Virtual EyeSee » Twitter

What is #FollowFriday on Twitter?

Natasha D'Souza — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 11:10:33 +0000

Twitter has a few memes/games and one of them is the popular #FollowFriday. So on Friday you will see Tweets ending with #FollowFriday.

The rules are simple

1. On Friday

2. Suggest interesting Twitter users to follow

3. @ … #FollowFriday

It’s that simple. The idea behind this is to promote users that you find interesting.

Your followers or anyone checking the Everyone updates will see this Tweet.

It all got started with one simple tweet from Micha Baldwin…

With a suggestion from Mykl Roventine…

And it went wild….

Today FollowFriday is still here and yes there is an official website for it, FollowFriday.com. In addition to this there is

@FOLLOWfriday , @FollowFridays, @

Good old twitter search

So next time it’s Friday, recommend someone. Check out the above sites to find interesting people to follow.

The lighter side of Twitter

Natasha D'Souza — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 11:41:27 +0000

It seems that wherever you turn these days people are talking about Twitter. The bookshelves at the bookstores are lined with books about Twitter, the news constantly quotes tweets, you just seem to get away from hearing about Twitter.

So just when you think that all that needs to be said about Twitter has been said well here’s a new twist ….

100 days of fry and so the story goes…

Stephen Fry is a British actor who is fairly popular on Twitter.

Morgan Ritchie is a cartoonist that took one of Stephen Fry’s tweet each day and illustrated it.

Why?

100 Days of Fry is an editorial illustration project based around the micro blogging website Twitter. The aim is to produce 100 drawings celebrating the site’s most celebrated tweeter, Stephen Fry. The challenge will be to see if I can produce an illustration per day, for one hundred days, based purely around what he tweets. I will post each image via twitpic and flickr the following day (so as to collect as much information about Stephen’s Fry day as possible!).

There you have it… 100 days of fry.

There are updates on Flickr, Facebook and Twitpic.

So what does this tell you about Stephen Fry’s days?

Must have social media tools to engage your customers

Natasha D'Souza — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 00:29:49 +0000

I presented at the OCRI, Zone5ive event today and I focused on must have social media tools to engage your customers. As I was preparing for this presentation I needed to figure out a starting point as customer engagement is as vague as being “green”. So I took a look at the websites of companies that typically attended these events to find a starting point.

To explain where I came from I used the analogy of social media being the invitation to the house party and the house being the company website. I went further to stress that if the house either did not exist nor was structurally strong then the party would fail.

So my starting point was reinforcing the house and creating the invitations.

Details are in the following presentation.

Must Have Social Media Tools To Engage Your Customers

View more presentations from Virtual EyeSee.

My goal was to let the people in the room leave with information that they could use to implement these basic social media tools into their websites and social media marketing mix.

The room was fairly silent with not a lot of questions however I did notice a fair bit of note taking. I guess it’s a very different dynamic from the interactive workshops that I am used to giving.

So if you were at the presentation today and have had time to digest this do you have any further questions? If you do, then drop me a line via this post and we can take it from there. Remember there is not such thing as a stupid question. Also there are other people out there that have the same questions in mind.

Social Media Summer Series

Natasha D'Souza — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 21:08:22 +0000

Summer is here, although it’s hard to believe due to all the rainy cold days we have been having lately. It’s also the time when most people take their vacations and the office is generally quite and things slow down a little.

So if you are looking for some excitement how about some personal development on the social media front. We have just launched our Social Media Summer Series.

Three great topics to inspire and enlighten you to embark on a social media adventure.

Twitter demystified – July 14th 9:30am-noon

There has been a lot of hype around Twitter lately and most people sign up and don’t know what to do after that. They quickly loose interest. Twitter is a microblog and if used effectively can be very effective communication tool.

Flickr & YouTube – a key to the success of a Social Media Campaign – July 21st 9:30am-noon

Flickr is a photo sharing site and what has this got to do with anything? Images are interesting and entertaining so what better way to get your message across using an image.

YouTube is a video sharing site and too can be used very effectively from a business perspective. There are many ways and it’s not just about amateur videos but professional ones as well.

Blog and website design using WordPress – Aug. 18th 9:30am-noon

Blogs are getting increasingly popular today. WordPress is a free open source content management tool that can be used both as a Blog and to design a website as well.

So why is social media becoming so popular these days? People do spend a fair bit of their time online whether it’s for work, their own personal use or entertainment. As a business it’s very important to have a presence in these places or be part of these communities and connect with them in a meaningful way.

It’s not about spamming them or telling them about your product or service. It’s about establishing a connection with them.

These seminars have been designed to show you the how to as well as the different ways these tools can be used.

Registration

Twitter demystified – July 14th 9:30am-noon

Flickr & YouTube – a key to the success of a Social Media Campaign – July 21st 9:30am-noon

Blog and website design using WordPress – Aug. 18th 9:30am-noon

So take advantage of this great learning opportunity and sign up for these sessions. See you there.

