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For those unaware, Twitter is the latest social networking phenomenon. The main difference between it and any other social tool is that it’s based around what you say, in 140 characters, rather than how pretty your profile, your vast array of cool bands you like or all those super arty movies you like plus a love of hugging, stars, star tattoos, boys with emo hair etc. Nor does it matter how many “friends” you have.
What are you doing?
So how on earth do you get friends, or “followers” as they are called? Through interaction!
Twitter is more of a mediator between other platforms. Not so much finding friends from scratch but using platforms already established to interact with the friends already made, often on a more personal including one-on-one level.
Updates can be sent and received in a number of ways; on the website at twitter.com, through one of the many of the twitter clients (Twhirl, Twitterrific), via txt message on a mobile phone and now theres something about having your voice transformed into a pretty little twitter message for the world to see courtesy of Twitterfone (currently invite only).
In my opinion Twitter can be best used for making announcements; news reports, keeping fans and followers up-to-date with related issues and news, as putting out ideas and suggestions to those interested in certain topics. Currently enjoying popularity within the technology and web sectors, as with many new technologies, I feel Twitter has a great potential within the music industry.
Twitter as a means of promoting music
As I have found, Twitter is best for making announcements, asking questions and often getting quick responses, organising meetings and gatherings (photomeet dublin?) and shouting out ideas - it can only be useful to music promotion.
Fans can be made aware of Twitter through the usual pre-existing methods; Myspace, Facebook, website etc. Bands can therefore use Twitter to to update fans on their progress and gig dates.
Texting about gigs by local bands and promoters is seen as a good way of attracting (and reminding) friends about a gig, normally done on the day or a few days before.
By simply sending a message to one number rather than multiple numbers cuts cost, time and has the potential to reach many more people.
Twitter may not seem to be anything ground breaking, in fact almost backwards, but its through the simplicity, ease and uncluttered nature of this platform which has allowed it to grow as quickly as it has.
As I approached the Ormeau Bridge this morning a very eggy smell made its way up my nostrils. Looking down, the bands of the were as low as I remember ever seeing them; muddy, dark and devoid of life, with a traffic cone or two and I’m sure a shopping trolley somewhere could be found somewhere down as the river meandered through the city.
As I walked across the bridge on my way to work I thought about the Lagan Weir and how it was designed to “keep the river at an artificially constant level” through “a series of massive steel barriers which are raised as the tide retreats.” Maybe they took the bank holiday off too.
The water quality of the river was poor due to several factors:
- There was a large amount of “domestic” pollution entering the river system from an outdated sewage system
- Poor intermixing of the fresh water from upstream with the denser seawater from Belfast Lough.
- Nitrates contained in the fresh water.
- The Lagan’s water level varied by three metres between high and low tide so that at low tide unsightly smelly mud flats were exposed as far up the river as the Ormeau embankment.
And who wouldn’t want the opportunity to enjoy such great weather rather than go to work. Not so good for the runners (and walkers) of the Belfast City Marathon, who must have had a hard time staying dehydrated as they struggled through the 26.2mile journey.
Great weather for spectators on the other hand, watching from the sidelines, or the front of the local pub.
Inside the Errigle on this very fine afternoon was Matt McGinn and his band playing some classics to those enjoying the day off work and those resting their muscles from their run.
The weather has just been amazing for the last few days, and I do hope it continues. All I want to do is sit in the sun, with plenty of sun cream of course!
Thanks to Andy for my new blog design :)
Tonight Kitty and the Can Openers subtly relaunch their self-titled EP at the Empire Music Hall, Belfast.
Recorded in Dec 07/Jan 08, the finely produced CD contains five superb tracks, which often find themselves slipped into the the set list whenever they grace the stage.
When the EP was first printed the band were unhappy with the album sleeve and so it was back to the drawing board. Now, 2 months later the newly printed sleeve and CD are ready for general sale at various gigs and events, and soon to be available from their website, which is in production.
So if you are free tonight get down to the Empire and get yourself a CD!
It’s been a while since I went to a club and drank many alcoholic beverages into the early hours of the morning. Having had a taste of just that the other night, not so much in the alcohol consumption but in the atmosphere and drink consumed by the free spirits all around me - including the occasional fantastically attractive female.
Those nights are always nice. It’s fun to go a bit crazy every now and then, though right now it seems I’m not able to do it, or in the mood quite often. It feels great to be busy, sometimes it feels great to be tired, because it’s tiredness from doing what I love.
It’s the weekend. Go nuts!
That was no mob! A pitiful performance! You should be ashamed of yourselves - those who didn’t make the effort. Its a team effort people!
In this photo are a few of the mobsters.
Here is all the space available for potential mobsters
Those who were there were awesome! A small group, who gathered afterwards, included Duke Special who was just passing through after getting a Costa Coffee (seen below just leaving), discussed future plans in a very mob-like manner.
