Twitter’s first name wasn’t twitter but Twttr (inspired by Flickr . Here’s an infographic that shows all the latest statistics on twitter – with a few projections for the future as well.

Via: Infographics Lab 

Twitter has changed some people’s lives by allowing us to connect with kindred spirits and talk about a wide variety of subjects.  Looking to express what your twitter friends mean to you? This Twitter Love Song is written and produced by Marcome & Bruno Pelletier.   The song takes inspiration from songwriter Marcome’s (@Marcome) Twitter friendship with Reg Saddler (@zaibatsu), according to the song’s YouTube profile.   “I would really like to give a huge thank you to Reg Saddler for inspiring me to do this Twitter Song project,” Marcome says in the profile. “I’m grateful to my friends and followers on Twitter who gave me so much love and kindness. I’m proud to be alive because you are there with me!” As the song goes:

Twitter me some love / follow me / follow you
Twitter me some love

Watch the video:

Marcome (pronounced Marko-may) is a singer songwriter from Canada.  She was born in Quebec and speaks both English and French.  Gifted with a pure voice, she blends lyrics and fuses different world influences with jazz style and classical vocals.  Check out her website and blog where she talks about the making of the Twitter Me Some Love and the Music Video.   Click here pics of Marcome.  Bruno Pelletier is also a vocalist from Quebec.   For info on him go here and for pics of Bruno here.

Check out this article on Marcome and her Twitter love song by Simone Preuss

image courtesy of Marcomé

Here is an Infographic of Top 15 Twitter Applications.  First Place  goes to Tweet Deck, although I would rate HootSuite as a close second!

Which is your favorite app for tweeting?

OK, now you can “Pump Up” your twitter! 

Our dynamic trio – Jack, Biz and Evan – have released their biggest feature update: 

Twitter Lists!

Twitter lists are a way for you to group people you follow into categories.  Provided here for your twitter convenience is a short guide on how to create and use them:

1.  Click “create new list” in the new section on the right in the sidebar.

2.  Name it and choose whether to make it private or public.

3.  Add people you are following to your new list by visiting your following page and use the drop down menu beside each username or go to their profile page and use the drop down menu to add them to your list.

 Sharing your list:  Once you’ve created a list and assuming it’s a public list, you can share the URL with anyone.  Also, you can follow other’s lists!

Twitter created a list of all their staff here.

And I created a list of the Tweet Valley Team here.

Tip:  When you click on a team URL, you will see the teams member’s tweets.  If you would like to see who is on the team, just add “/members” to the team URL or click “following” and you will see a page with the team members listed (see example below.)

Issues with this new list feature:

#1 You can’t add yourself to a list you have created.

#2 You can only add people you follow

#3 It’s hard to add people to your list

#4 No way for people to know you are following them

#6 No way to “follow-the-list-except-that-guy-who-tweets-too-much”

#7 You can’t import/export lists

#8 No stats or analytics

#9 No dynamic lists

If you would like to avoid these issues just ignore twitter’s lists and use TweepML to establish and share groups of twitter users.

I am on the Tweet Valley team, but since I created this list I’m not included on the list: add “/members” to the team URL or click “following” and you will see a page with the team members listed

With the rise of Twitter, growing faster than a weed in the garden patch it is such an exciting time to be so involved and a part of the social media landscape.  I love numbers and statistics.  I guess that is why I am drawn to stuff like this video.  I like how the information is presented.  So it’s as much as style as the numbers themselves.

Did you know?  4.0  Enjoy

The lates version of their video series.   Content by XPLANE, The Economist, Karl Fisch, Scott McLeod and Laura Bestler. Design and development by XPLANE.

These numbers should leave no doubt about the meteoric rise of Twitter and other social media outlets.  The thing that sets Twitter apart is that the conversation is in real time.  Look at those Twitter numbers especially the number of Tweets per day.

Twitter:  23 million unique visitors/day;  3 million tweets/day

YouTube:  85 million video views/day

Facebook:  300 million active users, 122 million visits/day

LinkedIn:  43 million members; 13 million daily avg visits

Blogs:  133 million currently indexed by Technorati.

Source:  Circle Research

I guess real “expert” or “power” Twitter-ers enjoy and use some sort of desktop client like Tweetdeck, Nambu, or Seesmic to manage their Twitter account. But for me, I seem to have reverted back to the standard Twitter browser interface … with one caveat, I use Firefox … primarily for one very convenient script (or add-on by Al’s Scripts) that turns your following-follower page listings from this:

into this:

If your tweets contain such sayings as “Get more followers, instantly!” or “Find targeted followers in seconds” or “affiliate schemes” then this feature may not be critical … BUT if you are using Twitter for quality and not quantity then having follower-following bio’s listed in this manner is a tremendous help in separating the good from the bad on your account, or identifying a friend of interest on another user’s account.

