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“This site explores social media training and provides a resource for those looking to evangelize social media in their organizations.”
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Useful bunch of resources.
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Nick Douglas – formally of Valleywag – has started a new video blog.
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Very comprehensive blog post from Shel Holtz. A great resource.
Twitterific
Twitter is becoming an indispensable tool for me – albeit one I didn’t know I needed until I started using it in a big way. I guess that as with a lot of these social networking type utilities, Metcalfe’s law applies – the more people use it, the more useful it is. Now I am following a number of people, and them tuning into my updates, suddenly I can’t get enough of pinging little messages around: about what I am doing, or what I need to know, or how I can help others.
So what is Twitter? Well, it’s a ‘micro-blogging’ service. You’re limited to 160 characters per post. That limit is important, because it means you can use text messages from your mobile phone to update your status, and also to receive them from others.
As every good Web 2.0 service should, Twitter has released an API, meaning that others can building applications which ‘mashup’ Twitter with other services to make it more useful. A good example is Dave Winer‘s Twittergram, which lets you post short bursts of audio onto Twitter; or hashtags, which allows people to post on, and follow memes through Twitter.
Dan York has an excellent post on the ways he uses Twitter. I’ve quoted his headings below:
- Twitter as News Source
- Twitter as Knowledge Network
- Twitter as Virtual Water Cooler
- Twitter as a way to stay up-to-date with friends
- Twitter as a Travelogue
- Twitter to Track Conferences
- Twitter as a PR/marketing Tool
- Twitter as a Learning Tool
- Twitter as Fun
- Twitter as a Daily Lesson in Humility (and Brevity)
Today the service has had a little trouble though, and I blame Macworld. So many people will be sending Twitter updates from their mobile phones and laptops about the big breaking news from Steve Jobs’ keynote that the whole thing is under considerable strain. And Twitter isn’t the hardiest service at the best of times. More on this from Duncan Riley at Techcrunch. How hard would it be, I wonder, for some to just copy Twitter, but back it with sufficient infrastructure to actually work all the time?
Finally, a quick real world example of how Twitter can genuinely be helpful. Last week sometime, my good friend Steve Dale sent out a message requesting that someone suggest an example of a ‘shout box’ on a website. I responded within a few moments, giving a URL of a site where I had just added shoutbox functionality. Steve was in a meeting at the time, and those who were waiting for the shoutbox example were left open mouthed at the speed of this forum of communication and collaboration.
You can follow my latest Twitter updates in the widget on the left of this blog. Alternatively, join Twitter yourself and add me to your follow list!
Podcasts
I like podcasts. I certainly hope the current developments in streamed video don’t mean the death of downloadable audio and video in the near future. Here’s the list of ones I am currently subscribed to and listen on a regular basis. There’s a lot of ’em, but not every episode gets listened to all the way through – with a couple of exceptions…
- For Immediate Release – Neville Hobson and Shel Holtz talk social media, communications and PR, and discuss the latest fads and spats on the way. Indispensable listening for me
- Guardian Unlimited Football Weekly – Great discussion of the week’s footy news
- Guardian Unlimited MediaTalk – I love hearing about all the media gossip and scandals. This is a world I will never be a part of, but I delight in hearing about it
- Mark Kermode’s film reviews – flawless. Has he ever been wrong about a film? And Simon Mayo is the perfect foil for him.
- Scobleshow – Very interested in what he does next.
- Rocketboom – OK, so I just subscribed to this to see how video worked on my iPod. It’s stayed in my subscription list, and serves as a distraction now and again
- In Our Time – Marvelously eclectic. My personal favourite was the one on negative numbers, which left Melvyn Bragg thoroughly bewildered
- Start the Week – Again, high quality, mixed up discussed, ably chaired by Andrew Marr – whose A History of Modern Britain I really need to get round to reading.
Am I missing anything amazing?
Councillor 2.0
Just popped up on the Gallomanor blog – Cllr 2.0:
The Ministry of Justice Innovations Fund II approved a bid from Gallomanor and Norfolk County Council to help set this record straight. We’re filming a group of six Norfolk County Councillors as we train them on how to blog. The film along with a introductory booklet will be distributed to public sector organisations to help them convince their decision makers, their civic leaders that using the internet and blogging in particular are good communication tools. We’ll also be setting up a series of Q&A session with local bloggers for the first 25 local authorities wanting to run them.
Great stuff! And perfect for my Public Sector Social Media meet on the 26th Feb. I have emailed Shane at Gallomanor to see if he and maybe someone from Norfolk CC can come along and chat to us about the project, which has its own blog (of course!) at http://cllr2pointzero.wordpress.com/.
Andrew Brown is also involved in Cllr 2.0, whose blog I have been subscribed to for a while now.
Another good example of councillors blogging is at Chester City Council, with their Chesterblogs project. I had emailed their generic web team address about this, and whether they would like to be involved, but sadly never heard anything back.