Thursday, January 29, 2009

What’s your Unfollowing policy?

Image representing Twitter as depicted in Crun...

Image via CrunchBase

What do you do when someone unfollows you on Twitter ?

Do you?:

  1. Unfollow everyone who unfollows you
  2. Unfollow based on filtering
  3. Unfollow if users unfollow you within day a couple of days after you follow them.
  4. Don't unfollow anyone

You can use SocialToo to manage your following preferences. You might also want to unfollow Shannon Whitley’s "Top 10 People to Unfollow".

SocialToo |

Top 10 List of People to Unfollow on Twitter by Shannon Whitley

I must give credit to Ike Pigott (@ikepigott) for the idea of a "Top 10 People to Unfollow" list.  Although I can easily think of several individuals I’d like to place on this list, I figured it would be too mean to actually call them out by name (and possibly result in a libel suit).  So the list below contains ten archetypes that I’ve noticed on Twitter.  I’m sure there are many others, so feel free to add your own in the comments section.

1) The Pimp - The pimp is always looking for avenues of self-promotion.  If almost every tweet is a reference to a blog post and even conversations end in links to posts, you’re following The Pimp.

NeckRelaxr:  New Blog Post:  Neck Relaxer big online sale!  http://tinyurl.com/xi8xs

NeckRelaxr:  New Blog Post:  Have you had your neck relaxed? http://tinyurl.com/xi8xs

NeckRelaxr:  @trumommy You must be tired after putting your kids to bed.  I’ll bet your neck could use some help: http://tinyurl.com/xi8xs

2) Ultra Extreme - These people are not bad, they’re just overachievers.  If you lead a regular life, you might feel a little inadequate after reading their tweets.  Unless you enjoy feeling like more of a lazy slob than you already are, lift that forefinger and click the Unfollow button.

IronMarathon: Finished three miles.  Preparing for bike ride up Mt. Tam.  Breakfast after that.

IronMarathon: @skyhigh Are you ready for our jump over Sonoma this weekend?

IronMarathon: Back from kite boarding.  Heading out to the bungee platform.

3) T.M.I. Freak - This twit isn’t afraid to let it all hang out.  Whether it’s a bodily function or a random thought about killing everyone in the office, there are no limits or filters here.  Unfollow, or you may become an accessory.

jax:  I wonder how many calories there are in a booger.

jax:  Listening to Dr. Demento, "Dead Puppies aren’t much fun."  Heh, heh.

4) Granola - Granola never met a cause he didn’t like.  If a cause somehow pits Granola against "The Man" and the corporate elite, he is there.  It’s best not to tweet about eating meat, driving a car, or most other normal activities when Granola is online.

grummer256:  Heading over to the square right now.  It may be a sit-in or a walk-out.  Not sure yet.

grummer256: @student5 Dude, stop using blue ink.  Black absorbs light & is more eco-efficient.

5) The Professor - The Professor is an intellectual who imparts his wisdom to his followers.  He’s quick to guide you to the "correct" world view and is always willing to lend a sarcastic remark.

moreorless:  Well color me red with your sanguine remarks. [chuckle]

moreorless:  @ladyluck Of course your theory would be impossible to prove since that event occurred 25 years prior. ;)

6) Troll Stalker - What can I say about this one?  There’s always at least one troublemaker in the bunch.  The Troll sneers at your earnest tweets and belittles your achievements.  Don’t bother arguing with a troll, they will always get the last word.  If you cross a troll, he just may turn into a Stalker.  The Stalker will follow you on Twitter and every other social media site known (or yet to be created).

7) Ideologue - The ideologue is not really on Twitter to discuss anything.  His mind is already made up and he’ll show you how wrong you are with copious links to extreme blogs and YouTube "proof."  The Ideologue is usually an extreme hater of one thing or another.

amerika:  What a complete idiot.  "Bush stumbles on White House steps": http://youtube.com/dkdkdk

amerika:  @mekkey It’s the Republicans and their "Commander in Thief."

amerika:  Filling up the VW from Bush’s Blood Pumps.

