The Exiled Robin

My final article from Bristol City's matchday programme, Red Alert  for the 2011-2012 season, from the home game against Barnsley, on April 21st, that sealed our safety Having spent all season telling you all my views on social media, and in particular Twitter, I thought I’d hand this final page over to some of the #bristolcitytwitterfamily to tell you what they think.   I asked five questions and got nearly a hundred replies, thanks to all those that took the time and apologies if you haven’t had a mention. 1)       What’s the best thing about Twitter? One main themes came through on this one with the interaction with other City fans and fans of other clubs suggested by @Barnzy_BCFC , @kpcider , @AG_Gouldie , @JackCox83 and @Saxokid amongst others. The other key mentions included the speed of news breaking ( @McBCFC ) whilst two birds of a feather ( @Cucumber_Kid_71 & @Escobaraloplopp ) said they loved the ability to tweet whatev...

For the penultimate On the Social of the season - for the West Ham game on April 17th - I welcomed Bristol City's Head of Media, Adam Baker (@Bean_Head ), to the pages.   As one of the club’s key communicators the ever-growing role of social media has a constant impact on how the media team goes about their job, so I found out more: How has the ever-growing influence of Twitter affected the job of the media team? I think similarly to the times when internet forums came on the scene, it’s something we have to be aware of and monitor as best we can. That doesn’t mean sitting on Twitter 24/7, but equally if something’s happening it needs covering. Twitter is a great source of news, and therefore is somebody is reporting something about the club then it’s our job to be alert to that.   It’s often on Twitter where stories are broken these days, ahead of papers and websites. Could (and should) the club be doing more to embrace this new world? I think we were slow...

My latest article from Bristol City matchday programme Red Alert, taken from the Derby County game on March 31st: Manchester City’s money-chucking approach to gain success on the pitch causes considerable consternation but there is a long-term plan in place off-the-pitch as well.   Away from impressive plans around new training facilities and holding open evenings to explain their accounts, the online team has also been making great strides. The club has understood that whilst they can email fans or give away flyers with hot dogs, they will only ever reach a proportion of supporters via those methods.   Every other week 50,000 fans turn up at the Etihad Stadium, so what have Man City done?   They’ve turned over space on giant screens to fans tweeting about the game, about the club, about their day out – or about life in general.   Anyone tweeting using the hashtag #Blueview can find their tweet (and username) suddenly highlighted to all of their fellow supporter...

As an exclusive for my column on social media in football for Bristol City matchday programme ‘Red Alert’ , I recently asked for and got the opportunity to interview Commercial Director Kevin Smith. What followed was an enjoyable and informative hour on topics ranging from cider to Twitter, and Wembley to ticket pricing. The surroundings are not as glamorous as you might expect for the Commercial Director of a Championship football club. Standing outside the main entrance of the club on my arrival, I was surprised by a tap on the shoulder from behind me and even more so when I was led to the portacabin in permanent situ across the staff car-park. This is the man responsible for generating every penny of revenue for the football club (excluding transfer fees), yet at the back of a compact but bustling commercial headquarters is Kevin Smith’s working home, an office barely bigger than a dugout, but serving its purpose as he surveys the desks and telephones of a busy team of...

Unfortunately a manically busy few weeks at work has disrupted the normal flow of posts to the site so here's a chance to catch up with a couple of my recent pieces for the Bristol City programme, Red Alert: Firstly from the match against Leeds on February 4th, a guide as to some of the best footballers to follow on Twitter - many of the programme readers are either new to Twitter or aren't a member so it was a bit of an insight as to what they could expect. The second offering was for the Crystal Palace game (Valentine's Day) and is a view as to why I set up my blog in the first place, whilst also touching on some reasons why other writers have recently hung up their keyboards. Football follows on Twitter With more than 50 million users logging in every day and a billion tweets per week, it would be easy to get lost in the jungle that is Twitter. If you’re new to the game and have only recently signed up, or have been active for a while but still see only c...