Keep Up With Changes to Your Twitter Friend Bios and Profile Images using Bio is Changed

Are you curious to know when the people you follow on Twitter have changed their Twitter bio or profile image? Some people may not care about a change so miniscule, but Bio is Changed is a new service that aims to make you care. Not only that, but it helps you to use this change to your advantage.

With Bio is Changed, you can get instant, daily, or weekly email summaries about your Twitter friends who have changed their bio and/or profile image.

Getting Started

It’s a Twitter service, so obviously you’ll need to sign in using your Twitter account. When you sign in, Bio is Changed will search for your friends and recent changes; this only takes a few seconds.

When done, you’ll see four different sections with thumbnails of your friends: friends bio changes, friends profile image image changes, latest bio changes, and latest profile image changes.

Also, don’t forget to change your settings so that you can enter your email address and choose how often to get updates from the service.

Viewing History of Changes

Clicking on a thumbnail will open up that friends Bio is Changed profile in the same tab/window. From there, you can view their history of changes.

You can see approximately when they last changed their bio and profile image (ie. 10 months ago or 15 minutes ago). Above, you can see the History for @Firefox.

Using This Service to Your Advantage

As you can see in the screenshot above, Bio is Changed provides you with social sharing links on each user’s profile. What you may not realize, is that using these could score you major brownie points with your Twitter friends.

Wondering how? Well, imagine sending out a quick tweet letting everyone know that you notice the new profile image of @Firefox (or any other user) or that you like their new bio. Now, imagine how impressed @Firefox (or any other user) would be to know that you are so observant and paying attention to them.

As you can see, using those social sharing links could definitely work to your advantage. Of course it’s up to you whether or not to leave a link to their Bio is Changed profile and/or via @BioIsChanged in your tweet. Doing this will let them know that you cheated a little because they’re bound to click on the link or check out @BioIsChanged on Twitter.

So what are your thoughts on Bio is Changed? Is this a service worth using and will you use it?

Automatically Post Your Tweets to Google+ with TwooglePlus

TwooglePlus is a simple service that cross posts your tweets (from one or more Twitter accounts) to your Google+ account. On the homepage it states that the service is “currently” free, giving the idea that it may not be free in the future. So, now is the best time to sign up.

Using the service is easy. Let’s take a look.

Getting Started

There are 4 steps to getting started with TwooglePlus.

Login With Twitter

The first step is to login with your desired Twitter account. This is done via Google OAuth, so you won’t have to enter any credentials in this step.

Enter Google+ Credentials

Next you’ll have to provide your Google+ credentials. Unfortunately, I found two issues with this step.

• Issue #1 is that in order to connect your Google+ account, you have to manually enter your Google email and Google password (no OAuth). However, I do notice the page is ‘https’ as opposed to ‘http,’ for a little added security.
• Issue #2 is that TwooglePlus does not support Google accounts with 2 factor authentication enabled. I happen to have this security feature enabled on my main Google account, so I used my secondary account.

Choose Your Circles

Next you’ll get to choose which circles to post your tweets to. I do like this feature because you can easily create a TwooglePlus (or any other name) circle and only add the desired people that you want reading your tweets to it. If your tweets are already public though, then this really doesn’t matter.

Terms of Service

Lastly, you must accept the terms and conditions of TwooglePlus, which just take a single click.

View Your Profile

Now you should be all set as far as getting your tweets from Twitter to Google+. If you ever want to pause the service, add/change the circles being posted to, or unsubscribe from the service, you can do so from your TwooglePlus profile.

You’ll also have the option to add more Twitter accounts from your profile. This will take you through the same steps as above.

View on Google+

Posting to Google+ is almost flawless. I did notice that my post was shown as being posted from “mobile”. Also, my tweets with links in them did not show a preview (thumbnail and excerpt), as usually done when posted directly to Google+. Instead, it just displays the full link.

