So this week’s edition of PR Week has hit desks and if you haven’t read it yet then you will have missed the news that I’ve joined We Are Social. The news is awesome for a couple of reasons, both personal and professional.

First the professional: I’ve been watching We Are Social grow over the past year and a bit and have been impressed by both the clients they’re working with and the work they’re doing. Seriously. Now I’m on the inside I continue to be blown away by the briefs that come through the door and the work that goes out.

That may sound overly sycophantic but it’s a genuine response. The work that’s being planned and delivered at We Are Social is the kind that you don’t believe exists working on the PR agency side. Clearly brands and organisations want to understand social media and its impact on their reputation. But it seems they aren’t turning to their PR agency to deliver this work, instead seeking out a team of people that live and breathe social media every day. Which on reflection, is no surprise

On a personal level I’m really happy to be planning and delivering real, juicy, smart, social media campaigns, rather than bolting on digital tactics which was often the case when working to a PR brief.

Add to that the fact that I’m tasked with growing the public sector, NGO and not-for-profit work that We Are Social does means I’m working with sectors with which I have a deep personal affinity (in case you aren’t overly familiar with my LinkedIn profile I started out in PR working for NGOs). Moreover, social media comes to the fore when empowering organisations and individuals to deliver issues-based campaigns and citizen engagement.

So that’s the news. I’ve joined We Are Social. I’m excited. You can see it in my tweets. I’m going to Twestival. I’ve started blogging again. I am, as Manuel Castells might say, back in the space of flows.

It took me and the team three days to recover from organising the Twestival but here we are, back to London and to work so here is our summary of the first ever Twestival in Paris…

Last Thursday morning, as most of us were just waking up in Paris and in Europe, on the other side of the world Nathan (@deliciousmedia) was already welcoming the first participants of the Sydney Twestival. Later on that day, part of the We Are Social team i.e. Robin (@RobinGrant), Chris (@qwghlm), Nicolas (@NicolasKinski) and Christian (@Mehme7) were getting ready to attend the London Twestival whilst Violette (@_vio_), Camille (@CamilleJ), Bertrand (@Bertrand) and myself (@MeToo) were finalising the last details for the Twestival Paris…

As I’ve already mentioned on this blog, blogging is very big in France, and so are bloggers meetups. But this Twestival was clearly one of the first time that Parisian users of Twitter were gathering in real life and that’s what made it interesting. Altogether, we had about a hundred Twitter users joining us at the Hard Rock Café Paris, and we were lucky enough to say hi to our friends attending the other Twestival in London, Lille and Clermont-Ferrand via a Skype video call during the evening. The evening carried on until 1am, with an open bar (of course!), a live concert of the band 1973 (including a backstage concert!) and a raffle with lots of goodies from laFraise, Skype, Moo , Spreadshirt, EBG and Artoyz to win…

We had a brilliant night – although obviously slightly stressful because we were organising it but we met lots of very nice users of Twitter from Paris and the surrounding area, and judging by the number of DMs and emails people have been sending us since, this first Twestival Paris was a great success. So thank you all for attending and helping us raise money for charity: water!

Those of us in the team who were left behind in London are now slowly recovering from last night’s Twestival in London. It was great night, as you can see from this morning’s tweets and the photos:

Here’s the organiser, Amanda Rose, appearing on Sky News yesterday evening via a Skype video call, explaining the event:

There’s also a great write-up in today’s Guardian (and, as befits my status as a Z List Twitter celeb, I made it into their photo coverage).

Thank you @amanda and the rest of the team!

I’m just back from Sydney Twestival, part of the global Twestival, and it was a great success. Although based in London, I’m originally from Sydney and it was great to see the Sydney Twitter community come out to support a good cause. Over 80 people raised over $1400 for Charity: Water, and in the process we had fun and met some great new people.

When I spoke to Time Out about Twestival, I mentioned that one of the great things about Twitter is the way that people help each other. Twitter users really give – and tonight showed how helping within a social media community can extend into giving for charity. 

We Are Social sponsored the Sydney event, and organised it with local volunteers @BernieT and @catchakiki. Big thanks to them and also to all the other volunteers who helped out on the night, as well as the sponsors that donated prizes, drinks and of course a great venue.

Check out the photos on Flickr above, and the Qik video captured by @betchaboy

Of course, We Are Social is also organising and sponsoring Twestival Paris, as well as helping out with Skype‘s sponsorship of Twestival London, Paris, Lille and Clermont-Ferrand, so stay tuned for more Twestival updates!

By the time I wake up they will be in full swing… Have fun over there, and at every other Twestival!

One of the eternal questions you hear asked about Twitter, especially by those who don’t use it themselves, is ‘Why?’

Of course, there’s a myriad of different answers, but these two films come close to answering the question.

The first was put together by Christian Payne (@Documentally) and Matt Rawlinson (@Barnstormed) from vox pops they conducted at a gathering of Twitterers in London in September last year – the first ever Twestival:

The second was filmed by Hamish Campbell (@hamishcampbell) at Twinterval, another gathering of London’s Twitterati in December, and perhaps delves a little deeper than the first:

If you feel like doing some anthropological fieldwork of your own, you’ll be glad to know that Twestival has gone global – on the 12th February there will be local Twestivals all around the world, bringing together Twitterers for an evening of fun and to raise money and awareness for charity: water.

We’re going to be at three of them ourselves – we’re organising the Paris Twestival, which we’re confident is going to be one of the biggest and best, Nathan is helping out with Sydney’s and what’s left of the team will be partying hard here in London.

While I’ve got your attention, why not have a look at the last set of stats on Twitter usage in the UK, see Chris’ commentary on why the British tabloids are so hostile to Twitter or follow me on Twitter…

Update: Drew Benvie on the new generation of Twitter users, an interesting memo from The Pew Internet & American Life Project on Twitter and status updating and the answers the Guardian got to the question What do you use Twitter for?

The photos and the chatter from last night’s Twinterval tweetup. As you can see, a festive time was had by all. Until next time…