The Original Sims

Twittering about Twitter and Blogging about Twitter might appear to be the sign of an empty life. But it is a real and real-time social phenomenon which deserves observation and comment in more than 140 characters.

Late night on The Now Show – “probably” (spoken in very deep voice to get “in joke” effect) the best comedy show on UK radio – Mitch Benn sang a song about Twitter. He was saying partly tongue in cheek, that famous Twitters compare their popularity. Mitch Benn had at 6.30 last night just under 1400 followers. Stephen Fry (at time of writing) has 325,000 followers. Mitch Benn’s thinking was this; there are million and a half listeners to The Now Show – if all the listeners followed him on Twitter, he’d have more than Stephen Fry.

I was in for that – I followed Mitch Benn only to discover that while he had just under 1400 followers, he only follows 42. Stephen Fry follows 55,000.

And there Mitch Benn is the nub of the problem. Twitter is not about following you or being followed, it’s about showing an interest in other people.
@pennydist posted on Twitter about 5 hours ago from sxsw: “People who say twitter is pure vanity have never had their lives enriched by it….”

Within a few hours Mitch Benn had 500 new followers, but he was still only following 42 people.  The programme is repeated today.  How many followers will he have by this evening?  If he’s only following 42, well, he’s missed the point of Twitter.  Here’s the primer; it’s about being social, not about being followed.  You have already got 1.5 million listeners for that.

Here is the idea. At the moment that Barak Obama takes the presidential oath and the power of the presidency leaves George W Bush we all take a photograph of where we are, what we are doing and the people around us - or what ever we want to take a photo of.

We post the photo to our favourite photo sharing site, your blog, your website.

Then to twitter.com

Send a message tagged #byebush.

I’ll be posting on http://byebush.blogspot.com/ 

Yesterday Robin Hamman posted a Twitpic of a sunset.  I sent him a message saying that perhaps we could organise a mass twitter of sunsets - perhaps on the last day of the Bush presidency.  But Robin crystalised with the idea of taking a photograph at the moment Obama assumes the Presidency.

Join in - it should be fun.

Way back in the 1980s a friend introduced me to the business writer Tom Peters, and I have spent this morning re-introducing my friend to Tom Peters.  Peters’s book “In Search of Excellence” was one of the most successful management books ever:

First published in 1982 it is one of the biggest selling and most widely read business books ever, selling 3 million copies in its first four years, and being the most widely held library book in the United States from 1989 to 2006 (WorldCat data). The book explores the art and science of management used by leading 1980s companies with records of long-term profitability and continuing innovation.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Search_of_Excellence

In 1982 Peters was noted for his new ways of thinking about business and particularly well known for his public speaking which possibly assured his fame rather than the books. 

But Peters has taken to the web; when, I do not know - I’ve had no reason to look for him until this week.  But what a fine example of reinvention;  using a few "cool" words and associating himself with "cool friends", then using a Blog this 66 year old uses the new stuff to speak to a new generation. There is no question that any serious business person who wants to build a public reputation needs a Blog.  Most of Peters’s “cool friends” (who aren’t really all that “cool”) are also business people with Blogs.  Yet interestingly one of the “cool friends” Debbie Weil

No News Here: Forrester Says Consumers Don’t Trust Corporate Blogs

Ouch. As the author of The Corporate Blogging Book, I ought to be upset about this. But I’m not. Forrester’s new report, Time to Rethink Your Corporate Blogging Ideas, says that only 16% of consumers trust company blogs and that they rank dead last in terms of marketing channels.

Yep. That’s below consumers’ trust level in promotional emails, direct mail (!), and online classifieds. Why? Well, the answer is obvious. 
More here>>> http://www.debbieweil.com/blog/no-news-here-forrester-says-consumers-dont-trust-corporate-blogs/

There are a couple of things that have interested me about this:
First, business management has always been a fashion trend thing (Tell me, what ever happened to Re-Engineering the management philosophy of the mid to late 1990s?)

Secondly, most management consultant types sold a product  (“Excellence”, “Re-engineering”,  “Management by Objectives”,  “Deming System “, "Total Quality Management", "The customer service revolution", "Knowledge management", and of course most recently "Management 2.0") but now they are using the web to introduce their personality and introduce themselves

So to my friend who introduced me to Tom Peters around 1982, may I reintroduce you to the 21st century version?

