Today’s Top Twitter Tools – Make the most of EVERY tweet

Today, it’s all about those 140 characters. How do you make the most of them? How do you communicate when you’ve got so little space to do it? How do you supercharge your tweets?! Easy, when you know how…

Twitter keys

As you might know, Twitter accepts more than just basic text. The service is UTF8 compatible. Huh? Okay, well basically that means that instead of tweeting “I love you” you could say “I ♥ you”.

TwitterKeys also provides you with a floating window so you can use loads of different symbols in Twitter.

Twitter Keys

Twitterblogger rating 8/10 (I ♥ it…just don’t go overboard or you’ll look like a psycho)

URL shorteners

You already know about tinyurl.com. But did you know about bit.ly? Bit.ly creates even shorter URLs AND it tracks all of the clicks your links get. I’ve talked about bit.ly already on this blog. But I didn’t realise how nice and easy the tracking was – it shows you a screen-shot of your page and everything. Nice one, thanks bit.ly. Or should I call you Mr Li?

http://bit.ly/

Twitterblogger rating 10/10 (gave it a 9.5 last time but didn’t clock the analytics)

Twitzer

Twitzer is a Firefox extension. It lets you post text longer than 140 characters on Twitter.com. It also resolves TinyURL links to actual links.

This extension does just what it promises, and is very useful for some Twitterers

Twitzer

Twitterblogger rating 6/10 (Good for some…but I think the best thing about Twitter is having to fit what you’ve got to say in 140 characters  – don’t you think?)

Twitsay

Twitsay is easy peasy. Just call the number below and leave a message. Then go to your Twitter page and listen to your voice message. All your followers can listen to it, too…

• +43 720 702 580 (Austria)
• +49 180 1020 650 6812 (Germany)
• +41 325 102 263 (Switzerland)
• +44 845 867 6679 (UK)
• +33 1 706 17828 (Paris, France)
• +1 646 845 1924 (New York, USA)

http://twitsay.com/

Twitterblogger rating 8/10 (great if you’ve got a nice sounding voice, scary if you haven’t)

Twitxr

With Twitxr you can share pictures from your mobile phone, automatically publish them on Twitter and add your location to your pictures and status updates. Pictures seem to pervade everything – phones, emails, Facebook. And now they can take over Twitter too.

http://www.twitxr.com/

Twitterblogger rating 6.5/10 (there are loads of photo applications so I’m taking a point off for innovation)

Post like a pirate

I like. I like a lot. Hehe. Just translated my Twitter bio, which normally reads:

“I’m a twitter blogger and copywriter. Follow me for tips, tools, articles and news – all about Twitter. Visit my blog for more www.twitterblogger.co.uk”

But with Post Like a Pirate, it reads:

“I be a twittArrr blogger ‘n copywriter. Follow me fer tips, tools, articles ‘n news all ’bout twittArrr. Visit me blog fer more www.twitterblogger.co.uk”

http://postlikeapirate.com/twitter.php

Twitterblogger rating 8/10 (I love it – but some of the characters went all funny like-arrrr!)

There you go. Tomorrow’s tools will be based on ONE thing – followers. Tune in if you want more of them (followers AND tools).

Tin

P.S. Follow me and I’ll update you when tomorrow’s fab tools are live and kicking.

Twitpic is a famous Twitter app, but there are more photo services: Pixim, TweetPhoto, Twitxr, Yfrog; http://tr.im/ijbA  

Twitter resources for Wedding Photographers:

These are in no particular order…

1.http://twitpic.com/ : TwitPic lets you share photos on Twitter.
2.http://www.twitxr.com/ : Share pictures and status updates from your mobile.
3.http://www.mobypicture.com/ :   Shoot n Share, it’s that simple!
4.http://snaptweet.com/ : Easily Share Flickr Pictures on Twitter.
5.http://www.tweetube.com/ : Upload or email pictures quickly via Tweetube and automatically share your great photo moments with your Twitter followers.
6. http://www.tweetdeck.com/beta/ : You can create Twitter groups on TweetDeck, so you can keep your industry and personal contacts somewhat separate.
7. http://twittangle.com/ : twitTangle will allow you to rate and tag your friends, then filter your timeline based on those that are most important to you.
8. http://www.tweetreplies.com/ : Use Tweetreplies to have your @replies sent directly to your email in real time.
9. http://splitweet.com/ :  Get multi account management using Splitweet, so you can separate your studio and personal accounts.
10. http://useqwitter.com/ : Find out when followers stop following you.
11. http://hootsuite.com/ :  With HootSuite, you can manage multiple Twitter profiles, pre-schedule tweets, and measure your success.
12. http://www.tweetlater.com/ : Use Twitblocker to temporarily hide your friends that are updating a bit too often.
13. http://www.twaitter.com/ : This Twitter web client will allow you to schedule, and create recurring Tweets.
14. http://twitter.grader.com/ : How do you stack up on Twitter.
15. http://tweetstats.com/ : Graphin’ your stats.
16. http://twitslikeme.efinke.com/ : Find others like you.
17. http://nearbytweets.com/ : Find other twitters near you.
18. http://wefollow.com/ : User powered Twitter directory.
19. http://www.twellow.com/ : Twitter Yellow Pages.
20. http://www.twitterhawk.com/ : Introducing you to people like you, near you.
21. http://followcost.com : How annoying will it be to follow  @jsandifer on Twitter?
22. http://datenmafia.org/phototwitter/ : Use PhotoTwitter to take snapshots with your iSight and post to Twitter.
23. http://www.twitscoop.com/ : Search Twitter to see what is hot right now.
24. http://twiggit.org/ : twiggit is an automated service that lets your friends on twitter know what articles you digg.
25. http://www.quoteurl.com/ : QuoteURL helps you group different Twitter updates from different people into a single page that has a permanent URL. So you can put it on your blog or send interesting conversations to friends.
26. http://tweetscan.com/ : Search Twitter quickly and easily.
27. http://www.tweetizen.com/ : You can start your own group, or find groups with specific interests on Twitter.
28. http://twtpoll.com/ : Create a poll.
29. http://www.strawpollnow.com/ : Create your own straw poll.
30. http://grouptweet.com/ : Group message broadcasting for Twitter.
31. http://21tweets.com/ : They help you to achieve your new goals and turn them into a habit!
32. http://twitterfeed.com/ : Feed your blog to twitter.
33. http://www.fuelfrog.com/ : Track Your Gas Mileage with FuelFrog.
34. http://www.tweeteorology.com/ : The twitterverse on the weather.
35. http://tweetburner.com/ : Tracking the links you share.
36. http://ping.fm/ : Simple service that makes updating your social networks a snap.
37. http://jott.com/ : Makes it easy for you to tweet without ever having to type, transcribing your voice message to Twitter.
38. http://mymilemarker.com/ : Track your miles.
39. http://twtvite.com/ : A simple event manager twitter app.
40. http://www.tweetwhatyouspend.com/ : Cash tracking made simple through Twitter.

Let me know your favorites so I can add them!

I spotted this article. Maybe we didn’t get all this from Facebook in advance, but the difference about Twitter seems to be that it’s so well drilled to get people using it somehow commercially:

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/03/17/99-essential-twitter-tools-and-applications/

Smashing Magazine we smash you with the information that will make your life easier. really.

99 Essential Twitter Tools And Applications

By Paul Andrew, March 17th, 2009 in Developer’s Toolbox | 120 Comments |Forum

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by Paul Andrew

If you haven’t heard of Twitter by now, you must be living under a rock! It is everywhere, and everyone is using it. To say that the rise of Twitter has been explosive would be an understatement. As a result of this growth, the number of Twitter apps and tools available has become extensive. So, in this post we have filtered them down to a respectable 99.

Below, we present 99 Essential Twitter Tools and Applications, split into the following categories: Tools and Productivity Apps, Statistics and Analytics, Find New Twitter Friends Apps, Search Twitter Apps, Web-Based Mobile Apps, WordPress Twitter Plug-Ins, Adobe Air Twitter Apps and Firefox Twitter Extensions.

You may want to take a look at the following related posts:

• 50 Twitter Tools and Tutorials For Designers and Developers
• 15 Useful Twitter Plugins and Hacks For WordPress
• 8 Useful Tips To Become Successful With Twitter

Tools and Productivity Apps

Twittercal
Twittercal is a service that connects your Twitter account to your Google Calendar and lets you add events easily, directly from your Twitter account.

Twitpay
TwitPay is a simple way to send payments via Twitter.

Twibs
Find, follow and interact with businesses, apps and services on Twitter.

Twittermail.com
Users can post to their Twitter account by sending a message to their own unique email address.

Twitzu
Promote your business, special offers, promotions and events with Twitzu.

Twuffer
Twuffer allows the Twitter user to compose a list of future tweets and schedule their release.

TweetLater
This app allows you to post Tweets at a later time and date.

GroupTweet
Send private Twitter messages to specific groups of friends.

Twitter Alerts
Keep track of conversations that mention you, your products, your company and anything else, via hourly email updates.

TwitPic
TwitPic lets you share photos on Twitter. You can post pictures to TwitPic from your phone, the TwitPic home page or your Twitter account.