(I’m in the MAC world so perhaps my PC brethren could chime in, but I am pretty sure the steps below are the same for PC’s as well.)

Step 1 – Install the free download of FireFox.

Step 2 – After the installation is complete, launch. Now download and install Greasmonkey.

If you are unfamiliar with Firefox add-ons then you might like this wiki article about Greasemonkey which is in essentially a JavaScript enabler for the FireFox browser.

Step 3 – Restart FireFox. Now download and install at Al’s scripts the script “Twitter Friend Bios at a Glance”. The explanations for install are pretty clear … really just hit the green install button and follow the prompts.

Step 4 – Now, go to your Twitter follower or following page and separate the wheat from the chaff.

[ Hey! follow @imusicmash, the writer of "Al's Scripts", on twitter too. ]

]]> http://tweetvalley.com/blog/twitter/get-twitter-bios-at-a-glance/feed/ 0 http://tweetvalley.com/blog/twitter/3-ways-to-put-twitter-on-autopilot/ http://tweetvalley.com/blog/twitter/3-ways-to-put-twitter-on-autopilot/#comments Tue, 25 Aug 2009 14:15:35 +0000 Brandon Eley http://tweetvalley.com/?p=315

There are only so many hours in the day… and all of us (well, except for maybe Chris Brogan) have other commitments outside of social media. Wouldn’t it be great if you could just put Twitter on autopilot? You can, but first…

Remember, Twitter is about having conversations and building relationships. The more you automate, the less you converse. Use these tools as a way to spark and enhance conversations, not as a way to step back from Twitter completely. Okay, now on to the tools.

Schedule Tweets for a Later Time

Using TweetLater you can schedule individual tweets to be posted at a later time. You can choose either a specific time (i.e. October 13, at 12:40 PM) or a certain interval from now (i.e. 3 hours from now).

TweetLater also has a paid version (starting at $29.97/month) that allows you to setup recurring tweets. The web service also has other features to help you manage your Twitter stream such as automatically following people who follow you (or unfollowing people who unfollow you), and can manage an unlimited number of accounts.

Automatically Post Tweets from an RSS Feed

TwitterFeed lets you automatically post entries from an RSS feed to your Twitter stream… and it doesn’t have to be your RSS feed! You can post any RSS feed to your Twitter stream. There are some really interesting ways you can use this, from posting new content from your websites CMS or blog to automatically posting updates from an industry trade journal.

TwitterFeed also lets you configure advanced options, such as how often you want your feed to update (as often as 30 minutes) and how many updates to post simultaneously. I strongly recommend that you only update one at a time. Updating more than one entry every interval will make your stream look automated and will annoy your followers. Moderation is the key.

Automatically Post to Twitter from Your Website

While you could always use TwitterFeed to post tweets from your website, the tools below allow you to edit or tweak your tweet before it’s published. Shorten them to fit within the 140-character limit or just tweak them for maximum effectiveness.

Have a WordPress blog? Using the Twitter Tools plugin, you can automatically send a tweet every time you publish a blog post.

Don’t have WordPress? If you use ExpressionEngine, check out the LG Twitter plugin. There’s also a Drupal Twitter module.

There you have it!

There you have three easy ways to automate your Twitter stream. I recommend integrating all three into a balanced Twitter diet. Just be careful not to automate too much. I would recommend that no more than 25-30% of your tweets are automated.

Have an additional tip or know of another service that helps you automate Twitter? Post it in the comments below!

A kinder & gentler strategy for finding quality twitter follows & followers.

Note: The First Follow strategy posted here has been rendered ineffective due to changes by Twitter in how the following-follower page URL is generated.  Nuts Twitter! In the meantime this D.Cortesi tool,  [my first follow] is similar, well sort of.

