TwiTip » Video

Tweetdeck Officially Launches for Android

tdomf_2ae17 — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 13:57:03 +0000

It’s about time! The ever popular twitter app, Tweetdeck, has finally come to Android. Just announced, Tweetdeck 1.0 can now be downloaded after a few months of beta testing.

Tweetdeck had a whopping 36,000 beta testers prior to this launch in an effort to make sure the app worked without fail.

What is interesting about the release, is that this particular version of Tweetdeck happens to be the most recent version of the app that has not even been tested for iPad’s or iPhone’s yet. Usually, it comes to the iPad and iPhone first.

Here is a great video on YouTube showing off the new Tweetdeck 1.0 for Android:

Stream Twitter on TVs in real-time at events, concerts, presentations and more.

tdomf_2ae17 — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 12:55:55 +0000

Have you ever been at a concert and wondered what the rest of the audience is thinking? Or been at a presentation and had a good point to add? Or at a nightclub and wanted to request a song but not deal with the security surrounding the DJ? Well, there’s a great way to do all this and more.

Connecting Twitter to TVs or projecting it on a screen at your events will add a whole new level of audience participation. Plus, you can grow your list of followers at every event. Creating a live Twitter feed to aggregate tweets sent to users, from users, or including keywords or hashtags can be quite a task.

You can run a real-time search using TweetDeck but it isn’t really optimized for screen and your audience will be squinting.

You can try to build your own Twitter feed widget but it’s a pretty daunting task involving JQuery, JavaScripting, CSS and HTML knowledge.

There’s an easier way. StreamTwitter is a little script designed for streaming tweets in real-time to any video source. Just open the script, change your search term, switch the graphics to be your own (optional) and connect your laptop to your video source. It’s optimized for TV screen resolution and looks amazing. It updates automatically with beautiful jQuery sliding effects. It can filter out bad words if desired. It is the easiest and best way to have a live Twitter feed streaming tweets including your desired search term at your events. It also comes with easy-to-follow instructions and 3 months of support if you have any questions.

If you’ve got experience with StreamTwitter, or any questions, please feel free to share in the comments!

3 Ways To Create Social Change Using Twitter

Guest Poster — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 13:37:12 +0000

By Joe Mescher of Social Media Commando. Follow him @JoeMescher.

How would you like to end the debate that ‘Twitter is just for sharing what you had for lunch’ once and for all? This post is about how to use Twitter for a common good, much like I’m doing with the help of my Tweeps in Burlington, VT.

The whole project started with a simple idea, my Twitter handle, and a few hundred interested followers… Let me back up to share what we’re up to. The Vermont Video Resume Project is dedicated to helping every unemployed Vermonter who wants one get a free Web video resume. We’re shooting our first round of resumes August 29th to help people find jobs using the social Web.

So how is Twitter such a critical piece of the equation? Well, when I bought my first HD camcorder I was excited about shooting videos to share on YouTube. Then I noticed by posting the URLs to Twitter my audience increased exponentially. That got me to thinking what else is possible using Web video, and how the Twitter community could use it for a good cause.

My community of followers loved the idea of using Web video to help the unemployed, and our local independent newspaper/website offered to partner with me to spread the word. The project gained critical mass and we eventually joined forces with the local community media station to record the videos at no cost to the participants.

Here’s how you can replicate this project in your own community:

- Crowdsource: Spread your idea like a virus by asking your community of Twitter followers to participate. You’ll be surprised how the idea can be improved and distributed dramatically with the help of others.

- Establish a Hashtag: This is important. Using a hashtag enables you to form a community around your cause, and creates a central point of reference using Twitter Search.

- Partner and Promote: Ask for help, because the media loves a worthy cause. I recommend pinging your local media to participate using their own Twitter feeds, because distribution of your message is critical for awareness and success. By asking people to become ‘Founding Members’ of your project they will be empowered to spread the word for you.

