I have created a compact one page Twitter Cheat Sheet, that answers a lot of common Twitter questions.

It outlines,

• Twitter commands
• Twitter search parameters
• Twitter terms
• Twitter resources
• Twitter directories

This is a handy resource that can be used to quickly refer to when needed and contains links to many of Twitter’s official pages.

All in one page!

As long as this PDF remains in its original format and isn’t modified, you may print it out.. email it to your friends.. tweet about it.. or show it to any Baby Boomer who needs help with Twitter!

Download your Twitter Cheat Sheet here

(watermark free)

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So you have finally gotten around to creating a page for your business or club on Facebook.

You have secured a vanity URL and your blog’s posts are automatically being pulled into and displayed on your Facebook page.

Now what?

Why not set up your own custom landing page?

If you haven’t heard of a landing page before, it is the page on a website that you arrive on.. or land on.

When someone browses to your Facebook fan page for the first time, the landing page is page that is displayed to them.

Facebook allows you to configure landing pages for new visitors (ie non-fans), so that they land on that custom page instead of your wall.

The goal of the landing page is to convert new visitors into fans by providing them with information that makes them want to become a fan.

This guide will show you how to set up a custom landing page.

Add the Static FBML Application

Login to your Facebook account.

At the bottom left of your screen (in the status bar), click on Applications,

Then click on Browse More Applications,

In the search box type in FBML,

Click on Static FBML,

Click on Add to my Page,

Select your page and click <Add to Page>,

Settings

Now return to your Facebook page and click on Edit Page,

Scroll down to the FBML application, click on the Pencil icon.. then select Edit,

In the Box Title enter a name for your custom tab.. then paste in your HTML code that points to your images, files etc.

My custom landing page consists of

• a jpg (760 x 477 px)
• Facebook Invite Friends code

When you are done click on <Save Changes>,

Click on Edit Page again,

.. and go back to the FBML Application Settings,

Ensure this application has been added to your Tabs,

Default Landing Page

Now to make this page the default landing page for non-fans.

In Wall Settings, click on the Pencil icon.. then select Edit,

For the Default Landing Tab for Everyone Else option.. select the tab that you have just created,

Now log out of Facebook,

Now head back to your Facebook fan page,

You will now land on your new custom landing page,

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This video gives a very quick look back at the Google story over the last 11 years.

From Stanford to Mountain View and around the world, featuring many different products, starting with BackRub (Search) up to Google Wave, StreetView and Chrome.

Google Timeline and Google Milestones also provide a great timeline of Google’s History.

Will Google Wave redefine the communication and collaboration paradigm?

Google has become such an integral part of our lives.. where to next?

How would the landscape change if Google and Facebook became one?

Don’t like Facebook’s new News and Live Feeds look?

Do you wish you could go back to the old look?

Well you can.. sort of.. it is the closest way to what it was.

Firstly login to your Facebook account,

On the left-hand-side click on More so your list is expanded,

Now that your list is expanded you should be able to see three horizontal bars next to each item in your list,

Place your mouse cursor over those 3 horizontal bars.. and drag Status Updates to the top of your list,

Now click on it so that it is now selected (ie turns dark blue),

Done!

You have just gone back to the old look,

.. if you want to go back to how it was.. just drag News Feed to the top of the list (as outlined in the steps above),

Next time you login to Facebook, whatever view is at the top of the list, will be your default view.

Easy.

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Have you noticed that Facebook has re-designed the Home Page?

It now displays a News Feed and a Live Feed..

Since this re-design, did you know that Facebook has already chosen which of your friends will be displayed in these feeds and which will be hidden?

You probably haven’t noticed, but Facebook has decided that a lot of your friends won’t be appearing in your News and Live feeds.

This guide will show you how to fix this.. so that all your friends re-appear in your feeds.

What’s the Difference Between News Feed and Live Feed?

Facebook has introduced two views of your News Feed,

1. A summary of activity that has happened in the last day
2. A real-time view that shows you what is happening right now

News Feed

The News Feed displays the most interesting things that have happened in the last day..  a summary of what has been going on.

Stories are displayed according what Facebook thinks you’ll enjoy.. based on a variety of factors including, how many friends have liked and commented on that story and how likely you are to interact with that story.

