Think about your Twitter stream and the people you follow. How many have you really met, if you take out your friends and colleagues? In my case it's around 40% that I've been lucky to recognise, meet, or bump into at industry events or around the town.
I sometimes think it's amazing at how one can knock down all walls on Twitter and have conversations with strangers yet when it comes to real life, those walls are built as high as the Empire State Building. The honesty, openness and directness to Twitter conversations is mind-boggling. People aren't afraid to open their mouths whether it's to congratulate or hate - loudly - online... yet I'm sure if they met face-to-face, would they really have the guts to be that direct.
Real life 2.0
I know I wonder what some of the people I follow and converse with are like, especially those who I have a lot of respect for. So when the opportunity came up on Monday night to come meet some of them, I grabbed it by the horns... or balls, considering it was one ridiculous 'sausage fest' as the tweetup organiser, Paul Cartmel called it in reply to me.
Long story cut short, Paul from New Media Labs and Mike Sharman decided they were going to attempt the R60 000 challenge at Caprice after the d-list celebrities; Lee-ann Liebenberg and Nicky Van Der Walt got into a huge PR mess with Caprice the week before.
Mike: "@PaulCartmel are we bevving this week - you around?"
Paul "@mikesharman fo shuua, should we klap R60k at Caprice ;) - perhaps @raouldejongh @lifeissavage @mrtuckbox will join us?"
Lots of back and forth between people and Paul's realisation: "Oh god how sad, I think I've organised a tweetup" *&%$
After following Paul, Ben Wagner from Native (Stonewall) and Life is Savage for a while, I got to meet them, along with some other pretty cool people like Mike Sharman, Liesl De Bruin, Secret City Project, Gaby Rosario and Murray Legg. It turned out to be a great night, full of laughter, lots of talking, ridiculous dance moves and being the people we are, snapping away and tweeting the hilarity that ensued.
A little later, I noticed a tweet from the awesome, Life is Savage, where he said this...
"My faith in meeting twitter folks in real life has been restored. What a group of stellar people. #goodtimes"
I couldn't agree with him more.
Let me know what you think?
Showing posts with label twitter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label twitter. Show all posts
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Me in an infographic
Nothing new but still kind of nifty that I get to pretend I've just created an infographic representing yours truly.
Spotted this on my twitter stream this morning from Rich Mulhollond's blog post: Make your own personal infographic. Basically questions are already set up by IONz and by providing the answers, it tallies them up and gives you that wonderful infographic.
Spotted this on my twitter stream this morning from Rich Mulhollond's blog post: Make your own personal infographic. Basically questions are already set up by IONz and by providing the answers, it tallies them up and gives you that wonderful infographic.
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Social Media... now!
A few months back I posted the What the F**k is Social Media presentation up on the blog by Espresso and most importantly, the Bonafide Marketing Genius, Marta Kagan.
Well now there is an updated version called What the F**k is Social Media NOW? and it's got new stats, cats, Sad Keanu, Prince, same language and more to ponder about.
View the presentation on Slideshare
Well now there is an updated version called What the F**k is Social Media NOW? and it's got new stats, cats, Sad Keanu, Prince, same language and more to ponder about.
View the presentation on Slideshare
Thursday, April 8, 2010
The Game Changer: To be spoiler-free or not?
Friday night - after Sea Rescue, dinner and feeling guilty for 5 seconds that I ate too much sushi again - I shall be watching this:
The 100th episode airs on Thursday night in the USA and from what I've read with regards to articles, reviews and critics pleas to fans and praise pieces, it's going to be a art at its very best; on tv.
Truth Be Told
Now I love game changers, I have to admit that. I've loved good television since I was a little lighty absolutely hooked on Alias where week in and week out, I would be sitting on the edge of my seat watching the story unfold and be left absolutely shocked, surprised, happy or frustrated and most likely screaming blue murder at J.J Abrams and his dream team of writers. Why would I always be on the verge of heart failure week in and out you may ask? The answer is simple: spoiler-free.
