social-media

Social Faceoff Facebook vs Twitter vs Google+ POLL Results: So, Who Won?

Tue, 09 Aug 2011 22:10:00 +0100

Early Poll Results Show Google+ as the New King of Social Media

Yesterday I posted an article on my site with the title, Google Plus will become the New Social Media King. Well, though it’s a little early to tell, it looks as if I was right (so far) with my early assessment of G+.

According to Mashable’s Social Faceoff: Facebook vs. Twitter vs. Google+ [POLL], Google+ is quickly becoming people’s favorite social networking site.

At last count, with a total of 11,410 votes, these were the results as of 8-9-2011:

Google+ 38.41% (4,383 votes)
Facebook 24.56% (2,802 votes)
Twitter 18.04% (2,058 votes)
I love all three 9.04% (1,032 votes)
I only like some of them 7.07% (807 votes)
I don't like any of them 2.87% (328 votes)

As I said, it’s too early to tell, but Facebook and Twitter should be (and probably are) shaking in their boots

But, this could be a good thing. Google Plus is amazing, and they will continue to expand it and integrate it with their other services. So, if you’re already a Gmail, YouTube or even a Google Search user, this will only improve your social media experience.

If you want to know more about how Google is integrating their services and how this will affect you, I suggest you read my article from yesterday, Google Plus will become the New Social Media King.

The bottom line is, I recommend you giving Plus a try. You may want get used to it now, as you may not have much of a choice in the not so distant future.

Written By: Tom Retterbush

Google Plus will become the New Social Media King

Tue, 09 Aug 2011 10:23:55 +0100

Plus is all the Buzz in Social Media

Google Plus is the biggest buzz of social media news right now. Everybody is talking about G+. Headlines everywhere read things like, Google+ Poised To Become Number Two Network In 12 Months According To Survey, Google Plus Is Growing Like A Weed, Google+ is here to stay and Facebook is Toast.

Launched just over a month ago, with its monumental surge to 25 million unique global visitors, Google+ has become the fastest growing social networking service, easily outpacing both Twitter and Facebook.

But then Google doesn’t have a very good track record with social media. After all, does anybody even remember Google’s last ventures into social media, like Orkut, Wave or Buzz?

At this point, why would anyone consider switching to Plus? Everybody’s friends are all on Facebook. Everybody already has their following on Twitter. Everybody’s business associates are connected with them on LinkedIn. Why would anybody want to learn to use yet another social network?

Whether you like it or not, if you have any kind of business associated with the Internet, chances are you’ll be Google+’ing within a year. You just don’t have much choice in the matter.

The first and foremost reason Google has the upper hand in the social media market, is because Google Owns Search. Google is the undisputed king of finding information on the web and handles about 85% of Internet users’ default searches.

Accordingly, Google is not as concerned about keeping people on their Plus network. Heck, they still have you on all their other networks! Google is the basis for reaching most people on the Internet. It doesn’t need you to “like” a page (like Facebook) or “tweet” a link (like Twitter) to know what you like and don’t like to effectively target better advertisements, because Google sees your search and browsing history, thus making it far more intelligent about your behavior and interests than any other social network.

This is what makes marketing tools like Google Offers and AdSense more relevant. Because Google can advertise directly targeted at what you like.

But that’s not all, considering Google also owns Google News, a major news aggregator, Gmail, a dominant email provider, YouTube, the biggest video channel online, Blogger, a major blogging service, Google Maps mapping tools, as well as a voice-chat infrastructure, photo albums, scheduling tools and ability to build personal websites. And Google is integrating it all together into one great big superservice. No other social media site can even begin to provide customers what Google can offer.

If you’re a diehard Foursquare user, you can now use Google Maps to simply funnel those same location based updates to Plus. If you like to review restaurants on Yelp, you can now use Google Places to post reviews to Plus so your friends can see what you thought of the crab cakes. If you use Skype and are happy to see it coming to Facebook, now you can make free calls around the U.S. with Gchat on Plus. And though Facebook is offering @Facebook email domain, you would be better off saving yourself the trouble and just stay with the biggest email provider in the world, Gmail.

To make a long story short, Google already has hundreds of millions of loyal users. Asking people to try Plus is not the same as someone asking them to use an unheard-of social network for the first time. Plus was able to acquire 25 million users in the first few weeks of launching because so many Internet users were already using their services, like Chrome, Gmail, YouTube and Reader especially. The company will continue integrating their services to keep Plus in the spotlight.

Steve Kille, a former Senior Research Fellow at University College London, a Blogger for Ferris Research, a leading e-mail and Internet communications research firm, and one of Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP)’s authors writes, “Google+ is very impressive. I reckon Facebook is toast.”

Kille believes that Google+ will eventually killi off Facebook for most of the same reason I described above, including Google Plus‘ “integration with other Google services [which] will be a key strategic advantage, that Facebook will not be able to match.”

Though for the moment, the majority of G+ users are Internet related geeks and marketers, I assure you it will go mainstream and possibly put Twitter, MySpace and eventually Facebook out of business. Google is set at becoming the Wal-Mart of the Internet. They want to provide everything to everybody. And considering that like Wal-Mart, they can outbid, outperform and outlast any competitor, it is only logical to assume that like Wal-Mart, they will become the closest thing possible to a monopoly without breaking anti-trust laws.

