Young Jack Henderson could well be his own worst enemy.  What started out as a small and well meaning fundraising idea has escalated into an adventure which has consumed his life – as well as those of his parents, Ed & Rose - and turned it into an internet sensation which has charmed thousands.

Jack – armed with his trusty Crayolas and felt tips – set out with an idea: to raise money for the Children’s hospital that cared for his younger brother Noah by drawing whatever visitors to his website requested in return for a charitable donation.  The only restrictions he imposed were the type of rules that you would reasonably expect of a 6 year old: nothing naughty – and in Jack’s words ‘I don’t want to draw anyone dying or being died’.

Their initial target of a raising a humble £100 has been well and truly blown out of the water with the current total on their just giving page (which is still accepting donations!) standing well in excess of £27,000.  Not only this but they have also amassed over 7,000 Facebook fans and nearly 1,000 followers of the Twitter account, diligently and warmly run by his Dad.  You may have seen them in the media recently. Oh, and he now has a book available too.

After completing an amazing 536 drawings, Jack is pooped.  Regular readers of our little blog will know that I enjoy a good doodle myself and I’ve loved checking out Jack’s masterpieces – so I thought I would track down Ed Henderson who has kindly spared us a his time to answer a few probing questions…

So for all the parents out there – just how do you rein in the ego of a 6 year old who has suddenly found himself in the media spotlight?

We made sure we kept him very insulated from too much of the nonsense that can go on. While it is great that everyone wants to congratulate him, being a 6 year old is quite simple, he gets a few people bigging him up, he gets  a big big headed, he gets a few meanies, he gets sad. We had to let him enjoy some of it but made sure that whenever we felt he overstepped the mark, we made sure he knew his standing in the family and the world.

To what extent are you ‘trained’ in web design and social media? Was there a steep learning curve involved in managing a site that suddenly attracted so much attention?

I build websites for a living and have used/advised social media for myself and my clients. On this scale however, no training. When you are at the eye of this social media hurricane it was manic. A couple of times I was so overwhelmed with communication I had to close the Mac and walk away for a while. Its relenting, tough but ultimately rewarding interacting with wellwishers, fans and followers. I wouldn’t have swapped it for the world.

"Gorilla swinging in the lianas in the jungle being chased by a tribe of indigenous people"

A question for Jack this time: who would win in a dancing contest between John Barrowman and Mr Bean?

Mr Bean – because he is a really funny dancer

Did you have a conscious strategy behind your online presence or was it something that grew organically?

We didn’t even have a Facebook page till Day 6 and even then Rose (Jack’s Mum) had to convince me! Jack had a Twitter account since birth (because I am a geek and reserved it for him). After that, “suck it and see” and “make it up as you go” are two phrases that spring to mind.

"Unicorn taking his pet baby elephant for a walk"

Another for Jack – what’s more fun? Getting a Hug from your mum or jumping on your Dad?

Both of them, I like jumping on my Dad becuase its fun and I like getting a hug from Mum because shes warm!

How did the book deal come about?

Someone posted it on their Facebook wall, no idea who. Sara O’Connor spotted it, twas the Heatblast picture.  Sara is a Senior Editor for Hodder Childrens. She called me, I thought it was a windup at first. It progressed from there.

Now that Jack has finished all his drawings and you look back – is there anything that you would have done differently if you had the chance to do it all again?

Jack – Nothing, I loved it all.
Dad & Mum – Closed picture requests a bit earlier than 2 weeks, 536 pics was a lot.

With all the media furore that has surrounded Jack combined with the technical and logistical challenges that surround managing such a popular website, there’s one thing that we really need to know – what does Jack want for Christmas?

Guitar, Space Shuttle (Lego), thats all.

Huge thanks to Ed, Rose and Jack.  Do something nice today and drop them a little donation. Or a really big one if you want to.

