Friday 4 September 2009

Follow Friday, aka twitter resources


Two of my colleagues have started using Twitter as a way of getting timely info to students this semester, and as a result a bunch of students have joined Twitter for the first time.

(This Telegraph blog post is a decent general run through of how to get started on Twitter.)

'Follow Friday (or #FF) is a Twitter 'tradition' where users post recommendations of people they follow. Personally I don't find a list of just account names particularly helpful, so I'm going to take a whole blog post to put together some suggestions of accounts our new-to-Twitter and new-to-London students might want to check out:

General

The BBC, the Guardian and the Times all do a range of feeds, from just the big breaking news stories (eg @bbcbreaking) to more in-depth subject focussed feeds like @bbchealth or @guardiantech.

@DowningStreet - official account for the UK Prime Minister, Gordon Brown

London

@londonist - if you're not reading this site regularly, the twitter stream is a great way to keep an eye on London news and upcoming events

@londonwestend for West-end focussed updates, including lots of free events

Museum and gallery accounts in cultural areas you're interested in - @BarbicanCentre, @Tate, @V_and_A, @Sadlers_Wells, @RoyalOperaHouse etc etc

@londonweather for your daily forecast

@towerbridge (see this Londonist post for the best summary of why, or why not)

@BBCLondonNews - London news from the BBC

@gigsinlondon - gigs in London, including the free and the 'secret'.

Libraries

@nd_lup_library for updates on the LUP library (shameless self promotion - check)

@WCClibraries for news on Westminster Library events and promotions

@SenateHouseLib to keep up to date with the building works if you're thinking of taking out membership there

@BritishLibrary - Britain's national library.

Personalities

@stephenfry In the words of the song 'thou shalt not question Stephen Fry' - there is a very good reason that he's one of the most followed people on Twitter.

@EddieIzzard - comedian, currently running a ring of back-to-back marathons around the UK.

@neilhimself - author Neil Gaiman

@JohnCleese - the man himself

@MayorOfLOndon - Boris Johnson

Readers who are on Twitter: who or what would you add to this list?

2 comments:

Claire Smith said...

I'd add @visitlondonweb. The Twitter face of the Visit London website, it gives you really useful reminders about what's going on.

AT said...

@ClaireWain - oh - good one! Thank you!