Twitterific Tweets

Twitter List SOON

noreply@blogger.com (elvinperia) — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 09:04:00 -0700

Twitter is ready to rolls out its “list” feature from just a few groups to every twitterian soon, they announced it on Friday. Giving your twitter profile a more organized look the new feature lets you organize every people added on your twitter under categories of your choice.

Two weeks earlier Twitter started the service to only some selected members of micro-blogging site but now it is available for everyone. The feature gives you an easier way to read the tweets of people belonging to same group and another marking point is that your list can be published to everyone or it can be kept private with you. The publicized list can then be followed by others giving them access to the information shared in the group tweets. People viewing your list can even subscribe to those tweets without subscribing to individual users.

An intelligent and informative list can be very useful for other twitterian to have complied real time information but making a private list blocks even your friends from viewing them.
Creating a list will require few efforts because you will have to search for individual users either from their Twitter page or from your own following.

It’s a good way to filter your tweets and formatting your tweets into list may be a way to construct boundaries inside unbounded and ever expanding Twitterland.

SOURCE

Is Social Network a Waste of Time

noreply@blogger.com (elvinperia) — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 07:20:00 -0700

Another new report about what a waste of time social networks are - but is it missing the point?
More grist to the mill for bosses unhappy about the impact of social networking sites on staff productivity: a new survey from technology company Morse claims that the use of these sites is costing British business somewhere in the region of £1.4bn a year in wasted time. And that’s just the conservative estimate: around half of office workers admitted to Morse that they accessed Twitter and Facebook for personal use during the working day, thereby ‘wasting’ around 40 minutes a week (though they put the amount of time their colleagues spend visiting social networking sites at a full hour a week, so someone’s telling porkies). But what’s to say that all this time is wasted?

It’s certainly true that the use of these sites can have a damaging effect on a company’s reputation. Just look at electrical retailer Currys, whose staff were recently found to have posted unflattering comments about their customers on Facebook. Indeed, one in three of the 1,460 office workers questioned for the Morse study said they had seen sensitive company information posted on social networking sites. This is the kind of reason employers will seize upon as an excuse to block access to these sites (although the approach doesn’t seem to be consistent across the board - three-quarters of those surveyed said that their employer hadn’t issued them with specific guidelines on using Twitter, for example).

But while checking out your friend’s holiday snaps is never likely to be classed as a productive use of company time, it seems short-sighted to dismiss the business benefits of these sites out of hand. Far from being a waste of time, the likes of Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn may help to improve communication, collaboration, creativity and knowledge sharing. So an outright ban might not only go down badly with staff; you might also be cutting off your nose to spite your face.

Unfortunately, some businesses are clearly still failing to take an enlightened approach to the brave new world of Web 2.0. Or even Web 1.0 – figures from Notting Hill Internet Services, released this week, suggest that over half of small businesses still don’t have a website. A slightly worrying proportion – although at least that’s one less ‘acceptable use’ policy to worry about…

SOURCE

Social Media Obsession at work

noreply@blogger.com (elvinperia) — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 17:38:00 -0700

IF YOU’VE got access to your favourite sites at work ask yourself: ‘When I get into work in the morning am I most likely to a) get straight on with the daily grind or b) take a quick look at my online profile?’

If the answer is b then don’t worry, you’re not alone. From Myspace to Twitter and on to Facebook, it seems we are obsessed with having an online presence.

While our employers may not be so happy about the work hours lost to social networking, there is a way we can combine our favourite online pastime with building successful careers.

Cristina Hoole, European marketing director for social networking site LinkedIn, said: “People are starting to realise you exist online whether you like it or not. Whether you’re on a social network or friends who have blogs have talked about you, it’s likely you already have an online presence even if you’re not aware of it.

“With this in mind, it’s important to realise you can manage it. You want to be sure that if you’re looking for another job, or even if you just want to network with colleagues or clients, that you have a professional presence online.

“Being online is a good thing, the more you put yourself out there the bigger the opportunities you have.”

So, if we want to make our profiles something which we don’t have to hide when the boss walks by what should we do?

Follow our top tips to productive and stress-free social networking.

KEEP YOUR PRIVATE LIFE PRIVATE

OK, so you had a great night out on Saturday and your best mate has happily uploaded the photo evidence on to a website but exactly who is looking at how many glasses of white wine you consumed? You need to think about how your profile looks, and who can access it.

All social networking sites should have privacy settings which will not only restrict outside users viewing your information. For example someone who is just taking a look on a search engine, but also friends and colleagues.

Take Facebook’s advice and use its profile privacy settings to control who can see your profile.

Ms Hoole said: “Make a good impression on contacts by understanding the settings and projecting an appropriate image. Start by determining who can view your profile by selecting access for networks, friends of friends, or just friends.

“From there, determine what those people can and cannot see on your profile, such as status updates, tagged photos, personal information, friends, and wall posts.”

KEEP YOUR PROFILE UP TO DATE

If you’re looking for a new job or just want to show your colleagues and your employers that you’re an integral member of the team then keep people updated with your ability and make your profile work for you.

Ms Hoole added: “Your profile is your chance to showcase your skills and talents, and help the right people and opportunities find their way to you. As your professional representation online, you can set it to be discoverable through the millions of searches on leading search engines and on LinkedIn.

“Users with complete profiles are 40 times more likely to receive opportunities through LinkedIn.”

DO YOUR RESEARCH

It’s not just our own profiles we need to focus on but also those of people who we’re networking with.

If you’re looking to impress clients or organisations then showing you are internet savvy and interested in what they have to say will help.

We’re not talking about requesting the friendship of an individual client so you can poke them, but just take a look to see if their business has an online social network account.

Do they send twitter updates about their news and the services they offer? If so, get in contact and build an online relationship with them. They’ll be impressed that you’re taking an interest in their organisation.

THINK OF IT AS YOUR BUSINESS

“We are all mini entrepreneurs in our own way now and the view we have of our career today is similar to that of managing a business,” Ms Hoole said.

“It’s less common now for people to stay with the same company for 25 years.

“You go to a company and pick up the skills you need to enhance your career and then you move on. You make the experience enjoyable but also something that feeds your life.

“I think the more you’re open to opportunities online, the better the things that will come your way. That’s the beauty of opening yourself up to having an online business profile, the more you put into your ‘business’ the more opportunities you’ll have.”

SOURCE

The Twitter Lists feature

noreply@blogger.com (elvinperia) — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 08:46:00 -0700

Twitter has rolled out a new Lists feature that was announced last month. Selected groups of people are getting Lists feature that allows custom Twitter users list that other users can follow with single click. List feature is basically a group of Twitter friends that another user can follow with a single click.

The Twitter team has been beta testing the new Lists feature with a closed group of testers. New Lists features comprises of creating Public or Private lists of Twitter users that one follows. Other Twitter users can simply click on the List and follow the users. Lists would be Public by default.

Selected users would be greeted with a "New Lists" banner asking them to create lists of users he/she follows. The users who've got the Lists feature can click on their lists on below their display image where Lists replace number of Updates.

Click on the Lists option on the right hand side banner and it will take you to the 'Lists following you' and 'Lists You Follow' page. Click on the respective list and you get to see the a number of users grouped in each list. Basically, it's the grouping concept which emerged from 'Follow Friday' concept. As per this concept, a Twitter user can recommend several other Twitter users to follow.

Twitter has taken the third-party alternative competition seriously and has thus rolled out different features over the time. Nonetheless, we may anticipate a few hiccups and downtimes but eventually, it is good in the long run.

Source

Feeding Blog Feeds to Twitter

noreply@blogger.com (elvinperia) — Thu, 8 Oct 2009 07:37:00 -0700

Are you looking for a way to plug some RSS feeds into your stream? Tired of manually doing all the work? Twitterfeed is a neat tool that can automate the process for you. Simply add a feed to your account, give it a name, and let Twitterfeed do the rest. This tool can check for new feed postings every 30 minutes to once a day. You can pick and choose amongst numerous URL shortening options, add a prefix or post suffix for tweets to get the past tweet possible. This way you can make it look less spammy and automated.

Tewspaper - Twitter's Newspaper

noreply@blogger.com (elvinperia) — Wed, 9 Sep 2009 04:12:00 -0700

Tewspaper takes the hottest news links across 6 major cities, for now, and updates them continually on a single homepage. It attempts to grab pictures relative to the content, if one does not exist with the link itself.

It basically is a constantly reloading page with breaking news stories as fast as their algorithm can find the links. I follow a Twitter account called BreakingNewsOn which does a fantastic job of posting hot world news, with a barrage of updates as events occur. If you like seeing a webpage, this might be for you.

Twitter Weakens Memory?

noreply@blogger.com (elvinperia) — Mon, 7 Sep 2009 06:43:00 -0700

Playing video war games and solving Sudoku may have the same effect as keeping up to date with Facebook, according to Dr Tracy Alloway.

But text messaging, micro-blogging on ''Twitter'' and watching YouTube were all likely to weaken ''working memory''.

Working memory involves the ability both to remember information and to use it.

At a job interview, a candidate will employ working memory to match answers to questions in the most impressive way.

Dr Alloway, from the University of Stirling in Scotland, has extensively studied working memory and believes it to be far more important to success and happiness than IQ.

Her team has developed a working memory training programme that greatly increased the performance of slow-learning children aged 11 to 14 at a school in Durham.

After eight weeks of ''JungleMemory'' training, the children saw 10 point improvements in IQ, literacy and numeracy tests.

A number who started off close to the bottom of the class ended up near the top.

''It was a massive effect,'' said Dr Alloway, who today gave a talk on working memory at the start of the British Science Festival at the University of Surrey in Guildford.

Video games that involve planning and strategy, such as those from the Total War series, may also train working memory, Dr Alloway believes.

''I'm not saying they're good for your socialisation skills, but they do make you use your working memory,'' she said.

''You're keeping track of past actions and mapping the actions you're going to take.''

Sudoku also stretched the working memory, as did keeping up with friends on Facebook, she said.

But the ''instant'' nature of texting, Twitter and YouTube was not healthy for working memory.

''On Twitter you receive an endless stream of information, but it's also very succinct,'' said Dr Alloway. ''You don't have to process that information.

''Your attention span is being reduced and you're not engaging your brain and improving nerve connections.''

She said there was evidence linking TV viewing with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) while extensive texting was associated with lower IQ scores.

SOURCE : Facebook 'enhances intelligence' but Twitter 'diminishes it', claims psychologist

What do you think?

Best Deals Now on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube

noreply@blogger.com (elvinperia) — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 09:36:00 -0700

For the past years, companies are traditionally telling their customers about sales and special discounts through newspapers, advertisements, radio spots and in-store announcements. But now, most of the companies are turning into a more avant-garde form of communication which is Social Networking.

On my recent blog post, I've discussed there that some Car Manufacturers get their prospective clients thru Twitter. Other companies like Starbucks, Scottrade, Zappos and many others are among those using Twitter, Facebook and Youtube to talk to the customers and to hear from them. According to Amber Talbot, online public relation specialist for Scottrade, both the company and the customers benefit. They have two twitter accounts, two Facebook acoounts, and YouTube account where they post educational videos.

Talbot spends the majority of her day interacting with customers online. After the customer posted a question, she answers them immediately and forwarded the concern to their customer service team. The customer service team will directly call the customer within 10 minutes to answer his/her queries.

According to Bridget Baker, spokeswoman for Starbucks, "It's a great way to connect with customers". Her twitter account has over 245,000 followers and occassionally hosts contests for free giveaways. On the other hand, Starbucks has 3 million fans on Facebook, where it is giving away 800 coupons for pints of ice cream each hour through Sunday. Last 2008 election day, the company's coffee ad got the fourth most popular video on YouTube.

Click on the link to know other companies that you might find popping up on your favorite social networking site.

iTweetReply

noreply@blogger.com (elvinperia) — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 19:11:00 -0700

First came IM+ with the ability to push Twitter mentions and direct messages, then there was iTwitter, then the very recent Boxcar, and now we have iTweetReply. It’s obvious that developers are starting to realize that we want push notifications for our Twitter apps.

iTweetReply features the ability to view your entire Twitter timeline along with the ability to send you push notifications for mentions and direct messages. It also allows you to upload images via Twitpic, but that’s basically it. According to early user reviews, the push notifications work just as promised, but iTweetReply probably won’t replace your current Twitter app of choice. Unlike Boxcar, iTweetReply doesn’t offer the ability to go straight from a push notification to a different Twitter app.

At only $1.99, iTweetReply is definitely the cheapest push-enabled Twitter app, which should only make your purchasing decision that much more difficult.

Check out other great iPhone Applications by clicking here.

Get Noticed on Twitter

noreply@blogger.com (elvinperia) — Fri, 3 Jul 2009 18:34:00 -0700

Once upon a time, Twitter was an innocent and casual place to hang out. Everyone was positive and was nearly over-interested in what everyone had to say. However, now that the initial “buzz has worn off and people are realizing how difficult it can be to manage thousands of follows and followers, the interaction has been reduced to tightly knit groups of key players and in turn leaves many people without the friends they once had. Sure, everyone has a base of friends, followers, and fans that they can rely on to spur conversation and reply to their requests, but overall it has become increasingly difficult to stand out in the crowd. Since getting noticed is one of the crucial aspects of getting more “legit” followers and building a following that converts into blog readers, buyers, and fans, finding ways to get noticed is extremely important.

The simple methods, like RT’ing, offering contests, quoting, and recommending friends for #followfriday no longer have the power they once did. Although those staples are still great ways to increase your influence, if you really want to get noticed on Twitter you’ll have to find other ways to create buzz and show up on the radar.

One such way to do this is to start or take a leadership role in local Twitter Mashups and Tweetups. Use a site like Twitter Grader (http://twittergrader.com) to find local Twitterers in your area to contact and ask for their help in creating a group and notifying others. When you do this, the following events will take place:

1. You will be looked to as a creator, leader, and as a key player in the market. Even if you don’t know what you are doing, you are taking on the responsibility that most don’t feel comfortable with. This gives you a great position of leverage within your local market, which can spread to other markets.

2. You will have the opportunity to create a local brand that can expand based on your effort. Start a website for your Tweetup group and post pics, notes, and blogs about the people involved. They’ll be happy to get noticed online and in turn will help you get noticed too. Over time, you’ll have the opportunity to gain traction as you travel or start groups for others.

If Tweetups are not your thing, then why not host an online mentorship group for people new to Twitter? Most of the Twitter pro’s already have their schedules booked and their feeds filled, so showing new people the ropes can help you share your knowledge and establish a very dedicated base of fans.

Lastly, if you really want to become a Twitter Rockstar, you will need to get noticed by the big dogs. Yeah, I know…bidding on popularity sounds juvenile, but I consider it a marketing effort suited to a specific audience. Spend time being responsive on the blogs and websites of the big dogs on Twitter and work to let them know you are there. If you are the most consistent fan in their feed, they can’t help but to notice your dedication. Once you’ve proven that you are an action taker, they’ll start to notice your work as well, especially if you turn your fans into fans of theirs. The same rules work for blogging and other content promotion methods.

Getting noticed on Twitter really isn’t that difficult if you create the time and dedicate the energy to doing so. If Twitter isn’t your main effort, then trying to become one of the gurus might be tough. However, if you simply implement a few key strategies and continue to offer great content, then you should have no trouble breaking away from the pack. Just like everywhere else, Twitter rewards creativity, originality, and honesty. Make that your creed and eventually you will become a leader in your niche.

An article courtesy of this site.

Tweetboard : Twitter Powered Forum

noreply@blogger.com (elvinperia) — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 22:12:00 -0700

Quick Pitch: Tweetboard is a Twitter (Twitter)-powered “microforum,” and runs on your site rather than being a “destination” site.

Genius Idea: Tweetboard is for website owners who want to display threaded Twitter conversations on their own site and create an instant Twitter-powered forum, where all tweets from the Tweetboard link back to the publisher.

The unobtrusive Tweetboard forum sits on the left hand side of your screen as a small tab indicating the count of tweets since a viewer’s last visit. Visitors can then click the tab and the Tweetboard will slide open with a view of all tweets pulled in from your Twitter stream, threaded appropriately. Tweets pulled in include your account updates and @replies to other users. Replies, however, show up in context of the original message, so as to create a back-and-forth conversation-like feel.

This conversation format spontaneously adds a Twitter friendly-forum to display chatter between you and your followers, friends, customers, and would-be clients. Users can even use Sign in with Twitter to tweet from the page, expand replies, add their own reply, and filter tweets by date, last activity, and most active.

Tweetboard is a pretty nifty addition that many a brand or startup — or even celebrities that want to have a fan forum — should consider implementing on their site. Not only does it reinforce that you have a strong Twitter presence, but it could help reduce support emails, increase your reach across the Twittersphere, grow site traffic, and help new customers/users get engaged.

140ware, the company behind Tweetboard, is automatically approving alpha invite requests to Twitterers who make their request to @140ware in this form: “Requesting an invite for Tweetboard Alpha (http://tweetboard.com) by @140ware, for my site: http://ReplaceWithYourURL.com.”

A news article from this link.

Car Companies Turn to Twitter

noreply@blogger.com (elvinperia) — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 20:15:00 -0700

Car companies are increasingly using the seemingly ubiquitous Twitter to inform and engage potential and existing customers. But will the bold new experiment in social media work? Is the Twitter audience particularly receptive to overtures from auto companies? And what does it mean for the future of digital marketing?

Just recently Volvo used Twitter as part of a coordinated media strategy to launch its XC60 crossover while Land Rover tweeted about its product line at the New York Auto Show earlier this year. General Motors and Ford, meanwhile, are longtime Twitter users in areas including customer service and product launches.

Ford says the company has been using Twitter since July of last year and now has about 30,000 followers across 12 subject areas. "We're using it in day-to-day communications in terms of interacting with people, solving vehicle-related problems, sharing corporate news and live tweeting from events and auto shows." He says the company's more popular feeds include information on its Drive Green program and its Mustang model, and the company recently launched a bilingual feed in English and Spanish.

Christopher Barger, director of social media at General Motors, says: "We have a lot of answering to do in general with what's going on with the company. We did a whole lot of tweeting during the Chapter 11. People have questions, they want to know what's going on. We're their ears. "Twitter allows us to get back to one-to-one sales, winning people's trust back one by one. It's a way to give individual attention, and we need these one-to-one interactions."

Volvo, meanwhile, first experimented with Twitter by posting a feed from its president, Doug Speck, which put a little extra pressure on its communications team, says Geno Effler, Volvo's vice president of public affairs. "We helped condense his sentences down to 140 characters. It helped him connect with consumers. We found it to be very worthwhile to talk about the XC60 as it was coming to market, to answer basic questions about the car or about safety, and convey the information in very short spurts. "Our first foray into it got a lot of attention, a lot of people came on. Volvo is still a neophyte in this area, but a curios neophyte. It's all about getting connected and keeping connected with our owners. As a customer, the more you feel about being part of the team, the more loyal you become to that company or that brand."

Alexandre Acey, national communications manager at Land Rover, says the company used Twitter as part of a coordinated media strategy that included posting tweets on Captivate -- those little information screens you sometimes see in elevators -- and on similar screens in taxi cabs in metropolitan areas in an attempt to spread the word about launches of models including its Range Rover, Range Rover Sport, and the new LR4, a replacement for the LR3.

Acey says the Twitter strategy cost the company less than $1,000 -- most of it in agency fees -- compared to a national TV media campaign, which can run into millions of dollars. "We encouraged our audience to contribute to the conversation. It's a great medium to get the word out. Going forward we'll evaluate it, perhaps when a new product comes down the line. The younger demographic is more likely to be into social networking."

Sernovitz says he's seen a surge in the number of major companies using Twitter to market their products but says that a company should be wary of breaching several important Web protocols and must send out a frequent stream of information or its audience might lose interest. Also at issue is choosing whom in the company will be on Twitter. "Always be honest about who you are. Never pay for it; if you do, you'll always be caught and embarrassed. And use common sense -- if something seems at all pushy or intrusive, then you've gone too far."

Daniel Honigman, a digital-media strategist at Weber Shandwick, adds: "Generally, if these companies feel they have an audience on a social network, by all means they should be producing content, but Twitterers are a finicky bunch. It's OK to market to them as long as they don't feel they're being marketed to.

"It's about conversation: If there's a lack of conversation about a brand, you want to create that conversation, and if that conversation exists, you want to be part of it."

An article written by Craig Howey for LA Times.

If Twitter works for Automotive Industry, it would also work with yours. Don't you think?

Earn Thru Twitter Using Super Chirp Service

noreply@blogger.com (elvinperia) — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 02:27:00 -0700

LONDON - Popular Twitter users such as actor Ashton Kutcher or CNN can start earning money from posting content on the micro blogging site after a technology company launched a subscription service called Super Chirp.

Created by software firm 83 Degrees, Super Chirp is a system that allows any Twitter user to earn revenue through direct messages, Twitter's private message system.

The Twitter user can set up a Pay-Pal-based subscription to their account through the Super Chirp site, setting a price of between $0.99 and $9.99 per month.

Direct messages that they upload onto the site are then sent exclusively to all of their subscribers.

The subscribers receive the direct messages or "chirps" in their Twitter account, but they can also visit the Super Chirp site to see all of their paid messages, and sort them by publisher.

Creator 83 Degrees said on its blog: "Our hope is that Super Chirp will provide a means for people to quickly and easily enable pay-for information channels.

"These could be celebrity news updates, real-time data, or charitable micro-giving.

"Internally, we are calling them 'paid streams' -- if you have something to say that others might find valuable, then Super Chirp can let you try out your business premise."

According to TechCrunch, 83 Degrees will take a 30% cut from each subscription, part of which goes to PayPal to pay its fees. Therefore the publisher of the content receives 70% of the earnings.

For Twitter users like Kutcher (aplusk), who has almost 2.1m followers, or CNN Breaking News (cnnbrk), which has 1.7m, Super Chirp could be a very profitable revenue stream.

Super Chirp is not the first paid content system to be developed for Twitter. A similar service called TwitPub already exists, however it makes publishers create a new subscription-based Twitter account, and Super Chirp does not.

source

10 Ways Bloggers can do with Twitter

noreply@blogger.com (elvinperia) — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 07:25:00 -0700

Twitter is a fun and useful way to promote your blog and drive traffic to it. While it might seem that micro-blogging through Twitter might just be a fun thing to do, you can actually use Twitter to grow your blog. Remember, building relationships is a key part of growing your blog, and Twitter is an excellent tool for building relationships.

Take a look at the suggestions below for how you can use Twitter to drive traffic to your blog.

1. Drive Traffic
Twitter has a viral marketing effect to it wherein your tweets could spread quickly across the Twitter community if they are interesting. For example, if you're hosting a blog contest or launching a new feature on your blog, send a tweet to let your followers know. Chances are they'll spread the word as well. As word gets out, more and more people will visit your blog to check out what all the hype is about.

2. Network with Like-Minded People
Twitter is set up inherently to act as a networking tool. People "follow" users whose tweets they enjoy or interest them. As such, you'll be able to connect with like-minded people by using Twitter which could lead to more traffic to your blog and much more.

3. Make Business Contacts
Just as Twitter is a great networking tool for finding like-minded people, it's also very effective with connecting users with business contacts. Whether you're looking to hire someone to help you with your blog or business (or both), looking for a new job, or just looking to bounce ideas off your business peers, Twitter can help.

4. Establish Yourself as an Expert
Twitter can help support your efforts to establish yourself as an expert in your field or blogging niche to the online community. By communicating through tweets about subject-matter you're knowledgeable in, answering questions via tweets, and searching out new contacts, your efforts to be viewed as an expert (which gives your blog greater credibility and appeal) will grow.

5. Get Ideas for Blog Posts
If you're having a dry spell in terms of coming up with post ideas, Twitter can help get your creative juices flowing. Read and send some tweets and see what people are talking about. Something you read is apt to spark a post idea or two to get you through a temporary state of blogger's block.

6. Ask Questions
Just as you might use Twitter to establish yourself as an expert in your field, other people use it for the same reason. Don't be afraid to ask questions. You just might learn something new and find new bloggers and users to connect with!

7. Provide Live Coverage
If you're attending a conference or meeting that you'd like to share, you can send multiple tweets real-time to share the information you learn then expound on your tweets with blog posts.

8. Ask for Diggs, Stumbles and Other Promotional Help
Twitter is a great place to ask your followers to Digg or Stumble your blog posts. You could also ask other users to blog about your post with a link back to it or spread the word to their own Twitter followers to drive more traffic to your blog.

9. Accuracy and Fact Checker
Imagine you're writing a blog post about a recent event but don't know how to spell the names of the people involved in the event. Send a tweet to get the information you need, and while you're at it, give your followers a heads up about your upcoming blog post.

10. Find and Share Resources
Need a quote, interview or guest post? Want to offer your services as a source? Send a tweet!

An article written by Susan Gunelius for About.com

source

Pay per Tweet

noreply@blogger.com (elvinperia) — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 16:45:00 -0700

Remember pay per post? yeah right, the controversial ad initiative that used to pay bloggers to write about products almost as if promoting it. The news is, they are at Twitter now and wants to make a new business model of the same kind and has named it Pay Per Tweet. So what they mean is very simple. They are developing a Twitter ad platform called Sponsored Tweets that will offer Twitter users the option of sending their followers messages about brands and products. Twitterers will get paid based either on the number of clicks they receive or on a flat fee per Tweet. Ted Murphy, Izea's (formerly PayperPost) CEO said it will take another month to launch this. So whats up guys? People who already have a good bunch of followers can start earning decently. Though I donno how well the felllow followers (@ twitter) will take it if you bump up with survey ads and mommy's kitchens' menu in the morning. However, considering the human resources and real time online projection that twitter has, I am sure PPT may catch up with the hot trends pretty soon.

As Adweek broke the news, they report,

While Izea's programs with notable bloggers like Julia Allison and Chris Brogan have generated attention, the company's focus remains on small-time bloggers with audiences of only a few hundred readers per month, Murphy said. That makes Twitter an ideal venue, particularly with its built-in viral appeal. Izea plans to expand into other social media platforms like YouTube.

Will they be any different from normal tweets?

Thankfully, yes. Those posts will carry a #spon hash-tag in the messages. Izea plans to use the same system for campaigns run through Sponsored Tweets.

Considering this as a success, I think the best person to balance between his personal preferences and brand projection will benefit a lot. If it shapes up, we sure will cover it. For now, let's wait. source

Tweet App From Google

noreply@blogger.com (elvinperia) — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 08:08:00 -0700

A hot area of development right now is in the field of desktop Twitter clients. Some like Tweetie, are Twitter-only, while others like Seesmic Desktop, handle a few different services with a focus on Twitter. The area is apparently so hot that Google is now even getting involved

While technically, its Google Quick Search Box (QSB) is a Mac desktop application meant to make searching the web and your desktop a breeze, you’ll notice that it comes with exactly one additional account type (beyond Google) built in: Twitter. Yes, aside from typing queries into the QSB and getting results, you can also use it as a Twitter status updater.

Google isn’t the first of the big boys to get involved with Twitter on the desktop side of things, Yahoo recently launched Sideline, which is a much more full-fledged client. Unfortunately, QSB doesn’t allow you to see your Twitter follower stream, it just allows you to update your status right now.

There is a Quick Search Box built-in to the Windows version of Google Desktop as well, but to the best of my knowledge, it doesn’t promote this Twitter functionality in the same way, if it offers it at all.

Actually tweeting from QSB it is a bit tricky at first, so I’ll copy Google’s directions below:

1. The secret of creating a “text” item: Text items are queries that start with a space (e.g. hit the space bar and then start typing). To tweet, activate the QSB, hit the space bar (creating a text item), and type in the text you want to tweet - remember Twitter has a 140 character limit! The selected result should be a “text” item. Hit the tab key to show the available actions on the item. Select the “Send Twitter Status” action for the account you wish to tweet with and hit the return key.

2. Pivoting on the search result: If the text item thing confuses you, just pull up the QSB, type your query, and pivot (hit tab) on the search result. Select the “Send Twitter Status” action for the account you wish to tweet with and hit the return key.

It’s a pretty quick way to tweet something, actually. And it does a very nice job for searches as well, obviously. But one thing it doesn’t do that would make perfect sense, is search Twitter. Come on Google, get on that. What I want to know is, does anyone still really believe that Google has no interest in Twitter?

As many commenters are noting, this can basically replace Quicksilver for the Mac, and shares one of the same developers.

source

This Application is very unfair for Twitter. What do you think?

Torrent Now on Twitter

noreply@blogger.com (elvinperia) — Tue, 9 Jun 2009 04:15:00 -0700

After the Pirate Bay launched its Facebook Connect application, the group around TorrentTwitter is planning to combine file sharing with micro-blogging. Now it's clear that torrents will be going mainstream

Given that the largest torrent sites in the world such as Mininova, IsoHunt, The Pirate Bay and others actually are around the Top 100 sites on the Internet, it will be interesting to see how this interactive micro-blogging feature can develop. If TorrentTwitter stays online or doesn't get sued by Twitter for using the concept or name, these guys could propel themselves into the Top 100 sites on the internet.

Even though in beta, TorrentTwitter is really an easy site to use and navigation through the site to a wanted content is easy as having a piece of cake. Using a hash sign for a group is a good old legacy of IRC [Internet Relay Chat] services, not invented by Twitter and looking at TorrentTwitter reminded yours truly of the good old days of combining news groups and IRC channels.

source

10 Ways to Make Money in Twitter

noreply@blogger.com (elvinperia) — Sat, 6 Jun 2009 09:28:00 -0700

Most of the Twitter addicts know its spinning money now. It's high time for you regular Twitterers to get into serious business while spending time on social networking. The most feasible way to make money from twitter would be to get used to its tools. Use them to make the best best out of it. And how can you do that? Here are 10 convenient ways.

1. Charge for Twitter Message

Well you know your username is private and your friends can only receive your twitters. If you have important information and on time you may have a subscription-based service charging people who want to be your friend to access your twitters. A newspaper might do this to give you access to the news first. May be an blogger with online shopping deals could do that. The user will have to pay an amount per month or week to be in the know.

2. Sponsored Contest

Some of the advertisers want to run a contest via a popular twitter user in order to get feedback about their products. This can also be a strategy to create brand awareness. Get them for you. Suppose for a feedback ask What new things would the consumer like to see in the Product X.

3. Tweeting for Companies

There are a number of companies out there looking to join the realms of social media. Why not be a professional Twitter contributor for a company. The companies need professionals who are good at blogging, social media and search.

4. Paid Review

It's an idea for direct ad. But you need not suggest a product blindly. What you can do is some paid reviews. Say for instance you can do a paid review for services like SEO Services, Web hosting Services etc.

5. Micro Fundraising

Combine your microblogging with microfunding to make money. Look for the Twestival for that.

6. Affiliate marketing

This strategy is already used by a lot of affiliate marketing people. Send the links of websites in your tweets. Those subscribed to your tweets would be able to click on the links and be redirected to the web page.

7. Sell the Twitter apps

There are a myriad of professional applications for Twitter on web. Sell anything from Twitter analytics to Twitter CMSs such as the HootSuite (erstwhile Brightkit). The would surely like to pay for it.

8. Promote Music

There are great ideas for selling music online. Why not look for the Tra.kz. It offers an combination of a short URL service with a market place as well as a music community.

9. Ad in the blank space

At the end of your 140-character messages put an ad like Drink a refreshing COKE.

10. Twitter Consulting

There's a lot to know in twitter. This becomes easy only if someone tells you what you can do best in Twitter. If you are acquainted with the nitty-gritty of Twitter. Why not act as a consultant to companies who are looking for someone to acquaint them with twitter.

So start making money and keep feeding us with your ideas and inputs. source.

'Twapple' Rumor Has Apple Buying Twitter

noreply@blogger.com (elvinperia) — Wed, 3 Jun 2009 06:46:00 -0700

Where do these things come from? The latest rumor making the rounds of the blogosphere paints Apple as interested in buying Twitter, to the tune of $700 million.

The "Twapple" report comes courtesy of Owen Thomas at Gawker, who said he has heard from one source "who's plugged into the Silicon Valley deal scene" that Apple is interested in buying Twitter.

"What does Twitter, an adorable but unprofitable startup, have to do with a hardware company like Apple? The iPhone is the obvious driver of the deal," Thomas said. Thomas also noted that Twitter reportedly turned down a stock deal from Facebook, but that Apple has billions in the bank. A deal could be done by June 8, the date of Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference.

TechCrunch's Michael Arrington, who earlier trumpeted that Google was buying Digg (and then hastily backed off) "reported" the story in hindsight, claiming in an story datelined Tuesday that a source has essentially told him the same thing "this evening", presumably before the 2 AM time when Thomas filed his own report.

Neither Thomas nor Arrington themselves say they believe the Apple-Twitter combination is a done deal, yet both reported it anyway with but a single source. As always, time will tell.
source

Maximizing Twitter Traffic

noreply@blogger.com (elvinperia) — Sat, 30 May 2009 21:15:00 -0700

Internet marketers these days want to dominate social networks. Well, as an internet marketer, it will be easier to access the global market through Twitter and other social sites. By simply making friends online, you can already build a list of valuable leads. If you want to maximize your Twitter traffic, you’re on the right track.

For about three years, Twitter has gained extreme popularity worldwide. People talk about various subjects. Some talk about their personal interests and there are also those who market their business online. Ordinary individuals use Twitter to send tweets to one another. Many of today’s online marketers are serious in using Twitter to drive traffic to their business sites. The social network is considered as one of the most effective and impressive ways to increase traffic.

With increased traffic to your business site, you can ensure more sales. How can you maximize your Twitter traffic? Here are several ways to do it.

Firstly, you need to spread the news that you’re on Twitter. If you’re into online marketing, you probably send lots of email messages or post blogs. Try to include your Twitter account on all your messages, blog posts, and even on your business site. That way, everyone will know that you’re using Twitter. You should also be active in using Twitter and in sending tweets regularly. When your followers see that you’re active, they will visit your website.

Regularly updating your tweets can also drive more traffic to your site, like people on Twitter who post tweets regularly. You can gain active followers through your tweets. However, you must ensure that you post more personal tweets; sending out bad ones can cause you to lose your followers. There are tools that you can use to help you in posting your tweets automatically but you need to be extra careful in using such tools.

