A Vancouverite’s Guide to Twitter
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By Miss604 | December 2nd, 2008 @ 2:01 pm
33 Comments
Follow: On Twitter @Miss604
Posted in: internet, twitter, vancouver
Tags: social media scene, twitter
33 Comments
Follow: On Twitter @Miss604
Posted in: internet, twitter, vancouver
Tags: social media scene, twitter
By now, you may have heard about the microblogging site, Twitter, from your friends, the radio, CNN or Barack Obama. It’s a great way to stay in touch, share updates and news, and communicate with others. I’ve been noticing more and more businesses on Twitter (which is a good thing) so I’d like to list off a few around town that Vancouverites might want to check out or follow.
The Tyee – @TheTyee
The Georgia Straight – @georgiastraight
The Georgia Straight, Technology – @StraightTech
The Vancouver Sun – @VancouverSun
The Vancouver Sun, Digital Life – @GillianShaw
CityTV’s Breakfast Television – @BT_
CBC Radio 3 – @CBCRadio3
BCIT’s Evolution 107.9 Radio – @evolution1079
Talk 1410am’s Afternoon Buzz – @AfternoonBuzz
News1130 – @News1130
Techvibes – @TechVibes
UBC’s CiTR 101.9 Radio – @CiTRradio
Grouse Mountain – @GrouseMountain
Capilano Suspension Bridge – @CapSuspBridge
SFU Woodwards – @SFUWoodwards
Kids Up Front – @KidsUpFront
Fearless City – @FearlessCity
Vancouver Board of Trade – @VancouverBOT
Canucks Fan Zone – @CanucksFanZone
Whitecaps FC – @WhitecapsFC
Raging Bean Coffee – @RagingBean
Opus Hotel – @OpusHotel
Doolins Irish Pub – @Doolins
BC Restaurant & Food Service Association – @BCRFA
Newly elected Vancouver Mayor, Gregor Robertson – @Gregor08
City of Vancouver – @CityofVancouver (Updates Protected)
Metro Vancouver – @MetroVancouver (Updates Protected)
Vancouver 2010 – @Vancouver_2010 (Updates Protected)
Translink – @Translink (Updates Protected)
West Coast Express – @WestCoastExpres (Updates Protected)
Skytrain – @Skytrain (Updates Protected)
SeaBus – @Seabus (Updates Protected)
BC Ferries – @BCFerries (Updates Protected)
The Green Party of BC – @BCGreenParty
Vancouver Public Library – @VPL
UQ Events – @UQEvents
Coffee Geek – @CoffeeGeek
SFU Twitter User List
Dept of Culture – DeptofCulture
Coast Hotels – @CoastHotels
Make sure you have a custom profile icon or image – some people might recognize that more than your profile name.
Update as often as you can and make sure they’re not all automated posts. Have someone provide unique updates, be specific and feel free to share anything you like.
Follow other people. The whole point of social media is to communicate, create and share discussions. It’s a two-way street so let your followers know you’re interested in what they have to say as well. Who knows, you may get a top news story within seconds, find out about great deals, or get customer service feedback.
Finally, if you have a service whose updates could truly benefit people ie. sailing times, schedules etc. it would be really helpful to remove the protection (privacy setting) from your updates.
Media
Around Town
Hospitality/Food
City or Political
Update – Reader suggestions:
However, I have a few tips for some of the Twitter profiles I’ve listed.
It’s free to sign up for a Twitter account and if you’d like to get updates from any of these sites (or yours truly) click on the links to ‘follow’. Please feel free to share more Vancouver Twitterites in the comments and I’ll update this post.
December 2nd, 2008 at 2:07 pm
Thanks, this is a great resource. (And good advice to folks like BC Ferries too.)
December 2nd, 2008 at 2:10 pm
nice little post – maybe a good follow up would be best vancouverites to follow on twitter?
@mlambert
December 2nd, 2008 at 2:13 pm
Great post Rebecca! There’s a couple must-follows on here that I’ve missed.
I’m a big fan of http://twitter.com/CoffeeGeek and http://twitter.com/UQEVENTS , and, while not strictly Vancouver, but certainly Canadian… http://twitter.com/DeptofCulture
Thanks very much for this.
Simon. http://twitter.com/thenextstagemag
December 2nd, 2008 at 2:13 pm
Sure, you can find a bunch using “Twitter Grader” although they’ve separated their lists so they have one for people in Vancouver – and another for people in Vancouver, BC.
Here’s the list for top Twitterers in Vancouver (based on updates, followers/following).
December 2nd, 2008 at 2:24 pm
Great list! Very handy and much appreciated. Quite odd to see so many protected updates in there, though, eh?
December 2nd, 2008 at 2:31 pm
Such a helpful post Rebecca! As somewhat of a ‘newbie’ to twitter it’s great to get useful advice!
December 2nd, 2008 at 2:34 pm
Thanks for compiling this great list. Nice to know that there’s a growing representation of Vancouver businesses on Twitter.
December 2nd, 2008 at 2:45 pm
Nice list. I also like the public library’s twitter account:
http://twitter.com/VPL
December 2nd, 2008 at 2:48 pm
I’ve added VPL to the list, thanks Dustin!
December 2nd, 2008 at 3:45 pm
@kumar has a great list for sfu students/faculty/clubs etc.
http://kumar.posterous.com/sfu-twitter-users
I’m also on that list.
@buzzbishop is great with twitter as welll.
December 2nd, 2008 at 3:55 pm
Thanks Sam, I’ll add the SFU users to the list.
