5 Commonly Misunderstood Things on Twitter

As Twitter evolves, many things become either forgotten or ignored. There are mistakes that people make because they’re new or unaware, but sometimes people just don’t do certain things because they’re not reminded of their functions. Here are 5 common things people tend to lose track of.

1. Starting a Tweet with an @
This is certainly the top mistake I see being made on Twitter. They want to mention somebody by their Twitter name but they don’t realize that when you start a Tweet with an @, the only people who see it are the people who follow you and that person. This wasn’t the case before May 2009 or so when Twitter changed it.

To get around it, many people will start a Tweet with a period but I prefer when people rework their sentence so it doesn’t seem so obvious. Something like “So @somebody and I were at dinner….”

2. Putting your Twitter profile address in the URL field
All Twitter users have a few profile fields they can use for information like name, location, a small bio and website. Many people place their Twitter profile in the web address which serves no purpose. We already know that address because we are on it. Leave it blank or link out to somewhere else online – your blog, your Facebook profile, whatever.

3. Thinking the new RT feature is untrackable
The new RT feature has caused a bit of confusion but one of the things I see the most is when users say they don’t know who has RTed them using this new RT feature. A business once even held a contest recently and said “please RT us but don’t use the new RT feature…we can’t track it!” This isn’t right though. If you’re on Twitter.com, go to the “Retweets” link on the right side and click on the tab “Your Tweets, Retweeted.” Voila! You can see who has RTed you with the new RT functionality.

4. Asking all of Twitter to “DM for more info”
Businesses in particular seem to do this a lot. They have a job opening, for instance, and they say “we’re now hiring, DM for more info. Please RT” but here’s the problem: the people who read the message want to contact you probably won’t be able to DM you because you probably aren’t following them which leads to the awkward “hey, I’d like to DM you but you aren’t following me.” Just don’t say “DM for more info.” Use answers or something that all people on Twitter can do.

5. Not knowing how to favorite or “star” a Tweet
One of the handiest Twitter features is the ability to “favorite” a Tweet. You do this by clicking on the small star next to a Tweet. People use this for two main reasons: to bookmark links or to mark something they like.

When you bookmark a link, you can find them by going to the “Favorites” link on the right. Everything that you have favorited will appear there. I often favorite links when I’m using Twitter from my phone so I can go back and visit the sites later on my computer.

The other reason that people favorite Tweets is to “vote” for them. Twitter users who mostly use Twitter to entertain like to get stars (another term for favoriting a Tweet) as a means of approval. These users likely track their stars on a site like favstar.fm which displays your Tweets and the number of stars they’ve received.

Any other common mistakes you would add to this list?

My 6 Step Plan To Give Thanks To My Followers

We all know that “Follow Friday” is a great way to show your appreciation to new followers and followers you like.

I have a few ways I use to thank my followers that go beyond just a #FF shout.

Having 500 followers or 46,000 like I do, it means nothing if you don’t learn to be grateful or show your followers some appreciation in some way.

Here’s what I do…

1. I say “Thank You” to every person that RTs any of my tweets.

2. I #ff shout every person that RTs any of my tweets.

3. I do a #ff for every new follower for the week.

4. I make a list of all the people that RT my tweets, I call it “My Top RTs” this way it is easier for me to track and return the favor and RT some of their tweets.

5. I follow back every person that RTs my tweets.

6. Answer any DM I get (and yes, you will get some “Real” DMs in all the spam, just do a daily scan and answer the real ones).

These are all small things you can incorporate today into your Twitter “To Do”, and you will see how much people appreciate a simple TY or #FF mention or even answering a DM to show you are real.

It doesn’t matter if you use one or all my tips, in the end there is no downside to showing your followers you see them and appreciate their support.

5 Alternate Ways to Use Twitter

When you ask someone who doesn’t use Twitter why they abstain, you’ll most likely hear, “There’s no point”, “I’m on enough networks already”, or my least favourite, “I don’t need to hear what anybody had for breakfast.” Sigh.

These are all obviously silly reasons but they do show something important: Twitter has a learning curve. It’s not evident right away what you’re supposed to do. In an effort to help persuade new users to using Twitter, I’ve outlined these five out-of-the-box ways to use Twitter that don’t include talking about breakfast.

1. Newsfeed

A great way to start using Twitter is to replace your RSS reader or whatever way you currently digest news. Your local news channels and newspapers will have a twitter account to keep you in the know, as well as national and international news sources. There are also people who tweet only articles and news from specific niches like web design. You can take it one step forward and use Lists to organize your sources, offering you personalized niche-specific newsfeeds.

2. Find a Job

Twitterers like to help others. That’s why if I was looking for a job here in Ottawa I’d follow @ottawatweetjobs, and if I wanted to land a freelance gig working with WordPress I’d follow @wordpressjobs. Your area and niche will have people tweeting opportunities as well, and there’s always @monsterkaw, @simplyhired, and @microjobs as well. (For more specific accounts to follow, check out Find a Job on Twitter by Mashable.)

3. Bookmarking

After you start getting all these resources in your Twitter stream you’re going to realize you don’t have time to read it all! That’s ok, just mark it as a “favourite” and read it later. You can also favourite your own tweets, so if you see something elsewhere you’d like to find later just tweet about it and favourite it.

4. Find Deals and Coupons

Everybody likes saving money (I’d hope), and Twitter can help you do that. There are lots of accounts that only tweet sales and coupons, such as @fatwalletdeals, @slickdeals, and @coupontweet.

5. Stalk Celebrities

I don’t know what people’s obsession with celebrities is, but Twitter marks the first service where celebrities and us “common falk” mingle and converse together. Try a search for your favourite celebrity, comic, artist, musician, etc. and I’ll bet you’ll find them tweeting away. P.S: This one you might end up hearing what somebody ate for breakfast.

