stuff. I am now officially no longer a YouTube virgin.

(By the way, top marks if you´re clever enough to find out what I posted, it’s not exactly appropriate for here…)

Phil Morse