What is Twitter?
Twitter is a “social networking and micro-blogging service that allows its users to send and read other users’ updates (otherwise known as tweets), which are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length”, as defined by Wikipedia.
In other words, it’s a site that people use to share what they are doing with their friends in 140 characters at a time (the length of a cell phone text message). But it has grown to also be a great resource for finding and sharing news and conversing with people, so it’s a fun site to be a part of.
If you’re interested in learning more about Twitter below are some basic tips for Twitter to help you get the most out of your time there.
How to Use Twitter
To use Twitter, first sign up for an account. It’s free. Pick a screen name that you like because this is what other Twitter users will know you by and use to address you. If you have a nickname or your own brand name or are a blogger, it might make sense to use that name for your screen name. Once you’re all set up, just type in to the box asking “What are you doing?” You can put in links to stories or videos you like online, words of wisdom or mundane minutiae describing your day. You can be as boring or as interesting as you like, though the logic goes that the more interesting you are, the more followers you’ll get and the more people that will see your Tweets.
Understanding Twitter Lingo
Twitter has some simple lingo that you will want to learn if you want to use Twitter effectively. Thankfully, it’s really easy to learn. The four main things to know about are tweet, the at-sign (@), RT or ReTweeting and Followers and Following. There are some other tips you can learn, but those are the first three you should know about.
What is a Tweet?
A tweet is Twitters word for an update. So every time you update your Twitter, that is a tweet. The act of sending a tweet is called tweeting.
Followers and Following
On Twitter, followers are people that have subscribed to your tweet updates, meaning they want to read what you have to say, so they have opted-in to have your tweets show up on their Twitter home page. Everyone’s Twitter home page will be different depending on who they are following. And anyone who you have chosen to get updates from are those that you are following. You can follow as many people as you’d like. And if you follow someone on accident or decide to stop following someone, you can click “un-follow.”
Using The At-Sign @ on Twitter
The at-sign (this symbol: @) is an important part of Twitter. Putting an at-sign (@) in front of someone’s screen name will make the name clickable after you tweet and will also let them know you have talked about them. So if you’re talking about President Obama, (yes, he’s on Twitter), you might want to put @BarackObama so that anyone seeing your tweet will be able to click on his name and then go to his profile if they want. You don’t have to do this – you could just put the name without an @ in front of it – but the site is more user-friendly when you can click on people’s names.
What does @Reply mean?
An @Reply is when someone either replies to a tweet you have sent or says something to you or about you through a tweet of their own.
What does RT mean?
RT is short for ReTweeting. Because tweets can only be 140 characters Twitter users use abbreviations like RT to save space. ReTweeting a post means sending a tweet that is a verbatim (or close to it) copy of a tweet someone else has sent. For example if A2zdesignwork sent a tweet that had a great link to an article such as “this is a really great article about going green. LINK” and you wanted to share that with your friends, you could RT or ReTweet it by typing “RT @A2zdesignwork this is a really great article about going green. LINK”
Including RT at the beginning lets other Twitter users know that you didn’t originally write that tweet, @A2zdesignwork did, but you liked it enough to share. It is a great way to spread tweets you like, so don’t hesitate to try out an RT. If you get it wrong, chances are someone on Twitter will let you know.
There are plenty of other tips and tools to make you Twitter use more enjoyable that we will share at a later time. But for now, take these tips and go get started. It’s not for everyone, but it’s a fun thing to try and if you like it, be sure to follow A2zdesignwork and tweet @ us so we can say hi!
If you frequent Weblogs, you’ve seen the little XML icons inviting you to “syndicate this site”, but what does that really mean? A long time ago, newspaper managers realized that if they could use articles and stories from other newspapers in their paper, they could garner more readers because they could cover a wider area than they could with just their own reporters. This is an example of how syndication can work in print.
Online, there are potentially millions of authors writing about millions of topics each day. It can be very difficult to keep track of without some type of automated system. And that’s where RSS comes in. Really Simple Syndication (RSS) is an easy way for Web sites to share headlines and stories from other sites. Web surfers can use sophisticated news readers to surf these headlines using RSS aggregators.
