Tweet Number Twenty-thousand!

This blog marks my 20,000th tweet. And, this milestone will be beyond my mother's comprehension...I can hear her saying "Twenty thousand? What on earth do you twit about" (yes, "twit", not tweet. Remember, we are talking about the woman who rings me every so often to ask me how to twink (white-out) things off her computer screen).

Anyway, back to No.20,000. I thought what better way to celebrate it than mention a few of the tweeps who've made my twitter experience so enjoyable.

Feel free to follow some or all of this unruly lot, they're all gems in their own right.

@mattymcleanTVNZ - Matty and I met during a fundraising event I managed a couple of years ago. He was my guest speaker and had the crowd in stitches. Matty was my first "celeb" friend on twitter, and incidentally it was he who I was tweeting on 22 February 2011 when #eqnz turned our world upside down.

@HauteOnMyHeels - In the olden days (as in twelve months ago), the home page of twitter would show trending tweets. I saw one of Haute's and died laughing, so decided to follow her which then lead to me discovering...

@LoveYourCake - Cakey! My beloved Cakey who gave me my first twitter nickname "Writey". How cute is that?! Cakey was the first person to DM me that I didn't know. And I FREAKED OUT. She said she loved my twitter profile and just wanted to say it was the best one she'd ever read. I didn't know how to respond. Was she chatting me up? Was she making a move? What the hell was going on? I gingerly responded and since then have even talked to her on the phone during a tweet-up at her place.

If you follow Haute or Cakey you immediately get wrapped up in this funny little place called Vancouver. And their ice-hockey team the Canucks. And a national delicacy called "poutine" (from what I can gather, its fries covered in gravy and cheese curds). I'm still not convinced that its yummy though...curds? It sounds like regurgitated stomach lining to me. Your Vancouver experience won't be the same unless you also follow @BretInVancouver @VancityAmy @kixy_stabbs @LindsayDianne @TheFalconer @suitoflights @hurrrdurrr @SSDated @cicychan @MetalBlonde @schneidz @CeciBruja @causticchick @korvan @g_bugg @Babe_Chilla @geoffgauthier @WinnieIsAwesome @TessTattles @PirateMeghan @SarahSpizzie @teapleeze and honorary BC-er @MattyDorf - there are heaps of them. If twitter had an award for the most tweety-ish city, it would HAVE to go to Vancouver. My apologies for any of the regulars I've left out. I will keep amending this list.

@TiffanytheTaxi - I met this Sydneysider on the night of Wills and Kate tying the knot. She was also using the hashtag #RW2011 and we got chatting. I've mentioned her in this blog before and can't wait to meet up with her irl. Thanks to Tiff, I'm going to take up crocheting!

@LABeachmom and @phxguy88 - I can't remember how these two wriggled their way into my timeline, but oh my god...you have to follow this gorgeous, platonic, sweet friendship. Someone HAS to make a movie about them! Both are hilarious, and one is always pulling the other up by the bootstrings in a flirty, fun-loving way. I can't explain it. Just follow them, will ya? PS: We're talking MAJOR eye-candy here too folks. Sweet, all round, I promise.

@VaginaDesigner - Another tweep I found out about via the social butterfly Haute. The poor thing gets to flossy up women's nether regions by way of waxing and vajazzling. Can't say I'd be brave enough to do that, but on behalf of all the husbands, boyfriends and partners of your clients in Los Angeles, THANK YOU for going there! And when we grow up, Jen and I are going to live in the same town and go everywhere in costume. Her costume fetish equals mine! Unheard of, I know.

@kyleipryor - I've often referred to Kyle as "the nicest guy on twitter" and I stand by those words. Apparently if you're into Spartacus, he's kind of a big deal, but I've never watched it/that...what is it, a movie, a series, what? I've challenged KP to an arm wrestle which will be moderated by the equally lovely @5hameless (one of my local tweeps and go-to guy when I'm having iPhone issues). I'm pretty sure that KP is shaking in his boots at the thought of my guns taking down his in the upcoming arm wrestle. And oh yeah, KP and I are getting married in January. Damn, I forgot about that. Don't tell him I forgot, ok? And best of all, KP is often on set when "Embarassing Teenage Bodies" airs, so he watches it a few days later after we've all recovered. Seriously funny.

