Is it a Duncansdream or nightmare?

June 6, 2010 at 4:06 pm (Social networking)

Following on from my earlier post: http://ht.ly/1UxAp

#Duncansdream has now been trending for over 48hours, and that’s no mean feat!! Thousands of people across the world have joined in on the hashtag (#Duncansdream and also #peterspeople) and seen their follower numbers grow and grow. Some haven’t grown in a big way, others have shot up! That’s just amazing!

Some people don’t get it – just what IS the fuss about. It just boils down to more people willing to talk to more people. It’s about the Twitterworld community growing and strengthening their ties. Getting followers before #Duncansdream and #peterspeople wasn’t that easy! Now it is! And right now, everyone’s excited by that and they should be.

But the dust is yet to settle.

What are we going to do with all these followers? Is it just a fad? Or as some people claim, following for the sake of following with no one interested in what you actually have to say!?! Admittedly, that is a downside but hopefully not a major one.

Once a person follows you using #Duncansdream, why would they stay? This boils down to the individual and why you want followers and why you followed another person. With #Duncansdream you can connect more easily with people but if you’re gonna keep your followers then you need to talk to them, engage with them, be on the same level, be polite and use this to learn about other people – their ways, their motivations, their wants.

#Duncansdream is an opportunity folks! How are you going to make good on that opportunity?

If you’ve got 1000 people followng you, use it in the best possible way. BUT you have to remember THE MOST IMPORTANT PRINCIPLES of #Duncansdream – RESPECTING & NOT BEING SELFISH!! #Duncansdream is working cos we WANT to get to know people and we WANT to share – so go ahead and share. But don’t forget to respect others, your followers especially. If you’ve followed merely to increase your following, chances are that after a while, your numbers may drop. But most people who have taken to following others, sincerely want to talk and engage.

We’ve all a lot to learn from this and #Duncansdream and its followers will mature even more as time goes on. Who knows, it could be as big a change as the TV was, as the Phone was, as internet was!! Global Peace? Let’s see what happens.

If #Duncansdream and #peterspeople has started to make a difference to you, made you new friends, new connections, given you advice by linking with people, helped you learn and understand, then post your experience on this blog. Let’s all learn from each other!

I, for one, am optimistic about the future!

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Social Networking causing trouble?

June 5, 2010 at 6:46 pm (Social networking)

Social Networking can be used to polarise and get people together, to attend an event, come together with opinions and views, and get people to learn from each other.

But can this go wrong??

This story was published today on Sky News – what do you think?

Six Held After Mass Water Fight In London

Six people were arrested, another was taken to hospital and one of London’s busiest shopping areas was closed after a mass water fight got out of hand.

Officers believe around 1,500 revellers took part in the event, which is thought to have been organised through social networking websites.

Police told Sky News Online that one man was detained on suspicion of causing grievous bodily harm. He is still being questioned.

The other five people have now been released on bail. They were held over various offences including affray, possession of an offensive weapon, two Section 5 public order offences and theft.

One person was treated in hospital after receiving facial injuries. The reveller is thought to have now left hospital.

The fight began at 1pm on Friday and high temperatures throughout the afternoon swelled numbers.

It began as good-natured fun but then soon descended into a police incident.

Revellers spilled out to Oxford Street, temporarily closing part of the shopping district whilst police tried to bring it under control.

Scotland Yard was forced to issue a Section 60 order allowing officers to search revellers in the area.

Officers managed to disperse crowds eight hours after the fight started.

The water fight eventually petered out at around 9pm, a spokesman for Scotland Yard said.

A posting on the internet advertising the event said: “As soon as the clock strikes 1pm, let battle commence – get as many other people wet without getting wet yourself! Last one with a dry T-shirt wins!!!”

Speaking about the water fight, a police spokesman told Sky News Online: “It is thought to have been organised in good faith and then escalated.”

http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/UK-News/Six-Arrested-And-Another-Person-Injured-In-Mass-Water-Fight-In-London/Article/201006115644025?lpos=UK_News_First_UK_News_Article_Teaser_Region_3&lid=ARTICLE_15644025_Six_Arrested_And_Another_Person_Injured_In_Mass_Water_Fight_In_London

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Twitter: Duncansdream takes off thanks to Dragons and Ian!!

June 5, 2010 at 3:39 pm (Social networking)

I don’t know if you’ve been keeping up with the latest on Twitter trends but the latest from the Uk has hit worldwide and certainly attracted the attention of Tweeters for its amazing way of swelling your following!

What am I talking about?

Its #duncansdream and #peterspeople!

But what is this craze? How’s it work? And what got it started?

Well let’s begin at the best of places – the start!!

Duncan Bannatyne (@duncanbannatyne) is a millionaire UK businessman and one of the stars of the show, Dragon’s Den (www.bbc.co.uk/dragonsden/), which is shown across the world, although each country that shows it will have their own homegrown businessmen hosting the programme.

Duncan shares the limelight on the show with Peter Jones (@dragonjones), Theo Paphitis (@dragonpaphitis), James Caan (@jamescaan) and Deborah Meaden (not sure if she has a twitter account).

Duncan has over 93500 followers (at last count). The Twitter craze began on 4th June, 11.56am, when Duncan tweeted the following:

I would like to #ff all of my followers so all you need do is start following each other then we will all have 90,000 follwers. Simples

Ian Creek (@iancreek) was the first tweeter to respond

@iancreek @DuncanBannatyne What an excellent idea, I’ll start following your followers now. Should be all done by Christmas!

A few tweets later and Ian suggests the following:

Time for someone to set-up a hash tag for this @DuncanBannatyne experiment 🙂 any thoughts? #duncansdream maybe?

And that’s where it all started!! So what’s the catch?

None. The idea is that if you tweet #duncansdream then whoever sees that or joins in on the hashtag/twitter trend, also follows you – no questions asked! It’s been doing fantastic and been trending worldwide since 4th June and when I’m writing this blog – I personally gained over 300 new followers in less than 24 hours and it’s still climbing! To add to the whole thing, fellow Dragon, Peter Jones also got in on the act with #peterspeople. Not sure how that actually started but maybe someone can post the history here?

So the target is for everyone to have at least 93000+ followers – a lot of tweeting! And a lot of followers. But if you look at how this has taken Twitter by storm, you’ve effectively got probably thousands and thousands of people meeting new people.

Social networking showing how it can motivate people! Read the rest of this entry »

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