Note: If you want your links to remain shortene, you can enable this feature on your TwooglePlus profile.

Final Thoughts

TwooglePlus is simple, easy to use, and takes only a few minutes to set up. What more can you ask for? It will be interesting to see how the service grows, since it appears at though they could be adding a paid subscription plan in the near future.

Would you be willing to pay for a service like TwooglePlus?

Getting Twitter Traffic – Personal Experience

No, I am not going to tell you how successful I am with getting Twitter traffic; rather, I will tell how difficult it is to get any substantial traffic from Twitter.

Twitter is like this big thorn for my blog; a thorn I cannot do away with! Twitter is like King Solomon’s Treasure whom we wish to exist and it still remains as elusive as ever.

After reading about 15 e-books on Twitter tactics and employing about most of the methods, Twitter traffic on my blog is as pitiful as ever.

Google Analytics Statistics

Just to maintain accuracy, I just checked the GA figures and to my damnable surprise, G+ is giving me more traffic than Twitter…oh! I just hate this.

Where Am I Going Wrong?

I am sure most of you are thinking that it is me who is doing something wrong but let me tell you few things:

• My blog is not new, almost 7 months old.
• It’s PR 2 and has wonderful Alexa rank.
• I am very active on all major social media networks.
• I use the Tweet Old Post plugin to keep tweeting every one hour and I tweet daily manually too.
• I use Ping.fm.
• My Facebook and Twitter accounts are connected to get more link juice…What the heck? I am not getting any.

At the moment, Twitter just contributes 10% of the blog’s social media traffic; the best ones are Facebook and StumbleUpon.

Is My Situation Similar For You?

Can anyone here relate with my situation? I am sure many of you are nodding your head in uniform acceptance and thinking – why doesn’t Twitter give more traffic?

Twitter Traffic Issues

Unless you getting using paid traffic from Twitter, it is difficult, I dare say. Of course, I am not recommending that you buy Twitter traffic.

The problem with Twitter, I think, is that it has reached a saturation point. If you have an active twitter account, open it, give it 60 seconds and see the number of Twitter updates.

Surprised?

Now, honestly, are you inclined to even browse the updates and click on links? If you are enthusiastic, you will do it the first time, the second time….then start slacking at the third time and it goes on…and mind you, we are talking about the updates on per minute basis!

Then, is Twitter a Failure?

Every time I see my twitter account, there is this guy whose tweets come every 15 seconds (yes, I timed it!). The links in these tweets direct to some marketing related YouTube video and oh boy! I was just pleasantly surprised to see the number of views…..and I am happy that maybe not for me, twitter seems to work for this guy.

The reason it worked is because of frequency of his tweets. Some may find it overbearing and intrusive (I did!) but it works. I don’t know whether he is doing it manually or some automated script but it is working for him.

What’s the Solution?

Honestly, it is not possible for me to send tweet updates every 15 second. I can’t and I am accepting it. And those marketing experts out there who say getting twitter traffic is easy can just rethink what they are saying because it definitely misguides us. I am still going to try to better this situation but in practicality, there is not much hope.

Anyways, enough of my ranting L What do you think? Any success with getting Twitter traffic?

4 Ways To Post Longer Tweets on Twitter

Do you often find it hard to say what you want to say on Twitter due to the character restriction? If 140 characters is sometimes just not enough for you, these Twitter tools for posting longer tweets will definitely come in handy for you.

Twitlonger lets you sign in via Twitter OAuth in order to post long blog-like posts on Twitter. It’s very simple, once you login you’ll get a large text area to write as much as you want. Even though there’s no character limits, there is a character counter in the top right corner. Once you finish your post and click the “post” button, it will automatically be posted on your Twitter account along with a link to view the full post.

ezTweets lets you post longer messages to both Twitter (via Twitter OAuth) and Facebook (via Facebook Connect). For Twitter, what it does is split your tweet up into parts. Each tweet will labeled with its appropriate order; for instance a total of 3 tweets would show 1/3 before tweet #1, 2/3 before tweet #2, and 3/3 before tweet #3. You can choose whether to post your tweets in ascending or descending order. Once again, there are no character limits.

