How to follow local trends on Twitter?

Trendsmap is a neat real-time geographic visualization for emerging Twitter trends. The online application analyzes over 5 million tweets per day to visualize trending topics on a global, regional and city level. Trendsmap identifies news as they happen and tracks their impact around the world as can be seen in the  snap shot below showing the city of Vancouver:

I was really not aware ...

... that this can happen to me after heavy Twitter use:
"Sorry! You've hit your hourly usage limit. Try again soon."

Blogging in the Construction Industry - A Survey

Gemma Went of Red Cube Marketing (London) carried out a small survey on the use of blogging amongst professionals in the architecture, construction and design industries.

"Comparing the results of the questions (a) Why did you launch the blog? and (b) Why do you run the blog now?, there appears to be a complete turn-around in reasons why participants first launched their blog and why they continue to blog today. Rather than seeing blogs solely as informal arenas for expressing industry opinion, participants now run blogs primarily to engage with their communities."

Why do you run the blog now?

The participants of the survey were also asked for the impact of their blog. The responses give an interesting insight highlighting their very positive achievements:

1. Sharp increase in visitor numbers
2. Stronger connection with our audience
3. New jobs, connections and speaking opportunities
4. A wider readership both nationally and internationally
5. Professional growth
6. Approachability

For construction-related service companies planning to launch a blog the participants of Gemma Went's survey give the following useful advice:

• Listen first
• Write about meaningful subjects in your industry to show you care about what you do
• Understand why you are launching a blog. It must be purposeful, intentional and distinctive
• Have a clear idea of what you want to achieve from the blog and tailor posts to that end. Don’t be demoralised, keep posting whatever your visitor numbers may be
• Be clear about what your blog is about. Have plenty of content in place and link your blog back to other sites
• Post focused content and post consistently, but at a comfortable rate. Avoid large gaps of silence
• Keep it up-dated
• Plan for results to take a while
• Be human

For more details and further interesting findings on the survey, please visit the Red Cube Marketing Blog.