Alert Blog Reviews

If you want to know what’s hot, what’s not, and what the freshest news seems to be, Twitter might be the place to be on the cutting edge. However, just how reliable is the news you see on Twitter? Just like you can’t believe everything you read in the newspapers or magazines, or believe everything you see on television, Twitter has its good points and bad points when it comes to breaking news. Twitter is populated with journalists, writers, photographers, and a plethora of celebrities. Sometimes false rumors can make the rounds, such as the reported death of Jeff Goldbum back in July, and sometimes breaking news hits the nail on the head, as in the case of the Iranian election. The first thing to do when you see a breaking news item on Twitter is to consider the source. Is it reliable and from someone you trust? In other words, has this person reported other newsworthy items on Twitter that has proved to be true? Even so, your best course of action before passing along a news item is to check out the source yourself and try to verify it from more than one. Misinformation can be damaging and hurtful, so check out where it’s coming from carefully before telling the Twitter universe something that turns out to be false. Consider with care the actual rumor. Jeff Goldblum ’s presumed death was nothing more than misinformation that traveled the landscape of Twitter, until his agent made a statement to the press. Imagine the worry and panic of his family until frantic phone calls were made to ascertain the truth, and the trouble taken to refute the ugly rumor. Someone, somewhere in Twitter failed to vet their sources, and passed along something that was patently false. Although having no lasting effects in this case, some rumors can cause irreparable damage to innocent reputations which can be difficult to refute in the court of public opinion. Just as in television reporting and newspaper or magazine coverage, errors can be made but in the case of Twitter, they might be a little more difficult to refute or retract. By the time a rumor makes the rounds, it could be nearly impossible to squash it and mitigate any damage. The old adage still applies – if you can’t say anything nice (or verify its veracity!), it might be best not to say anything at all. All Twitter users bear a certain amount of responsibility for the content they create and pass along to other Tweeps. If you can’t confirm a breaking news item, the best thing to do is keep quiet about it. Although not perfect, Twitter can be a source of what’s happening in the here and now, but in order to keep its credibility, Twitter users must use good common sense when assessing information. © 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips . The Reliability Of News On Twitter

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The Reliability Of News On Twitter

After reading how you should plan out your tweets , I thought of how you can fully utilize groups when retweeting. There are many Twitter clients out there, but I use HootSuite to schedule tweets and create custom columns or groups of specific people you follow.  Creating these specific columns, which we can thank to Twitter clients, allow for you to keep tract of any tweet that you may have missed. Think about how much time you spend scrolling through your home feed and retweeting what was just tweeted. And when you usually make that retweet as soon as the person tweeted it.  Doing this not only wastes valuable time, but it makes retweeting the content a “joke”. What is the purpose of retweeting? There are times when something you retweet is valuable to the followers that are following you and not the person who originally tweeted. Then, there are times when you retweet what your followers already received from that person who originally made the tweet.  I believe the true purpose of retweeting is to help out the person who originally made the tweet by spreading out their content. Theoretically, if Pete Cashmore from Mashable tweeted “ Drunk Driver in Texas to be Named on Twitter “, his 1.8 million followers could all make two decisions. First, they could all retweet this to most likely everyone that has already seen the tweet, which would not be very valuable. Or they could spread out the tweet throughout the whole entire day, without Pete or anyone on Mashable having to tweet the article again, so anyone that might have missed it when it was first tweeted. How do you prevent yourself from retweeting right away? Create customized columns with your Twitter client. Think about the typical people that you follow and retweet what they have tweeted.  Group these people together and keep in mind that the more followers you have the more columns you will want to think about creating. For instance, if you have 1,000 followers or less than 5 columns should allow you to have all the retweets you want to make later all ready at the top and not “hidden”.  On the other hand, if you have say over 10,000 followers, I would consider that you create more specified columns. From doing this, you will ensure the mission of retweeting what you wanted to retweeted is completed and valuable. © 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips . Customized Columns for Valuable Retweeting

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Customized Columns for Valuable Retweeting

Darren and I would like to wish all who celebrate, a Very Merry Christmas! We’ll return to our regular posts next week. © 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips . Merry Christmas from TwiTip!