A Brief History of RSS
RSS was first invented by Netscape, when they were trying to get into the portal business. They wanted an XML format (RSS .90) that would be easy for them to get news stories and information from other sites and have them automatically added to their site. They then came out with RSS .91 and dropped it when they decided to get out of the portal business.
UserLand Software picked up RSS .91 and continued to develop it, coming out with .92, .93, and .94. At the same time as UserLand, a non-commercial group picked up RSS and developed RSS 1.0 based on their interpretation of the original principles of RSS. They based RSS 1.0 on RDF and re-named it RDF Site Summary. UserLand was not happy with RSS 1.0, and continued development of their version of RSS (Really Simple Syndication), eventually releasing RSS 2.0.
Which Version of RSS To Use
and Does It Matter?
For the purposes of this article, no it doesn’t. If you were going to build your own aggregator or a program to read RSS feeds, you would care, but that’s not the point of this article.
Here are the basics of RSS (no matter what the version) (view sample RSS – right click or click and hold to open in a new window):
It is XML. This means it must be well-formed, include a prolog and DTD, and all elements must be closed.
The first element in the document is the <rss> element. This includes a mandatory version attribute.
The next element is the <channel> element. This is the main container for all RSS data.
The <title> element is the title, either of the entire site (if it’s at the top) or of the current item (if it’s within an <item>).
The <link> element indicates the URL of the Web page that corresponds to the RSS feed, or if it’s within an <item>, the URL to that item.
The <description> element describes the RSS feed or the item.
The <item> element is the meat of the feed. These are all the headlines (<title>), URLs (<link>) and descriptions that will be in your feed.
Using those basic elements, you can create an RSS feed of your site. But it can get very tedious to create that feed manually every time you update your site. The best way to create an RSS feed is to use a tool, such as a Weblog, to create the headlines, links and descriptions for you automatically. I’ve listed my favorite blogging programs – all of which will create RSS for you along with the HTML for the blog.
So you signed up for Facebook, added friends and photos, joined a few groups, and updated your profile status. But now what? Isn’t there more to Facebook? There is.
Here are ten tips to tweak your profile and get more out of Facebook. These tips go beyond the typical and include ways to stay better connected to your friends and look good doing it. To compile this list I searched high and low and even called on Facebook for the best tips. Most are easy to do and all will add some Facebook pizzazz to your profile.
Tip One
Dig up demographic dirt on your friends with Socialistics: If you want to know the demographic breakdown on your Facebook universe of friends, this application does a nice job at breaking it down. Socialistics can show you information about your friends’ ages, the languages they speak, their country of origin, and lots of other interesting information all within Facebook.
Socialistics data does not show up on your profile pages and you are not able to share Socialistics information with your Facebook Friends through your wall. However, if you want to take a look at the trends for your personal network, then add Socialistics to your profile and you can access it privately.
Tip Two
Power search tips: Just like Google and other search engines, Facebook has some built-in power search tools and terms to help you find people. Want to search your Facebook network or friends list, but you want to narrow the results to fall within an age range? Just enter a term using the “name,” “y1″ and “y2″ search filters. For example, I wanted to find my buddy Colin from college, but I can’t remember how old he is. To find him I just entered in “name: Colin Bauer y1: 25 y2: 40” and voila! The search string asked Facebook to look for people named Colin Bauer between the ages of 25 and 40.
You can also use two search terms at once by dividing the terms with the “pipe character” (|) (the pipe is found on the same key as the backslash).
If you want people to easily find you when they search, fill out your profile as much as you can. That way your profile interests — music, books, movies and so on — will move you closer to the top of Facebook search results for those keywords. Check out Facebook’s help page for more handy search terms.
Tip Three
Integrate Facebook information with Gmail: The Firefox add-on called Xoopit is designed to streamline browsing and sharing of files, photos, and videos with friends on other social networks via Google’s Gmail service. One of Xoopit’s handy features (seldom touted) let’s you see who among your e-mail contacts is a Facebook member and displays their profile photos, status updates. The Xoopit add-on also lets you update your status inside Gmail via a nifty little Xoopit box that integrates into the Gmail interface.