@thornybleeder - Move over Bryan Adams and Justin Bieber, I've found a real Canadian muso on twitter. He trawls the net all day and night so that you don't have to, and instead you can focus on your music, social media or whatever career while he sorts out the good from the bad. And, once you're aware of him, you soon realise that he is everywhere - twitter, facebook, various websites, instagram, even your email inbox if you sign up to his DIY Daily newsletter. And if he's at none of those places, well, he's probably at Kitsilano Beach in Vancouver where he and his gorgeous dogdaughter Koda check out their mayoral realm twice a day. Warning: Just when you think you've never met anyone cooler, he might tweet something out of character. Definitely cool 99.99999% of the time. If he has a rare out of character moment, just gently ask him to LISTEN TO SOME SEPULTURA FORTHWITH!

@Hilary_Barry and @MrMikeMcRoberts - For those outside New Zealand, these two read the 6pm news AND TWEET LIVE DURING THE BROADCAST! It's fantastic! Quite often they'll mention twitter at the end of the show (go us!). Best of all, they let us know what the upcoming stories are before they tell the rest of NZ. Awesome. Talk about being in the know. For a news junkie like myself, it's heaven on earth...well, heaven in the twitterverse. Mike gets extra points from me because he married one of the cool girls from a few years ahead of me at highschool @paulapenfold. FYI, I WAS the coolest of cool in my year at highschool, thank you very much.

@perstephanie_ - An absolute sweetheart, and I have no idea how I found her. She LOVES that I colour-code my books in my bookshelves. It sounds like her closet is the ultimate in colour and style arrangement though. I'll need a picture of it oneday gf!

@Mammy_P - introduced to me by @BretInVancouver who we refer to as BIVVER. Somehow, I got the nickname VIVVER and she's PIVVER. Regardless of all the ivvering, she is exceptionally kind and funny, and because shes in the UK, I can usually rely on her being online when I'm going through a bout of #insomniargh in NZ.

And finally, some of my own personal highlights on twitter:

1. @DavidHasselhoff follows me. Why, I have no idea. Am I stoked? HELL YES!

2. @LA_Reid tweeted me last week, which in turn made my dear little twitter profile trend in NZ. WTF? OMG!

3. #smcHam or #smcTron - My local tweeps are the best bunch one could wish for (outside of Vancouver). Although I don't always get to the tweet-ups, they're supportive, fun and some of them are verging on new BFF tag. Ok you lot, I said "verging", not that you had made it...yet. Plus, they make 4square heaps more competitive. The local 4square battles are full-on, hard out wars. Suck it down, all the cool mayoralties around town will be MINE!

4. The various friendships I've formed from following or using these hashtags: #RHOBH, #OW, #TBLFAS, #NZNTM, #ANTM, #BFGW, #GoGirls, #amwriting and #EQNZ amongst others. Oh, I better give a shout out to all the cat-lovers and the insomniacs too. Argh, too many people to mention! But here are some of my favourite gfs: @amandimoo @L_To @kathadu @WendyWings @jstcamel @bexielady @aimewee @hello_im_megan @jinnee79 @brenasmith @PaMelville @feefeebofaye @Chandy229 @muffinmum @meegandale83. Again, I'll amend this list.

Seriously, a big thank you to EVERYONE that I interact with on a daily basis on twitter. Your humour, your compassion and your odd ways of looking at life all make the twitterverse the completely sane / crazy place that it is.

Cheers
Writey x

Sisters are doin' it for themselves

Last night, Hamilton hosted it's inaugural Women's Forum.  The panel included our Mayor Julie Hardaker, Dr Sue Dymock (I've known her since I was about ten), Sarah Seel, an Engineer (cool, huh?), Raewyn Hamilton, a business woman based in Auckland...and little old me!  Kaye Gregory was our vivacious and witty MC.


Tickets to the event had sold out within a blink of an eye, and before I'd even known they'd gone on sale. 