Heinz personalised ‘get well’ tins

First up is a clever concept from Heinz; personalised ‘get well soon’ soup tins. Send a personalised tin of soup (either cream of tomato or cream of chicken) to a poorly friend and cheer up their day. You can purchase your personalised soup tin for £1.99 from the Heinz Facebook page. It will take three to four days to be delivered so it might be worth ordering now and storing away until your friend is inevitably full of lurgy. Everyone gets at least one cold a year.

The Feed’s 1st Birthday

A year ago this month Orange launched The Feed, an ongoing collection of social media delights created by Poke London. Popular campaigns over the last 12 months include:

‘Keep me cool‘ – an  ice-cream give-away where users were encouraged to enter their postcodes to entice the ice-cream van into their area.

The winter warmer campaign, which invited Twitter users to nominate their friends to win a hot chocolate delivery to their door.

‘Pimp my pic’ was an opportunity for Facebook users to get a new body illustrated for their Facebook profile picture – click here to see some of the works of art.

Innocent Tweet and Eat

Innocent is offering Twitter and Facebook users discount on one of their tasty veg pots. The more the users tweet the hashtag #tweetandeat, the bigger the discount, so get tweeting your way to a free veg pot.

In France, the Conseil Supérieur de l’Audiovisuel (CSA), France’s media regulator, has banned the naming of Facebook and Twitter in broadcasting unless it is specific to a news story. The banning of these brands has caused a divided opinion – is this move to try and ban product placement from broadcasting or is it limiting freedom of speech?

Facebook and Twitter have become public social networking sites but people tend to forget that they are billion-dollar companies making large profits. The reason France’s media regulator has banned the use of these companies is because product placement is not allowed within broadcasting. Why is it fair to favour one social networking platform over another? Their argument is that Facebook and Twitter get enough promotion already, never mind being mentioned on television and radio. Now more generic terms will have to be used in France – ‘join the conversation on the popular social networking site’ or ‘like us on your favourite social platform’. It doesn’t really have the same ring to it, does it?

It seems the fairest (though not most practical) approach is to ban the use of social networking brands in broadcasting. However, it will be hard to adjust to using generic terms when Facebook and Twitter have been so dominant in the media. All brands that are now ‘genericized’ trademarks have earned their right to this status, and why should it be taken away from them?

After some pondering, I’ve decided to write a blog post on Twitter etiquette. But wait! I’m not going to write a pretentious set of rules. Oh no. This is about etiquette. And I want to know why some people choose not to follow people who’re perfectly followable.

Maybe it’s just a bugbear of mine, and although I’m not losing sleep over it, I can’t help but find users who don’t follow back, a little rude.

I know there are good reasons not to follow users on Twitter; those who overly push their products/services or don’t share any common ground with you. And people who are a bit scary, can’t forgot those.

So, if someone decides to follow me, for whatevever reason – I’m flattered, and will happily return the favour (apart from in cases listed above). For me, Twitter is all about the community, and by tweeting I have made the conscious decision to share ideas, interests and personal information with my followers. If someone is willing to read my tweets then I want to read what they have to say too. If you aren’t following back, aren’t you just wanting everyone to listen to you? Isn’t Twitter’s main purpose interaction?

Us @fluidcreativity folk have conflicting viewpoints on the Twitter etiquette debate.

@_Chappers_ isn’t as easily offended if a user decides not to follow him back:

“Following people back simply because they followed me undermines the point. If you build up your following list to a volume so great that you can’t realistically keep track of everyone then it’s pointless.”

@Inoperante2 doesn’t think it’s rude if he chooses not to follow someone back but if he shares an interest with a user, he’s likely to follow them. However when a user chooses not to follow him back, he’s a little bit offended (bless).

“Getting into a conversation with the people I want following me is the best to get them to follow back, in my experience. It’s all about interaction, innit.”