Here is a Xoopit video that walks you through how it works.
Personalize your Facebook URL: SocialToo allows you to create a custom domain for your Facebook profile page such as username.socialtoo.com. This allows you to share your Facebook site with other people without requiring them to search for you on Facebook to find your profile. Granted, you might have to explain to your friends that even though Facebook.com isn’t in the Web address it’s still takes you to your Facebook page. The domain is much easier to remember than an eight-digit profile ID.
Signing up with SocialToo is quick and free. You can set up your Facebook settings under “preferences” on SocialToo’s Website. Just remember to choose your SocialToo username wisely.
Another way to create a custom domain for your Facebook page is go to your Profile page in facebook and copy the Web address that appears in your browsers address bar. Then head over to Tiny.cc. Now paste your Facebook profile Web address in the Tiny.cc’s “Enter a long URL you want to make tiny” form field. And directly to the right you’ll see a Custom option. Here you can create a custom URL that follows the convention http://tiny.cc/username.
Tip Five
Hack your profile photo: Want to juice up your profile photo? Check out AllFacebook.com’s “5 Creative Ways To Hack Your Facebook Profile Photo.” You’ll learn how to maximize your picture size to 200 pixels wide by 600 pixels high, and how to create some neat effects like making it look like you’re hanging off your profile Wall.
In my tests, the specifications for this effect took some careful tweaking but the payoff was worth it. If you’re handy with a photo editor this will be easy for you. If you don’t have Photoshop, you’re going to need to get yourself a photo editing program to take advantage of this hack. There are pleany of good free photo editing programs to get the job done such as such as Paint.Net. You’ll find more free photo editing software at PC World’s Download section.
Tip Six
Put Facebook Chat in your browser sidebar: Is Facebook your main IM tool? You can place it in your browser’s sidebar. For my tests I used Firefox, but this also works in Opera. In Firefox just go to Bookmarks -> Organize Bookmarks and click on Bookmarks Toolbar. Select New Bookmark, and name it Facebook Chat. Then paste in this URL: http://www.facebook.com/presence/popout.php. Make sure you’ve selected “Load this bookmark in the sidebar” and hit Save. Now you’re ready to go. Sorry IE fans — this is not for you; however, you can paste the URL into a new browser tab if you like.
Tip Seven
Get back the old Facebook look (more or less): Ever feel constrained by the Facebook layout and look? You can actually change the look of your Facebook page with some tinkering and a little help from a Firefox add-on called Greasemonkey that allows you to use Java Scripts to change the Facebook look. The only catch is the new look is something only you can see — your Facebook friends see the same old Facebook page. Once you’ve added Greasemonkey to Facebook, visit Greasemonkey’s companion site UserScripts.org and browse dozens of layout options for your Facebook page. Click “install” on the new Facebook layout you want and let Greasemonkey take care of the rest.
A word of warning: Before you go nuts downloading Facebook layouts like crazy be carefull. Greasmonkey scripts for changing your Facebook layout use JavaScript. JavaScripts can be malicious and harm your PC if created by a sloppy or crooked coder. Scripts on UserScripts.org can be submitted by anyone and are not reviewed by Greasemonkey. Before you download a new Facebook layout check out the user reviews and exercise caution before installing.
That being said, here are a few of my favorites:
Remove Facebook Clutter: This is a close approximation of Facebook’s previous look and feel. This hides the filters on the left side of the “stream” and the “highlights” section, and takes away the rounded corners on profile photos.
Facebook Color Changer: Pick a color scheme and change your FB colors. This script used to let you change the Facebook icon on the top left of the screen as well, and the developer promises this feature will be back.
Facebook Twitter Style: Have you heard how Twitter supposedly inspires Facebook’s new look and feel? Why not take this concept to its logical conclusion and view your Facebook homepage as if it really were Twitter?
Tip Eight
Upload mobile photos or videos straight to your profile: Just took a great picture or video with your cell phone and want to post it on your profile right away? Set up your profile settings to allow mobile uploads.