In other words, you will more than likely be using several Google services in the future, with one of those probably being Google Plus.

In recent polls conducted by The Christian Post, more than 40 percent of 10,000 people stated that they believe Google+ would dethrone Facebook as the biggest social network while the other 40 percent believed that Google+ and Facebook would co-exist.

I'm no social media guru. I'm no techie. But I have been closely following social media for several years. I know social media. And mark my words, Google Plus will do some serious damage to both Facebook and Twitter within the next two years.

But this is not all bad. I like Google. I like Gmail, I like YouTube, I like Reader and I like Chrome. But I love Plus!

Love it or hate it, Google Plus will soon become the new undisputed King of Social Media.

Get used to it. Use it!

Written By: Tom Retterbush

5 Steps to Making Real Money with Twitter

Mon, 20 Jun 2011 10:35:55 +0100

Everybody who knows anything at all about social media knows that there is lots of money is to be made on Twitter.

No, not like many would suggest, with other people’s pay per click ad campaigns, but by promoting your own product, source or idea.

No, not even as an affiliate, getting a small commission on any product or service you refer for someone.

The only way to really make a lot of money with Twitter, is by starting your own small online business.

You could survive as an affiliate, but you would have to work hard to make any real decent commission check. And you would never make it rich.

If you really want to make some money, the only real way is to have your own product, source or idea. Even if it only be an informative PDF format ebook for $9.95 each. Considering an ebook doesn’t really cost anything but some time, everything would be 100% profit, minus expenses of course.

I can't guarantee that this is going to make you rich, but you could automate a decent, steady, long-term income. And who knows, your Twitter campaign could go viral and with a little luck strike it rich! Its not impossible.

Step 1

Sit down and write down all the things you are good at or knowledgeable about. Take the top 10 and run them through Google’s Keyword Tool. Find the one with the most monthly searches and the least competition and make an ebook out it.

Step 2

There are plenty of articles online on how to make an ebook. Do a Google Search, “How to make an ebook,” (225,000,000 results) and start writing a 20 to 50 page ebook about the subjects you are an expert in or have experience with.

Step 3

After you have written the ebook, you design and launch a squeezepage,” website or blog on which you will be selling your ebook. Although they all work, I recommend you focus just on your ebook, which would suggest you build a squeezepage. If you don't know anything about squeezepages, I would do a Google Search for, "How to build a squeezepage" (20,800,000 results).

Step 4

Regardless if you build a squeezepage, website or blog you will most likely need a way for customers pay you, so you will want to open up a PayPal account. With PayPal you can buy and sell freely all over the web, so you may already have one or will want to get one regardless.

Step 5

After you complete these steps, you will just need to promote the squeezepage with Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Stumbleupon and all the other social media sites available to use for free.

Theoretically you could do all of the above totally for free, without spending a cent!

Everything else you can do as you go along, including educating yourself online in social media, website promotion and marketing.

The main 3 thing to remember is, patience, persevering and positive attitude.

Good luck.

Written By: Tom Retterbush

5 Best iPhone Twitter apps

Mon, 07 Feb 2011 20:47:00 +0100

When the iPhone first started becoming popular, users had limited choices when it came to Twitter applications. But now, there are myriad services that allow you to blast 140-character tweets, and keep up with your buddies, too. So now, the problem is weeding out the pretenders from the contenders – not that we're complaining.

So to help you decide which app is best for you, we're offering a brief overview, with ratings (on a 1-to-5-birdie scale, of course), of eight Twitter apps for iPhone. BlackBerry users, don't fret; we've got you covered, too.

1. Twitter

Price: Free
Ease: 5
Aesthetics: 3
Speed: 4
Options: 5
Multimedia: 4

This is Twitter's own inhouse application. It took long enough for it to appear, but when it did, the official Twitter app (which is really just a revamped version of Tweetie) instantly became a fan favorite. It's not too fancy looking, but gets points for its ease of use. When composing a message, a simple button tap hides the keyboard, and lets you access tools like username and hashtag search, URL shrinking, your iPhone's camera, your photo library and geotag services. Plus, you can search trending topics and nearby tweets, just like in real life. It's simple and to the point -- just like our favorite tweets.

2. Echofon Pro

Price: Free
Ease: 4
Aesthetics: 2
Speed: 4
Options: 3
Multimedia: 3

Echofon was the top dog for a while, and it's still a good choice for Twitter users who want a free and simple app. The navigation bar runs across the bottom of the feed, and, while its options may be limited as compared to other apps (with its lack of URL-shortener, for example), there's something to be said for such a simple and clean interface. It's not as thorough as Twitter's app, but great for beginners.

3. Tweetdeck

Price: Free
Ease: 5
Aesthetics: 5
Speed: 4
Options: 5
Multimedia: 5

There's one reason why we love Tweetdeck so much: its columnar layout, similar to Safari's on the iPhone. To start, there are columns for users you follow, @ mentions and direct messages. But Tweetdeck also lets you add columns, which is perfect for those with more than one Twitter account or for adding customized searches and your Twitter lists. If you only download one app on this list, make it Tweetdeck.

