As if an auto DM when you follow someone on Twitter was not irritating enough, some people use TrueTwit Validation.

This isn’t a new phenomenon – the service has been irritating me and other Twitter users for some time. What really annoys me is that TrueTwit is a robot for checking whether or not I’m a robot!

If someone does not have time to take 30 seconds to cast an eye over my profile then I would question their motives for even being on Twitter. It wouldn’t wash on other social networks.

I definitely don’t want to waste my time filling in a form in the hope that someone I’ve only just discovered on Twitter might maybe perhaps follow me back.

I wonder how many Desperate Dans actually fill in the form?

As you may have noticed, my contract with Capgemini Consulting came to an end a few weeks ago. I really enjoyed working with their recruitment team in London, I learned so much from some fantastic people. I wrote about some of the success we had with Social Media here on my blog a few months ago. It was really rewarding to witness the whole recruitment process from beginning to end, actually getting to see new hires join.

I have my ear to the ground for anther suitably interesting long term opportunity, but in the meantime I’m making an enjoyable return to the self-employed life. This has already given me the opportunity to work with some great recruiters in the last couple of weeks. I have really missed getting to see how others play the game!

I am also planning some new things for the UK Sourcers project that I started about two and a half years ago. If you are interested in Internet sourcing and would like to be one of the first to hear any news then be sure to join the UK Sourcer’s LinkedIn group.

I guess all that remains for me to say is; if you think you might need me – get in touch

You cannot know me and not be aware that I love Percy Pig sweets from Marks and Spencer.

I tweet about them. I eat them in bed, on the bus and at the office. I have Percy on my key-ring and in my Christmas stocking. I know that a lot of people feel the same way. For a little foamy, gummy sweet, he inspires a lot of love and smiles.

I was beside myself when he joined Twitter, and even more delighted when I was the first person he mentioned!

OMG!! I’m the first person @ImPercyPig spoke to on Twitter. This may be the proudest moment of my life!! #PercyPig

— Katharine Robinson (@TheSourceress) December 6, 2011

A few days later though, I expressed my disappointment with his tweets. I was expecting something as charming as @Maudthecow from anchor used to be, but also as epic as @bronxzooscobra still is with his keen eye for current events.

I rllaey hpoe taht Hrary Peottr wnis bset mvoie tnogiht at the MTV Mvoie Arawds! #ParseltongueTweet #MTVMovieAwards — Bronx Zoo’s Cobra (@BronxZoosCobra) June 6, 2011

On reflection, I think that I am so disappointed because being the voice of Percy Pig on Social Media would be one of my dream jobs. Someone else has that job and they are not doing it in the same way I would. I am frustrated and also very jealous.

I have found myself thinking about the kind of online presence I might craft for Percy.

I imagine that the ultimate goal of Percy’s Twitter account must be to sell more sweets and merchandise. This could be done by both further inspiring current fans and making others curious about Percy Pig, perhaps even bringing new shoppers into Marks and Spencer stores.Therefore the account must bring some value to its followers in order to keep them. Even an account tweeting out a cycling list of Percy Pig merchandise would be more enlightening than “Oink”.

If it were my job to represent Percy online, I’d let any main M&S communications take care of product news. Percy’s voice is too potentially valuable to turn into a link feed.

I’d confidently say that everyone (who isn’t currently a spam-bot) following the @ImPercyPig Twitter account is mad about the sweets, just like me. There were Percy Pig money boxes and novel cases full of sweets available this Christmas, making perfect gifts for the Percy Pig lover in your life. Did they know to ask for them though? Twitter could have given those fantastic items more exposure to both Percy fans and their friends/family.

Before crafting Percy’s Social Media strategy, I’d do my research into Pig related current events. It would be easy to get pig related news straight to my RSS reader or inbox each day and then provide Percy’s unique spin on the (fizzy pig) tale. A day on a farm might be a good idea too. I don’t have much experience with real pigs and would need to learn how they behave, what sort of personalities they have and would surely get loads of inspiration for Percy’s personality. As the sweets appeal to those of all ages, so should the tweets. Percy is a boy, he is sweet, pink and totally fruity. I think that would also help guide in crafting his voice.

