I had an email yesterday which was inviting me to buy a ticket for a fantastic looking conference. It was to do with digital publishing, it had some amazing speakers and it was in England, as opposed to all of the conferences I get excited about that turn out to be on the other side of the Atlantic. In fact, I was all set up to go and buy a ticket until I saw the price; £350 for a day ticket.
Three hundred and fifty pounds? It might as well have been three hundred and fifty thousand.
It's not the first time I've gotten excited about a conference right up until the moment that I saw the price tag associated with being a part of it. Gaming conferences, museum conferences, digital conferences. You name one of my interests and I've probably found at least three conferences or training courses I'd love to attend but can't afford to.
I understand that hiring venues is expensive, not to mention paying top-class speakers. I'm sure the food is top-notch too. I just wish that having a high amount of disposable income, or a large training budget, wasn't such a pre-requisite for being able to hear the ideas of the best in the business, and being able to share your own ideas with them.
In a time of recession, I'm sure even more museum professionals are feeling as I do, and wishing it wasn't so. Is there anything that we can do about it? It feels like such a waste to think of all the students, the staff from small museums and those just unable to commit half their training budget to one conference who aren't able to contribute their thoughts and ideas to the sector.
In the meantime, if you know of any good conferences or meet-ups, networks or anything else that brings good people together, do let me know. I'm particularly interested in gaming, museum education and digital and new media, but love to hear about anything new and exciting.
Monday, 7 November 2011
Monday, 24 October 2011
On a digital treasure hunt
This week, I'm setting out on a quest to find the most exciting interactive content there is to find online. Today was day one; I'm hoping that my treasures each day are more exciting than the last, though they'll have to go some way to top some of things I've found today.
I found a few gems today, and thought I'd share them with you.
The Curfew
A game about freedom, oppression and doing the right thing; somewhere between a video and a point and click adventure game, you navigate your way through the stories of four characters to decide who to trust with some secret information you've got that'll bring down the corrupt government.
What I love about this is the realism of the environments within the game; characters shift and shuffle whilst they're waiting for you to do things, signs flicker and things blow in the breeze. They're very real environments and that makes you invest more in the game, I think.
7NK
There's nothing I love more than a good murder mystery, and as they go this looks pretty fabulous. It was designed for the BBC's Shakespeare programme to give visitors an understanding of some of the bard's most key characters. Unfortunately, the link on the BBC website doesn't look like it works anymore, which is a crying shame. The artwork looks fabulous and the game looks to be full of puzzles and questioning suspects; both key factors in any good murder mystery game.
If anyone knows where I can find it online I'd be very greatful; I'd love to play it.
MyUK
A game from the government, of all people. This one is supposed to engage 13-15 year olds with the idea of laws and governance, but I think it'd be pretty good fun no matter how old you are, especially since you get the chance to do very serious law-type things in your five years in office, such as pass rules about the offside law and paint the front door at Downing Street.
It even links into your facebook and twitter profiles so you can share your moments of prime ministerial genius with all of your friends.
You can look out for mine soon, I'm sure...
High Tea
This one is from the Wellcome Collection, and was created to highlight the opium trafficking that took place in the British Empire in the Victorian period. It's a strategy game, where timing is key and gambling helps. I say that; I'm not very good it!
So there's four good examples; unfortunately they don't all work, but some of them should give you some good productive procrastination!
I'm looking for more inspirational interactives out there on the internet. If you know any, please share them with me. In turn, I'll share them with everyone else!
I found a few gems today, and thought I'd share them with you.
The Curfew
A game about freedom, oppression and doing the right thing; somewhere between a video and a point and click adventure game, you navigate your way through the stories of four characters to decide who to trust with some secret information you've got that'll bring down the corrupt government.
What I love about this is the realism of the environments within the game; characters shift and shuffle whilst they're waiting for you to do things, signs flicker and things blow in the breeze. They're very real environments and that makes you invest more in the game, I think.
7NK
There's nothing I love more than a good murder mystery, and as they go this looks pretty fabulous. It was designed for the BBC's Shakespeare programme to give visitors an understanding of some of the bard's most key characters. Unfortunately, the link on the BBC website doesn't look like it works anymore, which is a crying shame. The artwork looks fabulous and the game looks to be full of puzzles and questioning suspects; both key factors in any good murder mystery game.
If anyone knows where I can find it online I'd be very greatful; I'd love to play it.
