Blog Archives
Twitter is a form of SOCIAL Media – A Rant
Twitter overtook my love of Facebook nearly two years ago. After being asked by lots of people for help I even run workshops and one to ones for people to get them cracking with it for their work. There are a couple of things I need to get off my chest though.
Automated tweets
Lately it has been brought to my attention that more (lazy/busy/far too important to interact) people are using automated tweets constantly. If you use Twitter youself you’ll notice the type of account. Endless repetition of the same posts, the same marketing messages over and over again. Yawn.
Now of course there are times when I will post something more than once but I don’t schedule for the same things to be repeated time and time again. I’ve seen accounts where there is hardly any interaction with anyone, just dry boring accounts that show no creativity or personality.
Followers for the sake of followers
There’s plenty of sites you can go on and add your Twitter handle so you get lots of followers (or false followers as I like to call them). Surely it’s better to have people following you because they are like-minded and interested in what you have to offer? I am much more likely to respect genuinely organic accounts based on their ability to engage, interact and provide great content. This applies for individuals, organisations, and businesses alike. Some do it really well, others not so much. Also if I tweet or follow someone, I don’t want an automated response. I don’t want a one size fits all direct message. I want a SOCIAL, friendly reply. You can’t do this if you automate all of your tweets at the beginning of a working week and just use it as tickbox marketing exercise.
Credit where credit’s due
If you see a tweet and like it, retweet and share it. Try and credit the account by using the RT facility, it’s a nice thing to do. Try not to steal other people’s ideas because that’s not very nice. If you want to make it more likely that someone will retweet you, try and keep your tweets to approximately 120 rather than the allowable 140 characters (depending on the length of your Twitter handle). You can work it out exactly if you count the characters in your Twitter handle and add 5 characters (RT plus two spaces and the colon that is added when you RT. So mine is 18).
RTspace@StaceInspire:space = 18 characters
For example for someone to RT my tweets easily I know that I would have to keep to 122 characters.
Follow, follow, follow, follow, follow the interesting people (sing to the tune of yellow brick road obv).
Follow accounts that interest you and people will follow you too if you are tweeting things they are interested in and content that is relevant to them. Don’t expect everyone to follow you back and don’t feel the need to follow everyone who follows you. You may not necessarily be interested in their content or vice versa.
TASBO – Twitter Anti-Social Behaviour Order
After the success (snigger) of Anti Social Behaviour Orders or ASBOs as they affectionately known, I would like to introduce TASBOs. Twitter Anti-Social Behaviour Orders. For the bores, for the over-automated accounts, for those that create an account and never interact at all unless they want to sell us something.
Ooh, that reminds me….If your Twitter needs a spring clean use Twitcleaner, it produces a report to tell you who is worth keeping and who it may be worth clicking on that unfollow button for. Nifty.
Stace’s final thought…
Schedule a few tweets if you wish but please, constant automation, repetition, unresponsiveness and anti- social behaviour should not be tolerated. Twitter is SOCIAL media. If you can’t be bothered to be sociable go away and use something else. It’s too good an opportunity to make some great connections both personally and professionally.
Here ends this evening’s Twittery rant…
Peace out tweeple.
Stace x
Follow me on Twitter @StaceInspire
7 Twitter tips to inspire new tweeters
After a lot of requests for help using Twitter I’ve been running workshops which are going down really well. You can see the upcoming dates here.
Here’s a quick free guide I put together for Twitter newbies.
Stacey
My first official 5K Park Run
This morning, one week after graduating Couch to 5K I ran my first Park Run in Brueton Park. Park runs are officially timed runs which go on all over the country for people at all levels (thankfully!). You can find your nearest one here.
It was a bit early for me on a Saturday morning. We usually just sit in bed and watch cookery programmes! I got up early enough to have a cup of tea and a Digestive biscuit. My Uncle who runs marathons said he would come with me and so I picked him up and we made our way to Brueton Park. I’m not used to running with anyone at all so when I saw so many other people it was a bit scary! My brother popped up out of nowhere to support me which was a nice surprise. Once we’d started it was fine although it took me until about three quarters of the way through to fully believe I was going to finish, despite it being my 4th 5K! Must keep the faith. I was very pleased when I had done it.
Just finished! (Photo courtesy of race photographer Kevin Baldry)
My shady ankle behaved until afterwards when it was very stiff but I’m going to just keep it elevated after each run and hope it strengthens. At lunch time the results were put on the website and I was pleased I had actually beat my personal best by 3 mins 26 seconds.
Click to see the route on Endomondo
I’m glad I did it. Next step is to start the Bridge to 10K on Monday and start training for my 10K Race for Life!
