Just like you can’t believe everything you read in the newspapers or magazines, or believe everything you see on television, Twitter has its good points and bad points when it comes to breaking news. Twitter is populated with journalists, writers, photographers, and a plethora of celebrities. Sometimes false rumors can make the rounds, such as the reported death of Jeff Goldbum back in July, and sometimes breaking news hits the nail on the head, as in the case of the Iranian election.

The first thing to do when you see a breaking news item on Twitter is to consider the source. Is it reliable and from someone you trust? In other words, has this person reported other newsworthy items on Twitter that has proved to be true? Even so, your best course of action before passing along a news item is to check out the source yourself and try to verify it from more than one. Misinformation can be damaging and hurtful, so check out where it’s coming from carefully before telling the Twitter universe something that turns out to be false.

Consider with care the actual rumor. Jeff Goldblum’s presumed death was nothing more than misinformation that traveled the landscape of Twitter, until his agent made a statement to the press. Imagine the worry and panic of his family until frantic phone calls were made to ascertain the truth, and the trouble taken to refute the ugly rumor. Someone, somewhere in Twitter failed to vet their sources, and passed along something that was patently false. Although having no lasting effects in this case, some rumors can cause irreparable damage to innocent reputations which can be difficult to refute in the court of public opinion.

Just as in television reporting and newspaper or magazine coverage, errors can be made but in the case of Twitter, they might be a little more difficult to refute or retract. By the time a rumor makes the rounds, it could be nearly impossible to squash it and mitigate any damage. The old adage still applies – if you can’t say anything nice (or verify its veracity!), it might be best not to say anything at all.

All Twitter users bear a certain amount of responsibility for the content they create and pass along to other Tweeps. If you can’t confirm a breaking news item, the best thing to do is keep quiet about it. Although not perfect, Twitter can be a source of what’s happening in the here and now, but in order to keep its credibility, Twitter users must use good common sense when assessing information.

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



The Reliability Of News On Twitter

So you have a twitter account and you think it’s a better read than Dan Brown’s new novel ‘The Lost Symbol’ but unlike Dan Brown’s 100 million plus loyal followers you have 33 and want 666. What do you do?

Applying this simple Angels and Demons Guide to Good Twitter etiquette will help you get and keep those followers you deserve!

Angels:

• Write interesting tweets. People read The Da Vinci Code because it was a gripping yarn. Tell people how you took down the Illuminati. No one cares what you ate for breakfast or that the library had that book you wanted.
• Angels link to things that are useful. Dan Brown is always giving the reader the facts with a twist. Angels who link to useful information are sharing the love and make their halos bigger…
• Remind your readers who you are. Dan Brown refers to Robert Langdon’s Mickey Mouse wristwatch to remind the reader the way the character thinks. What makes you a special twitterer? What will people remember about your identity?
• If using Twitter to inform followers of new posts, use clear, meaningful tweets. When angels tweet a url like U2 Concert Set List from New Jersey, their followers are more likely to click that link over “this is my new blog post”. The more specific the tweet, the better chance your followers will bite.

Demons:

• Dan Brown is often demonised by the critiques for producing some really odd sentence structures. “The famous man looked at the red cup” arguments apply to tweets as well. Make your tweets reader friendly. Don’t be a demon by tweeting random gibberish. Your followers want easy to read tweet turners!
• Every Dan Brown story has a plot twist. So don’t be a Leigh Teabing and turn on your hero (followers!) by going trying to kill them with gross amounts of advertising, special offers and non-related info and spam. Stay on target with your message. Readers will follow your tweets for the tea and not the killer cognac.
• Dan Brown created the current puzzle solving mystery in a book band wagon. Don’t be a demon and bluff your way through tweeting other people’s plots. Don’t present another persons tweet as your own. Good etiquette demands you make an acknowledgement.
• In a similar vein, if a news event inspire you, don’t simply retweet it, share your short original view on it. Some twitterers attract terrific numbers of followers by simply providing wise commentary on the news events of the day. Are you up to it?

Employing the hints and tricks in this guide is a simple and effective way to getting and keeping followers. Got any more Angel or Demon like tips? Leave a note in the comments!

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



The Angels and Demons Guide to Good Twitter Etiquette

Seems like a great “one stop” if you’re a news junkie and want to see all your legitimate news in one place.

