Whatever

William – you have thrown down the  gauntlet.  I see this as a personal challenge to show you how the key social networking sites are useful for both individuals and businesses.   I’m working on a blog post at the moment which will try and explain this in more detail but in the mean time I’m going to ask some of my events colleagues on Twitter to give you some of their experiences.    

I also totally agree with Will.  Like him, I followed Peter Kerwood’s (great) instructions as I felt I should keep up with the trend, after all, everyone is twittering on about Twitter!  I am afraid that I still don’t get it. Like Will  I have one follower, probably the same stalker wanting to sell me something.  With respect Will, I am not really interested in who you had lunch with and I am sure you feel the same about me.

I spoke with my two 20 something year old daughters about this.  One has dropped out of both Facebook and Twitter altogether.  The other is active on Facebook  but told me yesterday that she never uses her Twitter account.

Is this a case of “The Emperor’s New Clothes”?

Deborah,

I understand entirely what you are saying. From a personal perspective I dont understand why anyone else would be interested in whether I am off to the toilet, reading a book, or simply talking to my neighbour. I can think of nothing worse than people knowing about what I do and where i go in my personal life.

However from a work perspective it has become a valuable tool to nearly every journalist and editor that wishes to stay ahead of the game. A great example is if an agency wins a massive contract and it tweets about it. This allows us the opportunity to chase what could be a breaking story before anyone else has a clue about it. It also keeps you up to date with the industry happenings.

I hope that sheds some more light on the subject

William - I was a bit sceptical of Twitting too at first - what's it for!?  However, like all social networking sites, you get out what you put in.  If you spend some time finding decent people // commentators // companies // magazines to follow, it pays off. E.g. they tell you things you want to hear, whether it be news, freebies, gigs, interesting links - it's a way of sharing knowledge with people.  One thing that may be worth doing is goog-ling who the best people to follow are within your interests, because there's a lot of pointless stuff out there.  In terms of marketing your own company, it never hurts to get more exposure so I usually update it three or four times a day with something ridiculous // pertinent.  It's surprising how it starts snowballing.

It's 'elluva morish mind you.

@ Deborah - phew I thought I might be the only one! but as you can see by the '@' stuff I am getting drwan in...  

@Jeremy & Dan - I am starting to see how it might work for us, and I will stalk / follow you to really understand it.

Will, Jeremy & Dan .... we are going to have to stop meeting like this (or at least crack open a bottle of wine and do it in a civilised manner)!  

Jeremy, I read your comments last night and as it was so late I still didn't really get it.  However, whilst walking the dog on the fells (which is when I am able to do my best thinking) this morning it all began to fall into place. One problem for Pergola is that we have done several events for high profile footballers (sadly, Cristiano Ronaldo isn't one of them!) and much as we would like to blow our own trumpets about this, we always keep their identities confidential so it is not something we would crow about on Twitter.

However, I do now fully understand how Twitter can work in different areas and shall be suggesting Twitter to various local communities who wish to become much more high profile .... and like Will, continue to stick with it. Think I shall start by stalking all three of you  :-S !!