December 2nd, 2008 at 5:18 pm
I keep trying to get into twitter.. but despite adding friends, companies, politicians and fictional characters (like the people on Mad Men)… I’m just not pulled in like I have been to facebook or blogging or whatnot.
I feel like unless I have both feet in the techworld, I’m not “involved” enough to involve myself in twitter.
December 2nd, 2008 at 5:23 pm
@ Loxy – I guess it just depends where the conversations are that you’d like to follow.
For example my sister updates her Facebook all the time with mobile photos of the kids and status updates however I never saw any of that since I rarely log into Facebook anymore (mostly just for events now).
However, the minute she joined Twitter I was able to find out what she was up to, how the kids were etc. To each their own.
December 2nd, 2008 at 6:12 pm
Can I combine my facebook status with my twitter status so that both update simultaneously?
December 2nd, 2008 at 6:31 pm
Nice collection, Rebecca. Oh, while you have the link right, you don’t have the anchor text correct for the Cap Suspension Bridge. You’re missing a P.
Loxy: Yes, you can do that. There’s a Twitter App for Facebook.
December 2nd, 2008 at 7:51 pm
Here I am, a little late to the game, but with a question: As the face behind @grousemountain I’d love to know what people want to chat about. I have been assuming that the occasional unintrusive tweet about what’s going on: trail hours, closures, opening dates, event info etc. is the order of the day. I’m not convinced people want @grousemountain to be chatting about general stuff. I know everyone keeps saying just have normal conversations, but I guess I figure that’s what my personal profile is for (@seeking_balance). I know I don’t want to have a conversation with “Nike” or “Burton” without knowing who that person is, but maybe that’s just me. What do you think, Rebecca? Others?
December 2nd, 2008 at 7:59 pm
@ Michelle – I agree with your view. I actually now have two Twitter accounts. One is for my research findings (as a scholar) and one for my personal life.
December 2nd, 2008 at 9:38 pm
I have recently joined twitter but am still yet to be convinced of it’s usefullness…time will tell
December 2nd, 2008 at 9:53 pm
@ Michelle – I think it’s a little different than a blog. On a blog I would prefer “Bob from ABC Company” instead of “ABC Company” or “Admin” but for Twitter, I’d follow the company, as well as “Bob” – that way company updates are company updates, and we can still catch up with “Bob” on his own account.
December 3rd, 2008 at 5:40 am
Thanks Raul and Rebecca
I thought maybe I was missing something.
December 3rd, 2008 at 11:49 am
We use @tastingvan on twitter – and the amount of buzz we receive is awesome. One thing we implemented was the ability for restaurants that have twitter, to list their updates on our site directly.
It would be great to see more restaurants/pubs/cafe’s on twitter! Great way to attract an audience that are heavy into the Social Network
Great post Rebecca!
December 3rd, 2008 at 1:26 pm
Here’s the link to the TwitterGrader Twitter elite for Vancouver, BC http://twitter.grader.com/index.php?Action=TwitterUsersByLocation&Location=Vancouver%2C+BC there is also one for YVR, Abbotsford, TheEarth… you know.
Lot’s of great community on Twitter around here the list of businesses with Twitter accounts (active ones too!) is really amazing.
December 3rd, 2008 at 3:38 pm
The cluster of city/political accounts with protected updates are almost certainly a cyber-squatter looking to make some money. Notice that none of them have published any updates and they’re all just following each other.
I hope that Twitter will give the squatter the boot when the real organizations want to come on board.
December 4th, 2008 at 7:38 am
@Loxy, it looks like there is. I was just playing with this in response to your question, and it looks like there are two possibilities.
FriendFeed (FriendFeed.com) gathers everything you do in a bunch of places into one page, and will feed you friends’ activity there, too. There is an application for FriendFeed in Facebook that you can add to your FB page, too, but I’m not having any success getting it to kick in on my main page, only on my application page in FB.
Twitter has a Facebook add-on, too, and it seems to be working. I just saw a post I put up in Twitter show up on my FB page. I just went to “Edit Applications” inside FB, did a search for Twitter, and the Twitter App popped up right away.
I’m not completely sure I actually want all my Twitter tweets showing up as status updates in Facebook, though, because it looks like a one-sided convo. Also, I use Twitter and FB separately. And to suddenly jump in with a status update in FB that is really the answer to a quiz in Twitter seems a little, well, loopy, I guess!
LOL!
I’m still experimenting, so maybe others can jump in with ideas?
ea/
December 4th, 2008 at 7:40 am
I mean to say, I use FB and Twitter in distinct and separate ways and for different purposes.
December 5th, 2008 at 2:26 am
Thanks for adding the SFU twitter users to your list! add me too @kumar
December 8th, 2008 at 12:46 pm
Great list thanks,
Under media you could also add, BCBusiness, TV Week, GardenWise and Granville Magazines. All BC based magazines.
http://twitter.com/granvillemag
http://twitter.com/bcbusiness
http://twitter.com/tvweek
http://twitter.com/gardenwise
December 9th, 2008 at 10:09 am
Thanks for adding Vancouver Public Library!
December 15th, 2008 at 1:12 pm
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January 15th, 2009 at 7:17 pm
Thanks for this!
I’ve been looking for local people and companies to connect with on Twitter, and this helps a lot.
Followed you, btw.
January 25th, 2009 at 3:27 pm
The Province (@theprovince) is another Vancouver media outlet on Twitter.
May 22nd, 2009 at 12:03 am
Great advice! Cactus Club is new to Twitter @cactusclubcafe