Facebook is for people you already know. Twitter on the other hand, is full of people you want to know.

Yesterday marked  the first “Pegasus Tweet up”, a meetup of people from the popular social networking website, Twitter. The Jamaica Pegasus, located in Kingston, hosted a little over 100 people who were eager to witness the tweetup which was postponed due to the unrest in Kingston.

“Tweeps” finally had the opportunity to match handles/usernames with faces.  The Pegasus Tweet up, arguably is the largest and probably the only formal tweetup in Jamaica to date. The Jamaica Pegasus who organised the event, ensured that everyone was adequately entertained and provided an open bar and a buffett with a wide array of food.

I finally had  the opportunity to get more acquainted with friends like @Jamaipanese, @stunnerj et al , who I’ve known online for years but never had the opportunity to meet until last night.  What was supposed to be a good night for me ended up being a great night, as I won the gate prize. I had no idea there would be a prize draw for a round trip to London via British Airways.

I was most impressed with the Pegasus. I had no idea that, on top of the splendour, they’d offer something as cool as a trip to London for their first tweetup. I was even more surprised that I won; the only thing I have ever won was a Key Ring courtesy of Stunner. Haha! He did say to me, over a year ago, “it’s never too late to start winning”.

Events of these nature, show that companies such as the Jamaica Pegasus are keen on customer satisfaction. I mean how many companies in Jamaica follow consumer trends?  Good Job, Jamaica Pegasus, You’ve taken a bold initiative and have shown how useful social media can be for companies to connect with existing and potential customers. Hopefully other Jamaican companies will follow suit and host events just as good as yours. It may be hard for some to both catch up with social media and host similar events. Pegasus has set the precedence.

What is a tweetup?

A tweetup is an event where people who Twitter come together to meet in person. Normally we connect with our friends online after we have met them. At a tweetup you meet the people you might only otherwise know virtually. Like finally putting a name to a face, a tweetup is a great opportunity to really connect with the people in your network and share just a little more than 140 characters at a time.

Excerpt from: http://socialhat.com/what-is-a-tweetup/

Images courtesy of: http://stunner101.blogspot.com/

I’ve been on twitter for a while, circa 2007, a year or so after its inception.  I was what you’d call “an early-ish adapter” and in my time on the hip “micro-blogging site” ( i remember when that term was coined) I’ve seen trend after trend; Some I’m indifferent to, others are annoying and others are extremely annoying.

I mean, It’s just a few things that grind my gears, here goes:

Cryptic Tweets: People who only tweet strange, enigmatic thoughts that no one ever gets. Do you think you’re cool?

IM Conversations: Yes, It’s your twitter account, you do with it what you want, but there are unwritten rules and something called “netiquette”.  Twitter was never meant to be used as  a chat-room ( ipso facto, the 140 character limit).  Some people constantly @ each other talking about things no one can relate to, because it was never meant for twitter. Blackberry Messenger, Windows Live Messenger, Yahoo Chat and a myriad of others are there if you need to have prolonged conversations with a friend, UTILIZE them because nobody cares about your extremely mundane conversations.  Then you wonder why you have 50 followers; that last bit is a precursor to annoyance #3.

That annoying, “Please follow me” phrase: Please, don’t beg someone to follow you on Twitter, It’s really pathetic.  If you are genuinely interesting or actually have some substantial tweets then people will follow you, albeit  maybe not that person you’d want to follow you, but that’s fine; different strokes for different folks, but people will follow you.

Retweeting/replying done wrong: I remember when “retweeting” made its debut on Twitter.  The users created it, until twitter decided to formalize it. I remember how people originally used it.  People retweeted your tweet for many reasons, maybe because they liked it, because it was a tweet that was particularly helpful etc.  In recent time many Jamaicans have flocked to twitter and as simple as it is, not many people know how to use the re-tweet/reply function.  They are distinctly different.  A brief tutorial:

The tweet above is how i see most people reply to to tweets. They “retweet” the original tweeter’s tweet and put their response in front. Occasionally this is fine, especially when you want to save people from clicking the “in reply to” option, but most people, i find don’t know any better, so they always do it thinking it’s the only way to respond to a tweet, but it’s not.

