Have you seen this flyer?

Apologies. My writing has been lacking of late. Been doing some decent reading though if that in any way redeems me. I've also re-joined twitter. It may sound odd that I've been so bad at blogging this past while yet started tweeting. Well it is a combination of reasons.

I've been using flipboard on the iPad for my internet stuff. And while amazing for surfing, it is less handy for writing a blog post. I've also found twitter useful for saving content (into twitter favourites). And it is very easy and lazy of me to simply tweet or retweet something.

Liked this ad. Found here.

If the twitter community were 100 people

Stumbled onto a fascinating website called Information is beautiful. Represents loads of different information bits in very creative ways. There is a book too. There are about 40 comments about the twitter graph above.

"The majority of people who sign up for twitter won't be around in a month"

According to Nielsen, "the majority of people who sign up for twitter won't be around in a month". They found that 60% do not come back the following month.

Original post here.

Another insight into twitter?

If you like some honest, blunt opinions about brands and advertising, and do not yet read The Ad Contrarian blog, do drop over. You'll enjoy.

He posted recently with his observations on twitter.

Such as "Anyone who actually reads all the tweets he gets is completely and utterly insane. I'm convinced that most people follow other people not because they're interested in what they have to say, but in the hope that they, in turn, will be followed."

Sounds controversial. Any twitter users agree?

Explaining twitter status updates

Status updates explained from quub.com on Vimeo.

I seem to be posting more about twitter these days. I don't use it myself to be honest. Although I joined and followed Southwest Airlines last year as an experiment to see how a brand that really cares about its customers might use this. And was impressed - see Southwest Airlines is following me. I'm not a big facebook user either. But do find all this stuff interesting.

Found this video at Helge's blog. He makes the point that the twitter updates seem just like the old 'broadcast model'. But of course from an individual, not a tv or radio station.

Banner ad with twitter embedded in it. Nice

This is new. To me anyway. Banner ads with twitter updates embedded in them. Click here to see it in action.

Via Contagious.

twitter whore...

Flutter - the new twitter

Flutter - the new twitter. Mockumentary on flutter, the latest in "nano-blogging". Nice.

Cheers Jonnie for sending on.

Baker in London tweets on fresh bread

Interesting twitter stuff by agency Poke for a baker in London. They've connected up the bakery to twitter so followers get a tweet whenever bread or croissants are freshly baked. More here.

Anybody heard if any restaurants are using twitter yet to fill tables at discounts?

Found via Helge

Evan Williams co-founder of twitter + blogger

I don't really use twitter. Just don't have enough to say that would warrant regular updates. But glad to see it is growing popular here. Wonder how many people in Ireland are using it?

Found this at the weekend on TED Talks - Evan Williams, co-founder of twitter (and founder of Blogger before that).

Restaurant use twitter when not busy?

Image courtesy of disneymike

Are any Irish restaurants using twitter to fill tables when evenings are quiet?

I wonder if it is worth trying. Would it canabalise sales? Possibly. Would it piss off fellow customers? Again, possibly.

But I think it's worth more thought. It's not that different to lastminute.com. If I need to book a table in advance, I'm willing to pay full whack. But if I'm at home, on twitter, and see a last minute deal for a restaurant nearby, I might decide to throw on my jacket and head over.

I eat well for less. Restaurant covers some of its fixed costs. Everybody is happy.

I don't really use twitter. Although I did sign up to follow Southwest Airlines last year to see how a really customer-centric company uses it for customer service.

But think I'd follow some Dublin restaurants on twitter if they were willing to play ball.

Thoughts?

Wonder how close this is to reality?

Via Graeme Douglas

Twitter in plain english

I mentioned the other day that colleagues in work have asked me about Twitter. Here's an explanation in plain english. Common Craft make these videos using paper. They have others on blogs, RSS and podcasting.

I found Common Craft through psfk. Worth checking them out.

Southwest Airlines is following me

Image courtesy of duesentrieb

Southwest Airlines is now following me on twitter.

I'll explain...

While I don't really use twitter much, I set up an account out of curiosity and picked a few random people or brands to follow. Southwest was one of them.

Several colleagues have asked me recently about twitter - what's it all about? The idea of following the musings of a celebrity, an industry expert or journalist makes sense to me.

But a brand following me? Now this is interesting.

So what is going on here? Southwest have 1,212 followers (like me) on twitter. While I've never actually flown with them, I suspect most of these people are Southwest customers. The interesting bit is they follow anybody that follows them. Yes, they follow the daily thoughts, ramblings and rants of these individuals - most of which have nothing to do with Southwest.

This sounds like a lot of effort, so why do it? Well, firstly it is a commitment to their customers. They are essentially saying "You are interested enough to follow us, then we are interested in you". But this is also an excellent way to get under the skin of their customers and of course have a dialogue with them.

Does it work? I'd say so. I read a post (tweet) today from one of their followers which simply said "I hate Southwest". They responded within a day on their page with the following "I'm sorry to hear that! What did we do, and how can we make it better?"

This is a extremely customer-centric brand that is using technology to get closer to customers and helping them serve them better.

Can you imagine an Irish bank, retailer or airline doing something like this?

I can.