There is no shortage of Percy Pig lovers on Twitter – back in the summer, Percy Pig trended on Twitter when Marks and Spencer launched his Ice Cream. I’d definitely follow back all the real people that chose to follow Percy – if they are interested in him, I would think he’d be interested in them. I would look at who uses the #PercyPig hashtag most and I also notice that nine people (at the time of writing) actually mention Percy Pigs in their Twitter bios – I would definitely try to contact them and ask for opinions and ideas. They could end up being Percy’s biggest Twitter evangelists.

I have found myself wondering why Marks and Spencer did not obtain the  unused @PercyPig Twitter handle. As Percy Pig is their trade mark, Twitter should have given it to them. I found a number of parody accounts, like @thepercypig and @Percy_Pig1 (the latter is the top result when I Google “Percy Pig Twitter”). Although not used much, both show a nice bit of personality and a humorous rivalry with Colin the Caterpillar.

@ImPercyPig gets a lot of great tweets sent his way, both directly and via the #PercyPig hashtag. He rarely responds though and never employs any wit when he does. For example, he could tell Hannah that her new travel card holders are very “sty-lish”!

LOVING my new travel card holders (and the bags of @ImPercyPig that came with them) Thanks @marksandspencer xxxx twitter.com/hannaheichler/… — Hannah Eichler (@hannaheichler) December 21, 2011

… and let Suze know that Percy doesn’t encourage cannibalism.

Just offered a copper a #percypig He said yes please but was I trying to tell him something – didn’t think of that! — Suze Endean (@racer09) December 18, 2011

Percy hasn’t sent many tweets in his first 4 weeks. Despite this his followers still enthusiastically respond to his questions, only to get no further interaction. This could be a real force for spreading love and awareness if only harnessed.

The Percy Pig suit that is beautifully modelled in his Twitter avatar looks like an opportunity for lots of visual fun. “Where’s Percy” and “Percy Spotting” are just two ideas that come to mind when I wonder how to use the suit to engage fans and get them sharing…

I am bursting with too many ideas to share here!

Percy needn’t just share his thoughts and feelings on Twitter. Percy Pig’s Facebook page has managed to amass a quarter of a million fans, even though it doesn’t feature any news from the pig himself, a vanity URL hasn’t even been claimed for the page. Facebook would lend itself well to lots of visual media and Facebook questions would be a fantastic way to get light touch interaction from fans and lots of feedback. Percy could be a very platform versatile pig.

What would you do if you were the voice of Percy Pig?

:@)

One of the things people ask me about most is the fine line between personal and professional on Social Media.

It’s usually recruiters, that I meet in a professional setting, who are most concerned about how much to give away on social sites like Twitter.

I tell them not to worry, as long as they don’t act like a potty mouthed bully, everything will be fine. They still give me *worried face* and ask if it’s ok to “be casual” – whatever that means!?

Social networks are social settings. I wouldn’t go to a party and talk about my job all night or, even worse, talk about nothing but how my company is hiring right now and would you like a job? That would make me very unpopular very fast.

If someone asked about my job then I’d reply. If they told me what they did and I thought they might fit in where I work – I’d probably tell them so. I wouldn’t pull an application form out of my handbag though. Think of social networking like that. Don’t hide who you are and what you do, but don’t let it define you either. Your humanity is your greatest advantage on social sites.

People will respond to your passions. Once you’ve shared a little idle chat about pie, music or Christmas, those people are much more likely to engage with you again about something more serious.

Inspired by other people’s creative use of Foursquare, my compulsion to create lists and a passionate love of all things Star Trek, I decided to put together a special foursquare list over the Christmas break.

Well, so far I’ve found more than 20 real places here on Planet Earth that might be of interest to Star Trek fans around the globe.

Why not follow my list, Star Trek – Places of Interest, on foursquare?

I was inspired to write this post after presenting on “Twitter & Recruiting” at The FIRM’s Social Media event yesterday.

We all know that referencing someone’s twitter username with an @ symbol infront creates a link to their profile in your tweet.

Did you realise that where you place that @username can have a big impact on the visibility of your tweet?

When a tweet begins with @username Twitter interperates this as a Reply. Only those following both you and the person you are refernencing will see the tweet in their timeline.

