Translation here.

Zwei Empfehlungen für alle Fire-Fox-Fans/User:

Nachdem ich zuerst lange mit Twitbin gearbeitet habe, bin ich jetzt nach einer Testphase zu TwitterFox von naan-studion Inc. gewechselt. TwitterFox hat den Vorteil, dass er als Icon in der Statusleiste auftaucht und nicht – wie Twitbin – die ganze linke Lesezeichenleiste (die man ja regelmäßig für anderes braucht) einnimmt. Dadurch entfällt das lästige Umschalten. Bei TwitterFox  erscheint neben dem Twitter-Icon jedes Mal, wenn ein neues Tweet eingegangen ist, eine entsprechende Benachrichtigung. Durch Anklicken des Icons öffnet sich ein Pop-up-Fenster, in dem man die neuen Tweets lesen und auch eigene, neue Tweets schreiben kann. Ein sehr nützliches Addon, das den Besuch der eigenen Twitter-Seite erspart, leicht zu installieren und zu bedienen ist. Weitere Informationen und Download hier.

Ein nützliches Tool für alle WordPress-Blogger ist MMD WordPress Extension 1.1. von Mike MacDonagh. Als kleines Icon erscheint es in der Statusleiste und zeigt die aktuelle (Tages-)Statistik des jeweiligen Worpress-Blogs an [Yes right, beloved Stataddicts - isn't it that what we have dreamed about all the time ]. Die Anzeige kann – je nach Wunsch – so eingestellt werden, dass sie sich  im Takt von 1, 5, 10, 20 oder 30 Minuten aktualisiert. Über das Icon kann der User  entweder direkt zu seinem Blog, zu den Statistiken oder zum Schreibfeld für ein neues post gelangen. Ein äußerst praktisches und vor allem Zeit sparendes Tool. Information und Download:  hier.

You need a translation of this text in your language? Click here.
You enjoyed this post? Make sure you subscribe to the free RSS feed!
Click here to mail this to a friend

Hat Ihnen dieser Artikel gefallen, dann abonnieren Sie das kostenlose RSS-Feed!
Klicken Sie hier, um diesen Artikel per Mail zu versenden

This morning for the 2nd time in 2 weeks my NZ Herald wasn’t delivered. This happened a couple of times previously with the Sunday Herald which was actually the one I used to enjoy the most. After the 2nd time I cancelled it. Two weeks ago when my Saturday Herald didn’t turn up, I tried to call them and got a voice message saying that I had called outside of working hours. I thought to myself that perhaps reading hours might disappear as well and this morning I told them that 3 strikes and they could say goodbye to my subscription.

This is one of the reasons why newspapers are on the way out. Not only are they reliant on people who really don’t want to go out on wet cold dark winter mornings, but a printed newspaper is becoming so inefficient.

I get headline tweets from the NZ Herald along with 1,648 other people, with links to the stories I want to read. Online I can see the headlines and major stories on their homepage and then I can see the headlines for each section and go straight to the stories that interest me. The Herald is only one publication I subscribe to on Twitter, there are several news services that flick past me on the side of my browser using Twitbin which is a Firefox plugin.

I also use iGoogle for my RSS feed. This gives me the latest news on all the topics I want to keep up to date on. That includes lots of streams around topics such as GPS, LBS, Psychology, Music and much more. It updates itself automatically all day and I can see which stories I have read in case my memory fails me.

Twitter of course is also a great vehicle for getting the latest news about anything. It told me that there was an earthquake in LA just as I boarded a plane there, although it turned out to be inconsequential. It told me what was going on in Iran and even if you can’t spell swine flu you’ll find out what’s happening to real people like Izzy who just found out her brother has it.  If you could spell it correctly you’ll find out what is happening, which famous people have just caught it and more than you’ll ever want to know.

I started off saying that newspapers are closing and you probably thought I was exaggerating didn’t you. Well think again. Here are a few examples.

• The Seattle Post-Intelligencer closed over 146 years and is considering continuing online.
• Colorado’s oldest newspaper The Rocky Mountain Times has run out of time.
• Michigan’s Ann Arbor News has closed after 174 years.

Of course there are also stories around the world talking about job cuts in the newspaper industry like this one in the Guardian.