4. Twitterific

Price: Free
Ease: 3
Aesthetics: 3
Speed: 2
Options: 3
Multimedia: 4

Twitterific is another clean app, with the usual tabs – tweets, mentions, messages and favorites – but also a list of trending topics underneath a search bar. Our main complaint is that the Twitter stream lags and can be slow to update. Plus, it's annoying to toggle between streams. We would much prefer a navigation bar to this app's clunky menu.

5. Seesmic

Price: Free
Ease: 4
Aesthetics: 3
Speed: 4
Options: 5
Multimedia: 3

Seesmic is an all-in-one social-media client for the iPhone. While that's fine, we prefer to keep our Twitters and our Facebooks from clashing in a social media brawl. However, Seesmic is well-designed, easy to navigate, supports multiple Twitter accounts and lets you hook into MySpace, Facebook, Flickr, LinkedIn, Wordpress and countless other services. If we have any complaint, it's that, as a Twitter client, Seesmic just doesn't stand out enough, which can be a problem in the crowded app market.

That winds up the top 5. There are others, such as the HootSuite, Twitbird and the Brizzly, but this list is of the top 5, and the rest of them just don't make the cut.

Written By: Tom Retterbush

10 Top Twitter Money Making Opportunities

Mon, 20 Jun 2011 10:53:21 +0100

Twitter was originally not intended for making money, it was meant to be a social networking tool with different techniques but similar concepts as Facebook and MySpace. However, Twitter has become very much about making money, no matter if by tweeting links to products or services, or by selling tweets or even followers.

Although there are still many of you who tweet primarily to socialize, I'm sure some of you have considered monetizing these efforts. You may have though about making some money with all those tweets you send and all those followers you have. After all, it's not hurting anybody. And as long as it's not taking away from the value of your tweets, why not?

Bellow you will find my top 10 picks for monetizing your tweets without "selling out" to absolute commercialism and absolutely ruining what you're trying to communicate to your followers. Especially since some of them may be peers, friends or even family.

1. Twittad

Twittad offers you an opportunity to monetize your Twitter stream in a fully disclosed and ethical manner. As one of the first sponsored Tweet networks, we have tweaked and modified our service over the last 2 years to provide you with the best solution for sponsored tweets.

2. adCause

adCause matches advertisers with publishers (twitter users). Publishers will get paid show ads in their twitter feed. The more influence you have on twitter, the more money you will make. Because you are in complete control of the advertisers that you approve or deny, you don’t ever have to worry about showing an ad you weren’t prepared for. If you run network ads, you can be assured that they will match your subject matter.

3. TwitPub

TwitPub is just another fantastic way to monetize Twitter. The best way to be rewarded for generating quality content (or tweets) is to get paid for it. All you need to do is to have a Twitter account and set it to private (or protect your updates so it’s not publicly visible) in your Twitter settings.

4. Ad.ly

Ad.ly enables you to monetize the valuable content you are producing in streams like Twitter, MySpace and Facebook. Ad.ly pays you to send an ad to your followers on behalf of brands you love (like an ad unit placed inside your stream). You approve each ad before it’s sent, and every ad is disclosed as an ad to your audience.

5. PayMeTweets

To give Twitterers a Twitter-like interface to advertise on or make money from Twitter. Keep it easy. Keep it quick. Keep it Twitter-like.

6. RevTwt

Become a Revtwt publisher so you can earn money from your Twitter tweets, Facebook status updates and wall posts! It is free to join. This may not work for everyone. To make money, you will need lots of real human followers who are the intended target audience of the ads. Give it a try for a couple of days. It is free. If it works for you, stick around and make more money. If not, you are free to delete your account at any time.

7. Assetize

Assetize is a Twitter Monetization Network for publishers and application developers. Assetize was to help large publishers and individual tweeters monetize their content. Since then, we have also been providing monetization opportunities for application developers.

8. MyLikes

Become an Influencer on MyLikes and earn money or help your favorite charity by recommending what you like. Create Sponsored Likes for advertisers/sponsors that you Like, post them on Twitter and/or embed it your Blog. You get paid per click and your cost-per-click is set and constantly adjusted based on how influential you are and how relevant your Likes are.

9. BeTweeted

Just sign up, select links that are relevant to your friends and followers, and tweet them. We keep track of every time one of your followers clicks a link that you tweeted (including all your friends’ retweets of that link) and pay you per click up to the advertiser’s maximum budget.

10. twtMob

Earn money every single time you tweet some of our cool content to your twitter followers including music videos, movie trailers, comedy scetches and more. Like I said…cool stuff! No infomercials, get rich quick schemes, and other BORING stuff that none of your tweeps care about.

Although there are more such Twitter money making sites, be careful as to which ones you choose to use. I personally have had bad experiences with some of the most popular of these sites. I would definitely recommend against using Magpie, Sponsored Tweets or LinkBee, considering that the time and effort you need to invest and the reputation you are jeopardizing are not worth the pennies these sites want to pay for your tweets.

You may want to contemplate using one of more URL shortening sites, since you will probably be shortening links anyway; why not make a couple bucks doing it? I suggest trying out either Adjix or TweetBucks or both.

Be advised, if you really want to make REAL money with Twitter you will want to find a product to sell or service to promote. Even the legitimate sites above pay only "chump change" compared to what you can make promoting your own thing.

Or you may want to consider using Twitter for what it was intended; to socialize.

Written By: Tom Retterbush

Sources: Personal experience and the article, "15+ Best Sites To Make Money With Twitter”, by S.Pradeep Kumar, appearing on HellboundBlogger.com.