I stayed spoiler-free not because of choice but because of my late arrival to technology and internet adoption in my household. By the time I had even figured out about spoiler sites and destroying some of my favourite shows; Alias or Gilmore Girls it wasn't worth it and definitely not worth the dial-up frustration...
Then in 2005 I picked up on a really enjoyable show aka Bones. Somewhere along the way - after being happy with just getting an episode from a friend - it got to a point that we needed the episode (I blame season 2's greatness) and where it is today, is quite sad. I HAVE-TO-HAVE the episode. I'm blaming spoilers for this problem and well... the internet - and maybe my need to control things.
Maybe it's cause I'm a little too emotionally invested in the storyline and it's characters... so shoot me. Maybe it's cause it's absolutely brilliant storytelling and like every book I am hooked on; I need to turn the next page to find out more (being the new episodes) or maybe I'm a little sadistic in being able to 'drop hints' to my poor friends who are spoiler-free but here's my point:
Truth Takes Time
I'm starting to think that being a spoiler-whore may be ruining the experience of watching television shows and allowing the story to unfold week-to-week as intended but with information at my fingertips, dedicated websites to spoilers on shows or having the ability to either scream with frustration to the creator of the series via twitter or say how brilliant the episode was, it's just to easy and very hard to avoid spoilers about the show. That and I most-likely have no willpower anymore when there is up-to-date access to information via my iPhone or laptop where I spend majority of my time on.
This is probably why...
It's pretty upsetting if I think about it and especially after the mess that happened about 2 weeks ago with a 'critic' posting an article on a pretty big website totally disregarding 'spoiler' warnings that should be an option in an article of that nature. Shouldn't a fan have the choice to read about events that have major impact on the storyline or at least not be shit scared to click on a link about the show that may be of interest to them? Unfortunately, quite a number of fans did read that article and a lot of critics and reporters whom I follow were pretty shocked and disgusted that an article like that was written. One that can totally destroy any type of viewing pleasure when it's basically spoiled the entire episode and future plots. Motivators TV blog had a plea from one of their writers to avoid the spoilers which was brilliantly written and most likely sums up the point of TV, great storytelling and it being another art-form to enjoy
But maybe that's it, the game is changing. The way we view television is changing from being able to watch an episode and chat with it's stars on twitter (read Annie Stammel's article on Twitter and TV) asking them questions about the episode or being able to completely spoil future episodes by needing to know everything that will happen. It's all down to choice. The choice on how you want to experience the show whether it's to stay spoiler-free - which for me will be highly unlikely even after this post - OR to interact, dig, discuss, build conspiracies and opinions, having that real-time information, instantly at your fingertips even before it has been filmed or aired, will be the way you shape your viewing experience.
For a great explanation on why these things called spoilers exist and most likely why they will never ever disappear - unlike your friends or the online communities that you can just delete - read Annie Stammel's (@Stamos on Twitter) article on the Huffington Post called Lost, Bones, Whatever: Why Not Spoiler-Free TV?
Let me know if I'm not alone... or if I am; maybe leave me a word of encouragement or the nearest clinic
The 100th episode airs on Thursday night in the USA and from what I've read with regards to articles, reviews and critics pleas to fans and praise pieces, it's going to be a art at its very best; on tv.
Truth Be Told
Now I love game changers, I have to admit that. I've loved good television since I was a little lighty absolutely hooked on Alias where week in and week out, I would be sitting on the edge of my seat watching the story unfold and be left absolutely shocked, surprised, happy or frustrated and most likely screaming blue murder at J.J Abrams and his dream team of writers. Why would I always be on the verge of heart failure week in and out you may ask? The answer is simple: spoiler-free.
I stayed spoiler-free not because of choice but because of my late arrival to technology and internet adoption in my household. By the time I had even figured out about spoiler sites and destroying some of my favourite shows; Alias or Gilmore Girls it wasn't worth it and definitely not worth the dial-up frustration...
