Twitip

For most of us, Twitter has become part of our day to day life.

Twitter has made it’s way on to Google’s SERPs as “real time search”.

Even celebrities are using Twitter and tweeting away.

Recent Discovery
I just got this update when trying to login to my Gmail account:

Without looking at it more, these were my first questions:

5 Initial Questions About Google Buzz

1. Is this Google’s attempt to take over Twitter?
2. How messy will this make my email account?
3. I’m sure I can opt out of this, right?
4. At what point do I need to worry about my identity with Google?
5. What FREE tool will Google “acquire” next?

What do you know about Google Buzz? Is it a Twitter replacement? (more…)

Okay, so hopefully everyone’s gotten used to the new design and layout around here by now! Honestly, we’re really loving it. We did “tone down” the graph paper background a bit, after some feedback from readers that said it was a bit too dizzying. Hope everyone agrees that things look great here now!

So this post is to outline the newest way we’re accepting articles from you. A few things have changed, and there have been a few submissions that don’t quite seem to be working properly, so I wanted to put this out there to help out some. (more…)

by Chris Allison (@neboweb) Social Media Strategist at NeboWeb.

I’ll cut to the chase. Twitter isn’t a fad. It’s not going away. Let me tell you why:

They Have Industry Recognition

Industry giants can be intimidating for any new business, especially on the web. Since Twitter’s inception, we’ve seen multiple companies make offers to acquire the young service, and we’ve seen multiple companies get turned down. A lot of people were thinking, “Hey, why didn’t they take the money and run?” I know I was. But, it seems the folks at Twitter had bigger and better things on their mind. (more…)

By Kalvin “Dr. Kal” Chinyere, M.D. of Dr. Kal’s Weight Loss Tips. Follow him @DrKal.

TwitPic is an excellent application that further boosts Twitter’s usefulness. However, so many people use TwitPic incorrectly. Tweeters use TwitPic to tweet pictures of their children at Disney World or pictures of their grandmother at her 100th Birthday Party. C’mon! Your kids are not that cute, and your grandmother??? I don’t even want to see a picture of Halle Berry when she’s 100 years old.

Using TwitPic as if it were Flickr is similar to using your iPhone as if it were an iPod. You are missing out on all of its capabilities.

Below are 10 ways to use TwitPic to improve the quality of your life and the lives of those around you. (more…)

By Jade Craven – Follow her @jadecraven.

“Jack Dorsey and Biz Stone always said that the best way to get real value out of Twitter was to follow a small number of people; it was never their intention for people to aim to follow more than 150-200 people”

from Why Twitter Lists Change Everything by @davetroy

Twitter has once again changed the social economy. There has been a lot of buzz around the blogosphere regarding lists. People want to know how it can improve their use of twitter and how they can help others. I hunted through the plethora of posts to find the best content regarding lists. In this post, I will ‘list’ the best quotes regarding twitter lists and show how others believe it will change the dynamics.

Before I discuss the common thoughts, here are two resources:

• Listorious
• TLISTS

Ways to create an extremely useful list

A list is more useful, and compelling, than any one person. You should list compelling people and include yourself in a list when necessary. Beyond that, there were three main tips people gave to help you create an awesome list. (more…)

by Craig Fifield – follow him on Twitter @CraigFifield

The other night just as I was done finishing up on Twitter @DannySullivan dropped a link to a Newsweek story and said:

gosh, change “twitter” to “blogs” in dan lyons rip on twitter & it could be 2004

Sullivan is usually spot on so with cold beer in hand and Xbox calling to me from the other room I reluctantly clicked through and started reading Don’t Tweet on Me by Daniel Lyons. (more…)

I was just having a discussion the other day on facebook about how people are using automatic posting tools so heavily these days. They post something on their blog, and a tool (er, “bot) automatically publishes that post to Twitter, which then is connected to their facebook and friendfeed accounts and is repeated there.

Personally, I don’t mind if people use bots to make updates on Twitter or other social networking sites IF (and only if) they’re also diving in to real communication in those locations as well.

