How Far Should You Trust Twitter?

In Nothing We Trust

Image via Wikipedia

By Stephen Bray

It seems like years since I wrote about Professor Scott Lucas using Twitter to collect and disseminate information about the world of international relations using Twitter. It was January.

The reason it seems so far back, no doubt, is that since posting the article the areas to which Lucas focuses most of his energy have been plunged into turmoil with Twitter now playing the part of a weapon of revolutionary force.

People in Egypt, Libya and Syria, for example have used both Facebook and Twitter to organise demonstrations and in the case of Libya this has escalated into a civil war.

The ultimate, but simple guide to getting more followers on Twitter

Image representing Twitter as depicted in Crun...
Image via CrunchBase

To get more followers on twitter (I have 5300+ now), there are three main ways of gaining followers:

1) Proactive means

2) Passive ways

3) automated following

All of these methods rely on you putting up interesting content to your target market. Plus following the rule of thirds for your tweets – 1 third about you and what you are doing with your business (not selling, just talking about what you are getting up to in your business), 1/3 replies to people – after all you are looking to engage with your followers, and 1/3 about your business, e.g. blog posts. Until you are established on twitter (think 500+ followers), don’t be tempted to advertise on twitter. Out of about 10-15 tweets I post up a day, I only allow myself 1 tweet which is an advertisement for one of my products.

How do I search within my Twitter followers?

This is a question I get asked a lot, so I was thrilled to receive a notification by email this weekend that Tweetreports now offers this functionality.

Now, with just a few clicks you can search and follow updates posted by your followers, people you’re following, or both. So watch the video to see how our In-Network (search within) feature works.

Their video (reproduced below) shows you how, and you can visit their website at www.tweetreports.com to find out more about their full product, which offers a whole host of useful features.

16 reasons why the Twitter @message change isn’t a big deal…

So, Twitter have changed the way you can view @messages and people are in uproar.

Basically, the change means that if someone you follow replies to someone you DON’T follow, then you won’t see that message in your Twitter stream.

Well I say “Yay!”

But people are complaining, arms are raised, and uproar is being tweeted, retweeted and re-retweeted. Hashtags galore are being deployed, and people are complaining that ‘Twitter are taking away our choice’.

Well, I just don’t get the fuss.

The power of the Retweet – how Stephen Fry helped me illustrate a point

[365-289] Mr Fry
Creative Commons License photo credit: adotjdotsmith

One of the things I cover in the TweetMentor course, and one of the most overlooked things on Twitter (in my opinion) is the power of the Retweet.

The Retweet is an all round good thing in so many ways – I’m not going to go into them all here, but just point you to Retweetist before giving you an example.

Last night I published a short blog about the fact that Twitter had banned @TweepMe and why I agreed. It was one of many such blogs out there. Don’t tell anyone, but it wasn’t even the best….

How to avoid committing Twittercide in three easy steps

This is a guest blog from Wayne Smallman of Blah Blah tech

Just one update on Twitter can either make or break you, and do so very publicly, too. A word to the wise: be wise with your words on Twitter!

More and more people, personalities and business entities are seeing the potential of Twitter as a new communications medium.

Even politicians are getting in on the act now. Over in the US, Twitter is now entering the political vocabulary, along with “credit crunch”. While over here in Britain, Tweetminster is a website that lists the growing number of members of parliament using Twitter to communicate with their constituents.

Want to make sure you don’t lose your followers? Tweetake!

As one of the partners in Tweetake, we love to see people promoting our service – but I have to say that the cartoon accompanying a post I found today really made me smile:

tweetake

If you use Twitter for business, then it could be important to you to be able to backup your followers if, for whatever reason, they were lost.

I know I wouldn’t like to fall off the edge of the Twitterverse and have the people following me wondering where I had got to.

Play it safe – back up at Tweetake :)

Breaking news can up your follower count!

Interesting to see the increase in followers that @jkrums got yesterday. He was allegedly the first to post pictures of yesterday’s Hudson River plane crash, and a massive 1949 of you decided to follow him – followed by another 132 today at the time of writing.

Stats from the fantastic TwitterCounter.

Update: Rory Cellan-Jones has posted more about this story, and how twitter is changing the way journalists report here.

Who I follow, and who I don’t (and why) on Twitter

“Why don’t you follow as many people as follow you Nikki?”

“I’m following you, why aren’t you following me, Nikki?”

“I stopped following you because you’re not following me Nikki”

Just 3 of the messages I’ve received recently talking about who I do and don’t follow on Twitter.

You may have already read my post ‘How I use Twitter’, and this is in a similar vein, but here are my thoughts on following and followers.

Hot to use Twitter as a Tool – Guy Kawasaki

If you can’t see the embedded Flash movie, here’s the original link:

http://vizedu.com/2008/12/how-to-use-twitter-as-a-twool/

Related Posts with Thumbnails

I'm happy to use Increase Sociability.