10 Top Quick-Followback Twitter Lists

Sat, 01 Jan 2011 21:39:07 +0100

Here are THE 10 Top Twitter Follow-back Lists that will help you quickly grow a following.

Note that most of the originators of these lists created more than one list, so after you are done with these, you may want to follow them back to their sources and see if their moderators have more of the same available for you to use.

1. @tomanderson8166/shakers-who-follow-back
74 Following - 4 Followers

2. @tonystevens4/top-500-follow-all-back
195 Following - 68 Followers

3. @tysonbrooks/followers-back
495 Following - 79 Followers

4. @JimGrygar/top-500-follow-all-back
475 Following - 408 Followers

5. @anonymous1mill/followed-back-1001-1500
455 Following - 197 Followers

6. @AFROBR0/vip-list
228 Following - 6 Followers

7. @LuaneHanson/people-who-list
500 Following - 30 Followers

8. @gfoutjr/people-that-follow-back
466 Following - 145 Followers

9. @ciaobella50/follow-backs
438 Following - 511 Followers

10. @caseypea/followback
480 Following - 139 Followers

The Quick and Easy Way to Organize a Successful Tweetup Twitter Function

Tue, 16 Nov 2010 04:36:48 +0100

Twtvite Intro from Felipe on Vimeo.

Tweetups as they’re commonly called, are functions, meetings or parties attended by your Twitter friends and followers resulting from shared conversations, mutual interests and common motivations.

Tweetups take a great service like Twitter and turn it into something much bigger. You are able to gather with online friends, meet new contacts, have some drinks and maybe share a meal, making it easier to promote your business or further your career. It used to take a lot of of time, effort and planning to organize the actual event, but now with an app called Twtvite, it's become something you can do in your spare time.

The first step to organizing a successful tweetup is to decide on a purpose and theme. If you only want to meet some of your followers in the area, your tweetup will be a lot different than if you're trying to get a job or raise money for a cause.
Although Twtvite can be your main planning method, consider also using services like Eventbrite, Amiando or meetup.com to organize your guests, provide content and collect donations. It can only make the administrative work that much easier.

Use your Twitter network as a way to gather up support, help and ideas. The number of PR and marketing people on Twitter now is astounding. Use their collective wisdom and networks to create buzz and support for your event. Make sure you post your TweetUp to TweetUp on Twitter and use their hashtag #tweetup.

Choosing a location for the tweetup is a major factor as to the success of your Tweetup. The informal nature of online social networking makes it difficult to determine whether you'll have 5, 50 or 500 people attending. The number of expected guests will determine if you should choose a bar, restaurant, hall or something outdoors roomy enough to accommodate the people you expect to come and cheap enough to reserve.

Actually visit the physical setting. Take the time and effort to actually visit the bar, conference room, or park where the Tweetup will happen. I’ve never heard of anyone making a great business connection at a dark dive bar.

Plan for more people to show up than you think. It’s Twitter. These people do know how to spread the word better than anyone.

Provide food. If you schedule a Tweetup around a meal…provide food. If you DON’T plan on providing food, definitely inform your attendees. Sometimes at these events I think my stomach does more networking than my mouth.

Hand out name tags. Name tags are one of the coolest aspects of the tweetup. The name tags at these events are typically filled out with an @username -- the same way a reply is posted on Twitter. Wear the name tag with your @username, and then introduce yourself using your real name.

You may want to use a Twitterwall, or real-time, updated, animated list of everyone tweeting with your hashtag, like www.twitterfall.com, for all to see at the event. This may encourage people to tweet at the event, since their tweets will be highly visible – some may tweet just to knock someone off the top spot! It also enables people not physically there to participate.

Collect business cards. Event dependent; most folks will be card carrying members of the business/technology world and will be at the Tweetup to network. If you have an electronic scanner this is even better. You can send a list of attendees to your email list, providing additional value.

Encourage people to take photographs. These can be live-tweeted on the night using one of the Twitter photo services such as Twitpic. You could also set up a group pool on Flickr for people to post to. Ask them to tag their Flickr photos with the event hashtag so they can be found easily, and even be pulled into a widget on your website.

Live-stream or record your event. If it seems appropriate, take your media a stage further and consider live-streaming your event, or part of it, using a service such as www.ustream.tv. That way, people outside the room – even outside the country – can see what’s going on, tweet comments and questions, and feel involved. This is useful if, say, you have a large international Twitter following and you’re running a speaker event. And/or you might consider audio or video recording your speakers, and then podcasting it for the benefit of those unable to attend.

That's about all there is to it. The rest is just a party. Mingle and socialize, after all, isn't that what social media is all about anyway?

Written By: Tom Retterbush

4 Apps to Tweet More than 140 Characters Limit

Mon, 11 Oct 2010 07:42:05 +0100

Twitters’ limit for messages is 140 characters of text. For some people this limit is is far too short. For others, it is only too short some of the time, when engaged in a conversation when you're trying to explain why your relationship isn't working out, for example, or when your required to explain detailed information. No matter what the reason, if you’re looking for a way to tweet more than 140, here are the best 4 services that allows you to send more than 140 characters on twitter.

