Twitter List SOON

Twitter is ready to rolls out its “list” feature from just a few groups to every twitterian soon, they announced it on Friday. Giving your twitter profile a more organized look the new feature lets you organize every people added on your twitter under categories of your choice.

Two weeks earlier Twitter started the service to only some selected members of micro-blogging site but now it is available for everyone. The feature gives you an easier way to read the tweets of people belonging to same group and another marking point is that your list can be published to everyone or it can be kept private with you. The publicized list can then be followed by others giving them access to the information shared in the group tweets. People viewing your list can even subscribe to those tweets without subscribing to individual users.

An intelligent and informative list can be very useful for other twitterian to have complied real time information but making a private list blocks even your friends from viewing them.
Creating a list will require few efforts because you will have to search for individual users either from their Twitter page or from your own following.

It’s a good way to filter your tweets and formatting your tweets into list may be a way to construct boundaries inside unbounded and ever expanding Twitterland.

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Is Social Network a Waste of Time

Another new report about what a waste of time social networks are - but is it missing the point?
More grist to the mill for bosses unhappy about the impact of social networking sites on staff productivity: a new survey from technology company Morse claims that the use of these sites is costing British business somewhere in the region of £1.4bn a year in wasted time. And that’s just the conservative estimate: around half of office workers admitted to Morse that they accessed Twitter and Facebook for personal use during the working day, thereby ‘wasting’ around 40 minutes a week (though they put the amount of time their colleagues spend visiting social networking sites at a full hour a week, so someone’s telling porkies). But what’s to say that all this time is wasted?

It’s certainly true that the use of these sites can have a damaging effect on a company’s reputation. Just look at electrical retailer Currys, whose staff were recently found to have posted unflattering comments about their customers on Facebook. Indeed, one in three of the 1,460 office workers questioned for the Morse study said they had seen sensitive company information posted on social networking sites. This is the kind of reason employers will seize upon as an excuse to block access to these sites (although the approach doesn’t seem to be consistent across the board - three-quarters of those surveyed said that their employer hadn’t issued them with specific guidelines on using Twitter, for example).

But while checking out your friend’s holiday snaps is never likely to be classed as a productive use of company time, it seems short-sighted to dismiss the business benefits of these sites out of hand. Far from being a waste of time, the likes of Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn may help to improve communication, collaboration, creativity and knowledge sharing. So an outright ban might not only go down badly with staff; you might also be cutting off your nose to spite your face.

Unfortunately, some businesses are clearly still failing to take an enlightened approach to the brave new world of Web 2.0. Or even Web 1.0 – figures from Notting Hill Internet Services, released this week, suggest that over half of small businesses still don’t have a website. A slightly worrying proportion – although at least that’s one less ‘acceptable use’ policy to worry about…

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Social Media Obsession at work

IF YOU’VE got access to your favourite sites at work ask yourself: ‘When I get into work in the morning am I most likely to a) get straight on with the daily grind or b) take a quick look at my online profile?’

If the answer is b then don’t worry, you’re not alone. From Myspace to Twitter and on to Facebook, it seems we are obsessed with having an online presence.

While our employers may not be so happy about the work hours lost to social networking, there is a way we can combine our favourite online pastime with building successful careers.

Cristina Hoole, European marketing director for social networking site LinkedIn, said: “People are starting to realise you exist online whether you like it or not. Whether you’re on a social network or friends who have blogs have talked about you, it’s likely you already have an online presence even if you’re not aware of it.

“With this in mind, it’s important to realise you can manage it. You want to be sure that if you’re looking for another job, or even if you just want to network with colleagues or clients, that you have a professional presence online.

“Being online is a good thing, the more you put yourself out there the bigger the opportunities you have.”

So, if we want to make our profiles something which we don’t have to hide when the boss walks by what should we do?

Follow our top tips to productive and stress-free social networking.

KEEP YOUR PRIVATE LIFE PRIVATE

OK, so you had a great night out on Saturday and your best mate has happily uploaded the photo evidence on to a website but exactly who is looking at how many glasses of white wine you consumed? You need to think about how your profile looks, and who can access it.

All social networking sites should have privacy settings which will not only restrict outside users viewing your information. For example someone who is just taking a look on a search engine, but also friends and colleagues.

Take Facebook’s advice and use its profile privacy settings to control who can see your profile.

Ms Hoole said: “Make a good impression on contacts by understanding the settings and projecting an appropriate image. Start by determining who can view your profile by selecting access for networks, friends of friends, or just friends.

“From there, determine what those people can and cannot see on your profile, such as status updates, tagged photos, personal information, friends, and wall posts.”

KEEP YOUR PROFILE UP TO DATE

If you’re looking for a new job or just want to show your colleagues and your employers that you’re an integral member of the team then keep people updated with your ability and make your profile work for you.

Ms Hoole added: “Your profile is your chance to showcase your skills and talents, and help the right people and opportunities find their way to you. As your professional representation online, you can set it to be discoverable through the millions of searches on leading search engines and on LinkedIn.