8) Sports Dude - Maybe you like sports, but which sport, and which team?  Make sure you and Sports Dude are a perfect match or you will get way more play-by-play detail than you bargained for.

cubsfanatic: The ball just left his hand. #gocubs

cubsfanatic:  It looks like it could be a slider. #gocubs

cubsfanatic:  No swing on pitch number one.  Get set for pitch two! #gocubs

9) Antisocial - Antisocial uses social media a lot, but that doesn’t mean he has to like it.  He may be one of the top Twitter users, but he spends much of his time poking fun at other people’s use of social media.

kvetcher:  Hey, here’s an idea, pick up the phone and call someone.

kvetcher:  MySpace use is up 50% while library use is down 75%.  #dumbasspeople

10) The Attendee - There are two things that this twit loves, Events and Hashtags.

lolgirl:  Livetweeting the Social Sirens Conference. #socialsirensconf

lolgirl:  Tony Seaver of "Be Your Best" is speaking. #socialsirensconf

lolgirl: You can be successful, but you must believe in yourself. #socialsirensconf

lolgirl: Never give up, but sometimes pause. [favorite!!!] #socialsirensconf

There you have my top-ten list of twits to unfollow.  Did you see yourself in there?  If so, it was completely unintentional. :)  Can you guess which one I am?  I’m not sure where I fit best, but I do know, "Dead Puppies" by Ogden Edsl really is a great song. 

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Wednesday, January 28, 2009

TweetDeck cheat Sheet

Kathy Purdy has written a great still tutorial  on TweetDeck. It illustrates features of TweetDeck with labeled and numbered arrows.

tweetdeck-tutorial-01

 

Using the tweetbox to post a message.

(Click image to enlarge)

 

individual status updateClick on image to enlarge

 

Other Twitter tutorials

 

TweetDeck is currently the work of one person, Iain Dodsworth. In this video interview he discusses his plans for TweetDeck’s future. More about TweetDeck Pro. If you would like to help direct that future, vote for your favorite features at the TweetDeck feedback forum.

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Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Twittersphere

What is The Twittersphere?. The Twittersphere is the network of twitter users and related services. The term seems to have been coined by Hubspot in their State of the Twittersphere - Q4 2008 Report.

Taking a page from Technorati and their state of the blogosphere report that reviews survey data from a few hundred bloggers, we're publishing the "State of the Twittersphere" report.  This is our first report, for Q4 2008.  One thing that is different about this report though is that it is not based on surveys of a few hundred people.  It is based on real data pulled from hundreds of thousands of Twitter profiles accessed through the reports generated by Twitter Grader.

You can download the full report in PDF format and click here to tweet about the report.

Here is a glance at some of the more interesting findings.

  • Twitter is dominated by newer users - 70% of Twitter users joined in 2008
  • An estimated 5-10 thousand new accounts are opened per day
  • 35% of Twitter users have 10 or fewer followers
  • 9% of Twitter users follow no one at all
  • There is a strong correlation between the number of followers you have and the number of people you follow

See State of the Twittersphere - Q4 2008 Report.

 

What can you do with Twitter in the Twittersphere ?

  1. lead conversations
  2. Mobcrowd with your friends.
  3. Build markets
  4. Learn about new things fast.
  5. Add your info into the Stream
  6. Find new friends and reconnect with old friends.

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Twitter Power users

Guy Kawasaki, American venture capitalist and ...

Image via Wikipedia

According to Twitter Elite, Guy Kawasaki is the most prominent Twitter user. Scoble is second and Pete Cashmore is third.

View the list or measure your twitter profile.

Who do you think are most prominent twitter users and why? Leave your comments below.

 

The Twitter Grade measures the reach and authority of a Twitter user.It is calculated as a percentile score using

  • The number of followers you have
  • The power of this network of followers
  • The pace of your updates
  • The completeness of your profile
  • ...a few others

Twitter Elite’s Top 10 :

1
guykawasaki
(Guy Kawasaki)
alltop.com/
Online magazine editor
100
53,602
[Tweet Them]

2
Scobleizer
(Robert Scoble)
scobleizer.com
Tech geek blogger who writes about and videos innovators in tech industry.
100
51,594
Half Moon Bay, California, USA
[Tweet Them]

3
mashable
(Pete Cashmore)
mashable.com
Follow Mashable for the latest news on Twitter, social networking and social media.
100
41,528
Scotland & SF
[Tweet Them]

4
chrisbrogan
(Chris Brogan)
chrisbrogan.com
President, New Marketing Labs, a social media agency and education company. Email: blog at chrisbrogan dot com
100
37,125
34.417969,-119.704315
[Tweet Them]

5
chrispirillo
(chrispirillo)
chris.pirillo…
I auto-follow those who follow me. It's social reciprocation!
100
30,137
Seattle, WA
[Tweet Them]

6
pistachio
(Laura Fitton)
bit.ly/gRwp
Much excitement and geekiness about where this all leads. Read @pistachio REPLIES http://bit.ly/2Z2k CLIENT DISCLOSURES: http://bit.ly/pD9m Carkeys Status=found
100
16,312
Boston, MA
[Tweet Them]

