The twitter community in Reading are very sociable and have become my closest group of twitter friends in the last few months. We use the hashtag #rdg to make sure that we never miss out on what’s going on or the opportunity to meet up and do something together.
Just lately local media and businesses have noticed the tag and started to use it too. There are times when it can be difficult to spot the real people between the bots and businesses. This has made many of us feel that we are being spammed.
People like to get to know people
There has been much discussion on the topic, mainly on twitter, although @tinnion sums up his thoughts on the subject very well with this post. I couldn’t agree more with his points about real people. One of our number, James Marshall (@jamesbmarshall), set up an unofficial account for the town’s Vue Cinema (@VueReading), where he works. James was already an active participant in the Reading twitter community and asked us all what we thought first. For that reason I like to see tweets from Vue cinema popping up in my searches and if I have an idea I know that a real person is willing to listen to it.
I am constantly surprised that many of the local businesses and media do not follow back local people. I really struggle to understand what they can be getting out of twitter if they aren’t following the people they wish to engage with. Simply by searching on the #rdg hashtag, a business would spot all the active twitter users in the area and learn what they like and what they might be interested in. We know that hashtags cannot be policed or controled but it really couldn’t be easier to get on our good side. We’re really very nice and would welcome anyone that has or manages a twitter account to our tweetups.
Are any other towns experiencing something similar?
What is your take on getting territorial over hashtags?
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Great article!
I have a #rdg search pane open in Tweetdeck all the time so I can keep an eye on local tweets, and possibly find new people to follow. I agree that recently the tag has become somewhat overused by ‘corporate’ accounts run by people who do not fully grasp the nature of the beast, so to speak.
I find the same not just in hashtags but also in accounts of popularity, for instance celebrities. There is only one true celebrity who I would say actually ‘gets’ the concept of Twitter and that is Stephen Fry. The majority of the others have increased Twitter’s traffic, of that there’s no doubt, but they’ve also helped contribute to the statistics that say that 90% of Twitter’s tweets are generated by 10% of the users.
With this in mind, it’s surely a foregone conclusion that more corporations will end up flooding Twitter and its hashtags, as there simply aren’t enough active ‘real’ people to drown them out?
Forgive us for we knew not what we did!
Crikey, just read blog post. Never ever our intention to Spam so sincere aplogies if the case. I think Tinnion’s earlier post title is fairly accurate in that there has been a lack of understanding for the use of the Reading hashtag. I guess in our Twitter innocence we just thought that some things were interesting from a Reading perspective such as new potential brewery or some good offers from local businesses, hence the use.
Following the comments raised, I have set-up my own drinksin twitter now, so as not to be faceless @jaimedrinksin and as a company we won’t be using the #Rdg so as not to offend anyone, unless of course it’s conversational.
We are a group of three who live locally and are by no means a corporate, it has been a labour of unpaid love for the past two years and is a test in every sense, so the feedback even if a little gutting we got it wrong, has been a good learning curve.
Would be good to discuss the possibility of posting local events and offers with a hashtag perhaps #rdgoffers #rdgevents this was something we were hoping to discuss at next tweet up? Thought it might be a good way for local businesses to have a presence so people could dip in when they choose?
Thanks for your comment, Jaime!
It’s always great to hear about what is going on locally and @DrinksinReading is great for that, I think we are all just a little wary of acounts with no personal presence. We really like getting to know people
Are you able to come along to the next tweetup - it’s this Wednesday and we would all love to meet you.