For the uninitiated, it might seem like a widget is just a funny name for an application you don't quite understand. But these days, thanks to the increasing popularity of widgets, most of us have either installed one on our web page, or clicked on one at some else's site.
Understanding widgets is essential to maintaining a useful and interactive website. A widget is technically anything that's embedded on a web page and holds content that's not static, and which is usually brought upon by third parties.
So, some widgets you might see include those for You Tube. A site on motorcycle racing, for example, might have a You Tube widget. When you click on the You Tube widget, you will be take to You Tube and might even be provided with a page that includes a variety of motorcycle racing videos.
At some sites, you might see a widget for Wordpress, and clicking on that widget will take you to the Wordpress blog that the site maintains. The widget will always include the logo or standard graphic of the site or company.
Let's consider how a few Twitter widgets work, since Twitter widgets are on websites and blogs the world over these days.
One of the most common is the widget created by Twitter itself. This usually includes the logo Twitter bird and the words, "follow me on Twitter". When you click on the widget, you're taken to the Twitter page of that person, or company. This is an excellent way for Twitter users to increase their number of overall followers.
Another useful Twitter widget is found at TweetThisSite. This widget works a bit in reverse, with website owners putting the widget on their page. Users, who think that they wouldn't mind promoting the site a bit, simply provide their Twitter log in information and the widget automatically places a post on the user's Twitter page that says the user is checking out the site and provides a link to the site.
Using these widgets is an easy, free way to increase visibility and get more traffic to a site. There are few methods to do these things that really work, but using widgets, which are unobtrusive but effective, is one method that really does work.
Do you blog? Do you write articles? If you answered yes to either question, read on to find out about a powerful marketing combination to boost your business.
microblogging twitter
The missing key for many is Twitter. Do you know that you can have your articles at EzineArticles go directly to Twitter? AND you can have your WordPress blog posts go directly to Twitter? What does this mean to you? More exposure for you. If you have the Twitter widget on your blog, you have a full circle viral marketing system in place because your articles will then come back to your blog.
The strategy for articles and blog posts automatically showing up on Twitter is to go to Twitter and tweet about them after they appear automatically. Talk about them, explain them, do whatever you can do in the 140 characters you have for a Twitter micro-blog post.
How do you accomplish this automatic Twitter posting? It's really quite easy.
Go to your profile manager in EzineArticles and put your Twitter username and password in the space provided. Your newly approved articles will now go to Twitter as micro blog posts. Get the TwitterTools plugin for WordPress and install it. The only option you want turned off is to create a blog post from a tweet. Do have your blog posts sent to Twitter and do use the Twitter sidebar widget. Write lots of articles and blog posts, go tweet about them and watch your presence grow.
There is no faster way to become the authority in your area of expertise than to combine this powerful threesome to drive traffic to your blog and articles.
Wouldn't you like to learn more about implementing this powerful strategy in your online business?
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Online social networking can be effectively done through Twitter. You also have the added advantage of promoting your online work and being in touch with people in the world of web surrounding you. When more people follow you, there is the possibility of more people knowing what you are doing and that way they will become interested in your work around the web. The following are tips on how to get followers on Twitter.
You can make use of Twitter's tools in order to find and add your contacts which already exist. After that you can follow them up with an email making them realize why you want them to follow you. This will ultimately increase the number of twitter followers you will get. You can also add your Twitter information on your email signature. When you email somebody, they will understand that it is possible for them to follow you on Twitter. Mentioning that you are a twitter user in your blog or website also helps. You should not forget to link to your Twitter contact information.
It is an excellent way to announce through your Facebook and MySpace that you would like to be followed on Twitter. The announcement should be made every two or three weeks so that you can get the attention of people. You can add the Twitter widget to your blog or site in order to show others what you are twittering. This is done to motivate readers to go through your activities and follow you. Apart from that you can utilize Twitter directories to provide information regarding you and how to follow you.
Appearance of your page is another factor which has the potential to attract Twitter followers. You can easily improve your page with an excellent background, avatar and biography. It is equally important to remain active and interesting on the site. You can achieve this by following people regularly and giving responses to what they post. By posting matters of common interest, you can remain active always. Yet another way is to offer to guest post on the sites of big Twitter users. The offer can be made in exchange for promotion of the post on Twitter.
Another option is to write articles and promote them on Twitter. You can write a few articles and link to your profile. It is important to participate in forums and blog comments regarding Twitter for attracting followers. The more you talk about Twitter the more you are going to get attention from others. Once you get a few supporters you can request them to let their followers know where to find you. Always there would be a handful of people willing to help you. The most important point to be remembered is to get creative. When you seriously think about ways to get followers on Twitter, you will become more creative and thereby successful on the site.
Any company looking to use Twitter marketing tips need to consider these three tips of they will simply fail. Making use of the three tips which you will find below will attract far more appeal for your website and will also bring you repeat traffic to your online business.
Twitter Tip #1: Market your Twitter web link within your website. You wont produce any 'followers' if none of your visitors know you have a Twitter account. You have got to concentrate on attracting followers, or your Twitter advertising marketing plan will be totally useless.
Twitter Tip #2: Place a Twitter widget on your site. This widget will show all your Twitter updates and messages on your website so your visitors can keep up to date with what is going on. It also allows them to embed your Twitter widget on their sites that additionally generates more Twitter followers.
Twitter Tip #3: Use your Twitter account daily that means Tweet daily! If you use this sort of advertising you must make sure you Tweet your twitter account on a constant basis. However you must not over use your Twitter account, but you must make sure you use it on a regular basis. If you are not effective with your Twitter account, you will not take care of your Twitter followers.
This sort of advertising could attract a lot of subscribers back to your online business time and time again. Moreover, using Twitter it is a great way to keep your followers or any new subscribers in check with any special deals you might have running.
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There are two kinds of people these days: those who understand Twitter, and those who don't.
If you're still a doubter, keep in mind that everyone's first foray into the medium is pretty disappointing. Start following the right people, though, and it suddenly clicks into place.
You're chatting with friends, listening to pithy words of wisdom from people you admire and chuckling at the inanities of celebrities. As for news, it always breaks on Twitter first – probably why the media's obsessed with it.
Think of Twitter as an up-to-the minute information feed, and a host of uses for it suddenly manifest, not least how valuable it can be when embedded in your website. It's an ideal complement to a blog or news site, and a positive boon to fan pages.
Getting the right tweets on your site may not even be as difficult as you might expect. If you want to integrate Twitter into your online life but don't know how to, we'll show you what to do.
Twitter via widgets
We first investigated several convoluted and code-heavy ways of embedding tweets into your own pages, but many of them are overkill, especially when Twitter itself provides such elegant and easy-to-use tools. Twitter widgets can be configured using a forms-based interface and may be embedded in any site.
The code returned is good old JavaScript, so it'll go anywhere in a static HTML page or CMS template. There's lots of scope for styling and tweaking, too.
Like many of Twitter's extended features, it's hidden pretty well on the main site. Log in to www.twitter.com and scroll down to the bottom of the page. Once you're there, click 'Goodies', choose 'Widgets' and click 'Widgets for My Website'.
You have a few choices right off the bat. Click on the 'Profile' link and you'll see that it's set up to show tweets from your Twitter account. However, you can replace the username with any Twitter username you know.
Give it a try: enter a new username and click 'Test Settings'. The widget preview will update to show the latest tweets from any account you choose – very handy for showing the feed from a corporate account or displaying incisive celebrity tweets on a fan site.
Configure the feed
Click 'Preferences' to configure the feed. Click 'Poll for New Results' if you want the widget to periodically refresh while the user is on your page – the default behaviour is to only pull results from Twitter when the page is loaded.
You can change the number of tweets retrieved by the widget too. Alter the default of '4' to '6', for example, then hit 'Test Settings' to see the result. You'll notice that the height of the widget changes in response, unless you have 'Include Scrollbar' ticked.
Selecting 'Timed Interval' makes the widget clear the current list of tweets and replace it with a new set periodically. All of the associated settings are highly configurable. Now to dig out some specifics.
Pulling tweets directly from a single account is fine, but Twitter widgets get really powerful when you use them to focus on more specific sets of tweets. The Search and List widgets initially look identical to their Profile counterpart. However, the Search widget allows you to pull tweets from the entire feed using a single keyword.
