Twig 8

Quite a gathering last night – possibly a double quorum, although we’re still missing Big Bud and Green Shoot. The theme for the evening was Blogging, and mention of the social networking tool formerly known as Twitter, now represented by an indescribable symbol, was punishable by Chips Next Twig.

Rather than having to think of any words to put in between, I’ll just list the points to come from the discussion.

1. It’s cool to be asked to be a Guest Blogger, as it means at least one person likes your writing. It can also be used in a reciprocal manner to help build content rapidly – I’ll guest blog for you if you guest blog for me. You then repost the guest piece to your own blog a few days later, with a link back.
    
2. Useful links for searching for blogs:
   blogsearch.google.com
   technorati.com
   addictomatic.com
    
3. Videos in blogs work well to attract an audience, but they should contain content that is compelling for your target audience – a static talking head droning on for more than a few seconds is likely to generate badwill towards the blogger. Here are a few examples of video content in blogs:
   That Was Perfect Man
   Colin Farrell and Brad Pitt Looking Gay as Hell
   Shameless Blog Self-Promotion Disguised as Interesting Link
    
4. Is it wise for legal twiglets to blog about work? Check out this site – pay particular attention to the wrist-cuttingly tedious 26-minute audio interview between two Despondex users.
    
5. A newsletter/blog combo is a good idea for people who want to build a blog audience and then offer a newsletter to capture email addresses for a spot of the old permission marketing … but it does tend to suggest you have rather too much spare time on your hands. We will Twigger about newsletters in a future meeting. Newsletter tools:
   www.campaignmonitor.com
   www.verticalresponse.com
   www.aweber.com
    
6. How many people keep an independent copy of all their blog posts? What would you do if your host lost your entire back catalogue of posts in a tragic faulty database backup accident? Would anyone notice? If the answer to the last question is yes, then you should keep copies of every post you make so if the worst ever comes about, you can rebuild your blog. One suggestion is to set up a Mirror Blog on WordPress.com and paste each new blog post to it as you generate them in the original.
    
7. As an example of a non-sequitur, how about this: The Bacon Number of an actor or actress is the number of degrees of separation he or she has from Kevin Bacon – I couldn’t get the game to work, but you can find more info about the toothy thespian here.
    
8. You know how sometimes you are clearing up a pile of old newspapers, and a headline or picture catches your eye, and the next thing you know you’ve spent half an hour reading interesting articles? Well this is the internet equivalent.

There is a Bank Holiday next week, so the next Twigup is in two weeks’ time, 11 May. The topic will be LinkedIn. If you send him a link, Gerrit will check out your profile, and make suggestions for improvements. He has already made his first suggestion, which is to upload a respectable-looking photograph to your profile.

The following topics are now the subject of a T-Notice:
Blogs
Twitter

Until we meet again, Twiglets, so long, and have a good long weekend.

Twig 7

Despite a turnout of just four Twiglets, the discussion was lively and wide-ranging, and we spent a fair amount of time swapping strategies for dealing with writer’s block. Hilary recommended having a go with Write or Die to exercise the writing muscles. The bottom line: don’t get it right, get it written.

Towards the end of the session, new Twiglet – Gerrit van Deventer – arrove, and within five minutes had dished out a month’s worth of data on social networking. Gerrit clearly has a lot to contribute to the group, and it turns out that he has the enviable skill of being able to talk continuously while breathing through his ears.

One of the most constructive things we did was pass a new law – any mention of Twitter incurs an automatic chip penalty – which Vandy broke almost immediately. However, Nick and I were feeling hungry, and let her run up a bucket’s worth before mentioning it.

Since the subject of Twitter has been banned, we thought we should fill the vacuum with a set topic for all future Twigups. Next week’s topic will be blogging.

So, Twiglets, get your thinking leaves on. Any aspect of blogging is fair game. For example: why blog; which blogging tool to use; setting up a new blog; choosing a subject; blogging frequency; guest blogging; generating revenue; overcoming inertia … and so on.

We also thought a good idea (Vandy’s idea, really, Nick and I just rubber stamped it as she waved her magic book before our eyes) would be for regular Twiglets to write a simple statement about their own business requirements, to aid other Twiglets in passing on referrals.

Tool of the week – www.evernote.com recommended by Nick.

Film of the week – In The Loop recommended by Hilary.

Next Twigup Monday 27 April.

Twig 6

At Twig last night I revealed how I had lost two hours’ work on my blog by typing it directly into the browser app, rather than drafting it in Word first. I was in the wrong; I know what it was that caused the loss, and it was my fault. But … that doesn’t mean it couldn’t happen to you too, and if it does, you will just as surely lose your work, no matter whose fault it is.