Your Twitter Karma
Twitter needs a decent page for your followers, with the functionality to sort them by type. This Web app does that.

Mr. Tweet
A personal networking assistant for Twitter, helping you identify relevant followers, recommending you to other users and regularly computing your Twitter usage statistics.

Remember The Milk
Remember The Milk keeps track of your tasks. Simply add Remember The Milk as your friend, and you can add and interact with your tasks through direct messages and get reminders, too.

StrawPoll
StrawPoll is the coolest way to follow the opinions of people on Twitter. With this app, you can create your own poll.

Twiddict
If Twitter goes down and you start to feel withdrawal symptoms, use this service to continue using it. Twiddict makes sure all your tweets end up going to the proper place.

Twitter Friends Network Browser
Browse through your Twitter friends, your friends’ friends, your friends’ friends’ friends…

Twitterfeed
Post your RSS feed to Twitter automatically.

Twitturly
Twitturly is a service for tracking what URLs people are talking about, as they talk about them, on Twitter.

Twittonary
The Twitter Dictionary, aka Twittonary, provides explanations of various Twitter-related words.

twtQpon
Enhance your social media marketing by offering discount coupons to the Twitter-sphere!

twenglish 
Twitter translator: Simply type in your tweet, and twenglish will twanslate your tweet for you.

twtcard
Send a greeting card, a surprise message or an invitation on Twitter.

Tweet What You Spend
Cash-tracking made simple with Twitter.

Twittertise
Twittertise allows you to advertise on Twitter and track the success of your branded communications with customers.

TwitWall
With TwitWall, you can embed your favorite videos and widgets and upload your photos, MP3 music, podcasts, you name it.

UnTweeps
Unfollow Tweeps who have not posted tweets recently.

TwitRand();
Select a random Twitter follower, friend or retweeter.

TwitBlocker
If you become overwhelmed by a Twitter user’s constant tweets, you can keep them quiet with a single click of a button.

Twitterless
Twitterless tells you who stops following you and graphs your follower history over time, displaying the info in a variety of useful views.

Twonvert
With Twonvert, you can easily convert your tweets into SMS shorthand language and say more with less characters.

Postica
Create a sticky note for your tweets.

twi8r
Translate from English to text message shorthand and vice versa.

Twitter Statistics and Analytics

Twitterholic.com
This website is constantly being updated to allow you to find the most popular Twitter users. Want to be on the list? Twitter constantly.

TweetStats
An app that tracks your number of tweets per hour and per month. It basically creates a graph based on your tweets.

Twitter Grader
Twitter Grader measures the power of your Twitter profile. How high do you rank?

twInfluence
Similar to Twitter Grader, twInfluence lets you calculate the indirect influence of you and your followers on Twitter.

TwitterCounter
A thorough analytical Web app.

tweetVolume
Enter keywords or a phrase and see how often it appears on Twitter.

Twist
See trends on Twitter; find out what’s hot and what people are saying about it.

TweetRush
TweetRush provides estimated statistics on Twitter usage over a period of time.

Tweetwasters
Just how much time do you spend on Twitter? Are you wasting time?

Find New Twitter Friends Apps

TwitterTroll.com
TwitterTroll.com is a real-time Twitter search engine to find new friends.

Just Tweet It
Just Tweet It makes it easier for tweeters to find other tweeters with similar interests.

Friend or Follow
Who are you following who is not following you back?

Qwitter: Catching Twitter quitters
Qwitter emails you when someone stops following you on Twitter.

Twubble
Twubble is a Twitter extension that helps you find more friends.

Twitter Follower-Friend Ratio
Your Twitter ratio is the ratio of your followers to friends (i.e. people you follow). It is measured with the TFF ratio (Twitter follower to friend ratio). The higher the ratio, the more Twitter heat you pack.

Nearby Tweets
Who is tweeting close to you? This app helps you connect with them.

Search Twitter Apps

WhosTalkin
WhosTalkin is a tool that allows users to search for conversations on the topics they care about most.

Twitter Search
Search Twitter is an excellent search engine that allows you to find out what’s happening in the world beyond your personal timeline.

Flaptor Twitter Search
Comprehensive Twitter search.

Twitscoop
Input a Twitter username or keywords in the Twitscoop search box to track a conversation, topic or conference.

Twellow
With Twellow, you can search for someone on Twitter or browse through various tweet categories.

twitSeeker
twitSeeker is an alternate search engine for finding Twitter users and browsing the results in one interface.

Twitter Web-Based Mobile Apps

Hahlo
Hahlo is an excellent and fully featured Twitter client for your iPhone and iPod Touch.

TwitterFone
Send messages to Twitter using your voice.