MyUK
A game from the government, of all people. This one is supposed to engage 13-15 year olds with the idea of laws and governance, but I think it'd be pretty good fun no matter how old you are, especially since you get the chance to do very serious law-type things in your five years in office, such as pass rules about the offside law and paint the front door at Downing Street.
It even links into your facebook and twitter profiles so you can share your moments of prime ministerial genius with all of your friends.
You can look out for mine soon, I'm sure...
High Tea
This one is from the Wellcome Collection, and was created to highlight the opium trafficking that took place in the British Empire in the Victorian period. It's a strategy game, where timing is key and gambling helps. I say that; I'm not very good it!
So there's four good examples; unfortunately they don't all work, but some of them should give you some good productive procrastination!
I'm looking for more inspirational interactives out there on the internet. If you know any, please share them with me. In turn, I'll share them with everyone else!
Tuesday, 4 October 2011
Making a name for yourself on facebook
Just a short post today, because I realised something really important that I'd left out of my facebook summary post: how to get a customized url for your page.
In case you don't know what I'm talking about, I mean being able to type www.facecbook.com/yourmuseum and have it take people directly to your museum page.
Getting a "vanity url" as they call them for your page is actually really simple.
1. Set up your page.
2. Go to http://www.facebook.com/username/
3. Select the page you want to set the url for with the dropdown menu
4. Choose your preferred url (the bit that goes after the www.facebook.com/)
And that's it!
A couple of hints and tips:
1. Once you've chosen your url you CANNOT change it. So double check your spelling and be 100% sure about your abbreviations before you type it in.
2. Facebook changes the requirements for a page to have a vanity url all the time. It's usually a number of fans/followers that your page needs to have. At last check it was 20 fans, so it's not exactly a steep challenge for most heritage organisations. This may change in the future, of course. Whatever the requirements are though, facebook will tell you on the /username page.
3. You want your online profile to be as seemless as possible, so if you have a twitter account name, consider using that as your facebook username url. Of course, you might decide you want something more obvious if it's going to be a place you have to direct people to often.
As always, I hope that's useful. Ask if you have questions and if I can answer, I will.
In case you don't know what I'm talking about, I mean being able to type www.facecbook.com/yourmuseum and have it take people directly to your museum page.
Getting a "vanity url" as they call them for your page is actually really simple.
1. Set up your page.
2. Go to http://www.facebook.com/username/
3. Select the page you want to set the url for with the dropdown menu
4. Choose your preferred url (the bit that goes after the www.facebook.com/)
And that's it!
A couple of hints and tips:
1. Once you've chosen your url you CANNOT change it. So double check your spelling and be 100% sure about your abbreviations before you type it in.
2. Facebook changes the requirements for a page to have a vanity url all the time. It's usually a number of fans/followers that your page needs to have. At last check it was 20 fans, so it's not exactly a steep challenge for most heritage organisations. This may change in the future, of course. Whatever the requirements are though, facebook will tell you on the /username page.
3. You want your online profile to be as seemless as possible, so if you have a twitter account name, consider using that as your facebook username url. Of course, you might decide you want something more obvious if it's going to be a place you have to direct people to often.
As always, I hope that's useful. Ask if you have questions and if I can answer, I will.
Saturday, 3 September 2011
Facepaints and Visitor Feedback
You might not think that facepainting and museums go all that well together. Dogs, butterflies and spiderman in lurid colours on kids' faces are more the realm of birthday parties than museum events, right?
Well, I'm sort of hoping I might change your mind about that in this post.
Here are the top reasons I think facepainting should be included in at least a couple of your events every year. Oh, and it's important that it's your staff doing it too - but I'll get to that in a minute.
1. Kids LOVE it. And I mean LOVE. Most children who would otherwise not sit still to engage with anything remotely museum-y (is there such a thing?) will happily sit quietly for ten minutes and let someone doodle on their face with a paintbrush.
2. Parents love it too. Mostly because of #1 - they love that their kids get to sit quietly for a few minutes. I'm sure they love the animal impressions that come after you've finished just as much, too.
3. Most importantly: it gives you a captive audience. Whilst the child is sitting there, at the mercy of your artistic talent, you can ask them all the questions you wish you could ask every visitor. Are you having a good day? What's your favourite thing you've seen or done? Is there something you're looking forward to later? Have you been here before? Everything you ever wanted to know. And their parents are right there too, ready to be quizzed. Have you ever had a better chance to do some on-the-spot evaluation?
