Twitter

Twitter is an exceptional tool to engage community. It allows you to communicate in real-time, share information, get help to questions and build relationships.

One feature that has been difficult to achieve, with accurate and up to date information, is searching the bio database of people you follow on Twitter.

I engage with many great people on Twitter, many are creative people, I have often thought it would be great to keyword search the biographies, similar to Linkedin. The limit of 160 character bio, encourages people to use short keyword descriptions of what they are about, including professional specialties.

As recent as last week, a dear friend Simon Salt, @incslinger to those on Twitter, posted an article “5 Ways Twitter Can Monetize Without Ads”.  The number one element he suggested? The ability to perform a keyword search on the biography. Imagine his surprise when I contacted him about TweepSearch Beta, which had not yet gone live.  His interest peaked further when he discovered the developer was Damon Cortesi or @dacort on Twitter. A very smart individual.

The latest creation is called TweepSearch.  This is the first BETA release and it allows users to search keywords, within the 160 character biographies, of people you follow on Twitter.  It is simple.

•    Enter Twitter @Username.
•    Que – The first time you use it, TweepSearch will que your information. *
•    Search – Create a simple search by typing in keywords.

Example:

In this example I searched “web design” and TweepSearch quickly searched the people I follow, and returned 72 results for web designer.

TweepSearch results included:

•   Picture
•   Full Name
•   Twitter address
•   Location information
•   Bio details

Results: 72 web designers.

The ability to search by location is available, in addition to the ability to sort by last update or screen name, and the ability to view which followers, you are NOT currently following.

The best feature for average users is the nightly update every 24 hours, instead of those outdated and inacurate.  Individuals with a larger followings, might experience longer delays between updates.  Remember, this is a beta.

How valuable is it to you, to have this new ability to “search” bio’s on Twitter? Does having the correct keywords in you bio becomes more important to you? Does it create an larger advantage to now use a landing page, leaving the bio field specifically for searchable keywords? Very interested in hearing your thoughts?

*Note: users with > 1000 followers may experience a slight delay depending on sites traffic.test

Popularity: 29% [?]

I was reading TwiTip and realized there was a comment field, to link your twitter address, linking to your Twitter home page.  That is a great idea. I searched for a Wordpress Plugin, none was found on Wordpress.org. This worked great until I upgraded to 2.7 and am hoping this plugin will soon be upgraded as well.

To my delight, a few days later ProBlogger, wrote a post on his process.  He provided a link to Ideashower, a plugin developer with a method of adding fields into the comment section. Between ProBlogger ’s post and the overview of the developers site I was able to code my comments, fairly simple. If you use Thesis template, ProBloggers post would benefit you.

Here is the process I used.  Let me remind you, each Theme is different, so your code may look slightly different. It is also a great idea to make a backup before changing any code, here is a plugin referred by @panah, WP-DB-Backup. I used Dreamweaver to modify my php files and used my “undo” a few times testing this method.

Download Plugin Files

Download the plugin files from the developers site.

• Download – Version 0.4 (Requires Wordpress 2.5+)
• Download – Version 0.2 (For Wordpress 2.0 – 2.3)

Install the Plugin

Unzip the “Extra-comment-fields” zip file.  Upload the file PHP file “extra-comment-fields“ to the /wp-content/plugins/ directory, under your themes directory. This file does not have a folder as do many Plugins available.

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Popularity: 62% [?]

This post has taken an interesting turn. My original thought was to feature individuals, as well as big brands in this set of examples.  That turns out to be an entirely different post, as few big brands have actually “branded” their Twitter backgrounds.  Valuable no cost space to show their unique brand, being wasted. Why? Maybe it was over looked as they hashed out their ROI justifications.

What the big brands have missed, the savvy business professionals have not. What do I mean? Take a look at these creative backgrounds, not only shows their brand, but also contains useful information in addition to the mini bio of 160 characters and your single URL link.

Sonny Gill

In this background Sonny Gill has managed to show his brand logo, email, AOL IM, Google Talk and shows the symbols of six of his other networks; Linkedin, Plurk, Facebook, Digg and StumbleUpon.

It is simple, clean and sleek, yet packed with valuable information.
__________________________________________________________________________________________

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Popularity: 61% [?]