My only (minor) gripe off the start is the blended AdWords sections in the content boxes. Having it before the “more ____” links looks too much like trickery to me, and I think that sites that are providing value to their users should be using less tactics like this. It’s a trust thing I guess. I realize that blended ads work in blogs and other sites with lengthy content, and I don’t begrudge them the right to earn a buck, but don’t be so clearly trying to garner clicks with AdSense – sell some real ads.

You can follow them @tweetportal, too.

Check it out and let us know what you think in the comments!

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



TweetPortal – Top Current Tweets From News Agencies

By Neal Wiser (follow him @nealwiser) and Peter Marinari (follow him @krisis)(http://twitter.com/krisis).

First in a series of brief case studies about using Twitter for social good.

Sure, you can use Twitter to tell people about your literal and metaphorical dirty laundry (you really shouldn’t), or you can use Twitter to try to overthrow governments such as Iran and Moldavia (please be careful), but personally, I believe that one of the best uses for Twitter is to rally people around good causes.

And despite the annoyances that can sometimes result when people misuse and abuse Twitter, except for television there has probably never been a technology that can spread the news about events faster than Twitter. As a result, Twitter may just be the perfect platform for charitable causes and institutions.

Getting the Word Out

While some may argue that anything you do to raise awareness of your cause is a good thing, what you really want is to have people take a desired action and actively participate. Otherwise, your cause is just an idea, not a movement, and it’s movements that drive change.

Enter Twitter and its unique ability to instantly disseminate any idea to thousands or even tens of thousands (if not more) people across the globe with just a few clicks. Of course, that’s only part of the equation. Because of how Twitter works, in order to receive any given message, your followers have to be online and reading your tweets at the same time you send them. Or they could subscribe to your Profile page via RSS (or another alert system) so they can catch up on your updates later. Otherwise, they’ll miss the message.

Regardless how you send your messages, we are fortunate that there are many groups who are using Twitter effectively. One of the more interesting and successful examples is BlameDrewsCancer.

What is #BlameDrewsCancer and What am I Blaming it for?

#BlameDrewsCancer is rare for a charitable organization because it’s also a meme.

As a charitable organization, BlameDrewsCancer was founded by Drew Olanoff (@drew), who was recently diagnosed with Stage 3 Hodgkins Lymphoma. Blame Drew’s Cancer’s mission is to support and raise the hopes of people battling and surviving cancer through the use of humor to erase the stigma behind cancer and by inspiring frank discussions of the impact it can have on the lives of those fighting it, as well as those who love and support them.

The #BlameDrewsCancer meme was born when, as a coping mechanism, Drew thought it would be funny to blame his cancer on, well, anything he could. He blamed his cancer for lost keys, the Phillies losing, Twitter going down, and whatever else he could think of.

Then a funny thing happened; thousands of people all over the world starting blaming things on Drew’s cancer too. From “self-inflicted dehydration” to “blinding migraines” to “annoying trance-y techno-y music,” Drew’s cancer got the blame (you too can blame Drew’s cancer. Just click here to automatically insert the Hash Tag #BlameDrewsCancer into your tweets. Then you can blame whatever you want on Drew’s Cancer).

Happy Accidents; Using Twitter as a Tactic

In one context, Drew got lucky; the humor of the #blamedrewscancer Hash Tag was contagious. It also coincided with heavy media coverage of Twitter from Larry King to the local news. The result; the meme went viral. In less than 100 days, over 11,000 people have blamed more than 25,000 things on Drew’s Cancer, and Drew and his team have raised thousands of dollars for cancer-related charities.

Of course, not every charity movement is lucky enough to have a catchy meme. Fortunately, Drew didn’t depend on luck. Realizing that a mere Hash Tag wouldn’t be enough to capture the attention of the general public, Drew turned to developer Mike Demers to create a web site, blamedrewscancer.com. The web site takes advantage of Twitter’s open API to dynamically track tweets with the #blamedrewscancer hash tag and displays them on animated picket signs.

With the web site generating additional buzz and media attention, Drew leveraged Twitter to build a grassroots team of supporters. He solicited volunteers from active twitter users who frequented the Philadelphia Tweetup scene and used team-building techniques, such as an extensively live-tweeted, blogged, and photographed skydiving expedition to establish an esprit de corps. Drew also empowers the entire team to tweet, blog, reach out to sponsors and even appear on panels on his behalf.