7
prsarahevans
(Sarah Evans)
prsarahevans.…
dir of comm at @ECCdistrict509, social media freak, guest writer @Mashable, founder of #journchat & Top 50 Tweeples contest
100
11,213
Elgin, Illinois
[Tweet Them]

8
perrybelcher
(Perry Belcher)
twitter.com/p…
Perry Belcher - Seriously Bad Ass Marketer & Neurological Copywriter With a Gift From God. www.PerryBelcher.com
100
21,811
Austin, Texas
[Tweet Them]

9
problogger
(Darren Rowse)
www.problogge…
Blogger, Author, Social Media Participant. Get a peek behind the scenes with my Tweets. Check out TwiTip.com for Twitter Tips.
100
32,160
Melbourne Australia
[Tweet Them]

10
nytimes
(The New York Times)
www.nytimes.c…
100
42,955
New York City
[Tweet Them]

 

Some notable Twitters not in the list are:

Steve Rubel, Micro Persuasion.

 

 

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best online sources for tech news

What are best online sources for tech news? I currently read Techcrunch and Scoble. Any other sources? I also sometimes look at Techmeme. I don’t get nervous anymore about missing things. Why? Because I am following Scoble who is following 13,000 people on friendfeed. ;)

What does everyone read for technology news? leave suggestions in the comments.

The replies that i got from from Twitter:

buzzblog @iggykin Here's one for your "best sources of tech news" RT » link to tinyurl.com (Full disclosure: They pay my salary) 12 minutes ago

Brewton @iggykin I have found Tech Dirt and the Washington Post Tech News to be pretty reliable Wired is pretty good sometimes too! 23 minutes ago

 

A google search shows the below:

  • Technology News, Tech Product Reviews, Research and Enterprise ...

    Publish Online · Web Buyers Guide. Developer Websites: ... eWeek is your best source for the latest Technology News. ZDE Cluster 1 hosted by Hostway. ...
    www.eweek.com/ - 78k - Cached - Similar pages -

  • Wired News

    The Best Government Tech of the Bush Years. 01.23.09 ... The software maker announced Monday that native support for the open-source Threora video format. .... people simulator The Sims may be facing a delay, reports Edge Online. ...
    www.wired.com/ - 169k - Cached - Similar pages -

  • Slashdot - News for nerds, stuff that matters

    science earth chaostheory !news ohwell. news earth .... Technology: Best Buy API Aims To Expand Store's Reach Online on Monday January 26, @06:28PM ...
    slashdot.org/ - 141k - Cached - Similar pages -

  • washingtonpost.com - nation, world, technology and Washington area ...

    Reliable Source Inside the Balls. Roxanne Roberts, Amy Argetsinger and colleagues .... Supreme Court Won't Revive Online Content Law · U.S. to Open New Supply Routes .... Romance in Florence · Size Up Zion Park · The Week's Best Bargains ... News: Breaking News Alert | TechNews Daily Report; News: Sights & Sounds ...
    www.washingtonpost.com/ - Similar pages -

  • InfoWorld - Business technology, IT news, product reviews and ...

    Jan 26, 2009 ... InfoWorld is the leading technology resource for IT news, product reviews, best ... Open source has become an integral part of the software world. ... Read this Solutions Guide to learn the best ways to keep it safe. ...
    www.infoworld.com/ - 66k - Cached - Similar pages -

  • Tech Republic

    TechRepublic provides real world advice on how to make technology work in business. ... the best way to become appreciated is to demonstrate that you intend to ... TechRepublic features a vast library of resources from the world's ...
    techrepublic.com.com/ - 62k - Cached - Similar pages -

  • BusinessWeek - Business News, Stock Market & Financial Advice
    - 15 visits - 7/10/08

    Read the latest international business news & stock market news. Get updated company profiles, financial advice, global economy and technology news. ... Best Buy looks O.K., but retail is pretty grim right now. If you have a question for ... Get up to $500k HSBC Term Life Ins. at HSBCusa.com Apply online today. ...
    www.businessweek.com/ - 74k - Cached - Similar pages -

  • Updates ~ Blog Network

    We can only accept the best of the best, so if you want to generate ... which uses Text-to-Speech (TTS) technology to enable Vista to play back printed text in a p. ... pubs ban Israelis over Gaza operation · More "Good" news from the Hill ... in iPhone SMS Messages Easily · Where do You go to Find Music Online? ...
    www.lockergnome.com/ - Similar pages -

  • Breaking News, Weather, Business, Health, Entertainment, Sports ...

