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Letter from the editor: Tweet tweet!

Simon Kelner
Wednesday 18 May 2011 19:00 EDT
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No one was arrested (as far as I know), there were no works of art stolen, and at no stage did the evening resemble the West Ham end-of-season dinner.

Yes, our second party for i readers passed off without incident, and tomorrow I’ll give you the full account of who said what, plus a few pictures so you can see what a glamorous crowd we attract.

Meanwhile, our managing director, who is away on a conference - I wondered why I’d had such a peaceful week thus far - emails me to ask why I am one of the very few people in the world whose every thought and movement are not recorded on Twitter. “It would make the paper even more interactive,” he says. “You could get immediate feedback from readers and respond even quicker to their requests.”

He then explained that Virgin America learnt from passengers’ tweets that they didn’t like the on-board catering trolleys blocking the aisles, so they adopted a seat-back ordering system. And, on one occasion when a passenger couldn’t get this to work, the captain himself came back to serve him.

Leaving aside whether you’d rather have the captain flying the plane or asking you whether you want beef or chicken, this is a rather dramatic example of the type of customer service we at i pride ourselves on. The contention that my thoughts are too banal to be shared with the world on a minute-by-minute basis, and that my life is pretty boring, cut no ice. “We know exactly how banal your thoughts are,” he said. “We read your letter every day!” I’ve held out against sharing the minutiae of my life for long enough: when my boss tells me to do something, there’s only one thing to do. Yes, that’s right, ignore him! (Only joking, Andy.) So, I’m getting a crash course in how, what and when to tweet, and very soon now you’ll be able to discover what I had for lunch! More significantly, you’ll be able to communicate instantly with us. Without having to press a button to attract our attention! Tweet tweet!

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