The last couple of months have been great for Hot Tin Roof so we’ve decided to pay our good fortune forward. We can now proudly announce that we’ll be donating our PR services to Wish For Rwanda, a new charity set up by Edinburgh’s very own Jackie Calder.

Jackie visited Rwanda in March on a study tour and she was struck by the hope and potential of a country in recovery. On her return to Scotland, Jackie founded Wish For Rwanda with the aim of raising £1million to deliver projects that will bring comfort and aid to the widows, widowers and orphans of the genocide.

The first project will raise money to build a Health Centre in the district of Gasabo, near the capital city of Kigali. Sessions will also be introduced to educate the community about hygiene, child welfare, nutrition, and family-planning. Hopefully, this will be the first of many such projects over the coming years.

Jackie is an events organiser by trade so she’ll be putting her skills to good use at Wish for Rwanda’s first fundraiser in November. Watch this space for more details or visit www.wishforrwanda.co.uk.

Despite rumours of non-stop parties, running with the press pack and having a phone glued permanently to your ear, PR can be quite lonely.  You’re constantly selling yourself, your clients, your story and your contacts.  You put yourself on the line all the time.  You’ve got to stay positive and keep bouncing back.  And skin like the hide of a rhino is a must.

So we thought ‘sod it’: let’s get together for a ‘social’.   The Social is for people working in PR who like a drink, like a blether and want to find out more about what is happening in PR today.

Working with the media has always been adrenalin charged but this is a massively exciting time to be working in PR.  There’s loads of new stuff happening every day as the world changes faster than you can ‘tweet’.

The Social will also be a place to share PR horror stories when your story gets bumped or your client decides to insult the editor.  That long walk home from the newspaper shop scanning every column inch, surely the story is in, surely…

You have to have a huge sense of humour to work in this industry for any length of time.  The social will be a chance to meet like-minded people, have a laugh, unwind and maybe even learn something new.

The first meeting of The Social will be at The Dogs on Hanover Street from 6pm on Thursday 19 February.  Hope to see you there!

We’ve created a Facebook group to keep you all up to date with The Social. Log on and see it here: www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=50783708229

Also made a Twitter group using the hashtag, #thesocial.

Weary eyes this morning at Hot Tin Roof after an epic night at the Edinburgh Twestival.

We were delighted to be involved in such an exciting and worthy concept and are happy to report the evening was a great success.

In the end our wee event attracted around 250 of the McTwitterati and a brilliant £3,500 was raised for charity: water, with more to come for extra auctions due in the coming days.

The press were out in force with cameras, microphones and pads at every turn and we’re looking forward to seeing all the great coverage the event is sure to get.

Congratulations to our wonderful organisers @tanepiper – @andrewburnett – @bureauista – @davelaw00 – @jimwolffman and a hearty applause for Peter Gregson for a tremendous performance.

What the Scottish twitter community showed last night is while we embrace more technical communication, we are a very social bunch. Rather than loads of bowed heads cooing over iPhones there was great banter and plenty of mingling.

A fond hello to all the new folk we were lucky enough to meet and a hopeful ‘meet you soon’ to those we avidly follow and still have not spoken to in the flesh.

Twitter has shown its awesome power over the last few weeks and last night was a fitting culmination. Proving its worth as communities demonstrated they are ready and willing at short notice to come together and raise money for worthy charities.

If you want to relive all the connections made last night, check out the amazing graphical display at the Twestival by Blonde. http://edtwestival.blonde.net/replay/

You can still donate in many capacities at the Edinburgh Twestival website: http://edinburgh.twestival.com

Digital marketing agency Ambergreen is conducting a social media experiment with Scottish Twitter followers at the inaugural Edinburgh Twestival.

Embraced not only by entrepreneurs and workers, Twitter is becoming increasingly important for big brands, such as with Dell, who recently announced they have generated over $1m in sales through the service.

On 12 February 2009 hundreds of cities around the world will be hosting Twestivals, bringing together Twitter communities for an evening of fun, all to raise money and awareness for Charity: Water.
Ambergreen will be on hand to interview participants as they enter the Twestival for a special video that will be produced for distribution after the event.

By engaging with the very people who have embraced this rapidly growing micro-blogging service, Ambergreen aims to capture authentic insights into Twitter as well as producing facts and figures about the event.

Arranged in a matter of weeks by supporters of Twitter, the event is the first major offline gathering of the Scottish faithful, many of who have already engaged with each other on the social networking tool, but have never met in person.

Eliza Dashwood, Director of Sales and Marketing at Ambergreen said: “We are delighted to be sponsoring our local Twestival and know with the McTwitterati being so active it is sure to be a very special event.”

“All of us are great fans of Twitter, and we know how important it is for engaging with your peers and spreading information.”

Ambergreen has pioneered the use of social media by business and recognises how important Twitter is for any brand wanting to succeed online.

“From a marketing perspective Twitter is a fantastic way to engage directly with your customers with a transparency you just don’t get from other social media. You can choose who you want to follow and who is allowed to follow you, allowing for a very personal experience.”

“Big brands need to use Twitter and use it properly. If they just create a profile publishing links to new press releases the likelihood is people are going to switch off from it.

“But Twitter does have so much to offer and we believe there are five factors associated with social media like Twitter that will determine who will win in the digital landscape. Community, trust, permission, transparency and value.”

The Edinburgh Twestival takes place on February 12 from 7pm at the Hawke and Hunter. Go to http://www.amiando.com/twestivaledinburgh.html for tickets and follow @EdTwestival for updates.

Follow Ambergreen on Twitter: @ambergreenim

Everybody is talking about it. It’s the ‘in’ social media tool…it’s Twitter.

Early adopters were counting down to the return of Friday Night with Jonathan Ross, but for very different reasons. Will Stephen Fry and Jonathan Ross talk about twitter? And, much like the countdown to the millennium (albeit with very little hint of panic)…what’s going to happen once Twitter enters the mainstream?

Well celebrity endorsement may have contributed to the surge in UK Twitter popularity but to be honest it couldn’t come at a better time.

This February 12 sees the inaugural Twestival with events across the globe bringing together Twitter communities for fun filled occasions, all in the aid of Charity : Water.

The Edinburgh Twestival, to be held at the newly refurbished Hawke and Hunter, sold out like hot cakes. Tickets flew off the e-shelf as the Scottish twitter community swooped to ensure their part in such an exciting event.

We here at Hot Tin Roof are happy to be attending and are keen to spread the good word.

If you were also lucky enough to get tickets we look forward to a night of live music, auctions and prizes…oh and twitter.

Our Chris Welton can be found on twitter at: http://www.twitter.com/cwelton