With TwitterContd you can login using your Twitter credentials or vial Twitter OAuth. Unlike TwitLonger and ezTweets (mentioned above) there is a character limit of 1250 characters. There’s also an integrated URL shortener and a music search bar. The music search bar lets you search for an artist, song or album to include in your tweet. You can also upload numerous files (up to 100MB total) that will also be added to your tweet. Just like ezTweets, your tweets will be broken up into parts but you can also choose the type of separator that is used for each part.

RichTweets lets you post HTML tweets where you can change the color of your text and add images, links, videos and widgets. You can login via Twitter OAuth after which you’ll be presented with a rich text editor. You can also create a title for your post and add up to 4 tags if you desire. You can easily add YouTube videos by clicking on the YouTube button and then inserting the video URL. Alternately, you can embed other videos by entering the full code in the video embed box. The title that you use will be posted to your Twitter account along with a link to your post.

How do I get more followers on Twitter- Cheat

Promote your Twitter page on other venues. Be conversational give a reason to follow you. Last but not least make sure you tweet!

How do you send a direct message to twitter through text message(more)?t

To send a direct message on Twitter through text, text D, their username and then their message.

Why does it show forbidden, cannot follow user on Twitter?

If you cannot follow someone on Twitter or it is forbidden, you either have to sign up through Twitter and request to follow that person and he/she has to accept you as a friend (just like Facebook) or there may be a glitch in Twitter because it's overloaded. In that case, try again a couple of hours later.

How do you subscribe to someones tweets on mobile Twitter?

If you have Tweet Deck or another twitter application on your phone there will be a "follow" button. If you don't you can't.

How to subscribe to Twitter tweets RSS feeds

Do you know that you can even subscribe to RSS feeds of your favorite Twitter user. Yes, you can subscribe to it and get notified in your RSS reader, whenever their is a new tweet. Here is a small tutorial how you can do that.

1. Visit the Twitter home page of the user whom tweets you want to subscribe to.

2. Click the link RSS Feeds of [username] tweets and that’s it, I hope that you know the rest.

How to subscribe on Friends Twitter Updates through SMS

Did you know that originally the only way users could tweet was by sending a text message?  Twitter decided on 140 characters so that tweets could fit into a SMS message.  While most users engage Twitter on their computers or mobile phones, Twitter has not forgotten about the importance of text messaging and has added a few features to make Twitter even more useful with SMS.

Fast Follow – Even if you haven’t signed up for Twitter, you can still receive tweets on your mobile phone.  This gives everyone a chance to get the information they are interested in.  For example, if you want to get tweets from the White House (@whitehouse), just text ‘follow whitehouse’ to 40404 in the US.

SMS Alerts – When you’re on the Twitter website, hover over a username or avatar and click the phone icon that appears.  By clicking this icon, you can sign up to receive an SMS message on your phone whever that user tweets.  You can also set these alerts from your mobile phone by texting ‘on[username]’ to 40404 in the US.  To turn these updates off, send Twitter a text message to 40404 that says ‘off[username]’.

Latest Tweets – If you want to get occasional updates from a Twitter user but not subscribe to their full timeline, text ‘Get [username]’ to 40404 and that user’s most recent tweet will be sent to your phone, even if you don’t follow them.

How many of you primarily use Twitter on your mobile phones? Have you subscribed to SMS updates?

How to Search Social Networks for Mentions of Your Online Community

The social networks are important tools for determining who is talking about your online community and your brand online. People often make off-hand comments on social networks, publishing their opinions about a particular brand or community for the world to see.

Your online community on Facebook

If you search for your community name in Facebook, the Facebook search engine will bring up results about your community but it will also bring up results if someone shared news about your brand.