Originally published at KentBeatty.com on 3.26.09, updated and improved for tweetvalley.com

If you have an established Twitter account and some interesting updates, here is a way of having some fun generating quality follows & followers.  This is NOT automated … just basic human psychology.  All legit twitter users need to be needed and want to follow “like minded” twitterees …

• 1.  Find a user you follow that you really dig, i.e. they are like minded, in the same line of work, interesting, etc. etc., whatever your criteria for judging a twitter user. Now, go to this user’s home page using the standard twitter web viewer.

http://twitter.com/KentBeatty

• 2.  Hit the person’s “following” link. (This displays the “last twenty-one people” this user decided to follow, in the order they followed.)

http://twitter.com/KentBeatty/following

• 3.  Scroll down to the bottom of the page, hit the “next” button. This displays the “second to last twenty-one people” the user has chosen to follow, in the order they followed.

http://twitter.com/KentBeatty/following?page=2

• 4.  Look at the user’s total following number, how many users is this user following, in this case 1,856. Divide 1,856 by 20, that equals 92.8.  Now, let’s go to the page that reveals the first users that this user decided to follow. Take the number you arrived at: (rounded up) in this case 93, and put that number at the end of the URL address in the command line of your browser.    …(cont’d)

http://twitter.com/KentBeatty/following?page=93

• 5.  A quick check … look at the bottom of the list, if the “next” button is visible, hit that until you do not see the “next” button, only the “previous” button. Now, what you see are the first follows of this user when they first set up their twitter account. The user first followed in the example is @logitron. In most cases, there is a strong probability the first 50 or so users that a user first follows are pretty similar. In some cases, these follows are why a user started a twitter account. Follow these yourself and see what happens.
• 6. Now, if you are really jacked up on twitter, do the same thing for this user’s “followers” list. These are the users early followers. Again, a strong probability that these first followers are similar to your interests. Follow these and see what happens. NOTE: The “First Follow” strategy doesn’t seem to work on really huge numbers of follows/followers, (anything above 10,000/20=500 as the URL page number ) not sure why …

Good luck!

David

By Kent Beatty of Talent Media Group – Follow him @kentbeatty

This post was originally published at KentBeatty.com on June 18, 2009

TweetDeck has been my Twitter Control Center for several months and now with Version 0.26 it’s even more powerful:

Newest features:

• Manage Multiple Twitter Accounts – (for you split personality types)
• Sync and Backup – to keep your TweetDeck safe
• Spam button – use this to avoid twitter spam
• iPhone – take all your TweetDeck favorites, groups, columns etc. with you!

Other features:

• Columns -You can display one column or many columns. I typically keep 10 columns open.

• Groups – View your followers in specific groups, which have their own column.
• Notifications – shows you new updates from peeps you’re following, replies, DMs, or 1 of your groups or searches.

• Facebook – Update Facebook from TweetDeck
• Constant updating – you can adjust the frequency of of updates from “All Friends”, “@Mentions” and “DMs” – no need to manually refresh all the time

• Video – Record, share and watch video clips from within TweetDeck
• Photos – View photo thumbnails directly from TweetDeck
• Short URL – Shorten a URL without leaving tweetdeck!
• Searches – Do a search on your name and find out what others are saying about you on twitter. Find out about an event, an organization or a person by searching for a name, keyword or hashtag.
• Saved Searches – Follow topics real-time and save your searches

Visit the TweetDeck blog

Hashtags:

• Hashtag – like tags, just prefix a word with the hash symbol – #: #mac, #iphone or #fb, used to create “groupings” on twitter
• Hashtags.org – check out this site for real-time tracking of Hashtags: Trends, Tags, People, etc.
• Follow – @hashtags on Twitter on twitter
• Use – hashtags in your tweets by preceding your key words with the #, i.e. #socialmedia
• Hashtag Origin – Hashtags were popularized during the San Diego forest fires in 2007 when Nate Ritter used the hashtag "#sandiegofire" to identify his updates related to the disaster.

Twitter Fanatics – Check out Loic Le Meur’s Seesmic Desktop for twitter – it’s very good and competes directly with TweetDeck for your attention. Here’s a video of Loic on the New Seesmic Desktop 0.3 Release  

Resources: Twitter Cheat Sheet – a 2 page pdf

Twitter For The Tweeple – a 17 page pdf (Getting Started with Twitter)

Using Twitter for Business – a 15 page pdf by

John Jantsch Why You Should be on Twitter – a 33 page pdf by

Navin Kabra A True Beginner’s Guide to Getting The Most Out of Twitter – a 22 page pdf by Sarah J. Austin & Linden A. Mueller

The Twitter Power Guide – a 20 page pdf by Christopher S. Penn

Twitter Tuesday Handout – a 7 page pdf by Phil Johncock Using TweetDeck – a 5 page pdf (brief guide to TweetDeck)

By Kent Beatty of Talent Media Group – Follow him @kentbeatty

 Twitter’s new homepage as of July 28, 2009

Twitter has updated their homepage and made their search feature much more accessible and useable.  Gone is the cartoonish “What are you doing?” days.

