Hi all,
Please welcome guest post form Nigel, a primary school
teacher and now the proud published of a book. Power to the people and social
media for the people. Read on to find out more.
teacher and now the proud published of a book. Power to the people and social
media for the people. Read on to find out more.
Michelle
Diary of theTweople was the brainchild of Gar Deady
and myself, Nigel Lane. Our idea was to show how
powerful Twitter can be as a means of bringing people together. After much
discussion on how best to do this, we came up the format for Diary of the
Tweople. We decided to set a date for Diary Day and get as many Twitter users
as possible to post a diary entry on our site on that day. We would then
collate all the entries received and publish them as an ebook on as many ebook
stores as we could manage, giving people the opportunity to have a glimpse into
the lives of the many wonderful people on Twitter. We also planned to place a
hyperlink along with each entry, allowing readers to immediately get in touch
with the authors to find out more about their entry or to spark a new
friendship of professional connection.
I should mention at this stage that neither myself nor
Gar are experts when it comes to social networking, publishing or anything like
that. I’m a teacher, Gar works in finance. We’re two ordinary guys! We just
share a keen interest in technology and social media and decided to put our
passion into action.
Gar are experts when it comes to social networking, publishing or anything like
that. I’m a teacher, Gar works in finance. We’re two ordinary guys! We just
share a keen interest in technology and social media and decided to put our
passion into action.
We settled on June
3rd as Diary Day and set up a blog
. There was nothing significant about that date, and that was one of the main
reasons for choosing it. We wanted to get a snapshot of the lives of Twitter
users on an ordinary day. Check out the entry from Simon Lewis in
the ebook where he sets out to prove that June 3rd was not so insignificant!
3rd as Diary Day and set up a blog
. There was nothing significant about that date, and that was one of the main
reasons for choosing it. We wanted to get a snapshot of the lives of Twitter
users on an ordinary day. Check out the entry from Simon Lewis in
the ebook where he sets out to prove that June 3rd was not so insignificant!
Our next step was to set up a Twitter account for the project .
After that came the hard part. How do we build up followers so we can get the
word out about the project? June 3rd suddenly seemed to be very close indeed,
and two followers (Gar and me) would not be enough to spread the word!
Thankfully, friends and acquaintances stepped up to the mark and soon our
number of followers was into the hundreds. The excitement was building for us,
and a lot of our followers seemed to be getting very excited about the project
too. In fact, quite a few friends of ours joined Twitter in order to take part.
We also set up a Facebook page
to help publicise the project and get more people interested.
After that came the hard part. How do we build up followers so we can get the
word out about the project? June 3rd suddenly seemed to be very close indeed,
and two followers (Gar and me) would not be enough to spread the word!
Thankfully, friends and acquaintances stepped up to the mark and soon our
number of followers was into the hundreds. The excitement was building for us,
and a lot of our followers seemed to be getting very excited about the project
too. In fact, quite a few friends of ours joined Twitter in order to take part.
We also set up a Facebook page
to help publicise the project and get more people interested.
When June 3rd came around, we were like two kids on
Christmas morning! Thankfully, plenty of people left presents in our stockings
(or diary entries in our inbox at least)! We allowed people to make submissions
for a few days as there were a number of people who didn’t get a chance to do
so on the day itself but were very keen to be involved. By the time submissions
were closed we had received over 300 entries, far more than we had dared
anticipate. The support of friends, family, colleagues and complete strangers
was overwhelming and we are truly grateful to everyone who took part. The only
drawback was that it was going to take us a while to go through all the entries
and decide which ones would make it into the ebook.
Christmas morning! Thankfully, plenty of people left presents in our stockings
(or diary entries in our inbox at least)! We allowed people to make submissions
for a few days as there were a number of people who didn’t get a chance to do
so on the day itself but were very keen to be involved. By the time submissions
were closed we had received over 300 entries, far more than we had dared
anticipate. The support of friends, family, colleagues and complete strangers
was overwhelming and we are truly grateful to everyone who took part. The only
drawback was that it was going to take us a while to go through all the entries
and decide which ones would make it into the ebook.
The process of choosing entries was not easy. We wanted
to include a good mix of entries – some humorous, some moving, some
insightful. We feel that we achieved this, and I hope you’ll agree when you
read the ebook. We also had the incredibly talented Rob Gale produce some illustrations and a cover. These
really add to the ebook in our opinion, and like us you’ll end up having a
favourite! Mine is the one that accompanies the entry from PaulWebsterjpw .
to include a good mix of entries – some humorous, some moving, some
insightful. We feel that we achieved this, and I hope you’ll agree when you
read the ebook. We also had the incredibly talented Rob Gale produce some illustrations and a cover. These
really add to the ebook in our opinion, and like us you’ll end up having a
favourite! Mine is the one that accompanies the entry from PaulWebsterjpw .
The final product is out there, available to download
now, and I’m very proud of myself and Gar for making it happen. If you want to
read the ebook it can be found here:
now, and I’m very proud of myself and Gar for making it happen. If you want to
read the ebook it can be found here:
Amazon
US, Amazon
UK, Amazon
DE, iBookstore
and for other formats visit our ebook’s page at Smashwords
US, Amazon
UK, Amazon
DE, iBookstore
and for other formats visit our ebook’s page at Smashwords
If you don’t own a Kindle then you can use Amazon’s new Cloud Reader to download and read the ebook. There are also
Kindle apps available for Android, iOS, Windows Phone, BlackBerry and webOS
devices, as well as desktop programs for Mac and PC.
Kindle apps available for Android, iOS, Windows Phone, BlackBerry and webOS
devices, as well as desktop programs for Mac and PC.
Michelle Moloney King 
Thanks again for posting this Michelle, and thank you all for the kind comments. There will hopefully be a sequel Simon, perhaps with a more significant date!
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I just loved how they used twitter in this book, great idea and great book.
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Great post – and very timely with my Twitter journey Michelle – Well done guys – a great idea – totally with what is happening as it is happening – good luck in your future plans.
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Well done Nigel. Super idea and perhaps there'll be a sequel? (PS Haven't been able to find a mathematical equation to make June 3rd 2011 significant yet…)
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