Now this is the right way to respond to someone’s tweet. It’s really easy. Just find the tweet you’re referring to on whatever client you’re using whether it be Tweetdeck, Seesmic, or even Twitter web use the reply function and twitter will automatically reference the tweet automagically.  When the person who you replied to receives your response they’ll know what tweet you’re referring to because they’ll see the “in reply to username” as highlighted above which avoids the “what are you talking about” tweet.  It’s a really easy concept to grasp, So if @waynjonesjnr is to click ” in reply to Waynejonesjnr he’ll promptly see that i was referring to his tweet about cigarette smoking women.

People who do blast #FF’s- On twitter it’s tradition to recommend tweeters  that you like for other people to follow. This is called “Follow Friday, or #FF for short. Follow Fridays are done by putting the #FF hashtag in front of the tweets followed by the people you want other people to follow. e.g: #FF @nigel_thomas @ryanmattis, @waynejonesjnr, @rtrowe, @iamsbee (btw, these are all cool people, you should follow them), but i find this way of “mass #FF’ing”  annoying and ineffective, instead i find it a lot more substantial to write a blurb about the person(s) you want other people to follow instead. e.g: #FF @ryanmattis Fellow techie, blogger and full-time pessimist. You’ll find that people appreciate this method as opposed to the “blast method” that i mentioned above, they’re also more likely to get followed; Quality over quantity i say.

Finally, Tweeting in CAPS: Anybody who’s an internet fanatic or even someone who occasionally uses the internet knows that when you type in caps it signifies that you’re screaming/shouting or showing your disgust for something. Typing/tweeting: “I’M SO LOVING MY BREAKFAST RIGHT NOW”  in caps  is wrong, tweeting using caps indefinitely is annoying and not to mention noobish, come on, get with it. Read more about Online etiquette here

Unfortunately many people i follow on twitter are guilty of my peeves; hoping they’ll all read this and apply it to their day-to-day tweeting so that me and everyone else can have a more pleasant twitter experience. *crosses fingers*

I like to shop, albeit online ( Walking from store to store is so 20th Century). I’ve purchased maybe over 100 items over the last 4 years or so. Make no mistake, not having a credit at 16 was absolutely no hindrance in me exploiting the wonders of e-commerce, because I’ve always had a penchant for “borrowing” my parents’ credit cards ( My strategy was, use it now, tell them later, haha). I ended up applying for my first credit card at about 17–i got it. Now, imagine a 17 year old curious about the internet/e-commerce armed with a credit card? Unfortunately, up to this day it’s debited more than it is credited ( I’m still able to be responsible with it though as i always clear it)

Now, i never valued paying for any service online ( Website hosting is an exception), instead i bought only physical products. But maybe a year or so ago that has changed a bit.  Below is a list of  online services/tools i currently pay for either monthly or yearly. I won’t say much about them because their greatness is ineffable ( i wouldn’t be paying for them otherwise)  Here we go:

LASTPASS:  I’ve written about lastpass already. A year or so later i still use and love it. It’s great free as it is paid ( Premium members receive additional features) . You probably use the same passwords on all the websites you’re registered on.  That’s pretty sad, unsafe and not to mention lazy, luckily you can still be pretty lazy and still be extremely secure/safe online.  Read more about Lastpass here

Price: $12 USD yearly

REMEMBER THE MILK: Not much to say here, it’s a GREAT to-do list ( keeps me organized and productive)  An excerpt from the RTM about page ” Managing tasks is generally not a fun way to spend your time. We created Remember The Milk so that you no longer have to write your to-do lists on sticky notes, whiteboards, random scraps of paper, or the back of your hand. Remember The Milk makes managing tasks an enjoyable experience.”

Price: $25 USD yearly.

TUNEUP MEDIA: I’m particularly picky when it comes to my music collection; I’m a neat freak in that regard, but cleaning up the ID3 tag on every song is definitely a hassle, that’s where Tune UP comes in, check them out..they’re seriously good.

Price: $19.95 USD yearly OR $29.95 USD for lifetime license

CLICKY: I’m an analytics Monkey! I have this service covered.  Check out my blog post on it here.

Price: Varying Prices; $4. USD $19.99 USD monthly.

GIGANEWS: Usenet oh lovely usenet.  If you torrent stuff it probably originated here.:)

Price: Varying Prices: $ 7.99 USD – $24.99

All 5 services are great in their own right and you should probably check them out,  seeing as they all have a free version, minus Giganews.