Drew’s Twibbon Avatar

But Twitter had even more to offer. While his team actively blogs, supporters branded their Twitter avatars with LiveStrong bands and Blame Drew’s Cancer logos via Twibbon.com to help spread the word even when they were tweeting about other things (click here to add the Drew’s Cancer logo to your Twitter avatar).

How Successful has Twitter been for Drew?

The combination of Drew’s compelling story, his Hash Tag and his newly launched domain quickly garnered the attention of the media. In the months following his diagnosis, Drew had appeared on CNN, AOLHealth, Philadelphia’s Fox29 and in numerous blogs and print outlets.

And celebrities are even participating with Lance Armstrong blaming a shoulder injury on Drew’s Cancer. This tweet ultimately led to LiveStrong, The Lance Armstrong Foundation taking notice of Drew by inviting him to sign on as an official spokesperson and partnering with Blame Drew’s Cancer to provide a meaningful cause for Drew’s supporters to donate towards.

Since its inception about 100 days ago, and thanks to the media coverage and to Twitter, BlameDrewsCancer has been visited over 85,000 times. Additionally, three well-attended fundraising events have generated over $3,000 in donations with a fourth, Drew’s Blame-a-Thon, a 24-hour, marathon benefit concert and film screening held in two locations and live-streamed globally via the internet, is scheduled for Wednesday, 9/9/09. Drew’s Blame-a-Thon represents the culmination of a summer of raising awareness and donations for the fight against cancer. A sellout crowd would raise as much as $10,000 for LiveStrong.

A Good Meme Travels Far and Wide

In addition to the successes listed above, gene research company 23andMe has joined as an official sponsor, contributing $1 each for 500 unique blamers to LiveStrong and helping with costs for the Blame-a-Thon. Taco Bell has also offered an unsolicited $1,000 to LiveStrong for the next set of unique users who blame Drew’s cancer and are planning to send social-media-driven Taco Bell Truck to the Blame-a-Thon.

Meanwhile, Drew continues his fight against cancer (he has had a chemotherapy treatment the week of each fundraising event and Blame-a-Thon will not be an exception) and plans on continuing to raise money for LiveStrong by using the awareness generated by Blame Drew’s Cancer to help other young people fighting cancer find support both online and locally via social networks.

How to Use Twitter for Charity

While there are no hard and firm rules for using Twitter to promote and organize your charity, organizers should keep the following in mind:

• Use Twitter as the foundation of a viral strategy. It’s the fastest, best way to virally spread word-of-mouth.
• Augment Twitter with other social networks and tools. Twitter is great, but don’t limit yourself to only Twitter’s audience.
• Make sure your virtual strategy is realistic. Setting goals too high will result in disappointments instead of surprisingly exceeding expectations.
• Legitimized by partnering with established brands. Many brands like to partner with good causes organized by smart people.
• Advertise in the medium your users communicate on. In other words; be where your “customers” or likely followers are.
• Don’t focus on top-down advertising. It’s slow and hard to build momentum.
• And if you can launch a catchy meme, do that too.

Good luck.

For More Information

Blame Drew’s Cancer Web Site: http://blamedrewscancer.com
Drew’s Blog: http://www.drewolanoff.com
Blame-a-Thon: http://www.blame-a-thon.com
Follow Drew on Twitter: http://twitter.com/drew
LiveStrong Foundation http://www.livestrong.org
American Cancer Society http://www.cancer.org
Make a Wish Foundation http://www.wish.org
Tweetup scene in Philadelphia http://www.phillytweetup.com
Mike Demers http://mikedemers.net
LiveStrong bands http://www.livestrongaction.org/avatar
Blame Drew’s Cancer Twibbon Logos http://twibbon.com/Search?searchQuery=blamedrewscancer

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



#BlameDrewsCancer for this Case Study

What’s the buzz about “Web 2.0″?

While some individuals have strong opinions on what it actually encompasses, there’s much to learn about Web 2.0 technologies and tools that are, whether you know it or not, affecting your everyday surfing experience on the World Wide Web.

As the Internet continues to explode with the revolution of second-generation web services, web development, and design applications, we have arrived center stage of the culmination of today’s innovators, entrepreneurs, and visionaries who have transformed the way we travel the Internet highways and byways; and the spatial views that we encounter and in the ways we interact.

How?

Web 2.0 has triumphantly made its strong debut via online social networking communities and book marking sites like YouTube, Twitter, FaceBook, MySpace, Imeem, Digg, Delicious, StumbleUpon, WordPress, TypePad, Blogger, and Google Reader, among other progressive stars on the Information Highway. The Netopia of creative Weblogs, social networks, multimedia sharing sites, RSS feeders, and keyword tags has dynamically altered the way we retrieve and share information.