If that keyword happens to be a hashtag, even better. It enables you to instantly configure Twitter feeds for news and events that can help drive traffic to your blog. For example, let's say you're liveblogging the Eurovision song contest. A perfect sidebar would be a twitter feed of Eurovision tweets.
Making lists
Twitter lists enable you to create bespoke Twitter feeds from a group of users. To make a list, go to www.twitter.com and look for the Lists column in the sidebar. Click 'New List' and a window will pop up prompting you for a name and a description. Fill it in, make sure the list is public and click 'Create List'.
You're taken to a page where you can now search for users and add them one at a time. Alternatively, you can add people to lists directly from your Following or Followers pages.
A tip: you don't have to be following someone to add them to your list. Now you have a list of people set up, you can create a widget that can easily be added to your website.
Uses for this? Let's say you have a list of news providers. Your widget would then be a live-updating news ticker that sits in the sidebar of your site. Or if you have a collaborative blog, you could add all the twitter feeds from contributors to the widget.
Thinking bigger, a search widget and list widget side by side could be used as a bespoke Twitter client aimed at your audience's interests.
Code wrangling
Whichever widget confi guration you finally choose, you'll have a comprehensive degree of control over the look of the widgets on your page. Click 'Dimensions' first. You're able to restrict the size of the widget to fit your page, or tick a box so that it automatically adjusts.
Click 'Appearance' and you can change the colour scheme for the Twitter widget to fit into your pages. Use it with the Chrome browser extension Colour Pick or the Firefox plugin ColourZilla to match the colours in your scheme and site. When you've finished tweaking, click 'Finish and Grab Code'.
A form containing the configured code will appear. The code itself is pretty compact – that's because most of the hard work is done by an external JavaScript file, 'widget.js', referred to in the very first line.
Still, the variable and value pairs here are clear and self explanatory, so the widget script can be used to create further iterations without having to go back through all those menus. Width and height can be changed directly, and you can alter usernames or search terms.
Changing one widget type to another will require more coding, though, so if you want to do that, the best course of action is to return to the site and work back through the menus.
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There are three Twitter marketing tips that all websites and companies should consider. Using these three tips can gain more interest for your website and can also draw back repeat traffic to your website. These Twitter marketing tips are as follows:
Tip #1: Advertise your Twitter link on your website. If your visitors don't know you have a Twitter account then your Twitter account will fail to produce 'followers'. If you want to use Twitter for marketing purposes then you must focus on gaining flowerers or your Twitter marketing strategy will be ineffective.
Tip #2: Add a Twitter widget to your website. A Twitter widget will place all of your Twitter updates and messages on your website wherever you place the widget. This allows visitors to your website to see that your Twitter account is active. It also gives them the ability to embed your Twitter widget on their websites which also generates more followers for your Twitter account.
Tip #3: Tweet daily! When using this type of marketing you need to make sure that you Twitter (or Tweet) on a regular basis. You don't want to over use Twitter, but you do want to make sure that you are using it on a regular basis. If you fail to be active with Twitter, you will fail to maintain followers.
This type of marketing can bring followers of your website back time and time again. Additionally, it is a very effective way to introduce your followers to special events and promotions that you may be offering.
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No one wants another person to take over their account and impersonate them -- or worse. HTTP session hijacking is nowhere close to a new vulnerability, but with the introduction of the Firefox addon, Firesheep, people who have never hacked, are trying the free and easy-to-use tool. After installation, a person can connect to an open Wi-Fi network, see which users on that network are on insecure social sites, and then double-click on that user to capture their cookie and be logged in as them. Four days and nearly 400,000 downloads later, it's time to see insecure websites get serious about protecting their users' privacy and security with full end-to-end encryption.
On the second day after Firesheep was released, Firesheep was the second suggestion on Bing when you typed "fire". With Bing on the brain, I went to bing.com and tried to add S to HTTP. The below screenshot is what happens -- an invalid security certificate pops up.
After poking around on Twitter, I saw that other people had tried it as well.
When I asked Microsoft if it intended to encrypt its connection so that HTTPS worked with Bing, a spokesperson said, "The security and privacy of our customers is very important to us at Bing. We are looking at SSL and other technologies for future releases of Bing."
Windows Live, live.com, is also listed among the sites that can be sniffed and hijacked with Firesheep. Errata Security's Robert Graham blogged, "The presentation on FireSheep has the really cool graphic above, showing an elephant in the room. That's what sidejacking is: how long will providers like HotMail (MSN Live) and Yahoo continue not to provide encryption for their e-mail products. Seriously, if you still use the free versions of HotMail or Yahoo Mail, you are an idiot."
"Going forward the metric of Firesheep's success will quickly change from amount of attention it gains, to the number of sites that adopt proper security. True success will be when Firesheep no longer works at all," blogged Eric Butler one of Firesheep's creators.
Software security consultant Ian Gallagher co-authored the blog post as well as co-presented Firesheep at ToorCon. Gallagher lists some levels of failure that make it is so difficult for users to stay safe. There might be a complete absence of SSL/HTTPS, or it might be that some hosts charge for full-session SSL. "A basic expectation of privacy should not be a premium feature," he wrote. Most big sites do encrypt for the intial login, but after a user enters their username and password, the rest of the site is in HTTP and not HTTPS. "These sites fail to protect you because after you've authenticated, you're issued a cookie that identifies you throughout your browsing session, but if you think about it that's just as good as your username/password for 99% of the time," Gallagher explained. Then there are other sites that support full encryption but fail in to implement it securely.
He wrote:
You can't simply avoid visiting the sites that are being attacked here. There's an enormous amount of mixed content on the web today, such as the Facebook "Like" button, Digg's "Digg It" button, twitter widgets, and even embedded images that are hosted on Flickr or other photo sharing sites. Every time you access any web page that includes any of this content, your browser also sends any authentication cookies you have with the request to pull down the widget. TechCrunch is a great example of this, every article has lots of little widgets to share it on numerous social sites.
Even if you're proactive and think to log yourself out of a website, this rarely does anything but delete the cookies from your web browser - meaning any stolen copies of them are still going to work for accessing the website. Twitter, Amazon, Foursquare, Github, Flickr, Yahoo, Windows Live (Hotmail) and many others do not properly delete your session from their severs when you use their "Logout" features. Facebook, while having other problems, does appear to properly delete sessions on their servers when you "Logout".
I highly advise reading all of Gallagher's suggestions for how users might protect themselves as well as how website operators can fix the problem. He ends the post with these words of wisdom. "Many companies make a business, not technical, decision to not implement security due to either perceived or actual costs. It is our opinion that turning a blind eye to customer privacy and security is never good for business, and we hope the people making these decisions will begin to agree."
Dear Microsoft, you are a global software giant. I know there are some great privacy and security minded folks who work for you. Could you please hurry end-to-end encryption for Live and Bing so users will see that the security and privacy of your customers are very important to you?
A few months ago, people were starting to talk about Twitter. Now, Twitter is no secret; it's THE marketing tool everyone is talking about. If you are not using Twitter to promote your business, you are out of your mind.
If there's something that gets me more excited than Twitter is the ability to increase Twitter's potential by using tools. But let me give you a word of caution: once you try these Twitter tools, there's no way back. You'll become a Twitter genius and get more exposure for your business than you've ever thought possible. If you are OK with that, read on.
TweeFind
This tool allows you to search Twitter users and sorts the results by user rank. This is a great way to find tweets about a specific topic.
Twi.bz
As you probably know, tweets can be as long as 140 characters. This URL-shortening service is perfect to keep the URLs short and have more space to write your tweets.
Twellow
They call themselves "The Twitter Yellow Pages". Pretty self-explanatory, isn't it?
Friend or Follow
This is a great tool to find out who you are following that is not following you back and who is following you that you are not following.
TwitterCounter
This tool allows you to see in a graphic how your Twitter followers increase or decrease over time. TweetStats is another cool tool that performs the same task.
Twitter for WordPress
Twitter for WordPress displays yours latest tweets in your WordPress blog.
Twitter Widget for WordPress
This widget is placed in the sidebar of your WordPress blog and shows your latest Twitter updates.
TwitBin
TwitBin is a Firefox extension that allows you to keep up with all of your Twitter conversations right from your browser sidebar.
Just Tweet It
Another amazing Twitter directory. Find other Twitter users and list yourself so others can find you.
TwitterMail
This service allows you to tweet by email. Really cool.
TweetBeep
This one sends you regular emails with the latest updates of the people you are following on Twitter.
Who Should I Follow?
Very interesting tool that suggests Twitter users for you to follow, based on the profiles that you are currently following.
Twitter Search Feature
It used to be called Summize but now Twitter bought it. As its name reveals it, Twitter Search Feature allows you to search through the last tweets to find users that are posting a given keyword. TwitterMent is another great Twitter search engine.
Ping.fm
Although not a specific Twitter tool, Ping.fm is one of the coolest applications out there. It allows you to update your status in more than 40 social networking sites at once. You have to check this one out.
Qwitter
Qwitter is a tool that sends you an email when people stop following you. But what makes this tool amazing is the fact that they also tell you what of your tweets made them stop following you.
TweetLater
If you are like me, you want to keep your followers updated but you'd rather tweet several messages at once and choose when they should be posted. This is exactly what this tool is for.
Do you or your company have a Twitter account? If not then you must to get up to date and sign up for a free of charge account today! Lots of organizations right through the world have all began to take advantage of the amazing power of Twitter. Twitter is an easy system for you to keep your followers up to date with what is happening within your business. You simply have to give scheduled updates which your 'followers' will be able to read.
There are lots of methods with which you might get your hands on Twitter traffic, this is also acknowledged as followers. The easiest method to grow your Twitter traffic is by simply placing a special Twitter widget on your site this allows potential customers to your website to click a straightforward button to start following you on twitter. This is the easiest method to secure Twitter traffic for the reason that prospects which click on Your 'follow' me button have looked to join your Twitter account and have wanted to followed you by themselves.
An additional method to acquire Twitter traffic is to use the search option within Twitter. You can search Twitter for prospects which are chatting about particular 'keywords' which relate to your online business. Lets say, you a run a website committed to 'scary movies' you could run a search for 'scary movies' within Twitter and it will put on view every prospect which has talked about or made use of this terms within their Twitter conversation. You simply add these prospects to your Twitter account. This will provide you with a 50/50 probability that they will follow you back. This increases your followings very quickly.
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2. Go to Twitter.combadges and open the "Get a Widget for your Site" page
3. Click TypePad logo
4. Click Continue to open the "Add Twitter to your TypePad" weblog page
5. Use the "Number of updates list" to select the size of the tweet list
6. Use the "Title" text box to change the title to something other than the default ("Twitter Updates"). If you do not want a title select the "No Title" check box.
7. Click the "View the code" link
8. Highlight code and copy
9. Login to your TypePad account.
10. Click the blog you want to add your Twitter badge
11. Click Design tab
12. Click the Sidebar template.
13. Position the cursor where you want the widget to appear on your blog
14. Paste the code where you want it placed.
15. Click Save
Adding a Twitter Widget to Your Site
If you do not have either a Facebook, MySpace account, or Blog you can still give your site some support by showing off your tweets. Twitter gives you three different widgets you can add
? Interactive Flash widget.
This widget shows your username, avatar, and number of followers. It also contains a scrollable list of your last few tweets, and also enable your visitors to log in to their Twitter and interact by following you, replying to your tweet, or even marking one of your tweets as their favorite.
? Display-only Flash Widget.
This much more basic flash widget shows a shorter list of your recent tweets and a link to your Twitter profile. Tweet links work, but your web site readers cannot interact with you.
? HTML widget.
This widget displays your most recent tweets as text, and a follow me link to your Twitter profile. Tweet links (like regular links and @username links) work so your site readers are able to check the sites you recommend.
If you are a WordPress blog users there are many widgets available for you. Check out the Twitter Fan Wiki page for ideas.
So which one did you find helpful My personal favorite is the Interactive Flash widget.
Because this one is more likely to get you more followers since they have the ability to check your links and follow you by just one click. This makes it convenient for other Twitter users. Have fun growing your followers!
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Twitter has become one of the most useful business-building tools out there. It's quick and easy to use. And it's powerful. The power of Twitter lies in the ability to build relationships and create conversations with followers and the people who you follow. But it can seem overwhelming and 'just one more thing to do" So here are a few very short tips to get you in the swing.
Rule #1 Don't spend more then 15 minutes a day on Twitter!
You can have a high ROI without a lot of time on Twitter. I encourage people to use the Twitter widget in and iGoogle dashboard so that you don't drown in Twitter's site. This widget pulls your tweets in every 3 minutes so it stays up to date, but there are no other distractions. You can just dip over to see what's going on and get right back to work. It makes a nice break. You can scan what your people are chatting about, jump in if you choose, or tweet out a comment, short survey and be on your way. Spread your tweets through out the day to get the most exposure - but do not linger.
Rule #2 Do not Sell!
There are many ways to use Twitter but the number one no-no is hard sales. Nothing annoys people more than having someone constantly blasting sales pitches at them. This is not a commercial. It's a relationship building tool. Here are some things to tweet about to stay in your follower's good graces:
Share job opportunities or client needs Share useful or interesting links Share links to your blog posts, articles, events (that's OK, just don't be a used car salesman) Offer support Offer community Share an a-ha moment Share a feeling Ask a "have you ever..." question - start a conversation Ask for resources..."what's the best...?" Share a laugh Share a quote Share a vent, pet peeve, nervous tick... Do a tip of the day
Rule #3 Know who to follow
People of all sorts are going to follow you. That's part of the fun of Twitter. But to make the best use of your time, choose who you follow carefully. I know a lot of people do an automatic follow in return when someone follows you, but that didn't work for me. For some bizarre reason a lot of real estate people started following me and they really do a lot of sales tweets so I had to go back and unfollow. So be strategic. Here are a few ideas on who to follow (tip: you can search by keywords for people to follow:
People who hire freelancers People who know people who hire freelancers People who outsource to other freelancers People who share the same ideas and interests People who have to potential to collaborate on ideas People who inspire you People who you find funny, interesting,...
Rule #4 Remember: Relationships & Fun
That's really what social media is all about, creating relationships, sharing your expertise, and having some fun.
The final caution:
Do not tweet anything that you do not want a room of about 150 people to hear. I'm just saying...
Want To Use This Article In Your Ezine or Website? You have my permission, as long as you include this complete blurb with it: Barbara Saunders is a designer specializing in custom publishing and the Director of the International Association of Self-Employed Communication Professionals. You can visit Barbara, access the free article archive, and find out more about the group at http://www.IASECP.com. Sign up for our weekly newsletter and get a complimentary copy of our book "Preferred Partners Share Their Ultimate Business Tips for Self-Employed Communication Professionals". Barbara lives in Portland, Oregon with a spinning Pomeranian and two cats.
Following up from the last set of Social Media Marketing webinars where we covered the basics of Twitter and other Social Media tools and sites, I have been getting questions about using Twitter for business purposes. In response to those questions, I wanted to write out a short list of Twitter for Business best practices and some of the most popular tools that make these practices possible. This list of tools, techniques, and what is possible is changing and expanding almost daily with the explosion of Twitter usage and discussions of Twitter merging with some other site/partner. Thus I expect to stay current on using Twitter for business purposes we will need to repost more on this topic from time to time.
o Be Real (don't hide) - It is important that you completely fill in the registration and profile information when signing up on Twitter. If you set up your Twitter Id as a business name it is less real than using a personal name. If you still want the business name in there, you could possibly add the company after the persons name (like Dell computer has been known to do with names like "PatrickAtDell"). In the profile section, post your website. I wouldn't recommend a short URL here if you can avoid it since this is your brand and the full link helps in your SEO rankings. Also in the profile section you enter in relevant search terms in your profile description.
With the profile bio limited to 160 characters, you want to get the relevant keywords included. By doing so you don't have much space to talk about the business specifically. However you can also squeeze in more content about your business including other websites, urls, logos, or content by uploading a custom Twitter background. Be aware though that the search engines and tools people are using to find you will not pick up words or content located in the background image. That's why the keywords have to be in your description.
Finally and possibly most important is that you need to upload a picture. People want to see who they are communicating with, even if you are representing a company. If Twitters don't think you are real, they are less likely to be interested in following you and learning more about your business (we are Twittering for Business here remember). If you try to hide with no picture, just a logo, an incomplete profile or no description, the cynical side of social media marketing will take over, people will assume the worst and they won't follow you.
o Participate (be Relevant, contribute, share, respond) - For a business or business person to be relevant in the Twitter conversation going on, they need to participate. Ask questions and elicit responses. Respond to other user's questions. Tweet not only your own relevant contributions but retweet (RT) other Tweets that you find valuable. Promote and/or attribute others where there's a reason to do so. You can build a following faster if you appear trust worthy (easiest way to do that is by actually being trustworthy), know your subject matter and don't look like you are just out the get them to buy something.
The graders and ranking sites look at both your following as well as your activity. There's a number of search tools that will help you here to see who is talking about what and who is specifically responding to you (for example with @replies). These tools can help you determine where you might want to jump into a conversation and build that relevance. This is important in being noticed by searches from other users. You build following with contribution, relevance, and responsiveness.
The number of keywords in your tweet cloud is also important. Are you an active Tweeter? If so, what are you tweeting about? Are you relatively consistent in what you discuss? There's a big difference between using Twitter like text messaging and blogging each trip to the grocery store and using Twitter for business with a targeted, specific approach to your online identity and the topics you take on. Again, the grading web sites will pick up on this targeted approach and quickly move you to "elite" status in your chosen keywords if you Tweet with some forethought.
o Automate (where possible) - Reduce the time it takes you to research what is happening in the Twitterdom, speed up your own Tweeting, get yourself followed automatically, and build ranking faster and easier. There are several automation type tools available to help build your Twitter for business presence without having to hire a back room full of people:
--TweetBeep -Set up alerts for various keywords, people, different attitudes, and links. --Summize (Twitter Search) - Search for your keywords, click a button and you have a custom RSS feed that you can read via your favorite feed reader, or put on your Google or Yahoo home page. A synopsis available on what's happening. --Tweetlater - one of the more versatile tools related to Twitter. A quick list of services include; emailing a digest of Tweets (like TweetBeep), Pre-scheduling tweets to keep your tweet stream flowing, pre-saving Tweets or common snippets of tweets for faster Tweeting, Automating direct messages to people that follow you, and managing multiple Twitter Ids at the same time. --Twitscoop - extends what Twitter Search can do with both real-time searches of specific keywords as well as what the overall Twitterdom is talking about using (the Tweet Cloud). It also shows you the hot trends in the cloud. --Twellow - This is another research tool that extends Twitter for business use, Twellow searches people's profiles or what they are Tweeting about under specific, predefined categories, or a general search. Twellow will also show you geographically where people are Tweeting from in the US and Canada. --Remember the Milk (RTM) - A real unique and cutting edge use of Twitter. RTM is a Task management service (set up reminders, tasks, things to do, etc.) for an individual or a small team or business. You can interact with Remember the Milk through Twitter. You simply follow the Twitter ID @rtm and then send it commands like retrieving your current tasks, adding new tasks, setting up automated reminders, even sending tasks to other Twitter users. This is a great adaptation of Twitter for business use.
o Re-purpose existing content- With taking care of customers, blogging, keeping up profiles on numerous social media sites, all while running a business, maintaining your online presence can quickly become overwhelming. Use tools like Twitterfeed to automatically Tweet content from an RSS feeds of your other blogs or sites, and Alterthingy, another tool that helps you aggregate and repost your content across the multiple sites, and profiles you need to maintain.
In addition, several blogs (Wordpress for example) are building Twitter widgets to be able to display your tweets (and others) on your blog, thus keeping the blog actively changing and a target for better search engine ranking and more active visits.
There are any number of other ways you can use Twitter for Business and this note really only scratches the surface of what is possible. As the popularity of Twitter grows so will the unique and inventive ways of using this innovative tool.
About Urvi Mehta:
Urvi Mehta is a passionate Social Media Evangelist who thrives on teaching and consulting business owners and organizations on how to use Web 2.0 and social media tools and social networks like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to help create buzz and influence their branding online.
She is the co-founder of PR Easy (http://www.PREasy.com), a full service online marketing company which serves clients around the world. Urvi teaches her clients how to utilize social networking sites, such as, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to establish themselves as authorities in their industry, acquire more clients and ultimately increase profit.
Urvi holds a Masters degree in Public Health from the University of Illinois in Chicago and is considered by her peers as someone who "holds nothing back and gives real meat." She has recently started a blog, http://www.UrviMehta.com where she discusses Social Media Strategies.
Sources like Fox News, MSNBC, and CNN to name a few have found success on Twitter, but in general corporate Twitter accounts don't seem to fair as well. It's all about a 2 way form of communication and not so much a broadcasting tool for corporations. One would miss the potential to use it like that.
That doesn't mean that you can't start a Twitter account for you organization. For example, if I opened a Twitter account using my name, you might not recognize the name, unless you were trying to make a large presence online with a huge number of followers, [not always the case]. but if I instead used the name BENJAMINS4U, you might be more inclined to follow because we all could use some Benjamins, right?
And then again it's not always the name that matters as is the content of the tweet. Tweets should be more than an endless string of sales pitches, ads, and links. Lots of personal content should also be included with a dialogue to followers.
That is all to important because this is where you make the bond with the follower. Having honest and open tweets with your followers is of the utmost importance. In this way you are sure to build loyalty and trustworthiness. This also opens the door for repeat traffic as well as word-of-mouth recommendations.
2-Learn From Others
I have learned allot about Twitter just by sitting back and observing other's tweets, as well as my personal back office's massive training regimen. Sometime people tweet with lots of humor, and follower respond well to that while others I've monitored, offer a good balance between recommending content written by others and also promoting one's own posts.
When you examine the styles of others tweets, look at their statistics also. Try a app. like TWEETSTAT. When you use this you can view how often they tweet and reply to their followers. I like Tweepi for stats. You get one hell of a chart full of statistics.
3-Desktop Clients-A Must
In my opinion, the top of the line out there has got to be. This is an Adobe AIR app for Linux, Mac, and of course, Windows. You get some awesome tools to manage your life on Twitter. You can create groups, make columns for certain subjects, create filters, and everything else you can do on basic Twitter. Just download this gem, and you'll be off and tweeting in no time.
4-Tweet And Travel
I'm not saying here to tweet while you are driving or operating any type of equipment, but if your going to personal as well as professional, you'll want this on the road with you. If your not lucky enough to have an iPhone, plug into Twitter's mobile web site. If you do have an iPhone, [I personally do not], you may want to try Tweetie. The reviews say that it is clean, easy to navigate, and is loaded with features. You can have multiple accounts, access profiles, do custom searches and view popular trends to name a few. It may even be better than TweetDeck. It's been said to offer a much cleaner interface as well as having the power of TweetDeck.
5-Tracking Your Results
There is a huge list of apps used to track your activity.Tweepi is just one of those. But, what us IM'ers need to know is, if I post a link on Twitter, how many people will click through?
If the link pointed to my website, Google Analytics' URL tagging tool could be implicated. The only problem is, it only works when I'm linking to my own website. In addition, the URL's can get pretty long, you only have 140 characters to spend.
This brings us to Tweet Burnner, which will handle most of these problems. URL shortening, click-through tracking, including sites you don't run yourself. It is also supported in TweetDeck but not in Tweetie.
6-To Follow And To Be Followed
Part of being a hit on Twitter is to reply to those who tweet you. It's not about who follows you, it's about who you follow. Another useful app is Mr. Tweet. You get a couple different kinds of info with Mr. Tweet:
people you may look into following, because they meet your criteria [people that your friends follow],
suggests tweeple from your followers list that you should be following back.
It also provide statistical information including:
how often they make updates,
number of followers,
the likelihood of them replying to you.
It's a good way to expand your network and increase the chances of your tweets getting retweeted.
7-Whenever Possible-IntegrateIf your going to use Twitter for other than personal use, you'll need to incorporate it into your strategy. This means you have to link it in some way to your other online activities. Other social networks included. There is no shortage of tools to help you do this, from sending your tweets to Facebook, Linkdin, or Wordpress to the basic Twitter widget.
TwitterFeed is one tool that caught my attention. This tool will post content from RSS feed to Twitter, and this is a good way to update your followers to new postings. But it is important to remember, that any auto-posting app can easily get you Twitter slapped if used in excess. It also make the post less personable.
8-Don't Reinvent The Wheel
It should be noted that the use of all these tools, is that it can make the whole Twitter experience less than personal. You might want to omit some of those late night drunken blackout tweets far behind, you shouldn't make them too sterile either.
Just be yourself. Don't send your primary opportunity up front. It should be on the backend. In your bio, don't link to your main objective or your biz op website, link to blog which should be your nerve center.
K.I.S.S. Most of all, have fun!
Thomas P. Lane has been a successful Master Mechanic and N.H.R.A. drag racer for over 25 years. He now spends his time and energies into cultivating entrepreneurs online by applying an honest and ethical approach to Internet marketing. His success in mentoring others to become financially independent and optimizing their lifestyles has already put him in demand in the Internet marketing circles.
For further information and to become a member of Thomas' elite group of marketers, please email at agentoffortune1@gmail.com, or call directly at 440-458-8631 in the United States.
How would you like to have all your Tweets show up on your other websites, like Facebook or your blog? It easy to do with the Twitter Badge.
The Twitter Badge is actually one of Twitter's ways to try to get you to promote your Twitter site. Here is a Twitter Marketing Tip that explains the 7 easy steps to putting a Twitter Badge on all your sites.
You can find the Twitter Badge on your Twitter site. Just go to settings, (in the top right corner). Then scroll down, (and it's kind of hard to find,) to More Info URL. It says "Have a homepage or blog? Put the address here (You can also add Twitter to your site here.) Click on the blue link and you are invited to put the Twitter Badge on various social networks. Just click on the one you want to have a Twitter Badge on and it will guide you thru the steps. To put a Twitter Badge on your blog, click on Other and then click on Continue (bottom right corner). This will bring you to a page where you have 2 options. You will have a flash widget and an html widget. The html widget is good because it will just mix in with the rest of your blog text. The flash widget has a more professional look contained inside a box with a login and follow button. It also has the scroll feature, so you can scroll down and see several Tweets. After deciding which Twitter badge you want on your blog, click Continue again. This takes you to another page where you can choose yet another older Twitter widget that just shows your latest Tweet. Decide which one you want and click Continue again. This is the page where you can select the style and size you'd like to display on your blog. Just click on the styles and it will show examples of how they look, colors, etc. The narrow size works great on a blog. If you know some html, here is where you can go in and modify the Twitter widget to exactly the look and size you want. If you don't know html, then leave it alone. It looks really good just as it is for most blogs. If you choose to click on the html option. You have a couple more options. You can choose Number of updates shown and create your own Title. It will show on the right exactly what it will look like. You can also put other people's Twitter on your page by going into the html and changing the Twitter link to their Twitter user name instead of yours. Once again, just copy and paste it into your site, right where you want it. OK, now you're going to put it on your blog. Right click on the box of html code and click select all in the pop up box. Then click on copy. Login to your blog admin site and under Appearance, select Widgets. Look for Text and click on the blue Add link. This opens a Text Widget at the bottom of your Current Widgets. Click Edit link and when it opens, you can click and paste the html code you copied. Click Done and Save Changes and go view your blog site. You can then go back and drag the text box you just created up to the location in your sidebar where you want it to appear. Easy as cake, huh?
This is a great way to put additional new content on your site pages constantly with no extra work. Hope you enjoyed this Twitter Marketing Tip.
To learn more about how to create traffic with Twitter, Social Marketing and Affiliates, you can check out Carol at http://FromMyKitchenTable.com
You'll learn all about Marketing Tips That Work, Social Marketing - Traffic Generation - List Building - Affiliate Marketing - Product Creation.
From Carol Hansen - From My Kitchen Table - Bizness Wizard.
Here are the steps to add a Twitter widget to your blog
1. Sign in to Twitter
2. Point your Web browser at twitter.combadges.
3. Click the Blogger logo
4. Click Continue
5. Use the "Number of Updates" list to select the size of the tweet list.
6. Use the Title text box to change the title if you do not like the default "Twitter Updates" title.
7. Click "add to Blogger"
8. Type your Google account e-mail address and password, then click Sign in.
9. Use the "Select a blog list" to choose the blog you want to use, if you have more than one.
10. Again, you get a chance to edit the title by changing the Title text
11. If you also want to modify the widget code, which you are more than welcome to, click the Edit Content to display code.
12. Click "Add Widget"
13. Click Save
You can now View the blog with its new, cool Twitter widget.
Including Your Tweets on Your TypePad Blog
IF you are a TypePad fan, you can also let your blog followers know about your Twitter updates by adding your personal Twitter widget to your blog sidebar. Best of all, Twitter offers a widget that will be added automatically.
Adding the Twitter Widget Automatically
1. Sign in to Twitter
2. Send your Web browser to twitter.combadges to open the "Get a Widget for Your Site" page
3. Click the TypePad logo
4. Click Continue.
5. Use the Number of updates list to select the size of the tweet list
6. Use the Title text box to change the title to something other than default
7. Click Install Widget on Type Pad
8. Type your TypePad account e-mail address and password and finally sign in.
9. In the Configure section, select the check box next to each blog where you want the widget to appear.
10. Edit the title, if it pleases you
11. Click Add Widget.
12. If you want to configure where the widget shows up, click "Change Content Ordering" click and hold the Twitter widget to the new position and finally click Save.
Now you can view the weblog to see your personal blog with the new Twitter widget.
To download Your Copy of Underground Secret Twitter Manifesto (a $97 value) for Free go to http://www.freeinternettrafficsecrets.com/twitter.html to learn how to tap into the most powerful Viral Traffic Machines Online and Make More Money Than You Ever Imagined Using Twitter Marketing Secretes.
Like caramel and chocolate, some things just go well together and nothing epitomizes this sentiment more than integrating the social network juggernaut Twitter with the blogging software giant WordPress. There are a number of Twitter tools on the market that, when combined with WordPress, will turn your blog into a marketing magnet that attracts readers and followers.
Here are a few free Twitter tools you can integrate easily on your WordPress blog to optimize your social networking activities.
1. Twitter Tools - This WordPress Twitter plugin provides a couple of cool and useful functions. The main one is the ability to automatically tweet your blog posts to your Twitter account. Other options include using Bit.ly to shorten URLs, add hashtags to the tweets and to post a daily or weekly digest of your Twitter tweets on your blog.
2. Tweet This Plugin - This WordPress Twitter plugin adds a Retweet button to each blog post so visitors can easily tweet your posts through their Twitter accounts. You can also set the plugin to automatically shorten URLs and to send new and upcoming blog posts to your Twitter account. The nice thing about this plugin is it keeps track of how many people retweeted your post using the button so you can see at a glance how popular the article is.
3. TwitterLink Comments - The producers of CommentLuv also created a WordPress Twitter plugin that allows a commenter to add a link to their Twitter profile each time they leave a comment. Let's face, if people see they can get an extra link that will promote their projects, they will usually leave a comment.
4. Twitter Widget - Twitter Widget by TwitterCounter is not a specific WordPress plugin but it might be nice to have on a blog. This widget tracks Twitter users who most frequently visit your blog. This is nice for creating a sense of community and for rewarding active users with a little publicity.
5. WordPress Greetbox - This isn't a Twitter tool per se but it still is a great plugin. This tool detects where your visitor came from and greets them with a personal message that you define in the admin panel. So for example, if your visitor came to your blog by clicking a link on Twitter, they will be greeted with a custom message that says something like, "Hi Twitter user, thanks for stopping by my blog". This is great for personally welcoming people to your home on the net.
There are many more Twitter tools for WordPress that you can use to create community and to help you manage your social networking. You are only limited by your creativity and imagination.
