I'm a twit! Thanks

Just as geek went chic, it looks like being a twit can be a hit, or at least I hope so after officially becoming one this week.

Moray Firth Live, the social media project I have been working on over the past six months beat 38 shortlisted twitterers in the Information Service category of the debut Golden Twit awards.

And what an honour. A national award for a very small operation. It’s great for me, it’s good for my web design business, and it’s great for Moray Firth Live.

Social media has taken the world by storm, and it’s nice to know we’re doing it right.

It’s good for my clients too because they can be confident Canary Dwarf are using the right tools for the job.

It was fitting that I watched the award ceremony live over the internet. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to travel to the London venue to step on the stage and collect the award in person.

There were some mighty big names in there: Manchester City FC, Scottish Ballet, Aleksandr Orlov from Compare the Meerkat and media giants such as Trinity Mirror, The Guardian, and Channel 4. I was a little fish in a big pond.

So I was over the moon when I was picked from 40 entries in the Information Services category to win the award.

It was one of those moments, and I don’t have many of them, where what happened next just went into a blur… I was rooted to the spot while I took it all in.

In the spirit of Twitter, I was only allowed 140 characters of an acceptance speech (all shortlisted entries had been asked to send one in.) and so I never had chance to thank everyone I wanted to.

So my biggest thanks go to my wife Susan, who has tirelessly helped me get this thing off the ground and keep it running. She puts into it as much effort as I do, and although I am the journalistic drive behind it, it wouldn’t be what it is without her. So thanks Susie.

I’ve got to thank Twitter, because, and I don’t use this word lightly, it is unique. Moray Firth Live wouldn’t work the same without Twitter. I can’t think of any other service which does what it does, and it’s free! That’s a big help.

I want to thank Craig McGill from Contently Managed for making me believe the product was worthy after listing us one of Scotland’s top 50 tweeters. I think it was one of his tweets that alerted me to the contest too. Craig had a pretty impressive portfolio of tweet accounts nominated in the awards and collected two commendations. So thanks Craig, and well done to you too.

I must acknowledge all the news and information sources we link to and the quality of their content. We work on the principle ‘do what you do best and link to the rest’. Sources include the BBC, Press and Journal, Inverness Courier, Northern Scot, Scotsman, Daily Record and many more.

And of course the organisers of the Golden Twits, The Drum. I started reading The Drum about 15 years ago when it was a Scottish media magazine. Now it’s nationwide and a damn good read for anyone interested in the media.

So all that leaves me to say, is that if you’re looking for an award-winning web design team in Moray or beyond, give us a call. Or of course you can contact me on twitter.com/marchindley.

Here’s the video of the award ceremony, we’re at about 1:55:00.