Let’s put it in layman’s terms: Before the Internet, where did you go to get information on culture, cooking, fishing, dancing, health, sexuality, philosophy, politics, gossip, products, and services (among the plethora of other subject matter)? Well, if you’re like the rest of us, we turned to strict mainstream advertising venues like cable television, radio commercials, and print publications (i.e., newspapers, magazines, phone books, annuals, journals, etc.); and of course, the local library. Now, let’s throw all the “letters to the Editor” into the mix, as well as OpEds from local and renowned celebrity figures, and entrepreneurs. That’s kind of like Web 2.0. This new generation of user-generated content and software engineering collaboratively facilitates all of these technologies, data and more within the limitless avenues of the Super Information Highway.

Mainstream multimedia networks have surrendered (some reluctantly, some enthusiastically) to the formidable force of Web 2.0 simply because they can no longer maintain the demand of the Internet-using public. You’ll quickly discover that major outlets like CNN, MSNBC, FOX, CBS, the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and other media giants actively facilitate and engage users through Web 2.0 social networking sites (Twitter, FaceBook, etc.) because it’s one of the most interactive ways to attract people like you and me and get us involved in the loop.

Web 2.0 is the infinite and virtual library card index at your fingertips; adding a splash of political insight, a dab of comic wit, a spot of intuitive vision, and iconic players – professional and personal – all, who make a small (or large) contribution to the intricate web that continues to spin and expand like the infamous gyroscope.

What can you do with Web 2.0? Ah, the magical question. The power of this second-generation user interface network is as omnipotent as the brand that you are capable of creating through the engaging powers that exist freely for your personal and professional use. You are the captain of your own ship – the course that you choose to navigate through the World Wide Web can be smooth sailing or perilous – but that all depends on the nature of your personality and the direction you steer your catalyst.

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



Understanding and Navigating the Information Highway via Web 2.0

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.

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



Reader News: 24% Of Twitter Updates Done By Bots

• 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.

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



Sunday Roundup: Replies, Breaking Twitter, and Profile Expansion

Twitter Search is just amazing because it can give you real-time feedback about pretty much everything. That is, if you know how to look for it. Here is how:

Before we start I need to point out that both TweetDeck and Seesmic (my two favorite Twitter apps – with Seesmic being the #1) allows you to open special search panels, allowing you to “follow” a search term, instead of a person.

This is a great way to keep on top of things.

The Secrets…

1: Get up to speed with all the latest buzz

The primary way that I keep up-to-speed on social networking is to follow a social networking search. For instance, let say you want to get all the new links about social media, not including the many re-tweets that people make.

Simply search for:

“social web” OR “social media” OR “social news” -rt filter:links

2: Find all the people who are not talking about you directly

Another thing you might want to do is to find all the people who talks about you (or your product) but isn’t including you directly. E.g. If I want to find all the people who mention my name, but aren’t replying to me.

Simply search for:

Baekdal -to:baekdal -from:baekdal -@baekdal

Note: You can also find everyone who links to you via BackTweets

3: Get all reactions across multiple twitter profiles

Another thing you might want to do is to get all the replies and mentions that refer to you, across multiple twitter profiles. For instance, I have 7 twitter profiles and I would really like to see everything in one place.

Simply search for:

to:baekdal OR to:baekdalarticles OR to:baekdaldesign OR to:baekdalnotes OR to:baekdal24hours (etc…)

BTW: Seesmic will do this automatically in the reply panel (which is one of the main reason why I prefer it over other Twitter apps).

4: Follow what people are saying about your competitors

You also may want to follow not only what your competitors are saying on Twitter, but also how people respond to them. All you need to do is to simply search for:

from:competitor OR from:competitor

E.g. If your competitor is H&M (@handm), you can search for

from:handm OR to:handm

5: Only follow links from certain people

One of the problem of following people on Twitter is that you don’t get to decide what to hear. Sometimes you just want to know about the links that they share, and not hear all the chit-chat.

Let’s say that you only want to see the links that I share, then you simply search from:

from:baekdal filter:links

6: Only get the new info about a topic

One of the most common way to use Twitter search is to search for hashtags or product names. But the results are very often filled with identical tweets.