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Merry Christmas from TwiTip!

When I first started tweeting I would post randomly throughout the day about something that had caught my attention at that minute. The problem I found was that my tweets lacked bite and were in danger of all sounding the same. It was also taking up a huge chunk of my time, flitting in and out of the twittersphere. So, I took an afternoon out a couple of weeks ago and set up a content plan. Much recommended for bloggers, I found that planning ahead really helped to provide posts which were useful and informative for followers. I did this by collecting and researching useful content – e.g. seo tips, geek jokes, quotes – and then sitting down and using a spreadsheet to book a time to tweet the info and to then pre-load the posts into my software. The benefit of doing this is that I now take time to seek out relevant information, knowing that I don’t have to tweet right now. Instead I make notes, add the tweet to the content plan and then schedule the tweet. I’m also able to add spontaneity when it feels right instead of posting lots one day and little the next, keeping a steady stream of interesting content running for my Followers. © 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips . Content Planning to Add Value to Your Tweets

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Content Planning to Add Value to Your Tweets

Twitter contests can be a great way of getting you or your brand noticed in the Twittersphere. Yes, they can be annoying when everyone is spamming retweets left and right, but who doesn’t love having the chance of winning a Macbook Pro or an LCD TV for 2 seconds of work? Explosive Twitter contest campaigns like the one launched by site builder Moonfruit (@moontweet) rocked the twitter world (the UK company used twitter to give out 10 macbooks over the course of 10 days). In fact, there was even evidence that Twitter censored the #moonfruit hashtag used for the contest because it was getting too popular for its own good! Till this day (months after the contest has been over), people are still adding #moonfruit into their tweets.  Trying to emulate Moonfruit’s success, many other twitter users have launched similar contests. Let’s look at one of them right now: Business phone service provider OnSIP (@onsip) launched their own twitter contest a few hours ago, pledging to give out 2 Netbooks to those who retweeted about the contest. How many more followers have they gotten? I count 5. Not 5000. Not 500. Not 50. Just 5. Wait, are you telling me that only 5 people in the twitter world want a free netbook? That’s pretty hard to swallow… Well if that’s not the case, then what could they have done differently? Here are some suggestions and observations for their twitter campaign and any future twitter contests you may plan on holding. 1) Twitter contests rely on momentum. If you tweet something and its retweeted by active followers who also have active followers, then great–you’re already halfway there. If that’s not the case, then your contest can die extremely quickly, and you’re left in an awkward position wondering what went wrong. If you currently, don’t have a very active twitter follower base, then try to see if you can host your contest on the site of a friend who does have one. On twitter, one really popular tweeter makes all the difference. 2) Recognizable prizes. Moonfruit was a phenomenal success. Why? Well partially because they said they were going to give away 10 Macbooks. Pretty much everyone in the Twitterverse without one wants one. One misstep OnSIP might have committed is the decision to go with netbooks. A lot of the population may still be unfamiliar with the term. If you don’t have the funds to offer such lavish prizes, then I would suggest giving away something else you know your followers will value. For example, discounts or special offers for followers. A lot of contests also pledge to give out a bigger prize once a certain follower count has been reached. For example, @onsip pledges to give away another Netbook if they reach 1000 followers. 3) KISS. No–don’t offer kisses. KISS stands for Keep It Simple Stupid. Don’t make people jump through hoops to enter your contest. Moonfruit’s contest essentially consisted of asking people to follow their twitter, and add “#moonfruit” to their tweets. That’s it. Asking people to tweet you their social security number, mother’s date of birth, and favorite color is a no-no. So there you have it. 3 basic rules to follow. I’m not promising you you’ll get 100000 followers if you do just those things, but at least it will get you started in the right direction. And good luck to @onsip . Right now if you enter their twitter contest , you have around a 40% chance of winning a Netbook. © 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips . Do’s and Don’ts of Twitter Contests — The Moonfruits and the non