I follow a variety of wonderful professionals on Twitter. Through their daily links I learn a great deal, on a variety of levels, without the time investment of surfing the internet for information. I use links as part of my daily education process, quick, easy, sent by respected members of my network community.

In return, I send out information that I found interesting or helpful. That information was valuable to me, but how to analysis the value to my network community? Sure, many times I get tweets of appreciation or DM’s, but that is not a analysis by any means.

In compiling a database of social media applications, I came upon Tweetburner. It provides information on your most popular URL’s shared on Twitter, historical statistics, and more.

The first rule in using this application is the requirement of sending links in the shortened URL format “Twurl”. Twurl? Yes, you guessed it, not the format I had been using for the past eight months. A little frustrating to start a test with no history to view, however once I sent out five new links, I had plenty to help me evaluate Tweetburner.

Tweetburners Home Page

Let visit the Tweetburner home page.  On the home page of Tweetburner, you can view the generated Twurl’s to date, Twurl ‘s recently shared, most popular and top 10 URLs in the past hour.
Here is what you can view :

•    Current number of Twurls
•    Number of times Twurls have been clicked
•    Most popular Twirls in the last hour
•    Top 10 URLs with most clicks in the last hour
•    Recently shared Twurls

Now that we have teased you with Tweetburner ‘s main page, let us set up your free account and view your own Twitter and Friendfeed statistics.

Create Your Free Account

Let us start by creating your FREE account. This is a two step process:

Step 1 - Go to the Tweetburner website and click on “Create An Account”. Keep it simply and use your Twitter login and password.

Step 2 - Customize your Tweetburner account to include Twitter and Friendfeed. Here is the information you will need on hand:

•    Twitter Name & Password
•    Friendfeed User Name
•    Friendfeed remote key.

What’s a remote key? A remote key is a password to share with third-party applications and other websites, which allows them to interact with your account with limits.  This is much safer than supplying your password.

Your Stats

Your account is now set up.  Let us look around at YOUR user statistics. Start by clicking on the “Your stats” tab.

•    Clicks on user’s Twurls last week
•    Number of Twurls shared in the past Two weeks
•    YOUR top 5 Twurls
•    Latest Twurls

Please Note:  As previously stated, if your historical links were shortened using any format, other than “Twurl”, you will not see a history.  To begin tracking your history, set your application to send links in a “Twurl” format.

Archive

The archive page show past results, message, Twurl ID, number of Clicks to date and the date and time posted. This page is provides overall statistics on how many people clicked on your link.

How does this help you? This provides insight to the value of your links.

Account Sign Out

To sign out of your account, simply click on the button “Signout”. Obviously self explanatory, but I wanted to complete ALL the tabs.

One wonderful thing about Twitter is the ability to interact and learn from your community.

I find Tweetburner to be useful in evaluating the usefulness of my URL links.  How do you evaluate the usefulness of the URL’s you send in your Tweets to share? What other tools have your discovered and why do you find them beneficial? Do see Tweetburner as a value to helping you engage more effectively? Would appreciate your feedback.

If you found this post helpful, please consider subscribing to our feed.

Related articles:

• Using Twitter to Enhance your Social Network
• Links – How to Find Them and Share Them on Twitter

Popularity: 24% [?]

You have selected a Social Networking service, created your profile, selected a photo of yourself and invited your contacts to join your network. Now you have built a network! Congratulations!

The network you have created is an important one. You have invited people to become part of your network community, so what is your plan? How are you going engage with your community?

Being active and engaging in your community is vitally important. The same time you invest in your personal face to face relationships, you will need to invest in growing and enhancing your online relationship.

Twitter is an exceptional tool to engage community. Why Twitter? It allows you to communicate in real-time, share information, get help to questions and build relationships. People share many aspects of themselves on Twitter, much more than the carefully planned bio on their profiles. Twitter allows you to gain unique insight and open the doors to many new relationships quickly.

