#140Twitter York Project

Just to let you know that as of this week there starts my most recent project: The #140Twitter York Project.

The idea is to explore microblog ususage on a 'micro' (relatively) scale and analyse the properties of business networks in the city of York on Twitter.

Data collection has started and seems quite appropriate, in the same week that Coca-Cola and Unilever are shifting marketing focus away from 'traditional campaigna' and towards a 'digital' and 'push' marketing strategy across various community platforms: Facebook, YouTube etc. Indeed, as Will Cooper notes, 'social media begins to dictate their marketing activity in 2010'.

So rather than the analysis of already established brands (I'm sure that Coke has more than enough £'s to sustain their own departments and keep marketing/research chiefs more than occupied) my research explores how independents within a localised area can seek to target consumers, create networks, sustain consumer interest, seek out buyer/sellers and ultimately take advantage of 'community' structuring through Twitter.

In short, the business and commercialised reaction to being on the edge of the Information Age, as my new friend Shourjo at BBC Leeds put it. More from this project soon...