Welcome back to another post in the “Meetcha Monday” series.
Today, I’m pleased to introduce Gwendolen Tee, the founder with Jackie During of GlobalBirdTrekkers (http://globalbirdtrekkers.org). You can find Gwendolen at the blog or on twitter at http://twitter.com/gwendolen
Gwendolen, please introduce yourself and your blog to the Nature Blog Network.
I live in the Netherlands, 3 feet above sea level, in beautiful Groningen. I love to travel and experience new landscapes, perspectives, sounds, wildlife … & food. I’m a newbie birdwatcher. I sort of started birding on my first trip to Australia, but got seriously hooked after more recent trips to South Africa. Now I try to go birding every weekend. I am lucky to live quite near a top birding site, the Lauwersmeer.
My friend Jackie During and I are the the creators of Globalbirdtrekkers (GBT), which was launched in April of this year. Globalbirdtrekkers is a global birding community where all birdwatchers, from twitcher to armchair birder, are welcome to participate. We have 11 bloggers from Australia, Bangladesh, Germany, the Netherlands, the United States and South Africa, writing about birding. Some blog often, some only about once a month or so. Bird watchers can read our collective blog ‘the Sociable Nest’, post their pictures, trip reports and chat away about all things bird on our forums. It is interesting to read about birds you hardly know – bit of armchair birding.
Gwendolen Tee of GlobalBirdTrekkers
What other social networking tools do you use?
We use Flickr and Twitter and Facebook to promote GBT, and use http://search.twitter.com to get a feed of all tweets that are tagged with #gbt. We put that feed on our website. We also make use of Flickr badges to put photos of our Flickr group on the website.
Why did you start?
I started using social networking tools for South African National Parks (SANParks) when I did volunteer work for them. The purpose was to generate traffic to the SANParks website, to make the SANParks brand visible in the networks, and to connect with SANParks’ customers. I started a series of groups on Flickr and Facebook. People added photos and videos to the group and especially in the Facebook groups would talk about the parks and upcoming trips. I also proposed a plan to use Twitter as a tool for the public to get weather updates and information about road conditions from the parks. It was great fun thinking about ways to use social media to benefit the company.
Can you share your favorite GBT posts with us?
http://globalbirdtrekkers.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=237&Itemid=41
Life Cycle of a Bird Part 1: The Beginning
http://globalbirdtrekkers.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=228&Itemid=41
#3: Perception
http://globalbirdtrekkers.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=70&Itemid=41
Extraordinary beauty in the City
http://globalbirdtrekkers.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=40&Itemid=41
A Buteo buteo in the winter
What have you learned from your experience? What do you like and dislike?
I think Twitter is the best tool to use. It is easy to stay up-to-date with the latest news of your contacts, to expand your network and to tweet your own latest news. You can update from anywhere with your phone. I really like the short messages and the dynamics of Twitter. It really is a super micro blogging tool. Of course, I also love Flickr. But Flickr eats time.
Do you feel you’re part of a community with other nature bloggers?
Building community is the most difficult part. We have a small group of people who comment on the blogs and participate on our forum, but it isn’t easy to get new members to jump in. Most people prefer to lurk, or just read the blog without commenting. Building community on Flickr is quite easy, mostly because participating – adding your photo to a group - is pretty effortless.
Any words of wisdom for new nature bloggers?
Share your personal experiences, views and knowledge. Use network tools like Twitter or Facebook to make people aware of your (latest) blog.
All in all, I love social networking, it is a great way to meet interesting people and learn new things. I learn something new every day, fantastic!
Thank you, Gwendolen .
Join us next Monday for another introduction to one of your colleagues in the nature blogosphere.
