The #followback experiment

What was the #followback experiment? Well since I've joined twitter I've seen quite a few of these follow related hashtags flying around and I began to wonder if they actually work or was it just a ploy by the user to gain retweets. So with these thoughts I decided to conduct a simple study from the 08/09/13 to the 15/09/13 to see how many followers I could gain in that time. I would retweet random #teamfollowback tweets once or twice each day and then collect the results at the end of the study.

There were fluctuations thought out the study of the number of people following me after each retweet but this I assume was down to the popularity of the original tweet itself and the time in which I retweeted. If more people were actively using their own twitter when I retweeted the number of followers I would receive would dramatically increase.

Over the course of the study I gained over  30 new followers,  which to an individual like myself who is relatively new to the world of twitter can only be appreciated, so thank you to those who did follow me. However I would like be followed by individuals with similar interests to myself. Obviously I know that twitter suggests people its thinks you should follow, but I think it would be so much better if you get these followtrains so suit certain people. For example a marketing follow back train, a gamer follow back train. I just think this way individuals opinions would be more appreciated on twitter as they'd be preaching to the right audience more often.

What makes a great video game?

The video game, the great creation. Regardless of your gaming preference most people could highlight a couple of titles they have fallen in love with over the years. But what is the main component within a video that creates a special bond between player and game? 

One of thing that never fails to get me absorbed in a game is a great story. Being able to follow a character from the opening scene to the end credits, there's nothing better. Feeling their fear, their pain, their sadness, their triumph. A couple of personal favourites would be the Gears of War and Mass Effect franchises. Both these stories pulled me in from the word go, whether I was Commander Shepherd flying round the galaxy in the Normandy or Marcus Fenix stamping on a grubs head, I always felt like a standing along side these characters ever step of the way.

But it isn't just a games storyline that can win over a gamer. Oh no, a character can make all the difference with a gamers experience. Furthermore additional characters can make a gamer fall in love with a game all over again. I recently experienced this with Gears of War 3 and its Raams Shadow add on campaign. Within this add on you get to play along as General Raam himself. You experience this foes formidable wrath in the first gears of war game however you have no true idea of his true power until you said into his shoes. With your shield of cryl around you you can't even be hit by bullets, lets repeat that you CAN'T BE HIT BY BULLETS!!, you might aswell be a tank. A true envisionment of a killing machine, a god amongst grubs.

However an obvious part of a video game that can have it's fan playing it for days and days on end is its overall gameplay. My personal example that I'm going to use here is "Supreme Commander", for those of you that aren't familiar with this game, to put it in simple terms the Command and Conquer franchise on steriods. The steer size of some of maps is mind blowing. But back to why the gameplay is so good, its so addictive, I could spend hours just on one match. These huge levels contained multiple enemy obsticles to overcome, multiple upgrades that were needed to make your army progress. Every second of gameplay was important to the overall matches outcome.

Every gamer is different, please leave your thoughts below, did you agree with me? Are there some video game areas that I've missed?

      

My Re-interest in Pinterest

Recently I re-entered the world on Pinterest after what I worked out must of been a couple of years absence. On my return I began to wonder how it had slipped out of my life? This social media platform has it all, its possibilities are endless. However this time round I did come across some more sides to the world of Pinterest that I didn't notice before.

The main one of these sides being that it can used as a business and marketing tool. Companies can operate several boards to match their variety of products and services. These boards within themselves can operate in different ways. One of these ways is that they can operate as virtual shop windows, the first step on the road to a sale. A browsing customer is a potential customer, so the images and text chosen to go the boards are so so crucial to company, get these wrong and no interest will be generated.

Another way in which companies can use Pinterest boards is as a product research platform for new or re-invented products. Customers can engage with the standard like button the gauge their initial views. But further research can be taken from the number of repins a product gets and the comments left on the image itself, these two further points can give the company a rough idea of the reception the product would receive if it was brought to market.

But I realised recently there's another way in which companies can use Pinterest. A company I recently followed have boards that cover matters within the business itself, by this I mean they have images of their employees and general activities from within their offices. What a great way to engage your customers, bring them inside the company itself. With this method companies can allow customers to become familiar with staff and the general way the company operates.   

Overall i'm so glad I've got back into Pinterest, I forgot just how many wonderful things there are in this world and how someone just needs to pin them down.

Feel free to follow my Pinterest account just search Will Harwood