Tweet Short

TwitShort is an easy way to post long messages to Twitter without the need to write a blog post. Write what you need here and TwiShort posts the link to Twitter for you

TwitLonger

Twitlonger works the exact same way asTwiShort posting long messages to Twitter without the need to write a blog post. Write what you need here and Twitlonger posts the link to Twitter for you

TinyPaste

Tinypaste is a simple web service that lets you to paste any text or code and then save it. Once you save it, you will get a Tiny url where you can share it directly on twitter.

Tweet Compressor

Tweet Compressor makes your tweets shorter by replacing groups of two or three letters with a single character that looks the same. Now you can beat Twitter’s 140 character limit!

250 Twitter Tools, Applications and Services

Wed, 10 Nov 2010 20:03:55 +0100

Miscellaneous Tools, Apps & Services

For fun or productivity, there are more web-based applications out there than you can shake a stick at. Have a laugh; connect with others sharing common interests, or find ways to kill time.

21 Tweets - Helps you change your habits through 21 daily tweets.
Amazing Twitter - Twitter marketing service optimized for iPhone.
ArrivedOK - Tracks your cell phone signal and auto-tweets an "I’m OK" message to selected followers when you turn your phone on after landing.
AskOnTwitter - Collects and displays all tweets containing the phrase "does anyone know."
Audiotwit - Hear what your friends listen to while surfing the web.
BeatMyTweet - Word scramble game over Twitter.
Boarding - Stranded at the airport? Find fellow travelers.
Booktwo - A project to read books to the world via Twitter, starting with James Joyce’s Ulysses.
Botanicalls - Hardware plus Twitter system that lets your plants notify you when they need water.
Bx - Businessweek’s social networking site using Twitter plus its own Bx network.
C02 Emission with Twitter - Calculate the C02 emission caused by an individual users’ tweets.
Calendar Tweet - Tweet events to followers’ calendars.
CheapTweet - A coupon and deal directory allowing users to vote up the best deals. Penalizes spamming behaviors such as duplicate posts.
CheckYesOrNo.info - Ask the Twitterverse simple yes or no questions.
Commuter Feed - View and post traffic and transit delays.
Cursebird - Tracks popularity of various cursewords in real time.
DefineTwitter - What does Twitter mean to you?
Direct Textbook - DM user textbook with the ISBN of a book to get its Amazon.com price.
DreamTweet - Anonymously Tweet your dream or nightmare.
Flackr - News feed compiled from around the web, including Twitter.
FlixPulse - Keeps track of the positive vs. negative movie reviews tweeted for specific movies.
FlockPoker - Create and host a Texas Hold ‘Em table with a single link; login through a Twitter account.
FluTweet - Tracks illness-related keywords in tweets to find trends in flu epidemics.
Foamees - Track who you owe beers or coffees to.
Fuelfrog - Automatically create a graph of your car’s gas mileage over time.
GTalkTwit - Update Twitter from your Google Talk status.
GtFtr - Fitness tracking with Twitter.
Hanniversary - Service to alert you when you’ve reached a Twitter counts milestone.
Harvest - Time and expense tracking service.
Hashike - Aggregates recommendations using the hashtag #like.
Hollrr - Endorse something that you love.
Hot Tweeters - Like Hot or Not for Twitter users.
HowMuchIs - Tweet an item’s details and the bot will respond with the three best prices for it.
Huitter - View your Twitter feed like a RSS feed.
I Hate Vans - Twitter tribute to the character Francis from Left for Dead based on real Tweets.
I Know Tweet - Ask the Twitterverse for answers using the hash tag #iknowtweet.
iList Micro - Uses hash tags #iwant and #ihave to create a Twitter marketplace that matches buyers and sellers.
InnerTwitter - Sends periodic chimes to alert users to be mindful.
Jabber Twitter Bridge - Checks your Jabber or Google Talk status and updates your Twitter status.
JointContact - Collaborative project management service that can be updated through Twitter.
JustSignal - Helps you sort social media content to get to what you’re interested in.
Krumlr - Simple, quick social networking site that ties into Twitter.
LastTweet - Display your most recent tweet in your Last.fm toolbar.
Lexigraphs - Creates wordart from individual users’ most tweeted words.
LOLWRUS - Converts tweets into lolcat speak and applies them to a random cute animal picture on the web (does not tweet them).
Louder Tweets - Share your reviews for your favorite items via Twitter. Related to blog.loudervoice.com.
Lovetwits - Site for sending anonymous tweets of love.
Media Center Status - Windows app that updates Twitter status with your currently playing media.
MeetNow Live - City-based event finder.
Microrevie.ws - Aggregator for reviews on Twitter.
Mindmeto - Calendar and reminder service for Twitter.
Moochfly - Track what you’ve loaned to who, and direct message reminders to them.
MuZoid - Tweet the name of a band to muzoid and get some info about them in reply.
My Twitter Notebook - Keep notes for yourself on Twitter.
MyCalc - Message this service to turn Twitter into scientific calculator.
MyChores - Schedule and plan your to-do list with Twitter.
Myflightinfo - Get your flight status with a DM.
Mymilemarker - Easy to update mileage tracking service.
Nutritter - Get nutrition info.
OutTwit Me - Collection of Twitter-based games.
Phweet - Talk to your Twitter friends with VOIP for free.
Planypus - A wiki for your social life using Twitter.
Plodt - Plot the things of interest to you.
Portwiture - Randomly grabs photos and inserts from the web that apply to your Twitter status.
Pubcrawlplanner - Easily plan a pub crawl on Twitter; find pubs, pick a theme and use custom invites.
RedTag Tweets - Check the Twitter stream for coupons and deals.
Remember The Milk - Popular to-do list management system.
Roll.The.Dice - Twitter service that lets you generate random numbers through events including rolling dice and flipping coins.
Sad Statements - Sad tweets auto-combined with Flickr images.
