A little about me

My good friend Ellie Lovell has 'tagged' me in an activity where I am now expected to reveal 25 things that you didn't know about me, just a pile of random facts. As it's Saturday, I thought I'd have a go for fun:

1. I am a an Essex girl, having been born and raised in Harlow and I am proud to own a pair of white stilettos
2. I was blond for the first three years of my life
3. When I was 15 I owned a pair of white pvc trousers – classy!
4. In 1998 I appeared on This Morning. Richard Madeley told me on live national TV that I have great eyes!
5. I have three house rabbits – Herbie, Scotch and Macy. Herbie was a rescue rabbit. He was dumped in a cardboard box on someone’s doorstep
6. One of my ambitions is to cage dive with great white sharks
7. In 2007 I ran the Great North Run half marathon for the Stroke Association because my mother had a stroke in her early thirties. I too have high blood pressure and I keep the photo of me after the race pinned in front of my desk to remind myself of the elation at finishing the race, and the ongoing need to manage my own health
8. I have a fat photo of myself on the fridge door to try to help me with my ongoing battle to lose a little weight and be a slim bride next year
9. My guilty pleasure is having a cleaner
10. If I could choose to live anywhere in the UK, I would live in Edinburgh
11. I own a hardback signed first edition of Toni Morrison’s Beloved (the book widely acknowledged to have won her the Nobel Prize for literature). It was my graduation present from my parents and one of my most treasured possessions as her work played such a big part in both of my degrees
12. Despite being a straight-A student at school, I have never managed to learn a foreign language and this irritates me
13. I play with my ear lobes. It’s a habit I have had since a baby and is my ‘comfort blanket’. It also often makes work colleagues think I am on the phone!
14. As children my sister and I once drank quite a lot from our parents’ booze cupboard while they were out of the house. When they found out (we left the cap off the whiskey!) we both blamed it on our friend and never owned up
15. I used to swim competitively. I always enjoyed the ‘tough’ events, and was once ranked as the 37th fastest woman in the UK at 200m butterfly (quite an achievement when you’re as short and stumpy as I am!)
16. When I was 14 I had a dodgy perm and was so embarrassed that I refused to go swimming training that night. My dad told me off for being so daft and I ran away from home in response (I actually only got about 30m up the road to my friends house, and only stayed for about an hour – a pathetic attempt)
17. My first pet was a budgie called Gismo. My second pet was a hamster called Rambo
18. I am addicted to my blackberry
19. I am the happiest I have ever been right now at this point in my life
20. I love skiing and scuba diving and wish I had discovered both passions when younger
21. Despite being almost 30, I am lucky enough to still have a full set of grandparents, though I don’t see any of them enough because I am a bad granddaughter
22. I don’t believe in work-life balance. I do believe in doing a job that you enjoy so much that work-life balance becomes irrelevant
23. My dad calls me Angela – it’s my middle name. My fiancé calls me ‘Goat’.
24. When I was little I drew a picture of a blue whale and sent it to Greenpeace. I still have the certificate that they sent me somewhere
25. My surname allegedly can be traced back either to a French piano maker or a German mass murderer. I know which I prefer!

This blog features as B2B Centre's case study on blogging

Colleagues at the National B2B Centre have kindly included the Pickle Jar Communications blog as a case study on blogging for business on their website. We're rather flattered to be profiled in this way, and thought we might follow that up with a little extra support of our own. So, if you've arrived at this blog because you've read about it through the B2B Centre's e-newsletter or website, you might also find our handy guide to corporate blogging slidecast useful if you're thinking of engaging with bloggers as part of your PR activity or thinking of setting up your own.

So why should I follow you?

As many of you know, I'm a big Twitter fan and manage three profiles: @tracyplayle @picklejar and @hecomms. Each serve a very different purpose for me. @tracyplayle is where I post my more personal tweets – the kind of daily ramblings that really only my mates would probably want to hear (though it seems many others also want to listen in – that's fine, but I don't understand why!). Then there's @picklejar: this is the account I use to tweet about anything business-related or relevant to social media, PR and communications. I try to retain a 'human' voice in this and keep my personality coming through, but its primary function for me is professionally-orientated. Finally @hecomms looks after itself by provided updates direct from the RSS feed from www.he-comms.co.uk – the social network that I run for communicators and marketers working in the UK HE sector.

Work has been somewhat crazy recently so while I've continued to tweet away I've noticed a consistent stream of new followers whom I just haven't had the time to check out and follow back. This morning, I decided to have a run through my inbox and start checking out all the new followers and determine who I might like to start following in return.

I generally work on the following principles:

• If you're following me it's probably because we have something in common and therefore I may wish to follow you back
  
• If you are taking the time to read my ramblings, then you deserve the courtesy of me at least taking a look to see if I would like to read yours
  
• Twitter is one of my key sources of new information regarding social media, and therefore you might be tweeting about stuff of interest and relevance to me.
  

So with those in mind, I have spent a couple of hours this morning checking new followers of @picklejar out. Not all of you made the cut and received a return follow, so I thought it might make an interesting blog post to show my thought process when deciding whether to follow someone back or not.