Go to the Mobile tab under your Facebook account tab and set up your phone to send photos to your Facebook page directly from you mobile phone. A word of caution if you set up Facebook to do this.Take heed of your Facebook mobile settings and adjust them properly.
When Facebook Mobile is activated you also let Facebook send text messages to your phone for those sending you friend requests, e-mail messages, wall posts, and status updates. That could become an astonishing text message bill if you’re not careful. This feature is only available in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K.
Tip Nine
Tweet your status: This is one of my personal favorites. Adding the Twitter Facebook application to your Facebook profile gives you the option to turn your Tweets into your Facebook status updates. Not only that, but Twitter is smart enough filter out @replies so that personal messages don’t end up on your profile.
Tip Ten
Use these third-party apps: There are many Facebook third-party apps that help you keep tabs on your Facebook friends. Some are barebones, while others give you more in-depth information. Here are the ones I like the best that will give you the biggest bang for your buck (actually they are all free).
Digsby (Windows Only): Digsby is a nifty little Facebook app that sits in your PC’s system tray and can pull in Facebook Chat and other IM accounts, e-mail alerts and Facebook updates from your network of friends.
MyFacebook (Vista): This widget adds your Facebook information right on your Windows Vista desktop sidebar. With this little app you can, “change your status, see your friends’ statuses, groups, notifications, albums and events.
Facebook Dashboard Widget (Mac): Similar to Windows Facebook Desktop, this widget will notify you of friend requests, messages, pokes and group and event invites.
Facebook Exporter for iPhoto (Mac): If you don’t plan on buying iLife ’09, but loved the idea of posting photos directly from iPhoto then this plugin is for you. Pick or create a new album, tag your friends and add captions right from iPhoto and then send your work straight to your Facebook profile.
So that’s my ten Facebook power tips to take your Facebook time wasting to the next level. Try them out and me know what you think. And if you’ve got other tips post them in the comment field and share.
The blogosphere is varied and growing at a steady rate
The blogosphere is continuing to grow, with a weblog created every second, according to blog trackers Technorati.
In its latest State of the Blogosphere report, it said the number of blogs it was tracking now stood at more than 14.2m blogs, up from 7.8m in March.
It suggests, on average, the number of blogs is doubling every five months.
Blogs, the homepages of the 21st Century, are free and easy to set up and use. They are popular with people who want to share thoughts online.
They allow for the instant publication of ideas and for interactive conversations, through comments, with friends or strangers.
Global voices
Technorati is like a search engine that keeps track of what is happening in the blogosphere, the name given to the universe of weblogs.
It relies on people tagging – giving keywords to – their blogs or blog posts so that its search engine can find them.
Free blogging services such as those provided by MSN Spaces, Blogger, LiveJournal, AOL Journals, WordPress and Movable Type were also growing quickly, said the report.
Blogs are easy to use and can be subscribed to
Thirteen percent of all blogs that Technorati tracks are updated weekly or more, said the report, and 55% of all new bloggers are still posting three months after they started.
It also pointed to the growth in moblogs, blogs to which people with camera phones automatically send pictures and text.
Other services, such as the Google toolbar and the Flickr photo sharing website, have implemented “blog this” buttons, which also make it easier for people to post content they like on the web straight to their blogs.
The voices in the blogosphere are also sounding less US-centric, with blog growth spotted in Japan, Korea, China, UK, France, and Brazil.
Varied sphere
What is clear is that the blogosphere is highly varied, with blogs coming in many shapes and forms, whether they be professional or for personal use.
Blogs have been used as campaign sites, as personal diaries, as art projects, online magazines and as places for community networking.
Much of their appeal has been boosted because readers can subscribe to them, for free, to stay updated of any new posts automatically.
Blogs have played a part in highlighting issues that journalists have not covered. They have also proved to be a valuable communication channel for journalists in repressed countries who have no other publishing means.
They have recently shown how they can also complement and enhance mainstream press in coverage of events, such as the recent London terror attacks.
The Technorati report did not, however, break down the blogosphere in terms of gender use.
Over the weekend, the BlogHer conference took place in the US, which saw a gathering of almost 300 bloggers talk over blogging issues which are pertinent to women, and to men.
