Shoestring Inspiration

I was asked this week by the venerable Stephen Waddington to continue a meme passed on to him by Ged Carrol on what inspires him to keep up his blog posts.

I have to say I feel in part this tag was itself inspired by a quick look at my shabby old blog which hasn’t been updated for a while so first and foremost let me apologize...

So inspiration....I think the main one has to be what other people are writing on the blogs I read. I Really enjoy reading the thoughts of others on industry issues – Becky’s, Stephen’s, Chris’s, Drew’s and of course the boss’ blogs all ones I enjoy reading regularly and where I can find something mildly intelligent to add to the debate I will – only problem recently is that I’ve been doing too much reading and not enough responding...

Looking back through this blog since I started it – I guess the other main inspirations have come from the various forms of websites I’m reading on a day to day basis whether it be the trials and tribulations of Tottenham on white hart pain or music and gigs on sites like NME. Aside from that it’s really the events that I go to and the people I meet at them.

I guess one of the main problems I have found with this particular blog and why it has therefore been so neglected has been the lack of personal experiences I’ve been able to put into it...

I therefore have recently started a side project called Shoestring Spirit borne out of jottings and that dreaded word ‘poems’ I’ve put together since my spotty teenage years – it’s refreshing to get feedback from and meet other people online outside of the traditional ‘tech PR blog world’ and in a way it gives me inspiration to keep blogging in another realm outside of the professional – and get people to see some of these thoughts which (while often rubbish) would otherwise be left stewing in a dusty desk draw.

I’ll pass this little meme onto Drew, Becky and Ben

Whoa!! What's Wrong with a Tweet?

It was interesting to read the mini debate that has developed over the past couple of days around 'twitter etiquette'; when to tweet and when not to.

I agree to a certain extent with Sally Whittle's comments that it's good to take a break from twitter and actually enjoy your boiled eggs than talking about them - I've had enough scolds from my flatmates and my girlfriend, questioning why I am on my BlackBerry on a Sunday talking about something as inane as ironing....

However in many ways for me that is the whole point with twitter. Like anything you do online - it's about (and excuse me for the crass term) but self expression. The fact that I'm ironing on a Sunday night is probably just as much a shared experience (if be it a crap one) for people who follow me on twitter as the fact that the Russians have invaded South Ossetia which before last Friday I had never heard of and had no reason to.

Since I was introduced to twitter by my old boss and all round digital media legend Drew Benvie, my living room has been transformed into one of epic proportions - enabling me to share my thoughts with Becky McMichael on Anelka's penalty taking ability and asking Daljit Bhurji whether Raif should have stayed in the Apprentice....if you're not interested - I perfectly understand - just dont follow me....

What I've enjoyed most from people's posts whether they be about the fact we are about to witness a new world war, or the fact they want to go to nando's soon is that it gives away little snippets of their personalities & has encouraged me to make new friends through things like team twitter and the Harvest Twestival which it would be great to see you all at.

So please keep twitter fun (and I'll try not to be so trigger happy with twhirl) as the old sage of social media, Will McInnes says, "I have truly formed and developed real relationships with lovely, interesting people I haven't yet or may never meet in the real world - in that respect it's much more like a forum than a Facebook"

oh...and thanks again to Wadds for directing me to this debate...guess how I found out about it? yep - you guessed it through twitter