Tell me which logo I should use, and I’ll give you access to the first lesson of Spider Language. You’ll love it so much that I’m betting you’ll want to stick around.
So, let me hear your comments, even if you only want to say that they both suck.
Aren’t some of us spending inordinate amounts of time there? I was at a conference with Carrie Wilkerson–the Barefoot Executive, who has like 52,000+ followers, and I thought she was going to wear out the keys on her Blackberry, I swear. She’s amazing.!
I’m lucky if I get to tweet a few times a day, and really feel inadequate there to be sure. But I try to offer blog posts and such to help people along the way, as well as retweeting cool stuff and communicating with the followers on my list and the people whom I follow. ‘Course I follow just about everyone that follows me. Why not? It’s only respectful. The only ones I don’t follow have no avatar and are obviously trying to scam the Twitterverse.
And then, there are those who follow you and then, unfollow you right away just to build their Twitter list. That’s really sleazy, in my book. And I used to hunt those people down and unfollow them back. Sheesh. It’s what they deserve, right?
But it’s nearly impossible. Qwitter works sometimes. I’ll get a whole bunch of emails for a day or so from Qwitter, and then, pffft!!! NAda. I’m hoping that nobody is being an ass, but somehow, I’m thinking not. There will always be as many asses as there are chairs and you just have to run into one every now and then, right?
But to track them manually?
Here’s the thing: You can’t trust Twitter! When it looks like there are a bunch of people who aren’t following you, it might just be that they are following you and that Twitter is messing things up. Unfollowing them will do you a world of hurt People who are following you don’t like it when you unfollow them. They take it as a personal affront.
And, you can’t use the services that tell you who the people are who aren’t following you back. They mess up because Twitter messes up, and tell you so in their terms of service.
What’s the solution?
Even though it might piss you off, you have to go about your business and just not worry at all about the people not following you back! It really doesn’t matter, does it? I mean, sure… it would be nice to nuke the nasties off the face of the planet, but there are just too many things to do in a typical entrepreneurial day, right?
The moral is: Don’t waste your time worrying about who’s following you or not following you. Use Twitter for the fun application that it is, and make lots of friends that are interested in the same things as you are. That’s really what’s important and what will keep your Twitterverse clean and clear. Just Tweet away and ignore the rest. There just aren’t enough moments in the day.
She’s quoting Pali Research analyst Richard Greenfield in this:
“The reason the company — Google — doesn’t care is that the basic functionality of social platforms like MySpace, Facebook and Twitter is diminishing the importance of search. He points to users growing inclination to search for specific information by tapping into friends and colleagues knowledge through platforms like Twitter’s own search product, as well Facebook’s status update tool.”
Ha!
Apparently, I’m not the only one wondering if search will become less relevant over time. I mean, if you want to check out the lunar space station, you wouldn’t go to Facebook, right? (Or maybe it has a Facebook account now, too, I’m not sure)
But if you want to know if a piece of software works, who would you ask? Someone who has used it, or several someones who have used it and get their opinions before you buy, right? Or, where would you go to get contact lenses online? Google will tell you where, but not how good the service is.
Years back, we Netizens just accepted what was served up to us. There was only interaction on Usenet or in IRC (Internet Relay Chat), but only a small segment of the population used those vehicles to communicate with peers. I loved it back in the mid-90’s and was often found in my Usenet home first thing in the morning to check up with friends.
But now EVERYbody is on Facebook or Twitter or MySpace or whatever, and I can communicate with them. I mean, I finally got my 71-year-old sister to sign up for a Facebook account, and she’s no slouch when it comes to computers. She just didn’t see the benefit. Guess what? Her attitude has changed because Facebook is just plain fun.
Although I think Google will still be around for a very long time to come, I also think that Google’s heyday of preaching to us what we can and can’t do online so that we’re its “good graces” will pass. The fact that Google seems to be kicking and screaming and NOT fully entering the social end of Web 2.0 just shows us how scary it is for them to think about.
I think that’s a good thing. Although Google is indeed a great free service and has tons of incredible features, I just think we’ve given the search engine too much power. It’s time that online, we at least get this slogan going again: “Power to the people!”
So, it’s been a loooooooong day, and I’m just wrapping things up.
Thanks to a Twitter friend, Kat Tansey (@kattansey), I found this very cool background template for Twitter that you can make right from your PowerPoint program. Pretty sweet, eh? Get it HERE
I haven’t actually tried it yet, but thought I’d pass it along as a very neat element of a site called “The Closet Entrepreneur” at http://TheClosetEntrepreneur.com The site owner, Tomas Carrillo, gives you some cool ideas, like how to clear the clutter from under your desk to making your own laptop stand. Lots of neat little goodies there. But there’s serious stuff, too, like creating a business plan, and “Elevator Pitch 101.”
Everything on the blog is delivered in a light tone, making the whole website just totally appealing and fun. I plan to keep a watch on this blog and just added it to my Google Reader.
Tomas, two thumbs up! Keep those tips coming! I love it.
Ah, yes… Back to Twitter, as one of my commenters said. I agree. I do talk about Twitter quite a lot these days, but hey… it’s HUGE right now, so why not? I enjoy it every day between 5 and about 6 p.m and if you track my stats at TweetStats.com, you’ll see that’s true.
But I get some interesting sites from Twitter, some of which I write about. Yet, some I don’t because they really fall outside my niche. But… here are some fun and interesting sites I got from my Twitter pals today:
Twipocalypse Now: Warnings of a Twitter Bubble at http://www.twitip.com/twitter-bubble/ Sorry to say that it flew out of Tweet Deck before I got the person’s UN that found this. Grr… Moves fast when you have a lot of friends.
From @ShermanHu 10 Features That Will Make Twitter Better at http://sixrevisions.com/web_design/10-features-that-will-make-twitter-better/ ( I totally give this one two thumbs up. Be sure to check this out!) The only suggestion I have here is that if Twitter is going to have a URL shortening service built in, it should be trackable like with BudURL.
Trust Price Software Wholesale (thanks to @EricaBiz): http://www.trustprice.com/ Very cool person whom I met at JVAlert. She knows her tech stuff, people. Smart, very smart.
Free Seamless Background Textures: http://www.absolutecross.com/graphics/textures/ from @MarkDulisse. These are great. Use them for Twitter or your site. Tons of usable stuff and it’s free! Thanks, Mark!
From @MariSmith: Facebook chatterhttp://demo.com/live/ Not sure how long this will be going for now, but looks totally interesting and something worth watching for when available.
Those are just 5 fabulous sites to check out. I have some pretty cool Twitter friends, eh? I get this stuff all day long, and love it!
‘Course I can’t touch Twitter much until work is done, but you see this? And they say that Twitter is a waste of time.
So, I’m always on the lookout for cool new Web 2.0 stuff, right?
Today, I’m over at GotoWeb20 and I found “Twesents,” a whole bunch of cute, funny, rude, and otherwise interesting virtual presents that you can send to your Twitter friends. I just sent my pal Carrie Wilkerson, the Barefoot Executive, a pair of baby seals, just to try the service out. She posted a pic of me on Facebook yesterday, and I wanted to thank her. This was just a fun way to let her know I appreciate her, right?
The downside is that if you have a lot of friends, you have to sift through them all until you find the one(s) you want to send things to. It took me a good 5 minutes just to find her. Or so I thought. I went back and found the “search” function after the fact… duh. I have a tendency to half read instructions, to just blunder ahead on my own, and I often pay for it. Grr…
Anyway, it’s just a fun site that I thought my Tweeple would like to know about.
However, GotoWeb20.net is a much more fascinating site than you can imagine. I heard about it a couple of years back from Jack Humphrey at a Stomper Net conference and have been a huge fan ever since.