Bearing that in mind, because I'm sure I've just convinced you all to slot some facepainting into your programmes for next year, here's a few things you need to think about before you get out your "facepainting here today" sign.
1. Buy good paints. I can't stress how important it is not to give your visitors an allergic reaction with cheap face paints. Invest in a decent brand, like Snazaroo. It's honestly worth it; not only are good paints easier to paint with than the ones you might pick up from the poundstore, but you'll get some instant respect from any visitors who have painted faces before just for having a good brand on the table.
2. Find someone with some artistic talent to do the painting. It's not fair to say that everyone can be a face painter. Having said that, though, just because you've not done it before doesn't mean you'll be terrible; there are some excellent books out there which have some great simple designs in. If you're only confident doing a tiger, a butterfly and a dog then that's fine. Just make sure you make that clear on the signs that that's what you're offering.
3. Consider your event and your audience. Nature events are a great time to get out the facepaints because it's so easy to find loads of great inspiration for face paint designs in the animal kingdom. But that's not your only option; I've done painting for "princesses" and "fairies" at a magical event before, just by offering small stars or glittery swirls. Small children often won't sit still long enough for a full face so if you know you're going to get a lot of little ones then think about what cheek or arm designs you could do.
4. Facepainting doesn't have to cost the Earth. Parents are very grateful when you can offer it for free, or even for a small charge such as £1 for a full face. If you're not confident in your abilities just yet, offer it for free. You can always start charging at events later in the year when you feel you have improved.
5. Facepainting is time consuming. Make sure you plan enough time into your day for it. If you're expecting a lot of visitors then don't expect your facepainting staff member to have time to do anything else that day.
I've been facepainting for about five or six years now, so if you've got any other questions about it then just ask, as always I'm happy to answer.
Well, I'm sort of hoping I might change your mind about that in this post.
Here are the top reasons I think facepainting should be included in at least a couple of your events every year. Oh, and it's important that it's your staff doing it too - but I'll get to that in a minute.
1. Kids LOVE it. And I mean LOVE. Most children who would otherwise not sit still to engage with anything remotely museum-y (is there such a thing?) will happily sit quietly for ten minutes and let someone doodle on their face with a paintbrush.
2. Parents love it too. Mostly because of #1 - they love that their kids get to sit quietly for a few minutes. I'm sure they love the animal impressions that come after you've finished just as much, too.
3. Most importantly: it gives you a captive audience. Whilst the child is sitting there, at the mercy of your artistic talent, you can ask them all the questions you wish you could ask every visitor. Are you having a good day? What's your favourite thing you've seen or done? Is there something you're looking forward to later? Have you been here before? Everything you ever wanted to know. And their parents are right there too, ready to be quizzed. Have you ever had a better chance to do some on-the-spot evaluation?
Bearing that in mind, because I'm sure I've just convinced you all to slot some facepainting into your programmes for next year, here's a few things you need to think about before you get out your "facepainting here today" sign.
1. Buy good paints. I can't stress how important it is not to give your visitors an allergic reaction with cheap face paints. Invest in a decent brand, like Snazaroo. It's honestly worth it; not only are good paints easier to paint with than the ones you might pick up from the poundstore, but you'll get some instant respect from any visitors who have painted faces before just for having a good brand on the table.
2. Find someone with some artistic talent to do the painting. It's not fair to say that everyone can be a face painter. Having said that, though, just because you've not done it before doesn't mean you'll be terrible; there are some excellent books out there which have some great simple designs in. If you're only confident doing a tiger, a butterfly and a dog then that's fine. Just make sure you make that clear on the signs that that's what you're offering.
3. Consider your event and your audience. Nature events are a great time to get out the facepaints because it's so easy to find loads of great inspiration for face paint designs in the animal kingdom. But that's not your only option; I've done painting for "princesses" and "fairies" at a magical event before, just by offering small stars or glittery swirls. Small children often won't sit still long enough for a full face so if you know you're going to get a lot of little ones then think about what cheek or arm designs you could do.
4. Facepainting doesn't have to cost the Earth. Parents are very grateful when you can offer it for free, or even for a small charge such as £1 for a full face. If you're not confident in your abilities just yet, offer it for free. You can always start charging at events later in the year when you feel you have improved.