Shareaholic - Social bookmarking browser client supporting more than 60 services including Twitter.
Shopseen - Join a shopper’s social network by Twittering pics of local stores.
SickCity - Analyzes the Twitter stream to determine the sickest cities around the world.
Sigpad - Use your Twitter status as an email signature, including photos.
Skibble - Tweet an animated whiteboard and collaborate with others on the board.
Smashing Feeds - Mega compilation of Twitter news.
SnapTweet - Service for quickly tweeting Flickr photos.
Snipt - Easy way to share source code snippets on Twitter.
Song.ly - Tweet a song title or mp3 link and your followers can listen to the song in a Song.ly player.
Sporty Tweets - Stay up to date on your favorite teams.
Spotd - Creates a network of citizen journalists for sharing the news in major cities.
Spreadit.fm - Tool for creating and managing competitions on social networks including Twitter.
Spymaster - Spy game played over Twitter.
StockTwits - Network for stock and investment news.
StoryTeller Me - Collaborative story-telling, poems and interactive fiction via Twitter.
Strawpoll - Tiny daily Twitter polls.
SugarStats - Blood sugar tracking for diabetics by DMing @ss1.
SweetTweet - Tweet a gorgeous birthday cake.
SXSW Lesson - Share the lessons of SXSW and retweet them.
SyncMood - Synchronize Skype and Twitter status.
Tempo - Track budgeted hours, people and projects and update through a variety of methods, including Twitter.
The Bot Project - An attempt to identify all bots on Twitter.
The Twitter Tag Protect - A game of tag on Twitter.
Thwoa - Mashes up Jaikus and tweets in a floating, screensaver-like display.
Tigerbow - Send real, tangible gifts to people over Twitter without needing to exchange physical addresses.
Tlurk - If you and your friend are both Tlurk users, you can view each other’s Twitter timelines.
Toodledo - To-do list program that can be modified through Twitter.
Track Daily Goals - Use the #dailygoals hash tag to track your accomplishments.
TrackThis - Tweet your tracking number and get updates when a package changes location.
Traintext - Get BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) train schedule times on demand.
Tratata - Easily post a message to the public Twitterwall.
Trazzler Buzz - Tracking the most tweeted travel destinations.
Twackle - Sports site and widget that finds tweets relating to your favorite teams, players, leagues and events.
Twaction - Turns @ replies into actions.
Twalala - Filter out and silence unwanted things in your Twitter stream.
Twapper - Mashup of 30Boxes and Twitter.
Twapps - Gallery/listing of Twitter apps.
Twash - Vote the coolness of tweets up and down.
Tweba - A Twitter marketplace using the hashtags #ihave and #wanttosell.
Twecipe - Tweet ingredients to @twecipe and get a recipe in return.
Twee60 - Update your Xbox Live status with your Twitter info.
Tweeght - Stream of deep thoughts on Twitter.
Tweeplecard - Create a free Twitter business card from various designs.
Tweepshoot - Western shootout iPhone game—shoot the most-wanted spammers on Twitter, but don’t shoot your friends.
Tweet My Link - Submit a link to be tweeted to the Twitterverse.
Tweet On The Street - Technology topics rumor network for Twitter.
Tweet Test - Collection of Web-based mini-games using data from your public Tweets.
Tweet Ticket - Can’t use your ticket to an event? Want tickets? Join this network.
Tweetans - Tweet a questions to be answered by experts everywhere.
Tweetaways - If you’ve set up a Twitter-based contest challenging users to Tweet a specific phrase, use Tweetaways to randomly pick a winner from that group.
TweetBrain - Ask questions across the Twitterverse.
TweetCC - Publish and license your tweets with a Creative Commons license.
TweetConvo - View any Twitter conversation as a thread.
TweetCruit - Twitter job recruiting network.
TweetDare - Lets you send a dare or secret message to the next person to register on TweetDare.
Tweetdreams.org - Shows dreams posted to Twitter.
Tweeterology - Displays tweets about the weather, searchable by location.
Tweetfail - A collection of tweets featuring the word "fail."
TweetFlicks - Share your movie reviews.
TweetLib - Pulls a random tweet and inserts it into a literary passage, often with humorous results.
TweetLinkMonster - Creates an Atom feed of the links tweeted to you.
TweetLister - Tweet real estate listings quickly with a web form.
TweetManager - Web-based Twitter manager.
TweetMart - Classifieds for Twitter.
Tweetmeme - Tracks the hottest links on Twitter in a Digg-like interface.
Tweetmood - Analyzes your last 20 status updates for mood.
TweetPhoto - Easy multi-featured photo sharing service.
Tweetree - Organizes your Twitter stream in tree form to provide context.
TweetRSVP - Answer questions and respond to offers.
Tweets.ws - "An online social news rack of popular topics."
Tweetshirt.me - Print a tweet on a t-shirt.
TweetSticker - Create a cute sticker with the Twitter bird and your username.
TweetVisor - Web-based Twitter dashboard.
Tweetwasters - Enter your username and calculate how much time you waste on Twitter.
TweetWhatYouSpend - Money tracker exportable to CSV or Excel.
Twenglish - A silly site that translates tweets into "Twenglish."
Twesents - Send virtual gifts to friends.
Twestival - Twitter events to benefit clean water charities.
Twetris - Flash-based web game combining Tetris and Twitter, forming the latest tweets into blocks.
Twi 5 - Twitter app resource.
Twiddict - Service for the times that Twitter goes down—makes sure your tweets arrive at the intended destination when the service goes back up.
Twiggit - Automatically tweet what articles you Digg.
Twiix - Post your Twitter messages by topic.
Twimme - Searchable display of all contests and giveaways being tweeted about.
Twintoxirater - Fun quiz to rate your Twitter obsession level.
Twippr - Send money over Twitter.
Twirl of Riches - Hangman-style Twitter game.
Twishlistter - Create and share wishlists over Twitter.
Twisten.fm - Collects and shares tweets about songs and plays the songs.
Twistori - Liveupdating graphic stream of the uses of love, believe, hate, feel, think and wish on Twitter.
