Twitchhiker is a blog set up by a guy named Paul, who attempted to travel as far around the world as possible in 30 days, relying only on the goodwill of people using Twitter.

He managed to get all the way from the U.K. to New Zealand. Pretty impressive – but he’s probably wondering:

1. What do I do with my 11,566 twitter followers now?

2. Do I really have to go back to the U.K.?

Taking it to the streets is so 2008. Want to effect change 2009 style? Social media should be your first port of call confirming that the pen (or keyboard) is indeed mightier than the sword.

Nick Galvin, writing in the Sydney Morning Herald, says, “TWITTERERS, bloggers, podcasters and Facebook users are getting behind Earth Hour in unprecedented numbers as event organisers embrace the explosion of interest in online social networking.”

With almost 700,000 online friends in 80 countries, Earth Hour’s John Johnston says almost anything goes to send the Earth Hour message viral and reach the target of one billion participants.

Galvin continues, “The latest effort to push the Earth Hour message is through a new social networking service called 12 Seconds. The 12 Seconds service, likened to a video version of Twitter, allows users to post 12-second videos about any subject that catches their attention. Earth Hour organisers are asking supporters to make 12-second promotional videos and put them online.”

Social revolution is just a click away.

Read the full article here.

Man twitters about home invasion before calling the Police. True or False? He is a part of the digg /diggnation crew so who knows? It’s a bit like the guy in the airplane crash whos first action is to tweet his survival. It’s all getting a bit tweet’n McCrazy, tweet first think later. (tip from Mat / pic from SMH)

Google launches Google Voice. One number to rule them all? (tip from Matt – note the second T / Full story @ Techcrunch)

Getty Images is now licensing images from Flickr. They might be a little pricey, but it’s a step forward. Everyone knows Flickr has the most “authentic” photographs on the digital planet. (Pablo Via: Creative Review Blog)

Urban Word of the Day. Social Notworking.

Ok. Agugmented reality twitter updates on a T-shirt. Now people can read your latest updates of your shirt, really what’s the point verbal communication anymore? For an alternative viewpoint on this twitter “fad” you can try… The Ad Contrarian (Via: PSFK)

Phew.

It’s a really nice example of a quick to produce/cost effective solution that leverages different social media sites, all linked together through a really simple primary navigation/promo space box that floats in the top left corner of each section/site you navigate to.

Their ‘homepage’ and ‘products’ pages are actually their www.wikipedia.org page, their ‘chatter’ section of the site is the brand’s twitter page, the ‘friends’ section of the site links through to their Facebook fan-page, and their ‘media’ section links through to their YouTube & Flickr pages.

This is a fantastic approach that intelligently leverages existing consumer and brand generated content, bringing together communities of brand advocates.

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It’s another great example of brands needing to be increasingly brave and letting go of some control, as true brand ownership shifts to sit with consumers. Skittles recognises that they can only participate in these conversations.

It’s a huge step for a brand – nice one Team Skittles!