Twitter « Christopher Ross

Archive for the ‘Twitter’ Category

18
Nov
2009

Is Twitter Good for Stalking?

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As you may of read on my website before, I don’t get Twitter. I mean, I have it (http://twitter.com/thisismyurl/) and I’ve programmed my blog to update it but honestly, I simply don’t get it, nor … do I care to get it. Actually, everything about it seems pointless to me from the cute little status updates to peoples self promotional content.

I will admit it, I simply don’t get Twitter. I think I’m too old (35) to get it so today while guest lecturing a class in business to 25 high school students, all armed with mobile phones, iPhones, Blackberries and most Facebooking during the lecture I asked for a show of hands.

“How many of you have Facebook?” I asked knowingly and was actually surprised when one girl didn’t put up her hand. Even the teacher had it.

“How many of you use YouTube?” I next queried. Everybody again raised their hand.

“How many have seen Plenty of Fish?” I asked. One overly energetic youth volunteered. “How many have seen it but not used it?”, again most hands went up. Finally … I was ready for the big question, the one that would help me bridge the boring business lecture into something awesome, something that would let me tap into the spinal cord of the next generation and finally ask the question that I was dying to ask …

“How many of you have Twitter?”

Silence.

Worse than silence in fact, one girl asked me what was Twitter? It was like I’d asked how many bauds their modem was. Complete, unadulterated, unconnected, uninvolved, uninterested silence.

It was like the room came to a stand still, like there was a traffic accident but a boring one at the front of the room. Even the teacher looked puzzled. I tried to recover, go onto the next part of my prepared speech but then it happened, some kid that looked like he should have been in Fast Times at Ridgemount High spoke up, “I think my mom has Twitter”. This of course caused another student to blurt out that he’d Twittered your mom and of course it set off a chain of more open, more honest but equally confused questions and what Twitter was and why they should care about it.

After I explained Twitter by describing it as a social media micro blogging platform, the looked confused. Then I explained it was like Facebook’s status updates but without the rest, simple a place where you could update your status in short sentences and people could see what you’re up to … this led to the best question about Twitter I think I’ve ever heard from one girl in the class, “So Twitter’s for stalking me?”.

btw, I’m not the first to discover this …

Tags: Blackberries, blog, Boring Business, Business Lecture, Energetic Youth, Fish, High School Students, Mobile Phones, Modem, Mom, Next Generation, Show Of Hands, Silence, Spinal Cord, Stalking, status updates, Traffic Accident
Posted in Twitter

11
Aug
2009

Five things I wish I could have told myself 10 years ago.

3 Comments

Back when I was a young(ish) pup doing design work in Toronto, I made a lot of bonehead decisions. Most, but not all I came to regret later on and looking back, here are some things that I wish I could tell myself:

Stop chasing technology.

Back in 1998 the big technology was HTML, Flash scripting and Perl but as the Internet began to really take off I was introduced to hundreds of options including several new flavors of HTML, multiple new programming languages (PHP, ASP etc) and new technologies weekly. While it served me well to understand most of these, it was a waste of time to try to follow most of them.

My advice to myself: Stop trying to master multiple technologies. Instead, focus on one and keep your eyes open for signs that it’s time to learn more after you’ve mastered the first.

Listen to your elders.

I appreciate that this is advice every ‘generation’ tries to give to the next but in my case, I really wish somebody had pointed this out to me. Not because those older then me know anything (especially about the web) but because … everybody likes to be listened to.

My advice to myself: Take advise from those who offer it and try to learn as much as you can so that you don’t have to repeat others mistakes.

Invest in plastics.

No, not plastics … the Internet. Well, I did that (as you can tell) but the advice is still sound. More to the point, never be afraid to predict what the future might hold and prepare yourself for it. Luck it appears isn’t random, those who are ready when opportunity knocks are often the ones we later consider “lucky”.

My advice to myself: Invest in the future, live in the present and learn from the past.

Jobs come from people, not companies.

People send you work when you’re competent and charismatic, companies never send you work. I wish I’d known this sooner but apparently, business decisions are made by people based on a number of factors including how well they like you, the quality of your work and how punctual you are.

My advice to myself: Be good like a waiter … get it to them on time, make it look great and keep a smile on your face.

Never be afraid to fail.

In my life I’ve learnt more from failure then I ever did in school. Don’t be afraid to fail, don’t be afraid to fall down and certainly don’t be afraid to look like a fool. Taking chances is how you get ahead in life and the more chances you’re successful at, the further ahead you’ll be.

My advice to myself: Relax, learn, retry.

(where’d I get the awesome photo? Huge thanks to Sara Petagna!)

Tags: 10 Years, advice, Business Decisions, Elders, Invest, jobs, Lot, Multiple Technologies, New Flavors, Perl, Plastics, Programming Languages, Pup, Scripting, signs, technology, toronto, Waste Of Time, When Opportunity Knocks
Posted in Design, HTML Programming, Marketing Advice, Twitter, Web Site Advice

07
May
2009

How to lose Twitter followers quickly

6 Comments

OK so as most of you know, I’m no Twitter expert. In fact, I’m completely useless when it comes to Twitter but I have figured out a few things in the past couple weeks and here’s the big one that I’m going to share with you … if you want to lose followers quickly, spam them.

Don’t get me wrong, I have no issue with people making money online and promoting their businesses but you have to do it in moderation.

Take for example Canadian Affair (@CanadianAffair), pictured to the right. They’re an airline which flies directly from my little city of Fredericton New Brunswick to London and they do it really cheap, so I decided to start following them on Twitter but since following them all I ever get from them are sales pitches. Sure I signed up for them and they’re sending me something but not what I was hoping for, luckily Twitter lets me stop following them pretty easily as well.

So what would I recommend a company like this promote on Twitter to keep me happy and make money using Twitter? Actually it’s pretty simple, what I was hoping for was:

last minute seat sale information, they could have even gone a step further and let me follow just my local airport
flight tracking details
special offers
tourism information about destinations they visit

In short, the problem with following Canadian Affairs is that like many businesses they misunderstood the most basic element of online marketing, it’s about me … not them.

Tags: Airline, Airport Flight, Basic Element, Canadian Affair, Canadian Affairs, City Of Fredericton, couple weeks, expert, Followers, Fredericton New Brunswick, making money online, Marketing Advice, Moderation, New London, Online Marketing, Sales Pitches, spam, Special Offers, Tourism Information, twitter
Posted in Twitter