This doesn’t mean, of course that we don’t want news. Of course we do, but we have new vehicles that are far more efficient, we now have a choice, in fact we’re spoiled for it. Did you wait for news about Michael Jackson’s death to appear in the newspaper? Of course not, it was on every TV news channel and you got it up to date. By the time the newspapers came out, the stories that were in it, such as him not being dead, but only in a coma, had long since been refuted.

The big problem for the print media companies, is that they don’t know how, or if they can monetise the online media. There are of course ways that they can do this, but they have to switch their thinking, which is so enrenched in ‘this is the way we’ve always done it’ that many of them won’t be doing it at all in the future. Sounds a lot like the recording industry doesn’t it?

Here’s a list of my favourite Firefox Add-Ons.  I still haven’t bought into Google Chrome, part of my privacy drive where I think Google knows too much about me…

• Xmarks – Using this I synchronise my Firefox bookmarks between computers, it works well.  It does have an option to sync passwords as well, I don’t use that…
• Twitbin – Used to keep up to date with Twitter, can open and close in the sidebar
• Firebug – Handy for web development, you can look at the HTML, CSS etc of pages open in Firefox
• Morning Coffee – Tab management in Firefox is still not as good as SeaMonkey so I use this to fire up my favourite sites when Firefox starts
• Firefox Universal Uploader – Handy uploader for a number of common sites including Smugmug, flickr, Facebook etc

NewsFox – I used this in preference to Google Reader for reading my RSS feeds for a while.  If used with Xmarks (above) then you can sync your RSS feeds between computers, which is obviously quite handy.  However I’ve gone back to Google Reader again because of the number of Add-ons I was running in Firefox.

I started to find was that Firefox @ home kept on crashing, which I attributed to the number of Add-Ons I had.  This was especially true if I was running Newsfox as I didn’t delete old articles, this meant Firefox had to work hard to keep up.  So Newsfox is now gone.

I was even thinking of taking my email off the browser and going back to Thunderbird/Outlook.  I keep flirting with the idea it’s better to use the right app for the job, and maybe I should use a client for my email/calendar, instead of the browser.  In the past I avoided this because I would need to run different apps at home and work, but now that Thunderbird is a portableapp that not such a problem.  Certainly I’ve been frustrated with the response from Firefox, because I’ve too many windows open, if I used Thunderbird then that might help.  At home I’ve started using Tweetdeck again for my Twittetring as it’s better than browser based Tweeting for me, so is it time to move away from the browser for other stuff???

If you have or know teenagers, you will know that they spend a lot of time on the internet and particularly in the area of social networking. The most popular applications they use are Bebo, Facebook and MySpace. They aren’t just doing it on their PC’s at home, school or work, they are doing it on their mobiles. You might be surprised to know that in most countries in the developed world, including New Zealand, Facebook and Bebo represent close to half of all mobile data traffic. It is big and no one saw it coming.

Now people using social networking are no longer just Generation Y, it goes through all the generations, especially with professional social networking applications such as LinkedIn (go there and look for Luigi Cappel and you’ll find my account) where professional build a network where they can discuss business issues, look for staff or for jobs and generally communicate with like minded people around the world.

In the last few years the term Generation X has once again emerged. Generation X is generally agreed to as being the later group of Baby Boomers who challenged all the beliefs and philosophies of their elders. Instead of ‘we are doing this because it’s the way we always did it, or the way our parents did’ they tried new ways of doing everything.

These people grew up with the advent of the computer and are very comfortable with the Internet and various forms of Information and Communications Technology (ICT). Yet when marketers are trying to sell new product, they often focus on the Generation Y who perhaps traditionally were the ones who rushed to the record store to get the new albums and wanted to wear the latest fashions. Now of course fewer of them by CD’s when they can download or copy music, mostly without paying for it. In today’s economy they are also more likely to be tempted by sales and even if they didn’t need something, they might still buy it if the deal sounds good.

Back to Generation X. These people are now in the late 30’s and older. They probably have a home and a mortgage, are settled with a good income and despite the economy still have some spending power. So, here’s a thought from left field. There is a social network , Twitter, which has been quietly growing to a point now where there are an estimated 6 million users and around 55 million messages sent a month. It is said to be growing at a rate of up to 2,000 users a day.