5. Facepainting is time consuming. Make sure you plan enough time into your day for it. If you're expecting a lot of visitors then don't expect your facepainting staff member to have time to do anything else that day.
I've been facepainting for about five or six years now, so if you've got any other questions about it then just ask, as always I'm happy to answer.
Tuesday, 23 August 2011
Inspiring places
I spotted a post this morning from @museummedia on twitter, pointing at a summary of ten beautiful historic libraries. It's no surprise that I love old buildings really, given my chosen career, but looking through these pictures reminded me just how inspiring a building can be, without any extra effort put into the whizzbang of interpretation.
I started to think about other places that have been inspiring over the years, and soon realised that there are far too many, and of such great diversity, to share them all. Still, here are a few places I've been that really stuck in my memory.
This is Ditherington Flax Mill, in Shrewsbury. It was the first iron-framed building in the world, which makes it the forerunner for the modern skyscraper, and as such it's a Grade I listed building. It's also a building site at the moment, as English Heritage work to turn it into something that will last for the future. When I visited a few years ago there was little there but room upon room of these iron supports, occassionally with holes at the top to allow the belts that drove the machines to run the length of the room. What was most impressive about it, as I remember, was the sheer scale of the place; each room very long, and knowing that there were more floors above you just the same.
This is the chained library at Hereford Cathedral. You can just about make out in the picture that all the books are chained to the shelves with heavy iron chain! A hark back to the days when books really were that valuable. Not that I think you'd be able to slip out unnoticed with most of these tomes; they're rather big and heavy. For anyone who has read the Discworld books by Terry Pratchett, this is rather how I imagine sections of the library at the Unseen University to be!
I started to think about other places that have been inspiring over the years, and soon realised that there are far too many, and of such great diversity, to share them all. Still, here are a few places I've been that really stuck in my memory.
Photo credit: The Guardian
This is Ditherington Flax Mill, in Shrewsbury. It was the first iron-framed building in the world, which makes it the forerunner for the modern skyscraper, and as such it's a Grade I listed building. It's also a building site at the moment, as English Heritage work to turn it into something that will last for the future. When I visited a few years ago there was little there but room upon room of these iron supports, occassionally with holes at the top to allow the belts that drove the machines to run the length of the room. What was most impressive about it, as I remember, was the sheer scale of the place; each room very long, and knowing that there were more floors above you just the same.
If you're interested in the Mill, you can read more about it on English Heritage's website.
Photo credits: English Heritage Prints
There's a lot to find inspiring about Bolsover Castle, in Derbyshire. These two pictures, of the Pillared Parlour and the Star Chamber respectively, are just two of the fantastic interiors that you can find in the Little Castle, a smaller building within the castle grounds. The exteriors are pretty fabulous too, not to mention the views across the surrounding countryside.
Photo credit: TravelerFolio.com
I've already said I love libraries, so it should come as no surprise that the library at Cardiff Castle completely blew me away. The detail in all the carvings on the bookshelves and painted around the room could keep anyone occupied for hours hunting for all of the animals, flowers and so on that are depicted there. They didn't, as far as I could see, run any such sort of hunt for families, but you could easily invent your own!
Photo credit: BBC
This is the chained library at Hereford Cathedral. You can just about make out in the picture that all the books are chained to the shelves with heavy iron chain! A hark back to the days when books really were that valuable. Not that I think you'd be able to slip out unnoticed with most of these tomes; they're rather big and heavy. For anyone who has read the Discworld books by Terry Pratchett, this is rather how I imagine sections of the library at the Unseen University to be!
Photo credit: Shropshire Star
This is the Picture Room at Attingham Park in Shropshire. The room is full of pictures that one of the house's inhabitants collected on an extravagant Grand Tour as is the case in many historic houses, but my favourite thing about the room is the fantastic sky-light in the roof. The panels of glass are held together by a then-innovative ironwork structure; who would expect less from a home so near to the famous ironworks at Coalbrookdale? Unfortunately the roof has a terrible tendency to leak, so today it's protected on the outside by a secondary clear roof, invisible from the inside.
I could go on listing inspirational places all day, but I think I'll leave it there for now. What inspirational places have you got to share? I'd love to see them; I'm always looking for more places to go and see.
Monday, 1 August 2011
Twitter tips
This is the second part of my series of introductions to social media. The first was about facebook and you can find it here.
The idea of these posts isn't to tell you everything there is to know about social media, just to give you an overview of the most important things to know when starting from scratch if you've got little or no experience with the medium.
