Twitip

Image credit: Michael Hamburg.

Twitter introduced the concept of lists about 16 months ago to enable the manual grouping of people into categories.

If you visit Formulists or Listorious you can type a keyword and see the different lists that people maintain. Searching for the keyword apples, for instance, you can read Twitter biographies of the 491 people who someone added to a list about honeycrisp apples. You can either follow the list or follow its members individually.

Any Twitter user can create his or her own list, or follow an existing list — such as the above one about apples. (more…)

Friday, March 11, 2011 was a black day in Twitter history.  On that day, Twitter announced that they don’t want anyone to make any more third-party Twitter clients. While Twitter didn’t say that there couldn’t be any more clients using the Twitter platform (some services would be grandfathered in and all would have to follow a strict code of conduct), but as far as Twitter’s massive eco-system of third-party developers are concerned, the announcement was essentially a cease and desist order.

I’ve previously written about Twitter’s behavior towards its third-party developers and the risks they’re taking if they focus only on developing Twitter-based tools (See Twitter Commits Suicide and Twipocalypse Now). The bottom line is that building a business that is entirely dependent on a single partner isn’t a safe model to follow. (more…)

We’re in a new age now. As social media networks, particularly Twitter, become adopted by the mainstream media and corporate marketing firms, we’re seeing an evolution in the way that products are launched. Some might say that this is nothing new, that marketing has always been about capturing the current buzz machines and playing them to your needs, but I disagree.

The difference between marketing methods of old and social media marketing is that customers have a say. The success of a social media campaign is dependent not upon how much money is spent, but upon the people being marketed to. If the message works and they like the product, the masses will Tweet it to the rest of the masses. If it doesn’t, the campaign might not even get past the initial push, and will likely spiral into oblivion. (more…)

By Karl Staib of Work Happy Now! Follow him @workhappynow.

Twitter only allows 140 characters. There is an infinite amount of things you can say, but only so many ideas to pull from. It’s hard to keep people entertained with your tweets.

The best way to keep from burning out and giving up is to have a brilliant plan that will allow you to reach your goals and meet amazing people.

1. Stay Creative

Tweeting looks so easy, but we all know it’s not. There is a lot of thought that goes into each tweet. Penelope Trunk of Brazen Careerist (@penelopetrunk) has each tweet reviewed by an editor before she sends it out. Well that’s what she told us.

You need to find new ways to get onto other tweeters’ radars. Don’t be afraid to switch around words. Tweeting is an art and sometimes you need to stand out by being different. Don’t be afraid to disagree. Don’t do this too often, but every now and again you can spur on an exciting conversation.

It’s the routine that kills the most tweeters. All they do is link back to their blog and they wonder why they aren’t meeting cool people and having fun connecting with other tweeters. (more…)

Okay, so here’s the deal… We’re looking for reader questions, tips, and suggestions about Twitter. The goal is to create a mega-list resource (or three) for TwiTip readers. Darren often talks about pillar articles and list posts over at ProBlogger, and we’re thinking that we should have a few really great ones here at TwiTip.

So this is an official request to our dear readers to send in your best Twitter tips and suggestions – be it about external tools, tips for productivity on Twitter, or even reader questions that you’d like to have answered by the community. You can feel free to submit them either in the comments of this post, or by using our handy-dandy contact form.

We’re also openly accepting guest posts to be published here on TwiTip. You’ll receive a link to both your blog and your Twitter ID. Submit your pitch and I’ll send you the guidelines.

Let’s work together to make TwiTip an even bigger and better resource for Twitter users!

As usual, it’s Sunday here in The States and with the notion of taking things easy, I’ve drawn up a list of some of the things that have found their way into my inbox.

Let me know what you think if you’ve tried any of these tools, and if you have any you’d like to share (or any posts you’ve written on your own blog related to Twitter) please don’t hesitate to let me know about them!