@mitmystery and @splurj aren’t really too fussed whether they are followed back by a user or not. They don’t take the whole thing as seriously as I do, and that’s definitely a good thing. @nicolafred has a similar view but does wonder what the reasons are for users who unfollow, or if they have @ replied and then not followed.

What do you think? Do you try to follow everyone back or are you fussy with who you decide to follow?

So…was it worth Twitter’s effort to make these changes? This is just my personal opinion, but yes. The overhaul has been described by social media blog Mashable as “…an attack on all desktop apps” and it is. Here’s why.

Some of the major benefits of using a desktop app such as Tweetdeck and Seesmic Desktop included simple searches, profile viewing and following, the ability to view multimedia content like photos within the app and quick and easy viewing of mentions and retweets.

Old Twitter offered none of that with its clunky, user-unfriendly right-hand navigation and its inability to handle media of any kind. What New Twitter has done – and yes, I’m paraphrasing Mashable here – is take all the best bits from desktop apps and bundle them together for mainstream use.

According to Twitter CEO Evan Williams, 78% of people already used the web interface anyway. Now they’re going to get all the benefits the other 22% enjoyed – and that 22% may well dwindle now there’s no need to use a desktop app.

Let’s look at some of these features in action. As you can see from the pic above, Twitter have basically cut your screen in half. On the left is what you are used to seeing, your Twitter timeline with all the latest Tweets from those you follow.

Across the top of this is a much improved way of viewing your @Mentions, Retweets (by others, by you, and your Tweets, Retweeted), saved searches and your lists – quite simply, it’s tabbed.

The search box is now perfectly placed at the top of the screen (along with the Home, Profile and your Direct Messages links) instead of squeezed halfway down the right hand side. Speaking of the right hand side…this is where the magic happens now.

The default view contains your last Tweet, the number of people you’re following (and a random selection of six), the number of people following you (and a random selection of 6), your Favourite Tweets, what Lists you’re on, Trending Topics and Who to follow suggestions.

It’s a far better design than Old Twitter, not least because all your vital information is above the fold, but also because it is a lot easier on the eye.

Where Twitter has really got it right though is what else that right hand side can do.

Viewing A Profile

Let’s say someone you are following has retweeted something interesting from someone you don’t follow. In Old Twitter you’d have had to navigate away from your timeline and visit that profile. In New Twitter you simply click their name and the right hand side column will give you:

• Name
• Twitter name
• Bio
• Number of Tweets, Followers, Following & Listed
• The ability to Follow them, add them to a list of your own and even mention, block or report them
• Their last three Tweets (and the ability to view more)

You’re still on your own timeline over on the left and can return to your normal view on the right just by clicking close at the top of the profile. Efficient, intuitive and user friendly.

But Tweetdeck (my own preferred desktop app) has been offering this forever. That’s not quite enough to tempt a user BACK to the web interface, though it will likely stop many leaving for a desktop app.

Where Twitter has put one over the app makers is with rich multimedia integration into the stream.

Viewing Pictures & Video

Now when a link to an image or video appears in your timeline it is accompanied by a little icon indicating what it is (pic or video). Hover over the Tweet and a little arrow appears, click that and the image or video is displayed in the right hand column.

Other information displayed includes the latest three replies to the Tweet and the last three Tweets from the original Tweeter (that was a mouthful!). Clicking the link itself will still take you to the external site, be it Twitpic, Flickr, YouTube and any of the other 16 sites Twitter have partnered with to make this happen (full list below).

Incidentally, clicking the arrow on a Tweet that doesn’t contain any media will still display that information. A very nice touch.

Little Niggles With New Twitter That Are Barely Worth Mentioning But I Will Anyway

I am hard pressed to find fault with Twitter’s new design but in the interests of fairness I’ve looked hard and dug deep and found one. Yes, just one. The site is now a little bit slower to use. When typing a Tweet in the What’s Happening? Box, I find the letters don’t quite keep up with the speed of my typing. I’ve heard others complaining of the same so clearly there is an issue, it’s not just me or my computer. It’s something I’m sure Twitter will address in due course.