    Msnbc.com is a leader in breaking news, video and original journalism. ... with daily news updates in health, entertainment, business, science, technology and ... Best in breed: Top 10 dogs of the year ..... Protecting your kids online ...
    www.msnbc.msn.com/ - 101k - Cached - Similar pages -

  • BBC NEWS | News Front Page

    Jan 21, 2009 ... Also entertainment, business, science, technology and health news. ... Site Links. News Sources · About BBC News ... This page is best viewed in an up-to- date web browser with style sheets (CSS) enabled. ...
    news.bbc.co.uk/ - 76k - Cached - Similar pages -

  • Condense your Tweets

    Jason Kincaid over at Techcrunch has an article that covers the latest tweet condesation services. The article is titled 140it: Condense Ur Text For Twitter When It Won’t All Fit

    I just tried 140it and the firefox bookmarklet doesn’t seem to work. Any ideas anyone?

    8 oddball Twitter utilities(Webware)

    While Internet slang and abbreviations have become second nature for some technophiles, many of us have trouble converting our words into the pseudo-gibberish sometimes required to make long messages fit into the 140 character limit set by Twitter. 140it, a new service put together over the weekend by the guys behind Yipit, is looking to help. The site will instantly convert whole sentences into condensed text, making common substitutions (like ‘r’ instead of ‘are’), using bit.ly to shorten links, and swapping company names for their StockTwits symbol. The service does its best to retain coherence, cutting extra spaces first and only cutting vowels as a last resort, according to one of its founders.

    While there are a few other services like TweetShrink and Twonvert that do the same thing, those sites require you to visit their homepages - something that is easy to forget and usually more trouble than it’s worth. 140it offers a bookmarklet that will immediately make the conversion as you enter your Tweet on the Twitter homepage by Jason Kincaid 

    Should Facebook–or Someone Else–Take Another Run at Twitter?(AllThingsD)

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    Monday, January 26, 2009

    Keep track of a twitter threads fast

    TweetDeck

    TweetDeck enables users to split their main feed (All Tweets) into topic or group specific columns allowing a broader overview of tweets. The default columns can contain All Tweets from your timeline, @replies directed to you and direct messages. The GROUP, SEARCH and REPLIES buttons then allow the user to make up additional columns populated from the live tweet information. Once created these additional columns will automatically update allowing the user to keep track of a twitter threads far easier.

    TweetDeck is an Adobe Air desktop application that is currently in public beta. It aims to evolve the existing functionality of Twitter by taking an abundance of information i.e twitter feeds, and breaking it down into more manageable bite sized pieces.

    image image image

    How does it do that?
    TweetDeck enables users to split their main feed (All Tweets) into topic or group specific columns allowing a broader overview of tweets. The default columns can contain All Tweets from your timeline, @replies directed to you and direct messages. The GROUP, SEARCH and REPLIES buttons then allow the user to make up additional columns populated from the live tweet information. Once created these additional columns will automatically update allowing the user to keep track of a twitter threads far easier.

    image image image

    Additional Features
    • - Catch up with overnight global twitterings as TweetDeck stores all updates whilst running
    • - Continual status updates of TweetDeck and Twitter
    • - Resize TweetDeck as either an unobtrusive column, full screen or anything in between
    • - Especially useful running full screen on a separate monitor
    • - Filter tweets using the tweet text, username, source or timeframe
    • - Auto updates from the Twitter API
    Download TweetDeck beta for Mac OS X and Windows (Vista & Windows XP)

    This application requires the Adobe AIR runtime to be installed.

    Download TweetDeck beta for Linux (manual installation)
    TweetDeck requires the Adobe Air 1.5 runtime be installed first.
    Then download the TweetDeck AIR file

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    Twitter Hashtags and Tracking conversations

    http://www.hashtags.org

    A  great article introduces Twitter Hashtags.

    To use Twitter Hashtags:

    1. Follow the @hashtags Twitter user (http://twitter.com/hashtags).
    2. Create a hashtag by adding a hash symbol (#) to the front of keyword
    3. Track the tagged conversations that interest you. Twitter updates that include a valid hashtag are indexed at Hashtags.org

    Hashtags was designed to accommodate the real-time news community. They provide analytic reports and indexing features to allow users to track what's happening now.

    Hashtags are a community-driven convention for adding additional context and metadata to your tweets. They're like tags on Flickr, only added inline to your post. You create a hashtag simply by prefixing a word with a hash symbol: #hashtag.

