Today we released a new video called "Twitter Search in Plain English"

The video uses an metaphor of the small town of "Twitterville." The town has an election and the people use Twitter to track real-time news, a hashtag to organize discussions and trends to find new information.

While it wasn't our intention, the video matches closely with the events currently taking place in Iran, where people are using Twitter to organize and share news about their disputed election.

If you know people who get Twitter, but don't understand things like hashtags and trending topics, this video will help.

Watch Twitter Search in Plain English.

For the first time in Common Craft's evolution, one of our videos "Twitter in Plain English" is being used in the mainstream media. For the most part, we're excited to have our work in front of millions. However, it brings up some questions and we're curious what you think.  A few facts:

• The video "Twitter in Plain English" is 100% Common Craft's property and is licensed with a Creative Commons non-commercial, no-derivatives license.
• Our names and a link to our web site appear at the end of the video
• The video is currently displayed from a link on the front page of Twitter.com
• Of the 5-6 media companies to use the video so far (examples below), only ABC contacted us first.
• Of the 5-6 media companies to use the video so far, only ABC has attributed Common Craft as the source.
• Snippets of the video are being used and sometimes the camera points at the video displayed at Twitter.com

So, media companies are using parts of our video/audio without permission or a licensing agreement. There is a big reason why this may be OK:

• Fair Use - Essentially, a small bit of copyrighted work may be used to educate the public. However, some instances seem to go beyond Fair Use. 

Other reasons may include:

• Mistaken Ownership - Some may assume the video is owned by Twitter, Inc.
• Ignorance - Assuming that the video is in the public public domain.

Now, I'm not writing to make a big hairy deal about the use of the video.  The truth is, we're not sure what's appropriate or what to expect. In a perfect world, when a company would like to use our video, or a portion thereof, we would expect:

• Attribution/Credit - We think it's fair to let the public know the source of the video
• A Licensing Agreement that outlines the relationship.  We're not looking for money in most cases - just clarity in regards to intellectual property.

While we're assuming that most examples fall under Fair Use, we can't help but wonder if these companies are aware that there is a small company behind the video, a company that has rules and expectations?

I'm curious what you think. How should we view the broadcast use of our videos by mainstream media companies? What can we do to encourage proper attribution/licensing?

Examples:

ABC Nightline - Used with permission

ABC Good Morning America - Used with permission

NPR Unger Report - Exploring the Darker Side of Tweets and Twitter Liberal use of audio, no contact or attribution.

CNN International - No contact or attribution

CBS Sunday Morning - No contact or attribution

KOMO News (local Seattle station) No contact or attribution

I've been a Twitter user for just over 2 years now and I'm still trying to figure out how to use it well. A couple of weeks ago, We created an @commoncraft account that's focused on our business and looks behind-the-scenes. Now that I have an established account (@leelefever) and one that's just getting started, I've been thinking a lot about what's possible with Twitter.  Some thoughts:

(If you're new to Twitter, watch our video Twitter in Plain English )

To Follow or Not to Follow

I take a decidedly lightweight approach to social media. If I haven't met you or don't know you personally, I'm not likely to add you as a friend or follow you. I currently follow about 200 people on Twitter and it's still too much.  When I follow someone with the @leelefever account, I try keep up with most of their updates. This is how I've always used Twitter.

Now that I have a new, business-oriented account, I'm thinking about it a bit differently.  With the @commoncraft account we're following most, if not all, the folks who follow that account.  This way, we can receive direct messages from these folks (Twitter members can only send direct messages to members that follow them.) Also, it creates a stream of Twitter updates that represent people interested in Common Craft.  I realize I can't really follow everyone, but having the stream gives me a source that I can manage later. And, I think it's a nice gesture.

Reducing Twitter Administration

As you know, I'm all about reducing heavyweight administration. The @leelefever account gets about 10 new followers a day and it's rare to see someone I know personally. I've started filtering the emails to help me manage my inbox.  The side effect of this is that I don't see every email and may miss people I want to follow.

Again, I'm trying something new with the @commoncraft account.  For now, I'm trying out a service called Tweetlater that automatically follows people that follow @commoncraft and sends them a quick "thank you" message. It's not as personal as I'd like, and some spammers are using it for nefarious purposes, but it allows me to accomplish the goal of following people without having to take an action for every one. It's lightweight.

Other Tools

I've done little experimenting with the @leelefever account in terms of tools.  I think there is part of me that wants it to be pure - like the Twitter I used 2 years ago. I've linked it up to my Facebook account and on my Tumblr, but I haven't tried any Twittering services.

With the @commoncraft account, I'm all about experimentation. Just recently I started using TwitPic to publish photos like this to the @commoncraft stream.  I want to bring people into our daily work lives and TwitPic makes it easy to snap a picture with my phone and post it in seconds.  I've also hooked the Common Craft blog into the Twitter stream using Twitterfeed.  

Having Two Accounts - Which Tool?

How do you manage two accounts?  Right now I use Tweetdeck for personal and the Twitter web site for Common Craft. I know Twhirl allows more than one login.

TweetDeck and Twitter Groups

I'm using TweetDeck for all my Twitter needs.  I have a column for the people a follow, a column for replies and a few searches (more on searches later).  A feature I haven't used in TweetDeck is the ability to create groups.  With groups, I can take everyone I follow and filter the stream by into "family", "must read" or "news" for instance.  Because I'm only following 200 people, this isn't as useful for the @leelefever account.  One day I may start to slice and dice the people I follow via the @commoncraft account into groups.

Search

Twitter Search is an amazingly powerful tool. We both use a search query that gives us an constant stream of activity on Twitter related to what we do. It's designed to capture the key words and phrases, across both accounts.  It looks like this:

commoncraft OR "common craft" OR leelefever OR lefever OR "plain english" (Link)

Redundant Content

Having two accounts presents some issues in terms of content.  For instance, a lot of people follow the @leelefever account because they are interested in Common Craft.  Now that they have an oppotunity to follow @commoncraft, I have to consider redundancy.  Do I post links to blog posts on both accounts?  It's going to take a little while to negotiate what goes where.  What do you think?

I'm curious what you think about these points.  Is your use of Twitter similar to one of these models?  What else should I be considering?

Perhaps you'd like to follow us?  We're @commoncraft, @sachilefever and @leelefever.  Also, here's a post I wrote after one year: Twittering for 1 year: a Retrospective.