Oh, wait, I have one more niggle. Why, instead of just displaying the latest Tweets in my timeline, does Twitter insist on telling me how many more there have been and making me click the message to see them?

This annoyed me in Old Twitter and it annoys me now. If I can keep up in Tweetdeck and with a much improved search facility on Twitter.com surely Twitter can just go ahead and stream my timeline to me.

That’s it. Not much to complain about really, was it!

Is New Twitter The Death Of The Desktop App?

No, it isn’t. For the pure, single account Twitter user Twitter.com should now be the preferred option. For those of us with multiple Twitter accounts and the requirement of managing our Facebook, LinkedIn and other social media presences from one place, then the desktop app remains a must.

What Twitter have done is ensure that the 22% who access Twitter via apps, both desktop and mobile, doesn’t get any bigger and MAY even get smaller. They’ve given us a compelling reason to visit the web interface and have brought all the benefits those 22% enjoyed to the 78% who were there anyway.

I won’t abandon my use of Tweetdeck, I find it far too useful from a multiple account point of view but when I only want to focus on one, you’ll find me in Google Chrome looking (and marvelling) at Twitter.com.

Have you got New Twitter yet? What do you think of it? Will you be using it over a desktop app?

Twitter’s Partnerships

• DailyBooth
• DeviantART
• Etsy
• Flickr
• Justin.TV
• Kickstarter
• Kiva
• Photozou
• Plixi
• Twitgoo
• TwitPic
• TwitVid
• Ustream
• Vimeo
• yfrog
• YouTube

@OwensDamien: I’ve only had time to scan the headlines but am I right in thinking that #NaomiCampbell has finally been put on trial for being awful?

@louiespence: I’m living for the Philips eyebrow trimmer – vibrating and battery operated – what’s not to love?!

@Jason_Manford: Reckon White bread is harder to give up than Crack. At least with Crack there’s some social stigma attached.There’s no Crack section at Asda

@Scroobiuspipyo: Man hits girl. Roger Huerta (former UFC fighter) see’s. Man get knocked out. Win. http://urlm.in/ffud Someone films it? Win x 1000.

@MiikeTeknoist: i think.. iam.. actually.. Jeremy Usborne.. it pains me to say it but its kinda true.. then again theres a lot of Mark Corrigan in here also

@bobotheeklown: Hmmm, interesting. Vonage Facebook call App http://apps.facebook.com/vonage-talkfree/

@Steve_Worsley: In the wise words of Timon from the Lion King – “Are’ya aching? [yup yup yup] for some bacon?”

@ Jaime_Markey: Free book – yes pls! This Book helps u 2 move in2 the Digital era of awesomeness. Download for free: http://bit.ly/4R9rth (via @heth22) Fab!

@indiaknight: Tempted to watch Naomi Campbell live feed. Love that she said turning up at trial was “big inconvenience”. Quel utter drag.

@MissCay: @chrispople Am thinking of making chocolate meringue cake. And chocolate toffee muffins. Anything with chocolate really.

We’d love to hear what your favourtie tweets of the week are in the comments box below.

A fine example is that of professional poo prodder, Gillian McKeith.  The recent case where Mrs McKeith apparently libelled Dr Ben Goldacre has been well documented, especially so on the ever excellent and increasingly important Jack of Kent blog (do read it if you aren’t familiar with the story).  The fallout from this little episode was significant with Twitterers chipping in to expose the many hypocrisies and glaring flaws in the Tweets coming from the @GillianMcKeith account.  It wasn’t long before the many mocking Tweets caused Gillian McKeith to become a trending topic.  The saying goes that “it’s all fun and games until someone gets hurt” but I’d argue that in this case she deserved to get exposed.  There could never be a voice loud enough to adequately describe what she has done to tarnish the public perception of Science on television.  Her nutritional advice is widely regarded as laughable (and potentially damaging) by the scientific community and will do well to only fuel the ignorance of those who wouldn’t think to question what they watch on television.  Misinformation such as that propagated by Mrs Mckeith deserves this sort of exposure, especially when it relates to public health.  It’s only a shame that it was her reputation that was tarnished and not the millions of pounds she has earned as a result of profiting from the ‘advice’ she dishes out.