If you go and check out my twitter profile, you will probably see me talking to a bunch of people you don’t know in tweets you’ve never seen. Aren’t you glad you didn’t have to see me chatting about the weather to a total stranger?

Here’s an example of a reply:

@lagomorphhunter Hi Lewis! Great to see folks joining Twitter Hope you enjoyed the day at #FIRMSocial.

— Katharine Robinson (@TheSourceress) December 13, 2011

When you mention someone – referencing their @usermane in the body of your tweet, everyone can see it. This is why you sometimes see people putting a full-stop in front of a reply – so that it is visible to all of their followers.  Here’s an example of a mention:

I’ve seen @TheSourceress present more times than I can count now but I ALWAYS learn something new from her! #impressive#firmsocial — Wendy Jacob (@WendyJacob) December 13, 2011

(Thanks Wendy *blush*)

So, if you’re just shooting the breeze with your friends and colleagues on Twitter, use replies as normal.

If you’re trying to spread content far and wide, make sure you reference @usernames in the body of your tweet, not at the start, so that all your followers see.

This post was originally published on my UK Sourcers’ Posterous blog.

The Social Media eureka moment for me came about six months after signing up for Twitter. I had been using Facebook for a couple of years and had tried blogging too. I was fascinated by this new social frontier, though it had not really proved itself valuable to me as a professional yet.

Then, a recruiter I had exchanged tweets with a couple of times passed £10k of business to the company I was working for at the time, all because he was aware of me and the industry I was recruiting in via Twitter. We didn’t properly meet in real life for almost another two years.

I have talked to a lot of businesses about using Social Media, Twitter in particular. I usually advise that you don’t start using it unless there is a considerable amount of enthusiasm for it already. If there is no one in your business that is hooked on using a social network personally, how will there ever be enough enthusiasm to turn the giggles you have in the office into Social Media gold? More often than not, someone that has never touched Twitter before will set up an account for their business, send a few tweets in the first week and then never log-in again. This makes me sad. Why bother at all?

If you’re going to start something, be sure that there is the belief, enthusiasm and resources available to stick with it. Be prepared to be creative, try a lot of things and do it for a long time before anyone even notices that you exist.

If you do decide to abandon your presence on a social network, please leave a note to explain that you are doing so and give people an alternative place to look for you, whether you are a person or a brand. By simply walking away, you show the platform’s users very little respect.

This year I have had the pleasure of seeing the creation and maturation of a corporate twitter presence through from idea to established presence. @CapgeminiUKppl is a vehicle for talking about the good things being done by those that work for Capgemini in the UK. We aim to promote the people in the business that are already putting themselves out there online by using Twitter and blog etc. to tell the world what they do. It is our hope that they will become much more popular than us and promote working at Capgemini better than our corporate-looking presence ever could. We provide some content and they pass it on in whatever human way they see fit.

The account stands apart from Capgemini UK’s corporate PR account. In the words of Tom Barton, our Head of Communications, “doing different things combines to provide a stronger digital footprint and online voice… the whole is better than the sum of the individual parts.” While @CapgeminiUKPR presents all our latest news and things important to all our stakeholders, we are free to promote Capgemini colleagues and find really human stories, hopefully interesting to our current and future employees.

@CageminiUKppl has been tweeting for a full six months and is only now beginning to feel established. It was very important to me that anything we achieved was very organic and picked up by Capgemini employees only if they genuinely wanted to engage. We have a group of loyal followers that interact and retweet us regularly and we are starting to get some recruitment related queries addressed to us too.

Although different members of the team are “on duty” manning the account each day, there is never a day when I don’t monitor for mentions of Capgemini, check what’s coming in and generally keep an eye on it. Things can be very quiet, but as a personal user of Social Media too, I think there is nothing worse than feeling ignored by a brand you admire. If someone posts a query about working for Capgemini, I know that they have a certain degree of respect for us and I want them to be responded to promptly.

In short – Social Media is a big commitment.

You might also find interesting:
Twitter & LinkedIn Account Syncing
Managing Twitter lists with Formulists
1500 UK Recruitment Related Twitter Accounts Listed

If you follow me on Social Media, then you probably realised that I took an 11 day trip to the USA in October with a friend.