The Slugger O’Toole Awards event was held in Belfast’s W5 centre on 7 October 2008.

Download Podcast Here

This is the first glittering and glamorous Slugger Awards and almost all of the politicos, digicenti, blogerati of any note and general hangers-on are gathered for what would have been a Red Carpet Reception. But Red, like Blue, like Green, Orange and even Yellow have political connotations, so the carpet was ignored and we all just had a night on the tiles.

Slugger O’Toole has been following Northern Ireland politics for about six years. It is the oldest political blog in and about Northern Ireland. If it is not the most read, it is certainly among the top titles. And it is read widely. Slugger O’Toole is a place where the Blogosphere and Main Stream Media meet. The web site is read by Journalists, Political Professionals and bloggers alike.

Founder Mick Fealty is no journalist in the traditional sense, but is probably more of a journalist that many news reporters. If it is a journalists role not just to report events, but to seek context and wide comment on events Mick fits that role. There were awards for External Representives (MPs, MEPs and others), Journalism, Local Council of the Year, Local Councillor of the Year, Local Newspaper of the Year, MLA of the Year, Participation and Involvement, Political Blogger, Stormont Committee Chair of the Year, Up-and-coming Politician of the Year and Jobsworth of the Year.

Get more information at the Slugger Awards site.

Other sites mentioned on the podcast include the winner of the Political Blog NALIL, Alan In Belfast and WIMPS (Where Is My Public Servant).

Download and listen to the Podcast or subscribe to the DC podcasts.

Nice little idea - and possibly earner - from the guys in www.webdistortion.com . Following on the heels of The Big Word Project where you can define a word and link back to your site Query Box will answer your questions by linking back to a site.

As Paul says in his email:

Basically what the site does is defines people’s websites by asking a question, and then linking that question to a particular website. This question then would get picked up by Google etc, and hopefully (being a bit long taily) would become the "answer" to many people’s question.

So I can choose a question How-do-I-make-a-podcast? and Querybox links back to my podcast section.  I haven’t quite come up with my side of the deal - writing a useful answer.

A note from Stuart Bailie who writes on the Radio Ulster blog-

"I’ve been shortlisted for the Best Music Blog category in the Irish Blog Awards March 1.

http://awards.ie/blogawards/

Which is nice. "

Good man, Stuart.

A call from the Irish Digital Media Awards a month or so back; bbc.co.uk/northernireland  had not been nominated for an award. I decided there was not a lot of point going to the awards ceremony which is generally a pretty good night out.  Was also told that Will and Testament was not nominated for Best Blog.

But in the event held in Dublin last week, our site bbc.co.uk/northernireland was "Commended for the Outstanding Entry".  We were beaten by a web site about Energy Efficiency in Ireland http://www.powerofone.ie/. 

Will and Testament also received a "Commendation for Outstanding Entry".  The winner was deservedly The Waiting Game.

We had only the two entries this year and over the last four years have won two Irish Digital Media Awards (including my own Hall of Fame Award) and have been short listed every year
Naturally (and properly) best wishes go to the winners.

Now waiting to hear about The Webbies and  BAFTA Interactive for the NW200 site.  Breath is being held.

New Media Bytes

Many want examples of how to get comments on blogs and create communities on blogs. The blogs listed here have done a good job doing that, for the most part.

From Pointer Online: Posted, Nov. 9, 2007

Last week, The Plain Dealer suspended its political blog, Wide Open, after learning that two of its contributors had donated money to political campaigns. The blog — which was the idea of Jean Dubail, assistant managing editor/online — will likely be re-introduced in a few weeks with new bloggers, under the agreement that they can support campaigns but not get paid, Goldberg said.

Susan Goldberg“Our mistake in looking at this in hindsight was in paying people. Just like when we hire a freelancer to review a play, we would never hire somebody who was an investor in the theater production," Goldberg said during a phone interview. "We can’t have people on our payroll who won’t play by our rules.”

It’s good to be invited to blog somewhere where thereare actual readers.  William Crawley has invited me to blog here for the next few days: