Paul Smith is a British blogger, writer, and former radio executive. An advocate of social media, Smith coined the phrase "twitchhiking" in February 2009 when he travelled around the world using the social media network
Twitter
Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
.
Radio career
Smith began his radio career at commercial station
Alpha 103.2 as a 'presenter and dogsbody' before joining Metro Radio and then 96.6 TFM as a copywriter and subsequently Head of Creative, where he also presented football show "90 Minutes". In March 2003, he joined the BBC as a Programmes Editor in
BBC Local Radio before moving on to
BBC Radio 7
BBC Radio 4 Extra (formerly BBC Radio 7) is a British Digital radio in the United Kingdom, digital radio broadcasting, radio station from the BBC, broadcasting archived repeats of comedy, drama and documentary programmes nationally, 24 hours a ...
as Executive producer, where he recruited
Richard Bacon (broadcaster)
Richard Paul Bacon (born 30 November 1975) is an English television and radio presenter. He has worked as a reporter or presenter on numerous television shows, including ''Blue Peter'', ''The Big Breakfast'', on ITV (TV network), ITV's ''Good M ...
as weekday breakfast announcer. At
BBC Radio Manchester
BBC Radio Manchester is the BBC's local radio station serving Greater Manchester.
It broadcasts on FM, DAB, digital TV and via BBC Sounds from studios at MediaCityUK in Salford Quays.
According to RAJAR, the station has a weekly audience o ...
, he launched and produced the
Terry Christian
Terence Christian (born 8 May 1960) is a British broadcaster, journalist and author. He has presented several national television series in the UK including Channel 4's late night entertainment show '' The Word'' (1990–1995) and six series o ...
breakfast show, before moving to
Galaxy Yorkshire
Capital Yorkshire is a regional radio station owned by Global as part of the Capital network. It broadcasts to South Yorkshire, West Yorkshire, the East Riding of Yorkshire and Northern Lincolnshire from studios in Leeds, West Yorkshire, Engl ...
as the producer of
Hirsty's Daily Dose. Smith then joined
100-102 Century Radio
Heart North East is a regional radio station owned and operated by Global as part of the Heart network. It broadcasts to North East England from studios in Newcastle.
History Century Radio
Century Radio was the first regional station for No ...
as Programme Controller, before leaving in September 2007.
Twitchhiker
In February 2009, Smith launched the Twitchhiker Project, an attempt to travel "as far around the world as possible in 30 days, relying only on the goodwill of people using the social media network Twitter."
The rules of the project meant Smith could spend no money on transport or accommodation, he only accept offers of help through Twitter, his travel plans could only be made up to three days in advance and if he was stranded anywhere for longer than 48 hours, Smith had to abandon his journey.
After thirty days and with the aid of over 11,000 Twitter followers, Smith had travelled as far as Stewart Island in New Zealand, raising over £5,000 for
charity: water. His intended destination had been
Campbell Island, several hundred miles further south.
The project was covered by media around the world, including ''
Good Morning America'' and the ''
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...
'' in the US, the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
'' in the UK as well as numerous tech blogs and other media outlets. Smith has since presented to seminars and events about the project and how social media can benefit business.
As a writer, Smith has contributed to both the travel, technology and media sections of
. He was previously the co-editor of consumer blog Bitterwallet.com.
In November 2009, Smith announced he had been contracted by Summersdale Publishing to write a book based on Twitchhiker. The book, ''Twitchhiker: How One Man Travelled the World by Twitter'', was published in the UK in August 2010 by
and subsequently translated and re-published for the Taiwanese, Indian and Polish markets. A sequel, ''Tales from the Edge of America'', was published in February 2013, with a foreword written by
In December 2019, Smith was awarded an OBE for services to Technology in Newcastle upon Tyne.