Twistory - Export your Twitter feed to your calendar application.
Twit2RSS - Read Twitter in your RSS reader.
Twit4trivia - Twitter-based trivia game.
TwitBrain - Twitter game of super-quick calculations.
TwitCal - Online calendar updatable through Twitter.
TwitchBoard - Compiles your received links and sends them to services like delicious.
TwitDiscounts - Twitterwall of discounts and deals.
TwitFuel - Share local gas prices.
TwitIQ - Web-based Twitter UI enhancer.
Twitku - Read both Twitter and Jaiku in one place.
Twitmarks - Application that tries to guess a user’s gender from their Twitter stream.
Twitmoan - A place to complain about users who abuse the Twitter system. Claims to be monitored by Twitter support.
TwitNote - Jot down your notes wherever you are using Twitter.
Twitoku - Play sudoku by Twitter. Follow @twitoku.
Twitpay - Make payments over Twitter using Amazon payments.
Twitplot - Chart/plot on Twitter.
Twitpoop - Lets you poop on anyone on Twitter.
TwitQA - Discover, ask and answer questions via Twitter.
Twitquizzes - Take personality quizzes like "What Twitter celebrity are you?"
TwitRand - Choose a random follower from your list, for use in contests and promotions, etc.
Twitread - Captures tweeted book reviews.
Twitshop - Uses the hash tags #forsale, #4sale and #auction to create a marketplace directory.
Twitspam - Site dedicated to stopping Twitter spam.
Twittascope - Get your horoscope tweeted to you.
Twitter app blog - A daily listing of Twitter apps.
Twitter King Widget - Netvibes Twitter widget.
Twitter Magnets - Play with magnetic poetry words and tweet the results.
Twitter on ThinCloud - Web interface for Twitter for iPhone.
Twitter Poll Daddy - Create a Poll Daddy multiple choice poll.
Twitter Public Timeline Screensaver - Screensaver that posts a new tweet from the Twitter public timeline every three seconds.
Twitter Tees by Threadless - Hip T-shirts about Twitter.
Twitter Weather - Get and send local weather updates.
Twitter2Mail - Monitors search.twitter.com and emails you your @replies.
Twitter411 - Engine that allows you to create a Twitter-based information service.
Twittercal - Connect your Twitter account to your Google calendar.
TwitterGrep - View the most followed news and updates coming out of Twitter. No need for a Twitter account.
TwitterJobCast - Track who’s hiring in the U.S., Canada and the U.K.
TwitterJobSearch - A job search engine for Twitter.
TwitterNonsense - An almost-daily webcomic based on Twitter.
Twittley - Social bookmarking site for Twitter.
Twittonary - A dictionary of Twitter terminology.
TwitTrans - Tweet to twitrans for your Tweets to be translated by humans and sent on.
Twittypop - Asks "who’s the hottest boy or girl on Twitter?"
Twitvine - Grab exposure by including "twitvine" in your tweet. It will be displayed at the site.
Twitzu - Promote your event on Twitter.
Twivaways - Give away things on Twitter.
Twollars - Send "twollars" to show appreciation to tweeple.
Twonate - Donate to your favorite charities over Twitter.
Twonvo - View your Twitter conversations as a thread.
Twoogie M.D. - Tweet from a "Doogie Howser, M.D." style interface.
Twrctr - iPhone-optimized view of Twitter counter.com
Twrivia - Follow Twrivia to get Trivia questions tweeted to you—tweet your answers.
Twtask - Make simple to-do lists.
TwtBizCard - Create and tweet a business card.
Twtcard - Send a greeting card, invitation or message via Twitter.
Twtjobs - Create a Twitter resume; post a job opening over Twitter.
Twtlst - Create a simple gift registry for any occasion.
Twtpets - Battle of the cute pets. Tweet a pic of your pet and keep track of your pet’s score among users.
Twtpoll - Create Twitter-based polls.
Twtqpon - Coupon creator that helps you distribute through social networking sites.
Twttrlist - Gather your favorite tweets using multiple keywords and make "best of" lists.
Twttrstrm - Ask your followers and gather your answers all in one spot.
Twuoted - Collect great quotes by viewing Tweets marked with #quote tag.
Twurfer - Get and send surf reports from your cell.
Ugomo - Log workouts via Twitter.
UgoTwitt - Get your Twitter replies by email.
Uladoo - Simple and powerful app for collecting any kind of data and charting it via Twitter.
Vayuzillow - Find the estimated value of an address, powered by Zillow.
Verse Of The Day - Get any verse in the Bible tweeted to you by DM. Concordance and Bible dictionary entries also available.
Wantz.it - Easily create wishlists on Twitter, Facebook and Delicious.
Weatherizer - Updates your Twitter background and avatar according to the latest weather.
WeatherSplat - Get daily weather updates tweeted to you.
What do you think about Twitter? - Take a web-based poll.
Whose Tweet? - Web-based game that challenges you to match your friends’ Tweets to their names.
Wordola - Word game of unscrambling letters on Twitter.
Xbox to Twitter - Connects your Xbox Gamertag to your Twitter account; update your Twitter with the Xbox game you’re currently playing.
XboxTweet - Automatically tweet your Xbox achievements.
Xpenser - Record expenses and hours through phone, SMS, IM, Twitter, and more.
YiqYaq - Blends music with text-to-speech readings of tweets and posts from other social networks from your friends.
ZombieTweet - Make your choices to defeat zombies, then tweet about it.
ConnectTweet - Use hash tags to combine Tweets from multiple users in an organization. Currently in alpha.
Ftags - Offers an organized alternative to hashtags.
HashDictionary - Hashtag wiki.
Lazytweet - Add a variety of hashtags to your tweet to ask the public Twitter stream a question.
Tagal.us - "The largest and first" dictionary for hashtags.
Tagdef - Get hashtag definitions on the web or via Twitter.
Twackit - Create your own hashtags for keywords and data to follow, then track that data using Twitter.
TweetChannel - Create channels (discussions) with a custom hashtag, and view them.
TweetChat - View only conversations marked with a hashtag of your choice.
TweetRemote - Sorts incoming tweets according to hashtags for use in blogs.
TwitR - Twitter directory organized by hashtag.

