Following on from my LinkedIn tidy and a similar exercise in my email and Old Reader I’ve now moved on to YouTube.
YouTube is of course a strange beast – a real mix of the silly and serious. This wide church has contributed to many organisations going down the Vimeo route for a more professional platform (and specialist platforms like Twitch for other communities). At the same time professional use of YouTube varies from channels with video-first content (like the PWCUS channel shows) and those that just host videos for embedding/promotion on websites (including other social media) that make little sense in isolation.
Until a couple of years back I used YouTube to keep on top of companies in my industry, learning providers and a number of other channels. I’ve since got into the habit of using YouTube for my music playlists and some other pastimes (gaming and wrestling mostly). With not enough time to keep on top of channel updates (there was a time when I watched every new CrashCourse and RSA video!); I’ve really handed myself over to the algorithms and, because wrestling and gaming videos tend get a lot more hits that corporate and instructional design communications, I have these promoted to me. Therefore, the tidy was aiming to get me back in a position where I can keep on top of my subscribed feeds again.
Anyways, the 2018 tidy has seen me take the below approach, shared so others might take some inspiration but also so I can capture a list of channels I am no longer subscribing to (in case I want to come back to them in the future):
Accounts
Like a lot of people, I ended up with 2 YouTube accounts a while back – my old YT one and my Google account. I avoided merging these so I could keep my semi-anonymous YT account although, to be honest, in the idea of “bring your full self to work” I suppose it doesn’t really matter any more. For now I’ve decided my Google account can be gaming focused and my old YT account for everything else – including a number of channels I realised I subscribed to as part of job hunts in the past.
Subscription cancellations
Cancellations include the below, somehow I had got up to almost 300 subscriptions so I’ve been tough in cutting things! Therefore, this is far from the full list as I’ve got the overall number now down to c.50:
- Royal College of Nursing (as I’m moving away from healthcare focus) as well as NICE and some other health related channels (BMJ, NHS, etc.)
- PWC US (as it has been a while now since I’ve worked in Professional Services), plus KPMG US, Deloitte and Deloitte US
- Cornerstone (as I doubt I will be talent/LM system shopping for a while)
- GSK
- Dreamforce (feels like a long time since I’ve watched anything on here)
- Float and a number of other LMS/eLearning companies, including some I’ve used in the past like Rypple (long gone as acquired by Salesforce but still an open YT page) and Blackboard
- Content Marketing Institute and some others I’ve followed to keep aware of wider trends and topics of interest to teams I’ve supported
- Assima and other vendors from Learning Tech shows
- Some interesting ones in there too like the CogBooks account being closed for violating YT’s term and conditions.
Surviving the cut
Videos surviving the cut including education feeds such as Educause as well as tech (Microsoft, SAP, etc.) and other professional interests.
There were also reminders for a few sites and news sources I’d forgotten about in recent years such as HR Grapevine and World at Work.
Pass to the left, sail to the right…
As mentioned above, I use YouTube playlists a lot so thought I’d give a shout out to a few songs/artists I’ve come across thanks to YouTube. Anyone aware of my music tastes will know this will be a mixed bunch and often NSFW!
- Ariana Grande – no tears left to cry. Must admit I don’t think I had heard of Ariana Grande before the horrible events in Manchester but this song is great on a number of levels. Some good remixes are available that increase the tempo and make it more explicitly upbeat (as the lyrics read) but ignore the original’s intriguing hint of melancholy.
- Run The Jewels – pretty sure I picked these guys up originally by looking for a video that would mock David Davis’ first EU meeting over Brexit. That video is excellent and led me to a lot of other good tracks (including this one with a strong message about the US penal system). Their excellence has been noticed by others with inclusion on a number of Marvel CU soundtracks and on a FIFA soundtrax.
- Reminders of my childhood in the form of many soundtracks – not least the title track from Biggles!
- Brightside from Icona Pop which is one of the nicest songs I’ve heard in a while – probably been listening to that one for a couple of years.
- And to finish with my guilty wrestling pleasure: there are few better bits of music in the world to keep in your head than this – just try it when you walk into that interview/meeting you are not looking forward to!
Whose Education Is It Anyway? 