Stacy Kinney is an Internet Network Marketing and Social Media coach. She teaches the most effective methods for lead generation on the internet today. For more tips and tools that will give your business the boost it needs to compete effectively in the marketplace visit http://RockYourBusinessOnline.com | Follow Stacy on Twitter
As a recruiter how can you reach out to a potentially large candidate pool on social media space in a short span of time? The answer is in carefully crafted social media strategy.
Link your social Media Accounts
As a recruiter build your professional profile carefully on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. A strong presence in these 3 social media forums are an absolute must if you want to taste success in social Media Recruitment. Linking up your networks is even more important as it allows maintaining uniformity across social media networks.
It may seem a little daunting to start with but with but maintaining all 3 networks can be automated in such a way that if you do a Twitter update it will automatically update your statuses in LinkedIn and Facebook saving valuable time and energy. Both LinkedIn and Facebook offer Twitter widgets and all you need to do is to activate the widgets to link all your 3 accounts together. Once you link up your Twitter account with LinkedIn and Facebook you are ready to move to the next level.
Create your Blog Site for Job Posts to harness RSS Feeds
Do I need a blog? The answer is no if you have applicant tracking system which generates RSS feeds for your jobs and offers a job publishing platform. If you don't have system to rely on than a blog can become an indispensable tool for your recruitment process. Blogs can be used as a remarkably cheap platform to publicize your jobs and hundreds of smart recruiters are doing so.
So go ahead and create your blog. Build your profile on your blog carefully with links to your LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter accounts. Make sure the banding is uniform across all 4 platforms. The best approach here is to keep things simple and professional to start with. You can always add bells and whistles as you grow confident. And yes there are ready-made widgets to integrate your social media profiles with your blog and can be unearthed with a little research.
All popular blogging platforms (Blogger, WordPress, Typepad etc to name a few) generate RSS feeds. The innocuous RSS feed are most effective form of content syndication on the Internet today and offers limitless possibilities in spreading your content on the internet. We need to harness RSS feeds to reach out to a larger audience. Once build your blog and start posting, your blog site with generate your RSS Feed. There are many ways to publicize your feed:
You can submit your feeds on all major search engines; you can integrate them on Feed Directories. And you can integrate your RSS feed into your social network which is what I will focus on this article.
Use FeedBurner to auto publish your blog RSS feeds as Tweets
Create a FeedBurner ( http://www.feedburner.com ) account and burn your feed to make your blog feed RSS reader friendly. After you burn your Feed use the FeedBurner tools to optimize and publicize your feed. To publicize your feed FeedBurner offers a gem of a feature called socialize which integrates your RSS feed with your Twitter account. The interface is simple and intuitive and can be activated with a few clicks! The system allows you to send your blog feeds to your twitter account in 1 hr intervals in a twitter friendly format.
Now you have created a system where the moment you post your jobs on your blog the post will be automatically fed into your Twitter account as Tweets via FeedBurner. Once your feed is published on Twitter your already linked accounts on LinkedIn and Facebook will automatically pick up the tweets and publish them as your status updates. In other words all your connections across 3 major social networks can view your job posts as status updates with a link to click on. This in turn which will lead them to your blog to view your jobs and apply. Now you are ready to move to Level 4.
Moving beyond your network using Twitter
Now you have created a system to publicize your jobs across your Twitter LinkedIn and Facebook contacts. Is there a way to move beyond your network? Social Networks tend to grow organically depending on how aggressively you are building them and your jobs can spread quickly via viral mode to a larger network of 2nd and 3rd degree contacts. You can move to an audience beyond your network with the help of a few twitter tools.
? Create an account with twitjobsearch.com and integrate your twitter feed. You Job tweets will become part of a large twitter job platform and will reach out to thousands of followers beyond your network.
? Also use twitterjobcast.com all you need to do is use the word hiring in your job titles. Twitter job cast will automatically pick up your posts and publicize on twitterjobcast.com. As a strategy start your job posts with the word hiring and use the position and location in a tightly constructed blog title. Example "Hiring Mortgage Sales Officers in San Francisco, CA".
Closing the Loop
Now you are reaching beyond your networks and effectively closed the communication loop for effective social media recruitment.
This article at best lays a very basic foundation of what can be achieved in social media recruitment. There are hundreds and twitter tools out there and possibilities are limitless. You can refer feedmyapp.com to experiment with social media tools and to move your social media recruiting strategy forward.
Twitter problems are everywhere. I'm not talking about people who are addicted to Twitter or even the people who just can't figure it out. I'm talking about your everyday, business and hard core Twitter users. If you search for twitter problems on search dot twitter dot com, you'll find an endless stream. So let's discuss the most common.
The most common problem is not being able to log-in. There is a password retrieval process at the log-in on twitter.com, but for the most part you have to go directly through Twitter's help desk to get that resolved. For most people and businesses, not being able to log-in could be a major issue. But did you know there's a way to keep tweeting even when you can't login?
Another issue people have is with the profile photo. For a long time there was some sort of glitch causing profile photos to disappear. But for most people it's just not loading up the right size photo. If your profile photo disappears, make sure to visit Twitter's zendesk and put a trouble-ticket in. Otherwise, try another photo and a different size. Twitter' status page will tell you if the problem is system-wide.
You'll also find people who can't seem to find tweets when they are mentioned. This has been a problem from Day 1. You can always search for yourself in the search box, you can set-up an RSS feed of your name or even a Yahoo!Pipe. The best way is to check your mentions and search for yourself.
Our 4th problem is one that people seem to get worked up about the most. Lost followers. It just so happens that people unfollow everyday. There are many accounts that are automated to unfollow people who don't follow back. And others just unfollow randomly. If you are really missing followers and there's an actual technical glitch - then you'll need to contact Twitter.
Another problem that will occur whether you like it or not is spammers. At some point spam will spew forth from your account. If your account is tied to your Facebook page, blog and LinkedIn - and if you have Twitter widgets everywhere, this is a potentially damning situation. The first thing you want to do is to change your password, but don't change it to match the password of your e-mail account. The second is eleminate the connections in your settings.
And I'd like to invite you to learn more about Twitter problem solutions at http://twittrglitch.com
Daniel R Morris (DanRMorris on Twitter) Internet Marketer, Niche and SEO Strategist. Dan can be found at http://danmorrismarketing.com
Twitter has indeed become one important tool in promoting your business online aside as well from being a social networking tool. Of course, the more people you can connect with Twitter, the wider audience you can have in promoting your online business.
However, learning how to get twitter followers fast is one thing that you may be concerned of so that you can get a wider audience in no time. In any promotional undertaking, it is always ideal to have a wider audience. You can also maximize your promotions and advertising if you can get a large number of twitter followers.
To help you achieve a good number of followers and get twitter followers fast, here are a few tips that you might find useful.
Include you twitter address into your email signature. E-mail is widely used in most of transactions even from simple inquiries and exchange of information, thus you can also make this a tool to announce your twitter information and prompt your e-mail recipient to follow you on twitter. Use your social networking sites to get twitter followers fast. This will help you make your twitter information known to your friends and contacts in your social networking site. Of course, you can also add more details and information on what they can get if they can follow you on twitter. You can also give a little teaser or a few interesting ideas on what benefits them to follow you on twitter. Put it on your website or your blog. Especially if you are promoting your business through twitter, putting a tool in your blog that allows your blog readers to follow you on twitter is one effective way to get twitter followers fast. However, you have to catch their attention first and make them click that 'follow' button. One advantage of putting your twitter widget on your website or your blog is that, you can provide teaser information on your blog on what they can get if they follow you on twitter. Of course, the more interesting your website is, the more people would love to follow you on Twitter. You can also offer contests and tutorials on your site and let your readers follow you on Twitter for updates. Allow your twitter to be added in twitter directories. This will help make your twitter more visible online. Update your twitter page and customize it. The more interesting is your twitter page, the more people would love to follow it. Being active on the site is also another important thing that you have to do if you want to get twitter followers fast. Twitter is a very appealing tool for people who wants to get the most updated information on events, people, celebrities and other important information. If you can provide fresh content and information now and then, the more would people want to get updated by following you on twitter.
Carolyn Anderson uses makes use of social networking sites to promote her business. If you want to use Twitter to promote your business, check out the tool Follow Tweet. Also check out Twitter Friend Follower, where you can find ways on how you can use Twitter to promote your business online.
