The Honour Of Being An Early Adopter

October 6, 2009 By
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Courtesy: @applecrispmusic

Being an early adopter is an exciting game with ups and downs every day. Sometimes, you get yourself into an awesome service before they close the doors and tell you you’re not allowed in. Other times, you end up paying more for a product than you probably should have. And sometimes, you get to see something so early that it you see it start, grow and die before it gets the chance to go mainstream.

As one of people behind the Limestone New Media Group initiative, I’m always keeping Kingston – and Kingston’s businesses – in mind as I browse the web. Fairly early on, I had a feeling that Twitter was going to get pretty big, and I registered a number of account on behalf of local businesses. I did this again earlier this year.

Twitter’s position on these names is pretty clear: Don’t do it. According the the use policy, bulk registrations, impersonating others and trying to sell names back to corporations for profit is a clear no-no and will end in a suspension of the account – as well as potentially other accounts you manage/’own’. I have, twice now, flown straight against this rule and registered a whole bunch (8-10 each wave) of accounts.

I bring this up because I got a wonderful email the other night that allowed me to turn over another account to a local business. I didn’t charge them anything, didn’t have them buy a time share and didn’t even add their email to a mailing list. They wrote to me – and I simply replied with the password.

While it may be that Twitter’s not shutting me down because the haven’t found me, I’ve also been very careful about what I’ve done with the accounts:

  1. I don’t tweet on their behalf. In fact in the second wave, I only post a single tweet that reads “This account has been set up as a placeholder. If you feel you should have it (It’s free!), follow the link in the profile for details.”
  2. The profile links to this page – which is a letter explaining who I am, what the LNMG is, why I’ve ‘stolen’ their account, and what to do to get the password.
  3. I don’t edit defaults: The background, icon and everything else stays to whatever Twitter says it is.
  4. Once I get an email, I check who it’s from. If it’s from the domain I’d expect it to be, I just turn over the account. If not, a few quick Google searches will usually confirm who the person is. In either case, once I can verify the person, I blank out the profile link, delete the tweet and send them the password.
  5. I don’t market them – I don’t want to be seen as ‘that guy’ who’s squatting the names and approaching people with them. Though I’m not asking for money (Or even suggesting they turn to me for a strategy or consulting), I know that “cold-calling” in this way is frowned upon, so I just don’t do it.

My entire first wave of accounts went to their proper owners in just over 6 months. This second wave is taking a little longer to be disbursed - but I crossed the halfway point by turning over @applecrispmusic recently.

It makes me SO excited to see so many Kingston companies beginning to to adopt social media tools – and I’m honoured to be able to play a small role in helping them along.

Filed Under: Archives, Methods, Projects, Twitter

Local Hashtags: A Twitter Proposal

June 24, 2009 By

[Loooong post alert. Grab a coffee.]

So, the past week has brought a lot of interesting events and happenings in Kingston. From PAB, to Doors Open, from Teddy Bears to Music Festivals and from fires…. to, well, bigger fires. I’ve been watching it all very closely on Twitter and trying to keep up.  It’s been hard, though, because while big events (like PAB) have dedicated hashtags, smaller going-ons never do. We chatted about this a bit at the last meetup, too, and are beginning to think of a solution, but I’ve been doing some more thinking on my own, too.

First, I pondered the idea of a single, generic tag that could cover all local events. Something like #kingstonon, or #kngon (to keep it short – on Twitter, every character counts) or something like our airport code #ygk… But none of that seemed right – a sweepstakes at the mall and a parade downtown then share the same tag… And until local events begin to have their own tags, that’s going to get very confusing, very quickly. So I thought we could break up the city in a way that would make sense… And the more I thought about this, the more I realized it was already done – by Canada Post!

The Down-Low on Postal Codes

Ahh, the postal codes – something I’ve been developing more of a personal interest in. The postal code system in Canada is set up with 6 characters, three letters and three numbers, formatted as D1E 2F3. The first three characters are the FSA (Forward Station Area) which break down a specific area of a province or city and the last three are the LDU (Local Delivery Unit) pinpoint a specific area within the FSA such as a street, block or sometimes a single building. Because of the way the FSAs work in Kingston – I decided that breaking the city up along those lines made the most sense. If you want to learn more about postal codes, check Wikipedia.

The Hashtags

So I’m proposing we begin tagging news, events, important updates and similar using the FSA as a hashtag. I’ve set up a rough map showing the rough areas according to the Canada Post map. I’m also providing a list of major landmarks within each hashtag zone, along with a specified suggested colour. Click on the read more link below to read all about the new tag zones for Kingston. Part of the beauty of this system is that it can be easily adapted for use anywhere across the country.

I’d appreciate feedback on the hashtags – the idea is to help bring the community together on this, so redefining them together is alright by me. Also, if I missed any notable landmarks, I’d appreciate knowing those, too.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Archives, Local, Projects, Twitter

#FollowFriday for April 24th, ’09

April 24, 2009 By

Just a quickie this time.

In celebration of PodCamp London happening this weekend, I’m sending my #followfriday picks out to @billdeys and @picard102.

Bill and I first met hanging out at ‘The Slip’, the lounge at the Holiday Inn at PAB ’06. We got in touch again shortly thereafter and have kept in touch ever since. We cross paths mostly via Skype, uStream and Podcasts – and toss the occasional hotel party into the mix for fun.

John, PodCamp London’s designer, and I met for the first time at PCTO09, but we’ve communicated via Twitter earlier. I’m a HUGE fan of his design work and haven’t seen a piece of his work yet that I haven’t enjoyed.

That’s it for now!

