Twitter Archives « Spiderworking.com's Social Networking blog

ReTweet The Old Fashioned Way With Classic ReTweet - Cool Tool

I still feel that I was quite late to find Twitter, it’s something that I put off for a long time but as soon as I joined I was hooked. It’s still possibly my favorite network, I love scrolling through it, getting into conversations and discovering great content on it.

When I started on Twitter users still had to do the really long winded RT method. We had to physically copy and paste a tweet and type RT @username before the content. It seems like hard work now that we can just click the RT button underneath a tweet.

There were however some great advantages both for the user and the original tweeter to the old fashioned method. So much so that when I use Hootsuite I have it set to send my RT’s automatically in that format.

1. When you send a ReTweet via the old fashioned method your followers are going to be more interested in it. They choose to follow you because you share good stuff, when they see a link from you, with your name and picture next to it they are more likely to pay attention than if it comes from a stranger. If someone uses the old method to share your content you will usually get more click throughs than via the new method.

2. The person you are RTing will be aware that you have shared their tweet. When you write a popular tweet that gets shared over and over again it’s easy to loose track of who has shared it. If you share the old way the RT will appear in the @ replies of the original tweeter, they will be less likely to miss that you have shared.

3. You can add your own comment to the end of the RT, telling users why you are sharing it and personalising it.

On mobile devices we already have a version of this old RT method ‘Quote tweet’ which essentially does the same thing but on the web there isn’t this option. Even knowing the advantages of the old method it still seems like hard work if you are accessing Twitter via the web it’s much easier just to click that ‘Retweet button. That’s where this weeks cool tool comes in handy. It’s a browser plugin that works for both the Firefox and Chrome browsers.

Here’s How It Works

Visit the add on page. For Firefox, or for chrome
I’m going to be demonstrating the Firefox version
Click the ‘add to Firefox button’

Click install now on the window that pops up
It’s as simple as that, it’s now installed.
Open Twitter and hover your mouse over the tweet you want to share

Click ‘classic RT’ and a window will pop up showing the tweet

Just click ‘Tweet’ to send it.

I’m delighted to have found this as although I use Hootsuite for most of my tweets this will prevent my lazy RTing from the web browser.

If you are a Twitter newbie or are nervous of getting started sign up for my A Beginners Guide To Twitter online course starting on 10th of June. More info here.

The Importance Of Conversation Part 2 – Linkedin, Pinterest, Twitter and Google+

photo credit: Cia de Foto via photopin cc

In part one of this blog post I discussed the different ways to build relationships via conversations on Facebook and on Blogs. Read more here.

Conversation is the best way to build business relationships. Have you ever been to a networking meeting? If it’s a big one you probably come home with a pocket stuffed with business cards. Most you will never look at again, many will end up in the bin. It’s the people you meet over and over you remember. You might meet them at networking meetings again or you may arrange to meet up for coffee and a chat. Online we need to replicate this offline relationship building and that is where conversation really helps.

Here’s some ideas for getting those conversations:

Linkedin is the business network. It’s a fantastic place to connect with other businesses who may either require your services or recommend you to others. The first step is to connect to the people you know. If you go to a networking event and get chatting to someone request to connect to them the next day, look up your current customers and connect with them also. Immediately you have built a network of people to get to know further.

Status updates – Now you are connected to people you will see updates from them appear on your Linkedin home page. Make a habit of scrolling through these on a daily basis and liking and commenting on things that you find interesting. If the post might be of interest to your other connections share it on as well.You should also make a point of updating your own status on a regular basis with professional news and links to content about your industry that will spark discussions with your connections.

Groups – Groups are where all the magic happens on Linkedin. Groups are essentially discussion forums on specific topics. Use the search function within Linkedin to find groups that may be industry specific or one of the excellent business forums that are out there. If you are stuck for one to join have a look at the profiles of some of your connections and see which groups they are a member of.

Endorsements – I’ve written about endorsements before. I’m not a huge fan but they can be used well. If you endorse someone make sure you are endorsing them for something that you know they are good at. They will get an email from Linkedin every time they are endorsed so it’s another good way to remind them you exist.

Private messages – Linkedin will send you updates when your connections change their profiles, when they endorse you and when they have business anniversaries. Use this as an opportunity to get in touch with them via private messages to congratulate or thank them, re-kindling your relationship with them.

Twitter

It’s easier on Twitter than any other network to get into conversations. It’s part of what I love about Twitter, you can tweet anyone you want to whether it be Stephen Fry or the local shop. Getting into conversations will improve your follower count and help you get to know people who can help spread your message. Various social media practitioners have set different ratios that they believe you should use for promoting via conversing and sharing content from other users. It tends to sit at about 30% promotion and 70% conversation. It’s a hard ratio to reach so don’t worry if you aren’t there yet. The key is to make conversation an important part of your Tweeting.

