I’m quite impressed by the amount of users Yellowknife has on Twitter, and many from different walks of life. There are Government employees on the Territorial level and more and more from the municipal level now as well. Many of the journalists, editors and radio hosts are also using Twitter regularly. Plus an abundance of other folks, including a lot of the creatives in Yellowknife.

Most, if not all the New Sources in Yellowknife are also attempting to use Twitter. They are at least piping their news stories into Twitter, props to some of CBC’s reporters that live tweet #NWTpoli. That is always nice to follow.

The one front that is slowly coming along is the businesses. I have seen many of Yellowknife’s business join Twitter, tweet once or twice and then stop. For me that is hard to watch. I want to see them on the platform, because it is such an easy way to communicate with the community.

One of the major issues with Twitter in the north is still whether or not there is value in it for a business. Is it worth the time? Is there an ROI? From my perspective, one of the biggest hang-ups is the fact that Twitter along with other Social Networks are free, but many fail to use them correctly. I spend most of my time figuring out how a person or a business can use these services to their advantage and properly, but again many fail to realize the value in spending the money learning a new medium. Eventually one day, with a bit of encouragement we’ll get there.

Getting away from the deep marketing jibber-jabber, lets talk about tweetups. The social gathering of those on twitter; an excuse to meet in real life (irl). I use to help organize them back in the day, but there has been many since I left YK. Lets change that please. I’m going to get settled, but once I am, I want to host a 2012 #yzftweetup.

There are a lot of people I don’t know on Twitter in Yellowknife now, like I said. I think it would be fun to meet and network. Who is with me?

About Radio Taiga, translated by Google Translator:

Since 2001, volunteer leaders give themselves, body and soul, to the mission of Radio Taiga, which is to provide the Francophone and Francophile population of Yellowknife. This local French radio station is able to reflect the interests and concerns of the community. Each volunteer contributes to the team radio, they contribute their enthusiasm, knowledge and abilities. The participation of these volunteers enriches the role of how our radio plays from the Francophone and Francophile population of Yellowknife. REMEC We very warmly thank all those brave people.

It seems they are making a tremendous effort to appeal to listeners online and I think this is just great. Their website not only has full news stories in text, but on occasion they include the audio clip. I will admit it is a little hard for me to navigate their website. This is mainly because I don’t know what some of the words are but some of the features I have found on the site are, like I mentioned News stories sometimes with audio, a full schedule and program descriptions. One other feature their website has that is worth mentioning is the ability to subscribe to their news feed via RSS. RSS is a simple way for their news content to be sent me, rather than me going and looking for it. They also have had a couple local bands come into their studio to perform. Below is the video of 3 Across Dee Eye performing in studio, another band would be Priscilla’s Revenge and hopefully more in the future.

I don’t think they stream their audio live on their website, but I’m willing to let that slide as they have an abundance of other content available for followers. I can confidently say that Radio Taiga is a valuable part of Yellowknife and its Francophone Community. I hope they continue to grow both online and throughout Yellowknife.

Here is a list I compiled of businesses on Twitter. If you are on twitter you can follow the entire list by going here. If you don’t see your business on the list, make sure to let me know.

• Buffalo Air Wear
• Yk Movies
• Dave Brosha Photography
• Ice Pilots NWT
• CBC North
• SSi Micro
• Coldwell Banker
• NorthwesTel
• NNSL
• Adam Dental Clinic
• Mackenzie Valley Review Board
• Kellett Comunication
• UpHere Magazine
• Gourmet Cup
• Roy’s Audiotronic
• Yk Centre Mall
• Aurora Decorating
• Wesclean
• Janet Pacey Design
• Northern Images

As the I find more I will be sure to add them. If you are not already following YkOnline on Twitter be sure to @YkOnline.

Stay tuned for a post with all the local businesses I follow-on Facebook.

The Tweetup will be happening on October 8th, 2009 at 7pm at Javaroma Coffee Shop on main street in the Northwestel Building. Feel free to drop by and say hi and find out more about Twitter. I am hoping one of the topics that we might talk about is how the City can use Twitter and Facebook.

If you are already on Twitter RSVP here http://twtvite.com/1nnfqa

*note: If you are on twitter the hashtag (#) for the Tweetup is #yzftweetup.

• Municipal Election Candidates links, facebook pages and twitter accounts. – Post on Wednesday September 23.
• Catholic School not offering vaccine.
• No Activity on Park Grass By-Law – Emergency meeting
• David Hasselhoff Contest – http://snowcoveredhills.com
• Be Heard Contest – http://ykonline.ca/contest
• THE week of weather.

Let me know what you think of the show. If you want me to talk about anything or want to join in be sure to contact me.

Thanks for listening.

Take a look.

Also take a look at Shelagh’s website and Twitter account.

If you didn’t know when the dump fire broke out, Facebook and Twitter lit up with updates about the fire. RT’s, Photos and News flooded these new media sites with information about what was happening as it was happening as well as the Mayor’s Message he released. The City on the other hand had no real way of getting the message out, except for radio, which is only one medium. Now I am sure there are many issues The City would have to work out to get a Twitter account and Facebook page up, like the fact they would actually have to allow an employee to use these social networking sites to update them.

I am going to go ahead and assume no one would be against an official Twitter account and Facebook page so my questions for you are. How do you think the City can manage these accounts if they were to set them up and would you follow them. Will this be an election topic?

We could also continue this conversation by adding all the other things the City could do with these accounts besides just emergency purposes. Such as the Mayor Message, Council Minutes, New ByLaws, etc.

1. Javaroma has new owners. What does this mean.
2. Coldwell Banker Twitter Account – @CB_YK_COM
3. Buffalo Air Clothing Twitter Account – @BuffaloAirWear
4. City Election Nominees Amy Hacala, Her Facebook Group. Shelagh Montgomery.
5. Be David Hasselhoff Contest – Snowcoverhills – Are you The Hoff

I also talk about a City of Yellowknife Twitter account and Facebook page. Make sure to leave your comments about all these topics below.

Until next week folks. Remember 7pm Monday nights. Join in the conversation go to our “Live” page

I knew how to record a Skype call but the problem with that was I wouldn’t be able to do it live unless that person also streamed there video live somewhere. Which would end up eating up bandwidth pretty quick. So I began to Google, I searched for “how to record audio output” and after a good hour of looking and trying different things I can now successfully record the audio output.  What does this mean?

Update: I will now be using Skype for the conversation and uStream for the live show. While recording the Skype audio I will be able to broadcast that audio to uStream as well as my video.

The Podcast will start at 7pm MST on Mondays. You can watch live at http://ykonline.ca/live. If you want to join in and help me host or be apart of the conversation please contact me before 7pm sometime so I am aware you will be joining.

If you have any question on how this is going to work go to the Contact page or Twitter me @KyleWith or @YkOnline.

• Bay side Bed & Breakfast and Cafe: Facebook Page
• Artsorensen Twitter Account. NNSL? @artsorensen
• Where are the 86 Pay Phone in Yellowknife: Facebook Group
• Yellowknife Dump Fire: Collection of Photo and Links from around the Yellowknife

Until next week.