Next time you will read, 250 Twitter Web Tools, Apps & Services (Part 2) Twitter Desktop Clients, Browsers & Apps, so stay tuned to AssEtEbooks.com Social Media Blog

Source: Best of the Web, 1000 Twitter Apps and Services

5 Best Free Twitter Tools for Tweet Automatition

Fri, 24 Sep 2010 19:08:28 +0100

There are a number of tools available that can schedule tweets to post at a specific time on Twitter. For example, you could create several tweets for Monday through Sunday for whatever reason you can dream up. You can schedule tweets at different days of the week announcing promotions for your small business, restaurant or whatever.

With these tools, you are no longer have to send tweets in real time, because you can write them in advance, making them a perfect solution for those of us who can’t find the time to be on Twitter 24/7.

Here are the 5 best free Twitter automation tools available. These are the tools I use myself.

There are a few good tools that require a paying a fee, but the selections in this roundup are all free, with some of them offering a more advanced premium package, should you want or need it.

HootSuite could be called a Twitter browser, as it is a true multi Twitter account management application. You can access HootSuite via its web site or any number of special desktop apps and browser add-ons. It includes the ability to schedule your tweets for future posting. You can view, edit or delete scheduled tweets from a column called “Pending Tweets.”

Twaitter (soon to be renamed Gremlin) is another powerful suite of free services that includes my favorite scheduler for tweets. The thing I like about this one is that it also connects to Ping.fm, which means you can not only schedule posts to Twitter but also to many other social networks such as Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, etc. It also includes an option to save drafts and includes follow management tools.

CoTweet is designed for organizations with multiple Twitter accounts and/or multiple Twitter members that work as a team to manage their online presence. Included in its arsenal of useful tools is the tweet scheduler, which has a calendar that helps schedule your tweets. Another handy tool is the ability to assign tweets as if they were tasks, thus giving your account a project manager (of sorts) for Twitter.

SocialOomph provides a suite of tools, including a free edition that includes the ability to schedule your tweets.It also provides a premium suite that includes additional tools for Twitter and Facebook automation. However, if all you want to do is schedule your tweets then the free version will do the trick. There are a couple of extra perks that I’d like to mention here. Besides scheduling tweets, the free edition of SocialOomph also lets you create and save drafts of tweets that you can reuse over and over again. While that might smack of spamming, it could actually provide some non-nefarious benefits as well, particularly if you often end up writing similar tweets. The other features I like is that it lets you use your own URL shortening service such as Bit.ly, and you can also schedule tweets to publish to multiple Twitter accounts.

FutureTweets doesn’t take the everything-but-the-kitchen-sink approach that SocialOomph does but it does schedule tweets rather well. If that’s all you need, than this one will work for you.

These are just some of the free ways that you and yours can schedule to Twitter, and some other social networks as well. Some of these services include an option to schedule recurring tweets, which could violate Twitter’s Terms of Service. Both Twitter and its members frown upon such behavior because spammers have abused this kind of feature; think twice before setting up recurring tweets too often.

Do you use any of these tools, or any others? I would love to read about any of your Twitter automation adventures, tools, tips or tricks! All comments will be published.