If you want to add a Twitter feed to your website or blog that will show your most recent tweets then here's what you need to do.
Log into your Twitter account. At the bottom of the page is a tab called Goodies.
Select this tab and you will be taken to a page that had a choice of Widgets or buttons.
Select widgets and you will be taken to a page that asks you to select your widget. As you want to add a Twitter feed to your website or blog choose the 'My Website' tab on the top left of the page.
On the next page you have a number of widget options. To display your latest tweets on your website or blog choose "Profile Widget"
This will take you to a page that has an example of your Twitter feed. You can now make a number of changes to the feed so that it fits into the design of your website or blog.
You can change the number of tweets displayed if you select the 'Preferences' tab
You can change the colours of the feed box by selecting the 'Appearance' tab. Try and choose a colour scheme that matches the colours in your website or blog.
You can also change the dimensions of the Twitter feed box by selecting the 'Dimensions' tab.
Once you have made your style selections click on the 'Test settings' tab at the bottom of the page. This will display your selected version of the Twitter feed. If you are happy with your choices then click on the 'Finish and Grab Code' tab.
A box will appear with the HTML code that you need to us to add a Twitter feed to your website or blog. Copy and paste the code to a notepad.
Open up your html editor. I use Kompozer. Insert the piece of code that you saved on notepad into your website or blog. Upload your amended website and blog using a FTP client. I use Filezilla.
Have a look at your website to make sure your feed is working.
That's how to add a Twitter feed to your website or blog.
David Lascelles lives in Cobham Surrey UK
David teaches BEGINNERS the basics of internet marketing.
For more information on this and other great resources.
Even though the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 runs Android 1.6, features like the 1 GHz Snapdragon processor, 1 GB on-board storage, storage expandable to 32 GB via card slot, and 8.1 megapixel camera still make this phone a formidable smartphone contender across all American carriers.
Hardware
At a glance, the Xperia X10 has a beautiful, scratch-resistant 480-by-854 pixel display with three hard buttons directly below the screen for quick access to application settings, on-screen keyboard, home, and back function. The screen also respectably repels fingerprints, but I immediately put a screen protector over it to avoid any accidents.
There are no hard Start or End Call buttons, which takes some getting used to, but I love the fact that the volume rocker doubles as a Zoom button when in camera mode. A long press of the Camera button activates the camera, but there is a noticeable lag before the camera turns on. The quickest way to activate the camera is to use a Camera shortcut on the home screen. The phone also features an LED camera light; I say “light” and not “flash” because this light has to be manually turned on and off through the camera settings. I’m hoping Sony includes an automatic LED flash setting in a future software upgrade.
The Xperia X10 also includes the all-hallowed 3.5 mm audio jack at the top of the phone beside the Power button. The phone includes Sony Ericsson earbuds, but any 3.5 mm jack earbuds work just fine. Since I still plan to use my iPod Classic for music and podcasts, I’ll have those familiar white earbuds nearby for when I feel the need to stream music. Still, the Xperia does include a 2 GB microSD card in the box, and the phone is expandable to 32 GB of storage via the microSD card slot. Making the Xperia my new MP3 player is entirely possible, although the battery life will suffer.
Included with the phone is a standard Li-Po 1500 mAh battery, which has the same pitfalls as any other smartphone. Turn off Background Data and the battery lasts all day on one charge from dawn to dusk with approximately a 30-percent charge to spare. If Background Data is on with streaming music, the battery life meets and quick end like any other smartphone.
Interface
The highlight of this category is the the Xperia X10’s sleek Timescape interface. Instead of traditional text lists for SMS, emails, Twitter, Facebook, missed calls, and photos, Sony has integrated all that online content into dynamic, vertically floating tiles. All photos and avatars are visible in Timescape mode. When a tile is selected, it expands to show a full message or post from that source. On the upper right of the tile there is an infinity symbol, which when pressed will list all connected contact, photos, or posts throughout the phone.
I’m shocked that Google and Facebook contacts don’t automatically associate themselves like on the HTC Hero. Even though the initial setup pulls information from Gmail, I had to manually enable syncing with Google Calendar and Contacts through the phone’s general settings. Otherwise, I’ve had to connect Facebook and Twitter friends with my phonebook Contacts one by one.
The lower right of an expanded Timescape tile shows an icon that classifies a file type. For example, a quick click on a lower right symbol for a Twitter post will open my Twitter client, twicca. A click on a photo symbol will open the full photo, where swiping left or right will scroll through other photos on the Camera Roll. Mediascape beautifully handles browsing through photos and videos. I would love a Mediascape widget similar to the Timescape widget so I can just see recent photos on my home screen instead of all of my friends’ online content.
Despite how demanding an app as fluid as Timescape can be, the Xperia’s 1 GHz processor handles swiping through different feeds and stacking tiles very well. There is a slight lag when going into the photo submenu, which may be dependent on photo resolution settings. The bigger the photos, the longer the load time.
I’m a huge fan of all the touchscreen camera options! Capturing Mode, Resolution, Scenes, Focus Mode, Exposure, Video Mode, and access to the Camera Roll are all available on-screen. Combined with the volume rocker button doubling as a zoom rocker button, the Xperia’s camera is versatile and extremely responsive even when switching from portrait to landscape mode.
The on-screen keyboard has gotten a bad reputation since this phone’s release. I will say that the keyboard is very responsive but accuracy suffers while in portrait mode. That may be partly my fault, but since I’ve been using a touchscreen phone for over a year now I don’t think there should be much of a difference. There are no issues with the keyboard while in landscape mode. If anything, typing accuracy is everything it should be.
Applications
AT&T trial versions of apps dominate preloaded applications. AT&T FamilyMap, AT&T Hot Spots, AT&T Maps, AT&T Navigator, AT&T Radio, and YP Mobile are the obvious apps. Where™ will fly under the radar until it’s opened, which is when the gobsmackingly large subscription screen appear. I appreciate the up-front message regarding the risks of data usage and additional fees. The funny fact is that the most useful AT&T application available, AT&T myWireless Mobile, was not preloaded. Mobile Video, MobiTV, OfficeSuite, and Work Email for business users are also included. I was also thankful to see Google apps like Maps, Talk, Navigation, and Places available out-of-the box. The top three apps I feel should come preloaded on all smartphones are a respectable file manager, photo editor, and mobile billing account manager. The inability to delete multiple photos through Mediascape is annoying. I’m sure I must be missing something here. I also have to remember that deleting a photo through Timescape does not delete it from my device.
For more experienced smartphone users, there’s no problem with replacing preloaded apps with better options from the Android Market. Some general users new to smartphones may get the Xperia X10, be alienated by Timescape and Mediascape, and ask for the accessibility of an iPhone. Timescape is optional and can be set as the default home screen option for the Home button, but I prefer to get my detailed weather updates, date, and time through LevelUp Studio’s Beautiful Home.
Phone Calls
The lack of hard Start and End Call buttons forces me to take up space on the home screen by adding a Dialer shortcut. The lack of a settings submenu accessible from the Dialer is weird, and even more unconventional is the ability to post Twitter or Facebook updates from the top of the Contacts list. Yes, the contacts search bar also doubles as a status updater, although I don’t know why someone would want to feed status updates through a dialer over their preferred Facebook or Twitter widgets. I love the easily accessible New Contact button at the top of the contact list. The letters along the right side of the contact list are nice for finding certain people fast, but I wish the letters were bigger than a nine or ten-point sans serif font.
Verdict
I am in love with the Xperia X10’s sleek and light-weight form factor, but I do acknowledge the slow responsiveness of the camera button and the annoyance of having to manually activate the LED light. Plus, the lack of Start and End Call buttons are not my personal preference.
The beautiful large screen, powerful 1 GHz Snapdragon processor, 8.1 megapixel camera with LED light, and ability to expand storage to 32 GB makes the X10 the top smartphone offering among AT&T’s current Android handsets. I also love the ability to connect my phone contacts with their Facebook and Twitter accounts via Timescape. Mediascape is also a beautiful way of handling photos and videos both on my phone and on Facebook, but I would love to add other accounts like TwitPic, yFrog, or Photoshop Mobile instead of just Facebook and Picasa.