Live Feed

After you have caught up on what you have missed.. the Live Feed displays what is happening right now.

You will see posts and updates come through and display in real-time.

Like with the News Feed, Facebook has already determined which of your friends will be displayed, and which will be hidden, in your Live Feed.

Adding Friends Back into the News Feed

To add friends so that they re-appear in your News Feed.. scroll to the bottom of the News Feed page and click on Edit Options,

(NB – if the <Edit> button does not display.. try hiding someone first.. then when you scroll down it should now be displayed. To hide someone, please refer to the section below)

The following friends are hidden from your News Feed.. to add them back in, so their activity is displayed in your News Feed.. click on <Add To News Feed>,

Do the same for Pages and Applications.. by clicking on <Add to News Feed>.

Once you have added those items to display in your News Feed again.. click on <Close> to save your changes.

Hiding Friends in the News Feed

To hide any friends in your News Feed, just hover your mouse to the right of their story and click on <Hide>,

Adding Friends Back into the Live Feed

The friends and updates that are displayed in your Live Feed can be displayed independently of your News Feed.

Since Facebook’s re-design many of your friends now won’t display in your Live feed.. they have been hidden.

To unhide them and to choose for yourself who is displayed.. scroll to the bottom of the Live Feed screen and click on Edit Options,

(NB – if the <Edit> button does not display.. try hiding someone first.. then when you scroll down it should now be displayed. To hide someone, please refer to the section below)

Facebook has already determined which of your friends will appear in your Live Feed.. but you can change that so you can choose which friends to display.

You will notice that the Number of Friends section has been pre-populated with 250,

I don’t want to be capped at 250.. so I am going to change this to 5000 which is the maximum amount of friends that Facebook currently allows you to have,

That way, as my friends list grows over time I still get to see all of their real-time updates come through and not be capped at seeing only 250.

Next click on the View Recommended Friends link,

You will notice that some friends are displayed in light-blue and others in white,

The ones displayed in light-blue are those friends that Facebook thinks you want displayed in your Live Feed.

The ones displayed in white are those friends that Facebook thinks you don’t want displayed in your Live Feed.

So to choose who you want displayed in your Live Feed.. just click on those friends.. and they will turn dark-blue,

When you have selected those friends (I re-selected all of them) you want displayed in your Live Feed click on Back to Settings,

On the News Feed Settings, I am also going to remove everyone from the Hide section.. so that everyone’s updates will be displayed.. when this is done click on <Save>,

Hiding Friends in the Live Feed

Just like the News Feed above, to hide any friends in your Live Feed, just hover your mouse to the right of their story and click on <Hide>,

Finally..

So there you have it.. all your friends activities and status updates will appear in your News Feed and Live Feed.

And not just the ones that Facebook thinks you should have!

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For the uninitiated, Twitter is a platform where information sharing and conversations happen in real-time.

It is where breaking news appears first.. often significantly before appearing on live TV.. and sometimes up to tens of minutes before being reported by the major online news sites.

Even as I’m typing this, companies and businesses are integrating Twitter as a primary channel of news delivery.. the internet as a whole is evolving towards real-time.

The lines between traditional journalism are blurring and becoming non-existent, as people around the world are able to send tweets, share files, take pictures and upload videos all from their mobile phones.

More people are using social media than ever before and the amount of new content being generated every moment is increasing exponentially.

So are we experiencing information overload?

To quote Clay Shirky.. “It’s not information overload.. it’s filter failure“.

To be successful in searching for the right content you need to apply filters. There are many different types of filters you can apply to your search criteria and this guide will show you some advanced techniques.

Like with all search engines, Twitter has two types.. real-time standard search,

.. where you can enter basic keywords.. this is the method everyone uses and knows.

Advanced Twitter Search

Twitter also has an advanced search that allows you to really filter out the noise and hone-in on specifics about what people are talking about right now,

The Twitter advanced search interface allows you to search via two ways,

1. Search Box
2. Search Form

Search Box

You can use all sorts of search operators in the search box to refine your search.. and I will go through each of these search operators here using examples.