Today's post is about twitter.
Twitter is perhaps more daunting to approach than facebook, for someone new to social media. It has a lot of technical terms, such as tweet and retweet and url and so on that are used all the time on the website, that can be mystifying if you don't know what they mean. I'll try and explain as many of them as I can on the way through.
Setting up your account
Setting up an account on twitter is very easy. Start by heading to www.twitter.com and clicking on the button that says 'sign up'. The username that you create will be how people find and refer to you on twitter, so make sure that it's something that represents you well and is easy for people to remember. Good examples of twitter names might be PooleMuseum or NationalTrust. Bad usernames might be the name of the member of staff who created the account, or a complicated acronym. You'll also have a chance to write your name; this can include all the characters that your username couldn't, such as spaces. The rest of the sign-up process is quite straightforward; there is very little information to fill in.
Updating your 'look'
You are represented on twitter by five things. Firstly, your username and 'real name', which we've already covered. Next is your 'descriptive text'. Here you get 140 characters to describe yourself to the world at large. This is the only space you get to do this with, so make all those characters count. Usually it's good to summarise your institution with a sentence or two, then say who is tweeting on behalf of you if it's going to be one person. You might want a thesaurus handy to come up with shorter equivalents for things you want to say to get as much information into those 140 characters as possible!
The other two are your avatar and your background. Your avatar is the little square picture that shows next to your username throughout twitter. It will be the visual representation of your institution, so you want to choose something that will stand out and be recognisable as you. You can change your avatar whenever you want, but it's probably best to keep it fairly stable. Museum logos make good icons, as do striking pictures of your notable collections if you have something particularly well known. It's worth knowing that although your avatar shows up as a small square most of the time, twitter users can click on your picture for a full-size version to get a better look at the image if they want to, so you don't have to use a tiny picture, or even a square one. If your picture isn't naturally square, twitter will automatically crop it for you.
Twitter has a wide range of background pictures that you can choose from, but you can also upload your own. If you choose a picture that is smaller than the screen size it is being displayed on then twitter will automatically tile the image unless you tell it not to. Cunning use of background colour and a picture that fades into it will help your page look good on any size monitor. If you're not sure, twitter's default backgrounds or plain colours work well to start.
Short and sweet
You'll know that one of the key characteristics of twitter is that each "tweet" (the messages or status updates that you post) can only be 140 characters long. One of the drawbacks of this used to be that it made including links to things difficult. Luckily, this is less of an issue now as twitter includes an automatic url (the address of a link) shortener. There are still plenty of separate ones out there that you can use; the likes of bit.ly and tiny.cc to name two. Their benefits often include click-through statistics tracking that twitter doesn't give you, but it's nice to know that twitter now offers something automatically so you shouldn't have to worry about links taking up all of your 140 characters.
I had a good suggestion in the comments from John Bibby so I'm adding it in here. If you do use an url shortening service, you are given the option of choosing what your shortened link appears as. Usually the abbreviation you wanted to use has been taken before. However, if you give yourself an acronym to use at the start of each shortened url, you'll probably find you can use whatever you like after it and still be unique. John uses aa42; you could use something that fits with your organisation, for example the V&A might use VnA as the start of all of their addresses, giving them shortened urls such as VnAart or VnAoffr and so on.
Retweet, retweet!
As well as "tweeting" your own posts, you can also "retweet" things that other people have said. Retweeting something is basically a way of saying you like or approve of something, or of raising awareness of something that other people want to be more widely known such as an event or a request for information. In the character-precious environment of twitter, retweet is often abbreviated to RT. To retweet a post, hover over it. You'll see icons for replying to the post, as well as one for retweeting it. The retweet icon looks a bit like a square recycling sign.
Talking to other people
No twitterer is an island; part of what makes twitter valuable is the conversation between people. There are two ways to talk to other people on twitter; by public tweet or by direct message.
A public tweet is something everyone can see. To make sure someone knows it's aimed at them, you put @Theirtwittername at the start of the tweet. This is like having a conversation with someone in a room full of other people; everyone else can hear (see) what you're saying.
A direct message is a private conversation between two people. You can get to your direct messages from the 'messages' tab in twitter. Type in the twitter name of the person you want to send the message to and away you go. Twitter keeps a log of all the people you've messaged in the past on the left hand side of the screen so it's easily accessible in the future. Bear in mind that though your message can't be seen by the public that doesn't mean the other party won't share it; think of it like sending email messages.
