Tagged: Twitter
Proof Number of Followers Don’t Matter on Twitter
It’s frustrating to see so much weight placed on follower count, but articles like these give me a glimmer of hope. From AdAge:
“[...]But his first round of magazine-cover appearances suggest that the conversion rate between dollars and tweets is still pretty unclear. And not everyone, it seems, can cash in yet.
[...]
The issue sold just more than 1 million copies at newsstand, about 20% below the newsstand average for early issues this year and 20% below its newsstand average in April 2009.
People’s later cover with Sandra Bullock, who doesn’t appear to have a Twitter account but does have an Oscar, sold more than twice as many newsstand copies.”
Separately, there was an article in HBR today dissecting Twitter followers and how it correlates to influence.
Totally gonna toot my own horn, but I’ve been saying since lord knows when: Grow out of the Tila Tequila mentality. Follower count does not equate to influence. If 3 million people are following, but no one is listening, are you popular and not an influencer? Why didn’t Beiber’s People issue sell more than Sandra Bullock’s issue? Does popularity equate to conversion? Or even reach?
Only time will tell, but me? I’d rather have a fraction of followers who actually engage. I think it’s time we re-think the terms: influencer and popular. #fridayfoodforthought
Six Things I Learned at my First SxSWi
That’s me second from the right with @JessBerlin, @MelissaRowley, @BrianSolis, @Pistachio, @Rabeidoh and the photobomber. ;) (cc) Kenneth Yeung - www.thelettertwo.com
Holy smokes I survived my very first SxSWi (interactive) and I must jot down my thoughts while they’re still fresh. You know, this old age stuff is making me very forgetful. FINE. I just have a bad memory. Anyway, moving on!
1. LOCATION LOCATION LOCATION
Whatever you do people, listen to me: you must MUST stay close to downtown. Austin is this tragic land where hailing a cab is nearly impossible. Heck, the cabs with their lights on don’t stop. And. AND it takes forever and a flippin’ day for a cab to come, even after you call them.
2. Make friends with cab drivers
I am not even kidding. The very first cab driver you have rapport with, make sure you tip well and use that one driver for your entire trip there. It will save you a lot of time.
3. Fogo de Chao is overpriced and mediocre
For those who have never been to Sx, you are probably reading this going wtf? But seriously, Fogo de Cao is one of the nicer establishments conveniently located downtown. There will be many dinners there (sit down dinners) that you will probably be invited to. It is not a casual restaurant for BBQ and it is also a chain. Before agreeing to dinner, I recommend evaluating worth. One meal there is about $400 with alcohol, tip and labor — as in your time spent. So think — especially about the company — before agreeing to a dinner there. Note: this doesn’t apply solely to Fogo — there are so many people, so many events going on simultaneously, the most valuable thing at Sx is time. ;)
4. Brunch and breakfasts
It is near impossible to meet people for happy hour, quick drinks and by late night everyone is so wasted, if you are looking to build meaningful relationships, breakfasts, brunch, coffee and or lunch is the best time to connect. I also recommend scheduling with three to five (max) of the people you want to meet before Sx.
5. Put one day aside to avoid your friends
On my third and last day in Austin, I purposely avoided every place my friends checked into on Foursquare to meet new people. It was the best thing I did. Don’t get me wrong, I met up with my friends late night to party but because I avoided the usual suspects during the day and into the early evening, I met and connected with: Jeff Jarvis, Leo Laporte, editors and journalists from LA Times, CNN and NY Times, and the VP of Social Media for National Geographic. Craziness.
6. No badge needed
In case you hadn’t noticed, I didn’t bring up panels, talks and or the actual convention. Unless Sx kicks their content game up, I will most likely go badgeless again next year (if I go.) Sx is all about networking and connecting with people in person. I don’t need to attend people’s panels since I already read their blogs. Plus, recorded sessions show up on YouTube, Vimeo, et al. :)
The very last and most important thing I learned at SxSW is how honored and humbled I am to be connected to so many phenomenal people. The people who move and shake the Internet are…my friends (!) and even lovelier in person than they are online. I am so fortunate to have met the people I have.
So that was seven things, but whatever.
SxSWi 2010 and all my friends: I LOVE YOU. And thank you, Austin for your hospitality!!
T-Minus Three Tweets and Some Scary Stats
Three away from my 10,000th and I am nervous-excited. And no, I am not planning to throw a party.
Can Someone Translate This Twitter Dude’s Speak?
I think I may be misunderstanding what this @Raffi person – Twitter platform developer – is communicating. Anyone wanna take a shot at translating his speak? :)
Should You Be Held Accountable for What You Publish Online?
Some local Seattle radio station Tweeted that noise up there and continued on bantering with the Twitterverse.
3 Reasons I Hate Tweetups
Oh yes I AM blogging ’bout this.
After several Tweetups, I’ve noticed the same things happening over and over and I am no longer keeping my piehole shut. So to all who go to Tweetups, PLEASE FLIPPIN’ READ.