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Do’s and Don’ts of Twitter Contests — The Moonfruits and the non

Okay, so hopefully everyone’s gotten used to the new design and layout around here by now! Honestly, we’re really loving it. We did “tone down” the graph paper background a bit, after some feedback from readers that said it was a bit too dizzying. Hope everyone agrees that things look great here now! So this post is to outline the newest way we’re accepting articles from you. A few things have changed, and there have been a few submissions that don’t quite seem to be working properly, so I wanted to put this out there to help out some. First and foremost, if you’d like to submit an article for TwiTip (and see your face “up in lights” on our sidebar and on the post itself) then you need to submit it here: Add A Tip . We’ve got a whole new format now that I think is pretty rockin’. Before, you’d email me your “pitch” and then I’d send you the guidelines, and then you’d write it and submit back. Then I’d have to put the post into the back end, format it (because typically posts would be sent written in Microsoft Word, and that puts really icky code into WordPress), and then post it. Now, you simply go to the form, fill out the fields, and submit! I get notification, and if the post is approved, I do a little font formatting and all is well! The coolest part, is that if you know basic HTML, you can submit your post in HTML. Or you can write it in your own blog editor, and copy the HTML version and paste that in there. That saves even more time, because then all the formatting is done, and I can just read and publish. The whole point of setting up this form this way was so that we could get more content in from you guys, and get it published more quickly than before. So far, it’s been a great tool to have here on the site, and you can consider this the official “Open for Business” invite to submit all your great Twitter related posts! Just keep in mind a few basic things: It cannot be a post you’ve already published elsewhere. We want original content that’s only ever going to appear here. You also shouldn’t plan on, or allow others to publish it on any other site after the fact. Also, don’t submit links to your site, or to your already published post, please. If you have images you want to include, send them to Lara [at] TwiTip [dot] com with the title of your post so I know which one to include it with. The form we’ve got is fantastic, but it doesn’t have image upload capability at the moment. Please make them decent posts. I’ve had a few come through that are basically a paragraph or two that talks about some random Twitter tool no one’s ever heard of (or would care to), or are very basic “6 Reasons To Use Twitter” type things… we’ve got enough of those! Be original and creative. Check through the site to see if we’ve written about, or posted the same type of article before. (If I get another post about HootSuite , I think I’ll scream! ) So there you have it. We’d love some fresh, new tips and posts from you, our dear readers! Oh, and if you have a Twitter related question, feel free to put that in the form as well, and we’ll post it up so other readers can have a chance to help you out! Looking forward to seeing what you guys come up with! © 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips . TwiTip Call For More Content!

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TwiTip Call For More Content!

Image via Wikipedia Posterous will allow you to easily post MP3s, files, videos and photos to Twitter. Here’s how. Posterous is the new kid on the block when it comes to blogging. This simple site allows you to create a blog just by sending an email. How does this enhance tweeting you ask? Posterous connects up with Twitter (as well as numerous other sites), so that when you post something to posterous, it automatically posts to your other accounts. For Twitter, this takes the form of a tweet with the post’s title, and a short link to the post. The great part is the ease with which you can post to Posterous. Just by sending an email, you can easily upload an MP3, file, photo or video to your Posterous account, which is then shared on Twitter (and other sites). Did I mention how easy it is!? For example, if you email the URL of a youtube video to Posterous. They will automatically convert it to an embedded video. And if you email multiple photos, they will convert it to a lovely photo gallery. To start a Posterous account, all you need to do is send an email to post (at) posterous [dot] com . Simple! Your account is created and you can hook it up to your Twitter account with ease. Alternatively, you can set up an account at posterous.com . So what are you waiting for? Send that email and start sharing MP3s, files, photos and videos on Twitter with ease ! © 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips . Use Posterous to Easily Enhance Your Tweeting

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Use Posterous to Easily Enhance Your Tweeting