By building good relationships with your followers, you will not have a hard time in selling your products or business. Don’t barrage your followers with sales promotions or else you can lose them. Instead, try to post helpful information every now and then because the social community will appreciate it more. Establishing a good relationship with your followers is vital. By investing a little of your time and effort in posting informative tweets and in replying to the ones addressed to you, you can ensure the profitability of your business in the near future.

Maximizing traffic in Twitter is very important. To sum it all up, make your presence known. Let everyone know that you’re on Twitter. Send tweets regularly and give more attention to the kind of tweets you’re sending. Make the tweets personal and most of all, build good relationships. So now, do you know how to increase traffic to your business site? Try these helpful steps and you can go a long way.

Using Twitter is fun and easy. Many online marketers are now using Twitter to boost site traffic, so why don’t you try it? It seems to be the fad these days. But to tell you frankly, not everyone who use Twitter as a marketing tool is able to succeed. You see, it takes time, effort, and patience to see effective results.

Maximizing Twitter traffic for your business can be effectively done if you know how to tweet properly.

This is an article written by Salim Galou posted in Internet and Businesses Online : Social Networking. source

Creative Ways to Use Twitter

noreply@blogger.com (elvinperia) — Fri, 29 May 2009 23:51:00 -0700

From my previous post, I've discussed that Twitter can be used as a recruitment tool.

Here are some other ways you can use Twitter particularly in supporting your marketing and branding efforts:

* Press releases: you can keep your audience up to date with your brand’s latest developments by posting links to your press releases.
* Time-sensitive special offers: you can use Twitter to promote items on sale, or special fares, like some airlines are already doing.
* Post event updates: if you go to a conference or trade show, you can tweet about the latest developments.
* News updates: Twitter can be a good medium to post news items of interest to your customers.
* Disaster Relief: Organizations such as the Red Cross are using twitter to post updates on their efforts to help during natural disasters and emergencies.
* Daily schedules: musicians, politicians and other traveling acts are using Twitter to post news about their appearances, schedules, etc.
* Links to interesting web pages: You can use Twitter as a social bookmarking service, like Delicious or Stumbleupon.
* New blog posts announcements: You can post a tweet every time you update your blog. True, you can also achieve this through RSS, but Twitter gives you yet another avenue to reach people that otherwise wouldn’t have had access to your RSS feed.
* Blog widget: you can install Twitter on your blog’s sidebar to show your latest tweets and give your blog a more interactive feel.
* Real estate listings: real estate agents can use Twitter to post links to new listings.
* Promotions: if you have a “deal of the day”, “daily lunch special” or any other recurring, time-sensitive promotion you can announce it in Twitter.
* Recruitment tool: many companies have filled positions with people they found through Twitter.
* Personal branding: by drafting a compelling personal profile, posting brief insights on topics related to your field, and by nurturing your network of followers, over time your Twitter account can turn into a strong personal branding signal.

Another beauty of Twitter is that’s it’s very easy to post. You can do so from Twitter’s website, by IM and even by sending text messages from your phone. source

Twitter is so Popular - What Now?

noreply@blogger.com (elvinperia) — Tue, 26 May 2009 06:59:00 -0700

Twitter has become a multi-headed phenomenon since MediaShift devoted a week to covering micro-blogging two years ago. Now, Twitter has established a new form of communication, an early warning system for breaking news, and a startup company in San Francisco that has no discernable income. And with the power of Oprah, CNN and Ashton Kutcher, it has become a full-fledged mainstream phenomenon, like it or hate it.

In fact based on Google (see screenshot below), Twitter has increased search volume index exponentially. The graph shows the number of times Twitter appeared in Google News stories.

Now what?

Here's an article from WSJ:

Twitter Inc. is confronting a slew of challenges -- from hiring, to keeping its service up and running, to finding meaningful revenue -- as the micro-blogging service deals with sudden stratospheric growth.

Even as Twitter's users have jumped to an estimated 32.1 million from 1.6 million a year ago, the San Francisco company has just 45 employees, up from around 21 in January, and it has brought on only a handful of people with sales or business experience.

Most of Twitter's employees have had to focus on maintaining the service, which allows people to post and read short, personal updates. As such, the company has had to make trade-offs between managing growth and product features.
[Twitter co-founders Biz Stone (sitting) and Evan Williams] Jessica Vascellaro/The Wall Street Journal

Twitter founders Biz Stone, sitting, and Evan Williams are hiring -- slowly.

The biggest issues facing founders Evan Williams and Biz Stone are bringing on new staff to get ahead of its user growth while working out a business model. Twitter is free and the company doesn't sell advertising.

"Twitter has no current revenue stream to balance the costs," says Gartner Inc. research analyst Allen Weiner.

In an interview Friday, Mr. Williams, Twitter's chief executive, acknowledged that the start-up's small size, coupled with its rapid growth, has been constraining. "For the entire [three-year] history of the company, most of the resources have gone to managing growth and that is still the case," he says, adding that Twitter could be around 90 employees by the end of 2009. "If it weren't growing nearly as fast, we would be building a lot more things."

Mr. Williams, 37 years old, and Mr. Stone, 35, say they don't feel any external pressure to change their approach. Instead, they want to develop the company slowly in order to find people who fit with its culture, which they are working to define through rituals such as family-style lunches and weekly "teas," or happy hours.

Still, Mr. Williams, who sold online blogging company Blogger to Google Inc. in 2003, acknowledged he's in uncharted territory. "I've started a bunch of companies but never run one of this size," he says.

Meanwhile, Twitter is facing pressure to prove it has staying power, as a good number of users lose interest in the service after trying it for a while.