Michael Jackson and Social Media

Natasha D'Souza — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 22:49:44 +0000

June 25th was an interesting day as there was a flurry of activity online especially Twitter. As the morning progressed RIP Farrah Fawcett and Farrah Fawcett replaced Iran on the top 10 trending topics on Twitter. However as the afternoon progressed there were a number of tweets stating that TMZ had confirmed that Michael Jackson was dead. Soon the trending changed to RIP Michael Jackson and other similar versions. This trend has continued since then.

My newsfeed on Facebook was filled with updates from my friends giving their thoughts on the impact of his passing on their lives.

The Bloggosphere was filled with content where people expressed their opinions on the situation or the impact of his music to their lives.

Here is the scoop.

A social media analysis during the Michael Jackson Memorial Event

From a technological perspective it has stretched most sites like Twitter, Facebook etc.. to the limits as people view, share and post updates from June 25th to the Memorial Event.

Blogs

Well what can I say, there are millions of Blogs out there with everyone giving their opinion since June 25th. Some spread gossip, speculation, rumours, defending their friend MJ, news outlets and finally the every day people giving their experience of MJ in their lives.

Facebook

The activity online has surpassed the inauguration of Barack Obama. His Facebook Page has topped over 7 Millions Fans!!! The most popular application being the free virtual MJ glove.

According to Mashable, there have been over 500k updates posted to Facebook. This is probably why I have managed to get onto Facebook only once today.

There are many discussions started on his Fan Page and it appears that this page is unmoderated. Do check it out, I do have to warn you that some of the content is very offensive.

Twitter

There are various trending topics on Twitter that has been changing at a record pace as the Memorial Event progresses today.

Some topics were M’s, We are the world, Gone too soon, KFC, MJs and much more. So what has KFC got to do with MJ? Majic Johnson shared a story of his dinner invite to MJ’s house where he was blown away that MJ ate KFC.

You Tube

The types of videos on YouTube vary from MJ Memorial Tickets for sale to scenes from outside the Staples Centre. Fans videos and much more. The news channels also posted their videos here as well.

Flickr

There were a lot of updates on Flickr. These images are by various people that were outside the Staples Centre. It gives great insight to what was going on outside.

MySpace

The live feed had a lot of updates

Other

MTV

Provided live streaming of the MJ Memorial Event.

Twitter updates….

Facebook Connect

Online News

The Globe and Mail

The Globe and Mail used Coverit Live to provide live coverage of the MJ Memorial Event.

The comments were disabled due to the high volume of participants and offensive participants.

Macleans

Live blogging as well as aMacleans posted the moving video of Paris, Michael Jackson’s daughter.This video was posted on YouTube by CNN Live.

Live Streaming

CBS

CBS provided live coverage of the Memorial event. They used Facebook Connect.

CNN

Facebook Connect to follow the conversations on Facebook. Your Voice, the capability to email your comments.

The online news channels did a great job of quoting some of the comments from Facebook and Twitter.

So what does this all mean?

In the past our only source of news would have been the media outlets possibly with live TV/Radio coverage and the newspapers possibly creating special editions that evening or the next day.

Social Media has now changed all of this with the traditional news channels competing with every day citizens to provide the news. It has also given us the incredible ability to express ourselves, our emotions and connect with each other. It has also enabled us to break down geographic barriers and socioeconomic as well. We can now share information instantly via photos, videos, text and audio as well as give our feedback on what is going on or what we think or feel.

What’s important is not just what the media channels are saying but the news from the eyes of the everyday citizen. This certainly does not make traditional media obsolete but just provides a more balanced perspective.

What’s been great is the way these traditional media have now embraced social media and are finding their own flavor of incorporating them into their reporting.

Since June 25th Michael Jackson has been dominating the online channels and has given people the opportunity to express their sorrow and grief. The flip side is that this topic has overshadowed other news worthy events.

Now that Michael Jackson can rest in peace these social media channels will be free to discuss the next big event.

Some further analysis

Michael Jackson’s Massive Impact (On Google, Facebook, and Yahoo)

Michael Jackson Dies: Twitter Tributes Now 30% of Tweets

Michael Jackson and Social Media

Witnessing The Growth Of Social Media With Michael Jackson’s Death

The World Was Watching: Michael Jackson’s Memorial, By The Numbers

King of Pop Proves to be King of Traffic: Traffic for Michael Jackson’s Online Memorial Pushes Internet’s Limits

How using Social Media has helped me be a better Dad

Natasha D'Souza — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 14:59:03 +0000

Mother’s Day was last month and to celebrate I hosted a special evening, Social Media Moms Nite out. In researching this event I found out that there were a lot of Mom bloggers in Ottawa. The reason mom blogger was that they were moms of different ages but blogged about their kids or hobbies not work or business. Now that it’s Father’s Day I thought that I would see what the Daddy bloggers’ are up to. So with the same criteria in mind I trolled the web and Twitter.

So here’s a few dads that I came across. Not a whole lot, it seems that Dads don’t seem too keen on talking about their kids and fatherhood they seem to talk about everything else but.