Overview of Twitter Basics

1. Account – Setup a free Twitter account.
2. Name – Pick a meaningful user name that you can use in all of your networks. Be consistent.
3. Avatar/Photo – Be easily recognizable. Select a photo and use it consistently over all other social applications.
4. Bio – Complete your one line bio, telling visitors a little about yourself.
5. Location – Put your location in your profile. This will help local Twitter users locate you.
6. About You Page/URL – Add a URL to allow people to learn more about YOU.
7. Customize Twitter – Create a custom background and promote your brand.
8. Invite Your Connections – Locate your connections on Twitter and invite non Twitter users to join in the conversation.
9. Set Notices – Set your notice preferences for followers.
10. Promote Your Twitter Account – Promote the fact you are on Twitter on your networks, in groups and in the Twitter Yellow Pages.
11. Managing Tweets – Simple tools to help you engage with the community.

Let’s Get Started

1. Account

Set up a free Twitter account or consider getting several accounts and avoid others from obtaining your brand, domain, product names, etc.
Twitter names/ID’s are getting as popular as Domain names. The best way to protect your brand is to reserve your name now. Twitter allows you to register one user name per email. Have other email addresses available to this purpose.

2. Name

Keep User Names Consistent. Use your real name, company name, blog title or a brand name. Be consistent between networks. It is much easier to develop relationships with your network, when they immediately recognize you across applications.
Seriously, using your real name on Linkedin, nickname on Flickr, and yet another on Twitter gets confusing for the best of us. Same goes true to avatar photos, be consistent.

3. Avatar/Photo

Select a photo and use it consistently over all other social applications. Be easily recognizable. In most cases an avatar in a 100 x 100 pixel size, in a JPG, GIF or PNG format, works across most applications, but there are exceptions.

Example: A 100 x 100 pixel size photo appears pixilated in TweetDeck’s larger profile window. Using a larger size of 1000 x 1000 file size, not exceeding 700 k, works best overall.

Special thanks to my friend Simon Salt, for allowing me to feature him as my example.

4. Bio

Complete your one line bio in fewer than 160 characters. People will look at your bio and by this brief description decide whether or not to follow you or engage in conversation. Make your bio interesting, by being “REAL”. Not everyone works 24 x 7, so put a mix of interests in your bio. Even business people have interests in sports, arts, family fun, pets, video games, gardening, etc.

5. Location

Put your location in your profile. Include the name of your city and state, or at minimum the county and state. This will help Twitter users locate you and your business on TwitterLocal.

6. About You Page/URL

Create URL to allow people to learn more about you. In Twitter you can add one link. Which link to choose? What is best, website, blog or one of the many other profiles you have created? Which one is best?

Connect to all of them. How? Create a custom landing page, just about you, and provide links to all of your social profiles. A little thought goes a long way. Make it easy for people to find, learn, engage and connect with you.

Please, avoid creating a link that appears like spam, which will turn people off immediately.

7. Customize Twitter

Let us not forget the “Visual” aspect of you or and your brand. Continue with the consistency with a custom background to match your website brand. It can be enhanced to be a , company logo or personality. Caution: Avoid creating a background that looks like a “sales” piece. The appearance of spam is a turn off to many.

• Creating your background

In this example, we used Adobe Illustrator, but any graphic software will work if you can export into GIF, JPG or PNG format.

Format: GIF, JPG, PNG.” Images must be smaller than 800k.
Canvas Dimension: 795 px by 400 px (this was viewed on 15, 21 & 23” monitors)
Top Branding Dimensions: 39.428 px by 795-821 px

• Change Design Colors

Select colors that enhance custom background graphic. You can change the RGB colors for the background behind your graphic, text, link colors, sidebar background fill and sidebar border.

To activate the color wheel, click on one of the fields; background, text, links, sidebar or sidebar border. Click on the color wheel to select the desired color. The color wheel will put the appropriate web or RGB colors in the appropriate field. You can also directly input your web hex color information if you have it available.

Important note: until you SAVE CHANGES, your preferences will not be changed. If you do not like your selections, CANCEL and begin again.

8. Invite Your Connections

Locate your connections on Twitter and invite non Twitter users to join in the conversation.
You can import your contacts from Hotmail, Yahoo, Gmail, AOL and MSN. Note: if you use Outlook, you can export your CSV file and import into one of these free services.

9. Notices of Tweets in your timeline

These settings allow you to control the replies that appear in your timeline.