So what is Twitter and why should I care. Twitter is a social network where you make friends, or in the case of Twitter, you ‘Follow’ people. You post messages, called tweets, from your internet connected PC or from your mobile phone’s browser. The messages are restricted to 140 characters including spaces, so you have to be very smart with your choice of words. It started with and its main focus was a social one, and the idea was that you entered what you were doing at the time, for example, ‘Having an ice cream at Milford Beach’. This is still a major use and many people only ‘Tweet’ amongst their real friends. I often see Tweets from friends saying things like “I’m heading down to Ponsonby for a coffee, anyone else in the neighbourhood?’

There are also social gatherings, for example a few weeks ago I attended the ‘Twestival’ in Auckland, raising funds for Charity Water, but that’s another story. Let’s keep it simple. Twitter is free, its easy to use and there are lots of applications you can get for free that allow you organise your Tweets. I use Tweetdeck and Twitbin depending on what I am doing at the time.

Twitter is now being used by lots of different organisations around the world. It is used by companies, manufacturers, news media and even government departments such as the Victoria Police. If you are able to come up with reasons why people would follow you, you have a free medium to make them aware of special deals and offers, events or anything else that you think they would be interested in.

Here are some examples. A bar could promote a Happy Hour Deal by posting a message. A coffee chain could send out electronic coupons as Twitter messages, offering a free muffin with coffee for the next hour. A women’s clothing chain could announce a special deal on end of season fashions, or announce the exciting next season fashions are in store. A bike shop could post special deals around a racing event, or perhaps send brief updates of the Tour de France. The messages are anything that you think your customers or prospects would find of interest and be happy to read.

The thing with Twitter is that it is not intrusive. It’s not like a text message that beeps and wakes you up in the night or embarrasses you in a meeting or at the theatre. You have to open up your browser on your phone, or a website on your PC to receive the ‘Tweets’. You can follow who you like and if you don’t want to see them anymore, you can stop ‘following’ them with ease.

So who is doing this already? Find out for yourself. If you go to www.twitter.com you will find an option called Find People. Click on this and then select the option box at the top called Find On Twitter. I had a go and here are some of the results I got. I entered ‘shoes’. I got back 91 results. There were generic shoe stores, golf shoes, wedding shoes, custom soles. But when I entered ‘Shoes NZ’ or Shoes New Zealand there were none. I can think of some iconic shoe retailers who could jump into this spot.

So who can you find promoting product on Twitter. Here are a few names that you can look up and follow to see what they are doing and remember it’s free! Vodafone and Telecom, Adidas, Starbucks, McDonalds Cincinnati are doing a great job of promoting new products and deals, Borders Books, The Car Shop, Pro Guitar Shop, Sisters Gift Shop, Alpine Ski Shop, just entering shop I found over 200 shops who are already using Twitter around the world. Now to be fair, only some of them are actively using Twitter for marketing, but that is normal and it is still a relatively new concept, but Twitter has gained 6 million users in less than 3 years, so you would have to say they are onto something and if you are smart, you could be one of the first to really make something of it.

If you look around, you will find retailers who have got it together. For example http://twitter.com/fluevog is a shoe shop. They offer electronic coupons, they have links to pages where they tell you in Twitter about a new product and provide a link to a web page where you can see them. They have only been using Twitter for a short time, only sent out 17 messages and they already have almost 500 followers!

Just as a footnote, even if you are a bricks and mortar retailer and don’t do much on the Internet, you might want to think again. For example if you have identified your target market, especially if you are a speciality retailer, then Twitter could open up a whole new area of opportunity for international sales. There must be loads of opportunities to export product, especially Kiwiana to individual customers.

Twitter is very viral in its approach and if you find people who like your kind of products, and you offer them information and deals in your Twitter messages, the word will get out and their followers can become yours.

One final, final word. Like anything, Twitter as a social network. Blogging environment requires consistency. People won’t follow you if you only send a couple of messages a week. They also don’t want to receive a hundred a day, you need to find a balance, but the main thing is that you provide something that they are pleased that they read.

So here’s a free service that you can get results from if you are smart, for an investment of 5-10 minutes a day. It can create a loyal following and grow a viral network for your business. One other thing I forgot to mention, there is also Twitpic http://twitpic.com/ , which allows you to post photos with your Tweets, again for free, so now you can even show followers pictures of your store, the friendly faces inside or your new products, oh and I did mention that this is all free didn’t I?

And if you want to follow me, you will find me at http://twitter.com/BluesBro.