The management and direction of Twitter will likely be major themes on Tuesday, when Messrs. Williams and Stone will be interviewed on stage at D: All Things Digital, a technology conference in Carlsbad, Calif., run by The Wall Street Journal.
[Taking Off]

Twitter has gotten more serious about revenue and partnership opportunities. Last year, it hired a director of mobile business development and began sifting through partnership requests. Google Inc. and Microsoft Corp. are buzzing around trying to pitch Twitter on potential search or search advertising partnerships, according to people familiar with the matter.

Speculation continues as to the company being sold. Twitter raised $35 million from venture capitalists in February, on top of about $20 million previously raised. That month, Twitter received a $255 million valuation that makes it unlikely the company would sell for anything less than $1 billion, people familiar with the matter say.

Early this year, Messrs. Williams and Stone also began interviewing a few candidates with business experience for potential business strategy jobs, according to people familiar with the matter. The duo turned down most of them.

Twitter will need more "business-type folks eventually," says Mr. Williams, but those are the "parts of the business that we haven't fleshed out yet."

Twitter's plans for the near future include a new homepage, says Mr. Stone. Today Twitter.com is geared toward showing people how to post a Tweet, he said, but in the future, Twitter wants it to highlight how the service can help people discover what is going on around them, says Mr. Stone.

"In the long-run, we need to make Twitter the product more relevant to more people," he says.

Twitter as Recruitment Tool

noreply@blogger.com (elvinperia) — Mon, 25 May 2009 06:15:00 -0700

You could use Twitter as a recruitment tool.

How?

Here are six tips on how to maximize your twitter account to your advantage. This article was written by Toni Bowers. She is the Head Blogs Editor of TechRepublic. She has been in the publishing industry for 20 years, with concentration in IT-related topics. She has edited newsletters, books, and web sites pertaining to software, IT career, and IT management issues.

According to Nielsen NetView, in February 2009, Twitter had nearly 7.1 million users, with a growth rate of 1,382 percent from the year before. Some companies are finding this growth rate a great opportunity to recruit people for jobs.

In a recent issue of Workforce Management, two representatives from digital advertising agency Organic said they have made Twitter the anchor of their job posting strategy. Here are some of the benefits, according to Organic:

“Once we have an opening that might be a fit for a Twitter friend, rather than making a cold call to a stranger, we can make a “warm tweet.” We can talk to someone with whom we’ve already interacted, who already understands a bit about Organic based on tweets that cover Organic’s culture, work and news items. It’s less like a blind date and more like a first date with someone you’ve already met.

Another benefit: There are no time or space constraints to tweeting with a candidate. We don’t have to interrupt potential candidates during their busy workdays; they can engage with us when it’s convenient for them. And candidates who aren’t ready to make a move can easily retweet, or forward, our opening to peers who may also be a fit.”

Also, it’s free, unlike many traditional job boards.

If you decide to take the plunge and make Twitter part of your staff recruitment plan, here are six tips the Workforce article offers for using it to top advantage:

1. Create a branded company Twitter profile. Assign a key person–or automate tweets–to post jobs as they become available. This person should also be responsible for following professionals that could be potential candidates.

2. Don’t be a Twitter wallflower. Engage in conversation with the people you are following–and your followers–whether you have job openings for them or not. Then, when you need to speak with someone about an opportunity, you’ve already established rapport.

3. Create a protocol for your job Tweets. Consider searchability by using hash marks (#) around key words. Include a trackable URL to your job posting so you can monitor the number of click-throughs a job posting receives.

4. Help your search by using a third-party tool such as TweetBeep, which alerts you to tweets relevant to your search.

5. Encourage your staff to retweet job openings by providing an incentive such as a referral bonus for candidates sourced through tweeting.

6. Don’t be a one-track tweeter. Be varied and creative in your approach. To keep it real and not boring or spamlike, tweet on a variety of topics including industry-related items of interest, some personal tweets and, of course, your job postings.

Hope this article helps.

Twitter Demographics

noreply@blogger.com (elvinperia) — Tue, 5 May 2009 06:45:00 -0700

I stumble upon this site which shows some demographics of Twitter. Here's some twitter facts (data as of March 2009).

52% of US twitter users are female
44% are ages 18-34 years old; 33% are 35-49
82% are Caucasian
66% has no kids
Estimated monthly traffic : 15.0M US people
People who visit Twitter are likely to visit zendesk.com as well

I wonder what's the real deal around the world for twitter...

Twitter Experience : FOB's Joe Trohman replied to my tweet. Cool.

noreply@blogger.com (elvinperia) — Sun, 3 May 2009 20:56:00 -0700

This is a re-post from my friend's blog regarding his experience of twitter.

Yes, Fall Out Boy lead guitarist Joe Trohman and I are twitter buddies. Well, not exactly. At least he replied to two of my tweets.

Here's what happened.

I was watching Myx. Myx News was featuring April celebrity birthdays. There, I found out that Patrick Stump's (FOB vocalist & pseudo-frontman) birthday was on April 27. I am a big fan of his voice.

I wanted to give him my greetings. However, I have no idea how to reach him. I remembered that Pete Wentz (FOB bassist and famous hubby to Ashlee Simpson) and Joe Trohman were active in Twitter. So, I decided to greet Patrick through them.

I though that like most of my other tweets, these two would just be ignored. After all, Pete only replies to haters.

The next day, I was surprised when Joe replied to my tweet. He said "very far off". (2nd pic) I wasn't clear what he meant but I thought that he was annoyed. I remember that he used to complain that a lot of people keep on asking him about Patrick.

So, I decided to apologize (3rd pic).

7 hours later, he gave another reply. (4th pic)

I know that this is hardly a conversation. Still, I am psyched that a guy from a famous band "talked" to me. This would almost be impossible a few years ago.

I am really amazed by the Internet. I feel at awe on how it shattered the boundaries of space and time. Now, we can communicate with anyone in the world, synchronously or not.

However, it frightens me. Online culture is slowly converging people from far away nations. Will the Internet also shatter the notion of identity? Think about it.

Still, a FOB member "talked" to me. cool.