The rainbow has been used as a symbol of gay pride since the late 70s, so I thought it quite cool to be passing the pink triangle in Newcastle last night just as a very vivid rainbow went across the sky.

~Shepy

Metro still far from being finished, but the sun is shining and at least trains are running today so it’s all good!

~Shepy

I was on hand with camera to snap the night’s proceedings, and here are some of my favourites from the night:

And the rest of the photos can be seen in my gallery.

~Shepy

Screenshot of Mr Quib

Some companies really have not got the hang of this social media thing, and the etiquette that is expected necessary to carry it out successfully.  The internet is no longer a one way medium where people read information from the big sites and output little themselves, most people now have a twitter account, a blog, a tumblr or any other number of ways of making themselves heard.

It’s because of this participation and feedback system that companies engaging in social media must take care to do it correctly, or else deal with the repercussions of going at it half cocked. One such example of this is the company Mr Quib, a deals and promotional company which deals with Newcastle at the moment, but looks set to expand to other cities.

In the North East of England we have a twitter hashtag which is #nefollowers, which is typically used to share information that tweeps think would be useful to other people in the region.  Typically you can expect to find news information on here, weather reports, traiffic info, job vacancies etc – you know, the kind of thing that people living in the region would like to be kept informed of.  Sure, there is the odd advert on there, and as long as it is kept to a minimum then no one seems to mind too much. Then you get people who take it too far…

Mr Quib – who is on twitter as @MrQuibNewcastle, has taken to spamming their deals on this hashtag ever hour, on a loop, without fail.  This gets very annoying, especially considering that even if you block a person on twitter they will still appear in any search you may do on a hashtag (such as a search column in Tweetdeck).  Twitter is a follow based system, if people want to find out about the latest deals then all they have to do is follow the account, there is no need to spam a hash tag every hour.  Do it sporadically to attempt to attract new followers, but not constantly.

As far as I’m concerned, this abuse of a local hashtag is wholly unacceptable, at least if you’re spamming it every hour (once or twice a day, sure I wouldn’t mind so much) and is a sure fire way to guarantee I will have nothing to do with your company.  If a company chooses to advertise using such invasive and spamming methods then I will personally never use their services and will actively recommend against them.  I’ve even mailed the companies I’ve seen advertised on Mr Quib to let them know this.

I’d urge anyone getting into the social media advertising space to think carefully about what they are doing, what the likely reaction will be from the target audience, and what the potential damage to the brand could be if their advertising is handled badly.

(and yes, I realise I have tagged this post with #nefollowers, but more so that the people annoyed by this constant spamming can see the post and have their say, I’ll only be posting it once)

~Shepy

UPDATE: I got a response from Mr Quib, which is on it’s own post: Mr Quib – Speedy and positive response

Tyne and Newcastle

Sage and Tyne Bridge

St James's Park

Central Station

High Level, Swing and Tyne Bridges

Millennium Bridge

Newcastle Quayside

Tynemouth Priory

St Mary's Lighthouse

St Mary's Asylum

The last one was a particular favourite, as it’s one of the sites I have explored for urbex many times :)

~Shepy

Sage & Millennium Bridge

Tynemouth Priory

Alnwick Castle

St Mary's Lighthouse

An awesome day, and some tasty pics, with more to come.  Cant wait to do it again :)

~Shepy

No Commission	Bird's eye view
Down the tracks	Newcastle's tribute to M.C. Escher
Just a' wandering
Riverside ruins	Circle of life
Swing Bridge
Baltic

As always, comments and constructive criticism welcome :)

~Shepy

And here is a sneak preview of one of the pics:

Groom playing a song he composed for the bride

If you like what you see, and you’ve got a wedding or any other event needing photographing, then please get in touch via the contact page over on the site :)

~Shepy

Newcastle Skyline against the sunset
Sage & Tyne Bridge against the sunset
Tyne Bridge reflected in the Sage	Baltic from the Millennium Bridge
Millennium Bridge at night

As ever, constructive criticism welcome :)

~Shepy