As panelists, we'd been given the questions about a week ago, so we weren't flying by the seat of our pants.  Of the seven questions, there were only 3 that I was able to prepare for because I wasn't under 30, wasn't over 50 and don't have kids (two questions were related to parenting). 

Here are the 3 questions that I did tackle (and roughly the responses I gave):


a.  What have I gained the most from my relationship with my grandmother?


Given that I had the coolest grandmother that ever walked this earth, this one was easy as.  To me, Grandma gave me a real sense of self, an understanding of why it is that I love music, fresh flowers, watercolours, historical novels, Sherlock Holmes, silly television adverts, cats...its all built into my DNA.  Grandma celebrated my uniqueness, and loved my quirkiness...she never once baulked at any of the strange things I did or said or wanted, she purely loved me for being me.  Her passing was one of the most traumatic moments of my life.  I still miss her every single day.  The last thing I ever said to her, just a week before she died in 2003 was "I love you Grandma".  Best. Final. Words. Ever.


Following the death of my Grandfather several months ago, we cleared out his house.  Amongst the things, I found a little book I'd given Grandma for her birthday in 1992.  I'd actually gone through and underlined some of the phrases in pencil that were peculiar to our relationship.  These included:

"Good grandmothers let you tell them the entire plot of the film

they too watched last night on television. 

With suitable amazement".

"Grandmas sometimes race you to the next lamppost...

but then they sit on a wall,

and go a funny shade of yellow".

I finished that section with one of my all time favourite phrases..."Be who you are and say what you want because those who mind don't matter, and those who matter, don't mind" Dr Seuss.

b.  If you had the ability to turn back time to improve one aspect of your life, when would it be to and why?


Hindsight: wonderful and torturous all at once.  My overall response that I wish I'd listened more often to my gut feeling...and gone with what I'd thought was right instead of pandering to others beliefs and desires or being railroaded by the bolshy people in my life (I didn't say that bit, but I was blimin thinking it!).


But I can put my finger on an EXACT moment in time.  When I was 22, a local radio station that my employer had a lot to do with was looking for someone to work the graveyard shift.  I'd done some voiceover work for them, and was good friends with a lot of the team at the station.  They asked me if I wanted to take on the shift (yes, the hours would have fitted with the job I had at the time and training was no problem), but I declined the offer.  Everyone said things like "they're not gonna pay you enough" or "those hours suck" or "I'll never see you" or "do you really want to work in radio, its boring", et cetera.  And idiot me didn't go with my gut feeling.  Idiot me went with what everyone else said.  I have been kicking myself ever since. 


I would have LOVED a career in radio or on tv...something media/journalism oriented.  Now I just have to make do with flirting with tv and radio hosts and their sidekicks on twitter...you know who you are ;-)


c.  How do I foster healthy communication in a day when technology has altered the way we communicate?


Ok...so the audience was 100% women!  Yeah, I was really surprised at that.  I thought a few husbands or fathers or brothers would pop along, but no...it was a chicks only event.  But it was cool! 


The youngest there was 17-ish, the oldest about 80-ish, and the bulk of the audience would have been in the 50-70 age bracket.  I wouldn't go as far as to say that they came from all walks of life, but certainly there was a wide cross-section of nationalities represented. 


Thankfully, several months ago, I'd had a one on one Skype power session with @thornybleeder (shameless plug), and a lot of what we'd covered was in respect of communication in this day and age, and in particular women and social media.


Accordingly, I was armed with all sorts of stats (women aged 55+ are the fast growing demographic on the internet) and knowledge in order to answer it.  My main response (from a business point of view) was that as women, we need to embrace technology as a method of communication, that modern business is all about talking with people, not at people.  I explained that old school advertising was dead (yellow pages, billboards, newspaper, etc) because companies were no longer getting the return on investment that they did using those methods say, even 5 years ago.


Then Kaye asked me to explain twitter.  I tried to be succinct.  I just have so much to say about it.  I was practically jumping out of my chair talking about it!  However, omg, get this.  A friend of mine, Tania was there in the audience, and following my brief enthusiastic description, she signed up to twitter as I continued to speak. 


Fast-forward to the dessert break --> I tweeted that Tania had signed up, and within a few minutes she had 13 followers although she still hadn't even tweeted.  Good work team!  You guys rock.

