TweetValleyTwitter News and Tips

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

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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.

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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?

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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 …

When you start using twitter you’ll notice a lot of tweets have @username in them.

In the tweet above the “@kossover” & “@druckenmiller” are links. 

Since twitter is really a broadcast communication tool, users need a way to let the world know they’re writing to a specific person.  That’s where the @username comes in.  In the tweet above @suechil is asking a question. 

Tweets are public, so when you publish a tweet, it goes to all your followers and it’s a part of the public record of twitter.  Keep in mind that your conversation is being overheard by potentially the entire twitterverse. 

If you want to let a Twitter user know that you are talking directly to them, use their @username in the tweet.  The whole Twitter world can see your tweet, but it’s obvious that you’re having a conversation with that one person.

Using the @username in the tweet also makes sure the tweet shows up in their “Replies” area on their home Twitter page, or on their Tweetdeck Display.

Here’s an example of a tweet I sent yesterday to thank a twitter user for “Re-Tweeting” one of my tweets:

Remember that Twitter is a “conversation.”  It’s about engaging other Twitter users and conversing tweeting with them!

Twitter is a social networking and micro-blogging service that allows users to post updates.

    TweetDeck allows twitter users to display tweets from other twitter users in a unique columned user interface.  It can be used to group people together and to search across the twittersphere.