The general Twig opinion seems to be that it is okay to type short pieces directly into your blog, but that longer pieces should be drafted locally and pasted into your blog once complete … just like I haven’t done with this piece, which I began typing online several hours ago, and to which I have periodically returned to add another thought as it drifts into my head – which is my default writing mode.

Talking of blogs, here’s an observation: almost everyone I have met at Twig contributes to one or more blog(s), and thinks it is perfectly rational behaviour. But before I went to Twig, I can’t recall meeting anyone who blogged, or who even referred to the practice. Has it suddenly become the thing to do, or have I been living in a partial vacuum until recently?

Back to last night. As usual, at approximately 19:00, the lights dimmed, a heavenly choir erupted in glorious adoration, and our social networking messiah came among us to bring us the word.

And the word was, “does anyone want another drink?”

And the messiah was inundated with requests for diet coke.

Lesson: even if you have 200,000 followers on Twitter, don’t turn up late to a Twigup.

After last week’s meeting the Twiggerati had high expectations that Vandy would deliver a tour de force on the subject of social exclusion software. She didn’t. But she did give me a lesson in distraction techniques by taking a book from her voluminous handbag and waving it in front of me for a couple of minutes until I made a grab for it (like a ball of wool in front of a kitten). It was a neat trick Vando – very Mrs Coulter-esque – but you still owe the group a PowerPoint presentation.

Nick Twiglet

In the absence of Vandy’s contribution we were at a loss. Nobody else had prepared anything to say – we were all planning for a good snooze at the back of the class while Vandy stood at the podium taking us through all 465 slides or her presentation. So talk turned to the green side – what is the carbon footprint of an email? Does Google offset its carbon use? How much coal can you find in the Internet? What is the SI unit defined as the amount of energy it takes to move 1MB of information by 1 metre?

 

Hilary said we should all go and see The Age of Stupid, which would have us stockpiling canned food, bottled water, and ammunition.

And so to this week’s competition. At the next Twigup, each member must speak for one minute about a social networking tool.

Rules:

1. Any tool will do, but you must say something useful about it.
2. Mention of any of the following words will result in a points deduction – twitter, tweet, tweetdeck, twitterrific, twestival, twat.
3. The Twiggerati will award points for each speech, and the one with the fewest points has the honour of writing the next blog.
4. In the event of a tie, the Chief Twiglet will have the casting vote.
5. In the event of the Chief Twiglet being absent yet again – YET AGAIN – the casting vote will be made by Green Shoot.

Twig is having a week off next week so we may all observe the Holy Feast of Easter. Next Twigup is 20 April. Be there or be somewhere else.

Twig’s first publisher

Twig has it first publisher! Last week I had the chance to read Murray Newlands’ e-book: “How to Twitter Successfully and Gain Followers”.

As I read Murray’s clear and comprehensive book, I kept thinking how much faster I could have got started if I’d had this book 3 months ago. Murray takes you through a step-by-step start up process that includes all the bits other resources don’t tell you about. Then he explains how to really make this tool work for you.

Talking to Murray at our Twig meetings has taught me masses about this tool. And following his advice has helped us take it from an ‘interesting piece of social networking’, to a valuable means of gaining new contacts.  Twitter has worked so well for us, last week we felt compelled to blog about what effect its had on our business in the past 3 months (read it here if you want to know more).

In short, Murray’s book provides a fast track to learning all the things we’ve been talking about at Twig over the past month – only you get it all in one, right now.

Twig 5

Sorry for the delay this week Twiglets. It wasn’t my fault that I am a day late in posting – this is a global problem and will need a global solution. I don’t think it is productive to try and apportion blame to those who are responsible for me not posting yesterday – at this stage, we should all be looking forward so I can get away with it. I will now embark on a costly world sightseeing tour to make it look as if I’m doing something about it.

Anyway … Twig 5:

This week in the Twigosphere (aka the really inconvenient far corner of the bar in The Punter, where if you arrive first, you get hemmed in by tardy Twiglets, and then have to ask permission to go to the toilet – still, at least you have a good excuse for not getting up to go to the bar), we made an attempt to look vaguely efficient, and appointed a Twiglet to take minutes. The minute-taker then sent the minutes to me, as if I would craft his or her feeble set of notes into a readable and useful record of the evening’s events.

Hah! Fat chance. I want you to see the raw material that I am expected to work with, so here is a reproduction of the minutes, from which you can write your own self-customised version of events. Here we go:

TWIG info from 30 Mar 09, Google Alerts, Twitter Hawk, Face Book groups and pages, Twitter Karma, Tweet Later, cli.gs stats on short url inserts into twitter, tweet meme, zyb – phone details back up contact manager, enlight – strips down xp, twitter pro service includes analytics, followers lead to an assumption that it’s a recommendation, perception of value, retweeters, mrtweet, tweetgrader, tweet local people local to you so you can draw the network closer to home.