Twitter’s great for 140 characters of communication. It’s a blink of the eyes, in all reality. But when you’re auto posting and nothing else, you wind up looking like a billboard more than a social networker. Rather than someone who’s looking to connect and communicate, you’re looking like a guy with a megaphone on the street corner… you know?

Anyway, in comes this email about a post titled An In-Depth Look at the 5% of Most Active Users that reports that almost a quarter of Twitter’s updates are done by bots (automatic posting tools).

Of the most active Twitter users updating more than 150 times/day, nearly all of them are bots operated by sources such as hotels offering deals, regional and national news services, regional weather services, the top news within Digg, games, anim services, tags within del.icio.us and financial aggregators. These very active bots account for one-quarter of all tweets.

There are lots of other interesting Twitter facts there on the Sysomos site, and I encourage you to check them out! They’ve asked that if you’re interested in discussing the article on Twitter that you use the hashtag #sysomossurvey or copy them @sysomos.

According to Mashable, Twitter’s currently under a DDOS attack today:

Twitter’s extended downtime today, now lasting almost 2 hours, has a malicious cause. Twitter has revealed that it’s defending against a Distributed Denial of Service Attack (DDoS), in which the target is typically saturated with so many fake requests that the victim is unable to return legitimate ones.

Knowing that the cause is a malicious attack does take Twitter off the hook to some degree – it may have been assumed that the site was simply failing to scale properly, as had happened in the past. DDoS attempts are difficult to defend against even for some established sites.

Ironic, given today’s post by Chris Johnson about how to prepare for Twitter’s eventual demise, no?

What happened though, is people flocked to facebook, which in turn had its own share of problems as well. I’ve also seen reports that StumbleUpon has been acting wonky today.

Does someone have it out for social networking sites? Hmm…

It’s the almost-weekly roundup list of links, tools, and Twitter culture once again! Check these out and let us know what you think in the comments.

• Twitter used for DoS Attacks in Iran (nytimes.com)
• Profiles.im – Tool to create a more detailed Twitter profile. Create your account, edit the information, and use your custom URL in your Twitter account profile for a great landing page that mimics your Twitter page. It even pulls your Twitter background, RSS feeds, and offers you much more than 140 characters to talk about yourself! Here’s mine (still in progress): Lara Kulpa
• Fixing the Twitter Reply Black Hole (blogherald.com)
• Mainstream Media Still Has Eyes Wide Shut (techcrunch.com) – Twitter search was “broken” by the news of the death of King of Pop Michael Jackson.
• 5 tools to measure Twitter success (lansner.freedomblogging.com)
• Twittering adds up to home sales (lansner.freedomblogging.com) – Great tips for real estate agents on Twitter.

This is just a short note to highlight the Social Media Success Summit 2009 that I’ll be speaking at (disclaimer: they are also sponsoring TwiTip this month). It starts on May 26th (and happens over the weeks that follows) and features sessions from a variety of successful social media (and Twitter) users including:

• Gary Vaynerchuck (Wine Library TV)
• Mari Smith (Facebook Expert)
• Jason Alba (Linked In Expert)
• Ann Handley (chief content officer from MarketingProfs)
• Brian Clark (CopyBlogger)
• Chris Garrett (Co Author of ProBlogger the Book)
• Denise Wakeman (BlogSquad)
• Michael A. Stelzner (White Paper Guru)
• And me – Darren Rowse

I’m doing a panel discussion on 3rd June with Brian Clark on ‘The Future of Social Media: What’s Going to be Hot and What’s Not). Other content covered includes:

• How to Create a Mega-Following and Mega-Sales With Social Media Marketing
• Building a Loyal Facebook Following for Increased Profits
• How to Grow and Engage an Audience on Twitter
• Using the Power and Reach of LinkedIn to Grow Your Business
• How to Productively Engage in Social Media Marketing
• Five Reasons You Need to Be on Twitter (and Tools to Help You Manage)
• Social Media Start Up: 3 Key Tools to Build Your Social Media Marketing Plan
• How to Attract Tens of Thousands of People in Mere Days
• Using Social Bookmarking for Improved Traffic, Links and Visibility

The Early Bird special ($200/40% off) for this event ends this Thursday. If this is an event that interests you check it out at Social Media Success Summit 2009.