1. Organizers: please, I beg you, pick a place where the music is not super duper loud – especially during conferences.
Am I the only one who repeatedly have these conversations?
Person: “Hi I’m adlskjfd.”
Me: “What?”
Person: “I AM ALKSJLSDF”
Me: “WHAT??”
Person: “MY NAME IS A:LSKDJSAL, WHAT’S YOURS?”
Me: “I AM SORRY, CAN’T HEAR. TWEET ME!!!!”
<Person: “WHAT???”
Me: (gestures to phone and shows Tweetie, as if to Tweet me)
Person: “OK!”
Me: “SO SORRY. BYE!”
Not sure about you, but the reason I go to swanky bars and pay for overpriced drinks at conferences is to meet and connect with those I’ve been interacting with online in, you know, person. I am tired of losing my voice just to learn someone’s name. Especially after a conference where the yelling happens three or four days in a row.
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How My iPhone and Twitter Apps 1UPd My Twidiction
Damn you iPhone.
Damn you Tweetie2.
Damn you SimplyTweet.
And most of all, DAMN YOU TWITTER.
…ok fine. So my Twitter addiction is not because of the above, but hey, I need something to blame, and I am sticking to the above as excuses.
When I first started Twitter, I had close to zero friends and didn’t really…well…get it. And by “getting it”, I mean Twitter. Most of the interesting people only interacted with each other and completely ignored me.
What. The. F**K.
It was sucky to be disregarded and I felt really lame…well…more like I was talking to a wall. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. *crickets*…ok, so I’d say more interesting things than HI or @Oprah I JUST ATE A GRILLED CHEESE FOR LUNCH TALK TO ME. But I digress. Where was I? Oh, ya. Twitter addiction.
Statute of Limitations, Macaroni, Twitter, and My Disclaimer
A fellow blogger J. Phil, sent this PennyArcade comic during a discussion about Facebook. I like PennyArcade, but due to my severe A.D.D. (self diagnosed), there is way too much small text to read, hence I don’t really follow PennyArcade, and doubt I appreciate it as much as I should. Sorry to all the hard core Penny Arcade fans out there. It’s me. Really.
My point is not PennyArcade or J.Phil, but everytime FUNNY + FACEBOOK are spoken in the same sentence, I think of Twitter (the new way to blog for over caffeinated people like me) and this:
Every. single. time. I see that up there, I laugh out loud. Facebook is expanding, and the more people from my past that add me, the more that Tweet (Tweet is what all the cool kids are calling single Twitter blurbs) is relevant.
NOT that I’ve gotten anyone pregnant. Or been impregnated by someone from my high school. Or planning to invoice someone for an abortion I’ve never had… Shit, I am digging a hole that was never there, so let me STFU – that’s an acronym for Shut. The. Fuck. Up., (just in case).
ANYway, the man makes me laugh. If that Tweet up there isn’t enough to convince you to follow him on Twitter, check this one out:
And if that Montessori Tweet appalled or disgusted you, you might as well disown me now before I say or do something tactless and un-PC that will appall and or disgust you. Because that up there? Is my sense of humor.
Yes, this is TOTALLY my past and future disclaimer. If I ever do or say anything offensive, you better believe I’ll redirect you to this post.
And if all else fails, I’ll just hypnotize you into believing I’m a good person. I can easily get a hypnosis kit on ebay. -just saying. ;)
Monitter: Real Time #search Twitter Updates (Web App)
I came across monitter.com and wow, it might make me use Twitter more.
What made me stop and check the site out, was the UI. I have NO patience for hunting and pecking to learn how to use a site. I certainly don’t read help or about pages to learn how to use the site. So I am a huge fan of intuitive UIs — opening the site and jumping right in. Monitter is exactly that, and became an instant fan.
Monitter is independent from 3rd party apps like Adobe Air! And beyond the interface, the features are useful. It’s like TweetDeck, except it’s web based. Has a search engine like Summarize, but updates Real Time and customizable.
Some more additonal features and funtions:
- Default layout is three columns — but adjustable. Each column queries its own #search based on the Twitter API. You can add up to as many columns of keyword Tweets as you want. (I stopped adding columns at 10, since they’re vertically displayed)
- Location searches: You can set Monitter to only display Tweets within X miles of X location. Neat
- Language: Set Monitter to display Tweets in four languages: English, Spanish, Dutch, and French. (no Asian language support — yet)
- Free embeddable widget for your site. (I downloaded it but it’s kinda huge (dimension wise) — no thanks)
- As a bonus, it’s written in jQuery. (I’m a fan)
Conclusion: A definite must check out.
I like it more than TweetDeck, Twhirl, Summarize, and any other Twitter app I’ve used.
Do you use Twitter? If so, what’re your favorite Twitter apps?
Social Media Sudoku
The past few days, I’ve attempted life as a ‘normal person‘. Going out with friends, dates, bars, and today, I even had an ‘average Sunday’ — Sunday brunch, Sunday errands, lazy Sunday in a park, then Sunday coffee with my friends, complete with the Sunday paper.
