Here I (Finally) Go Tweet, Tweet, Tweet? Seriously?

An editorial by Gary Nager

I have now owned the Neighborhood News for more than 20 years, but I have always been the least tech-savvy person in our office. To be honest, I’m lucky to be able to properly operate the various computer programs we use to create this publication.

For example, I have had a Facebook page for a while, but have rarely posted anything original myself, although assistant editor Matt Wiley has been posting Facebook and Twitter items on behalf of our publications for almost two years now. Sure, I’ve liked some of not only our “Neighborhood News” Facebook posts, but also some items that friends of mine have posted, but the bottom line is that I haven’t really used Facebook much (especially compared with some of my friends, who post and/or re-post/share…let’s call it “stuff”…every day).

But, Twitter? I remember when this new way to basically “text” millions of your closest friends worldwide first arrived on the scene, and I dismissed it out of hand as little more than another way to learn how not to write in English. “Texting for mass quantities,” as “The Coneheads” movie might have called Twitter (if it existed at that time), just seemed idiotic to me.

But, fast-forward a few years and what can you say other than the fact that “tweeting” seems to be here to stay? So, maybe it is time for me to join the 21st century and start posting tweets and/or Facebook posts on as close to a daily basis as possible and see if you folks might be interested in the ongoing musings of a madman….umm, I mean community news magazine editor and dining reviewer.

The fact is that even though Matt has been doing a great job of breaking our daily “Neighborhood News” online, with some of his posts about major local news events attracting thousands of “hits” in a few hours, I attend more local events in the evening and on weekends than he does, so I probably should be at least providing quickie updates on those events, much less letting thousands or even potentially millions (heck, I’d be happy with a “just a few”) of my closest friends take a glimpse inside my somewhat addled brain on an ongoing basis.

So, by the time you receive this issue in your mailbox, you should already be able to access the first couple of tweets/Facebook posts from me. Therefore, if you haven’t already, I hope you’ll go ahead and “Follow” us on Twitter @NTWCNews and “Like” our “Neighborhood News” page on Facebook. My posts on Twitter will be @NTWCNews Gary, where you’ll find everything from (somewhat) original thoughts on everything from politics to road and development updates, as well as however many quickie dining specials I can “tweet out” as possible. #Help!

 

New Ways To Help Local Restaurants Even More 

Speaking of going out to eat, I know that a LOT of you read my dining reviews religiously because every time we have those reviews in these pages, the restaurant owners themselves tell us that our reviews actually bring them more business than all other forms (including online) of marketing and advertising combined.

Therefore, I have two pieces of news to share. The first is that I “allowed” (invited?) young Mr. Wiley to post a dining review of his own in this issue of the beautiful and delicious new Ulele (see page 52), which was opened by the Gonzmart family of The Columbia fame a few months ago, in front of Water Works Park just north of downtown Tampa. I hope you’ve noticed that we continue to tell you about restaurants located outside of our two distribution areas because we know that a lot of you travel to South Tampa, St. Pete, the Gulf beaches from Tarpon Springs to Gulfport and even Orlando to get a taste of something other than our local oversaturation of national and regional chain eateries — and Matt did a great job of capturing the essence of this outstanding Native American-inspired culinary experience in his first dining review effort.

The second is that we have been working on new ways to expand what we do in terms of the influence we have on where you go to eat and tweeting different dining specials is just the first phase of that expansion.

I’m not ready to make any other announcements about all that just yet, but rest assured, if you own or know someone who owns a restaurant anywhere in the Tampa Bay area — much less right here in New Tampa and Wesley Chapel — you should check not only these pages every four weeks, but also our website (NTNeighborhoodNews.com) and our Facebook.com and Twitter.com newsfeeds on a daily basis.

And, speaking of local restaurateurs, we will post the results of this year’s Reader Dining Survey & Contest (including the winner of this year’s randomly drawn Grand Prize) in our next issue. Make sure you tell the local restaurant owners you visit where they finished, so they know you read about them in the New Tampa Neighborhood News!

And, don’t forget that Black Friday is Friday, November 28, this year. I hope you’ll think to shop locally, at The Gift Box (see page  30), The Bridal Showroom (page 40) and all of our local retail advertisers this holiday season!