Then in 2005 I picked up on a really enjoyable show aka Bones. Somewhere along the way - after being happy with just getting an episode from a friend - it got to a point that we needed the episode (I blame season 2's greatness) and where it is today, is quite sad. I HAVE-TO-HAVE the episode. I'm blaming spoilers for this problem and well... the internet - and maybe my need to control things.
Maybe it's cause I'm a little too emotionally invested in the storyline and it's characters... so shoot me. Maybe it's cause it's absolutely brilliant storytelling and like every book I am hooked on; I need to turn the next page to find out more (being the new episodes) or maybe I'm a little sadistic in being able to 'drop hints' to my poor friends who are spoiler-free but here's my point:
Truth Takes Time
I'm starting to think that being a spoiler-whore may be ruining the experience of watching television shows and allowing the story to unfold week-to-week as intended but with information at my fingertips, dedicated websites to spoilers on shows or having the ability to either scream with frustration to the creator of the series via twitter or say how brilliant the episode was, it's just to easy and very hard to avoid spoilers about the show. That and I most-likely have no willpower anymore when there is up-to-date access to information via my iPhone or laptop where I spend majority of my time on.
This is probably why...
It's pretty upsetting if I think about it and especially after the mess that happened about 2 weeks ago with a 'critic' posting an article on a pretty big website totally disregarding 'spoiler' warnings that should be an option in an article of that nature. Shouldn't a fan have the choice to read about events that have major impact on the storyline or at least not be shit scared to click on a link about the show that may be of interest to them? Unfortunately, quite a number of fans did read that article and a lot of critics and reporters whom I follow were pretty shocked and disgusted that an article like that was written. One that can totally destroy any type of viewing pleasure when it's basically spoiled the entire episode and future plots. Motivators TV blog had a plea from one of their writers to avoid the spoilers which was brilliantly written and most likely sums up the point of TV, great storytelling and it being another art-form to enjoy
Image: Screen Rant
But maybe that's it, the game is changing. The way we view television is changing from being able to watch an episode and chat with it's stars on twitter (read Annie Stammel's article on Twitter and TV) asking them questions about the episode or being able to completely spoil future episodes by needing to know everything that will happen. It's all down to choice. The choice on how you want to experience the show whether it's to stay spoiler-free - which for me will be highly unlikely even after this post - OR to interact, dig, discuss, build conspiracies and opinions, having that real-time information, instantly at your fingertips even before it has been filmed or aired, will be the way you shape your viewing experience.
For a great explanation on why these things called spoilers exist and most likely why they will never ever disappear - unlike your friends or the online communities that you can just delete - read Annie Stammel's (@Stamos on Twitter) article on the Huffington Post called Lost, Bones, Whatever: Why Not Spoiler-Free TV?
Let me know if I'm not alone... or if I am; maybe leave me a word of encouragement or the nearest clinic
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Twidroid vs HootSuite Lite
Now it may seem unfair comparing an app that has had time to develop into what is has become vs one that has just launched itself on the market - excuse the pun - but it's there. I am fairly addicted to Twitter now so it seems fair for me to play with with both and see which suits my style and choose the winner.
HootSuite Lite
The bird has turned into a robot covering version 1.6 upwards which thank god meant I could use it on my HTC Magic. I'm an AVID HootSuite fan and use it everyday... at work. I can monitor my personal stream and the company I'm working for. The great thing about it; scheduled tweets and the owl.y shortner which is one of the best in the business for tracking your URLs and accessing stats. It just works and it's extremely easy to use, especially when explaining work colleagues how to use it. That brings me onto another point, multiple editors on your Twitter stream via HootSuite. I'm blabering on but you get the drift. I are a fan.
But here comes the but. HootSuite Lite is okay. It's not fantastic and it hasn't blown me away. It does its job. Home screen is like everything else; everyone you follow. To get to the profile you need to access your specific stream, so you have to go back to go forward. Once I'm where I need to be the tabbed options are now at the top of the screen only thing is, they aren't that explanatory. Let me explain; the people you follow, your followers and your lists all have the same icons. Shouldn't you differentiate? Once I have a diddle daddle on my stream, I pressed my 'back' button only to exit the application thinking it would take me back to my stream page, so I had to restart it.