Also, sometimes people start online communities on Facebook having to do with your brand or product, independent of your brand. For example, if your brand produces a popular hair care line, you may find a few fans start their own pages in tribute.

If you work for Joe’s Peanut Butter, for example, and your Facebook search turns up a Facebook group called Joe’s Peanut Butter Sucks, it’s worthy of investigation. You need to know why there’s a whole online community devoted to the suckage of your peanut butter.

Likewise, if there’s a community called Joe’s Is the Best Peanut Butter Ever, you’ll want to visit it. Knowing who is talking about your community and why is a major part of a community manager’s job.

Your online community on Twitter

Searching Twitter — or using an app such as TweetDeck, Seesmic, or HootSuite to search it — allows you to monitor online conversations on Twitter. When you enter various search terms, you’ll receive results from members both inside and outside your community.

Definitely take some time to analyze the conversations and respond to them. Being responsive is one of the most important parts of a community manager’s job, and it’s also something that people online will notice, which may encourage them to join your community.

Your online community on other social networks

Twitter and Facebook aren’t the only games in town. You can also search other social networks and bookmarking/sharing tools, such as the following:

• LinkedIn
• YouTube
• reddit
• StumbleUpon
• Friendster
• orkut

What is Twitter and it's Features

Twitter is a free social networking and microblogging service which enables to broadcast short messages (limited to just 140 characters) to your friends, family, co–workers or so called “followers” in real-time.

You can communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question like: What are you doing?

Message restriction of 140 characters has resulted in Twitter being labeled “micro blogging” and gained a lot of buzz with its platform for sharing messages in short.

Twitter and it’s features

1. Twitter allows you to send and read other users updates (known as tweets)
2. Twitter messages(tweets) are limited to 140 characters (microblogging)
3. You can send and receive updates via the Twitter website, SMS(text messages), RSS (receive only), emails or a third party application.
4. You can restrict delivery to your circle of friends (delivery to everyone is the default).
5. You can use third party application such as Tweetie, Twitterrific, and Feedalizr to send Twitter messages.
6. You can search for people by name or user name, import friends from other networks, or invite friends via email. I
7. You can register at twitter sign up page and tweet! 

10 Twitter Features You Might Be Missing ?

Without a doubt, Twitter has become a useful communications tool for everything from breaking news to emergency dispatches to business conversations. Most of us tend to use only a few of the features Twitter offers; just enough to do what we want to do. For example, I use Twitter daily, accessing it from HootSuite on the web or TweetDeck on mobile, and I just tweet, check my @ messages and DMs, peruse my stream, retweet a few tweets, then move on to something else.

However, the Twitter website is rich with features that may not be easily accessible (or even available) via other other tools. Even if you do use the website, you may be used to using Twitter in a certain way, but it’s worth exploring a few other tools. Here are a few good features that you might be missing out on that can be found on the Twitter website.