You can find any number of interesting and cool things there that have nothing whatsoever to do with Twitter. I can’t tell you how many of them I use and have accumulated over time. The Web just gets more and more fun all the time.
Check out both of these sites. I know you’ll love ‘em.
Found a cool site today, thanks to one of my Tweeple. The bad part is that I went to check out this site, and lost the person who recommended it. Argh. Hate when that happens. The Tweets are just coming faster and furiouser these days, you know? If that person would like to speak up… I’d love to give people your “follow” address. DM me: @PatMarcello
Anyway, good news for you, my readers…
Have some PowerPoint presentations hanging around that you don’t know what to do with?
You upload the slides, and just add audio to make a pre-recorded type webinar.
But with SlideShare, I can put this stuff on my website or even use it for a call with my members. I can prepare a presentation for a call, assign it to my listeners as “pre-call homework” and then, do a Q&A from that presentation. I want to do stuff like that now because my folks are running out of questions, and it’s really important to me that I help them push their businesses forward. Sometimes, people just don’t know the right questions to ask, right?
Just by putting the slideshow up on SlideShare, you’ll get traffic to whatever site or blog you want to direct them to, as well–if they like your show. Pretty sweet.
I’ll be trying out this service very soon. Let you know my results!
And thank you for the recommendation, whomever you are. Let me know, K?
When you’re so big that you’re at your 5,000 friend limit, most of what you’re getting in your update stream is stuff you know little or nothing about. You can’t use Facebook the way it was meant to be used, which as Ed says is keeping up with friends and just kind of virtually hanging out.
He’s right.
I don’t know at least a quarter of the people that are my friends at Facebook. I mean, I’d like to get to know them better, but all they seem to do is invite me to stuff I could care less about or flood my inbox with garbage. They mean well, I guess, but I’m not interested in their marketing messages. I’m interested in knowing them as people.
One of my high school (actually grade school) friends found me there and an old neighbor, which was totally cool. I’d love to stay in touch with them and see what’s going on in their lives. But what? It’s nuts. Barbara, my high school friend, wrote to me and said, “I still have no idea of what you do.”
Hmm…
Neither does my family or anyone outside of the Internet marketing arena. It’s really funny when they say that because what do I tell them? I write in my blog every day? I help people to set up autoresponders? I’m immersed in Web 2.0? Ha! That would mean what to them?
So, Ed, I totally get it. You can delete me, if we are friends. Not sure we are. I’m don’t usually just ask people to be my friend because I know who they are. I know Ed Dale well, but not personally. I just think he’s a smart guy and I like his style. Anyway, I won’t be offended, if you divorce me, Ed, because you don’t know me from the guy that mows my lawn.
And you shouldn’t be offended either. Let Ed use Facebook the way it was meant to be used, and stop sending me stupid crap that I don’t give two hoots about. I don’t want any more plants. No more eggs. No more STUFF. I’d rather have a message that says, “Hey, Pat, How’s it going, girl? I am yadda, yadda, and I like cats.” Now, that’s someone I can relate to. Anyone who likes cats can totally be my friend.
When you make a post to your blog, do you bookmark it in the social sites? Every time?
Do you favorite anything but your own stuff?
Do you know that you might be link spamming?
I mean, you really shouldn’t bookmark every single post you make, unless your posts are chock full of incredible information. If you’re posting about what your cat had for lunch, don’t bookmark it. People won’t be interested in reading that stuff.
Be discerning. When you write a great post, totally bookmark it through OnlyWire, Tell-a-Friend Social Twist, or whatever you like to use. Tell the world!
Then, other folks will find your blog. They’ll visit you and become interested in what you have to say.
Also be sure to bookmark other interesting things you find on the Web. You can make friends on places like Digg and StumbleUpon, who will check out everything you bookmark. That’s what social sites are all about.
My idea is that at some point, people will decide what appears in the search engines, rather than an algorithm. We can vote on what we like and don’t like, and have the people decide what is important to them and what isn’t.
those people down and unfollow them back. Sheesh. It’s what they deserve, right?