“Users with complete profiles are 40 times more likely to receive opportunities through LinkedIn.”

DO YOUR RESEARCH

It’s not just our own profiles we need to focus on but also those of people who we’re networking with.

If you’re looking to impress clients or organisations then showing you are internet savvy and interested in what they have to say will help.

We’re not talking about requesting the friendship of an individual client so you can poke them, but just take a look to see if their business has an online social network account.

Do they send twitter updates about their news and the services they offer? If so, get in contact and build an online relationship with them. They’ll be impressed that you’re taking an interest in their organisation.

THINK OF IT AS YOUR BUSINESS

“We are all mini entrepreneurs in our own way now and the view we have of our career today is similar to that of managing a business,” Ms Hoole said.

“It’s less common now for people to stay with the same company for 25 years.

“You go to a company and pick up the skills you need to enhance your career and then you move on. You make the experience enjoyable but also something that feeds your life.

“I think the more you’re open to opportunities online, the better the things that will come your way. That’s the beauty of opening yourself up to having an online business profile, the more you put into your ‘business’ the more opportunities you’ll have.”

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The Twitter Lists feature

Twitter has rolled out a new Lists feature that was announced last month. Selected groups of people are getting Lists feature that allows custom Twitter users list that other users can follow with single click. List feature is basically a group of Twitter friends that another user can follow with a single click.

The Twitter team has been beta testing the new Lists feature with a closed group of testers. New Lists features comprises of creating Public or Private lists of Twitter users that one follows. Other Twitter users can simply click on the List and follow the users. Lists would be Public by default.

Selected users would be greeted with a "New Lists" banner asking them to create lists of users he/she follows. The users who've got the Lists feature can click on their lists on below their display image where Lists replace number of Updates.

Click on the Lists option on the right hand side banner and it will take you to the 'Lists following you' and 'Lists You Follow' page. Click on the respective list and you get to see the a number of users grouped in each list. Basically, it's the grouping concept which emerged from 'Follow Friday' concept. As per this concept, a Twitter user can recommend several other Twitter users to follow.

Twitter has taken the third-party alternative competition seriously and has thus rolled out different features over the time. Nonetheless, we may anticipate a few hiccups and downtimes but eventually, it is good in the long run.

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Feeding Blog Feeds to Twitter

Are you looking for a way to plug some RSS feeds into your stream? Tired of manually doing all the work? Twitterfeed is a neat tool that can automate the process for you. Simply add a feed to your account, give it a name, and let Twitterfeed do the rest. This tool can check for new feed postings every 30 minutes to once a day. You can pick and choose amongst numerous URL shortening options, add a prefix or post suffix for tweets to get the past tweet possible. This way you can make it look less spammy and automated. [...]

Tewspaper - Twitter's Newspaper

Tewspaper takes the hottest news links across 6 major cities, for now, and updates them continually on a single homepage. It attempts to grab pictures relative to the content, if one does not exist with the link itself.

It basically is a constantly reloading page with breaking news stories as fast as their algorithm can find the links. I follow a Twitter account called BreakingNewsOn which does a fantastic job of posting hot world news, with a barrage of updates as events occur. If you like seeing a webpage, this might be for you.
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Twitter Weakens Memory?

Playing video war games and solving Sudoku may have the same effect as keeping up to date with Facebook, according to Dr Tracy Alloway.

But text messaging, micro-blogging on ''Twitter'' and watching YouTube were all likely to weaken ''working memory''.

Working memory involves the ability both to remember information and to use it.

At a job interview, a candidate will employ working memory to match answers to questions in the most impressive way.

Dr Alloway, from the University of Stirling in Scotland, has extensively studied working memory and believes it to be far more important to success and happiness than IQ.

Her team has developed a working memory training programme that greatly increased the performance of slow-learning children aged 11 to 14 at a school in Durham.

After eight weeks of ''JungleMemory'' training, the children saw 10 point improvements in IQ, literacy and numeracy tests.

A number who started off close to the bottom of the class ended up near the top.

''It was a massive effect,'' said Dr Alloway, who today gave a talk on working memory at the start of the British Science Festival at the University of Surrey in Guildford.

Video games that involve planning and strategy, such as those from the Total War series, may also train working memory, Dr Alloway believes.

''I'm not saying they're good for your socialisation skills, but they do make you use your working memory,'' she said.

''You're keeping track of past actions and mapping the actions you're going to take.''

Sudoku also stretched the working memory, as did keeping up with friends on Facebook, she said.

But the ''instant'' nature of texting, Twitter and YouTube was not healthy for working memory.

''On Twitter you receive an endless stream of information, but it's also very succinct,'' said Dr Alloway. ''You don't have to process that information.

''Your attention span is being reduced and you're not engaging your brain and improving nerve connections.''

She said there was evidence linking TV viewing with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) while extensive texting was associated with lower IQ scores.

SOURCE : Facebook 'enhances intelligence' but Twitter 'diminishes it', claims psychologist

What do you think?