PocketTweets
PocketTweets is a Web-based Twitter client for the Apple iPhone.

TinyTwitter
TinyTwitter works on any Java-enabled device and any Windows Mobile Pocket PC or smartphone.

TwitterBerry
TwitterBerry is a mobile client for posting updates to Twitter from your BlackBerry.

twitxr
Share pictures and status updates from your mobile.

Slandr
Slandr delivers an enhanced mobile website for Twitter.

Twitter2Go
Twitter2Go provides a quick and simple way to update your Twitter status.

Tapulous
Discover, connect with and send messages to people nearby. Upload photos and update your Twitter account.

Twittelator
Twittelator is an all-around great new application for your iPhone.

TwitterFon
TwitterFon is a simple, clean, easy to use and super-fast Twitter client for your iPhone and iPod Touch.

iTweet 2
iTweet 2 has built-in auto-refresh, search and hash tags. You can view user bios and locations and also view conversations with the “in reply to” links.

GPS Twit
Run GPS Twit on your phone to make it easy for your friends to find you.

iTwtr
An open-source Twitter client for your iPhone.

WordPress Twitter Plug-Ins

Twitter for WordPress
Twitter for WordPress displays yours latest tweets in your WordPress blog.

Twitter Tools
This plug-in integrates your WordPress blog and Twitter account. Pull your tweets into your blog, and create new tweets from blog posts from within WordPress.

Twitpress
Twitpress is a WordPress plug-in that submits a user-definable tweet to your Twitter account, notifying Twitter followers or friends that you have posted a new blog entry.

SimpleTwitter
SimpleTwitter allows you to add Twitter messages to WordPress templates (and not just in the sidebar).

Tweet This
A plug-in that adds a Twitter link to every post and page on your WordPress website, so that visitors can share your blog entries through their Twitter accounts. It also shortens URLs automatically.

TweetBacks
This plug-in imports any tweets that discuss your blog or post. The tweets appear as comments.

TwitterCounter
Install TwitterCounter on your blog to display the number of followers you have on Twitter.

MyTwitter
MyTwitter allows you to display your Tweets on your WordPress website and update your status on the MyTwitter settings page.

TweetRoll
With the TweetRoll widget, you can display the number of your followers and friends.

Twitt-Twoo
Twitt-Twoo is a simple little plug-in that allows you to update your Twitter status right from your blog’s sidebar.

Adobe Air Twitter Apps

Toro for Twitter 
Designed to be simple, Toro uses an experimental Twitter client library to remove the Twitter API limit.

twhirl
Most of the features available on the Twitter website are accessible through twhirl, with usability enhancements.

Tweetr
Tweetr is a Twitter client that allows you to send and receive Twitter messages, but with some added cool features: support for taking photos with your webcam and sending files (up to 10 MB).

TweetDeck
TweetDeck aims to improve the existing functionality of Twitter by taking the abundance of Twitter feeds and breaking it down into more manageable bite-sized pieces.

DestroyTwitter
DestroyTwitter is a series of canvases that constantly update to keep tweets current and up to date using notifications that appear as soon as a new tweet is posted.

TwitterLocal
TwitterLocal is an Adobe AIR-based app that allows you to filter tweets by location.

Spaz
Spaz is a well-designed and well-developed Twitter client.

Snitter
Short for “Snooks’ Twitter,” Snitter is a cross-platform desktop Twitter client.

Twitch
Some features of Twitch are TwitPic integration, URL shortening, the ability to combine friends and replies, reply-highlighting hash-tag support and more.

Firefox Twitter Extensions

TwitBin
TwitBin is a Firefox extension that allows you to keep up with all of your Twitter conversations directly from your browser’s sidebar. Send and receive messages, share links and more.

Power Twitter
Power Twitter adds a multitude of features to the Twitter website interface.

TwitterFox
This extension adds a tiny icon to the status bar that notifies you when your friends have updated their Twitter status. It also has a small text input field to allow you to update your own status.

Twitzer
This Firefox extension lets you post tweets longer than 140 characters on Twitter.

TwitterBar
TwitterBar allows you to post to Twitter from the Firefox address bar.

Twitter Search
This plug-in gives you quick access to the real-time Twitter search engine.

Hoopla!
An essential Twitter plug-in for the Firefox quick search feature.

TwitterEyes
TwitterEyes keeps track of your character count as you compose tweets and replaces characters if you need extra room.

Finally, Worth A Look

Is Twitter Down?
Is Twitter down just for me or for everyone? This great app gives you a simple answer: yes or no.

twistori
An interesting Twitter experiment: click on a keyword on the left, and see what tweets are currently being published that contain that word.

Twittervision
A real-time geographic visualization of tweets. Amazing.

twittearth
Similar to Twittervision (above) but with a sleeker interface.

by Robin Wauters

ImageShack, the oft-forgotten and underestimated venture capital backed media hosting company, has quietly launched an alternative to the image sharing tools for Twitter already out there, like TwitPic and Twitxr. The tool is called Yfrog and like its counterparts it allows for immediate posting to your Twitter stream any image you upload or link to.

Evidently, the image is hosted by ImageShack, so this is just another way for the company to get more people to learn about their media hosting wares. Once the image is up (example showing a guy eating a yfrog), you get the usual stuff like embed codes, custom thumbnails, a direct link to reblog and retweet the material, etc. We should note – and I’m getting tired of having to say this every time – that you have to enter your Twitter credentials to use Yfrog so that’s up to you.

Like TwitPic, YFrog has its own API, but the former is also built into most popular Twitter clients, so they have the advantage of already being familiar to most Twitter users who are interested in this type of service. TwitPic, which by the way is growing in traffic quite quickly, also enables you to comment on pictures on-site, has better navigation, tags and lets you view images in full size. Yfrog has some catching up to do in terms of features and integrating into the widely used Twitter clients.

Personally, I switched to Posterous some time ago, which lets you e-mail photos from your desktop or web client as well as your mobile phone and pushes the link for short blog posts, pictures and videos to a variety of social services (including Twitter). Also, it doesn’t show ads next to your uploaded pictures.

Source: techcrunch

New iPhone apps are poping up everyday most of them seem to be games and useless but for us geeks and bloggers fear not a few new apps have shown up for us also.

Hear are a few of the new ones:
1. iBlogger
2. Blogpress
3. Twitfire for you Twitter fanboys

I have not setup iBlogger of Blogpress yet but from the reviews both look great supporting wordpress, blogger & etc. One of them has a feature to post inline or wrap text around photos which would be cool and a feature I can’t do right now with this wordpress for iPhone app.

I posted a tweet this morning to twitter using @twitfire , I like the app and really love the feature to insert a URL in a tweet but it needs a show my replies & DMs option for me to really use it. Thanks to @appvee on Twitter for the find.

And old favorite made it on to apple’s app store this week, twitxr. Twitxr was real big for twitter users who wanted a way to post photos on Twitter. Twitxr did it before Utterz now utterli & Brightkite was launched. Twitxr still has a growing community and their iPhone app was always one of the best in usibility.

Another new or updated app that has changed it’s name is now mobile fotos, a Flickr iPhone app. I think it was mobile Flickr, either way it’s a great app that uses the iPhone’s gps to find flickr photos of people near by. It reminds me of twinkle but for Flickr photos.

Ok that’s it for now and I’ll try to post more often, I think the next post is going to be about podcaster & dtunes other ways to get music & podcast on your iPhone besides the app store & iTunes.

Screenshots below

* This episode was formerly released as the first episode of Tech2Nite. If you have previously listened to the Tech2Nite: Micro-Blogging episode, then there is no reason to listen to this episode.

Between soaking in everything IDF has to offer and preparing to record our second live show in the last week, I had just enough time to record this episode of What the Tech?. I hope it’s informative and keeps you occupied until the IDF Live Show gets broadcast this weekend.

This first installment of What the Tech? compares some of the major Micro-Blogging services on the web. If you haven’t jumped on the micro-blogging bandwagon or if you’d like to hear about similar services across the internet, take a listen to this episode.

LISTEN NOW!

Micro-Blogging Services discussed:
Twitter.com,  jaiku.com,  pownce.com,  rejaw.com,  twitxr.com,  plurk.com,  friendfeed.com, spoink.com,  rakawa.net

NEW Website: whatthetechshow.wordpress.com
Email: techtoday2008@gmail.com
Twitter: twitter.com/aaronsalome

Between soaking in everything IDF has to offer and preparing to record our second live show in the last week, I had just enough time to record this episode of Tech2Nite. I hope it’s informative and keeps you occupied until the IDF Live Show gets broadcast this weekend.

This first installment of Tech2Nite compares some of the major Micro-Blogging services on the web. If you haven’t jumped on the micro-blogging bandwagon or if you’d like to hear about similar services across the internet, take a listen to this episode.

Micro-Blogging Services discussed:
Twitter.com,  jaiku.com,  pownce.com,  rejaw.com,  twitxr.com,  plurk.com,  friendfeed.com,  spoink.com,  rakawa.net

NEW Website: tech2dayshow.wordpress.com
Email: techtoday2008@gmail.com
Twitter: twitter.com/aaronsalome

Between soaking in everything IDF has to offer and preparing to record our second live show in the last week, I had just enough time to record this episode of Tech2Nite. I hope it’s informative and keeps you occupied until the IDF Live Show gets broadcast this weekend.

This first installment of Tech2Nite compares some of the major Micro-Blogging services on the web. If you haven’t jumped on the micro-blogging bandwagon or if you’d like to hear about similar services across the internet, take a listen to this episode.

Micro-Blogging Services discussed:
Twitter.com,  jaiku.com,  pownce.com,  rejaw.com,  twitxr.com,  plurk.com,  friendfeed.com,  spoink.com,  rakawa.net

NEW Website: tech2dayshow.wordpress.com
Email: techtoday2008@gmail.com
Twitter: twitter.com/aaronsalome

A l’acte de cloenda del 15è Congrés de Convergència, a banda de seguir-me pel Facebook i pel Twitter, també ho podeu fer a través de:

Well actually,  I’ve been trying to ‘adapt’ to the micro-blogging culture lately and found quite a lot (?!) of sites. I tried to use few among them from the most popular micro-blogging site to the newly arrived ones like twitxr.com.

Well all in the whole seem to give just one thing – the ability to publish your information in small quantities to the world + allow everyone else to ‘follow’ oneself. Of course, that’s what it’s supposed to do right? well then why so many? the answer is nothing but the usual one, while twitter.com offers just 140 chars max texting with support for SMS, sites like tumblr.com is notable for it’s blog like structure with beautiful theme support (though I wouldn’t classify it under micro blogging, I just mentioned because it one of the sites I’ve started using recently).

Tumblr.com is also noticable for it’s direct and simple integration with lots of things: From text, photo to chat scripts, embedded contents, etc. Even twitter is using tumblr for it’s site updates.

I got an invite from my friend to twitxr.com which I started exploring. It has got geo-location integration, integration with share photo in other sites (like flickr, facebook, picasaweb). I didn’t try the mobile integration. It reportedly has support for high-end mobile phones, which I suppose will be fully utilizing the GPS if available in the phone.

One another set of sites which is not so surprising after seeing all these massive number micro-blogging site going online – is those which ‘integrate’ all such services in one place like friendfeed.com

Some sites go beyond just their online presence and provide APIs with enable some quite wonderful applications like twhirl (for twitter.com, friendfeed.com). These applications keep everyone in the micro-blog world hooked with others. Sometimes I get this strange feeling that such apps are just more advanced form the instant messengers. Have to mention the recent integration of such micro-blogging service into the multi-protocol instant messengers like Digsby, Pidgin.

Well all said, lets see how many such sites are going online further…

PS: I might have done justice to all the micro-blogging sites & utilities but I think this will just serve as an overview of this massive micro-blogging world!

A raíz de los comentarios de Andreu y de Nando, a mi post anterior, aqui va mi punto de vista acerca de como creo que debería plantearse el micro-blogging para hoteleros.

Aviso, diga lo que diga Nando, no soy un experto ni puedo avalar mis palabras con éxitos y experiencias reales. Los consejos que siguen son un puñado de ideas y suposiciones, basadas más en mis experiencias como internauta que en mis conocimientos de marketing.

La teoría.

Definir objetivos. Y plazos. No estamos hablando de ventas, asi que nada de fijar objetivos en función de bookings o Turn Over. Los objetivos podrían ser:

• Construir una imagen ’social’ del hotel en la red, que contribuya y complemente la imagen de marca.
• Desarrollar una comunidad de seguidores en torno a esta imagen.
• Organizar una rutina de tracking que garantice una buena monitorización de la marca.
• Generar UGC (user generated content) propio y con PR alto, para tapar el UGC negativo.
• Investigar activamente y proponer nuevos canales de micro-blogging

Asignar funciones. Escojer a las personas para este proyecto dentro de la organización es muy importante. Puede ser una persona o un equipo, pero es fundamental que quien se ocupe del proyecto sea capaz de construir la personalidad social del hotel (a lo mejor el becario encaja mejor que el director de marketing).

Establecer una rutina. A pesar de que sería un error tratar de monetizarlo, es importante asegurar que se destinan los recursos suficientes, de lo contrario los otros proyectos monetizables acabarían canibalizando el tiempo de este proyecto.

Implicar a toda la organización. Una vez definida la personalidad social del hotel, hay que trasladarla a toda la organización para que la entienda, la interiorice y la incorpore a su trabajo. No debe haber desfase entre la personalidad social y la personalidad real del hotel, entre la experiencia que promete en la web 2.0 y la que realmente ofrece a sus huespedes.

La práctica.

Para construir una personalidad que enganche en un entrono 2.0, hay que tener en cuenta, por supuesto, al público objetivo. Un informe de perfil de usuario de Twitter, Pownce, Jaiku, etc. ayudaria. Que los responsables del proyecto fueran heavy users de redes sociales, tambien.

Una posibilidad seria construir un alter-ego cool, fresco y divertido, capaz de desprenderse, si hiciera falta, de los matices más serios, pesados y responsables que se atribuyen a la marca. No sólo es necesario que los mensajes no sean interesados, además deberían ser divertidos, ocurrentes, simpaticos, interesantes (¿de que habla la gente en Twitter?), transgresores, ingenuos, imaginativos, etc. Pero sin caer en el Twispam. Los mensajes no deberían limitarse a texto, tambien sería necesario subir fotos y videos con comentarios (cuidado! dosificando mucho el auto-bombo).

A parte del alter-ego, tambien estamos construyendo un canal de comunicación ultra rápido. El alter-ego debe responder en nombre del hotel, y con sus respuestas, ganarse la confianza de los seguidores. Debe aceptar compromisos, ser sincero, modesto y asumir los errores.

Una vez puesto en marcha, la primera medida del exito del proyecto vendría por el número de seguidores alrededor de la personalidad del hotel, pero cuidado con abusar, yo desconfío de los perfiles que siguen a mas gente de la que les sigue. Otro éxito rápido consistiría en conseguir ‘tapar’ el buzz negativo (vease el ejemplo de Ikea). Este es un trabajo que requiere perseverancia, pero permite recuperar parte del control de los primeros resultados.

Todo esto puede parecer muy poco concreto. Pero si el proyecto esta bien desarrollado, podemos esperar un ROI a partir de:

• Haber generado una comunidad de seguidores fidelizados y dispuestos a alojarse en nuestro hotel por afinidad y simpatia hacia la marca.
• Haber sido capaces de tapar el buzz negativo.

Igual que en la primera parte de este articulo, concluyo diciendo que todos somos más o menos novatos y pidiendo más consejos para hoteleros que quieran embarcarse en la aventura del micro-blogging. ¿Alguna idea?

Revisando las estadisticas de uso de mi cuenta de Twitter, me ha sorpendido comprobar que llevo un año utilizandolo, aunque la verdad es que no lo actualizo a menudo. Menos de 150 twetts y poco más de 50 followers dan fe de ello. Casi nunca posteo desde web, mas bien lo hago desde Twitterberry. Hacerlo desde la Blackberry es muy comodo, pero como no permite contestar, nunca puedo entablar conversaciones, quizás precisamente por eso no ha conseguido despertar mi interés (hasta ahora).

La cuestion es que, en un año han aparecido infinidad de aplicaciones y start-ups en torno al micro-blogging. Creo que un buen generador de feeds o un servicio de vigilancia para la reputación online, deberian tener en cuenta tambien todo el contenido generado por el usuario en los micro blogs.

Para poder vigilar las referencias a nuestra marca, por ahora basta con controlar lo que pasa por la Twittersfera (Pownce y Jaiku tienen pocos usuarios). Una solución rápida consiste en buscar nuestra marca en Summize y guardar el RSS de los resultados. Pero la verdadera amenaza para la reputación online llega con una variante del micro-blogging que cada vez tiene mas adeptos, el micro-foto-blogging.

Cualquier cliente puede hacer una foto con la camara de su mobil y enviarla directamente a Twitpic o Twitxr (por no hablar de Flickr o Picasa) junto con un comentario. aun más, éstas, y otras aplicaciones parecidas, utilizan los API’s de Google para publicar automaticamente las fotos en mapas. Como resulta que cada vez más usuarios recurren a Google Maps y Google Earth para ubicar sus búsquedas, el resultado de todo esto es que, al buscar un hotel, se pueden encontrar las fotos comentadas que otros usuarios han publicado sobre el mismo.

Por poner un ejemplo personal de esto, hace poco, visitando una estupenda villa 5* de Interhome en Calonge, hice una foto de la piscina con mi Blackberry y la subi a Twitxr. Al cabo de unos dias, me lleve una sorpresa cuando descubrí, por casualidad, que buscando ‘Interhome Calonge‘, aparecía la foto que yo hice!

Por supuesto, una buena gestión no debe limitarse a controlar. Estas aplicaciones ofrecen muchas posibilidades para llegar a los clientes. Hay que aprender a utilizar el micro-blogging, no solo para escuchar lo que se dice de nosotros, sino para participar activamente, estableciendo un canal de comunicación agil y directo con nuestros clientes. En micro-blogging casi todos somos más o menos novatos. ¿Algún consejo para hoteleros que quieran hacer micro-blogging?

