A bit about micro blogging
Micro blogging is a bit of a funny term. To me it sounds like either a blog about those little sports cars kids collect or a blog written onto the back of a stamp with a powerful stethoscope (which would, in short, be pointless because you wouldn’t be able to hyperlink on a stamp…!)
A micro blog is actually a restricted character blog – i.e a status. Therefore when you update your Facebook status to ‘has a runny nose’ you are actually publishing your very own micro blog post.
Probably the best utilised form of micro blogging is Twitter. Twitter gives you 140 characters and the simple question; ‘what are you doing?’ In the 18 months since I first started using Twitter it has gone from being the bloggers’ networking tool to a media sensation with celebrities, companies and spammers all clamouring to find followers. Public battles take place online, with famous people pleading the public to become ‘Twitter disciples’ by following them rather than their rivals. If the internet has a playground it seems that Twitter is fast becoming it.
Personally I am a fan of Twitter because I can use it to find and share links and information to a wide audience quickly and easily. People can also get in touch with me without requiring personal details and if I begin to dislike this, I can always ‘protect’ my tweets (so that only people who I have given permission to can access my ‘feed’ of updates.) I can also find people and share opinions on less technical stuff such as Big Brother (by putting #bb10 at the end of related tweets) and current affairs.
Channel 4 has made good use of Twitter thus far and often takes a slightly more personal approach than say, the BBC News (http://twitter.com/bbcnews) which uses Twitter to quickly publish new stories as they are published on the BBC News website. Surgery Live is a brilliant example of how Channel 4 is experimenting with micro blogging, using Twitter rather than a risky forum or chatroom or time consuming emails to encourage questions from the people watching the show. As the show went out live, so did the tweets meaning that broadcaster and audience could interact. Now the show has ended, the Surgery Live Twitter feed remains as a part of a ‘legacy site’ for the programme but you can still check it out here; (http://twitter.com/surgerylive)
Alone in the Wild, (http://twitter.com/AloneInTheWild) is a ‘groundbreaking human challenge’ in which professional camera man Ed Wardle is left to fend for himself for 12 weeks in the Canadian Yukon. He has basic survival tools, a gun to protect himself, a tent and pioneering camera equipment that has been created to capture Ed’s every move around his campsite. Apart from the odd animal, Ed is entirely alone; there is no production crew and no guide, no one to check up on him daily or even monthly. Footage produced by Ed is left in a isolated area for a helicopter to come and collect once Ed is at a distance. The rushes are then used to update the Channel 4 Alone in the Wild website; (http://www.channel4.com/programmes/alone-in-the-wild) What makes this programme unique is that we don’t know the end of the story yet. When the programme makes its television debut in September, Ed will be in his last days in isolation and will broadcast some of the show live. It’s exciting because this has never been done before; Ray Mears has always had a cameraman whilst Ed is the cameraman.
So how does Ed’s Twitter feed work? Well originally Ed sent one SMS message a day from a phone that was adapted to block calls and texts and was unable to make calls, just to show that he was alive and doing well. It was quickly realised that this text could connect to a Twitter account and automatically publish Ed’s daily update to the world. Followers can use #alone to join a worldwide conversation (National Geographic is also helping to produce the project) and share in Ed’s story. The Twitter channel often RT (re-tweets) people’s comments meaning that users comments are more likely to be seen and appreciated.
Today’s bulletpoints are a few tips on useful and fun Twitter feeds to follow:
• http://twitter.com/AloneInTheWild (The aforementioned Alone in the Wild)
• http://twitter.com/skins (E4 favourite Skins, updated even when not broadcasting)
• http://twitter.com/4talent (4Talent of course!)
• http://twitter.com/E4com (E4.com updates)
• http://twitter.com/officialBb (If you’re a Big Brother fan this is for you)
• http://twitter.com/Channel4News (Channel 4 News for you current affairs fans)
• http://twitter.com/surgerylive (Surgery Live’s legacy Twitter site)
• http://twitter.com/getfrank (Me!)
[...] here I’ve been doing some writing for 4Talent’s blog and you can read my thoughts on microblogging (i.e twitter), commissioning and bumping up CVs. There’s also a bunch of contributors [...]