Set targets – If you are not good at small talk or if you are shy you may need to set yourself goals for conversation. Start with something small, I often recommend new tweeters attempt to get into two conversations a day. This could be as simple as saying good morning to someone or commenting on the weather. Good relationships often start with small talk so it’s a good place to start your social media conversations too.

Twitter search – Twitter search and Twitter advanced search are fantastic tools for finding people and conversations. Advanced search allows you to search locally as well as for key words and phrases. Add a ‘?’ to your search and you will find people asking questions.

Twitter chats – Twitter chats happen when a group of people go online at a specific time to discuss a specific topic. In order to join in you just need to follow the #tag and tweet using the tag. They are a great way to meet new tweeters, get into conversations and build relationships. If you want to give it a go tune into #blogchatie every second Thursday at 9pm (GMT – currently daylight saving at GMT+1), The next one is on 23rd May 2013.If Blogging isn’t your thing you might find one that you’d enjoy from this comprehensive list.

ReTweets – A good way to break the ice with a new contact could be to RT some of their content. Choose stuff that is relevant to your target market and use the ‘quote tweet‘ option if you are using mobile or the old fashioned RT method if you want to be sure they know you shared.

Lists – If you are following a lot of people on Twitter you may find it hard to keep up with tweets from the people you really want to see. If this is a problem for you it’s a good idea to set up a few lists. You could have one of your favorite tweeters, the people that you want to build relationships with. Once they are in a list you can choose to view just the tweets from those people. It’s a really good way to stay in touch with the people you really have to.

Although Pinterest is a visual network it can still be a great place to find people and conversations.

Comments – I find that I rarely get a comment on Pinterest but when I do I really pay attention. Essentially Pinterest is a place to share images so conversation seems hard to slot in. However if you find an image you like why not comment on it, you will usually get a response and that is the spark of a business relationship.

Likes & RePins – Although commenting isn’t huge on Pinterest, Likes and RePins happen a lot. Just like Twitter by RePinning and liking you will be alerting a user to your existence. Always remember to keep your RePinning relevant to your business and target market.

Google+

Are people using Google+? Yes they are but it’s still a lot less crowded a space than Facebook and Twitter. I don’t spend a lot of time there but whenever I do I find something of interest. The lack of a crowd can be an advantage, it makes it easier to get involved in conversations.

Search – I really, really love the search on Google+, you can type anything into the search box, a sport, a book you are reading, a band or something obscure. Whatever it is you will find someone talking about it. Because updates aren’t limited to 140 characters like Twitter it’s easier to get into proper conversations. You can comment directly on a post giving you the opportunity to connect with more than just the original poster but also the other people in the comment thread. This is absolutely the best thing about Google+

Circles – Circles work in a similar way to Twitter lists and Facebook Interest Lists. You can group people together relating to specific topics or related to how you know them. The obvious circles to create have always been friends, relatives etc but you should look at setting one up for experts in your industry, customers, competitors and people you would like to get to know. You can then filter your feed by circle to ensure you are talking to the people you really want to.

Communities – Communities are similar to Linkedin Groups, they are topic specific discussion groups. Their a great place to meet like minded people and get into discussion and conversation. There are communities based on every topic available so take time to find a few that will be relevant to your business.

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I’m sure everyone has gotten one of those spammy messages from a friend on Twitter. They usually say something like ‘OMG I can’t believe what they’re saying about you’ followed by a link. If you didn’t realise in time that it was spam and clicked the link your account will start sending out spam too. How do you get rid of a Twitter virus?

Lots of people have clicked these kinda links in the past, even famous tweeters so don’t panic here’s a quick video to show you how stop the messages going out and get rid of the app that is causing them.

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Don't Miss The Important Tweets - Filter Twitter With Tweetdig

If like me you follow a massive amount of people on Twitter it can be hard to keep tabs of Tweets on topics that you don’t want to miss. Twitter itself offers us lots of tools to help us mange our feeds, lists have become indispensable for me as have saved advanced searches. I use Hootsuite to manage my Twitter feed and this also gives me lots of options including search and list columns. Tweetdig however does do something a little different with your searches, giving you an easy way to stay on top of news stories, users and more. By creating filters you can easily keep up with the latest news as it breaks. For example this morning there is lots of talk about the Superbowl last night both from a sports perspective and an advertising/social media perspective. If I want to keep tabs on this I can easily create a filter within Tweetdig.