A mio parere uno dei più grossi limiti di Twitter è quello di non poter condividere, oltre ai propri pensieri, anche immagini. Mi sono sempre chiesto quanto sarebbe bello poter condividere con i propri followers foto prelevate dalla rete, dal PC o dal cellulare.
Per risolvere questo mio “disagio” ho provato a utilizzare Twitxr.com, che non mi ha propriamente soddisfatto.  Ho trovato qualcosa di più interessante , che ancora non mi soddisfaceva, e allora mi sono rivolto a Twitpc.
Twitpc è un servizio Web 2.0 semplicissimo da usare. Basta inserire le proprie credenziali Twitter, uploadare l’immagine che si desidera condividere e… voilà, automaticamente verrà creato un post su Twitter con un link all’immagine desiderata.
E’ possibile inviare immagini anche attraverso il proprio cellulare utilizzando un indirizzo di posta elettronica con suffisso @twitpic.com. Completano l’applicazione un sistema di geotagging e la possibilità per i più esperti di utilizzare le API.
Twitpc, infine, è compatibile tra l’altro con il client Twhirl e il Mobile Twitter per iPhone.
Per le novità e gli aggiornamenti di Twitpc basta fare un follow su http://twitter.com/twitpic.

Since being turned on to Twitter and del.icio.us, I have weekly bouts of social media lust and today I have been frantically and rabidly building my web 2.0 application and social media empire. This particular quest began with a realization that, when faced with impending internship interview with Paull Young this week, I do not want to be caught off guard like I was for my first interview where I ended up fumbling through my experience with social media and why I like it. And stuff.

So, I began my research… I googled “Social Media” and found an entire wikipedia article. From there I found out about Pownce and from joining Pownce, I found about ten other applications that I wanted to join. But first, I had to update all of the others I’d joined from my last social media feeding frenzy – Technorati, LinkedIn, Stumble-Upon, etc. Once those were covered, I joined Twitxr and was about to join Jaiku. But come on, people. How many of these things can I have an actual PRESENCE on?! I’m a full-time college student with an internship and a job. My life cannot be devoted to social media. Yet.

So I have to be choosy. Not only choosy, but deliberate. For now, until I have a lifestyle that is mass social-media friendly, I must choose media that are quick, easy and painless and will let me join the conversation enough to be heard. I hate to be choosy, but in order to stay afloat in the the Web 2.0 sea, I have to trim some of the fat.

The remarkable thing is that, even with a lean arsenal of applications, I still am proactively engaged in nearly 20 social media networks. And this has to be true for other social media users, both organizational and business. There simply isn’t enough time or man power to enlist all of the networks and applications that would benefit your cause. In the same breath, it must be noted that not all of the flashy or “obvious” media will prove to be a positive promotional tool. For example, Facebook probably wouldn’t work for a toy company because young children aren’t on it.

So I’m learning, be choosy, be deliberate with your social media. It needs to be something that boosts your interests or the interests of your business or organization, rather than a hindrance to the efforts that really matter – in my case, school.

“Twitxr is to photologs what Seesmic is to Youtube” , dijo Marilink en Twitxr y creo que la pegó bastante.

De la misma forma, vrruiz había tirado otra frase parecida que sirve para explicar a Twitter perfectamente:  “Las tapas son a la comida lo que twitter a los blogs“.

En el fondo, estos diferentes programas generan distintas formas de expresarse, ya sea, a nivel más diario y formal -como pueden ser los blogs- o más inmediato y personal -como puede ser twitter-. Es cuestión de pensar qué se quiere trasmitir en cada momento y elegir para eso las diferentes plataformas o contextos donde hacerlo.

I use both Twitter and Friendfeed. Everyday. Because Techcrunch posted Friendfeed is This Years Twitter, But why?, Friendfeedfolks are in discussion mode. That is exactly the differentiator of Friendfeed: it allows you to discuss, to comment on posts (in FF, they could be links, tweets, direct writeup, feeds) and be able to track the content and its follow through reactions, comments or “likes”.

Twitter is a simple and excellent service. But the issue with Twitter is if you post a discussable message or link, you won’t be able to track related comments by other users. The moment you hit refresh, you’ll see posts like “Coffee at Starbucks” and similar ones. But that is Twitter, and users still love it for what it is.

Friendfeed on the other hand, aside from a Twitter-like simplicity in function and design, allows you to discuss content including following through it on a discussion thread. That is useful to a lot of users.

And I think Friendfeed is this year’s Twitter. Although I also find Twitxr a wonderful service. If you haven’t used any of these services, go and try them out.

For a preview on Friendfeed, click here.

For a preview on Twitxr, click here.

For a preview on Twitter, click here.