And that's it for the basics! I hope it's been useful to people. If people are interested in the more intermediate hints and tips, such as using programmes like TweetDeck and HootSuite to schedule tweets, or statistics tracking, let me know and I'll be happy to write a second post.
I haven't planned any more social media introductions at the moment, but I'm happy to write some up if people are interested in anything in particular. Foursquare, youtube... ask and I'll get writing!
The idea of these posts isn't to tell you everything there is to know about social media, just to give you an overview of the most important things to know when starting from scratch if you've got little or no experience with the medium.
Today's post is about twitter.
Twitter is perhaps more daunting to approach than facebook, for someone new to social media. It has a lot of technical terms, such as tweet and retweet and url and so on that are used all the time on the website, that can be mystifying if you don't know what they mean. I'll try and explain as many of them as I can on the way through.
Setting up your account
Setting up an account on twitter is very easy. Start by heading to www.twitter.com and clicking on the button that says 'sign up'. The username that you create will be how people find and refer to you on twitter, so make sure that it's something that represents you well and is easy for people to remember. Good examples of twitter names might be PooleMuseum or NationalTrust. Bad usernames might be the name of the member of staff who created the account, or a complicated acronym. You'll also have a chance to write your name; this can include all the characters that your username couldn't, such as spaces. The rest of the sign-up process is quite straightforward; there is very little information to fill in.
Updating your 'look'
You are represented on twitter by five things. Firstly, your username and 'real name', which we've already covered. Next is your 'descriptive text'. Here you get 140 characters to describe yourself to the world at large. This is the only space you get to do this with, so make all those characters count. Usually it's good to summarise your institution with a sentence or two, then say who is tweeting on behalf of you if it's going to be one person. You might want a thesaurus handy to come up with shorter equivalents for things you want to say to get as much information into those 140 characters as possible!
The other two are your avatar and your background. Your avatar is the little square picture that shows next to your username throughout twitter. It will be the visual representation of your institution, so you want to choose something that will stand out and be recognisable as you. You can change your avatar whenever you want, but it's probably best to keep it fairly stable. Museum logos make good icons, as do striking pictures of your notable collections if you have something particularly well known. It's worth knowing that although your avatar shows up as a small square most of the time, twitter users can click on your picture for a full-size version to get a better look at the image if they want to, so you don't have to use a tiny picture, or even a square one. If your picture isn't naturally square, twitter will automatically crop it for you.
Twitter has a wide range of background pictures that you can choose from, but you can also upload your own. If you choose a picture that is smaller than the screen size it is being displayed on then twitter will automatically tile the image unless you tell it not to. Cunning use of background colour and a picture that fades into it will help your page look good on any size monitor. If you're not sure, twitter's default backgrounds or plain colours work well to start.
Short and sweet
You'll know that one of the key characteristics of twitter is that each "tweet" (the messages or status updates that you post) can only be 140 characters long. One of the drawbacks of this used to be that it made including links to things difficult. Luckily, this is less of an issue now as twitter includes an automatic url (the address of a link) shortener. There are still plenty of separate ones out there that you can use; the likes of bit.ly and tiny.cc to name two. Their benefits often include click-through statistics tracking that twitter doesn't give you, but it's nice to know that twitter now offers something automatically so you shouldn't have to worry about links taking up all of your 140 characters.
I had a good suggestion in the comments from John Bibby so I'm adding it in here. If you do use an url shortening service, you are given the option of choosing what your shortened link appears as. Usually the abbreviation you wanted to use has been taken before. However, if you give yourself an acronym to use at the start of each shortened url, you'll probably find you can use whatever you like after it and still be unique. John uses aa42; you could use something that fits with your organisation, for example the V&A might use VnA as the start of all of their addresses, giving them shortened urls such as VnAart or VnAoffr and so on.
Retweet, retweet!
As well as "tweeting" your own posts, you can also "retweet" things that other people have said. Retweeting something is basically a way of saying you like or approve of something, or of raising awareness of something that other people want to be more widely known such as an event or a request for information. In the character-precious environment of twitter, retweet is often abbreviated to RT. To retweet a post, hover over it. You'll see icons for replying to the post, as well as one for retweeting it. The retweet icon looks a bit like a square recycling sign.
Talking to other people
No twitterer is an island; part of what makes twitter valuable is the conversation between people. There are two ways to talk to other people on twitter; by public tweet or by direct message.