Image: Mashable
I quickly jotted down a list as to what works and what doesn't while I opened the app.
The good:
Twidroid
I've used twidroid for about 5 months now and have been extremely happy with it. The developers are constantly updating it and making it the best it can be. As a free app, it's definitely one of the best on the market and extremely popular on the ever growing Android market with 400K in downloads. Unlike HootSuite, you don't get the option to have multiple streams and will need the PRO for it but that is what I can use Lite for should I need to tweet off my phone for work. I don't have many cons for twidroid but as it stands the only real issue at times is the text size with regards to the layout of the homepage and your profile pages. Anyone with a bit of an eyesight problem is going to battle.
Image: twidroid
Why I use it?
It's definitely going to get interesting between twidroid and HootSuite, especially if the Lite version can up it's game to get to where the twidroid free app is sitting; as an Android twitter app leader.
Enough of what I have to chirp about. If you're an Android user, let me know what your opinion is on the best Twitter app out there?
HootSuite Lite
The bird has turned into a robot covering version 1.6 upwards which thank god meant I could use it on my HTC Magic. I'm an AVID HootSuite fan and use it everyday... at work. I can monitor my personal stream and the company I'm working for. The great thing about it; scheduled tweets and the owl.y shortner which is one of the best in the business for tracking your URLs and accessing stats. It just works and it's extremely easy to use, especially when explaining work colleagues how to use it. That brings me onto another point, multiple editors on your Twitter stream via HootSuite. I'm blabering on but you get the drift. I are a fan.
But here comes the but. HootSuite Lite is okay. It's not fantastic and it hasn't blown me away. It does its job. Home screen is like everything else; everyone you follow. To get to the profile you need to access your specific stream, so you have to go back to go forward. Once I'm where I need to be the tabbed options are now at the top of the screen only thing is, they aren't that explanatory. Let me explain; the people you follow, your followers and your lists all have the same icons. Shouldn't you differentiate? Once I have a diddle daddle on my stream, I pressed my 'back' button only to exit the application thinking it would take me back to my stream page, so I had to restart it.
I quickly jotted down a list as to what works and what doesn't while I opened the app.
The good:
- Big text
- Streams for multiple profile use
- The ow.ly shortner for tracking the URL which only works if you pay $1.99 for the upgrade
- Image platform to ow.ly, again helpful with tracking
- And a feature that will be on both pro and con; the Ads by 140 proof which is integrated into your tweets shown
- The 'back' button option without it closing
- Tabs need a major work and need to be a stable feature
- Ads by 140 proof - people may get irritated
- Going between streams and profiles - going back to go forward at times
- Tabs aren't really helpful at all. One icon for following, followers and lists
Twidroid
I've used twidroid for about 5 months now and have been extremely happy with it. The developers are constantly updating it and making it the best it can be. As a free app, it's definitely one of the best on the market and extremely popular on the ever growing Android market with 400K in downloads. Unlike HootSuite, you don't get the option to have multiple streams and will need the PRO for it but that is what I can use Lite for should I need to tweet off my phone for work. I don't have many cons for twidroid but as it stands the only real issue at times is the text size with regards to the layout of the homepage and your profile pages. Anyone with a bit of an eyesight problem is going to battle.
Why I use it?
- Tabs are at the bottom and the icons differentiate what the options are
- Image uploading is simple and quick
- The option to follow or unfollow while on a profile
- Easy menu options as in one click and I am where I need to be.
- Option to RT with a comment
- Usability is probably the best word in my opinion
It's definitely going to get interesting between twidroid and HootSuite, especially if the Lite version can up it's game to get to where the twidroid free app is sitting; as an Android twitter app leader.
Enough of what I have to chirp about. If you're an Android user, let me know what your opinion is on the best Twitter app out there?
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