Here’s how it works

Visit the Tweetdig website and sign up with email address

Add a Twitter account

Authorise the app

Now the fun starts, you will be prompted straight away to create a filter

It gives you lots of options for filtering; user name, keywords, links, mentions, hashtags, retweets or apps. You can add more than one filter type to the same filter.

For me the most useful ones here are #tags and keywords (text), I created one for ‘superbowl’

You can add multiple criteria to your filter and these can be different types of criteria (@names, #tags etc). You have the option filter specific criteria in or out, meaning that you can create a totally customised feed with only the best stuff in it.

Now you need to add a name for your filter, this will make it easier to go back and edit afterwards, particularly if you are adding multiple filters.

To access your filter you can now click on the filter folder on the left hand side of the stream

As well as filtering Tweetdig also operates as a full Twitter client you can tweet, retweet and read DM’s and @replies with ease.

I like the idea of creating a customised feed that I can dip into when I need to, I also like the way Tweetdig can be used to keep tabs on a breaking news story without the hassle of saving a search or adding a new column to Hootsuite. I’m not sure I’d use it as my main Twitter client for business just yet but it might be a good option for people who find Hootsuite too complex of for personal users. It will be interesting to see how it develops.

Do you have too much in your Twitter stream? How do you manage it? Would Tweetdig appeal to you? I’d like to hear what you think so do leave me a comment.

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Who RT's You, How Far Do They Reach? - Cool Tool

We can all who has shared or Retweeted us on Twitter simply by logging on and looking at our Interactions. But what is the value of these RT’s? How much further are they pushing your message and who is pushing it out? This weeks cool tool ‘retweet’ shows you.

Here’s how it works

Visit the Retweet website.

Now you have logged in Retweet will pull up your most recent tweets and display how often they have been RT’d.

By clicking on these individually you can see who Retweeted and more importantly the reach of each of these RT’s. It appears to be measured on follower count alone.

Clicking ‘top retweets’ on the menu will offer you your most RT’d tweets and you can analyze these in the same way.

What’s the benefit?

It gives you a rough idea of who your most influential friends are, the people who share your content that have the most followers. Of course follower count doesn’t equal influence but it’s definitely worth checking out the profiles of those who have a large reach to see if they are genuinely good Tweeps that you can build better relationships with.

It gives you a good idea of which Tweets provoke the most shares. Looking at mine I can see that tips and blog posts relating to conferences seem to perform the best for me. Luckily I always tweet like a mad thing at conferences but it’s good to see that the accompanying blog posts travel well on Twitter.

Although this app is nice there are a couple of issues that I have with it.

1. it seems that this only measures new style RT’s, these are the ones that are generated by just clicking the retweet button under a tweet. I find that old style RT’s when a Tweet is quoted as part of a message from a user are far more effective and I’d love to see the data on these too.

2. I’ve mentioned above that the reach is calculated on follower count. This makes sense of course, this is the potential number of people that can be reached with your Tweets, but it’s dangerous to assume that someone is influential just because they have a lot of followers, always check out their profile in more detail. I also see value in engaging with people who aren’t hugely influential on Twitter, it’s good to get to know people within my target market so ignoring those with less followers is not good practice.

Have you used this app? Were you surprised with what it revealed? Let me know in the comments.

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I was recently asked to find a tool for a company that were planning on having a blogging contest. Each member of staff was to create a blog post and the winner would be the person who got the most RT’s. It can be a hard job to keep track of who is sharing your blog posts, of course some people will include your username in the tweet but many won’t. This week’s cool tool ‘BackTweets‘ looks like the perfect solution.

It’s really easy to use and can quickly bring together a list of tweets that are sharing any link you choose.

This is a really handy way to keep an eye on what people sharing your posts are saying, how popular they are and it even gives you the opportunity to measure yourself against your competitors and other bloggers in your sector.

Here’s how it works:

Go to www.backtweets.com

Paste the link you want to measure into the search box

Click ‘Go’

Within seconds BackTweets will return an index of tweets linking to the post, this includes those who have shortened links via Bit.ly or Ow.ly as well as those who have pasted it in full.

I’m a bit of a stats junky at the moment so I’m pretty sure I’m going to get addicted to this quite quickly

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photo credit: Desmond Kavanagh via photopin cc

Have you noticed that when you click on some posts on Twitter you get a preview of the link that it’s pointing at? These are called Twitter cards and there are huge advantages of getting them to work on your blog and site. This week’s cool tool Yoast, easily allows you to add them to your WordPress.org blog.

What’s the benefit of Twitter Cards?

