Have we seen the best of No.10 on Twitter?

Continuing the political theme, I’ve been following with interest No.10’s presence on Twitter, a popular micro blogging platform which you may have heard of ; )

It seems that where Downing Street’s concerned it’s not all ‘push’ as is the case with so many of these early adopted social media channels. Number 10’s communications unit seem to realise that a little bit of ‘pull’ goes a long way too. At least they do at the moment. Helen Pidd of the Guardian even reported talk of uneaten muffins.

Last Friday, spurred on by a shocking Channel 4 news report about the situation in Zimbabwe, I asked @downingstreet a question and received an answer within minutes. I was impressed, but my reply to their reply didn’t get a response. The reason, I suspect, was that I had started to drill down a bit more and any response given back would have indicated some kind of ’stance’ aside from The Official Line, or at least engaged them in a dialogue they were not willing to pursue. A quick seach of questions to @downingstreet using Summize shows that tweets are increasingly looking to delve into highly emotive political subjects, with many asking the kind of direct questions they would love to if they caught Gordon Brown waiting to cross a busy road at the traffic lights.

I wonder, as Twitter begins to grow in popularity, whether Downing Street will shrink back into their shell and accept that their presence on Twitter has to be one thing or the other – a push tool or a place for dialogue. I hope I’m wrong, but I suspect we’ve seen the best of @downingstreet in the Twittersphere.

I see politicians…

This morning Nicola and I pulled up next to David Cameron on our bikes in a central London location. (I won’t tell you where it is in case someone reading this decides to put a stick in his spokes. Anyway, it was 8.30am and very near Constitution Arch). He was riding a sort of heavy duty hybrid bike and was wearing a rather loud canary yellow cycling jacket. He looked remarkably un-knackered, which always amazes me about politicans…

I wish I’d had a flier for meandmybicycle…I will now carry them as a matter of course just in case I bump into Boris on the road too. No danger of The Dour Scott (© The British Press) appearing in a flouro jacket, and besides, he obviously gets up a lot earlier than Dave.

Anyway, here’s a rather crap picture taken on my rubbish Blackberry camera.

As you can see, he’s not wearing a helmet but then it’s not law so I won’t be sending this to the Sun : )

meandmybicycle – a progress report

Well, it’s now six months old and meandmybicycle just reached the 700 member milestone. I am delighted with the progress of the site and in recent weeks it’s really taken on a momentum of its own.

An article on the Guardian website really helped to increase visibility of the site and attracted some generally positive comments. It also helped when it comes to ‘Google juice’. At the time of writing when you key the words ‘cycling social network’ into Google, my little old site for cycling fans appears the fourth link down from the top in the natural search results.

The Guardian article also led to recognition on the Ning blog. For those who don’t know, meandmybicycle was constructed using Ning’s white label social network product. The Ning article led to another flurry of new members. 

The site also has a presence on Twitter and by using the excellent Summize Twitter search tool I have been able to find cyclists who may be interested in what I am up to with the site. The response has been great, with many Tweeters coming on board. 

So what next? Well, I have been approached by a site that enables cyclists to track, or share in real-time, their rides using a GPS enabled phone or standalone GPS kit. This is a really exciting development and I am working with them to offer members of meandmybicycle the chance to get involved with their excellent service. In future, I’d love to offer members other relevant opportunities. We’ll see how that pans out.

With the summer around the corner I expect the site to put on hundreds more members and by September I’d like to be in a position to enter the next phase of development, for which I may seek some angel funding. 

One of my priorities will be to enable members to find riders in their country and with whom they share specific cycling interests. That’s currently possible using the ‘groups’ function but it’s not ideal. Improving the ability or riders to find like minded cyclists will truly take the social networking experience to its logical conclusion – online meets offline. 

In the meantime, I just want to keep the community fresh. I hope that members continue to add their contributions and look forward to more great blog posts, photos, video and lively forum discussion. 

What’s become clear is that there is a demand for a site that unites cyclists from all over the world. True, there are hugely popular cycling forums and some great ‘magazine’ sites like bikeradar.com but as someone pointed out to me recently, meandmbiycle is a dynamic community for people who simply love to ride, whether they are into sportive racing or making bikes from recycled materials. We can all learn something from one another and the thing that unites us all is simply a shared love of two wheels. 

Tom Dickson on his rise to web fame

No longer is fame reserved for stars of TV. These days, thanks to the internet, anyone can become famous – and the marketing effect on brands can be extraordinary. Below is an interview I conducted with one of the new stars of the Internet, Tom Dickson. Tom utters the catchphrase “Will it blend?” before putting all manner of objects from an iphone to a garden rake into his blenders to demonstrate their effectiveness. His videos have been a huge hit on YouTube.

Will It Blend?
When did you first realise you were ‘Web Famous’?
“Probably June of 2007 at the Internet Retailer Magazine convention in San Jose, California. I did a presentation on the history and success of the Will It Blend viral campaign to an audience of 2800 people which was enthusiastically received. I also did a live Will It Blend demonstration to thunderous applause. I think that’s when it hit me that people really got a huge kick out of the idea of putting crazy things in the world’s strongest blender to see if they would blend.”

How did your fame come about? Was it part of a cunningly devised viral marketing ploy, or slightly more organic?

“We started out with the idea of raising brand awareness and demonstrating the power and durability of the Blendtec blender. For years I have been doing a test where I start the motor then jam a long piece of wood into the blades to test the strength of all the drive components and the jar blade assembly. So we thought if we showed some other fun things being blended people may find it amusing and entertaining and at the same time see what an amazing machine we offer. We started with 5 videos and put them out on You Tube and also on a website we developed – Will It Blend.com. The response was not immediate, but within a short space of time people began sending them to their friends and they began to spread virally through the internet. I don’t think any of us thought it would become the international phenomenon it has grown into.”

Has you fame translated into more mainstream media, or is it pretty much confined to the web? If so, what mainstream media interviews and appearances have you done?

“It has been amazing how much interest has come from mainstream media. We have received inquiries from many different media outlets all over the world for interviews and appearances. In the U.S. I have appeared on television on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, The Today Show, The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch, CBS News Sunday Morning, and iVillage Live. News articles have appeared in numerous magazines and periodicals including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Business Week, and Internet Retailer. We have been nominated for a CLIO award and were a finalist in You Tube’s annual awards, and won .net Magazines award for Best Viral Video of 2007. We were recently featured on The History Channel for an episode of Modern Marvels called The World’s Strongest III, and German television sent a film crew to do an entire segment for a show called Galileo on PRO7 television.”

Cadbury’s continue to cream it

OK so Easter’s been and gone, but this ad is another example of how the Cadbury’s marketing team have upped their game. Apparently Fallon’s follow up to Gorilla isn’t too bad either. Will be tracking that down when I get a sec. What puzzles me slightly about the Creme Egg ads is why they weren’t premiered online sooner. Bit of a missed opportunity there methinks as Easter fatigue is setting in due to it falling so early this year. Anyway, this is a cracking concept eggsecuted eggcellently.