As I was playing Sudoku, my mind started wandering, and the numbers morphed into icons of various Social Media networking sites I participate in. Then I realized, I may have a problem. I am addicted to the Internet, especially Social Networking Sites. (image via: troller.com, a site randomly found Googling for a visual to add to this post.)
I am signed up for over 20 different services, and the list of new accounts keep growing. Since I’m signed up for an abundance of services, it may seem as though ‘clone’ sites are spawning, but I disagree. It’s quite exciting to see how these ‘clone’ sites integrates and appropriates various features and functions of their predecessors to fit their own formulas. Just like how cars, gadgets, and electronics keep getting ‘better’, I firmly believe Social Networking sites do, as well.
To omit redundancy, I separate everything via purpose of the respective services so I’m not overloaded, overwhelmed, or bored by all these sites. I’ve learned to quickly distinguish which sites I will participate in, or not. Continue reading
Dear Internets, BRB ;)
Tweetake Error: When Can I Back-up My Twitter?
For those getting errors from Tweetake, is the above the same one?
I ran Tweetake – three times last night, two times this morning – and keep getting that error too =( Which is strange, since I successfully backed everything up on my first attempt.
So I sent the developer an email.
Let’s see if I hear back… And if you’re getting a different error, please let me know :)
Back Up Your Twitter in Excel with tweetake, People!
From their site:
Tweetake is here to allow you to back-up your followers, people you are following and Tweets with just one click.
Why bother to do this? Many reasons:
* Twitter may lose followers again like it did in June / July
* You may change your Twitter name and want to re-follow the people you were following, and contact the people who were following you
* You may want to refer to a Tweet that you sent more than 90 days ago (the longest twitter keeps Tweets for)
* You may just like backing things up, ‘just in case’, like us :)We’re not affiliated with Twitter in any way, we just thought this would be good for our own personal use, and decided to make it available for the world at large too. via: tweetake.com
:)
Adobe AIR: Deleting Locally Stored Encrypted Data
The main advantage to Windows for me, is that I am familiar with maintenance. I go straight into registry files, poke, shift, and delete stuff – confident my actions will not interfere with my PC’s innards. I know Windows. OS X is a whoooole different story. Everything is so simple, but that’s what scares me. The simplicity.
Call me paranoid, but because of my past experiences with Windows, 3rd party native apps freak me out, since I’m don’t know what’s going into where… and the biggest problem? I am an OS X moron.
So looking into 3rd party publishing tools for Twitter was confusing. All of the apps I use (personal and professionally) are web based. I do not have a need for Silverlight or Adobe Air, so I had to learn about those app before deciding on a Twitter app, since most Twitter apps require AIR or Silverlight. See? Confusing.
Long story short, I decided on Twhirl, since it came so highly recommended, installed AIR and Twhirl, then uninstalled immediately after running them for 30minutes. I am one of those that keeps separate windows to a minimum and accustomed to only a few windows: my browsers (Firefox, Safari, nightly build), documents, and Adium. Plus it slowed down my computer and it was just too busy. (for me).
So when it came to uninstalling Twhirl and AIR, I wondered if there were any files both apps plugged or hid locally. Especially since the data is encrypted and uses KeyChain to store data from the application to user. Digging through my hard drive did nothing for me, not to mention all the questions: Dragging and dropping apps don’t really make all the files… disappear. Do they? Can it truly be that simple? It seems too good to be true; and the questions go on and on. (Hmmm, note to self: learn OS X.)
So I did the next best thing. Googled.
Well lo and behold, turns out I was correct. Adobe Air doesn’t automatically delete files.
From their site:
Click for larger image
“The encrypted local store may perform more slowly if the stored data exceeds 10MB.
When you uninstall an AIR application, the uninstaller does not delete data stored in the encrypted local store.
Encrypted local store data is put in a subdirectory of the user’s application data directory; the subdirectory path is Adobe/AIR/ELS/ followed by the application ID.” via Adobe’s site
And there you have it, folks.
Do any of you use Adobe Air? Am I missing out on good apps? Do you use Twhirl or another client?
Wiki has a Knol page but there’s no Knol page for Wiki -how rude!
I wanted to see if Knol had a Wikipedia page – and sure enough, it did:
Check this out (highlighted):
Several experts see Knol as Google’s attempt to compete with Wikipedia.[6]
“attempt to compete” – and it’s referenced haha. Correct me if I’m wrong but I went on Knol to look for Wiki, but they didn’t have one. FAIL.
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Tweetsnap: a non Java/Flash based Twitter widget
So I’ve been looking to somehow put my Twitter -or would it be Tweets?..whatever, who cares- into my WordPress. I randomly came across Tweetsnap and didn’t see it on Twitter’s pbwiki so I decided to share. At first I thought it was a screen capping app but turns out it’s a widget. See? (points below)
Basically it’s HTML generated code so if your site doesn’t support Twitter badges like this one (or maybe I’m too stupid to figure it out…), it seemed like a solution. How perfect. JUST what I was looking for.
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