Finally, have fun! Be open to new ideas and don’t be afraid if the project changes form. Twitter is an incredible distribution medium and will help you spearhead a cause that promotes a common good.

8 Photo And Video Sharing Tools For Twitter You May Not Have Seen

Lara Kulpa — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 13:48:28 +0000

Since new Twitter tools are popping up what seems like every day, I figured I’d give a list of some of the latest ones I’ve seen people discussing. There are the standards that most people use, like TwitPic and TwitVid.io (which we covered before here) but here are some you may not have seen before.

Photo Sharing

Twitgoo is probably the most “Twitter-like” one of the bunch. You can tweet right from there (after logging in) and include an image right from the section where you post your Tweet.
Pikchur Use your computer, cell phone, or any other mobile device to post your pics, and Pikchur takes care of distributing them all over the social web for you! Offers a paid “PRO” package to track stats too, which is different.
yfrog 1. Upload an image or video from your desktop or from an URL 2. Enter your message 3. Enter your credentials to Twitter 4. Click post it. VERY simple interface. From the same people who created ImageShack.
TweetPhoto offers a lot of the advanced options you might enjoy for free: Stats, geo-tagging, favoriting/retweeting, etc.

Video Sharing

TwitLENS Simply login with your Twitter credentials and you are ready to start sharing media on Twitter. Uses OAuth.
12seconds Create short video clips that you record with your webcam, mobile phone, or upload. Show people where you are and what’s going on. Uses OAuth.
Twiddeo Upload from the web, your cameraphone and record from your webcam.
TwitC Use Twitc to organize, search, view, comment, share, embed, batch download, collect, favorite, rate uploads, view timelines and profiles, post links to or embed files, and send updates to your profile on Twitter, MySpace, Facebook and 35 other sites.

Are there any others that I may have missed? Have you tried any of the above? Leave your thoughts in the comments!

5 Things Every Band Should Know About Twitter

Guest Poster — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 13:22:06 +0000

By Owen Kelly of The Indie Digest. Follow him @ojkelly.

Twitter provides a unique opportunity to everyone that has never really existed before. Not only do you have the ability to follow every minute detail of your favourite band, but you can also have a conversation with them.

It’s often been said that twitter is like a bar full of people. You can listen or jump in with any conversation at the bar. Keep this in mind when you tweet.

If you just blurt out “Click here to see my new video!” Then you closely resemble the people handing out crappy pamphlets at the train station, that end up in the bin seconds later.

Anyone attempting to promote a product, be it a song, CD, or even a book, needs to be aware the usual rules do not apply on Twitter. It has evolved with its own set of rules and etiquette. To successfully promote your product you need to be aware of a few things.

Be human.

Most importantly, drop the advertising tone. With the sheer amount of advertising we are all slammed with each day, most people especially online have developed a sixth sense, so to speak, to ignore advertising.

The rise, social acceptance, and in part necessity, of social networks has primed us for reading small bit sized “status updates” of our friends daily lives. Tweets are very much the same thing, just more publicly accessible.

As a band, you have absolutely no reason not to capitalise on this. It is a very powerful tool when used correctly. There is however, a right way, and a wrong way to do this.

The two following tweets put it in a pretty black and white manner.

@SomeBandOnTwitter

Listen to my new single “My New Song” now! [link]

@kmillerheidke

Keir and I have to learn Walking on a Dream for a thing tomorrow. It has nearly killed our marriage.

The first tweet has no real value or hook. It also has a very cold and promotional tone. Sure there is a link. But we see links everywhere, why would your (potential) fan want to click it? Oh you have a new song do you. Well so does everyone. Why is yours important to me?

The second tweet is not only humorous, but also interesting. It works on everything that makes a tweet good. This tweet doesn’t link to anything. Its not trying to sell. Merely to inform.

Now, you can actually get away with using the first tweet, just not very frequently. If you fill your stream up with tweets like the first, then you are really of no value to any of your followers. What are you giving them besides something they, presuming they are fans, already have?

