With the social networking site Twitter taking over the cyber world by storm, we seized the opportunity to connect with one of the princes of the social media monarchy, one that we are proud to call a crowd member: Nick Donnelly. Nick is based in London, and boasts an extensive background in web development, with roles ranging from director to owner. He has even worked with the globally successful brands Sony and Apple.

As the co–founder of Twitter agency, Tweetieandthebrain, we at blur Marketing have decided to pick Nick’s brain to find out what the self-titled ‘iconoclast’ and ‘ideas man’ makes of the crazy social beast he has been so actively involved in, his motivations, and what his future might hold in store.

1 ) What attracted you to join blur Marketing? What are your opinions on our Crowdsourced model?
I think this is the future – looser coupled teams who are the best at what they do.

2 ) What motivated you to get out of your bed and into the fury of the marketing world?
We live Twitter.

3 ) What are your future aspirations/ careers plans?
Building  TweetieAndTheBrain – watch this space for some interesting content!

4 ) What qualities do you feel a marketer needs to have in order to be successful? Which qualities do you feel you have?
It’s about connections to individuals. Hopefully I can empathise well.

5 ) What is your favourite campaign/project?
The Financial Times conference we are working on right now.

6 ) What has been your career highlight?
Seeing people benefit from our work is always great.

7 ) With the emergence of web 2.0, marketing strategies have changed and are adapting to new technology. How has this change affected you?
Our company is based on Twitter – enough said!

8 ) What do you feel is the difference between digital pr and social media marketing?
If you mean web 1 digital PR – clearly things are on a more individual peer to peer basis and moving towards trust networks influencing decisions.
We have barely scratched the surface!

9 ) What do you feel are the pros and cons (in terms of usefulness) of twitter in the promotion and duration of an event?
There are huge benefits before, during and after events:
• Disseminating information in bite-sized pieces.
• Real time #hashtag discussion at events – if behind speakers on stage all the better (if not people will have that conversation without you)
• Linking to related articles or media (e.g event vox pops)
• Getting *feedback* from event delegates on how they’d like to see the event run & their thoughts on the event content and how it is run
• Cross linking blog, face book, linked-in and other posts

Cons – to be ‘in the conversation’ obviously some time and resources will have to be input but we think its well worth it.

10 ) If you had to write a short but effective piece about yourself, in 160 characters on Twitter, what would it be?
See my twitter bio (140 characters FYI – as usernames can be up to 20 characters)

11 ) Can twitter can be suited to every type of event/message?
I can’t think of anywhere it couldn’t add some value!

What is your favourite…

• Blog? Tech crunch
• Superhero? Twitterman
• Film? 2001
• PC or MAC? Windows 7. Vaio X.
• Twitter or Facebook? Twitter
• Linkedin or BlurMarketing? Both!

Be sure to connect with Nick at blur Marketing