I recently posted my opinions on Socialcam and why you should not view it, and received quite a bit of traffic.  Even with the title of the article and the content talking about why not to view, I still received quite a bit of inquiries about how to search socialcam.  It seems that people are leery of having socialcam posting to their wall, but are still interested in seeing the videos that are popping up on their news feed.  The answer is very simple or very complicated depending on your knowledge of what exactly socialcam is doing, so let’s examine what they are doing so we can get an easy answer to the question.

Socialcam – A User Generated Content Sharing App?

As you may or may not know, Socialcam is one of the many individuals vying for the coveted spot of being the video version of Instagram.  In other words, a easy and convenient way to socially share your videos to Facebook, Twitter, Etc… by using the app on your phone.  The idea being that you would record a video with your phone, then use the Socialcam app  to share it with all of your friends.  Sounds simple right?  But here is where the sneaky part comes in.  If you have been on Facebook over the past couple of weeks, you have probably noticed those posts on your news feed where one of your friends just viewed a video on Socialcam.  Here is an example that I pulled from my news feed today;

Video Recorded with Socialcam??

Notice that part below the video title?  Where is says this video was recorded with Socialcam on April 27, 2012.  Remember that sentence.  Let’s say I wanted to watch this video, but I don’t want Socialcam to start spamming my wall with the videos.  I want to “search” socialcam to find this video.  I couldn’t find anyway to search socialcam, so I went ahead and searched google videos.  Low and behold, what did I find:

The Answer is YouTube

So, the simple answer to all of those looking on how to search Socialcam is to search YouTube, since this is where the videos are originating from.  I’m sure this is where you remember the sentence from earlier in this post and start asking, “Isn’t Socialcam and app that allows you to share your videos with your friends on Facebook and Twitter, like Instagram?”  Yes it is.  Then you might ask, “How come the videos are from YouTube, and from several years ago,  and not ones someone filmed on their phone and then shared on the date is say it was recorded by Socialcam?”  Because for Socialcam to get noticed they need content.  Sort of a chicken and the egg scenario.  The devious part is what they are saying in that sentence that we remember from earlier, Video recorded with Socialcam on April 27, 2012.

Did a little Digging

To get a better understanding of what is happening and why, I did a little digging online and found a couple of articles that do a good job of showing what is happening here.  A really good article is from Drew Olanoff of The Next Web, titled Socialcam is Pumping Popular Youtube videos into its app to drive usage.  To sum up, Socialcam needs content to drive people to view the app from Facebook and Twitter, that is why they are using old YouTube videos and spamming users walls showing what videos they have used.  To view these videos, people must click on the app and give it permission to post to their wall, thereby creating more interest for more to view the videos and post to their respective wall.  This helps to give the appearance of the app attaining a viral status by its content.  While this is occurring, Socialcam recently used a marketing service FreeAppADay to help drive its downloads in Apple’s App store.  Typically, this is done by paid apps that offer a free trial or promotion so to entice you to pay for the app at a later date.  Socialcam is free, so why pay to promote a free app?

In My Humble Opinion

With the paid promotion on the Apple App store and the “spammy” nature of posting video views to unsuspecting viewers Facebook walls, Socialcam is attaining viral status.  But why are they doing this.  Recall during the first part of this post.  Socialcam is one of many vying for the coveted spot of being the video version of Instagram.   In my humble opinion, they are trying to be in this spot because of the huge payday that could be waiting for them there.  Remember, Facebook paid boo-koo dollars for Instagram and I think Socialcam is hoping for a similar win-fall.

How to Search Socialcam? YouTube

In any event, all of this goes more to my previous post of why you should not view Socialcam.  One, because they are trying to “artificially” boost their usage numbers.  Two, and the simple answer to the question posed at the beginning of this article, just search YouTube if you are looking for How to Search Socialcam.

The default WordPress installation only alerts one news aggregator but by doing the following steps, your site can expand it reach to a much wider audience on the Internet when you add a new post or page.

Now, every time you enter a new blog post on your website, you will notifying some of the top notch Internet aggregators about your new content!

Let us know if you have any comments or questions, or now of any other tips to help in getting more SEO out of your WordPress website.

So many new startups are vying for the prize of becoming the video equivalent of Instagram by hoping Facebook will bless them with another billion dollars to buy them (evern though there already is an Instagram for video).  Socialcam is one of these startups and evedently just received a leg up by obtaining some angel funding as it battles with other startups to be the next recipient of Facebook’s “benevolence.”

Socialcam’s Facebook App

There is one thing that may be limiting the prospects to be incorporated as part of the Facebook fold, and it is the exact reason why I will not be using Socialcam.  Especially not the Facebook version of the Socialcam app.  In order to see those videos that you see your friends viewing via Socialcam, you have to agree to install the app.  Pretty commonplace among Facebook apps, the difference being with this one is in the fine details.

