Swindonians say life here is tweet (From Swindon Advertiser)

Benefits of town hailed on Twitter as part of project

8:00pm Monday 19th November 2012 in News By Matthew Edwards

TWITTER is the talk of the town as individuals tweet to help change its reputation.

An account has been created on the social networking site to give residents and business a chance to show off what they think is the best bits of Swindon.

The project, which has proved to be a success already, is the brainchild of Jenny Hogg, 26, who was so inspired by similar campaigns that she decided to set up her own.

Sweden’s official tourism agency were the first to create a Twitter account for the country, allowing a different resident to take control every week.

Leeds, where Jenny is originally from, then copied the idea and Swindon is hoping that people will be able to see the hidden gems of the town with this account.

Every Monday, a new person from the town will take over the account, and so far people have tweeted about the Police Commissioner elections and why they like living in Swindon.

Councillor James Robbins (Lab Mannington and Western) is taking the reins this week and he hopes to give viewers an insight of the role of a councillor, and a father.

He said: “I thought it was a really interesting idea that I wanted to be a part of.

“Swindon does have a bad reputation and I thought it would be a good way of changing that.

“I plan to talk about different parts of Swindon and then also my role working at a local school and as a councillor.

“I will be tweeting from the council meeting on Wednesday and look forward to reading the feedback.”

The account went live this month and already has more than 200 followers, and has tweeted more than 500 messages about the town.

Jenny said: “It has gone really well since it started. I was the first person just to get it started and post about what people can expect from the account.

“Every week is going to be different people writing about what makes a difference to them.

“We have had some really positive feedback with a lot of people getting involved and hopefully it will only get better.”

Anyone wanting to be a part of the account can do so by emailing peopleofswindon@gmail.com with your name, twitter ID and why you want to be involved.