Here’s an excerpt:

A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 2,900 times in 2011. If it were a cable car, it would take about 48 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

Activity Tab on Twitter

Activity

New! Activity
View favorites, follows, retweets and more by people you follow in Activity.
View your mentions, tweets that were retweeted and more in @.

This is Activity in Twitters own words. The first few days you log in when receiving the Twitter Activity Tab you’ll see these words flash up beside the Activity tab to tell you how to use the new tabs.

Activity Tab is reasonably simple, it shows you what your contacts have been up to such as who they have followed, what they have retweeted and even what they have favourited. It gives you a much more in-depth look into what the people you followed are doing and be a useful tool for finding new people to follow and other interesting content.

Inside the Activity Tab

@username

The @username Tab combines the old @Mentions and Retweets Tabs Twitter used to offer, and also shows you who has started to follow you. This combined tab should prove very useful for users as it combines information that used to be spread over two tabs, and e-mail notifications into one useful on site location.

The @username Tab

Complaints

The premise of the Twitter Activity Tabs should prove exciting and useful to the majority of Tweeters, however there has been a backlash among the community. A large number of people I follow have been seen complaining about the new functionality as it isn’t as streamlined and easy to read as the previous @Mentions and Retweets Tabs:

Personally I cannot say I am a massive fan of the new Twitter Activity Tabs. I normally however use my Android mobile for accessing Twitter so it wouldn’t have such a drastic effect on my Twitter usage, but having my phone sent to be fixed I have to say it’s been more noticeable. I can assure you however that you do adjust to it over the course of a few days.

Have Your Say

I’ve shown you what some of my followers think, now it’s your turn to tell use how you feel about the new twitter activity tabs, leave a comment below!

John Walker

*ahem* It’s coming, don’t worry!

Amy Burton

John Walker

Wendy Ager

John Walker

Ed Ross

Amy Burton

Ryan Murphy

Wendy Ager

Confirmed

• John Walker
• Dan Ford
• John Prescott
• Ryan Murphy
• Amy Burton
• Martin Hall
• Jillian Selwood
• Zakia Akhtar
• Jonny Rose

Maybe

• Jayne Emmington
• Amanda Jackson
• Duncan Hodgson
• Breanna Young Shunn
• Michael Burleson
• Michelle Campbell-Scott
• Tacolisa
• Max Meier, III
• Simon Robinson
• Ed Ross
• Russell France
• Aunty Social

An idea has struck me, brought about with inspiration from Jonny Rose and from my cousin Ryan Murphy. A Challenge occurred to me, one that should be fun and new to a lot of businesses, at least the ones I know, and that had the potential to give their business some exposure.

A Business Challenge you say?

Yes… And no! Not just a business challenge, but a challenge for charity groups and individuals. For charities it will help raise awareness of those you are trying to help and the work involved with what you do. For individuals it will be just a bit of fun, trying something they maybe have tried before, but not given it the full attempt.

Right… So…

What is it? I thought you might ask that, drumroll please!

The Walker Studios Challenge

• Acquire Video Recording Equipment – Laptop with Webcam built in, Computer with USB Webcam/Microphone, Video Recording Phone etc. etc.
• Record yourself as much or as little as you want, one week at a time.
• At the end of the week compile the weeks events using Windows Movie Maker, Adobe Premiere or whatever video editing package you have on your PC/Mac as a VLog.
• Upload the Vlog to your YouTube Channel – Don’t have one? Perfect time to start!
• Share it with the world and me! Post the video to your LinkedIn, Facebook Profile and Page, Twitter and any other methods of letting people know. Also, send me a link to the Video, for me to share with my audience over self same mentioned Social Networking Sites.
• Repeat!

A VLog?

Yes, what a lot of people are beginning to realise is that YouTube is one of the worlds most powerful search engines. Some reports list it as the 4th most powerful search engine, some list it as number 2 and I am inclined to think it’s the 2nd most powerful, why? Simple! Google, the worlds Number 1 Search Engine owns and powers YouTube.

So, by submitting video content to YouTube, and sharing it via Social Networks, we aim to spread the message about your business/charity/daily life with the world, if you aren’t talking about yourself on YouTube the way you do other social networks, you aren’t going to be found on YouTube!

My work/private life is confidential

You don’t have to talk about anything you don’t want to! It’s YOUR Vlog. Ideally the more you put into it, the more your audience will learn. If you have a confidentiality agreement with a new client, just say you’ve signed an exciting new contract with a client to deliver a new (insert what you do here) and details will come following release.

So What do you get out of it?

Exposure. You’ll be opening yourself up to a new channel of people, and people taking part in the challenge will be encouraged to watch each others videos and share them. I’ll be sharing them as well, so I’ll be probably exposing you to audiences you don’t normally reach, and maybe my audience will know someone that needs your service/wants to help your charity/find your life interesting and want to know more.

Essentially it will be like Networking, no strings attached (kind of) video networking with a potential to reach a lot more people than you normally would reach.

What do I get out of it?

Well, here’s the hardest part, it will cause you pain, suffering and potentially a nasty rash.

I would appreciate it if those that took part did a video at the end of the Challenge to say how you found the experience, if you think it helped and what you have learned from following what I’ve asked of you during the challenge.

Ok… Why?