I did find a few so here’s some of them.

How using social media has helped me be a better dad

This is a great blog post by Jeremy Biser from the Remarkable Parents site.

“A few years ago, I didn’t even know what “social media” was.

I read the newspaper, a few magazines and when I went online it was for work or to manage my fantasy sports teams. I thought a blog was something that people used to share pictures with their family members, and My Space was the place where pervs and wannabe musicians hung out to seduce young girls.”

He talks about his ignorance about social media and how he wouldn’t have grounded his daughter for signing up for My Space. He would have still grounded her for lying about her age.

He is now a tech savvy parent teaching his friends and neighbors about social media. He talks about the social media that he uses on a regular basis. He then states how does all this social media stuff help me be a better dad?

It’s a great read.

Discovering Dad

Family and Parenting

Husbands and Dads

The Life of a Father of Five

7 Green Dads

Now a list of Twitter Dads. And finally Dads do make time for play.

Enjoy, Happy belated Father’s Day.

The King of Twitter

Natasha D'Souza — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 16:21:57 +0000

The King of Twitter is apparently Ashton Kutcher according to Oprah Winfrey. He is on Oprah Live today if you want to get the scoop.

A few months ago I started following him to learn how celebrities are using Twitter. Since the mainstream media has been writing about this face, his followers have increased and so have other celebrities joining Twitter.

What makes this attractive to their fans is the fact that they get the inside scoop on what’s going on from the celebrities themselves. The paparattzzi might just go out of business. That’s wishful thinking.

A lot of people say that they don’t what to know who had coffee or what they eat for breakfast. Well if you are a celebrity then your fans definitely want to know this kind of stuff. It’s turning out to be a great way to promote yourself and celebrities are capitalizing on this to create their own perception of themselves and one that is different from the tabloids.

For all you celebrity obsessed there is try out Celebwitter, they track all the celebs on Twitter. Apparently Ashton go 1Million followers before CNN did!

It now turns out that Oprah is not only on Facebook but on Twitter. Maybe I will DM her, do you think she will respond?

Twitter Poll

Natasha D'Souza — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 13:16:17 +0000

For the longest time it was referred to a Tweet. You tweet someone on Twitter. Then the traditional media picked up on it and now I hear Twit or Twittering. So given that everyone is jumping on Twitter what is it supposed to be?

Twit

Twittering

I have added a poll on LinkedIn. I will update you on the results.

Educational Tweets from Twitter, Mesh 2009

Natasha D'Souza — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 16:18:07 +0000

erin_bury: We can see each other truly as equals -all carry different impressions of who we are in the world – false dichotomy of poor and rich #mesh09

JodiEchakowitz: Non profits take note: you can’t bond with a brochure or a statistic. Need to put a human face on what you are doing. #mesh09

CandiceShirreff: What’s worked for kiva.org? Know your mission, stay open, iterate, connect individuals and Just Start! #mesh09

erin_bury: We can see each other truly as equals -all carry different impressions of who we are in the world – false dichotomy of poor and rich #mesh09

meshcon: Seeing everyday people as business partners rather than a charity case – Jackley hoping Kiva can help ppl see each other as equals #mesh09

mikeminer: Blogs worth reading if you liked Jessica Jackley’s talkhttp://www.afrigadget.com/ http://www.nextbillion.net/ #mesh09

nQuo: Re: Social class and inequality: ” It’s a false dichotomy.” – Jessica Jackson#mesh09

erin_bury: Kiva launching in N America – maybe now you’ll be lending to a friend who lost their job instead of someone halfway across the world #mesh09

stompr: In today’s new world, you must see employers as partners, not simply employers anymore. #jobsearch #mesh09

ohnmeadows: RT @zunaid: RT @drupeek: “You can erase failure with iteration”… Amazing. #mesh09

paiiige: okay, i’m a bit of a charity-phobe. but very much falling in love with kiva.org and its transparency and social/community standing #mesh09

beccatronic: #mesh09 Kiva coming to the US? How will microfinance work in bloated 1st world economy? No question there is need, but $500 doesn’t go far.

dbarefoot: Kiva.org lending team formed at #mesh09. $125 loaned in the last hour. A good start: http://www.kiva.org/team/mesh

erin_bury: @jessicajackley says “I feel like I could retire on happiness” – that must be an incredible feeling! #mesh09

cmcglade: #mesh09 fave quote Jessica from Kiva “it is wild to have reality outpace your dreams”. Nice.

Twestival

Natasha D'Souza — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 21:52:06 +0000

Tweet. Meet. Give = twestival

Ottawa will join over 184 cities across the globe in bringing people together through twitter to raise money and awareness for charity. The charity of choice is Water – a non-profit organization bringing clean, save drinking water to people in developing nations by funding sustainable clean water solutions in areas of greatest need.

When:Feb. 12th 2009

Where: Suite 34, 34 Clarence St.

Time: 7pm

For those with small donations under $100 you can purchase tickets. So come on out and have fun for a good cause.