Wednesday 27 January 2010

Tweet Tweet

Hi

I don't seem to blog much do I? Well, you can expect a little flurry of action for a little while at least, spurred on by where I went last night - to a seminar at Derby Quad, hosted by Derby CIN, and the guest speaker was Rob Wilmot (founder of Freeserve) - who waxed lyrical about the benefits of using "social networking" for business.

It was supposed to be in plain English, but clearly some of the attendees came from marketing in larger businesses and talk did devolve into what, for me, was gobbledegook a couple of times.

That said, there was a lot of valuable as well as interesting information, and things to follow up on. Can't remember it all, but things such as the statistics of the fastest growing user group demographics on Twitter and Facebook, and how one company, Moonfruit, managed to increase their Twitter following from 2,000 to 23,000 in seven days.

And did you know, Facebook got even more hits than Google on Xmas Eve and Xmas Day?

Now, you might not be a Facebooker, or a Twitterer, but Rob made several references to Rage Against the Machine beating X-Factor to the Christmas No. 1. Personally, I thought that was all a bit silly, but it certainly gives an insight into the power of social networking.

As yet, I am not sure about how much value it will add compared to time spent. But, like many things, but I think particularly in the creative sector, networking (of any kind) is very important - sometimes it really is about WHO you know, and being in the right place at the right time.

Like Rob, I was one of these people who got all excited about the t'internet in the late nineties, before every home had one (read that as computer or connection). I can remember people asking me what the fuss was about "if I want to read the news, I'll put Ceefax on...", "What use is a computer, I have a typewriter..."

Obviously,(!) if you're reading this, you already use the internet, but do you know many people who don't now? Now I hear people asking the point of Facebook (other than to stalk old school friends), why do a blog, and that they don't get Twitter - but, guess how I actually found out about this seminar last night?

Who knows if it will help me when I am ready to step out properly into making and selling work? But surely, contacts, followers, retweets, cannot do me any harm, right?

Tweet tweet!

Thursday 21 January 2010

Some Recent Uni Work

These are a few of the items made for assessment this week - I am trying out some new gallery stuff, to see how it looks. Hover over the notes in right hand corner to see any comments.

Get the flash player here: http://www.adobe.com/flashplayer