Since I’ve left Preston I have put Walker Studios on Hiatus, to look into potential other business ventures, gain a qualification and to look for a Graduate Job in Web Design, Graphics Design or Online Marketing/Branding etc so I can enjoy the friendly team environment I missed while working for myself.

The clip, should you choose to participate will be to go in an Online CV and part of a “Hire Me!” campaign, so I’m asking a favour in return for what I hope will be something that you will enjoy and get something out of.

Recap

Challenge: 4 Video Blogs (VLogs)
Start Time: 5th September 2011
Finish Time: 30th September 2011
Who’s It For: Businesses, Charities and Individuals
Cost: Your Time
Aim: to further knowledge of your brand/charity/existence

Example

It seems like a really good idea. Until you take the fact that about 5% of all things posted have a realistic budget

An Example

Below is an example taken straight from People Per Hour today:

I am looking for a modern quirky exciting logo designer to appeal to the middle class fun but glamorous young ladies.

The company is in the beauty/fashion industry, specialised in the eyelashes.

If you are interested in this role please forward me any images of previous work you have done in the past.

The client clearly has something specific in mind. They have told us about the company, what level of society it is aimed at and their speciality. So that’s a good thing, the more a designer knows about a project, the more realistic their quote can be.

Twitpoll – What would you pay for the design of a new professional logo?

When doing some quick research to help support my point I was pointed at this Twitter Poll, asking the buyer what their prepared budget would be. Note the pricing structure and responses.

Pricing starts at £50, with the most popular result for a Logo being £750.

Further Research

Taking a quick look at Google to try and gage other companies the results vary largely. One company states pricing starting from £50 and working upwards. Another company starts at £750.

The People Per Hour Formula

Now, the formula on People Per Hour is that they take 10% of the free as their commission for finding the work. Further to this we can’t forget to pay our Taxes, being the good citizens we are, meaning another 20%. So we take 30% off any fee charged to see what the designer is left with. For examples, at the base suggestion of £50:

£50/100=£0.50=1%
£0.50*30=£15=30% of £50
£50-£15=£35

So after our designer has finished work on your logo (s)he is left with £35.

Back to our client

So our Middle Class client has given us a specific target audience and implicate they want a nice piece of design work. So ideally they are looking someone to spend a reasonable amount of time on the design.

We know that a budget of £50 is the lowest end of the scale, knowing a few designers I have asked around for their opinion on hourly pricing and the lowest charge was £25 up to £35. This means a £50 would get our client about 1 hours work, 2 if you go for the cheaper designer.

So, naturally our client on People Per Hour is offering a reasonable budget, by the time they think of revisions they want. They are unlikely to take the first logo sent to them, so let’s put a modest time of 4 hours all in all, we’re talking £100 at £25 an hour, and that’s before we take off the 30%, leaving our designer with £70.

Not bad for 3 hours work compared to working on a till, but bearing in mind that outside the 4 hours that the designer spends in Photoshop etc their is the time spent contemplating the project, sketching out ideas and making modifications, so that 3 hours is probably more like 5-8 hours.

I Digress…

That’s not necessarily a bad thing, if the designer is getting one job like that a day and the client that devotes the time to responding instantly to e-mails. A week of that sort of work would earn him/her £350.

However that isn’t usually the case, most designers aren’t working 9-5 and getting paid every hour of the day, not self employed ones anyway.

The Big Reveal – The People Per Hour Client’s Budget

And I quote – £40-£41.

Now then, let’s examine our formula again, that means that at say, 8 hours work our designer would get a massive £5.125 per hour, if the client is watching their e-mails and respond instantly allowing the designer to work effectively.

That’s less than minimum wage. Legally, if the client was paying a designer to work on their Logo on a per hour basis, they would be breaking the law.

The Point?

In a long and roundabout way my point is that people are seriously undervaluing the Design community. People Per Hour have added a feature to report unrealistic budgets, and sadly when I look at PPH I am more often than not reporting budgets than bidding for work.

When you are asking for a quote or posting a budget for a job thing of the time it will take the person to do the job at hand, one fellow designer on PPH has started replying to every post with an unrealistic budget with this simple message:

And I ask you the same – How long would you work for that amount?

Introduction to Social Media

Nathaniel Cassidy handled the general introduction to Social Media, explaining the figures behind Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare and LinkedIn.

Following this Duncan Hodgson explained the local figures, showing the attendees exactly how vast the opportunity to connect via Social Media in Blackpool really is.

Social Media Surgery

After the introduction the audience was stirred up, most of them were on Facebook and LinkedIn but it became apparent that to most of them Twitter remained elusive with most of them not having an account. Surgeons to the rescue!

The surgeons broke off and helped a group or two of attendees each. I dealt with the Blackpool end of the UK Online Centre and the Blackpool Motor Neurone Disease Association. I discussed with them how to Tweet, how to Reply, how to Retweet and how to Mention someone so that others could see with following both parties.

Conclusion

Overall I believe the event went well, there has been some chatter on Twitter about the whole thing and talks with Aunty Social about having another one, and perhaps running them on a monthly basis.

Twitter has a number of new users and hopefully over time we will see them blossom and become active members of the Tweeting community. I’ve linked to those I helped above, check them out and send them a welcoming Tweet. For tweets from the night and to see more check out #blackpsms

For other opinions and views on Aunty Social Connected check the list below:

• Duncan Hodgson – Aunty Social
• John Popham – Social Media Surgeon