social media

step. away. from. the. computer

Posted on by Becky Green (was McMichael)

1114566_snowflake_tree_1Five sure fire signs you need to take a break from social media this holiday:

– You couldn’t send your Moo Christmas cards because your iPhone lost your contacts
– You had no carols or Christmas songs because last.fm was down
– You burnt the turkey because you were twittering “I am burning the turkey”
– Your photos were up on flickr/facebook before the fat fella had got back up the chimney
– You tried to describe what you do for a job (including your use of social media) to elderly family members and were met by several blank and bemused faces (but *hopefully* resisted the urge to give a twitter demo)

Any more?

someone once told me

Posted on by Becky Green (was McMichael)

Someone Once Told Me, Mario CacciottoloCame across this last week through a direct message on twitter from Mario Cacciottolo asking if I would have my pic taken for a new art project and hadn’t heard much about it…..in the tradition of good PR though, by lunchtime Saturday I had seen people discussing it on Twitter and read a review of it in The Guardian Guide.

Billed by said paper as:

“A compelling photography project. The idea is simple: people are photographed at random or by appointment, holding up sheets of paper with the words of something that was once told to them that has stuck in their minds ever since – whether it was a text message from a mate or words of wisdom from a grandparent.”

The site looks great – as intriguing as Post A Secret was when I first came across combined with Mario’s evident talent for interesting and stylish photography.

I am looking forward to doing mine early next month now.

the road to a story

Posted on by Becky Green (was McMichael)

In my opinion, Twitter has really disrupted the traditional flow of the news process over the past 12-18 months. An example of this was seen today:-

===Wired blog posts Blogging is dead piece on 20th Oct

===Twitterverse discusses, many people link and blog about it on 21st Oct

===BBC journalist discusses on Twitter on 22nd October

===Radio 4’s Today programme calls for guests to discuss this the following day mid afternoon

===BBC blogs it on evening of 22nd October

===Presumably it will be an item on tomorrow’s radio 4 show.. Update: Here it is.

Now I don’t know about you but I remember when Radio 4’s Today programme was the source of most of my news first thing…not discussing things that have been around and heavily debated and discussed online for two days already.  I presume this will be more of an analysis piece than news but it really illustrated to me how times have changed and how we are seeing “the news” be created these days, not just reading/hearing the finished article.

2 way street? Give your address out then!

Posted on by Becky Green (was McMichael)

Peter Whitehead’s piece in FT’s digital business made me chuckle this morning. As someone who has just joined Twitter, he seems to be going through the inevitable “what’s this for?” phase, soon to be followed by the obsession phase no doubt. Anyway, the reason his post made me smile particularly this bit:

First and foremost are contacts. A network quickly develops and you do feel vaguely “in touch” with people you are following. In the short time I’ve been Twittering, I have seen a few interesting ideas and some appeals for information and advice, which could reap rich rewards depending on who is following you.

There are also news services and blogs to follow, which are useful.

But it is not really a conversation; tweets are mostly one-way thoughts and observations, with little call for interaction.

As people remarked on twitter today, it might help his cause if he added his Twitter name to the piece (it is @peterwhitehead if you’re interested) 😉

I do agree with Peter’s sentiment about personal comments vs professional ones though – it is a tough balance but surely no more than other forms of communication?

My biggest concern, however, is over who I am on Twitter. Am I just me or am I representing the FT? Can I say outrageous things? Can I use it to promote Digital Business?

It is the world of Web 2.0 yet again blurring the boundaries between the professional and the personal. Unedited blogs, indiscretions posted on social networking sites, random thoughts given away to strangers on Twitter – one mistake and it could be the ruin of anyone.

I feel this is no more a risk than any other form of communication. This topic has also been discussed by Charles Arthur and Rory Cellan Jones amongst others…for what it is worth, my (somewhat lower profile) advice is:

###Don’t edit yourself, personality combined with the more serious stuff works well on Twitter
###People follow you because they like what you say, they will soon unfollow if they don’t
###Many journalists (and others) pimp their blog or site content, in fact Twitter seems, for many, to be taking over RSS as a way to keep up to date with fave sites

I for one look forward to seeing more come from the team at Digital Business so keep tweeting!

the essence of collaboration

Posted on by Becky Green (was McMichael)

I saw a tweet from Robin Bloor last week, quoting a well known saying and it struck a chord with me.

His tweet was, “a candle loses nothing by lighting another candle” and I feel that this has never been truer than today, due to the collaborative spirit and willingness to help that I am seeing spread across our industry.

So yes it is a bit fromage-tastic but it sums it all up for me and surely the more candles that are lit, the lighter and brighter the whole room becomes.

*no more cheesy posts, I promise*