Bristol is gearing up for its contribution to Twestival on Thursday (12 February) in aid of charity:water.
The global Twitter community has mobilised in double-quick time to host 24-hours of FUNdraising in a staggering 175+ cities around the world.
The idea was conceived by Amanda Rose. You can read about her motivation for Twestival in her interview with the Blog Herald.
Twitter is quickly being adopted by individuals, organisations and businesses as a new way to communicate to the world. By attempting to answer the question ‘what are you doing?’ , people come up with all sorts of interesting facts, anecdotes, thoughts, links, questions and answers… and the list goes on.
Twitter is a micro-blogging platform that allows you to write anything - so long as you keep to 140 characters. You decide which people you wish to ‘follow’ and in turn those people might follow you back.
You can use a Twitter profile to deal with customer queries, like Zappos, the successful USA online retailer, distribute the latest news like the Guardian Technology News, raise money for a good cause like Mara Triangle (pictured), share news of your travels, like Stephen Fry… or simply join the conversation.
Mara Triangle Twitter Profile
I learn a lot from the people that I ‘follow’ on Twitter, and in turn I like sharing links and thoughts with those that follow me. This makes Twitter a particularly valuable tool. Try it - ask a question and you will get inundated with answers!
You can also make your Twitter profile ‘private’ - although I really don’t see the benefit of this. Most people go public!
There is a service called Yammer, which is similar to Twitter but for businesses and lives behind a firewall. Only people on the same domain name can access to it.
But hold on, I have email, and an intranet in my organisation. Why would I want to have yet another application? Well, people who like your products or services will tell you so, and those that don’t may also tell you why. This is valuable feedback that you would have not gained otherwise.
I’m pleased with this new WordPress blog theme.
Thanks to my friend Aaron Acutt of Point6, who gave me a hand with tweaking the illustration, which was acquired from iStockPhoto.
It was hard to find a theme that would make me happy. Here in England, I miss the sunshine, so I wanted something to cheer me up. The sun and cactus is the perfect combination. I also love the way the ‘nopal’ (’prickly pear’ if you prefer) grows in the direction of the ’sun’.
I have lots of exciting things to share with you over the coming months. But for now, just wanted to say ’salud!’ to my new blog theme.
Over the years I’ve helped businesses develop their web presence. Building websites, e-commerce sites, adding functionality and helping them to understand how the web works.
Many just wanted a website that was ‘SEO-ready’ to take them to the top page in Google search. A website that represented what their business was about; a brochure site!
If you ‘hide’ behind your corporate website and wait for your web agency to make suggestions on how to improve it, you need to think again.
Having a web site is no longer enough. Communicating and engaging with your customers inside and outside your website is what you need to do now. If the only way to engage you or your business is via an online form, you also need to think again.
A blog is the perfect medium to express yourself in a more conversational way. A blog allows you to write short snippets of text which can help you to reflect the ‘real’ you. You can write about the things you and your business care about and begin a conversation with your customers and your potential customers.
Some of your customers would like to get to know you better, and a blog has the informality we need to make it happen. It couldn’t be simpler, and it’s free.
If you are already blogging or are thinking about it, you should view this 87-second video clip.
I remember the old days (circa 1997) when I only used a handful of online tools: a web browser, email client and instant messenger. My life has changed considerably over the last decade and the number of online applications that have the potential to make our jobs easier has multiplied a hundred times.
I thought I’d share with you the Top 10 applications that help me get stuff done:
Thank you for stopping by. I'm a techie at heart and passionate about the social web. I help people embrace open source technologies and coach them to use online tools effectively.