Now everybody might not think Twitter is for them, but I can guarantee anyone could find usefulness in using at least one of these methods. So next time somebody says Twitter’s not for them, or they’re bored of Twitter and thinking of leaving, offer up one of these solutions.

What neat ways have you been using Twitter?

Community Web Site Celebrates One Thousand Followers

SQL Server Club today launched a special promotion to celebrate reaching their target of 1,000 followers on social networking site Twitter.

Funded by SQL Server tools provider Norb Technologies, SQL Server Club is a free community site devoted to helping database developers and administrators grow their knowledge about Microsoft SQL Server.

“Since launching
in January 2007 we have steadily grown into a popular knowledge base for SQL Server.” said web site Editor Rachel Clements.

“We are delighted by the continuous growth in our popularity, demonstrating that we provide a useful service to the community. Our editorial team comprises of experienced database administrators whose expertise makes our Twitter postings both timely and relevant.”

To say thanks to their followers who support SQL Server Club, Norb Technologies are offering a 25 percent discount on their tools for the next 1,000 hours until 20 November 2009. To receive this benefit, SQL Server Club followers can visit the Norb Technologies online store at www.norbtechnologies.com and enter the coupon code Twitter1000 when they make their purchase.

How To Bookmark Twitter Links From Your Stream Using Paper

I’m sure you’ve already asked yourself this question: “What can I do with the hundreds, even thousands, of links to sites, videos, photos, my followed tweeps are sharing every day?” Too much content here, requiring too much time to go through… But, obviously, this content may be of interest. You are following these tweeps for good reasons, aren’t you?

So the big question is how could one easily browse this immense list and quickly discover, among this massive flow of data shared by my followed people, the articles, blogs, sites, videos, I want to spend time on? This is exactly what the new (free) tool Paper.li is about.

Paper.li transforms any twitter timeline into a daily online newspaper. It presents the content shared by the people you follow, in a smart and easy to scan way.

How does it work? This new tool analyzes all links shared by your friends during a given day, determines topics (politics, science, technology, etc.) using semantic text analysis tools, extracts the content (text, video, images, pdf) and rank them for probable pertinence. With all of that info the tool is then able to create a newspaper front page, enabling you to scan this content – contextualized by tweets, always displayed nearby articles – in a very way. If such quick scanning is not enough, you are also able to access a table view of all content shared in the last 24 hours by the tweeps you follow. Once created, this “newspaper” is automatically updated every 24 hours.

It is a very simple tool, a way to get what people you follow (and respect) are sharing, even if you are not connected to Twitter the entire day.

Create your account on Twitter

Anyone can send text on Twitter. As for now Twitter supports posting Tweets and accepts texts from many places around the world, as long as your mobile phone support internet and connected. Once your phone is verified, you can start sending updates instantly. You can update anywhere, anytime by simply sending us a text if you add your phone to Twitter. Depending on where you are, you may have a local number. You can send a text message to any of these numbers and it will post directly to your Twitter profile, and be sent to all of your followers. It’s incredible for us now to know what happen around us, discussing a trending topics even gossiping .What a fine technology.
To make an account on Twitter is simple and quick. You can sign up for a Twitter account from your computer, smart phones or your mobile phone, make sure your carrier must a web – enable. To set up your new Twitter account direct your device’s browser to mobile.twitter.com. Click “Sign up now” at the bottom of the page to get started. Enter the details of your account. Type in your real name, a user name, your e-mail address, and your password. When you’re done, click the “Make my account”. You’ve successfully made a Twitter account. Congratulations ! Now you can see your e-mail contacts are on Twitter. Start search and invite for friends.
Twitter sends a confirmation message to your e-mail and you need to confirm your e-mail. E-mail confirmation is an vital security check that helps prevent other people from signing up for a Twitter account using your email address. It should only take a few seconds. Confirm your email address, otherwise you won’t receive any email updates from Twitter .They will limited your access to certain other features on Twitter until you have confirmed. Now you can log in using either your email address or the username you made, and your password. Then you’ll be well on your way to mobile tweeting.

Preserving The Titanic With Twitter

Social media like Twitter will soon venture where no tweet has gone before: underwater. On August 22, Expedition Titanic will dive to depths up to two and a half miles to revisit the wreck of the Titanic. Accompanying the archaeologists, scientists, and oceanographers, social media tools will enable the public to join in as well.

RMS Titanic, Inc., the company behind this mission, resulted from collaboration between Premier Exhibitions, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and the Waitt Institute.

Christopher J. Davino, President of RMS Titanic, Inc., clarifies that the Expedition:

“will be using some of the most advanced technology available to make a portrait of the Ship unlike any that has been made before – virtually raising Titanic and sealing her current state forever in the minds and hears of humanity.”

More than just supporting further scientific exploration, Expedition Titanic aims to use modern technology to commemorate the legacy of the ship. Throughout the mission, the team will record the entire wreck site through a complete photomosaic and 2D and 3D video. The project aims to compile this expedition with information from past visits to the Titanic in order to develop an extensive record of the ship today.

From home, viewers will be able to experience the site as well. After traveling to the sea depths through a 3D-animated film, visitors will be able to explore the wreck site through near real time images and video, an interactive archeological map, as well as read updated messages from the divers themselves.

Once the mission sets out on its quest, updates will be recorded through a variety of social media tools. Flickr and YouTube will also allow the explorers to share photos and videos online.

With all the social media and digital technology components, Expedition Titanic represents a truly monumental approach to preserving archeological wonders of the world. The expanse of the project only proves the incredible capability of technology to record, remember, and immortalize monuments of today.

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