Getting involved
#Gàidhlig Twitter Day is only a week away! The main thing to remember is to use the #Gàidhlig hashtag when using Twitter, Instagram and Vine. The plan is for Twitter feeds to start buzzing across the globe on Thursday, 30th April 2015 – and we would like to be even more successful than our first Twitter Day last year where tweets were flying at a rate of 2.5 per minute reaching over four million timelines. We even have a central hub this year in Glasgow’s very own Gaelic community coffee shop near Sgoil Ghàidhlig Ghlaschu which will be open to everyone to come down, meet up together and get involved on the day.
Although Social Media Alba (Glasgow) facilitates Gaelic Twitter Day, the onus is on the general public to take the opportunities Twitter Day presents to shape it in their own way. The success of the day really does depend on people. This year we look forward to reading Tweets from people involved in business and enterprise, education and learning, the creative arts, politics and from all aspects of public life.
Launching in Australia, trending in the United States and handing over to Nova Scotia
Like last year, we are looking to our friends further afield. This year is no different! Mòd singer and Gaelic learner Dr Ronald McCoy (@drraghnall) and James Cameron (@jcam2812) of Comunn Gàidhlig Astràilia are hopefully helping out over in Australia to kick-off Twitter Day at just after midnight here in Scotland on 30th April. It is also looking like Outlander fever could cause Twitter tremors across the USA and we may even manage to break the Internet for a second time this year (#TheDress being the first time)! And just before the Tweets settle, we’ll hand over to our friends and stewards of Gaelic in Nova Scotia who will begin their annual Gaelic Month on May Day.
Coffee and Craic Twitter Day Hub
In a big change from last year, we have a central hub for Gaelic Twitter Day at Coffee and Craic, 74 Elderslie Street. The hub will be open from 9am to 5pm and many fun activities will take place over the course of the day – including Carina’s Pop-up comedy Couch (@Carinamac72 @CarinasCouch) where we hope a good number of local, national and international celebrities join Carina on the couch for some Coffee, Craic and Selfies!
meetup.com: A new version of Glasgow’s Gaelic Meetup is back. The meetup group is the ideal place for organisations to promote their workshops, training and classes and take payments for ticketed social events. To sign up for free visit: http://www.meetup.com/scottish-gaelic/
Edinburgh Scavenger Hunt – Photo Competition
Gillebrìde, the Coffee and Craic mascot Harris Tweed dog, has gone walkies and has ended up in Edinburgh. We hear he’s somewhere on the Royal Mile. We’ll be releasing clues on the day for our friends in the East to see if they can find him. There will be prizes for the best photos taken connected to Gaelic language and culture!
Opportunities online to learn and use the language
Local businesses and Third Sector initiatives inspired by #Gaidhlig Twitter Day
Businesses that we know are contributing to the Day are @SocialMediaAlba, @CoffeeAndCraic, @Gaeliconsultant, @illustrationetc, @CarinasCouch, @TheTeaJenny and Edinburgh-based @CranachanCrowd. Scotland’s Council for Voluntary Organisations are hopefully going to Tweet from @SCVOTweet which should create additional awareness of Gaelic to volunteers. We hope many other Social Enterprises, freelancers and independent companies and Third Sector organisations will get involved on the day. Social Media Alba (Glasgow) is offering support to businesses new to the Gaelic language to help them get involved. All they have to do is send a Tweet or Direct Message to @SocialMediaAlba with their request.
Community engagement by Public organisations
Last year there was a lot of support for the first Gaelic Twitter Day by public organisations, and we’re hoping to see more of the same this year:
- The Scottish Parliament (@ScotParl, @ParlAlba) is taking part again this year with each of their committees getting involved and one or two other surprises perhaps: @SP_Economy, @SP_ICIcom, @SP_RuralClimate, @EducationSP, @SP_EduCul, @SP_Justice, @SP_WelfareRef, @SP_HealthSport, @SP_DevoCttee, @SP_EqualOpps, @SP_European, @SP_PublicAudit
- Scottish Government – last year we were taken pleasantly by surprise by the involvement of the Scottish Government, their agencies and the First Minister. We’ll keep our fingers crossed they liked it last year and will be back for the second year.
- The Scottish Football Association (@ScottishFA) is keen to take part again this year and we’re looking forward to finding out what they have planned – last year they turned their Twitter page to Gaelic for the day!
- Historic Scotland (@welovehistory) are also keen to get involved again this year. Looking forward to reading their Tweets!
- BBC Aimsir (@BBCAimsir) are keeping their plans under wraps until the day…so we’ll have to wait and see!
- Local Authorities: Glasgow City Council (@GlasgowLangs) and Comhairle nan Eilean Siar (@cne_siar) got involved last year. It would be great to see all of Scotland’s Local Authorities engaging in Twitter Day.
- Tweet Challenge: We set a challenge last year to all of Scotland’s Gaelic Language organisations asking each body to get involved and send out at least one Tweet. It’ll be interesting to see which organisations address our challenge.
Targets to beat
Last year gave us our benchmark – and it is going to be a tough one to beat! Our aims include having more than 3069 tweets by more than 1084 contributors creating and sending a Tweet using the #Gàidhlig hashag. We’d also like to reach more that 1.7m Twitter accounts and 4.3m Twitter timelines.
As you can see, there’s a lot going on. One thing that is for sure is that we will have fun trying to beat last year’s success!