Word Search

• social media =   will find tweets containing both “social” and “media“
• “social media” =   will find tweets containing the exact phrase “social media“
• social OR media =   will find tweets containing “social” OR “media” (or both)
  
• social -media =   will find tweets containing “social” but NOT “media“
• #socialmedia =   will find tweets containing the hashtag “#socialmedia“  –> please see my article Twitter Hashtags for an explanation of hashtags

People Search

• from:matthewtommasi =   will find tweets from the person “matthewtommasi“
• to:scobleizer =   will find tweets to the person “scobleizer“
• to:guykawasaki OR to:mashable =   will find tweets to the person “guykawasaki“, OR to the person “mashable“
• @socialguide =   will find tweets referencing the person “@socialguide“

Places Search

• “windows 7″ near:sydney =   will find tweets containing the exact phrase “windows 7“, that are sent near “sydney“
• facebook near:london within:10mi =   will find tweets containing “facebook“, that are sent within “10 miles” of “london“

Date Search

• “google wave” since:2009-10-23 =   will find tweets containing the exact phrase “google wave“, that have been sent since the date “2009-10-23” (year-month-day)
• “windows vista” until:2009-10-19 =  will find tweets containing the exact phrase “windows vista“, that have been sent up until the date “2009-10-19” (year-month-day)

Attitude Search

• movie =   will find tweets containing the word “movie”, with a positive attitude
• food =   will find tweets containing the word “food“, with a negative attitude

Other Search

• linkedin filter:links =   will find tweets containing the word “linkedin“, and linking to URLs
• tennis source:tweetdeck =   will find tweets containing the word “tennis“, and entered via Tweetdeck
• beer ? =   will find questions with the word “beer“

All of these search operators can be combined with one another(s) to refine your search even further.

Search Form

The advanced search form underneath the search box, allows you to enter and search using all the operators listed above.. but entering them in the form.

Think of it as an easier, advanced search!

Saved Search

All Twitter clients have saved search functionality where you can save searches.

From Twitter’s interface type in your search query (using any of the search operators above).. then click on the search icon,

To save that search click on the Save this search link,

This search is now saved and can be accessed in the future quickly, by clicking on that link,

You can also use search widgets with persistent searches and embed them in  in your blog.

I have embedded a Twitter search widget in my News page to search for tweets containing the exact phrase “social media“.

50 More Twitter and Real-time Search Tools

Here are 50 more Twitter and real-time search resources:

1. BackTweets - Search for Links on Twitter
2. BingTweets - Fusing Twitter trends with Bing real-time search
3. Collecta - Real-time search
4. CrowdEye - Real-time social search
5. Faroo - Real-time search
6. GeoFollow - Location based Twitter directory
7. Heapr - Search Google and Twitter
8. IceRocket - Real-time search
9. itpints - Real-time search engine
10. MicroPlaza - Search the hot links and trending topics on Twitter
11. Monniter - Real-time Twitter monitor
12. Navgle - Navigate your search
13. OneRiot - Search the real-time web
14. PicFrog - Real-time image search on Twitter
15. Scoopler - Real-time search
16. serendipiTwitterous - Search for Tweets of a certain person using keywords
17. Topsy - A search engine powered by tweets
18. Trendistic - Search Twitter through time
19. Twazzup - Search Twitter. Get real insights
20. TweedleDM - Search Twitter DMs
21. Tweefind - Twitter search by user rank
22. TweepFind - Tweeps search by Rank and Skills
23. Tweeple of India – Search tweeple of India
24. TweepSearch - Twitter profile and Bio search
25. TweetFeel - Real-time Twitter search
26. TweetGrid - Create a Twitter search dashboard
27. Tweeple411 - Twitter search directory
28. TweetFind - Live Twitter directory
29. TweetRSVP - A search engine that pulls tweets with questions and requests for information
30. TweetScan - Microblog search
31. Tweetzi - Real-time Twitter search and trends
32. Twicsy - Search Twitter Images
33. Twifish - The extended Twitter search
34. Twindexx - Crowd-sourcing the best of Twitter
35. Twingly - Microblog search
36. Twiogle - Search Google and Twitter at the same time
37. TwiPho - Search Twitter photos
38. TwiST - Twitter search tool
39. Twithority - Twitter search by authority
40. Twitmatic - Search for videos on Twitter
41. Twitority - Authority based Twitter search
42. Twitter FreeSearch – Twitter search
43. Twitter Job Search – Search jobs on Twitter
44. Twitterment - Search engine for Twitter
45. Twitter Power Search – Real-time Twitter search
46. TwitterTroll – Twitter search engine
47. Twoogel - Google and Twitter search
48. Twoquick - Simple Google and Twitter search
49. Twuet - Twitter search engine
50. Visible Tweets – Twitter Visualisations

Seek and ye shall find!