There is also the possibility of an HD video option via later software updates. Not being able to install third-party software and the old Android 1.6 OS are annoying, but are neither are deal-breakers. Plus, Sony is committed to later software upgrades, so I’m optimistic about getting the latest Android OS in the near future. I can also live with the preloaded AT&T apps even though I won’t use them.
While I will keep my rooted HTC Magic as a back-up handset, the Xperia X10 is a fabulous day-to-day phone to keep up with online life and a wonderful alternative to a point-and-shoot camera for any smartphone enthusiast.
Source: Sony Ericsson
Marilyn Torres (62 Posts) - Website | Twitter | Facebook
Marilyn Torres is a contributing blogger for Mobility Site. She also blogs about movies, books, comics, Disneyana, and recipes at her personal blog at Posterous. Marilyn has a Bachelor of Arts in English and currently lives with her other half, Cavalier-Poodle, and tabby cat in Central Florida.
It is the fantasy of most of twitter users that more people read their tweets. All of us want more followers and we do fell sad when our tweets go unread. What can be done?
Currently your tweets are displayed on your account. How about adding a widget that displays your latest tweets in your blogs and your website automatically? That way your latest tweets will always be on display on your blogs and your websites. Don't you think that will add more followers to you and make more people read your tweets? Then let me tell you how to do this- add a widget to your blogs and/or sites.
The most popular widgets are available in flash on some sites. The themes that are available currently are- Cool, Cute, Easter, Flowers, Fun, Gemstones, Halloween, Hearts, Love, Nature, Smiles, Spring, St. Patrick's Day, USA, Zodiac. New themes get added everyday.
Click on the theme you wish to use. This theme will form background of your widget. Now click on that and you will get many widgets with different backgrounds. Select yours and add your twitter user name in the box that is provided. You will get a code. Add this code to your blogs and sites and click to save. Your widgets gets embedded and any body who visits your blogs will now be able to read your tweets.
The update on widgets happens in real time- the moment you add a tweet, it shows in your widget. There are many more ways to promote you tweets with twitter, but I find this to be the easiest method. You can also change the theme everyday to bring freshness to your page. May you have as many followers as you wish using this widget. Now display your latest tweets with this unique Twitter widget. Don't you think that these five minutes will add many more followers to your twitter account?
"Give2gether is a SaaS (Software as a Service) platform that enables NPOs to create online fund raising campaigns in 5 easy steps, fully integrated with their social media efforts.
Our online platform is based on a proprietary set of behavioral algorithms, leveraging social group interactions while significantly improving visitor -> donor conversion rates.
By turning strangers into friends, friends into donors, donors into fundraisers and enabling social activism, give2gether maximizes online philanthropy conversion rates."
The way in which you can set down your license alone makes it a very interesting alternative to fundraising.
How does it compare with other online fundraising platforms in terms of features?
Regardless of the number of social media fads destined to launch and fold in the next decade, one thing remains clear: the blog will likely never go away. Once a popular platform for angst-filled personal journal entries and detailed political commentary not accessible in the traditional media, blogs are fast becoming the traditional media - they are cited as sources by television news networks, have been known to break stories, and provide readers with the ability to easily share information. It's amazing to think twenty years ago one had to read a newspaper or watch for a special bulletin to be informed - these days it seems we hear about news before it happens, and blog are instrumental in bringing information to us in a timely manner.
That said, if blogging factors into your online marketing strategy, you want readers to get the most of the experience. While a percentage of your following may aggregate your posts through an RSS reader on their Google or Yahoo start-up pages, some likely prefer to read on-site. Looking at some of the more popular news and entertainment blogs, you're certain to find advertising, supporting links, and widgets displaying related social profiles - these are helpful in that they present a well-rounded profile of the blog, and encourage readers to subscribe via alternative outlets. Visitors to blogs may come and go, but one who clicks to follow the blogger via Twitter or Facebook becomes an opt-in capture, one who may be interested in contact for future products and services.
So if you're blog sidebar is naked - doesn't matter if you use Blogger, WordPress, Typepad, or another CMS - it's seriously time to consider dressing it up. If somebody is aware of your blog and reading it, they should know where else they can find you. Here are just a few widgetized goodies to use to brighten up one of your Internet homes.
AddThis Button: You blog needs to go viral in order for it to improve your business and income. A reader enjoys an article, and needs encouragement to share it with friends. The AddThis button is the one-stop shop for data sharing. Hover over the button to share an article with as many as 225 social media profiles, everything from AIM to YouMob. Even if you don't have 200+ separate accounts for all these sites, somebody else might. Give them the opportunity to advertise for you.
FriendFeed Widget: If you don't have a FriendFeed account, you're missing out on a great opportunity to collect your blogs and social profiles together in one place. One person may not be interested in visiting your blog, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube channel in the same day, but with FriendFeed they can. Adding a join box on your sidebar lets people know about this great catchall service.
Twitter Widget: I hear two schools of thought on adding a Twitter widget, particularly if your blog feeds into your Twitter account. On one hand, why display a widget that basically repeats information there? On the other, a blog reader will catch from this widget other posts you make, and in turn can catch up on blog links he/she may have missed. Even if you do integrate your RSS into Twitter, it's handy to have this widget up, and perhaps an additional one that tracks the tweets of like-minded accounts.
Facebook Badge: Facebook allows you to create different styles of badges for widgets. A "Join Us" badge may offer rudimentary information on your fan page, or a scrolling widget may preview posts and information featured there. Determine which would work best (if you don't have many fans to start with, try a style that doesn't highlight that fact) and get it up there.
Digg Widget: Perhaps one of the best known of the data sharing social sites, Digg allows users to determine a story's popularity by having them "dig" URLs toward the top of the search heap, or else "bury" links so they are not found. If you have a Digg account, more than likely you intend to submit your own blog posts to the site, but as a prolific Digg user you to need to share the wealth. This Digg widget lets readers know what articles and videos interest you the most.
Flickr Widget: Keep your photos in one place, particularly where they can integrate into other social networks and sites. Yahoo's Flickr photo sharing site gives you the advantage of placing slideshows and photo grids on your sidebar, so visitors can peripherally glance at your albums while reading.
AdSense: If you enjoy a large enough fanbase, why not take advantage of it and try to make a bit of money to support hosting, and perhaps pizza? Save some room on the sidebar for Adsense ads and earn some cash for every click-through. Bloggers users have the advantage of a built-in Adsense option, provided the content of your blog permits it.
The more information you provide in one place, the more likely you are to have visitors follow you wherever you go.
After poking around on Twitter, I saw that other people had tried it as well.
There are no hard Start or End Call buttons, which takes some getting used to, but I love the fact that the volume rocker doubles as a Zoom button when in camera mode. A long press of the Camera button activates the camera, but there is a noticeable lag before the camera turns on. The quickest way to activate the camera is to use a Camera shortcut on the home screen. The phone also features an LED camera light; I say “light” and not “flash” because this light has to be manually turned on and off through the camera settings. I’m hoping Sony includes an automatic LED flash setting in a future software upgrade.
Despite how demanding an app as fluid as Timescape can be, the Xperia’s 1 GHz processor handles swiping through different feeds and stacking tiles very well. There is a slight lag when going into the photo submenu, which may be dependent on photo resolution settings. The bigger the photos, the longer the load time.
AT&T trial versions of apps dominate preloaded applications. AT&T FamilyMap, AT&T Hot Spots, AT&T Maps, AT&T Navigator, AT&T Radio, and YP Mobile are the obvious apps. Where™ will fly under the radar until it’s opened, which is when the gobsmackingly large subscription screen appear. I appreciate the up-front message regarding the risks of data usage and additional fees. The funny fact is that the most useful AT&T application available, AT&T myWireless Mobile, was not preloaded. Mobile Video, MobiTV, OfficeSuite, and Work Email for business users are also included. I was also thankful to see Google apps like Maps, Talk, Navigation, and Places available out-of-the box. The top three apps I feel should come preloaded on all smartphones are a respectable file manager, photo editor, and mobile billing account manager. The inability to delete multiple photos through Mediascape is annoying. I’m sure I must be missing something here. I also have to remember that deleting a photo through Timescape does not delete it from my device.