Anyway, back to the event.  It finished with some questions from the floor including "What is your most annoying habit?" and "What poster was on your wall when you were a teenager".  FYI: Jon Bon Jovi, of course, the man I have been in love with flat-tack for 27 years, without ever waivering in my devotion to him.


Every so often Kaye would throw in a light-hearted question to put us on the spot, and all in all, the event was hilarious, convivial and a tonne of fun.


The evening finished with a brief speech by Julie, then it was home, into my PJs and onto twitter and instagram.


I had two highlights from the event: my passion for public speaking was rekindled (gimme more someone!), and funnily enough my second highlight was the natter that the panelists, Kaye and I had in the green room prior to the event starting.  We could hear the audience arriving and talking and laughing, but for an hour or so we just talked about our backgrounds, being stuck in the lift with movie stars, you know...that general chit chat you get.  Fantastic.


A special thanks to Bronnie for inviting me to be a part of such an auspicious panel.  It truly was one of the best nights I've had out this year.

Twitter 101

"But I don't get twitter"  <-- fingers (toes, arms, legs and eyes) crossed that I will never hear that excuse again.   

Ok you lot, by reading on, you are automatically enrolled in my new course "Twitter 101".  Pay attention, there will be a quiz at the end of the course.

Twitter is marketed as a "micro-blogging" site, but crikey, that even sounds scary to me. 

Essentially it means that you're limited to 140 characters per tweet (actually, you're not, there are ways to get around that but for the sake of this explanation, I'll keep it simple).

Like facey, there is a wall, but it is known as a "timeline" or TL for short.  There is also a private message service whereby you can chat up hotties behind the scenes (if they're following you).  That is called DM "direct message".  FYI...there are some HOT tweeps. H O T.  As in smokin' hot to infinity and beyond.  I'll cover dealing with the hotties in my next course, Twitter 201.

You follow people, and if they're interested in you or what you have to say (tweet) or your business, they'll follow you back. 

On facey, you can "like" a comment to show your appreciation.  The twitter version of facey liking is to retweet "RT" the tweet to your followers. 

You can also use a #hashtag which will allow you to find and follow certain topics on twitter. 


Lets recap:
TL = timeline = like the facebook homepage wall

DM = direct message = gives you the ability to tweet someone privately without the world perving on your conversation

RT = retweet.  You can retweet something that someone else has tweeted that appeals to your sense of humour, views, or relates to your business, etc.

#hashtag = allows you to ensure your tweet won't get lost in the twitterverse if you're talking about a particular subject, ie #lunchtime #eqnz #jealous


Some tips:
1.  Put up a profile pic immediately, otherwise you'll appear as an "egg".  Totally ironic.

2.  Write an interesting bio...you'd be surprised at the info you can squeeze in. Also add a blog or website address if possible.


My rules:
(whether tweeting as an individual or as a representative of your business):

1.  Be polite.  Be gracious.  Be interesting. Be witty!!!

2.  Get involved.  Twitter doesn't "work" for you.  You have to put in the hard yards in order to reap the benefits (friendships and business growth).  Its helpful if you already know a few prolific tweeters, or have a few mates already using twitter. But ultimately, this is social media.  You need to become actively involved in order to fully enjoy what it has to offer.

3.  Follow hashtags of things that interest you.  One of my coolest friends on twitter and I hooked up because we both used #rw2011 (royal wedding).  If it wasn't for that hashtag, we may never have met, but now catch up on a daily basis.  Plus she reads this blog. Hi gf!

And finally, my diligent students, I present you with a pop-quiz.  Good luck.


Multi-choice Quiz:
1.  RT stands for:
(a) Regular Tweet
(b) Retweet
(c) Ridiculous Tweet
(d) Really Topical

2.  A hashtag allows you to:
(a) find and follow certain topics of interest
(b) end a tweet
(c) start a tweet
(d) its an abbreviation

3.  TL stand for:
(a) Total loser
(b) Twitterline
(c) Timeline
(d) Tweep Love

Tweet your answers to @WriteOnNZ.  Extra points will be awarded if you use an appropriate hashtag :-P