We strive to keep our little blog free of any sort of politics, however it’s difficult to avoid when discussing the well documented case of Jan Moir’s ill advised and understandably perceived as anti-gay article on the unfortunate death of Boyzone singer, Stephen Gately.  The backlash against this on Twitter was immense with Moir becoming a trending topic in minutes.  The groundswell of support against this article was so great that advertisers on the Daily Mail’s website were persuaded to remove the adverts in what can only be seen as a damning indictment of the Mail’s editorial policy.  For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction and in my view the response from this particular piece of journalism was entirely appropriate.  If anything it was the bully who was receiving their comeuppance.

More recently and perhaps more trivially is the case of cheeky chappy Keith Chegwin being taken to task by a number of notable comedians on Twitter for seemingly Tweeting out their jokes without credit.  The response to this little drama was not so clear cut with Twitterers divided between sticking up for who they felt was a lovable old personality and those who felt he was stealing material.  In an artistic debate (if it can indeed be described as that) there will never be a clear cut bias to one side and I think this was reflected in the replies from the Twitter community.  Much though I sided with those who accused Chegwin of stealing, in a way it was comforting to see that Twitter wasn’t a ‘mob’ that would automatically jump on the side of who was the most angry.

In it’s relatively short lifespan, Twitter has been a key influence and tool of illumination for many events:  Trafigura, the Iran elections, #ILoveTheNHS, the British election and #CleggsFault, Raoul Moat to name a few.  It has even been powerful enough to propel what in the past may have been considered lesser stories to become national news (you may remember we covered the controversy over Paperchase).  To date I think the moral compass of Twitter has been entirely justified, however i think that it’s only a matter of time before someone is unjustly accused of something.

With the ease at which information spreads over Twitter it stands to reason that misinformation could spread equally fast.  All it takes is a lack of basic fact checking and unquestioning acceptance of a general consensus for falsehoods to prevail.  Luckily, there are many Twitterers and diligent bloggers who’s attention to detail will ensure that no fact goes unexamined.

Let me set a scene: I’ve been looking for a new razor to get rid of the fluff from my baby face. I’ve been a Gillette Fusion man for years, but with cartridges now costing about a tenner for just four refills, shaving with them has become an expensive proposition. Looking for an alternative, I happened across King of Shaves’ AZOR razor. At about half the price of the Fusion I thought it was worth a go.

In short, it wasn’t. I’d heard great things about this razor, but two major drawbacks kept me from wanting to use it again. First of all, there’s an unnecessary amount of space between the top of the cartridge and the first blade, making it pretty much impossible to get that bit under your nose effectively (I ended up having to use a spare disposable I had lying about to finish this bit off). Secondly, I felt like I had little control over the razor due to the lightweight plastic the handle is made from, unlike other premium razors which feel solid in the hand. This lack of control resulted in a few nicks, something I’d not done with the Fusion for years.

But this isn’t a blog about the joys of a DGS (that’s Damn Good Shave, for the uninformed – a useful and *entirely necessary* acronym I learned perusing the Badger and Blade forums), or the disappointment caused by anything less than a DGS. Nope, it’s a blog about how Twitter can be an incredible platform for opening communications with your customers and help to turn them into ambassadors for your brand. So lets move swiftly on…

While working a few days ago, I noticed an old colleague of mine, @ChrisCathcart, discussing the “banned” Barbarella X campaign (possibly NSFW link) from King Of Shaves on Twitter. As Chris had mentioned the brand, I took the opportunity to tweet back a little whinge about my recent experience with the Azor.