While this blog is starting to get a good following, I would love to get more readers and encouraging me to keep writing. If you feel that my blog is interesting I would be very grateful if you would vote for me in the category of best blog at the NetGuide Web Awards. Note that the form starts each site with www whereas my blog doesn’t and is of course http://luigicappel.wordpress.com.

Thanks so much for your support:)

Special Weekend Edition: Twitter About? Top 21 Twitter Apps to enhance your Twitter Experience. These are awesome and they are hot! Check em out and have fun! Enjoy… – jschulmansr

========================

The Top 21 Twitter Applications (According to Compete) – Tech Crunch

Source: Tech Crunch

by Leena Rao on February 19, 2009

We’ve accumulated a list of the twenty most popular Twitter applications, based on monthly unique visitor data from Compete.

Twitpic, an app that lets users share photos on Twitter, took the top spot with 1,236,828 unique visitors in January. Tweetdeck, which came in second with 285,864 monthly visits, is a Twitter app that streamlines notifications and tweets. Third place went to Digsby (with 233,472 monthly visitors), an application that centralizes e-mail, IM and social networking accounts into one desktop program. With 149,812 visits, the fourth most popular app, Twitterfeed, offers to automatically tweet posts published on a user’s blog using RSS. A Twitter user ranking site, Twitterholic, is the fifth most popular application, with 147,164 people visiting monthly.

Interestingly, two of the top twenty apps – Digsby and Hellotxt, an application that allows users to update their status across social networks – are not exclusively focused on Twitter. We recently wrote a detailed post on why we cover Twitter-related news so often, and we think the fact that there are so many applications developed as an offshoot of the microblogging system is another testament to the fact that Twitter is not just another startup. This is our attempt to figure out which ones are gaining the most traction.

While we think this is a pretty comprehensive list based on the chosen proxy for popularity, it’s but a first pass at a list we hope will become more authoritative over time. Keep in mind that this methodology is only one measurement of engagement; many people use Twitter iPhone apps and other clients without ever visiting these services’ websites. Derivative site traffic is only a proxy for usage but the most easily measurable one.

We also ran these sites though Quantcast and Google Trends, but chose to measure by Compete because it had the most comprehensive set of data, especially for the smaller sites. So the absolute numbers are unquestionably higher for some of these Twitter apps. If you know additional Twitter apps that should be listed here, or if you have better ideas on how to compile this list, please leave a message in the comments.

It should also be noted that there is a plethora of Twitter application databases out there. Here are a few that we looked at particularly closely: Twitter Fan Wiki, Twitdom, Twapps, Twitstat, and TwitTown.

Update: As many people are pointing out in the comments, Twhirl is not included in this list. That’s because the list is based on Compete data, and Compete measures Twhirl at under 13,000 visitors per month. As we said above, this is just the first pass at creating a list and we certainly realize Compete traffic is not a perfect way to gauge the popularity of applications.

Update 2: So it looks like we owe a “mea culpa” on Twhirl, since we looked up the wrong address on Compete originally (it’s at .org not .com). Twhirl.org actually has 143,000 visitors, putting it at the #6 spot.

Update 3: By popular demand, here is a list of the Top 21 Twitter Clients (According To TwitStat).

Twitter Applications	Monthly unique visits (Compete)
1. Twitpic	1,236,828
2. Tweetdeck	285,864
3. Digsby	233,472
4. Twittercounter	212,200
5. Twitterfeed	149,812
6. Twitterholic	147,164
7. Twhirl	143,333
8. Twitturly	88,793
9. Twtpoll	74,154
10. Retweetist	60,051
11. Tweepler	51,304
12. Hellotxt	45,754
13. Twitdom	45,411
14. Tweetscan	44,463
15. Tweetburner	41,754
16. Tweetvisor	31,621
17. Twittervision	30,708
18. Twitterfall	29,592
19. Monitter	25,433
20. Twibs	17,168
21. Twistori	16,229
22. Twitbin	14,986

Website:	twitter.com
Location:	San Francisco, California, United States
Founded:	March 1, 2006
Funding:	$55M

Twitter, founded by Jack Dorsey, Biz Stone, and Evan Williams and launched in July 2006, is a social networking and micro-blogging service that allows users to post their latest updates. An update is limited by 140 characters and can be posted… Learn More

TwitPic

Website:	twitpic.com
Founded:	February 1, 2008

TwitPic lets you share photos on Twitter. You can post pictures to TwitPic from your phone, through TwitPic’s API, or through the site itself.