Next time will be better.
TODAY Flash Mob gathering in Belfast
Victoria Square ground floor
1pm
Like this, only more people - hopefully.
It may not be quite so populated as London’s Flash Mob on Friday 11th April, but we can try.
It was like putting on a pair of glasses for the first time. I don’t wear glasses, so it was like putting on a pair of glasses when my eyesight is 20:20 and seeing everything totally distorted - only in reverse. In a good way.
A new lens. I got a nice pretty new lens. The weather has been amazing the last few days. Here are a few photographs from my first trip with pretty new lens.
So as you probably know, I recently made the transition from Windows to MacOSX. Having only used friends’ Macs, very infrequently and only first in late 2007, I managed to be convinced that ‘mac-is-best’ fairly quickly. Having used Windows for all these years (im going with since I was 8, so at least 14 years), there comes a time when you just get fed up with such a god-awful system.
For the last year and a half or so I have been desperately hoping for a system of reliability and simplicity to do the simple tasks that I need to do. Then problem after problem kept happening. Far too many scares; almost losing everything, not enough backups and too many complications with a terrible operating system.
Of course I did really enjoy being a Windows user before. In fact I despised Macs. But that was then I guess.
I was very young the time I used a Mac, and hated it ever since. It belonged to the parents of a friend in my street. Of course I had no idea what it was at the time, browsing around Wikipedia I think it was the Macintosh Classic or similar. I remember an air hockey game, that was fun.
Later in school from ‘97 to ‘98 we used Macs. They were terrible. It was Windows all the way.
But recently, as more more power and general ease of use is required, without things cocking-up so often a change had to be made.
My Macbook Pro arrived safely 2 weeks ago and in that time I have enjoyed learning how it all works. It’s certainly been quite a process to learn something so new and different. There are so many aspects that make it far superior to Windows. The greatest is that the user has to think a hell of a lot less when using a Mac. For me, important stuff is in two basic locations; System Preferences and Utilities. All accessible from the desktop, which remains clean and clutter-free.
It took some time to figure out the software to get, where to get it, how it install it, how to use it; then what not to use, remove some apps. With two 500gb external drives, one for Time Machine backups, the other for storage I’m feeling good. Having just in the last few days figured out my digital photography workflow as well as the applications I like, that coupled with my dual display for watching movies/tv shows or controlling iTunes (still don’t like it much) one one on one monitor while working on the other has made me very happy.
I have indeed been promoting the Mac life to everyone I know. I feel like a breathing cliché (took a while to find é, got it in the end), but yes I love it.
They are right about one thing also, it does come with added smugness.
This Thursday I have a very special photographic exhibition to mark the opening of Belfast City Office. This is an office space centre on Elmwood Avenue, close to Queens University and the Students Union.
Merging premium serviced-office space, top-notch in-house IT support from Xootec, administrative & business support and very smart facilities for meeting, greeting and networking, the BCO team have fashioned a fantastic alternative to the traditional rented office space.
“…We are a small and greatly motivated team here and we strive to ensure our clients receive top quality support. If asked, why BCO? We would answer because, We Care for Your Business.”
…[They] have successfully brought this period building bang up to date as beautiful Victorian architecture fuses effortlessly with dynamic modern design.
The photographs on display are of sights around two contrasting cities; Belfast and New York City, both continuously growing at a rapid rate in all directions; culturally, economically, musically, artistically as well as in architecture and cityscape.
The launch of the centre is the only time members of the public will have the chance to see these photographs, so please do stop by on your lunch break for some free lunch! It begins at 11am, though will be open throughout the day.
SNAP! Screening a series of short documentaries from FourDocs and 3 Minute Wonder.
Thursday 27th March 2008
The Drawing Office, Titanic Quarter, 2 Queen’s Road, Queens Island, Belfast [MAP]
Doors open 7pm, screening at 8pm
Free admission
Next »Part One
3MW: Mouthing Off: Scoring (Ken Wardrop)3MW: Lee Kern’s A-Z of London: Love (Lee Kern)
4Docs: Kebab (Khaldoon Ahmed)
4Docs: Rose Thieves (Jane Cheadle)
3MW: Little Worlds: Maria’s Story (Sally Hewitt)
4Docs: Flora and Thieves (Xanthe Hamilton)
4Docs: I Remember Lebanon (Zenia Aboul Hosn)
Part Two
3MW: People in Order: Age 1-100 (James Price & Lenka Clayton)3MW: WarTorn Stories of separation: Anna & Rissell (David Modell)
4Docs: Twenty Lenghts (Katie Barlow)
3MW: Beside the Seaside: Ice-cream (Julie Moggan)
4Docs: Weston Super Mare (Dan Blore)
3MW: Preparing for the Worst - Gordon Francis (James Caddick)
4Docs: Country Commute (Robin Field)