Everyone knows how to use search and is familiar with searching, but still most people don’t know much about twitter (the few million people that use Twitter regularly represent a tiny fraction of the planet, geographically and demographically.)  Putting the search feature at center stage helps make new user’s feel more at home and helps the page look less “foreign” to them.

Twitter Co-founder, Biz Stone, said in a blog post about the new look: "The open and timely exchange of information will have a positive impact on the world and Twitter has a role to play."

By Kent Beatty of Talent Media Group – Follow him @kentbeatty

So when your friend says, “I just don’t get the twitter thing.”  Send them over to this blog post.  Lee and Sachi LeFever make excellent videos using a technique they call “paperworks.”  They use simple tools, a white board and paper cut outs, and plain English in their fight against complexity.  Although appearing deceptively simple, their videos have lurking under the surface lessons that have been crafted with great care.  Below is their simple explanation of Twitter.

Twitter in Plain English

Connect

Lee Lefever is @leelefever on Twitter

Sachi Lefever is @sachilefever on Twitter

Common Craft is @commoncraft

Become a Fan of Common Craft on Facebook

Common Craft Web Site

(Tweet This Post!)

By Kent Beatty of Talent Media Group – Follow him @kentbeatty

Jeremiah Owyang, in a post at Web Strategy, discussed how brands should position their persona on social media profiles.  He lists four types of Twitter Profiles from Corporate to Personal:

1. Pure Corporate Brand – 100% corporate branded – provides corporate news, deals and support with no indication of any individuals involved
2. Corporate with Persona – About 80% corporate brand and 20% personal.  A corporate or branded account with an individual participating.
3. Employee With Corporate Association – This one is about 20% corporate related and 80% personal information. Mostly personal content but obviously connected to a brand or business.
4. Pure Personal Account – 100% personal content with no tie in or mention of corporate or branded information.

Each of the four profile types serves a different purpose.  Jeremiah summarizes that Type 1 would be useful for sharing facts, Type 2 may be useful for support, and Type 3 for evangelism.

Source: Web Strategy.  Read the full post here.

(Tweet This Post!)

On the Isle of Wight, from a 16th Century Cottage comes tweets! 

Andy Stanford-Clark, an IBM computer engineer, who lives on the Isle of Wight, in the UK, and in a 16th century thatched  Elizabethan Cottage, has wired up his home to twitter!

  The building ‘itself’ can tweet!

Andy wired his home with sensors to tweet status updates i.e. “A mouse has been caught in the study.”  Any device in the house can send a message to twitter about what it’s doing!  Andy receives tweets to his mobile phone about open windows, left-on lights, mouse traps and broken garden hoses.  The house tweets it’s energy use every time an additional $16 has been spent on utilities.  Andy predicts this technology will be available to every home in just two to three years.

Andy Stanford-Clark on Twitter

Andy’s House on Twitter

World Changing – Can Twitter Help Us To Save Energy At Home?

(Tweet This Post!)

Ever wonder what the characters "#fb" mean in a tweet?  This is a technique used by a twitter user to selectively send their tweets (that contain these characters) to their Facebook status, called "Selective Twitter Status".

Did you know you can connect Facebook and Twitter? There are currently two options …

1. Use of the Facebook application "Twitter" [Everything you tweet goes to Facebook.]

• Login to Facebook
• Type in "twitter" in the search box at the upper tight.
• Select "Twitter" application listing in the search results
• Select "Go to Application"
• Select "Allow"
• Type in your twitter account name, password

Now all your tweets in twitter will forward automatically to your Facebook status.

2. Use of the Facebook application "Selective Twitter Status" [You decide which tweet goes to Facebook ]

• Login to Facebook
• Type in "Selective Twitter Status"  in the search box at the upper right.
• Select "Selective Twitter Status" in the search results
• Select "Go to Applicaiton"
• Select "Allow"
• Type in your twitter account name, password

Now, when you type a twitter message and YOU WANT the post to go to your Facebook status, put the characters #fb as the last three characters in your tweet.

This post will go to facebook and only this post.

(If you DO NOT WANT the tweet to go to facebook do not type #fb)

Personally, I use "Selective Twitter Status" as my tweets tend to be more business and technology oriented where as my Facebook posts are more on the personal side.  Some of my Facebook friends think my tweets and twitter are a bit wacky (go figure?) so I limit what I send to from Twitter to Facebook.

Hope it works for you …