Stace x
Follow me @StaceInspire
Couch to 5K – Week Two
Saturday 3rd March 2012 pm
Just did my first run of week 2. Man bought me some new gear to run in today so I got out there before it got dark. I am going on a different route each time so I don’t get bored and I managed to exceed my two mile goal and did 2.23 miles. Despite being tired after a late night last night and feeling a bit shoddy it weirdly felt easier than run 3 of week one. Wooo! Oh and my Uncle Steven who runs has suggested this great website to me www.parkrun.org.uk which you may find interesting. I am hoping to do the one in Brueton Park Solihull WHEN I reach that 5K goal.
Friday 9th March 2012 pm
I did my week two runs on Saturday, Monday and Wednesday. On Saturday I did a good distance and was chuffed with my new gear. Monday and Wednesday were a bit more difficult because the wind seemed to be conspiring against me although I managed my longest distance of 2.5 miles. I was very tired on Wednesday but I made myself go for a run before I settled down for the night and despite it being my shortest distance (and Endomondo posting it to my bloody Facebook) I was pleased I made myself do it. Too easy to use excuses not to. So, it’s now Friday, I am going to start week three this weekend and just hope it’s not impossible.
Stace
@StaceInspire
Inspire at the Mind, Body, Spirit Festival Easter Weekend 2010
Some of you will know that in October I joined forces with my ex work colleague and friend Lynette to set up a business called Inspire. We have combined our skills and experiences and are offering Drug Awareness and Training, Complementary Therapies and Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT). We spent the months up to the New Year getting all of our marketing materials sorted and since then we have been steadily growing. This Easter weekend we exhibited for the first time at the White Light Mind, Body & Spirit Festival in Solihull.
Me and Lynette on our very first exhibition stand!
We had to get there quite early for a Saturday. I enjoyed the quietness of the roads until I hit Blossomfield Road and the new speed cameras! The event was at a really good venue called Cranmore Park in Shirley, Solihull. I met Lynette there and Lindsey also came along to help us. Lindsey Cheers of Couture Designs fame designed all of our marketing materials as well as our website (with techy support and advice from Dave CompMagic). If you ever need anything designing, or need a new website then contact them, they are both brilliant!
It took a while for us to get the stand looking right. Think there must be a joke in there somewhere. How many blondes does it take to set up an exhibiton stand? Apparently three. Anyway, this was the finished product.
As this was a Mind Body Spirit Event there were a variety of different exhibitors. Our friends Jason and Louise from Discover Serenity were there as were Jo and Rob from Meta Medicine who trained Lynette and I as EFT Practitioners. There were also stands offering psychic readings, incense, crystals, Buddhas for sale, massage demos, energy healing demos and lots of other weird and wonderful things. Part of me is still a cynic about some things but I was determined to keep an open mind. If something works and helps someone then it’s all cool to me. I did end up going to one of the talks but I have to confess it was all a bit lala land for me and I came out before the demonstration started. I’m sure she was a really lovely lady and is helping a lot of people but it was a bit too far out for me.
We have been lucky enough to have had a lot of support from our friends and family and I was chuffed that a lot of people came to see me. On Saturday my Mom came along with my Nan, Auntie Linda and my little cousin Becky. Between them they bought two head massagers, crystals and my Nan had a food sensitivity test. Even my Dad came in the morning to have a browse around and he bought an amethyst. My brother Rick and his girlfriend came with some of her family too. I think he especially liked the camp looking psychic, haha. My mother in law Pam and her cousin Wendy came and they went to a few talks, one about past life regression!
Me and my Mom on the stand
On Sunday, day two it was somewhat quieter but the interest was consistent. We met so many lovely people. Lynette is a healer and she often gets this funny thing out and dangles it (she’ll love this 
) and until yesterday I had never really asked what it was all about. Turns out it was a crystal dowser. You can ask it questions (as long as it’s a yes or no anwser) and it gives you the answer. Initially I thought it was a load of rubbish but she demonstrated it to me and I was a bit freaked out by the results! Hence I went over to the nice man who sold them and got one for myself. Here it is.
JB came to see us and bought me a sandwich for my lunch. He isn’t the most open minded so I think he was both amused and bemused by a lot of the other stands but it was nice that he came to show his support (and the ham and brie sandwich was nice too). Surprise of the day was my mate Nid randomly turning up to see what it was all about. He left with a dowser himself (after he was also surprised by how it seemed to just work!) and necklaces for his Mom and girlfriend.
It was so interesting to speak to all the different types of people there. I’d expected it to be full of older females but there was a mixture of ages and also a lot more men than I thought there would be. One I met was a pagan druid. Interesting conversation!
Overall we had a great weekend, although we were tired and hungry by the end of it all. A lot of people will have our details now and time will tell if the event was all worth it. I think it will have been.
Remember you can see all about what we are doing on our Inspire website, follow us on Twitter and become a fan on Facebook too!
Peace, love, empathy
Stace x
