In my last blog post I talked about Tony Bates from Fast Graphics and his intention to get Nottingham trending on twitter. With all the negative press we get bombarded with on a daily basis, Tony set about trying to do something positive for the City. Tony had already attempted this before and built a huge following from local businesses, BBC Radio Nottingham and MP Lilian Greenwood. When I heard about this great idea I was keen to get both myself and my business owners involved, so I joined the task force and asked Tony to speak at our next networking evening. As Tony is already a business member of thebestof Nottingham with his great business Fast Graphics, it made perfect sense.

At our networking evening on the 17th March, Tony gave a speach to thebestof Nottingham business community, setting out his plans and asking for support. Our business owners were keen to help in any way that they could and the date was announced as the 29th March. In order to get Nottingham trending we also needed a new secret hashtag that would be announced on the day.

On the 29th March the people of Nottingham awoke to see banners up across the City announcing the special hashtag #Nottinghamrocks. It was the topic of the day on BBC Radio Nottingham, there were announcements on buses and Nottingham Post ran the story. Antenna media centre become the dedicated communications hub for the day, sending progress updates to all involved. From first light, Twitter accounts became a hive of activity with everyone saying something positive about our City with the addition of the special hashtag. We even had support from local celebs Torville and Dean. By 7:30am we were trending number one in the UK and to everyones surprise, just after 8am #Nottinghamrocks was trending as the third most talked about subject in the world!

Some of the entertaining tweets on the day...

@Martaaaaaay #nottinghamrocks I'm from Nottingham. I live in London and there's not a cinema down here that even comes close to the@BroadwayCinema.

@nikimon The city that brought you Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, as well as the words mardy, nesh, cob, sucker and pop.#nottinghamrocks

@PatrickAstill Ken Clarke: "Nobody's going to stop me chillaxing on a hot afternoon at Trent Bridge every now and then." heh he #nottinghamrocks

@themazenotts I have just been to derby, trust me #nottinghamrocks

@cllrjoncollins: Did I mention the embankment down to Holme Pierrepont – great running route and venue for open water swimming #nottinghamrocks

@moominlady: Trams lovingly named after local heroes: DH Lawrence, Torvill & Dean, Byron. Always makes me smile :) #nottinghamrocks

Don't expect Tony to stop there. Rumour has it he is already planning a Festival for Nottingham.