The Month in Review, Twitter-Style

So I’ve committed to writing at least one post per month on social media. Sometimes it happens organically, sometimes deliberately. This is one of those deliberate months, what with this being the final hours of the month. But this is a good one – in fact, it’s the very best… of my Twitter over the past few weeks.

Man, I love embedding tweets

Here are some of my favorite tweets I crafted this month, to give a little more depth to the hyper-fleeting nature of our favorite micro-blogging platform. Oh, and you should follow me on Twitter if you’re at all amused by any of this…

Started off this month with a visit to a local winery, Divine Llama Vineyards. Made for a sweet photo-op and a Foursquare moment:

Richard Smith@rsmithing

Quality time and quality wine, with llamas... (@ Divine Llama Vineyard) [pic]:4sq.com/PUflOq

1 Sep 12

These haikus inspired by my frustration with MS Office evolved into a full-on blog post but were Twitter gold initially:

Richard Smith@rsmithing

#MSOfficeHaiku #1: Bloated MS Word. / Can't copy and paste freely. / I'll just use notepad.

5 Sep 12

I’ve also taken to posting my favorite songs occasionally via the excellent Soundhound app:

Richard Smith@rsmithing

Great band doing amazing cover of classic song – Love and Happiness by@LivingColour, from #SoundHoundbit.ly/ULSxRq

12 Sep 12

In the middle of the month, I attended a great webinar by Mark Schaefer, and had several great twitter-interactions meanwhile:

Richard Smith@rsmithing

Get the slides from @markwschaefer 's@Vocus webinar here (12 mb pdf):ow.ly/dFiaY #Vocus

12 Sep 12

And finally, I commemorated the annual Talk Like A Pirate Dayby getting into #Pinchat completely in pirate voice:

Kelly Lieberman@Tribe2point019 Sep 12

@rsmithing Ahoy ~ :) it be! #pinchat

Richard Smith@rsmithing

@Tribe2point0 Pinterest be a treasure chest o' tattoos an' worthy o' any a stout seaman or wench. ow.ly/1OvUsV #PinChat

19 Sep 12

What was your best tweet this month? Did you discover any great new Twitterers to follow? Do you participate in Twitter chats or share updates though other networks? Let us hear from you in the comments.

Related articles

• Arr! The Complete Guide to Celebrating Talk Like a Pirate Day (mashable.com)
• Twitter Is Finally Going To Let You Download All Your Old Tweets(gizmodo.com)
• Stuff You May Have Missed – August 2012 (rsmithing.com)
• Twitter vs Facebook (lizzyalbers517.wordpress.com)
• Think Before You Tweet (coolcatteacher.blogspot.com)

Apple Apologizes for Maps. Incredible.

Apparently, Apple isn’t completely deaf to the chorus of boos over its new Maps application. This morning, Apple CEO Tim Cook issued a formal apology letter to customers for the disappointing performance of the company’s iOS Maps app, the replacement for the highly-functional-yet-made-by-the-enemy Google Maps. PR done right, I say. See what you think:

I’m impressed with Cook’s candor and the fact that this letter even exists at all. As the letter itself notes, world-class products are the company’s focus – not recommending the competition (!!!). I’m not an Apple fanboy, but given the company’s monolithic, top-down communication style, secrecy of product development, and oft-stated focus on being the best, this is truly remarkable, even becoming a trending topic on Twitter.

NBC News

• ✔

@NBCNews

Apple CEO Tim Cook apologizes for the much-maligned iphone maps app:nbcnews.to/NV5QPp

28 Sep 12

Maybe the company has learned its lessons from the iPhone 4antennagate debacle and China manufacturing coverage? As the BBC’s Rory Cellan-Jones noted earlier this year, “Perhaps a subtle shift in Apple’s PR strategy under its new leader is already under way.” Now it seems there’s more evidence of this being the case.

Let’s hope they’re as swift to actually improve the Maps app. Given this sensible PR move and the other obvious improvements of the iPhone5 and iOS6, I’m optimistic.

What do you think? Was Apple right to recommend the competition and come clean? Or is it too little too late? Have you used the new Maps app successfully, or has it left you directionally baffled? Let us hear from you in the comments.

Related articles

• Apple’s PR coup: CEO Tim Cook apologizes for Map app (prdaily.com)
• Apple Apologizes for Apple Maps (Cyber Gazing)
• Tim Cook Apologizes For Apple Maps (AAPL) (businessinsider.com)
• Apple CEO apologizes for glitch-ridden maps app (Dawn.com)
• Apple’s Tim Cook ‘extremely sorry’ iOS 6 Maps app sucks (digitaltrends.com)
• Yeah, It Does Matter That Tim Cook Just Apologized For Apple’s Maps(PandoDaily)
• Tim Cook Apologizes For Apple Maps, Points To Competitive Alternatives(techcrunch.com)