In the notices section of your settings page, you can choose how you will see the @replies of others. You have three options:

• all @replies: see all of the @replies made by people you follow, whether or not you follow the person to whom the reply is directed.
• @replies to the people I’m following: see @replies from people you follow directed toward other people that you also follow. This is the default setting.
• no @replies: never see any @replies in your timeline, ever

10. Promote Your Twitter Account

• Twellow

Twellow is like the Twitter Yellow Pages. You can search by name, Twitter user or by category. Members can set up a brief bio or an extended profile with links to a variety of their social networks. , as well as your web or blog URL’s.

• Communication Materials

Email Signature – Include your twitter name in your email signature. A simple and professional signature can be created with WiseStamp a Firefox extension enables you to easily customize & add personalized email signatures on any webmail service (Gmail ,Yahoo ,Aol mail, Hotmail).

Business Cards – Include your twitter address near your blog and/or website information.  One Twitter user @adellecharles, suggested if your card has too much information and it begins to look busy, you could consider adding a Twit Bird as a symbol.  I love this idea!

As @Twalk said, “Many of us operate in multiple niches, so why not have mult. biz cards”. This is a great idea. Going to an event or conference, want more than your normal biz card has on it? Try Moo cards.

• Join a Twitter User Group

Facebook has a group named “Twitter”, with over 8745 members.
LinkedIn has several pages of groups, one prominent group Tweeple, has over 1700 members.

11. Managing Tweets

There are a variety of desktop and mobile applications that will help you organize and manage your Twitter communications are available.

• TweetDeck – My favorite and most valuable tool is TweekDeck. Why? I can create different columns and categorize my followers, topics of discussion, clients, etc. Plus the added benefit of having Twitscoop built directly in the application and the expanded profile viewing in the side panel.
• Twirl – This application also runs on Adobe Air, but is a compact version, taking up much less room on your monitor.
• Twitter RSS feed – Keep up with Twitter updates by subscribing to Twitter via RSS Feed. You can subscribe to any Twitter user or even track your own feed.

Just go to the users page and click on the RSS feed at the bottom left hand side of their page. Note: You do not have to follow them, to get their feed.

Closing

Now that you are easily recognizable, linked to your network connections, promoted your account so others can locate you easily, you are ready to begin engaging with your community.

You can communicate in real-time, share information, get help to questions and build stronger relationships.

Writing this post was a great re-check of myself, soon realizing I had been a bit lax in following my own advice. I found a few of my avatar photos were not consistent, my landing page needs work and I will consider a new style of business cards with room for my Twitter address, or at minimum a Twitter Symbol.

People are creative, with creative ideas, what are yours? How do you promote yourself on Twitter? How do you manage your Twitter steam? What tools and tricks work best for you?

Does anyone have the perfect background size for all monitors? I tested 15” to 23”, but there must be an overall method that fits all? No?

Look forward to hearing your tips and tricks!

Related articles:

• Twitter – How Do You Manage the Noise?
• Brands Using Twitter

Popularity: 100% [?]

What is noise? The “noise” they refer to is you, their network of followers. Examples include tweets about pets, children, going to the gym, what someone ate for lunch, etc.

Over the years I have learned, great ideas, long lasting friendships and partnerships, often come from amazing places.  Looking at the surface is not a good judge of a person or situation.  Everyone has something to offer, everyone is necessary, everyone is of value.

This video remains one of my favorite Social Networking tips, one I thought I would share with you today.  The video is by Gary Vaynerchuk, a man with over 16,000 twitter followers, who discusses “How to cut through the noise”.

He presents his view on managing the “noise”, whether on Facebook, Pownce, Twitter, Email or whatever other platform you use on to connect to your network of people.

Small things, connect people, people represent your networks.  When my dog had cancer, there were many supportive dog lovers on Twitter, which quickly turned into friends.  Not surprising, several have become great business resources, exchanging help, tips and even leads to prospective business.  Twitter people who bonded over the love for our pets.  What is noise to some are common bonds to others.

First, how do you like the video? So what do you view as noise? Do you find it difficult to manage all the Twitter traffic? Have your found a way to manage your Twitter messages?

Popularity: 26% [?]