Melany Antcliffe's Weblog

Twitter really is all hype?!

Melany Antcliffe — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 04:06:42 +0000

Again Twitter news dominates the online technology pages. However this article in today’s The Age, shows the first real signs that Twitter is in fact all hype no substance.

This article details that a low percentage of users are using Twitter regularly. Harvard Business School researchers concluded that 10 per cent of Twitter members account for 90 per cent of tweets and there are many people who have a Twitter account but no followers.

Despite these statistics, Twitter seems to continue to grow enormously, with around 32.1 million people worldwide holding an account.

Create a facebook username

Melany Antcliffe — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 00:04:55 +0000

From this Saturday 13 June at 2pm, Facebook users will be able to create their own username to allow friends to find them more easily. This will be particularly useful for users with popular or common names.

For more information, click here.

Are you tweet-proof?

Melany Antcliffe — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 05:57:05 +0000

As Twitter use hits crazy heights, avid users are being warned to look out for impostors posing as celebrities.

For more infomation on how to protect yourself from this Twitter scam click here.

Social media for businesses – Lee Hopkins

Melany Antcliffe — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 11:25:03 +0000

I came across Lee Hopkins, a communication and online theorist, who has proven to be extremely useful as I tackle my research thesis this year, and may prove beneficial to some of my colleagues. Visit Lee’s website here.

In a recent online article, Lee Hopkins discusses how businesses and management consultants are now looking to capitalise on the online buzz. Hopkins states:

Social media allows you to have a conversation, so as a business person I can have a conversation with every single one of my customers, all of my suppliers and any investors I might have. I can have conversations with them and it becomes a very interactive conversation and it brings people with their community closer.

According to another source, currently 19% of the population is on Facebook and after Google, Youtube is the second most popular search engine. So it might be worthwhile for a business to capitalise on the plethora of social media tools that are now available and start communicating to the wider online audience.

The end of the documentary road

Melany Antcliffe — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 10:50:03 +0000

Last week I submitted my documentary on the Fintona community. It is a big relief to have completed a large piece of work. I am really pleased with the end result. Fintona was a huge part of my life for 3 years and I wanted to do it justice and portray it in the right light. I am confident I achieved that!

It appeared that Fintona still held a strong place in each of the people I interviewed hearts. Yet for one reason or another Fintona no longer played an active part in their lives today. The Old Fintonians Association might need to consider engaging some ex students by way of regular arranged catch ups or online newsletters to keep people informed of what is happening around the school.

View the Fintona Documentary here.

Does the future of newspapers lie online?

Melany Antcliffe — Fri, 29 May 2009 03:05:58 +0000

Ruper Murdoch, Chairman of News Corp, was quoted in a recent article, stating the future of news reading lies online. He believes that as Blackberry’s and portable technology devices become more and more prevalent, people will be able to catch news headlines and stories from the web.

He points out that in 10-15 years time, the public will have to pay for online newspaper subscriptions much in the same way you pay for a newspaper at the local corner store.

I don’t think this will be well received as I think the public view being able to access news online a right.

What are your thoughts? Are print newspapers a dying breed?

Twitter – good for your business?

Melany Antcliffe — Tue, 26 May 2009 13:39:22 +0000

I came across a great report produced by Communications Expert, Lee Hopkins, providing tips on how Twitter can be used to enhance a businesses reputation.

To assist I have downloaded a copy for you to view here. Hope you find it useful.

Facebook: When your personal life crosses with your professional one

Melany Antcliffe — Tue, 19 May 2009 01:05:25 +0000

I came across this article in The Age which tells a story of a employee who’s boss added her as a friend on Facebook.

This situation happened to me earlier this year. My boss sent a friend request to add me as a friend on Facebook. I would have preferred to keep my personal life separate from my professional life, but I was placed in an awkward position… How can I reject my boss’s friend request?

Before I added my boss I did quickly scan my profile to ensure there were no questionable pictures or comments on the page, and I have to remain mindful of what I put up there as my boss can now see all my correspondence!

A closing point to consider is raised by Batchblue Software in their recent blue paper…

With any social media site, even if your intended audience is your friends and peers, content on the Internet lives forever. One must be mindful of what they post on these social media sites as it could have consequences on your professional life whether you want it to or not. A good general rule of thumb is if you wouldn’t put a picture in a frame on your desk at work, don’t put it up on a social networking site.

Make your mark in tag crowd

Melany Antcliffe — Fri, 15 May 2009 11:32:11 +0000

Recently I attended a Government Communications Forum and one of the speakers introduced the audience to tagcrowd. Tagcrowd is a website which allows you to create your own “tagcrowd” from any text or website to visualise word frequency.

Enter your blog URL and view your tagcrowd now!

Fintona Doco

Melany Antcliffe — Wed, 13 May 2009 06:34:43 +0000

With the rough cut of our documentaries due next Wednesday, it is with much relief that I say…I am on track. I have set up another wordpress blog for the Fintona community. That can be found at http://fintona.wordpress.com

I found conducting the interviews was the easy part, it has taken me a bit of time to edit them. One needs much patience and attention to detail, something that doesn’t always come naturally when one is pressed for time and tired! Below documents my progress towards the end goal.

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