Three weeks ago I started using Twitter to link to my blog posts and news stories that I found of interest. I didn't really see the point of it, but I thought I'd give it ago afterall it only took up a few minutes of my time.

Gradually I immersed myself into the 'Twittersphere' and started following other PR people and entering into conversations. I thought it was interesting but I certainly had no idea that it would further my career.

After just ten days of twittering I was contacted by Stephen Waddington of Rainier PR and invited to attend an interview the following week. A few days later I had a second interview over the phone and now today I have been offered a job with the company. I start next month and cannot wait. It's been my dream for quite some time to work in technology public relations, so to work for one of the top 10 tech PR companies in the UK is unbelievable! Plus I got a mention on their blog to boot.

Directly through twittering I have also acquired twenty-one followers or contacts. This means that I have gained a new contact for every day I have spent microblogging. Indirectly I look set to gain many, many more contacts in the form of my new work colleagues.

Not bad for a website I didn't see the point of.

Almost five weeks ago I posted about Barack Obama's viral campaign, Logobama. This is an update on how that campaign is progressing as well as the presidential race.

Since then nearly 6700 have created logos using the website and a total of $651 has been donated by 24 people. That's not a lot of money or donations really, but I'm sure the number of exposures will be much higher.

Barack now has 156 more pledged delegates than Hillary Clinton and needs just another 183 to become the Democrat candidate. Significantly less than the 339 that Hillary needs to beat him.

Perhaps this is down to Barack's inventive use of new media to support his campaign. A strategy, which Hillary seems to be replicating. In April 2007, Barack started using Twitter to aid his campaign. In January 2008, Hillary followed suit and started microblogging too. Since then Hillary has posted 139 times, whereas Barack has posted a mere 115 times.

If frequency isn't the key to using Twitter successfully then what is?

I think interaction. Although neither candidate has actually entered into a two-way conversation with their followers. I think following other users has been a crucial factor in Barack's success. Barack follows almost 30,000 other users, whereas Hillary follows nobody. No one. Not a sausage. I think people like to have followers, it feels good, even if they know that their followers are not really reading what they have to say. So it's not surprising that Barack has over 25,000 more followers than poor old Hillary, who has just 3,745 in total.

A couple weeks ago I blogged to say that I had applied for a place on Seth Godin's summer internship in New York. I didn't get it. I did however get invited to join his online internship during the summer months. A group of almost 100 top marketing students from around the world will be working together, sharing knowledge and learning from each other as well as from one of the greatest marketeers of all time and perhaps the world's most influential marketing blogger. Exciting, eh?

We'll be collaborating on marketing projects for Seth's website Squidoo.com as well as completing a number of other tasks. At the end of the summer, Seth has stated his intention to showcase the CV's of all the active interns on his phenomenally popular blog. Money can't buy that kind of reccomendation.

For my first task I'm hoping to team up with Richard Millington who writes a very inciteful marketing blog at FeverBee.com. We have been asked to create lenses (web pages) on Squidoo about topics which interest us. We haven't decided what our lenses will be about yet but I'm hoping we can write about the microblogging service Twitter. I shall keep you informed.