• If you're an education organisation's account I will probably follow you back without thinking twice as my key clientele is the education sector so it's important that I monitor how the sector is using Twitter
  
• If your twitter name is the same name as someone I know, I will be more likely to follow you back without further thought
  
• If your twitter name is unfamiliar to me, then I'm more likely to be interested in you if you are set up as a human being in your profile and not just a company name (for example, I am @picklejar, but my profile tells you that I am Tracy Playle – one of the earliest lessons I learned on Twitter was to be myself and not try to be a 'corporate voice' as it just doesn't work)
  
• Likewise, if your @name (and worse still if your profile name) is full of random letters and numbers, I will not follow you back – some of them I won't even check out in the first place
  
• If you pass the @name and profile test, then I delve a little deeper into what else you say about yourself in your profile. If it includes something that is of direct interest to my professional interests, then you pass the next test
  
• The next step is then to look at your previous tweets. Even if say you work in social media marketing or communications, but your tweets are all just personal stuff – what you made for breakfast etc – and nothing else that helps me in my professional life, then I tend not to follow back.
  

So, in summary, I tend to follow-back people I know and have an existing relationship with and people who are 'above board' and provide interesting and useful information through their tweets. Above all, though, I place emphasis on the fact that I prefer following people, and not organisations (there are one or two in there, but most don't make the cut).

Birmingham Twestival, sponsored by Pickle Jar Communications

I wouldn't ordinarily post a press release here as it isn't the most appropriate format for a blog. However, as we are sponsoring the Birmingham Twestival, I thought I'd indulge myself a little and include the press release here:

BIRMINGHAM TO JOIN 100 CITIES ACROSS THE WORLD IN FUNDRAISING ‘TWESTIVAL‘

On February 12th 2009 Birmingham is joining with over 175 cities around the world to host the Midland’s biggest ‘Twestival’, a volunteer-run fundraising event for people who use the micro-blogging service Twitter. BrumTwestival will be held at Poppyred in the Arcadian Centre from 7.30pm, and will see Birmingham join over 175 confirmed cities world-wide in a night of fundraising. The global event, described as “a ‘tweet up’ with a social conscience” will be raising money to support charity:water a not-for-profit bringing clean water to people in developing nations.

With members including Barak Obama, Stephen Fry and Jonathon Ross, Twitter is quickly growing to become a world-wide online phenomenon. The network allows users to update other members who are ‘following’ them online with details of what they are doing in 140 characters or less. As Twitter’s user network has grown, the community has also been the first to publish breaking news online, with members ‘twittering’ updates on unfolding events before journalists have reported on them.

Birmingham’s Twestival will give twitterers across the West Midlands the opportunity to come together in the spirit of fun, change, charity and global communication. Over 100 guests have confirmed their attendance at the event, and more tickets are to be released shortly to meet demand. Birmingham has a very active social media community and this has grown through Twitter to include users from a variety of backgrounds including politicians, University staff, artists and bloggers.

Birmingham Twestival has been organised by volunteer Twitter members who work for a wide range of local businesses. John Newbold, creative director of 383 Project and one of the Twestival organisers commented: “Twitter has grown across the West Midlands to become a really exciting community. It has enabled me to connect with a network of other users from with a variety of backgrounds and occupations within the city and get to know people I may not have met otherwise. Twestival is not only a great opportunity to bring the online community together offline, but unites Birmingham with other participating cities across the world in a common aim. Twitter will allow us to join other cities throughout the day with live updates and coverage of the events.

“As social and business networks grow, online communities are becoming increasingly popular ways to stay in touch and up-to-date. It is rare for people who engage online to have the opportunity to meet face-to-face, and I’m delighted that Twestival will make this possible for so many local users.”

Birmingham Twestival is sponsored by Pickle Jar Communications, the Coventry-based communications consultancy specialising in new and broadcast media, and Bostin, original t-shirt producers and promoters of pride in Birmingham, the Black Country and beyond. Tracy Playle, Director of Pickle Jar Communications commented: “I’ve been using Twitter for personal and business use now for several months. The power to build communities through social media, such as Twitter, is significant and important for small and large businesses alike. We spend a lot of time advising others on how to use tools like Twitter to build communities of interest, and possible business opportunities, so it only seems fitting that we would want to support the biggest Twestival in the Midlands.”

Managing director of Bostin, Donato Esposito added: “Twestival is a fantastic development to Twitter, and I welcomed the opportunity to support such an important charity.”

As well as raising money through ticket sales and donations, a range of raffle prizes donated by local businesses and Twitter members will be auctioned at the event. All guests will also be automatically entered into a main prize draw to win a Nintendo Wii.

The event will begin at 7.30pm. A limited number of remaining tickets are available at www.birmingham.twestival.com

Animoto and istockphoto join forces

I received an email earlier this week from animoto alerting customers that they've just entered an agreement with istockphoto.

For quite some time now I've been showing clients animoto, particularly when I'm out and about doing social media training, as it's a wonderful way of creating high-impact videos for your site without the costs normally associated with video production. I always suggest that clients use istockphoto to download good quality images, so I'm delighted to see the two companies pair up at last. See the animoto blog post for further information.

Monitoring social media

There are some good social media monitoring services out there offering comprehensive monitoring solutions, such as Radian 6. I've had a demo of Radian 6 and it really is very impressive, but this does come at a price. I'm therefore always on the look out for good search services and monitoring services available for free.

I often recommend perspctv to clients. It searches blogs, microblogs and news sites, but it also allows you to search more than one search term, enabling you to benchmark online profile of one term against another. See, for example, this widget that profiles the relative online coverage of the brands 'university of warwick' and 'university of birmingham'



Social mention doesn't appear to have the same benchmarking potential, but it does provide RSS feeds of given search terms, meaning that you don't have to keep visiting the site everytime you want to check out the latest mentions of your brandon social media sites. The other benefit to social mention is that it covers a wide range of media: text, audio and video. Very clever.