Uba Kontrovasie

Tweet with caution!

I was out partying not to so long ago and having access to twitter via mobile, whilst you’re drunk is not a good idea.

I must have tweeted about how drunk I was, why? I don’t quite know, I suppose using twitter has become akin to using the phone. You often call people whilst you’re drunk and I suppose tweeting whilst you’re drunk is the next step after using twitter becomes second nature.

Anyway a friend of mine Googled my name and guess what got indexed? My drunken tweet! Not a very good example of “personal reputation management”.

I found the whole thing quite hilarious, hope you guys do too.

Tags: faux pas, funny, Lifestreaming, Micro Blogging, Twitter

Geek Meet

So I attented twestival earlier during the week, a sort of social media, web2 and netrentrepreneur gathering all organised via twitter.

This was definitely the first media event I had attended, which had been organised through twitter. Some people were shocked about how many agency bods had attended but then what did they expect? A web2 gathering in the middle of the west end, I’ll say no more.

Amongst all free booze and food, there was talk of xmpp, cisco systems delivering the next big thing and apparently twitter being dead in the next year or so, oh well you can’t please them all.

I had a laugh catching up with a few familiar faces and I look forward to next twitter co-ordinated bash.

Tags: geeks, Micro Blogging, social media, twestival, Twitter, web2

Benefits of Microblogging - A real world example

Microblogging has so many versatile marketing uses, however, clients question why they should use microblogs and what are the real benefits?

I could probably sit here and write 10 or more obvious reasons, however, one of the most important reasons has to be search engine visibility…I will lend you my real world example:

I bought a lovely pair of Nike Vomero 3 running shoes two weeks ago and ever since I have been busy putting them through their paces. As I have been so happy with them I decided to do a few searches in order to see what other people had to say about them.

As soon as I queried “Nike Vomero3” a twitter tweet ranked No.2 (Google UK & No.1 Google UK (UK)) providing a good review of the shoe. So there we are, there’s the head smacker…search engine visibility!

Not only are microblogs social media platforms which syndicate information, facilitate conversation and enable community building; they are also capable of providing good search engine visibility over time. This is something that many DR centric brands will value.

Tags: DR, Micro Blogging, microblog, social media, tweet, Twitter

Seesmic - Video Microblogging

I’m sure we’ll hear a TLA or an abbreviation for Video Microblogging at some point so I might as well have an attempt….V-Mlogging, sound good? :-/

Seesmic is just hours of entertainment to be quite frank, but there are some serious innovative marketing uses a facility like this can provide.

We’ve all seen how effectively businesses have used twitter, Seesmic provides much more sticky and engaging content through video. Video posts on average seem to receive more replies in comparison to text tweets on twitter (try saying that with a mouthful).

With me being a preacher of all things video at moment it goes without saying: Seesmic is definitely one to watch and one to get involved with too!

Tags: Micro Blogging, seesmic, social media, video, Video Content, video microblog

Plurk another Microblog?

I stumbled upon Plurk the other day, a new dare I say it twitter. It is however not to be confused with twitter as it has some genuine distinguishing features.

Data visualization being one of them, yes I know “Data Visualisation” is such a buzzword at the moment with lots of websites pouring money into Java Applets which show information in lots of pretty ways.

Plurk however plots your Plurks into a progressive trend line across the times of the day. The more you participate the more “Karma” you receive.

I’m trying to get to the bottom what you’ll actually receive for really good Karma, however it is a great way to get people involved.

Other features include a ready to drop widget for WP and other popular blogging platforms. I was Mucho impressed by the ease of this, a simple copy and paste of code and re-position in CSS will have your Plurks on your blog in minutes. Although this has been done with twitter I think the ease of use is commendable.

As somebody who hasn’t yet committed to the Microblogging realm I think I’m going to give Plurk a test drive and see how it fits.

Tags: Blogging, Java, Micro Blogging, Plurk, Twitter