• Twitoria – Many people seem to have re-discovered this one recently, as it’s been mentioned here on TwiTip before. You simply enter in your Twitter username, and select a time frame from the dropdown. You then see the number of people you’re following who haven’t updated their Twitter stream in that time. Fortunately most of the people I follow are regular updaters, but this tool is helpful in trimming down your list if you’re so inclined.
• Tweet4Blood – An interesting concept, for sure. “Using tweet 4 blood you can tweet your blood requests to followers @tweet4blood who are donors. Tweets are also hashtagged city wise for easy finding. You don’t have to login to tweet it from here. But make sure not to spam the community.” Currently seems like it’s mostly used in India, but I can see how it would be easily spread around the world.
• Print Your Twitter – Since Twitter’s archive only goes back so far, using Print Your Twitter allows you to save the history of your Twitter account, favorite hashtags (#topic), and so on, right down to your computer. What were you doing a year ago on Twitter? Find out by checking your own personal archive.
• Followformation – Helps users quickly follow dozens of categorized Twitter users. This tool is meant for Twitter users that would like to make sense out of following. For new Twitter users, this can be especially intimidating. Followformation helps the social media newcomer simplify the first few steps by dividing the top people on Twitter by categories, and automating the entire following process.

I’ve decided to lump the last three parts of Lessons from the Evolution of Blogging series by Crystal N. Woods, from Conscious Evolution, Success and Self Esteem (@CrystalsQuest) here in one post. You can read the first five parts at the following:

Part 1 – Journaling
Part 2 – Link Lists
Part 3 – Conversations
Part 4 – Thought Leadership
Part 5 – Monetisation

Please share in the comments how you felt about this series! Would you like to see more series posts like this, or do you prefer the shorter, one-off posts?

Twitter Tips for Beginners: Lessons from the Evolution of Blogging Part 6 – Corporatisation

Corporate Blogs only started really emerging within the last few years.  Apple, in particular, used blogging effectively in the launch of the iPhone – and it put them in a unique position to deal with teething problems when it first came out.  After their notable success, I saw other corporations start following suit.

Corporations only tend to adopt a trend once they are convinced it’s gone mainstream, or unless it’s going to give them enough of a competitive advantage to offset the ‘risk’.  When corporate blogging started emerging, the conventional media changed how they portrayed blogs – from thinking that blogs were a fringe element, to almost an unspoken assumption that this was a solid trend.  More stories about blogging started hitting the papers and radio, especially of the “blogging is dead” kind (that usually only happens when a trend is alive and well, and just taking off, funnily enough).

You’d have seen the same thing recently with twitter. (more…)

I love getting tips and links submitted to us for Twitter related stories, tools, and so on. Here’s a roundup of what’s come into my inbox over the past few weeks… feel free to send in your discoveries or new Twitter tools to us via the contact form.

• 24 Free Sets of Twitter Icons in “pixel” style by Eren Emre Kanal.
• TwtMaps – a nifty new web app that allows you to enter your Twitter name and get a map that shows all your friends locations, as well as a little bit of info about each Twitter friend. (It’s cute, but it only shows a small fraction of people. Mine only showed me 59 of the 879 people that I’m following who are following me. I currently have 1665 followers and am following 1115… but it’s cute for a “sample geographic” idea.)
• proxifeed – Per the proxifeed site, “Proxifeed’s fully automated service creates relevant postings and broadcasts them into your Twitter feeds. Lean back and see your follower base grow!” Seems that basically they set you up with automatic tweets in your niche pulled from other feeds determined by keywords or manually added by you. They freely admit that it’s a test bed for contextual advertising on Twitter, however I think there’s some merit in this if it’s used properly. (If you’re using proxifeed, or have tried it, and are willing to write up a full review for TwiTip, please contact us.)
• Billy Twitters and His Blue Whale Problem – Still not sure if the Twitter connection here is intentional or not, but it’s pretty funny none the less! (hat tip – David Halpert of SciFi Watch)

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.

By Jeff Hurt of Midcourse Corrections: Views From The Trenches. Follow him @JeffHurt.

Finding your community in Twitter can sometimes be a challenge, especially for Twitter beginners. Social media sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn and NING have flourishing and established communities that are easy to find. Twitter has some growing and thriving communities too but it’s often a best-kept Twitter secret.

Enter #hashtags and Twitter chats.

Twitter chats offer an effective way to meet people with similar interests and share insights into specific topic. Currently there are more than 35 weekly scheduled Twitter chats on certain days and times with like-minded professionals discussing a variety of questions. Here’s how you can find your Twitter community and participate in a Twitter Chat.

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