You can download this guide as a PDF (with along with a cheat sheet of the search operators) when you register to receive The Social Media Guide’s free newsletter.

It is packed with social media tips, guides, downloads and more!

Enjoy!

This video nicely and succinctly shows how businesses can monitor their industry using social media.

It’s presented by Adam Ostrow and is sponsored by UPS.

Here are links to some posts of mine that cover and explain the services mentioned:

Platforms

• Facebook Pages
• Blogging

Directories

• Wefollow

Software

• CoTweet
• Hootsuite

It’s your industry.. always on and always connected through social media.

Want to be able to share files with your friends on Facebook?

Box.net allows you to easily share files, documents, music, etc with your friends on Facebook.

It is simple and it is free.

I have previously shown how you can share files on LinkedIn with Box.net.. that post outlines the steps involved in uploading files to your Box.net account.

Like LinkedIn, sharing files on Facebook is just as easy.. and handy as well!

If you haven’t heard of Box.net before, this video gives a good introduction to the file collaboration service they offer,

Uploading Files to Box.net

If you don’t already have a Box.net account, signup for a free one here.

Once you have logged in, the first thing you will need to do is upload some files that you wish to share.

To upload files, just follow the steps to outlined in my guide on sharing files on LinkedIn with Box.net.

Add the Facebook Service

To be able to share your files on Facebook you need to add the Facebook service to your Box.net account.

Click on the OpenBox tab.. then the All Services tab,

Scroll down to Facebook and click on <Add Service>,

Then click on <Okay>,

Done!

You have just added (and enabled) the facebook service on your Box.net account.

Share on Facebook

There are two ways you can share files using Box.net with your Facebook friends.

You can either share your files with everyone (who has access to view your wall).. or you can share files with select Facebook friends.

To share, right-click on the file.. then select Send or share on fb,

Click on <Okay>,

Share with Select Friends

To share your file with select friend(s) on Facebook click on Send as Message instead,

In the To field, enter your Facebook friends who wish to share this file with.. enter a message.. then click on <Send Message>,

This message will be sent to your friend’s Facebook mailbox,

From there they can download your shared file simply by clicking on it,

Share with Everyone

To share a file everyone (who has access to see your Facebook wall).. just repeat the steps above..

Click on the padlock symbol to adjust the privacy settings (as necessary).. then click on <Share>,

This file has now been shared with everyone and has been published on your wall,

Facebook Files Application

The Facebook Files application, which is powered by Box.net, basically enables you to login to your Box.net account.. but from within Facebook.

This application allows you to do everything I have outlined in this guide including:

• uploading files from your PC to your Box.net account
• share files from your Box.net account to selected Facebook friends
• share files from your Box.net account to everyone (who has access to view your Facebook wall)
• all from within Facebook

To set this application up in Facebook.. go to the Facebook Files application.

Next click on <Go To Application>,

Click on <Allow>,

Enter your Box.net details to allow this application to communicate with your Box.net account,

Done!

You have just setup the Facebook File application in Facebook and linked it with your Box.net account.

This application can now be accessed at anytime by clicking on the Files icon,

The Facebook Files application basically mirrors your Box.net account.. but from within Facebook.

You can upload files.. which will then reside in your Box.net account.

And if you want to share any of these.. just right-click on the file and select Send or share on fb,

And just follow the same steps outlined above depending on whether you want to share to selected friends or to everyone.

Sharing makes the world go round!

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The use of social media is accelerating at a rate unheard of in the history mankind.

More and more people are using social media to connect with friends and customers, communicate and send & receive news and information.. all in real-time.

Gary Hayes has compiled a great social media counter based on recent statistics that helps to visualise the phenomenal uptake and use of social media.

Great video on the rise and growth of Facebook.. and it’s not going to stop any time soon.

Facebook has Google in its sights that’s for sure.