As it happened Will King, owner and head honcho at King of Shaves, was online at that very moment, and keeping an eye on his tweets. Within minutes I’d had a reply from @KingofShaves (and I choose to trust it *is* actually Will, although a more cynical man might suggest he has staff for that sort of thing) asking if I’d be willing to try out the new model, the Azor:M.

I replied in the positive (although I’ll admit I was a little concerned that I’d be subjecting my face to another shredding). Will simply asked that I follow him back so I could DM my address over, and my new Azor:M arrived just a couple of days later complete some some KOS Alpha shave gel – bonus!

Well, I am happy to report that my search for a cheaper DGS is complete. In developing the Azor:M and it’s “v2″ cartridge KOS have overcome both of my major issues with the previous version; the “M” in “Azor:M” stands for the most noticeable difference – a metal handle that feels much more solid and heavy in the hand, and the new cartridge has its blades nearer to the top, allowing for a much more precise shave, especially for that bit under nose. With no nicks and everything gone, I’ve been left with possibly the closest shave of my life.

But why should you care? As a digital marketing type, why should you care whether my face is baby smooth or looking like I’ve fallen asleep on a cheese grater?

Well, bear in mind that before Will saw my grumblings about his product via Twitter, I was very unlikely to promote the Azor (or anything from the King of Shaves range, for that matter) to anyone I knew. In fact, I’d actively discussed with a few friends just how disappointed I was with the original Azor. We can safely say I wasn’t in a rush to buy any more KOS products, or recommend them to a friend.

In the past, I’d have been pretty much lost to King of Shaves as a customer. The product hadn’t cost me enough or angered me sufficiently to demand a replacement or my money back from the store… I’d just written it off and decided to move on to something else. I certainly wouldn’t have contacted KOS to tell them how I felt, or expected them to contact me to ask. But by simply monitoring Twitter and spending a few minutes to contact me and offer a replacement, they’ve not only turned me into a customer (as I’ll be buying the v2 blades from now on, and the shave gel is nothing less than a revelation), but they’ve also got me wanting to tell others about the product.

We’ve run a number of successful campaigns for our clients at Fluid Creativity, where a giveaway of some sort was used as an incentive for the public to join in. These have been invariably the most successful – from “retweet to win” competitions to free promotional samples included in every order, so long as your product is good then people will love you for giving them a try for free.

Also, as one of the SEO bods around here, the opportunity to use this sort of conversation to build links is just too good to pass up. While it’s near impossible to control who is linking to you and where they might do it from, you can be fairly sure that with talk comes links – real, quality links, the kind of thing Google imagines all links should be, that en masse can help to improve your natural search positions and the amount of traffic you’re receiving from them.

It’s a simple thing, giving samples of your products away to attract attention and good press. There’s nothing new about freebies, but as people put more and more of their lives online (even the really petty stuff, like how they don’t like their new razor), it opens up more and more opportunities to target people with a real need for what you have, rather than those with a penchant for free stuff. These people are far more likely to use and appreciate your product, and may even go on to become evangelists for your brand.

Twitter Search
I recommend Twitter search to everyone, I think it’s great. I use the advanced search tool to key in target key words within a number of miles of Manchester. Its great for getting specific localised news and finding new followers based on their tweets.

We Follow

We Follow is a Twitter directory, you tag yourself with any key words you think sums you up and find people within an industry or interest. You can also find people within your area too. If your new to Twitter and looking for interesting people to follow this is one of the best tools.

Friend or Follow

It’s a great tool to find out if who you are following are following you back. It can be quite hard not to get offended with some of them though. It’s also a great way to look at who your not following back as you might have missed some right gems.  It’s always nice to see who your mutual friends are too.