So if you want to search for anything about ‘American Airlines’ but without the re-tweeted stuff

“american airlines” -rt -via

7: Find all shared pictures about a topic.

It can be really interesting to see only the pictures that people post about a certain topic or event. During this year’s Le Mans, I was continually following every picture that people tweeted. You do this by simply searching for:

“le mans” twitpic OR yfrog OR post.ly OR twitgoo OR pikchur filter:links

BTW: Another way to search for images is to use Twicsy

Have you figured out any other ways to use Twitter Search that you’d like to share? How about trying these above techniques and letting us know what you think, in the comments?

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



7 ‘Secret’ Ways To Use Twitter Search

Twitter can be dangerous. That being said, Twitter is fun, useful, informative and overall entertaining; in this guest post I’d like to build upon my previous post 11 Useful Twitter Tools That Don’t Require Your Password and talk a little about security do’s and don’ts.

Twitter has become the place for events that are happening now, however with great technology, comes great responsibility. The following list contains a few basic measures we can take to ensure Twitter remains safe and fun:

Security Don’ts:

1. Never use your password on suspicious third party sites, hundreds pop up everyday and we can not know for sure witch ones are legit.
2. Don’t be too specific: there’s a big difference between “Just bought a gazillion caret ring on XX Avenue, leaving store now” and “Just bought and engagement ring, wish me luck!”
3. On that note, say it, don’t spray it: Don’t spit excessive personal information, this is about as dangerous on Twitter as it is on any other social network.
4. Call the police, don’t tweet about it!: inspired by recent news involving celebrity blogger Perez Hilton and Black Eyed Peas front man Will.I.Am.
5. Don’t tweet about moving servers, changing passwords or any other type of situation where your security could be compromised more easily.

Security Do’s:

1. There are hundreds of twitter tools everywhere, so try to use oath whenever possible (Oauth lets third party tools access your twitter’s information in a safe way as long as you’re logged on Twitter). In your Twitter Settings you can manage witch applications have access to your data and which don’t in the Connection tab.
2. Choose a strong password: Twitter’s famous attacks have been known to start by a hacker guessing someone’s password. I recommend using a strong password generator.
3. Do use direct messages when appropriate, not everything is meant to be said in the wild.
4. Consider having a private separate account for work or project related purposes.
5. Finally, have fun! It’s not about being paranoid .)

What other security do’s and don’ts would you recommend? Share those important tips with us on the comment section!

[image credit: seanmcgrath]

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



Twitter Security Do’s and Don’ts

I wanted to point out a brand new tool called TweetLister that was built specifically for marketing real estate on Twitter. I’ll also give you a quick one-two punch for using it to build a Twitter feed that any home seeker would be glad to subscribe to.

How it Works

You sign up for the free service using your existing Twitter credentials. TweetLister provides a form to collect all the usual property listing data such as address, square footage, number of rooms, etc. Most of the fields have drop-down menus with the most common choices which minimizes typing.

As you enter data into the form, a Tweet is automatically built in real time and it’s very self explanatory. Once the listing is saved, you can:

• Create a posting schedule for the Tweet (daily, weekly or monthly with time of day control)
• Track Clicks on your listings
• Collect Leads
• Change the listing’s status (active, sold, etc.)
• Control the period of time that the schedule runs.

Build an awesome Real Estate Twitter Feed

Here’s how you can create a very useful Twitter stream that home seekers will be glad to follow:

1. Load up TweetLister with all your listings and set them to post at a frequency you are comfortable with.
2. Post a “personal” Tweet at least once a day or every other day with great tips about buying homes in your area or other items of news that would be of interest to someone looking for property.

Once you have a few posts on your feed, promote the fact that your potential clients can subscribe to it in their RSS reader.

When using TweetLister, I would caution against posting your listings too frequently. Remember that Twitter and other social networking tools are meant to be social. If you set your schedule to post ten listings daily you will annoy your followers quickly. Posting weekly is probably ok, but spread out the listings over the week and even have them post at different times of the day.

Bonus: At the top-left of TweetLister you’ll see a link named “search listings”. This is a very handy tool for searching Twitter for real estate Tweets based on a number of criteria that you can specify. I think this would be a handy stand-alone app for home and property buyers.

Start using TweetLister today. Especially if you are an agent who is using Twitter already. If you’re not using Twitter yet or you just started, this tool is perfect to help you get your feet wet.

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



Twitter Real Estate Listings: Now with an Easy Button