Twitip

I first saw the news on Twitter, with a link from @blogherald to their post Twitter Kills “Pay Per Tweet” Companies (The Twitterverse Rejoices).

It looks like Twitter has finally made up its mind regarding third party tweet ad services (like Be-A-Magpie, BeTweeted and the infamous Sponsored Tweets via IZEA) and the verdict is “no ads for you!”

Then I head over to Sponsored Tweets and check out what they’ve got to say: Changes Coming to Sponsored Tweets

We are going to make some changes to the way Sponsored Tweets works. We will no longer be publishing directly to your account through the Twitter API. Instead you will have to write the tweet yourself in whatever Twitter client you see fit.

Yes, it will be a more manual process. Yes, we liked the old way better too. But we want to comply with Twitters guidelines and be a good ecosystem partner. We have always made adjustments to our system to remain in compliance. Twitter has allotted 30 days to make this change, we will try to get it out as soon as we can. Until then it is business as usual.

Seems some people are thrilled, and some are absolutely irate. Basically, Twitter seems to not be telling us what we can and can’t post, but rather HOW we post it.

… we will not allow any third party to inject paid tweets into a timeline on any service that leverages the Twitter API. We are updating our Terms of Service to articulate clearly what we mean by this statement, and we encourage you to read the updated API Terms of Service to be released shortly. (Twitter Blog)

So it’s not that you can’t, it’s just that by doing things this way, it makes it more annoying for you and they’re hoping you give up entirely.

They claim it’s for the “long term health of the Twitter ecosystem”. Some feel that it’s simply because they don’t want anyone making money until they do.

What are your thoughts?

You get out of new technology whatever you put into it.

So when people scoff at Twitter and say they don’t care what people had for breakfast, they don’t get it.

I wrote a book with Twitter.

As a work-at-home dad I found Twitter to be the ultimate commiseration tool. When my kids drove me nuts I could share stories and hear from other parents. I began to tweet more about my family. I posted the weird things my kids said. I told funny stories. I talked about our adoption journey. I recruited others to support the causes we love. (more…)

If you’re new to Twitter, you probably have no real concept of retweeting (commonly seen as RT) and what that can mean for your success and fun on Twitter. I’ve seen it go two ways with my clients who are new to Twitter: (1) some get on Twitter and don’t retweet – ever – because they either don’t know how to do it or don’t want to, and (2) some get on Twitter and retweet like the devil, but they either retweet junk, or they don’t know how to use it to their advantage. (more…)

How to Drive Traffic from Twitter using @Anywhere

How to Drive Traffic from Twitter using @Anywhere
@Anywhere is a new set of widgets (or plugins) from Twitter that allows you to add Twitter Features to your Blog or Website. @Anywhere is great because it lets your users do the most common activities relating to Twitter (tweeting, following) without leaving your site. Not only that, there are a couple of ways you can use @Anywhere to drive traffic to your site. (more…)

1. Constant talk about “marketing” and “branding” outside a business context. (Especially from those espousing anti-consumer views.)

When you think of yourself as a “brand” that you need to “market,” you’re trying to pitch, not converse. Buying and selling has its place– in the real financial market. It should not be applied to everything in life. If you want READERS it is better to frame your thinking in terms of having a point of view and a focus that is consistent enough to make people want to subscribe and talk to you. (more…)