When you agree to install the Socialcam app, you will see the following notice;

“This app may post on your behalf, including videos you watched, videos you shared and more.”

“And more”

Did you catch the end of that agree?  Not only will Socialcam tell all of your friends what videos you are looking at, (I am as big of fan of funny accidental shots to the groin as the next guy, but I don’t want them posted to my wall without my knowledge or consent) but what could the and more mean.  Not having control over what videos that I look at on Socialcam being posted to my wall is bad enough, but not knowing what else Socialcam feels they will post on my wall is way overboard!.

Curiosity Killed the Cat

Over the past few weeks I have seen an ever increasing amount of Socialcam updates to my friends on Facebook.  And many of these updates, I’m fairly confident they would not want others to know they were viewing these videos.  Many of these friends have teaching jobs, police officers, company VPs and CEOs.  I would hate to hear that any of their employment was affected by innocently clicking a link to view a video they were curios to find out about and not knowing what was in the video and it turns out to be something they would never had looked at if they knew the contents.

Socialcam is not Alone

Yes, Socialcam isn’t alone in this kind of coercion.  Hundreds of well known apps do the same thing (I don’t use those either) and yes, you can tweak your app settings in Facebook so views will only be on the Timeline by “close friends” or “only by me.”  But how long before those privacy settings change and/or Socialcam decides to “and more” my wall.  In any event, if you simply want to have the luxury of viewing a video without having the world know about it, you can constantly check your app settings in Facebook or take the easier route and NOT view Socialcam in the first place.  I’m sure you life wont be lacking by not viewing that cute cat video on Socialcam.  If its “cute” enough, it will be available on many other websites where you can watch it and not tell everyone you are.

DreamCatcher Horse Ranch and Rescue Center had not updated their website in quite some time and wanted a more modern look.  Empirical Integrated developed a more user friendly, open sourced  Web Design for them, and implemented some SEO Strategies as well.

For more information about how Empirical Integrated Marketing can help your business succeed online, please feel free to contact us.

Computer Business Consultants contracted Empirical Integrated Marketing to provide a new Web Design, implement a successful SEO Strategy, increase Social Media Marketing integration, implement and manage Affiliate Marketing services, content creation and provide Email Marketing Campaign services as well.

For more information about how Empirical Integrated Marketing can help your business, contact us.

They have contracted with Empirical Integrated Marketing to implement a completely new Web Design, an SEO program, improved content creation program, and an integrated marketing Social Media Marketing campaign for better attraction of possible future clients.

Since working with Empirical Integrated Marketing, Lake Advisory Group has seen a significant increase in the amount of leads and clients they provide financial planning and retirment management service to.

For more information about how Empirical Integrated Marketing can help you business, please feel free to contact us.

EB5 Select has a very targeted market which is individuals who are seeking a US Visa and have the capability to invest in US Businesses that will create over 10 US jobs through said financial investment.

This type of targeted market an be well served by an effective Social Media Marketing Campaign that provides EB5 Select with the capability to been seen as a leader in the EB5 marketplace, and allow for the capability to engage with possible customers who would undoubtedly have questions regarding the program.

For more information about how Empirical Integrated Marketing can help your business with its Social Media Marketing Strategy, please contact us.

Additionally, Hunt Industrial Park wanted to implement a new Web Design, a localized SEO program, and an Integrated Social Media Marketing program to increase their visibility to possible customers and to help promote their existing tenants.

Most importantly, in four months since contracting with Empirical Integrated Marketing, Hunt Industrial has added 6 new additional tenants to their Industrial Park.

For more information about how Empirical Integrated Marketing can help your business succeed online, please feel free to contact us.

North Orlando Spine contracted with Empirical Integrated Marketing to do a new Web Design from their previous website, that was more modern and allowed them to have the capability to add additional content and make changes to existing content.  We provided them with an open source website that was more aesthetically pleasing and SEO friendly that allowed them to Integrate with their existing Social Media Strategies.  It also provided them with the capability to add and change content as their business continues to grow.  You can visit their website at www.NorthOrlandoSpine.com

Even without the aid of an active SEO Strategy, and just based on proper Web Design, NorthOrlandoSpine.com now ranks on the first page of Google Search Results for 7 different keywords related to their business.

I recently wrote a post about “is social media right for your business?” and it took me almost a thousand words to do so and in my opinion, barely scratched the surface.  As the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words.  In this day and age, an well crafted infograph probably covers more than a thousand.

A recent infographic from MDG Advertising that looks at the pros and cons of social media and search marketing, really does a good job of showing the benefits of Social Media vs Search for business.  In the end, it provides good reasoning for not only the benefits of an integrated marketing strategy, but also helps to generate a picture of what good integrated marketing can do.