The growth of Twitter
Jun0
Tweet-tweet, tweet-tweet… Twitter, you either can’t live without it or just don’t get it. As a mid-late adopter (sometime in Nov 08 I think) I signed up to Twitter and remember my very first tweet ‘Still trying to figure out what I should say’, I wasn’t sure what the fuss was all about, nor if anyone would find it of interest.
Twitter, if you weren’t already aware, was originally launched in it’s present format back in March 2006 and to reflect this, the guys over at Manolith (and you can follow them on Twitter here) have produced this cool graphic representation of the ‘tree of life’ for Twitter. The full Manolith article can be found here
Now, the image is quite large (and long actually!) so scroll all the way to the bottom and work your way back up!
PS – a design fault in my Wordpress theme means some of the text on the right gets snipped off but you’ll get the picture (see what I did there!)
Will Google Wave redefine Email and Web Communication?
May1
I’ve just received an RSS feed through from Mashable about an upcoming tool called Google Wave, a new in-browser communication and collaboration tool that is already being hailed by some as the next big thing for the web.
There is very little in the way of actual material to share but there are a few screen grabs available and the Google Wave website, where you can leave your email address to be notified when the keynote presentation video is uploaded (but not until later this year it would seem).
From the pictures, it has the same overall look and feel of the Gmail interface but focuses much more on your contacts and connectivity rather than what’s being sent. From what I can gather, it’s been designed as a way to unify your online experience, so you won’t need to fire up your email, blog, twitter or IM accounts indvidually; instead you all have it under one roof. Also one cool little feature I like is the ability to drop and drag images from your desktop to share, rather than uploading them all the time.
Looks pretty cool to me, what do you think? Just another fad tool that will be forgotten 12 months after launch or is this the next Twitter?
How to set up Twitterfeed
May2
At the start of the month I wrote this post as I wanted to better manage my Twitter / Blog postings and bring the two together / Twitterfeed was good, back in the good old days when I was using Blogger. Now, for some reason, The Twitterfeed site occasionally goes down so you might not be able to log into the site and set up you own account. I wanted to revisit this site as this was one of my most popular postings…
Last week I wrote a post on a clever way to upload your blog posts directly to Twitter without having to do it manually. I originally set the system up using RSS feeds – which I outlined here…
I have however, found and even better and much more straightforward way of doing this – by using Twitterfeed.
Twitterfeed in essence scans your blog at regular intervals (hourly or daily) and then, in a similar fashion to RSS, uploads a Tweet + tiny url of the post embedded within – leaving you to go off and do something else.
It’s a very easy system to set up (put it this way, I managed to do it while having one eye on The Two Towers on the tube) and before you know it, you’ll be tweeting remotely like the best of them!
There are two things to watch out for however:
1. The Twitterfeed home page, found here, is very temperamental and occasional doesn’t work
2. It will make life so much easier if you have your Open ID to hand before you start the process (I had to go away and then set one up halfway through the Twitterfeed set up)
So there you have it – Twitterfeed, a really effective way of merging your blogging and twitter worlds.
Any questions, give me a shout – you can follow me on Twitter through the link on the left
RSS Feeds to Twitter
Apr3
Been thinking for a while now as to how I can get by blog posts sent direct to my Twitter account – and here’s how!
Found a really easy to use little tool called RSS to Twitter.
Here’s a screen grab of the site – which can be found here
Tweetdeck update
Mar0
I found this interesting video on Youtube, courtesy of flytemedia showing the ins and outs of Tweetdeck. Really interesting talking head video – encouraged me to use Tweetdeck at home and at work.
What system do you use?
Twitter – A threat to push marketing?
Mar0
I read an interesting article this week, asking if twitter is in fact a threat to traditional push marketing? I’ve pulled out an except below but recommend you read the linked article – ask yourself, what exactly is the best way for brands to use twitter?
”Meanwhile, a Twitter feed has become the latest must-have for brands wanting to seem up to the minute, or for targeting a young, tech-savvy market. And as with any new technology, its potential has quickly been seen by less savoury elements of society. Last month, New Media Age revealed that escort services and suppliers of drug paraphernalia, among others, had taken to using Twitter to promote themselves, at least partly because of a crackdown on such behaviour on Facebook.
At the moment, Twitter seems to be the latest example of marketers confusing form with content, the medium with the message. In the scramble to be seen to be using Twitter, the question of what it can actually deliver for the brand isn’t always being closely examined. It’s the same approach that led to marketers demanding virals, social networking applications and alternative-reality games when they first hit the headlines.”
Twitter – Just an internet fad?
Feb1
Quick update on my previous Twitter post – I found an article over on the FT.com site saying that Twitter, if it reaches critical mass, could become the next Facebook or YouTube…
Agree / disagree?
Twitter 101
Feb1
Just what is the point of Twitter? How do you use it?
To let the world know you are enjoying a chocolate biscuit OR have discovered the cure for cancer?
There are so many professionals and celebrities out there who have tens, if not hundreds of thousands of followers but is the point to have loads of followers or giving them something interesting to read?
Here’s the definitive explanation of what Twitter is according to Ask.com
Twitter is a mini-blogging platform that you can use to send messages of 140 characters or less to friends, family or just about anybody with a web connection. You can also chose to follow other Twitter members as well as having the facility to message them directly.
I think the point is that Twitter can be different things to different people. There are serious discussions I’ve seen out in the world about the power that Twitter has for businesses but really – how much can you fit into 140 characters?
That said, I’m off for a cup of tea and a biscuit now as I’m hungry but here’s a short clip on the basics of Twitter I came across.
Authenticity, and getting it wrong!
Dec0
I learnt an important lesson in the etiquette, if not the rules of blogging this week. With the majority of us have day jobs outside of blogging (unless you’re one of the lucky few who make this a full time profession), you may have often come up against the following issue:
What to do when your day job crosses over with your blogger life and you want to seed responses?
In my case, while working for Geronimo on a web build project for the migraine product Imigran Recovery, thought it would be a good idea to post a link to the site through my Twitter account. Within minutes of my post, EaonP (also on Twitter and who I work with at Geronimo) emailed me saying that I needed to be open and honest with my postings.
Therefore, I have learnt a valuable lesson in authenticity and in effect, learnt how not to do something. As a blogging newbie, it seems to me to be quite a rare thing to read a post where someone is telling you how NOT to do something.
Not being authentic could therefore be seen as being the darkside of blogging, where you could start generating chatter and interest in a marketing campaign, which increases awareness of your pesonal blog and the business objectives of the brand you are working for. However just because you can, does this mean you should?
Learning from my mistakes, I would say no, you shouldn’t.
What about you – have you ever come up against this issue? I can’t believe it’s just happened to me…
10 Easy Steps for Twitter Beginners
Nov0
10 Easy Steps for Twitter Beginners
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