There we go then. The slightly more mentally-alert among you might have noticed the preponderance of Twitter related references in the list.

The same thing occurred to the slightly more mentally-alert of us on Monday night. So Vandy proposed to do something about it, and agreed to learn everything there was to know about using FaceBook as a social exclusion tool by setting up secret groups into which you do not invite your friends. This may sound counter-intuitive to the whole business of social networkery, but Vandy assured us it has a legitimate business application.

We await her report next week. Until then, Twiglets.

Twig 4

The results of the Twig Twitter One-Week Growth Challenge were announced last night at the weekly Punter Chipfest. Twiglets who failed to turn up were disqualified. In reverse order … roughly … from memory:

• 4th – Nick managed a paltry 8% increase over the week (64-69)
• 3rd – Hayley exhibited 103% growth (231-470)
• 2nd – Peter 110% (10-21)
• 1st – Me 3,000% (1-31)

Now, while I acknowledge that winning from such a low base isn’t big or clever … I creamed ‘em. In other words: Maggie Thatcher, can you hear me? Maggie Thatcher your boys took a hell of a beating! Your boys took a hell of a beating! Etc, etc, etc.

Now then, I like to think that Twig produces practical social networking effects each time it meets. After Twig 3, some of us were moved to put a bit more effort into Twitter. This week, I’m going to take a different tack.

Last night we met Armando Canales. Armando is a passionate advocate of Bio Dynamic Farming, which is a sort of beyond-hard-core organic farming. Armando represents a farming co-operative in Brazil which sells coffee directly to retailers in the UK, thus cutting out swathes of expensive middle-men and earning a fair return for the workers on the ground back in Brazil – forget Fair Trade; this is Direct Trade. Armando has some controversial things to say, and speaks so knowledgably and interestingly about his subject that I found myself wanting to read more about it when I got home. And so I did.

In the UK, there is an organisation called The Biodynamic Agricultural Association, which states “The aim of biodynamic farming and gardening is to revitalise nature, grow nourishing food and advance the physical and spiritual health of humanity.” Now that sounds laudable, but it’s news to me – and these guys have been at it since 1929. They need Twigging-up!

So for this week’s Twig effect, my aim is to inject a bit of social networkery into the subject of Bio Dynamic Farming by encouraging you all to read a bit about it and pass it on to a non-Twiglet.

Follow Armando on Twitter.

On a completely different subject, on Sunday I was in a bar in Ely to watch the Liverpool-Villa game. Every single one of the cask ales was off. I asked why this was, and the barman said there had been such demand recently, that their normal order hadn’t lasted through to the end of the weekend. It looks like the on-licence trade, at least temporarily, is benefiting from people losing their jobs and passing their time in the pubs during the week.

Until next week, my little Twiglets.

Twig 3

Scene 1: Monday evening – 19:30 – The Punter, Cambridge.

Andrea and Vandy are talking about getting someone to do something. “Who’s going to do it this week?” asks Vandy. I half hear the conversation, but I don’t get the gist. Liking a pun, I think I’ll take a punt. So I pipe up and volunteer (which is a different pub entirely) …

Scene 2: Tuesday morning – 11:00 – the office.

Last night’s Twig meetup, the third in the series (or Twig 3 as I call it), was characterised by Andrea and Vandy having a conversation about how you get people to do things that you don’t have time to do yourself.

Actually, that’s not true. It’s not that they didn’t have time to do it themselves at all; they just wanted a different perspective. So here’s mine.

We are fortunate to have Murray Newlands as a member of our organisation. I first met Murray last night. I knew within five minutes that he’s hitched to the leading edge. In fact, Murray is the sort of bloke who checks behind to see if the leading edge is still hanging on.

Murray is a member of 55 Meetup Groups. He has over 10,000 followers on Twitter. He speaks of “generating revenue from website inventory”, and “lead generation across a broad spectrum of verticals”. When I heard him say that I thought: “early adopter”. I thought: “low hanging fruit”. I thought: “easy win”.

Murray radiates a wholesome glow as he describes his social networking techniques, which are vast and manifold. To a Johnny-come-lately such as me, Murray is a social networking god.

So he’s someone to be listened to at a group that was set up to talk about social networking.

Now, I’ve been struggling with the concepts of Facebook and Twitter and all that social networking malarkey for some time, but as I listened to Murray, I was transported through the ages to a rough tavern in the late 18^th century, where I imagined myself as a potential Luddite – perhaps Ned Ludd himself – listening to Richard Arkwright patiently explaining advances in spinning technology.