What’s worse, is spamming random people. As the old saying goes, you only get out what you put in. The first tweet is not adding much, the second is.

Don’t Spam your new song/video

Whilst many of you may want to try and show everyone your new song or video, consider it from their perspective. As normal humans in a modern society we are constantly bombarded with advertising whereever we go. Some places its acceptable, twitter is definitely not one of those places.

Twitter works on our desire to be social, to keep up with what’s going on with people we care about. This doesn’t mean you cant promote what you’re doing, you should. The way you do it however, is of the utmost importance.

Remember the first tip ‘Be Human’. Well if your stream is full of tweets that are human and interesting then, believe it or not you can get away with a “New song – [link]” style tweet. The real trick is not to actively sell the link. By which I mean don’t use words like ‘Now’, ‘Click Here’ and my probably the most overused ‘Check Out.’ Not to mention avoid exclamation points if you can!

Twitter is like one big Publicity Campaign

If you need convincing about whether or not to use twitter as a band, treat it like a publicity campaign. And give it as much, if not more, time and energy than you would a traditional publicity campaign.

Regular tweeting is an investment, of both your time and energy. It also a major investment to your public profile, and can have great returns. This goes for everyone, not just bands.

By keeping regular updates on your twitter, you are staying fresh in the minds of your followers. In the same advertising methodology that sees hundreds of ads for Coke every year, it is not about selling per se. Rather its about brand recognition.

The purpose of brand recognition in respect to bands is that, when someone is deciding what to listen to you want to be one of the first things they choose.

Regular tweeting also lets your fans know that you’re alive, but more importantly that you’re doing something. It also helps keep the perception that you are still successful. After all not many people listen to bands that don’t exist anymore.

Let your fans know what you’re doing.

To keep up that pace of regular tweeting, tell us what your up to. If you’ve just finished a soundcheck at a gig, tell us. But also tell us something about that soundcheck.

What’s the venue like? Do you like it?

Are many people coming to the gig? Sold Out?

Is your voice totally nackard from the last few nights?

Or maybe you just finished a gig and it was absolutely awesome. Don’t be afraid to tell us. At the same time be wary of declaring permanent absolutes like “best gig ever”. They get old very, very fast and, they don’t add any value to your tweet. Instead tell us something that happened at the gig.

Did you fall off stage?

Someone profess their love for you? Get heckled?

Debut a new song?

We want to know. Don’t be afraid to embarrass yourself slightly, self deprecating humour is the best. As Nancy Baym said in a recent CD Baby Podcast (#59) twitter is like an extension of your inter-song banter.

That said, set your boundaries early. And remember not many people really want to see your vomit, however epic it may be. Unless you fans want to hear that.

Share behind the scenes info.

As well as telling us what you’re doing, show us what you’re doing. We fans are a hungry bunch. We want to know what its like recording that album, or how it is backstage at that festival. We want to know what goes into making that next album.

Don’t hesitate to upload that new demo to show to your followers. It adds more value to your stream. Ask for their feedback, it could prove to be invaluable.

Many bands have caught onto this which is great, but for those who haven’t show us snippets of video, show us photos of you recording or lazing about backstage.

Sharing all this info helps build a layer of trust between you and your fans, which comes incredibly handy when you have a new song. Your fans will be so involved in what your doing they will probably be chaffing at the bit to hear the it and purchase it.

[Image Credit: marfis75]

How To Inject Personality Into Your Twitter Stream Using TwitVid.io

Guest Poster — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 13:01:51 +0000

by David Turnbull of Mellow Business – Follow him @dturnbull

Whilst Twitter is the hottest tool at the moment to build a brand, interact with like minded individuals, and have content go viral, online video is the hottest medium. Wouldn’t it be great if we could blend the two?

Luckily, the guys from Fliggo saw that the connection should be made and so they launched TwitVid.io, a web application which they quite frankly stated was designed to become “the TwitPic of video”.

