Archive for May, 2008
Is Twitter becoming an extension of your blog?
May 23rd, 2008
Over the last few months I have been noticing a growing trend in the use of Twitter. What is it?, you might ask.
It’s called the new blog post!
My Twitter client is Twitterfox, a FireFox plug in, and every time one of the people I follow Tweets a neat box pops up to alert me to the fact they have just Tweeted. One of the most common phrases to pop up at the mo is ‘new blog post’, then a few words to describe what the post is about. Go and check it out for yourself. I used the word ‘blog’ as a keyword search in Summize and Tweet Scan, and to support my case came across a high volume of the words ‘new blog post’!
So my point is that maybe some people only use Twitter as an extension for their blogs, almost like Digging your post, promoting it to a wider audience. I have to admit I have done this myself on occasion, but only with posts that I think add weight and value to current topics of conversation and are targeted to my followers. Everybody wants to read quality posts, but using Twitter as a press release service is not on. If your followers like your stuff they will have the RSS feeds already set up for it!
May 21st, 2008
At Liberate Media we’ve been tackling one of the biggest issues facing the PR industry today, the skills crisis.
We thought it might be helpful to overview our thoughts on the subject in a podcast, which we’ve used to identify a few of the problems and share some insight into how we’re dealing with the matter.
Let us know your thoughts on the subject.
To Listen or to down load the podcast click here
May 21st, 2008
Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, every start-up under the sun is getting on the Twitter gravy train.
There have been some really poor attempts at Twitter crossovers/mash ups lately but i have managed to find something that holds my attention for more than three seconds.
It’s not a Twitter tool or gimmick, it’s the use of a twitter feed within a specialised tennis site. The site is called www.twennis.com , a spin off from the www.thetennischannel.com purely to promote the forthcoming French Open tennis event.
How it works:
The site is powered by Twistor, it uses key tennis words/phrases and then sucks them into a feed which is constantly updated on the site.
“You cannot be serious” - (Tennis joke!)
I think this is a great idea, and not that hard to do! So well done Tennis Channel for your unique approach.
May 20th, 2008
Reading Jeff Jarvis’ story in the Guardian yesterday shows how pivotal Twitter has become, not just in the digital media sector, we knew that, but in the media sector as a whole. He reveals that developers at the BBC and Reuters are working on applications to monitor Twitter and other social media services such as Facebook and YouTube for news catchwords such as ‘earthquake’ and ‘evacuation’ in the hope of both getting an early tip off on breaking news, and also locating content and potential interviewees on the issue.
This was illustrated perfectly by the Chinese earthquake last week, which according to Robert Scoble was broken on Twitter before the US Geological Survey posted the tremor and an hour before mainstream news sites reported it. Suddenly the BBC and Reuter’s investment makes sense.
Another example of the never ending brilliance of social applications. However, this isn’t the main point of this post…and you thought It was over…short post from Gofton - never!
The real reason for this post is to make a confession…here goes: I’m not the biggest fan of Twitter. Actually, before the great and good of the social media world beat me down with vicious reasoning, let me rephrase that: I’m not the biggest Tweeter. There I said it and for anyone that cares to check, it’s quite an obvious statement! I don’t tweet, post, write comments…that much. However, I am a fan of Twitter and I do regularly monitor and learn from the conversations that i follow, but in truth rarely dip my bill in…sorry bad joke.
I’ve often thought about the whys and wherefores of my apparent lack of willingness to get ‘involved’ and spread my own brand of commentary on Twitter. But that’s exactly the reason I don’t do it. I am put off by the life commentary from the Twitter nation, as so many others are.
Now to be fair not everyone does it, but those that feel the need to share their experience of being on a train, or a bus, or standing in the rain blah, blah, blah has never encouraged me to say: You know what, today is the day when I tell people I’m running late for a meeting.
However, although I am being facetious, in all seriousness a ray of light hit me from Jeff Jarvis’ article, or in fact from a quote he used from UK blogger Leisa Reichelt at disambiguity.com. Lisa has defined this practise as ‘Ambient intimacy’, which she explains as “being able to keep in touch with people with a level of regularity and intimacy that you wouldn’t usually have access to.” She continues: “There are a lot of us, though, who find great value in ongoing noise. It helps us to get to know people who would otherwise be just acquaintances.”
Hmmm, that kind of makes sense, it’s the most sense that anyone has made of what I thought was previously inane drivel. It does help to bring through the personality of an individual and it does help me to understand their point of view. Some of it is even amusing.
So has this taught me something? Am I going to change my ways and get involved? No - I won’t be telling you what I had for lunch, but you will be seeing a new vigour in what I classify as useful ‘Tweeting’.
Second Life Spawns High Profile Prank?
May 20th, 2008
This has to be one of the craziest stories of the day.
Basically, back in 2006, a CNET interview was under way with virtual real-estate magnate Anshe Chung when it was interrupted by fifteen minutes of flying penises, courtesy of a group of radicals called Room 101.
View the video here:
Fast forward to last Saturday, when the great Russian Chess Grand Master Garry Kasparov was also disrupted by a flying penis. This time the prank happened at an event with over 700 people in a central Moscow location.Kasparov, who is now the leader of a political party opposing Vladamir Putin, had his speech interrupted when a large phallus-shaped helicopter started buzzing around the room.
View the video here:
‘Flying RC penis violates chess master’s airspace’
was another headline used to describe the story. Check out some of the close ups available of the RC helicopter.
So, the question is, was the Second Life prank a spark for the RC helicopter idea? It looks very similar. Either way, it’s still amusing!