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Best Deals Now on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube

For the past years, companies are traditionally telling their customers about sales and special discounts through newspapers, advertisements, radio spots and in-store announcements. But now, most of the companies are turning into a more avant-garde form of communication which is Social Networking.

On my recent blog post, I've discussed there that some Car Manufacturers get their prospective clients thru Twitter. Other companies like Starbucks, Scottrade, Zappos and many others are among those using Twitter, Facebook and Youtube to talk to the customers and to hear from them. According to Amber Talbot, online public relation specialist for Scottrade, both the company and the customers benefit. They have two twitter accounts, two Facebook acoounts, and YouTube account where they post educational videos.

Talbot spends the majority of her day interacting with customers online. After the customer posted a question, she answers them immediately and forwarded the concern to their customer service team. The customer service team will directly call the customer within 10 minutes to answer his/her queries.

According to Bridget Baker, spokeswoman for Starbucks, "It's a great way to connect with customers". Her twitter account has over 245,000 followers and occassionally hosts contests for free giveaways. On the other hand, Starbucks has 3 million fans on Facebook, where it is giving away 800 coupons for pints of ice cream each hour through Sunday. Last 2008 election day, the company's coffee ad got the fourth most popular video on YouTube.

Click on the link to know other companies that you might find popping up on your favorite social networking site.
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iTweetReply

First came IM+ with the ability to push Twitter mentions and direct messages, then there was iTwitter, then the very recent Boxcar, and now we have iTweetReply. It’s obvious that developers are starting to realize that we want push notifications for our Twitter apps.

iTweetReply features the ability to view your entire Twitter timeline along with the ability to send you push notifications for mentions and direct messages. It also allows you to upload images via Twitpic, but that’s basically it. According to early user reviews, the push notifications work just as promised, but iTweetReply probably won’t replace your current Twitter app of choice. Unlike Boxcar, iTweetReply doesn’t offer the ability to go straight from a push notification to a different Twitter app.

At only $1.99, iTweetReply is definitely the cheapest push-enabled Twitter app, which should only make your purchasing decision that much more difficult.

Check out other great iPhone Applications by clicking here.

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Get Noticed on Twitter

Once upon a time, Twitter was an innocent and casual place to hang out. Everyone was positive and was nearly over-interested in what everyone had to say. However, now that the initial “buzz has worn off and people are realizing how difficult it can be to manage thousands of follows and followers, the interaction has been reduced to tightly knit groups of key players and in turn leaves many people without the friends they once had. Sure, everyone has a base of friends, followers, and fans that they can rely on to spur conversation and reply to their requests, but overall it has become increasingly difficult to stand out in the crowd. Since getting noticed is one of the crucial aspects of getting more “legit” followers and building a following that converts into blog readers, buyers, and fans, finding ways to get noticed is extremely important.

The simple methods, like RT’ing, offering contests, quoting, and recommending friends for #followfriday no longer have the power they once did. Although those staples are still great ways to increase your influence, if you really want to get noticed on Twitter you’ll have to find other ways to create buzz and show up on the radar.

One such way to do this is to start or take a leadership role in local Twitter Mashups and Tweetups. Use a site like Twitter Grader (http://twittergrader.com) to find local Twitterers in your area to contact and ask for their help in creating a group and notifying others. When you do this, the following events will take place:

1. You will be looked to as a creator, leader, and as a key player in the market. Even if you don’t know what you are doing, you are taking on the responsibility that most don’t feel comfortable with. This gives you a great position of leverage within your local market, which can spread to other markets.

2. You will have the opportunity to create a local brand that can expand based on your effort. Start a website for your Tweetup group and post pics, notes, and blogs about the people involved. They’ll be happy to get noticed online and in turn will help you get noticed too. Over time, you’ll have the opportunity to gain traction as you travel or start groups for others.

If Tweetups are not your thing, then why not host an online mentorship group for people new to Twitter? Most of the Twitter pro’s already have their schedules booked and their feeds filled, so showing new people the ropes can help you share your knowledge and establish a very dedicated base of fans.

Lastly, if you really want to become a Twitter Rockstar, you will need to get noticed by the big dogs. Yeah, I know…bidding on popularity sounds juvenile, but I consider it a marketing effort suited to a specific audience. Spend time being responsive on the blogs and websites of the big dogs on Twitter and work to let them know you are there. If you are the most consistent fan in their feed, they can’t help but to notice your dedication. Once you’ve proven that you are an action taker, they’ll start to notice your work as well, especially if you turn your fans into fans of theirs. The same rules work for blogging and other content promotion methods.

Getting noticed on Twitter really isn’t that difficult if you create the time and dedicate the energy to doing so. If Twitter isn’t your main effort, then trying to become one of the gurus might be tough. However, if you simply implement a few key strategies and continue to offer great content, then you should have no trouble breaking away from the pack. Just like everywhere else, Twitter rewards creativity, originality, and honesty. Make that your creed and eventually you will become a leader in your niche.

An article courtesy of this site.
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