Micro-Blogging Sites

Posted by | Posted in Technology | Posted on 28-12-2009-05-2008

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Kevin Sinclair asked:

Facebook and Bebo were the social networking sites of 2007. However micro-blogging is what is in store for the year 2008. You may be asking yourself “what is micro-blogging?” And the answer to your question is that micro-blogging is a form of blogging using short texts.

Micro-blogging is the same as sending text messages on your cell phone. However, rather than sending a text message to one person, micro-blogging is used to publish your thoughts and activities to your social network.

A dozen micro-blogging sites have been added as communication tools to the Web 2.0 repertoire over the past few years. As well as texts, you can now use audio and video. This article introduces you to a few of the popular ones.

The leader is Twitter. Once an account has been created, you publish your micro-contents using your web browser, cell phone, or the email client. Interesting people such as artists, athletes, bands, and politicians can be followed whereby you can check out their insights on a regular basis.

The creator of the popular news ranking site digg launched Pownce last year. As well as micro-blogging, Pownce provides functionality for file sharing, events, and links.

The site by the name of Tumblr is very simple to use, whereby photos and videos can be published from your cell phone. Your love and **** will be able to be shared with others, even if you are not wordy.

If talking is what you prefer rather than writing, then use MySay. All you need to do is call the MySay service and leave a message. The people that are in your contact list will then be able to listen to your thoughts using their, computers, emails, or phones.

If you do not like text or audio, then you can use Hictu for the purposes of video micro-blogging. All you need to do is use your webcam to video your actions and publish it in Hictu. It simply takes a click of the mouse.

One interesting angle to micro-blogging is IRateMyDay. Rather than publishing mundane activities of your daily life, you can rate your day on a scale of worst to great. Explanations of your rating can also be given.

Maybe you are emotionally upset. If so, then use EMotionr rather than IRateMyDay. If you are experiencing a happy day in your life, then rate it at the highest possible rating, which is 10.

Once you have rated your day or emotion, then you should head towards Moodmill. This is a site for managing your mood. Share your mood with your friends and contacts by using the mouse to slide the mood indicator.

If you happen to be more comfortable with the French or German language, then you can use Frazr. This has all of the features and functionality of Twitter.

Because of micro blogging’s simplicity, it is sure to explode this year. Twitter will lead the field. Though it can be used effectively on numerous occasions, it can be a great waste of time if you are not careful.

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Effective Viral Marketing through Twitter

Posted by | Posted in Marketing | Posted on 25-12-2009-05-2008

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Luca Moretti asked:

When it comes to increasing your blog reader base and driving more traffic to your posts, there are few platforms more effective than Twitter. Twitter is an excellent tool for connecting with your readers and building a rapport. All businesses should use Twitter as a part of their marketing and branding strategy. For bloggers, knowing how to use Twitter effectively can lead to unbeatable exposure. Here are 5 steps any blogger can take to get his posts to go viral on Twitter.

1. Increase Your Followers

Obviously it’s going to be challenging to get your tweeted posts seen by a lot of people if there are only 20 people following you. Your first strategy should be to increase the number of people that are following you. The easiest way to do this is to follow lots of new people. Newbies tend to follow you right back. You can also look up the target keywords in your niche and follow the people who are talking about those keywords on Twitter. It’s particularly helpful to find the users who have a big following in your niche and then try to get them to follow you because they are the ones that will help your content go viral. Avoid following too many people who don’t follow you back because this can make your account look spammy and give you a bad image. Make sure the number of followers you have and the number of people you follow are about the same or at least not drastically different.

2. Become an Expert in Your Niche

Be consistent with your tweets. Regularly link to interesting articles that you think would be of interest to your followers and provide them with value every time. By regularly linking to informative articles in your niche, your followers will begin to look to you as a great source of information. This is an effective way to build your brand and it will pave the way for you to tweet your own posts. Your followers will be expecting valuable content since you have already positioned yourself as an expert in your niche.

3. Promote Your Blog

Don’t expect people to find your Twitter page and click on your link. Make the most of Twitter by tweeting your own posts! Treat your tweets as if they were your headline. Make them attention-grabbing and interesting so more people click through. Try posting the same tweet twice at different times of day to make sure you reach all your readers who didn’t see your first tweet. When you post a tweet multiple times, make sure to delete the first tweet so you don’t look like a spammer.

4. Write Interesting Articles for Your Blog

This might sound obvious but sometimes the more obsessed people get with promoting their blog and social networking, the less they pay attention to writing posts of good quality on a consistent basis. When you are just writing to fill up your blog, it shows. Make sure your posts are very informative, well-written, and that they provide unique information your readers won’t be able to find elsewhere.

5. Make It Easy for Your Followers to Re-Tweet Your Articles

After you’ve done all of the above, you have to leave it to your followers to do the rest. To make it easier for your followers to repost your tweets, add a “tweet this” link at the bottom of your tweets. How do you do it? Simply go to http://addthis.com/ and place the bookmarking plugin in your html.

If you aren’t already using Twitter, you’re missing an immense opportunity to give your website/blog good exposure. If you’re looking for a strategy to increase subscribers, traffic to your site, and a loyal reader base, Twitter is an indispensable tool that should play a prominent role in your master plan.

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Micro-Blogging on Twitter

Posted by | Posted in Internet | Posted on 24-12-2009-05-2008

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Penny Sansevieri asked:

There’s a hot new trend going on right now and it’s called micro-blogging. So what’s a micro-blog? And moreover, what’s Twitter? Twitter is a micro-blogger platform that allows users to create entries that are only 140 characters in length. These entries are referred to as “tweets.”

Originally designed to keep friends and family up to date on what you’re doing, Twitter can also be a great place to share your latest book project, promotional ideas as well as interacting with fellow tweets (folks who twitter) and writers. And yes, you can have a blog and a Twitter page. I have both but I feed my blog into my Twitter site so that my Twitter page gets updated each time I add new content to my blog. There’s an easy application to add your blog feed to Twitter, it takes just minutes to do. Head on over to: Twitterfeed.

To sign up for a Twitter account just complete their short sign up form. Remember to brand yourself! This is important. Once you create a Twitter account you can’t go back and change your name so find something that works for you. Maybe it’s fictionwriter or businesswriter or whatever you want. My Twitter page is bookgal which is fun play on words for what I do (and what I love). Once you have a Twitter account you can immediately start tweeting. The service is completely free and you can also keep up with other people’s tweets by “following” them. Their micro-blog entries will show up on your Twitter home page so you can easily keep track of them. You can also be notified by phone when they add a tweet. You can twitter from anywhere, even your phone. I’ve been known to twitter from my blackberry.

Why on Earth Would you Want to Twitter?

When Twitter first started, people were a little perplexed. I mean why on earth would you want to blog in 140 characters? Well since the site emerged in 2006, it’s grown enormously in popularity. With Twitter pages from sites like CNN and every one of the political candidates, the site’s popularity can’t be overstated. Nor can its applications for the future. Also, even if you don’t have a ton of people following your tweets, keep in mind that Twitter search sites are popping up everywhere. This means that if you tweet using keywords that matter to your reader/market, you could be found and followed! For one such search site check out: summarize. Also, if you’re trying to gauge the popularity of a certain word or phrase and how often it’s being used or referred to, you can head on over to Tweet Volume and find out. Just plug in your search term or terms and up will pop a list of results!

Most Well-Known Twitter Users

• Many organizations (such as the Los Angeles Fire Department) have embraced the technology and put it to use in situations such as the October 2007 California wildfires.

• Higher education is also using the technology to relay important information to students in a more timely manner. The University of Texas at San Antonio College of Engineering is one such example.

• Several U.S. presidential campaigns use Twitter as a publicity mechanism, Ron Paul, John Edwards, Barack Obama, and Hillary Clinton all have Twitter pages.

• Media outlets such as CNN have also started using Twitter to break news.

How to Use Twitter Effectively

If you’ve pondered using Twitter but aren’t sure how to use it effectively, here are some quick tips to give you some great twittering-ideas:

• Teach stuff – teach a little mini-lesson on Twitter. Delve into your area of expertise or just talk about book publishing and how to get published.

• Showcase your book – don’t do this in a “my book is so fabulous” kind of way but offer to give advice (like I mention in Teach Stuff) or share with your Twitter followers how the promotion of the book is going.