Also, some Twitter clients have… Learn More

TweetDeck

Website:	tweetdeck.com
Location:	Crowborough, United Kingdom
Founded:	June, 2008
Funding:	$450k

TweetDeck is an Adobe Air desktop application that is currently in beta. It aims to evolve the existing functionality of Twitter by taking an abundance of information i.e twitter feeds, and breaking it down into more manageable bite sized pieces.

… Learn More

twitterfeed

Website:

twitterfeed.com

twitterfeed allows you to feed your blog into Twitter. You provide the URL of a blog’s RSS feed and how often you want posts to Twitter, and twitterfeed does the rest. Learn More

Information provided by CrunchBase

=====================

See You Next Week and get ready for New Records in Gold!!!

<!– /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:”Trebuchet MS”; panose-1:2 11 6 3 2 2 2 2 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:swiss; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:647 0 0 0 159 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:”"; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”Times New Roman”;} a:link, span.MsoHyperlink {color:#0000CC; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;} a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed {color:purple; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;} p {mso-margin-top-alt:auto; margin-right:0in; mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto; margin-left:0in; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”Times New Roman”;} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} –>
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:”Table Normal”;
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-parent:”";
mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0in;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:”Times New Roman”;
mso-ansi-language:#0400;
mso-fareast-language:#0400;
mso-bidi-language:#0400;}
Catch the New Bull! – Buy Gold Online –Get 1 Gram Free! Just for Opening and Account, No minimums, Buy Safely, quickly, and at low prices, guaranteed! Bullion Vault.com

========================

<!– /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:”"; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”Times New Roman”;} p {mso-margin-top-alt:auto; margin-right:0in; mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto; margin-left:0in; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”Times New Roman”;} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} –>
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:”Table Normal”;
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-parent:”";
mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0in;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:”Times New Roman”;
mso-ansi-language:#0400;
mso-fareast-language:#0400;
mso-bidi-language:#0400;}
Nothing in today’s post should be considered as an offer to buy or sell any securities or other investments, it is presented for informational purposes only. As a good investor, consult your Investment Advisor, Do Your Due Diligence, Read All Prospectus/s and related information carefully before you make any investments. – jschulmansr

In response to my good buddy Jonathan’s question I thought I’d post this so that maybe those other users could join in as well.

My progress has been from Twitbin -> Flock -> TwitterFox -> Twhirl. You asked for the short version so here you go:

I like Twhirl because:

• It has all the functions of TwitterFox that I liked and then some
• It has it’s own window outside of the toolbar
• It’s customizable with skins and such
• It shows @s and DMs and normal tweets in different colors
• It shows my Tweet’s profile pic and hovering over it gives me instant access to @ or DM
• Send pics from w/in twhirl
• Search, filter, mark as seen, trash, favorite with the click of a button
• Auto updates and notifies you with pop-ups

Anyone else? What are your thoughts on Twitter apps? What do you use?

Been spending more time with twitter. I don’t want all my tweets coming through as text messages. I’m told I spend way too much time with my phone as it is and some of the people I follow are producing an amazing amount of content.

So how to I stay connected as part of my normal workflow?
I like Twitbin. A Firefox extention that allow me to get tweets from people I’m following as a sidebar on my browser.

But this happens alot

Anyone have any suggestions?

This is a great Firefox extension to let you see and post right to Twitter.  While not as fancy as the Adobe Air applications, great for the user that wants to only run a browser interface.  It is free, but does go through their servers so it may be slowed at times

Or maybe, 5 online tools a community manager should not live without. These are tools that I’ve grown accustomed to as they’ve grown in popularity and as of today, I can’t successfully do my job without. And, let’s not forget – I’m writing this from my point-of-view as a blogger (hence Google Notebook!). Here are the 5 (nay) 7 tools every community manager can make good use of in three categories – Organize, Communicate and Track.

ORGANIZE

1. Google Notebook

And, the best part of Google Notebook is that it’s integrated into Google Bookmarks, so this becomes a great way to gather all those little websites that you track through your daily work. Google Notebook really shines when you’re a community blogger. It helps you throw into buckets all those little URLs you gather along the way. I use it to arrange my thoughts both for my personal blog (see picture below) or ideas for LinkedIn’s corporate blog.

2. Google Reader

Again a data monitoring and aggregation tool. Try searching your “company name” within Technorati or Google blog search. The resulting feed can then be “fed” to your Google Reader where you get the most timely mentions of the brand you’re monitoring.

COMMUNICATE

A key role of the community manager is effective communication both internally (within an organization) and externally (to users). Now, when I started at LinkedIn there was an internal blog I tried blogging about topics that may be of interest. But it was rather cumbersome and I longed for a service that allowed not only me, but also for anybody within an organization to start a private discussion on professional topics of common interest with their colleagues.

Enter LinkedIn News.

3. LinkedIn News

By far, the best way I’ve found (feel free to share other options, and yes, I do work there as community evangelist) to share news articles that I think my colleagues may be interested in discussing. And, most importantly, it’s private.

4. Blog

Finally, blogs are by far the best way to maintain that all-important conversation with users in a public format. It’s great because its an open conversation that’s timely, relevant, search index optimized, and I could go on. I cannot stress the effectiveness of blogging as a web communication tool for community managers. If there’s a better way, let me know, by leaving a comment.

…and one more thing…

REAL-TIME TRACKING

One of the greatest advancements in being a customer evangelist these days is the ability to respond to user requests sooner vs. later, thanks to the following 3 tools (there may be others) that enable real-time tracking or as close to it as possible.

5. Google Alerts

I’ve mentioned before how easy it is these days to set up an email based tracking mechanism for keywords associated with your “company name” or brand. Google alerts allows you to set this up in 1 easy step. Check it out here. And, read more of my take on it here.

6. Twitter (follow me on Twitter)

Good or Bad, this is probably the key impact on businesses that twitter has wrought. Twitter is a great way to communicate with users of your product/service. How do I do that, you may ask?

2 Steps.

* Set up a tweetscan to monitor your brand (RSS or email)

* When users talk about your service – reach out to them and add them as friends. Just earlier today, John Boynton wrote how LinkedIn had helped him find a VP of Community candidate successfully and voila we’re now tracking each other on twitter!

7. Friendfeed

Presenting a real time feed of all the various services you’re addicted to, it takes immediate gratification to the next level. Caution: It could be a time sink, but check out ways to prevent that from happening, below.

How can I use it for community management:

* Search & Track all mentions of your “company name”

* You can do that either (a) directly on Friendfeed, (b) through their desktop app AlertThingy and Twhirl (links below)

–
Now, many of you may complain that twitter and friendfeed are distractions. Now if you’re of the easily distracted kind there’s hope for you. Here are two simple ways to keep track of your usage/wastage of time with Twitter/Friendfeed vs. spending time on these sites.

1. Firefox extensions: TwitBin, MySocial24*7

2. Desktop apps: Twhirl, AlertThingy (I tried the thingy and it didn’t work for me)

3. The best browser time-management tool: Read more here

Again, this is NOT a comprehensive list. As community managers, do you have other tools you can’t live without. Leave a comment.

Sign up to receive Marketing Nirvana posts either in your RSS reader or Email Inbox (Subscribe now!)

I have a Twitter account and had seen a few times in the people I follow that their blog postings appeared in their page but I couldn’t figure out how it was done, even though I had already stumbled accidentally on the site they use to do this. The site is called Twitterfeed and I just managed to get it all set up with the rss feed from WordPress. Now I just need to see if it works properly. Also I have Twitbin, an addon for Firefox that lets me post to Twitter without having to login to their homepage first. Both of these are well worth having if you use Twitter regularly

I’ve been trying out a lot of Web 2.0 sites for a while now. I really like this idea of using the internet as a tool to teach my English students here in Brasil. My biggest problem here is that most schools in Brasil only really teach stuff that is geared to towards the vestibular (uni entrance exam) and most of the stuff they actually teach will never get used for anything or by anyone if they manage to get into either a public or private uni here. Also a lot of teachers here have this fear or laziness of anything new. Sadly a lot of them are just in it for the salary, nothing else. I have a lot of websites online that I created for my students, seven or eight wikis as well as a site that hosts exercises and stuff for my students to use. Some of my favorite Web 2.0 sites that I use a lot are:

1. Wikispaces - I really like this site a lot. 90% or more of my sites online are created using this website. Its fast and easy to use, you need just some basic word processing skills and the registration and setup is easy. They have a good help section and forum too. An email sent out gives a lot of information about new features in the site. I use the free version of it and have no complaints, a few more themes would be nice though but other than that Wikispaces is great.