I’m not very good at Holidays, I don’t look forward to them and my planning skills are rubbish – so when I get there, I don’t know what I want to do!

I was intending to visit three different cities – San Francisco, Seattle and Chicago – and decided that I wanted to get some #foursquare badges, so went researching…

I found that I could get the Bon Appetite Navigator badge by visiting three of Bon Appetite Magazine’s recommended restaurants (and following them on foursquare). There was a recommended restaurant in each city within reasonable walking (or public transport) distance from where I was staying.

The restaurant I picked in San Francisco sounded like the most exciting place of the three. We caught the BART down to the nearest station and made our way to where the restaurant should be. We chickened out! This was not in “down town” and I’m ashamed to say that the area put me off. The restaurant wasn’t easy to identify and I didn’t want to whip an iPad out in the middle of the ‘hood!

Determined not to lose out on a badge, I resolved to go to the next restaurant on the list in Seattle. This too was not on the beaten track. I did consider turning back quite a few times as we took a long walk up some steep hills to find Anchovies and Olives. When we arrived, we knew it had been worth the adventure. There were no tables left and we had to eat at the bar. I’m pleased we did as we had the attention of the barman who was very attentive and advised us well on our food and drink choices. The food was fantastic!

On our long walk to the restaurant we had passed a store called Old Skool Frozen Custard. Intrigued, we dropped in our walk back into town after our meal. Again, we found helpful and very friendly staff, who clearly LOVE custard. They let us sample their flavours before choosing some Apple Pie flavour frozen custard. If you’re ever in Seattle – I recommend taking the walk and checking out these two places!!

Upon arriving in Chicago, there was no question as to whether we would try the third restaurant, The Purple Pig. We made our way there on the first evening, only to be told there would be an hour long wait for a table. I made a face, but my friend persuaded me to wait. We took a walk down to the Navy pier, which is beautiful at night, and made it back to the restaurant in time for the best meal of the trip. If I lived in Chicago, I’d eat there ALL THE TIME! They even have a great looking cheese selection that Ididn’t get on to! The place is clearly very popular and they don’t take reservations, so be prepared to wait for some great food if you decide to visit.

So, I didn’t get the badge (this time, but I should be back in the States sometime soon). We did however discover some fantastic food that we otherwise wouldn’t have known about in a million years and ventured further out of our comfort zones than we ever would have done without the promise of some good grub!

I failed to get some other badges too – from Time Out Chicago and Explore Chicago. But these two provided great tips on things to see and do, I’d definitely keep taking their recommendations if I ever returned to the Windy City and would hopefully earn some badges then too.

I did get the Historian badge from the History Channel. I already had their London badge, so it’s great to have the set.

I also unlocked the Swimmies badge from foursquare – apparently I’ve had quite a few check-ins near water. That one was a total bonus!

If we had been in San Francisco longer, then we could have earned the Trainspotter badge for 10 check-ins on the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit). As it was, we only rode the BART once.

Sometimes you do things because they’re fun and get a badge as a bonus. Other times you’re chasing (either successfully or unsuccessfully) a badge and end up having more fun than you ever expected

If you weren’t using Twitter in June 2009, you can be forgiven for not being excited about this fact.

Tweetcamp was an event held in Richmond on a sunny Saturday back in June 2009 – I had been using Twitter for just a year and didn’t know that many people in “real life” yet. There was great conversation, loads of tasty food, poetry, strange green goo, cider and lots of tweeting.

It was a brilliant day and great things are still happening, because I went to Tweetcamp, more than two years later! That day was the first time I met one of my house mates!

It’s no surprise that those who were there have always said “we should do that again.” Well, a few months ago, a group of us got tired of saying it. Several tweets, meetings, conference calls, Facebook posts, spreadsheets and emails later, we have a second Tweetcamp – just for you.

Tweetcamp II will take place on Saturday 8th October at The Learning Village, Bishop Challoner School in East London.

The venue is one of the things that excites me most about the event – it’s just perfect. From the Huge dining hall…

To the 10 modern and fully equipped classrooms that we can breakout into.