Filed Under: Archives, Twitter

My #FollowFriday for March 27th, 2009

March 27, 2009 By

So, before I get to this week’s suggestions, I need to do a little catching up. I’ve been known to forget #FollowFriday regularly, so I’ve only got a few, but here they are – along with date and reason:

February 20th: @markfox – I’ve only met Mark once, though we’ve said we’re going to arrange another meeting soon. I gave him my first reccomendation for two reasons: A) He’d recently lost his job and thought I could make him smile with it, and B) Though he doesn’t blog regulary, he DOES have a “bowling” category… Which rocks. It also helped that he was local.

February 27th (Ok, 28th): @kingstonist – Harvey and I had been working like crazy on the new Kingstonist site, and he’d held out from joining Twitter for so long that I HAD to give him the plug once he singed up. If you haven’t checked out the K’ist yet, you should.

March 20th: @sarahamil and @gongshowj – My first DOUBLE reccomendation! Not something you’ll see often, I’d imagine. Sara and Jeremy regularly make the trip in for the monthly LNMG meetups. Sara drives – Jeremy drinks. It seems to work. It’s great to see them make the trip in, even through snow and ice, for a drink and some chat. I threatened Sara that I’d start a #unfollowsara meme. Sorry Sara – I lied.

So – that brings me to this week’s picks… And I’m back to a single – but with a twist! My wife’s been sick the last week or so, and I thought it might be nice to let her do the picking… So this week’s choice is:

March 27th: @lilyjmills – The story of my wife, Lily and I is actually pretty “small world”-ish. At PAB08, I was talking with someone about my wife and how she grew up in Simcoe, Ontario. Lily, at the next table over, asked me to repeat what I’d said as she grew up there too. Well, moments later, we discover that Lily actually grew up practically next door to my wife, knew her (and her family) and was close friends with my sister-in-law. It was surreal.

So that’s it! Follow all five of them to complete the collection!

Filed Under: Archives, Twitter

Meet @limestonetweets

March 23, 2009 By

So, slowly but surely, new online media stuff in Kingston is starting to grab hold. There are still [mostly] monthly meetups taking place to talk web technology and social networking, there are radio stations, newspapers and hockey teams on Twitter, and there’s a killer blog that’s starting to gain momentum. The last, oh, 6 months or so have seen an EXPLOSIVE amount of locals on Twitter, likely in a growth rate that rival’s the main site, and I thought it was time to do something with it.

So about 2 months ago, sitting alone in a hotel room, I created @limestonetweets. It’s a twitter account devoted entirely to the local Tweet scene and those involved in it. Beyond that, though, it’s been an experiment for me on multiple fronts:

  1. @limestonetweets is a directory, more than it is a soap box. The account follows(*) only people in (and around) Kingston, making it a perfect “first stop” for people in the city to find, and connect with, other locals. Sure, I use it occasionally to gather feedback, or announce a meetup, but it’s “following” list is a directory first and foremost.
  2. It’s also a chat room. Any DM sent to the account is broadcasted to the world – giving locals a chance to announce where they are to the whole community at once, and allowing for completely impromptu meetups to happen. Yes, similar COULD happen using something like BrightKite… but that’s not where the masses are.
  3. The account has also served as the test of my own abilities to manage multiple accounts. Verdict? Still out. For a while, I was really good at followbacks – that’s been tricky recently, but doable.
  4. It’s also been interesting to watch how the account has shifted from me working like mad to find locals, to other people finding it through friends. I spent hours combing the Twitterverse in serach of people from Kingston Ontario – as apposed to the Kingstons in Nova Scotia, Jamaica or the UK – to follow. These days? Not so much.
It’s a fun little experiment, though, and I think it’s proving useful.  I’m hopeful that in time, it’ll connect more people together and help the community in Kingston grow. That said, if you know someone I’m not yet following with it (I just cleared out a backlog) send me a personal @ or DM – or send a message @limestonetweets.
* More specifically, the software I’m using for the DM chat room stuff auto-follows, and I periodically go in and pull anyone not in the area. It’s toally a judgement call, but I err, usually, on the side of acceptance. I do, though, sometimes go through it’s list of followers, and see who they’re following, and who’s following them, to find other locals.
As an aside, hello blogosphere – It’s been too long.
Filed Under: Archives, Local, Projects, Twitter

My Twitter Suitcases Are Packed

February 1, 2008 By

If you follow me on Twitter, or heck, if you use Twitter at all, you know that they’ve been experiencing things that are “technically wrong”. Now, perhaps this was intentional on their part to show off the new error message, but they’re really starting to push the limit on what’s acceptable for down time.

Customer Service Went First

I keep my profile on Twitter protected. Not so much because I don’t want people following what I say (I do) or because I have things to hide (I don’t) but simply because if I don’t protect my profile, my Twitter page jumps to the top of Google and out-ranks my own web site. That, for some reason, bothers me. I’d like to see Twitter implement a “no index” option, so I can keep my profile public but not have it show up in Google, but alas, that’s likely a dream.

Nearly 3 weeks ago (Jan 14th, to be exact) I noticed that when I clicked on  the friend request link on the side I received an error. I emailed support about it. I received an answer on the 16th stating that it was a bug, they were aware of it, and were working on a fix. I replied on the 20th looking for a workaround as I saw the number of requests grow from 1 to 5 to 8 to 11. Nothing. I emailed again on the 28th, now at 14 people. Nothing. I’m over 20 requests now. No word from support. No workaround. Still broken.

Ready To Move On

After the issues I’ve had with support, and now with the large amount of downtime – I’m ready to pack it in. Permanently. I won’t, yet, because Twitter currently provides much too much value to me to abandon it. It sounds though, to me, like the sentiments throughout the Twitter community are starting to sway the same way. If they pass that all-too-famous tipping point, I think Twitter will be looking at a mass exodus.

And hey – maybe that’ll help with the stability issues.

Filed Under: Archives, Rambles, Twitter
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