2. Classroom20 – I like this site a lot, its run by teacher for teachers. It has a lot of postings about Web 2.0 stuff on it. I heard about sites there I’d never heard of before. If you’re a teacher its well worth joining. It has it’s own wikis related to different parts of the site as well as members posting some of their wiki addresses.

3. Twitter - This site is pretty new to me but it is very addictive. You can use it as a messaging service, sort of sms for the web. You post messages about what you are doing at that particular moment and get to read what everyone else is doing at the same time. There are some nice firefox addons for this site so you can read and post without having to go to the site and log in. I use Twitbin a lot.

4. Orkut - A popular social-networking site here in Brasil owned by Google. Its full of links to viruses and stuff but almost all of my students use it. I mainly use this just to send messages to remind them of things or wish them Happy Birthday. I have Myspace and Facebook too but I don’t use them very often, I don’t have the time hahaha!!

There are others I use and I’ll list them here when I get a little more free time

Yesterday I logged on to Twitbin and saw that bounder had tweeted about Birmingham’s Conservative MEP website using a picture of Birmingham Alabama by accident.

The story ended up making the nationals (due to a press release by Labour who, apparently, didn’t credit their original source). But bounder’s tweet got to me well before then and about five seconds before one of my colleagues put down the phone to a contact who had rang him about it.

Now it was always going to be my colleague’s story as he has far better political links. But, if it shows one thing, it shows how Twitter can be a rather speedy way to transmit a story.

I just wish the Twitter feed on this website updated faster – so far it has been as slow as a very slow thing going slowly. Grr.

Hoy descubrí el Twitbin, y me pareció una herramienta interesante. El Twitbin es una extensión para Firefox (y para Flock tambien, ya que exporta las caracerísticas del Firefox)

Acá les pongo una imagen  de como se ve y usa; con el pajarito en la barra de dirrección (que esta apretado) se activa o desactiva el Twitbin.

También te pone lo de siempre, las últimas cosas que pusieron tus amigos, lo último que pusiste, etc. Es múy util cuando querés twittear algo rápidamente (así como el editor de blogs es muy útil para bloguear algo, cosa que ya comente en otra ocasión).

Espero que a alguien le interese esto, (algún bondadoso que visita mi blog de vez en cuando) como me interesó a mi también.

• 07:18 Какие привлекательные словосочетания “социальная инженерия” и “теория игр”. #
• 08:19 Жо… у нас какое-то интернет тестирование по гражданскому процессу. Я не готовился. Остаточные знания… #
• 08:32 Нотариус занимающийся частной практикой не может. ГП форма не распространяется. #
• 09:05 Принципы судостройства повторить. Стадии судебного разбирательства. #
• 10:17 Организованно срываем пару новенькой преподователей. Дикий ржач. Настроение поднимается. #
• 13:16 Осознаю, что люблю свою студенческую группу и расстаться с ней после этого учебного года будет тяжело. #
• 14:06 Скачиваю саундтрек к Twin Peaks. На удивление скорость хороша – 9 Кбит/сек. Стабильно. Не то что вчера вечером было. #
• 18:10 @vitalnrg Скажи, пожалуйста. А есть ли к Твиттер какая утилита или вэб-сервис, чтобы в один PDF файл все записи сложить? Экспорт. Мемуары #
• 20:57 Бьюсь над каверзной задачей по написанию реферата – “Охрана труда женщ. и несовершеннолет. в кооперативе”. Тема заподлянская. #
• 21:09 На улице какое-то подобие снега. Неужели гадкая зима все-таки наступает? Пойду погуля с собакой, развеюсь. #
• 21:40 Установил Firefox, предав Opera, из-за желание попробовать hooeey.com и twitbin. Сомневаюсь, что это приведет к полному отказу от Opera. #
• 22:07 На самом деле не могу я себе позволить с GPRS анлимом (до 64 Кбит в сек) использовать Firefox, так как различие по серфингу с Opera огромно. #
• 22:09 Забавно, что когда прикрываешь Twitbin в Лисе, то при открытии все снова грузится. А в мобильной версии твиттера (сайдбар Opera) нет. #
• 23:17 Больше не занимаюсь рефератом. Спать. Надо. Подъем в пять утра и дальше грызть. Опоздать на пары, но сделать. #