1. Who to follow. I ignored the “Who to follow” link at the top of the newer version of the Twitter website, but one day I finally clicked on it, and was pleasantly surprised by this resource. The “View Suggestions” tab shows Twitter accounts that you might like to follow based on who you follow and other variables. These suggestions have been present on the site for a while, but I like the next tab, “Browse Interests,” even better for discovering new accounts to follow. Account recommendations are grouped into over 20 categories. The third tab leads you back to the find your friends feature you saw when you first signed up pulling from your address books in Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, AOL, and LinkedIn – warmer leads to people to follow.
2. Twitter for business. Looking to use Twitter for business? Twitter has its own handy Twitter for Business guide including a glossary of terms, best practices, case studies and tips on optimizing your Twitter activity. (And you should also check out Meryl’s 62 Ways to Use Twitter for Business).
3. Advertising on Twitter. You can get started with advertising on Twitter and learn more about promoted Promoted Trends, Promoted Tweets and even Promoted Accounts. And as an advertiser, you get access to Analytics.
4. Searches. When you search for a keyword or topic in the search field at the top of your Twitter page, you can save the search. These saved searches will now appear as one of the linked tabs to the right of the Timeline tab. But searching on Twitter gives you more than just a search of all tweets with your search term. You can also click on the “Tweets with links” tab to filter the search results down to only the ones with links. Or you can see “Tweets near you” for geographically close Twitters tweeting on your topic of interest. And did you know you can also find people on Twitter whose Twitter names include your search term under the “People” tab? For more in-depth searches, use the advanced options on search.twitter.com.
5. Twitter Tales. Looking for inspiration about unique ways to use Twitter? Look no further than Twitter’s own compilation of Twitter Tales, stories from Twitter users covering everything from humor to community.
6. Lists. I’ve been remiss with using Twitter lists. But I’m finally learning to clear the clutter using them. I finally created a list simply called Short List, containing the 10 people whose tweets I really want to see on any given day. I’m also beginning to group like-minded Twitterers into lists, like one on Crowdsourcing.
7. Twitter widgets. In the old days, these were called “Twitter badges” but today, they are Twitter widgets. They let you display Twitter updates on your website, and you can choose from four flavors: Profile to display your latest tweets; Search to display pre-saved Twitter search results that will update in real time; Faves to highlight your favorited tweets; and List to showcase one of your Twitter lists and the Twitterers on your list. You can set your tweets to post to your Facebook profile (but I personally say “Don’t do it”).
8. “Follow Me” buttons. Official, compact, and in available in a variety of sizes and shapes, these “Follow me on Twitter” buttons look great on any website or blog.
9. The Tweet button. A Tweet button lets others share your website or blog content. You can get the official one here, JavaScript code and all.
10. Keyboard shortcuts. Did you know there are keyboard shortcuts when using the Twitter website? Yes, there are:

It’s easy to overlook features on Twitter that you don’t immediately uncover and use frequently. Take a moment to look at other features like Trends (you can change these to more local or global with a click) and Retweets (discover who loves what you’re saying and thank them or return the favor with a reciprocal retweet). Click around on the Twitter site and see what other nuggets it’s hiding.

Twitter mobile app updates for iPhone and Android

New versions of both Twitter for iPhone and Twitter for Android are available today. Both apps bring back high-demand features, including the swipe shortcut, and they also introduce new design and functionality improvements. Here’s a rundown.

Both apps

• Swipe shortcut: Swipe a Tweet in your home timeline to reply to, retweet, favorite or share it, or view the Twitter user’s profile, without leaving your timeline.
• “Find friends”: We’ve added a confirmation alert when you select “Find friends”. This notification more clearly and explicitly messages the fact that when you upload your contacts’ email addresses and phone numbers, you can quickly find which of your friends are on Twitter (that is, if they’ve chosen to be discoverable by email or phone number).

Twitter for iPhone

• Copy and paste: We’ve returned the ability to copy and paste the text of Tweets and user profiles. Just press and hold to copy.
• Link love: The “share” feature used to just give you the option to copy or email a link to a Tweet. Now, if there’s a link within a Tweet, you’ll see the option to tweet, copy or mail that link, or you can choose to read it later. (Select a “Read Later Service” under Settings > Advanced.)
• Pressing and holding links provides similar options, along with the ability to open the link in Safari.
• Direct messages: We updated the design for Direct Messages and returned the ability to mark all DMs as read. Simply tap the check mark in the lower right corner.
• Font size settings: Change the font size under Settings > Advanced.

Twitter for Android

• New devices: Twitter for Android is now optimized to run on Android devices running Ice Cream Sandwich, as well as on the Kindle Fire (available today through the Amazon Appstore) and the Barnes & Noble NOOK Color and NOOK Tablet (available February 23 though the Barnes & Noble NOOK Store).

You can download Twitt