• Use Twitter as a news source: you can easily announce news both from your world (as long as it relates to your topic) and from the world of your expertise. So for example I’ve done tweets on book industry stuff, breaking news, etc.

• Widen your network – follow other Twitter folk, this will not only give you some ideas for your own “tweets” but it’s a great way to network with other writers or professionals.

• Keep the buzz going when you’re on the move – it’s hard to keep blogging when you’re on the road (trust me, I know this first hand) – so when I travel, I tweet. I share what I’m doing, what’s happening in my world and try to offer insight and advice.

• Market yourself – remember that while Twitter may seem like a fun little tool, it’s also a great way to market yourself. Just like the ideas we mention above, there are a hundred+ more things you can do.

Golden Rules of Twitter:

Here are a few rules to live by when tweeting:

• Be Original, useful and helpful.

• Every Tweet counts (don’t tell people you’re washing your cat) don’t just tweet on useless stuff or you’ll lose followers.

• Ask questions: you’ve got a network (or you want one) now use it! Ask questions, take surveys, get your followers involved in your message and marketing!

• It’s not all about you (again, back to the cat) people want to know useful stuff, I know, it’s getting repetitive but there’s a reason: it’s important.

• Promote your Twitter account in your email signature line and on your blog.

• Network: don’t expect your followers to grow if you’re not following other people. Network, search for others in your area and follow them.

• Personal is ok. Even though I said not to post useless information it’s still not a bad idea to (from time to time) post a personal Tweet or two. Provide value and twitter-followers will beat a path to your door.

• Keep Twittering, followers will come if you keep updating your Twitter account.



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Twitter or Blogging

Posted by | Posted in Blogging | Posted on 17-12-2009-05-2008

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Dina Brown asked:




Most Twitter users still don’t know the basics of the site. You don’t need to choose between Twitter and blogging because the social network is considered a micro-blogging site as well. You can blog about anything as long as you consume the 140- characters. The short blogs are more personal and you can post anything.

What can you do on Twitter? Once you’ve created your own profile page, you can now post blogs. You can do it every minute, every hour, or a few times everyday. You can also follow bloggers and other users, create conversations by replying to the tweets sent to you. Through constant conversation, you can easily build good relationships. You don’t need to log to the Twitter site all the time because you can also receive and reply tweets through your IM or mobile phone.

However, there are also bad points in using Twitter. Your blogs will be limited to only 140 characters. For those who want to post longer blogs, Twitter is not for you. You must also use the code provided in giving replies.

Many new users commit certain mistakes in using Twitter. Some of them don’t use real pictures, they send too many impersonal tweets, they use AutoDM wrongly, they spam, etc; don’t commit these mistakes so that you can have more fun in using the social network site.

If you don’t want to get bored, you should find friends on Twitter and get as many followers as possible. If you can find friends, try to encourage your friends to join so that you can start using the site. It’s very easy to join and it’s free. Now, you can send tweets at any time of the day.

For a more memorable Twitter experience, you can add Twitter to your browser so that when you see it, you will use it most of the time. Try to post useful tips and interesting articles. Reply to the messages you receive. If you simply give some of your precious time in sending tweets and in communicating with your followers, you will have a great time using Twitter. You can also add Google Talk so that you can follow your friends and check on your followers even without opening your browser. You can also post replies and new tweets through the Google Talk.

Micro-blogging is for people who want to write short blogs. Blogs are usually long and in Twitter, you will only write very short blogs. It is more personal and you can let everyone know what you’re doing. If you want, you can also post beautiful and carefully-researched tweets. There are also those who join Twitter to conduct online marketing. Well, whatever your reasons are, you’re free to use the site.

Aside from blogging, Twitter is also for social messaging. Its’ very easy to type status updates. You can follow as many individuals as you like and you can also maintain many followers. You can interact with them online or through your mobile device. There are also small groups on Twitter that helps you in coordinating activities or events especially if some of your friends or followers are from the same area.

All in all, Twitter is a business instrument, social messaging, micro-blogging, reporting service, and marketing utility. Twitter or blogging? Well, it doesn’t really matter. Everything you want is in Twitter.



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