A great way to keep track of what other people are collecting is to “follow” other members and to follow “tags.”
When you follow a member, you’ll see that person’s activity in the “Recent Activity” feed on your home page. When you follow a tag, you’ll see activity for that tag. Here’s an example from my recent activity feed:
In the screenshot above, you can see recent activity from people I’m following (pkulak and Spencer) as well as recent activity from a tag I’m following (daily show).
How to get started customizing your Recent Activity feed? Just explore Vodpod, and start following some of the “tags” that are of interest to you. (Tags are like categories, but more diverse and informal — think “Barack Obama” or “John McCain” or “The Daily Show”).
When you follow tags that are of interest to you, you’ll discover new videos you might like, as well as members who collect those videos. When you find a user collecting videos you like, just follow them.
Here are some other tips on how to find great people to follow:
1. Find people who collect the same videos as you
The best way to find people who are collecting the same videos ad you is to browse through some of the videos you’ve collected. You’ll see all of the other members who have collected the video, or who have commented on it. Just click on their user icon to check out their Pod, and to see if you might want to follow them on Vodpod.
There are many other places in the service where we help connect you to people who collect the same videos as you, I’ll mention just two of them here.
When you save a video to Vodpod with the “Save Videos” button, we’ll show you when you’re done if other people have collected the video. (SCREENSHOTS BELOW)
And, if other members comment on a video you’ve added, we’ll show that to you in your news feed.
2. Browse Vodpod by tag
Just click the Explore link and you can browse the most popular tags on Vodpod. If you’re looking for something more specific, just type in a tag in the box at the top of the tag page:
On the tag pages, you’ll see recent videos added for that tag, and a list of “related members” — these are the people who have collected the most videos with that tag.
3. Follow people that others are following
When you find someone on Vodpod who has a collection you like, and whom you might want to follow, check out who they are following. You’ll see a list on the right side of their pod.
4. Invite your friends
Do you think your friends will collect great videos? We’ve finally built a nifty tool to import your address book (works with gmail, hotmail, yahoo mail, and aol) so you can efficiently invite your friends to join Vodpod. When you invite friends, we set it up so that you follow each other.
5. Check out our our members with the most followers
Finally, you can find a list of the most followed Vodpod members here. Have a look at their collections — no guarantee they’re collecting videos you’ll like, but you might find people with interesting collections.
OTHER PEOPLE COLLECTED WINDOW
A somewhat hidden but very fun and powerful feature in Vodpod is the “Other People Saved this Video” area on our “Save to Vodpod” button.
After you’ve finished saving a video to your Pod (or posting it to your blog), we show you other people who have also collected the video:
The number above a member’s icon is the number of people “following” them on Vodpod.
Just click their icon to visit their member page and to see their collection. And then follow them if you think they collect interesting videos, and you’ll be able to track what they’re collecting from your Vodpod home page.
