Real brands winning me over in social media

I've been delighted by the way brands have interacted with me on Twitter.

Around April, I tweeted about RunKeeper, an iPhone app I had just bought. Within hours the developer, Jason Jacobs, was responding to me. Within a couple of days I was interviewing him for an article I wrote for a client.

Around the same time I tweeted something about Boingo. They too were on to me like a shot, helpful as could be.

Two weeks ago, the BT Business Hub in my hub office went down. I tweeted about it, and within an hour @BTCare was onto it, asking me questions and passing me on to @BTBusiness. They quickly got their service person Lisa Nield to call me, talk me through the problem and decide on dispatching a new modem router. I asked if I could have a chat with one of the masterminds behind BT's social media work and hey presto, Martin Faux rang me later that day.

Then yesterday, I happened to mention my favourite photo sharing site Smugmug in a Tweet. Within less than an hour one of the co-founders DonMacAskill had commented on my tweet and was following me.

One take-out for me is that businesses who notice customers and prospects get their attention - they deserve their attention.

I've also posted this here >>>>

Tidying up after leaving an online forum

Good old Mitch Sullivan, the recruitment expert, has the right idea about interacting online; it's not the real world, so don't take it too seriously. Wise words and I'm trying, honestly.

However, this year, the behaviour of one particular person in one particular forum (LT) got right under my skin. It didn't seem to bother anyone else in the forum, so I guess it was just my own weak spot. I tried ignoring it, I tried just staying away, I tried mocking the behaviour as Mitch advised and none of it worked. So I left the forum and asked the owner to delete my account. And I once again became more active on Ecademy, where I started out my online networking activities in December 2004.

For the good order, I would like to express my appreciation for various people on LT:
- Coaksey for his humour, balance and for sharing difficult moments of his year
- Rupert for his intelligence, erudition and for playing the ball, not the man
- JH for patiently hosting the whole thing
- Mollie for her unique wit and incisive perspectives
- Rachie for putting me straight on websites
- RAD for being an all-round good man with a great sense of fairness
- Mitch for being a provocative, funny and insightful nutter
- MJ for his dry, wry, pithy humour
- Bood for being the deep-thinking, reflective peace-maker
- JW for reconciling me with Ecademy again
- Nikki for taking no prisoners
- DH for being a unique monomaniac
- Essex Girl for her spirit, curiosity and kindness.

Apologies to anyone I've missed out - I guess we weren't so much on each other's radar.