Although the service appears to be getting some traction since its recent launch, I’m still yet to see many of the people I personally follow use video within their Twitter stream, which is a shame because a short video communicates so much more than 140 characters can.

You can take advantage of this current lull however (because I’m sure the service will explode in popularity) and differentiate you and your Twitter stream by injecting personality into your Twitter stream.

Here’s what you need to do:

Make recording videos convenient. TwitVid offers quite a few ways to upload your content but that doesn’t mean you can’t make video tweeting more convenient for yourself. Pick up a Flip camera if you don’t already have one, use a mobile phone that can record videos and has email capability and get a webcam for your computer. If there is always a video recording device nearby you’ll be much more likely to actually make a video.
Start recording videos now! The sooner you get going making videos for your Twitter followers the quicker they’ll feel a more personal connection with you. This is your chance to be riding on top of the wave of video via Twitter.
Be comfortable. I’m not ashamed to admit I’m actually camera shy. I’m also a fan of online video though, so I’m working on overcoming that fear. If you feel uncomfortable in front of the camera like I do, then pick up the books Psycho-Cybernetics and Win The Crowd. They’re very helpful in making you feel more comfortable with who you are, and less stressed in front of an audience (even if the audience aren’t actually watching you live). You need to enjoy creating videos for Twitter otherwise people will pick up on it and you won’t stick with it.
Don’t replace your current tweeting with video completely. You want your followers to be almost anticipating your next video, but that anticipation will be dilluted if you upload videos that are 10 seconds long every 20 minutes.
Find a balance of content and tight focus. One of my recent videos was showing a sudden bump in my Feedburner subscribers after I’d started using TwitVid (my Twitter followers also jumped up). That’s something that didn’t deserve an entire blog post, but would’ve been hard to communicate properly within 140 characters. You don’t need to make your videos epic monologues with profound statements – just keep them interesting and to the point.
Change your surroundings. If you make all your videos from the same chair people will wonder if you have a life away from your desk. Don’t give them that misconception. Personality is derived from your uniqueness, so if you love hiking and you hike to the top of a really tall mountain then that is probably a great place to record a quick video.
Control your surroundings. Different audiences expect different things. If you run a website about being frugal but then in all your video tweets you’re sitting on a golden throne whilst stroking a panther, you’re sending mixed messages. This really shouldn’t be an issue if you’re authentic, but if you have the chance to have a backdrop that is more in line with your audience (a surfer would have the ocean, a CEO might have a fancy office etc) then there’s no reason to not make use of it.

Want a quick summary of what you just read? How about this: if you have something to say, make use video to express your thoughts, are comfortable with who you are, and have some consistency, your Twitter stream will stand out from the crowd.

I hope to see a lot more people making use of twitvid.io soon.

Introduction to Twitter [VIDEO]

Darren Rowse — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 13:05:00 +0000

This video has been around for a while but I wanted to include it for those new to Twitter who might need an introduction.

Thanks to the team at Common Craft for putting it together.

Speed Tweeting (reports, stats, videos and more) – 24 December 2008

Darren Rowse — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 13:01:04 +0000

There has been lots of good Twitter news, reports and ideas around this week:

The State of the Twittersphere [REPORT]

Hubspot has produced their State of the Twittersphere report. A few stats from it:

35% of Twitter users have 10 or fewer followers
The average number of followers is 70
The average number of people that Twitter users follow is 69
Top locations on Twitter include London, San Francisco, New York and Chicago

Here it is in full:

State of the Twittersphere – Get more Information Technology

ReadWriteWeb takes the stats in the report projects forwards – concluding that Twitter would take 36 years to catch Facebook.

Facebook, Twitter and Traffic [STATS]

Also on the topic of Facebook and Twitter – Jacob Cass reports that he gets more traffic from Facebook than Twitter despite having fewer Facebook friends than Twitter followers and shows some stats from his metrics package.

I tweeted this link earlier today and had a heap of people tell me that their own results are quite the opposite. I decided to check my own and mine are completely different to Jacob. To my ProBlogger blog I had 11,500 visitors come from Twitter.com over the last 30 days and only 1500 come from Facebook. My links to new posts go up on both as Jacob describes.

