This might look like a lot of writing, but I promise it won’t take long to read, and it should contain anything you need to know about taking part. If you have any questions, please email us on peopleofuk@gmail.com, or better yet, get in touch with our admins @alexkinch or @smacula via Twitter.
We are the People of the UK. All kinds of people, from all over, coming together on one Twitter account.
Based on the amazing @sweden Twitter account, and a sister account to the popular @peopleofleeds, we're handing the reins of our Twitter account over to the people of the UK. Each Monday a new person will take the account for a week, bringing you a unique snapshot of living, working and playing in their area. If you’d like to see what we’re hoping to achieve, do check out the @sweden account, or check out the @peopleofuk account for those who have gone before.
We’ve been going since 2nd April 2012, and we’re hoping to continue for as long as we can get people to sign up!
You need to live, work or play in the UK. You need to commit to a week (Monday-Sunday). You need to be willing to get involved and happy to tweet. You need to be able to use Twitter and be a current active user on your own account.
We’ll be giving you control over the account for the week, and we really want you to be yourself, but we’d ask that you follow a couple of golden rules.
Please tweet! A silent account is a boring one – we’d ask for a minimum of two tweets a day, but obviously the more you do the more interesting it is for people reading it. Feel free to include photos/links/retweets. Also the more you interact with people, the more we promote the UK – if people show an interest in what you’re saying, feel free to have a conversation.
Please treat it as a PG account. Remember that people following might not be expecting *you* and could be children/easily offended. If you normally swear/pass round pictures of the inside of your pants, please do it on your own account.
Please tweet in easy to understand language. Remember that all sorts of people will be reading the tweets, some of whom might not use English as a first language. Use localisms, but maybe explain what they mean, and please don’t use textspeak.
We can’t understand it, so people from other countries have no chance.
Please don’t use the account to spam or incessantly pitch your own twitter/blog/business. Please do tell everyone about things you’re involved in, but don’t use it as a week long marketing platform.
Also please don’t change anything on the account i.e. photo/name etc. We have to put a lot of trust in the people that are doing this, please don’t let us down (and basically if you do we’ll have to shut down the account and that would be sad).
Please be nice. By this we mean no racist, sexist, homophobic or any other type of hatred of people different from you. We appreciate everybody has their own opinions, but this is an account to celebrate the diversity of the UK, not to rail against it. If you do want to express these opinions, this is not the project for you.
Please be local! The aim of the project is to show off all the brilliant places in the UK, so talk about what you’re doing, things going on in your area, local places, people of the UK. Remember that people will be following who are from overseas, so don’t assume everyone knows where you are – show/tell us! But don’t feel you have to be relentlessly positive – if something annoys you about your area, tell the world. You never know who will be reading, and something might get done about it! If you’re tweeting from an area that’s not where you normally live, as we’ve had some people do, ask for information of the area, or share a tourist’s perspective.
Finally be yourself. If you love that cat at the bus stop, tell us about it. If your passion is Manchester United, tweet from a match. If you hate the London Underground, tell us about when it was amazing. We want to see all sides of the UK, and what makes this project exciting is YOU!
What is People of UK?
We are the People of the UK. All kinds of people, from all over, coming together on one Twitter account.
Based on the amazing @sweden Twitter account, and a sister account to the popular @peopleofleeds, we're handing the reins of our Twitter account over to the people of the UK. Each Monday a new person will take the account for a week, bringing you a unique snapshot of living, working and playing in their area. If you’d like to see what we’re hoping to achieve, do check out the @sweden account, or check out the @peopleofuk account for those who have gone before.
We’ve been going since 2nd April 2012, and we’re hoping to continue for as long as we can get people to sign up!
Sounds good. How do I get involved?
You need to live, work or play in the UK. You need to commit to a week (Monday-Sunday). You need to be willing to get involved and happy to tweet. You need to be able to use Twitter and be a current active user on your own account.
Okay, I’m in. What are the rules?
We’ll be giving you control over the account for the week, and we really want you to be yourself, but we’d ask that you follow a couple of golden rules.
Please tweet! A silent account is a boring one – we’d ask for a minimum of two tweets a day, but obviously the more you do the more interesting it is for people reading it. Feel free to include photos/links/retweets. Also the more you interact with people, the more we promote the UK – if people show an interest in what you’re saying, feel free to have a conversation.
Please treat it as a PG account. Remember that people following might not be expecting *you* and could be children/easily offended. If you normally swear/pass round pictures of the inside of your pants, please do it on your own account.
Please tweet in easy to understand language. Remember that all sorts of people will be reading the tweets, some of whom might not use English as a first language. Use localisms, but maybe explain what they mean, and please don’t use textspeak.
We can’t understand it, so people from other countries have no chance.
Please don’t use the account to spam or incessantly pitch your own twitter/blog/business. Please do tell everyone about things you’re involved in, but don’t use it as a week long marketing platform.
Also please don’t change anything on the account i.e. photo/name etc. We have to put a lot of trust in the people that are doing this, please don’t let us down (and basically if you do we’ll have to shut down the account and that would be sad).
Please be nice. By this we mean no racist, sexist, homophobic or any other type of hatred of people different from you. We appreciate everybody has their own opinions, but this is an account to celebrate the diversity of the UK, not to rail against it. If you do want to express these opinions, this is not the project for you.
Please be local! The aim of the project is to show off all the brilliant places in the UK, so talk about what you’re doing, things going on in your area, local places, people of the UK. Remember that people will be following who are from overseas, so don’t assume everyone knows where you are – show/tell us! But don’t feel you have to be relentlessly positive – if something annoys you about your area, tell the world. You never know who will be reading, and something might get done about it! If you’re tweeting from an area that’s not where you normally live, as we’ve had some people do, ask for information of the area, or share a tourist’s perspective.
Finally be yourself. If you love that cat at the bus stop, tell us about it. If your passion is Manchester United, tweet from a match. If you hate the London Underground, tell us about when it was amazing. We want to see all sides of the UK, and what makes this project exciting is YOU!
Sounds fair, what do I do now?
While in the past we have used an email based system, we have set up a Google Form so you can fill it in with details, and we try and get in touch with you. It is something new that we are trying, and hope that it works better this way.
Please click on the following link and let us know your details:
Great, now what happens on my week?
On Sunday night we’ll DM you with the login details for that week. Please make sure you’re following @peopleofUK! Please do not change these details. We’ll update the blog with your biography, then from midnight (or usually before) it is your account.
Have fun with it. Be nice.
If you have any problems during the week (either technical or with people on twitter), please get in touch with the admins via Twitter (@alexkinch or @smacula) or please email peopleofUK@gmail.com with HELP in the subject line (we get a lot of emails, it helps us see it straight away!) and we’ll log in as admin and help out.
If during your week we need to tweet anything (like an appeal for someone to do the following week etc), we’ll preface it with ADMIN so people know it’s us and not you.
If you break any of the rules (mainly the no naked pictures/no spamming thing) we’ll give you a warning, then we’ll block you out of the account. Sorry, but we have to be strict to make sure that we don’t get into trouble with anyone.
On Sunday please sign off by 8pm (feel free to tell people about your usual twitter account/blog so they can continue to follow you if they’ve liked your style). We’ll then take the account over again, do any necessary updates and announce the next person, ready for Monday.
If you’d like to do a brief blogpost about your week please feel free to email it to us –
we’ll put it up on the blog.
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