Bigtwitt
Sometimes 140 character just isn’t enough if you have more to say use Bigwitt to write your message, post and a link will send you back to this page. The guys at Fluid like Bigtwitt because like Twitter its nice and simple and doesn’t over complicate it.

Bit.ly
If your not using Bit.ly to shorten your links then why? Not only will Bit.ly shorten your links it will track them providing great statistics with number of clicks on your links. Shortening your links makes it so much easier to share more on Twitter! Twitter clients like TweetDeck work with Bit.ly to shorten your links automatically.

TwitPic / TwitVid
Again another simple tool that allows you to put pictures up and post pictures to Twitter. It brilliant for uploading pics for your phone. TwitVid is the same for video.

Twitter Counter

Twitter counter is fantastic for looking at your Twitter statistics, it will even send you a weekly email with an update on your Twitter account and a projection for the coming week.

TwitSay
A really cute little app for Twitter that allows you to record a message and post to your Followers.

Tweet Reach
As I am sure you have realised by now I love my Twitter stats and this tool has to be my favourite. If you get your Tweet retweeted a number of times its always really interesting to see how many people it reached. Granted not everyone is online looking at that exact moment in time but its still a great way to see how many people 1 tweet has the potential to reach.

TweetDeck
I could write a whole blog post on Twitter Clients as there is so many to choose from. I favour TweetDeck as my Twitter client as I manage multiple Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin accounts and find it works best for me. Other staff at Fluid use Tweetie, Twhirl, and Echofon. Choosing the right Twitter client for you is really down to personal preference and what your usage is like. Maybe try a few and let me know which ones are your favourites.

And finally I just wanted to share with you 2 tools I do not use but have people ask me all the time “how do I send personalised auto direct messages” and “how can I send schedual tweets when I am out of the office or on holiday”.

Twitter DMer
The general consensus on auto DM’s is don’t do it. It’s inpersonal and annoying and people will unfollow you as a result of it. Twitter DMer personalises custom direct messages still in my opinion for the sake of 2mins just send someone a personal message.

Twuffer
This is another application I think could be very useful but one I don’t use. I would rather tell my followers “I am going away” or “have a great weekend” so they know what that I am going to be offline rather than put out schedualed tweets, it defeats the point of using Twitter. I understand why someone would use this app and I have heard it’s very good so just wanted to highlight it.

Every Tool we recommend is so easy to use, they’re free and will only take you a few minuets to set up or link to your Twitter account. I would love to hear what you think of my favourtite Twitter tools and which ones you would recommend.

The missing Tweets from all pages are what’s concerning the gang at Fluid the most, but fear not Twitter have re-assured us on their status blog that they are not lost forever and will return soon:

“We’re currently experiencing site availability issues resulting from the failed enhancement of a new approach to timeline caching. Our infrastructure and operations engineers are currently working to resolve this. We’ll update you soon with an ETA.
10:17 PM PDT: Users may temporarily experience missing tweets from their timelines. They will be restored shortly.

11:51 PM PDT: We’re recovering from the site outage. Remember, users may temporarily experience missing or duplicate tweets from their timelines. Normal timelines will be restored shortly.”

We’re keeping our fingers crossed.

The problems over the last few days have caused a bit of concern. With a growing number of people not only using Twitter daily but relying on Twitter to be kept up to date with the latest news, industry developments or simply friends. The question on everyones lips today is ’should we depend on it’.

I am a huge Twitter fan, I not only encourage friends but businesses to use Twitter to engage with customers or clients, keep up to date with industry news and share their thoughts on hot topics. In some cases not having access to this information or to cusomers can be business critical.

The technical problems with Twitter can be more than a minor inconvenience for websites that have a Twitter feed installed. With Twitter being down this will disrupt these feeds and can potentially damage a website. Some businesses this morning will have to consider if having a live Twitter feed on their site is worth the potential disruption it can cause.

Here at Fluid we are hoping these issues get resolved as soon as possible but we would also like to know what procedures will be put in place to stop this happening again.