We’ve just spent the morning in the photography studio, taking pictures of some of our latest work. Keep your eye out for a load of new pics emerging on our site over the next few days and weeks!

Are you one of those people wondering what the point of Twitter is? I know I was. Twitter seemed to take one tiny element of Facebook (status updates) and stop there. But to think of Twitter as Facebook-lite is to completely miss the point. Here’s my top four reasons for getting your tweet on.

Marketing

A warning: Twitter should never be used purely as a sales channel or somewhere to go on about how great you are.

Nobody will listen if all you’re saying is “Buy our products”. That’s not to say that Twitter can’t benefit your business though, you just have to understand the medium to make the best of it. The thing about Twitter is that it’s a level playing field. If you don’t connect with other people, no-one is going to connect with you. The obvious exception here is if you are a celebrity. Assuming you’re not, you need to start making connections. You can do this by ‘Following’ people who have something in common with you or what you do. If they say something interesting; reply to them, or point other people to their Tweets.

This kind of mutual appreciation is where Twitter (and to be honest, business in general) really starts to work. I’m much more likely to consider using a company if a friend recommends them than what amounts to a cold call. But as you build connections, you’ll start to find people much more receptive to your suggestion to check out your “latest update to the website” etc.

Staying in touch with world events, live!

Staying up to date with current events can be tricky. Of course you can watch the TV news and read the papers, but what you’re getting is an organisation’s opinion on what is (and therefore what is not) worth hearing about. Enter the hastag. A hashtag (any keyword preceded by #) is the way for anyone to contribute to a live, unedited stream of information about any topic. Anyone searching for the hashtag in question will get live updates from around the globe as they are being written.

Here’s an example; a search for #ukelection or #leadersdebate will currently put you in the centre of the debate surrounding the impending general election in the UK. Another current example; a search for #ashtag gives announcements of flight cancellations and delays, lift-sharing schemes and other news connected with the Icelandic Volcanos. If I were the sort of person to use a term like ‘grassroots movement’ I would use it now. Thankfully I’m not.

Sharing things you like

Imagine you’ve just heard Tesco is selling everything at half price for the next 24 hours (which it isn’t) you could very easily tell all your followers and share the discount love. And if you were going to post that kind of thing often, you could even think up your own hashtag. #amazingdeals for example. You could become know as the ‘Dealmaster’. Just imagine!

It’s just good fun

And finally, using Twitter can simply be good fun. Only today I got caught up in a rather amusing game, the object of which was to replace the word ‘Heart’ with ‘Arse’ in song titles. Anyone could join in simply by adding #songsthatreplaceheartwitharse to their Tweet. Juvenile? Yes. Entertaining? Judge for yourself. Here are my favourites…

• When The Arseache Is Over – Tina Turner
• Why Does My Arse Feel So Bad? – Moby
• Write Your Name Across My Arse – Terence Trent D’Arby
• You broke my arse in 17 places – Tracy Ullman
• Theres a hole in my arse that can only be filled by you – Extreme
• Quit playing games with my arse -  Backstreet boys
• Arse Shaped Box – Nirvana
• There must be an angel (playing with my arse) – Eurythmics

And a few of my own suggestions…

• My Violent Arse – Nine Inch Nails
• Arse Attack Man – The Beastie Boys
• My Arse is the Worst Kind of Weapon – Fallout Boy

You can signup now at twitter.com
And oh yes, you should follow me on Twitter!

Let me know if you can think of any other good uses for Twitter.

Last weekend was our first Open Studios at Banks’ Mill. Around a thousand people came to the Studios for a meander round the studio spaces of artists, jewellery designers, photographers, sculptors and graphic designers.

On Friday night, we brought in 60 bottles of beer to give away to visitors, whilst setting up Nintendo Wii with Mario Kart for anyone brave enough to take us on. The problem turned out to be that we had no idea how to set up the controllers for the console, leaving me searching for a ten year old to show me how it’s done!

Saturday and Sunday, we served bacon cobs and coffee to our guests and fellow tenants, which went down a storm. We met lots of cool people, spoke to groups of students from the university (including some from the Czech Republic) and had the opportunity to make friends with some of the other tenants in the studios.

Overall it was a great experience, and we’re looking forward to next year. Bacon cob anyone?

I was flicking through the pages of a popular arts and design magazine we subscribe to in the office the other day, when a certain advert caught my attention.

Apparently all those years I spent on a design education were wasted as I could have learnt it all in three months! Yes that’s right, in three months you can have a “World class education“, gain an “in-depth knowledge of the design programmes“, build a “professional portfolio“, and get a “top design job“!

This is utter nonsense, seriously. Would you trust a surgeon who attended a night class at the local secondary school? Ok, that might be pushing it, as doctors are saving lives and graphic designers are… well not. But I think it’s still utterly misleading. I was told yesterday there are 15,000 graduates coming out of university this year, all competing for 17 jobs. How annoyed would you be after spending 4-6 years of your life gaining a design education to find that the person who beat you to the position did 3 months worth of classes at night school? I think this is an unlikely scenario.

Mini rant over.

ps.
I’ve deleted the name of the college. Not because I’m afraid that this is the death of my profession, but to protect the innocent. I wouldn’t want anyone to waste 3 months of their lives after seeing some advert on this blog.

We’ve now got a page on Facebook to keep people up to date with life at Cogdon, Clark & Tranter. There will be a fair amount of online banter and photos of what we’re up to, so please come and check it out and add us! Thanks.

Click the Facebook logo or follow this link.
Cogdon Clark & Tranter on Facebook