On the BBC Radio London breakfast show this morning to promote the book - which now has a second positive review on Amazon, thanks for asking - and got home to find that Twitter had signed me up to its new beta 'retweet' service.

I've got to be honest - I just don't get this one. It 'shapes' your retweets (when you repeat something someone else has said because you think it's worth saying) differently. People not on the new system just see the message with 'RT' in front of it.

I suppose there's a reason, but this looks a lot like one of those cases of someone fixing something that isn't actually broken. Here's Twitter's explanation.

Tags: twitter, retweet

One of the first people to read my book, 'This Is Social Media', has put a review on Amazon. She's a genuine reviewer in spite of the name - she got in touch with a followup question so I know she's real! - and naturally I couldn't be more delighted with the view she has expressed.

I'll get back to some more serious blogging and updating soon I promise - but for the moment, I've got a book out and at least one of the readers has gone public on liking it (as have a few Tweeters and emailers), so I'm just enjoying the day..!

Tags: Guy Clapperton, this is social media, twitter, facebook

Yesterday I ran one of my social media seminars in London's Institute of Directors. Seven people attended and judging from the feedback forms they all thought it well worth their time (one of them even used that very phrase). Average of 3.5/4 for presentation and content.

So...

I'm taking this regional, starting with an event in Edinburgh on 21 October as long as I get enough people. If you're based there or nearby, do feel free to book - it's aimed both at business owners and PR people, and by PR people I mean both internal and external.

I hope to meet some of you in October.

Tags: seminar, edinburgh

Facebook has launched Facebook Lite at last. You can post brief messages and reply to those already online. It's supposed to be for people with low bandwidth.

For some reason it feels familiar and (wait for it, big joke coming) I'm all a-Twitter about exactly why. Arf, arf.

Tags: facebook, twitter

Is Twitter going to close? I suspect not. Ask me in 100 years and if by some freak of nature I’m still around I might well have changed my mind, but for the moment it has an air of permanence about it, threats from Facebook’s forthcoming Lite version and its acquisition of Friendfeed aside. I don’t underestimate the importance of these moves but I don’t think they’re going to kill it - yet.

So why do I bring it up? I thought you’d never ask. I mention it because I’ve seen this story - which asks the question, what would happen if Twitter folded? After a couple of outages last week, would anyone really miss it in the way they’d miss, say, McDonald’s if it went?

The coverage annoys me for a couple of reasons. First, a couple of technical glitches after the speed at which Twitter has grown is unfortunate but maybe not a surprise. Honest. I’m a full time journalist and at times am short of a story and believe me I would need more substantiation than this to run something.

The other main reason is that the conclusion is so skewed. Anyone who saw the reaction to the Twitter outage last week will be certain it made a difference to a lot of people. Of course these are people who’d never heard of Twitter a couple of years ago but that’s OK, a decade ago I’d never heard of DVDs and I’d miss them now. Speaking personally I’d be five figures of income short if not for the emergence of Twitter and companies like it (yes, that figure is skewed by the fact that I write about this stuff for a living but I include leads I’ve found using the service as well as writing about it). There are loads of other businesses finding it makes a difference too. We’re talking about substantial concerns averting legal battles, improving customer relations and of course finding new customers.

I’m willing to be proven wrong of course. But no, Twitter isn’t going anywhere in the near future. And yes, people would miss it if it did.

P. S. I’ve put links to my forthcoming books on my homepage here - I’ll just let the subtle hint to click and buy them remain implied.

Tags: twitter, news