    An Introduction to Twitter Hashtags

    Tagging helps to organize and share our online information with others. By attaching one or more keywords to a Flickr photograph, for example, we group it together with others that have the same tag. Hashtags serve a similar purpose on Twitter, the social micro-blogging service. The aim is to bring some order to Twitter users' published updates ("tweets") and make it easier to follow a topic of interest. And you don't necessarily have to be a Twitter user to get a benefit from hashtags.

    How to Use Hashtags

    1. Follow the @hashtags Twitter user (http://twitter.com/hashtags). It will follow you back automatically, and this enables the service to recognize and index your hashtags.

    2. Create a hashtag by adding a hash symbol (#) to the front of an appropriate keyword as you write your Twitter update (for example, #nptech).

    3. Track the tagged conversations that interest you. Twitter updates that include a valid hashtag are indexed at Hashtags.org, organized by tag, and available as individual RSS feeds. This means that you don't have to be a Twitter user to follow the conversation — it's visible to anyone.

    Note that each hashtag index has its own web address and feed, distinguished by a word at the end of those URLs that matches the hashtag keyword.
    The nptech tag is often used on other platforms to tag content related to nonprofit technology topics, and this has started to show up as a hashtag on Twitter as well.

    Whenever #nptech is used as a hashtag in a Twitter update, that update will be automatically added to http://hashtags.org/tag/nptech/ -- and the corresponding RSS feed at http://hashtags.org/feeds/tag/nptech/.
    You can choose to subscribe to the RSS feed for your favourite tagged Twitter updates,  such as those that have been tagged with #nptech.
    That will send any new #nptech-tagged updates from Twitter to your favourite news reader (e.g. Google Reader, Bloglines, etc.).
    As well as subscribing to an RSS feed for any tagged Twitter topic, you can re-publish the feed on your own website, archive it for future reference, combine it with other feeds to make a custom feed — and countless other possible uses.

    Less is More
    Hashtags are community-driven, so their ability to deliver what you're seeking will be determined by how effectively the community chooses to use a tag.  For example,
    #sandiegofire set the standard for the use of hashtags by a Twitter group to track news of a major catastrophe and to mobilize real-world resources to help those affected.
    That said, not all Twitter users are welcoming hashtags with open arms:
    "
    What's #irritating about #this sentence?
    Dave Coustan's position is that Twitter should be about human conversation, not about writing for databases. "Imagine what Flickr would look like if all of the metadata was visually stuck to your photograph," he says. "Or what your blog would look like if you had to have a character before every word in your text that was also a keyword. Ick."
    Certainly, as with any social-tagging system, hashtags have a potential for overuse and abuse that could dilute the effectiveness of any particular tag. Because the hashtags user must "follow" another user in order for that user's hashtags to work, however, a spammer or michief-maker could be "unfollowed" and thus dropped from the index.

    Hashtag etiquette is still evolving, so let good social manners be your guide. It is a rare "tweet" that deserves a hashtag, so tag only those updates that you feel will add significant value to the conversation. One hashtag is best — two are permissable — but three hashtags seem to be the absolute maximum, and risk raising the ire of the community. Tag sparingly, and with careful discretion.

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    Some cool Twitter tools

    Image representing Twitter as depicted in Crun...

    Image via CrunchBase

    In the  The Twitter Manual -David Risley has a section titled Getting the Most Out of Twitter .

    I wonder what are the most popular Twitter tools and utilities.

     

    Getting the Most Out of Twitter
    So, Twitter is what it is. However, there are a lot of really cool third-party sites out there that take advantage of
    Twitter to provide add-on capabilities.


    Summize (

    www.summize.com )
    Summize is a search engine for Twitter. They cal themselves the "conversational search". It is cool because it
    allows you to search realtime conversation taking place on Twitter. For example, the big news this week is
    Apple's launch of the new Iphone. Twitter is atwitter on this topic, as a quick search for Iphone shows you.

    TweetBeep (www.tweetbeep.com)  
    Get email alerts whenever somebody tweets about something you're interested in. It is actually allot like Google
    Alerts, except for Twitter. Want to be notified if anybody mentions your name, your city or your website on
    Twitter? Set up a TweetBeep.


    A look at TwitterPoster might remind you of the old days of those million pixel homepages. What it is is a
    graphical representation of the most influential Twitter-ers. The larger the image, the more influential the person
    right now. Might be a bit useless, but it is cool.

    TwitterFeed (www.twitterfeed.com)

    If you run a blog or anything else which has an RSS feed, you can use TwitterFeed to automatically fetch the
    latest entries from that feed and send them as tweets using your Twitter account. A lot of bloggers, for example,
    use this to automatically send out links to new posts over Twitter.

    The Twitter Manual - (cc) David Risley - http://www.davidrisley.com

     

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