Here on TwiTip the stats are even more one sided towards Twitter – although that’s skewed because this blog is about Twitter of course.

I don’t dispute Jacobs results – but would argue that it is always going to vary from site to site and topic to topic.

ReWeeting [ANALYSIS]

Pistachio Consulting has a good analytical post this week on the Phenomenon of Retweeting

Twitter for Business [VIDEO]

Laura from Pistachio also has a great presentation on the topic of Twitter for Business. It is well worth the look.

Check out her powerpoint deck here.

Twitter and Legal Ramifications [LAW]

Law.com has an article up talking about how tweets could get employers in legal trouble. Sounds like a whole lot of articles we saw a few years back on the dangers of blogging to companies.

Round Follow Buttons! [DESIGN]

And the news of the week – Twitterrati notes that follow buttons went from square to round!

How to Turn Your Bedroom Lights off With Twitter [VIDEO]

Darren Rowse — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 20:05:42 +0000

Put this one in the novel uses for Twitter basket – how to use Twitter to turn off your bedroom lights.

I saw this a few months back – but was reminded today about it by Momma. Enjoy!

Control Lights with Twitter from Justin Wickett on Vimeo.

What other fun, novel, bizarre uses have you seen for Twitter?

3 Ways to Share Pictures, Video, and Music on Twitter

Darren Rowse — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 13:09:14 +0000

Enhance the richness of your followers experience of Twitter by going multimedia with your tweets. In this guest post Michael Martine from Remarkablogger (@remarkablogger) shares three tools for sharing Images, Video and Music on Twitter.

The array of Twitter tools is growing rapidly, but I only want to focus on 3 of them that really enhance my use of Twitter and offer something to give my followers beyond the basic 140 characters: Pictures, video, and a super-easy way to share links (especially music).

1. TwitPic

TwitPic lets you upload pictures and automatically tweet links to them on Twitter. Think of it as “Flickr for Twitter”. Be prepared to spend an hour or two on the home page, because TwitPic uses a Google Maps mashup to show you where TwitPics are coming from around the world in real time–it’s very mesmerizing!

TwitPic also integrates with many popular Twitter desktop clients, such as TweetDeck. Pictures can be rotated, tagged, commented on, shared through social media, and embedded on your own website.

2. 12seconds

12seconds is a brilliantly simple idea: you record a video that is exactly 12 seconds long. It’s the video equivalent of Twitter’s 140-character limit. 12second videos can be embedded and they integrate with TweetDeck. Videos can be recorded using a separate webcam or your laptop’s built-in webcam. Videos can also be uploaded (but they cut off at 12 seconds… imagine that). You may be tempted to ask the same question people often ask about Twitter: what can you do in only 12 seconds (instead of 140 characters)? It turns out the answer is: quite a bit. For great examples, check out Julia Roy and Blog Squad. Here’s me:

12seconds for TwiTip on 12seconds.tv

3. TwittyTunes

TwittyTunes sounds like it should be for sharing music, and it is. But it’s much more! TwittyTunes is a Firefox add-on that sits at the bottom of your browser window. It lets you post a link to whatever page you’re on. It is so fast and easy to use, I don’t think I could live without it. TwittyTunes goes with FoxyTunes, which is also an add-on for Firefox for controlling music playback in your browser. The idea is that you tweet the music you’re listening to, but like I said, it does much more. Look at all the ways you can preface your link:

I use TwittyTunes for any kind of link I want to share with my followers (remember that sharing interesting links is one of the best things to tweet about). Even if you don’t like any of the choices for prefacing your tweeted link, you can use the Free Text or Free Text + URL options.

Of Course, There is More…

I’ve kept this list deliberately short, because I want to hear from you in the comments what your favorite sharing tools are for Twitter. Maybe we’ll give Darren some ideas for what tools to do community reviews about.