I Love HeadFirst

Social media is nothing new and HeadFirst has been using its share of social media tools for awhile now. We have been writing here on our WordPress blog for years. We also have a presence on the two most popular social networking platforms used today: Facebook and MySpace. And now, HeadFirst is entering the realm of “microblogging.”

Microblogging takes the concept of a blog and condenses it down in size. Instead of posting a full story of text (like the one you are reading now), microblogging relies on short bursts of information. In the case of Twitter, all messages are restricted to 140 characters.

Think of your status update on Facebook. Twitter is essentially focused on that and that alone. It seems silly at first, until you start to realize the potential.

With the character limitation comes the added benefit of fast and easy distribution. Microblogging works with mobile technologies such as SMS texting, so a user can choose to have these short messages sent to their mobile device wherever they may be.

If you already use Twitter, all you really want to know is, “What’s your user name?” To be consistent with everything else we do, our Twitter user name is “iloveheadfirst.” You can check us out now, by visiting:

http://twitter.com/iloveheadfirst

From any Web browser, this is the easiest way to monitor our Twitter updates (known as “tweets” in the Twitter world). However, the real power of Twitter comes from the mobile aspect.

If you already use Twitter, chances are you have some sort of third-party Twitter application setup on your phone. However, if you are not a Twitter user, but would still like to receive HeadFirst tweets on your phone, here’s the easiest thing to do. Simply start a text message on your phone and create a message that says:

“follow iloveheadfirst”

Send this message to 40404. This is Twitter’s SMS number.

That’s it! Even if you don’t know it, you’re using Twitter. You will be prompted to supply a username for the service and, if you are new to Twitter, it will automatically create a simple account for you and automatically start “following” HeadFirst on Twitter.

Eventually, HeadFirst will have enough followers on Twitter to make this practical. At that point, we will begin sending our updates from our mobile devices, not our computers. So, in the beginning, our updates will be sent from a computer. However, when we start sending tweets from our mobile devices, we have the ability to send updates from anywhere at any time.

You may be asking, “What good is this?” I’m glad you asked. Let me give you some examples of how this could be handy.

Let’s say you were subscribed to our blog (what you’re reading now) and our Twitter updates on your mobile device. Now, let’s pretend you read about a gig coming up and you intended on coming, but you spaced it when the actual night came and went out drinking with some friends at your favorite bar instead.

From our gig site, back on my drum throne right before we start our show, I send out a quick tweet that says, “HeadFirst is getting ready to rock the first set at XYZ Pub.” You, being subscribed to our Twitter updates, receive a text message at your table letting you know HeadFirst was starting its gig. After realizing your memory is fading, you look up at your buddies and suggest cruising over to the other pub to check out the band.

See? Cool stuff, eh? We could also use this to communicate last-minute cancellations, delays, or anything else that we wanted our fans to know … instantly!

Like I said, it will take a little time to build up followers on Twitter, but once we do, the possibilities are endless.

Anyway, it’s worth a shot. I don’t think it could hurt anything. Oh, and I should mention that I have no intention of abusing our Twitter account with a ridiculous amount of updates. So, don’t worry, HeadFirst won’t be eating up your text message plan. I had thought about synchronizing our tweets with our blog posts, but I think that would really irritate those of you tracking us via SMS text messaging.

We’ll see how it goes. I merely see it as another way to stay connected with our fans. So, give it whirl, send a follow message to 40404 and see what happens. Who knows? Something magical may happen.