Lucky for me, revenue from my blog is able to offset the costs for them:)

I’m not writing this post because Clicky Web Analytics is providing monetary incentive–because to be honest it’s really not much. I’m writing this because i actually love them.  Clicky is the first web analytics service in the world to offer live, real time goal tracking for your web site. I found out about clicky through a post Jamaipanese did on his blog on July 3, 2008. I wasn’t sold on them at the time and commented on his post saying “What’s wrong with Google Analytics? That works fine”, oh how naïve i was.

Click Admin Dashboard

I was using Google Analytics at the time, and i more or less stuck with them because, well it’s Google and also because it was free ( And still is). Problem was, Google Analytics is so tedious to use i barely understood what was going on so i more or less developed some level of apathy for website analytics. But on Sun Feb 14 2010 i signed up for Clicky; i subsequently  started to abandon GA and started using Clicky more frequently. Only recently i decided to sign up for a pro account and i have not looked back since.

My favorite Clicky feature is probably something called “Spy”– Spy is a live view of visitors interacting with your web site.

Click Spy showing a world map and where visitors are viewing your website from wherever they are in the world.

If you’re a website or blog owner you will definitely  not regret using Clicky. I’ve grown to love web statistics and it has caused me to take my blog a bit more seriously. Don’t lose out like i did for so long, try it before you knock it!

At no point in time has Jamaica been able to utilize Social Media as it is now. People are exchanging information via Twitter, Facebook and other social utilities to quickly and effectively disseminate information to each other where conventional media has clearly fallen short.

Below is a comprehensive listing of ways to keep abreast:

Google: With Google’s Real time indexing it’s easy to track anything with the keyword ‘Jamaica’ in it. Track what international media houses, blogs etc are saying about Jamaica worldwide. Click Here.

Facebook: ‘On the Ground News Reports’ has been doing a good job of gathering what has been unfolding in the streets through collaboration with Jamaican Citizen Journalists. You can opt to keep updated about happenings via their facebook or twitter page You can also read general public facebook updates re: Jamaica here

Twitter: I have compiled a twitter list of over 360 Jamaicans so people can easily follow the said list to keep updated via mobile, desktop etc.  You can follow or view the list here

Nation Wide Radio: Nation Wide has been providing comprehensive coverage re: extradition affair. Click here to listen to online stream.

Ustream.tv: Through Ustream, JNN ( Through Jamaica Live)  has been able to provide great coverage of what is happening in West Kingston and its environs. An embedded ustream feed is below. Alternatively, you can click here to watch from the source.

Digicel; that cool Irish telecommunications operator that rescued Jamaicans from the clutches of  the Monopoly at the time Cable and Wireless Jamaica, circa 2001 ( Now LIME Jamaica) , has apparently grown tremendously over a short period of time and is  supposedly  too big to value one disgruntled customer (disgruntled, for good reason).

For almost a week i have been battling with Digicel’s Customer care agents for some explanation as to why i am without my  BlackBerry Internet Service ( BIS, which i pay for monthly) .  Apparently the problem eludes them and i guess they do not consider it prudent to inform their “valued” customers about this issue.  Maybe the $800 rebate i received  was good enough compensation and that would be enough to prevent me from needing to inquiry  further about  my service…or lack thereof.

BIS, which is provisioned through my mobile phone service provider, in this case Digicel, though Research In Motion (RIM) (Blackberry’s developer) actually runs the service is having no issues; which I’m sure if they were it would be reported, thus the problem must lie solely with Digicel.

Throughout the week I’ve been going through the mundane process of speaking to customer care agents, who apparently are robots who are all seemingly trained to repeat the same thing to its customers.  After speaking to so many agents one would want to think that I’m now competent/qualified  enough to be one as I’ve memorized what they all  conveniently repeat to me.

Tonight after speaking to one particular customer care agent, i said to him. “after being so greatly inconvenienced by you, i don’t see any good reason to stay with Digicel, because as it is you now cannot tell me when or IF i will ever have service” The agent in question, rudely responded with, and I’m paraphrasing, “at the end of the day it’s your choice, and we really can’t insist that you stay”.  I’m sure that wouldn’t have been the response if i was dealing with another mobile phone provider who would gladly want to keep their customer. ( Thank God for choices!)

Coincidentally, this evening i read an article in the Gleaner’s Flair Magazine, the cover story was on Jospeh Oates, Claro’s new Marketing manager.  He said “…To get consumers to switch brand loyalty, they must feel that you are looking out for them every time”. I guess now more than ever i have a good reason to switch as i have the option of choosing a network who actually “values” their customers or who can at least give the impression that they do.

Digicel, the Bigger, Better Network..or not.