Suddenly, my resistance to the growing complexities of the world was laid bare before me, and I wept. In that moment I resolved to divest myself of the inertia of middle age. With a rush of blood to the head, I challenged the table to a competition to see who could generate the greatest percentage increase in Twitter followers (or twollowers as we call them) over the next week (or tweek). Here are the rules:

1) Anyone in Twig can take part.

2) Anything goes.

3) Nick starts with 64 followers.

4) Vandy has just over 1,000.

5) Nobody is allowed to follow Murray.

6) If you’re already following Murray, cancel your subscription.

7) If you’re not already following me – which is highly likely as at the time of writing this I only have one follower – then get with the program. You’ll find me at http://twitter.com/henrydale.

Good twuck everyone. See you next Twonday.

Racking up the numbers

Last night saw the second meeting of the Cambridge Tuttleclub-offshoot, Twig.  We had a small but enthusiastic group of members attend which resulted in a thoroughly enjoyable, animated and useful debate. We got so involved that we completely lost track of time and the evening finally came to an end at 8.45.

The conversation took a ramble through:

- the comparison between old media and new media,
- how we’re all using each of the various tools available now, (Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook being the key contenders),
- what we want to get out of using them,
- what we are currently getting out of using them,
- and finally, the big topic – Twitter and whether its better to have a small group with whom you have quality conversations, or take the approach that building a big follower group is the key to success. (Thank you, Murray, for your input on this one.)

I found the evening thoroughly enjoyable and extremely useful – always a good combination.

I have already looked some new tools and implemented some suggested ways of working with Twitter, with good results.

Looking forward to next Monday’s get together – let us know if you can make it.

The First Ever Twig Meeting!

Last night was the first TWIG meet up, quickly filling up with people, The Barn at The Punter in Cambridge proved a popular choice, with over 15 people turning up during the evening.  The conversations quickly took hold and an excited buzz filled the room.

Here are some of the quotes from the group:

“more varied than some of the communities I’m involved with which are more specialised in nature – I could learn a lot here”

“A very good first meeting. Interesting people, interesting discussions. I’m looking forward to seeing how the group develops”

“Interesting group only one or two who I have met at previous events”.

“Informal, relaxed atmosphere, but more than just a social club. Interesting mix of people. I learned a lot”

Snippets of some of the nights discussions:

• New to twitter how does it work? 
• How to use social media for personal and business… lots of different perspectives, but the consensus seemed to be that it can be really valuable for both!
• Just how time consuming it can all be, how to manage your time whilst ‘working the floor’ and how to engage people in conversations that lead to real business! Some members of the group are really experienced with this so it was great for those who are just starting out to hear how this could benefit them!
• What applications can help you manage your on line networking more efficiently – great stuff

All in all there was lots and lots of experience being shared, new connections, ideas bounced about and more followings on Twitter

TWIG meets every Monday evening at The Punter in Cambridge, 3 Pound Hill, Cambridge, CB3 0AE, if you are interested in popping along please see out Meet Up site here.

Connecting in a disconnected world?

Welcome to Twig. This blog is the online home of a new social network launching in Cambridge (UK) specifically for the business community.

Twig has been launched because of the enormous surge in businesses using social media networking tools (think Twitter, blogging, video blogging and ‘traditional’ online networks such as Facebook), and the conundrums and possibilities that these present. The rules of engagement are definitely changing: we want to learn more about them, and we don’t want Cambridge to be left behind.

Put simply, Twig wants to look at two questions – who are you trying to talk to, and how are you doing so?

But we’re also intensely curious about the value of these tools, the merging of offline and online communication, and perhaps most importantly how all of this is being applied to the different people that we need to talk to – clients, competitors, suppliers, investors, employees, analysts, and so on.

This network is not just for entrepreneurs. It’s also for directors, managers, thinkers and perhaps even the odd oddball, who are all looking to change how they as individuals or businesses communicate to their network and grasp the opportunities that are now out there.

The logistics

At the moment, Twig is free, regular, informal and unsponsored. We’re kicking it off on this basis and will see where we go from here.  Please come in what ever attire you find yourself in, and buy yourself (and anyone else if you’re feeling generous) whatever you want to eat or drink.

We’ll meet every Monday evening from 6pm – 8pm in a bar in central Cambridge, kicking off at in The Punter (barn), and will probably provide a ‘thought for the session’ at around 6.30pm to get people talking. If you’re intending to come, it would be really helpful if you could register here to give the organisers an idea of numbers.

We hope to see you there.