The day is all about learning and sharing – ANYONE with an interest in Twitter is welcome, from the most seasoned user to those that don’t even have an account yet (they just know they want to learn).

It’s a popular event – those that were there last time remember how magical it was and those that weren’t are hearing about it and want in. The first batch of 75 tickets were snapped up in under 15 minutes. If you want to come – I’d suggest following @tweetcamp on Twitter like a hawk!!

Our Sponsors and Partners are making this happen. I’d like to share some love for @brandwatch, @GlobalInteg @indigo @MilliesCookies, @NexusGlobalnet @PeopleBrowsr and @RSelectronics.

Get to know fellow Tweetcamp-ers before the event by checking out this wonderful data visualisation from Brandwatch!

Will I be meeting you at #tweetcamp this time?

Recent adventures on Empire Avenue have left me thinking about why I use various social sites.

The more Eaves I earn on Empire Avenue, the more investments I can make and the more people I can then connect to. That is what will make the site useful to me in the long term. At this stage, it hasn’t been useful quite yet. I am still trying to earn as many eaves as I can. I am investing in people that I have no desire to meet (or stay in touch with) in order to do so. I am tempted by the special and secret achievements I could unlock. I am merely playing the game and I’ll do so for as long as it’s fun.

When I first joined Facebook, probably back in 2006, it was all about how many friends you had, your cyber pet, your horoscope or whatever shiny app would make you look stupid that week. Soon the compulsion to connect to everyone I had ever met and share my “Friendship wheel” with them wore off. Now I use it to stay in touch with old friends, be amused my current friends and use the groups feature, which is proving excellent for planning events. Facebook has a use, that’s why I still log in. I don’t play around on Facebook much these days.

I treated LinkedIn like a game for a while. I had to be doing everything! Answering questions and adding all the apps to my profile so no one could be bothered to scroll down far enough to see any of my actual details. I am still on LinkedIn everyday – but I use the features that are useful, I get in and I get out with what I want. All the playing helped me learn what worked and what didn’t but I no longer look enviously at those with more connections or wish I had more “Top Answers”. It works for me. I use it. I keep it up to date because it benefits me to do so.

Twitter is undoubtedly useful. I can say without a shadow of a doubt that I would not be where I am today if it weren’t for the power of Twitter. When working freelance, I could attribute almost all my work to it in some way! I still get the urge to play the game sometimes though. I secretly lust after more followers (admit it, we all do!), sometimes I post things just because I know they will get Retweeted and not because I REALLY want to say it. I check my Klout score, despite my reservations about it’s reliability, just because I like seeing graphs with lines that go up. It feeds my ego so I still play the game. The game is very seductive, but it’s not the reason I use Twitter.

I definitely play on foursquare. I want the Fried Checkin badge so badly! I want to be above my closest friends on the Leader Board and I want to be Mayor of my favourite restaurants. My friends on foursquare are the people that, if they were nearby, I would be sad that I hadn’t met them for a coffee (or tea – coffee is yuk!) – that is the useful part of foursquare. It is still the game that drives me to use it though, so will my love for it last?

GetGlue is like foursquare for entertainment – except it does not have the useful element. This makes me doubt that I will hang around and keep using it. I find it difficult to type that statement as I really enjoy using GetGlue and I hope that it finds a way to make itself valuable to me.

This brings me back to Empire Avenue. It is a game that could be REALLY useful. Empire Avenue is getting people to join up all their social media profiles in one place and then scoring them on their activity. Klout does this too, but Empire Avenue scores each individual network. I can instantly see which network a person is most active and engaged on – the best place to reach out to them. Someone looking at my sores would know that they were best to contact me directly through Empire Avenue or to send me a tweet.

The question is, will Empire Avenue ever have enough members to realise that potential? When I talk to people about it, there is a lot of discomfort about the notion of buying shares in a person. The beauty is that people wouldn’t need to “play” Empire Avenue at all for it to be useful to them and me. So should enough people sign up, and should I ever get over my share price fixation, we could have a very interesting day on our hands.

You know a site will last when people use it for reasons other than a simple love of the game.

If you would like to join Empire Avenue, use this link and earn me some eaves