A public tweet is something everyone can see. To make sure someone knows it's aimed at them, you put @Theirtwittername at the start of the tweet. This is like having a conversation with someone in a room full of other people; everyone else can hear (see) what you're saying.
A direct message is a private conversation between two people. You can get to your direct messages from the 'messages' tab in twitter. Type in the twitter name of the person you want to send the message to and away you go. Twitter keeps a log of all the people you've messaged in the past on the left hand side of the screen so it's easily accessible in the future. Bear in mind that though your message can't be seen by the public that doesn't mean the other party won't share it; think of it like sending email messages.
And that's it for the basics! I hope it's been useful to people. If people are interested in the more intermediate hints and tips, such as using programmes like TweetDeck and HootSuite to schedule tweets, or statistics tracking, let me know and I'll be happy to write a second post.
I haven't planned any more social media introductions at the moment, but I'm happy to write some up if people are interested in anything in particular. Foursquare, youtube... ask and I'll get writing!
When I grow up I want to be... Results!
Well, I promised them and here they are. In total, I surveyed 175 children between the ages of 3 and 16. Really, it's not enough to get any conclusive results (says my GCSE in Statistics) but it's certainly enough to start seeing some interesting things coming out.
To summarise the trends that came out of the data, then...
The most popular careers for girls under the age of 9 are vets, dancers and hairdressers. I also hit upon some of the classics you might expect from the under tens; princesses, queens, famous people and 'just like my Mum'. 10-12 year old girls surprisingly (but pleasantly so) favour being scientists over anything else, including forensic scientists, zoologists and marine biologists. Also popular are artists and fashion designers. 13-16 year olds are more interested in care jobs; social worker, nurse and midwife scored highly, as did physical training jobs such as PE teacher, sports coach and physical therapist.
Popular careers for boys under the age of 9 are soliders, firemen, policemen and footballers. There were some gems here too; pirate, millionaire and Santa were my favourites. The 10-12 age group did well for engineers and mechanics, as well as policemen and firemen. This group seemed to have the widest range of desired careers, with everything from chefs and carpenters to astronauts and archaeologists. 13-16 year old boys were rather under-represented in my sample group, but the ones I did have favoured teachers and soldiers as their preferred careers.
If the results are anything to go by, it seems that the under 12s have the most imaginative ideas about their future careers. By the time they get to 13/14, they've started to think more realistically about their futures, and abandon the princesses and pirates in favour of social workers and soldiers.
If you're interested in this and would like the raw data for anything you're doing please let me know and I'll be happy to share. It's something I'm going to keep working on so if you know any children under 16 and can help out by contributing what they'd like to be when they grow up, please do. All I need is gender, age and career choice. I'm particularly short of boys 13-16, but I'm happy for more data regardless of which category they fit into.
To summarise the trends that came out of the data, then...
The most popular careers for girls under the age of 9 are vets, dancers and hairdressers. I also hit upon some of the classics you might expect from the under tens; princesses, queens, famous people and 'just like my Mum'. 10-12 year old girls surprisingly (but pleasantly so) favour being scientists over anything else, including forensic scientists, zoologists and marine biologists. Also popular are artists and fashion designers. 13-16 year olds are more interested in care jobs; social worker, nurse and midwife scored highly, as did physical training jobs such as PE teacher, sports coach and physical therapist.
Popular careers for boys under the age of 9 are soliders, firemen, policemen and footballers. There were some gems here too; pirate, millionaire and Santa were my favourites. The 10-12 age group did well for engineers and mechanics, as well as policemen and firemen. This group seemed to have the widest range of desired careers, with everything from chefs and carpenters to astronauts and archaeologists. 13-16 year old boys were rather under-represented in my sample group, but the ones I did have favoured teachers and soldiers as their preferred careers.
If the results are anything to go by, it seems that the under 12s have the most imaginative ideas about their future careers. By the time they get to 13/14, they've started to think more realistically about their futures, and abandon the princesses and pirates in favour of social workers and soldiers.
If you're interested in this and would like the raw data for anything you're doing please let me know and I'll be happy to share. It's something I'm going to keep working on so if you know any children under 16 and can help out by contributing what they'd like to be when they grow up, please do. All I need is gender, age and career choice. I'm particularly short of boys 13-16, but I'm happy for more data regardless of which category they fit into.
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