People are becoming more and more concerned about clicking anonymous links. Many of us shorten our links as it’s easier to measure the impact of our Tweets, but if consumers are becoming cautious of clicking these links are we loosing benefit? Twitter cards give the user the opportunity to see what is behind your link before they click. They can see if it’s safe to visit the site and if it is of interest to them. For bloggers this is great news, showing a short preview of your post gives you the opportunity to persuade people to click through and read. With Twitter cards we now have more than just 140 characters to sell our posts.

To see Twitter cards in action scroll through your newsfeed, if ‘view summery’ appears underneath a Tweet it has a card, click to see a little bit about what is behind the link.

If you blog on WordPress.com Twitter cards are already enabled, I don’t see them on Blogger yet but there is a bit of a hack that should work (I haven’t tested it) – read more about that here. The good news is that if you are a WordPress.org user (host your blog in your own webspace) you can easily add them with a plugin.

Here’s how it works

Click on ‘plugins’ on the left hand sidebar

Click on ‘Add New’ at the top of the screen

Type ‘Yoast’ in to the search box and click ‘Search Plugins’

From the search results choose ‘WordPress SEO by Yoast’

Click ‘Install Now’

Depending on your settings you may be asked to enter a password to install it

Once installed you will see a new menu appear on the left hand sidebar ‘SEO’

Click on to this – It’s worth taking time to review all the settings, Yoast is a fantastic SEO plugin as well as a way to add twitter cards to your site

For adding Twitter cards click on the ‘Social’ menu

Under Twitter click the check box ‘Add Twitter card meta data’

enter your Twitter username (without the @)

You also have the option to add a default image for posts that don’t have their own image

Click ‘Save Settings’

Next you have to apply to Twitter to recognise your cards.

Visit this page and complete your details

The process is quite fast, I was approved the day after I applied.

Would you be more likely to click a link if you could see a preview via Twitter cards first? Let me know your thought below in the comments section.

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This weeks Cool Tool allows you to delete your tweets in bulk. I don’t want to delete my tweets from any accounts so I’ve been unable to test it fully. If you try it or have tried it I’d love to know if it has worked for you and if you have had any issues with it so do let me know in the comments.

There are various reasons that you might want to delete all your tweets. Maybe you want to become more business centric with your tweeting and want to delete all those old tweets about drinking coffee or taking the cat to the vet. Maybe you don’t want to be found in searches for the things you’ve tweeted about in the past. Whatever your reason the good news is that yes you can delete your tweets from the past in bulk.

Before you start be aware that people may have ReTweeted tweets from you or copied tweets from you in the past so they could still exist. It’s also worth noting that Twitter is being archived by The Library of Congress in the USA so although you have removed them from Twitter and Twitter and Twitter searches they will still exist there.

Here’s how it works:

Visit the TweetEraser website www.tweeteraser.com
Sign up with Twitter

The app gives you the option to filter your Tweets for the ones you want to delete. You can filter by keyword, #tag or tweets for a specific period of time.

The app will pull in all the tweets for the selected filter
You have the option to delete individual tweets or all the tweets that match your search by clicking the ‘+’ at the top of the page.

Click on ‘Delete selected items’
According to the FAQ’s you can delete up to 3,200 Tweets at one time

Be aware, once you have deleted tweets they cannot be restored. If you want a record of the Tweets you’ve sent it’s worth backing them up first. There are a number of services available for doing this we’ll be taking a look at them in the future.

So have you used the app? Does it work for you? Why did you want to delete your Tweets? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

photo credit: becca.peterson26 via photopin cc

Twitter recently changed the way that our profiles look and gave us the opportunity to customise even more. We are now able to include a header image on our profile. There are some really great examples of cover images out there. Check out this post form Ching Ya for inspiration.

As I’m re-designing my website at the moment I decided to hold off on creating a customised image but I still wanted to have a header image. Then I found Twitter Covers and I’ve now uploaded a nice image to accompany my profile until I have the real design work done.

Here’s how it works

Visit the Twitter Covers Website

Choose a header image that you like, if you mouse over an image it will give you a preview of what the cover will look like on your profile

Click ‘Download Now’ on the bottom right of the image you have chosen

You can choose to download the image manually or just click ‘Make This My Twitter Cover Now & Follow TwitrCovers’

If you choose the automated option you will be asked to authorise the app with Twitter, it will then automatically upload your chosen image

If you choose manual download you will be brought to a page for the image. Right click the image and choose ‘save image as’ from the drop down menu that appears

Now log in to Twitter to upload your image to your profile

From your homepage click on the cog on the top right hand side of the page

Choose ‘Settings’ from the drop down menu

Choose ‘Design’ from the menu on the left hand side of the settings page

Scroll down until you see ‘Change header’

Click on the drop down menu and upload your image here

This is what my new profile image looks like

Have you seen any creative Twitter header images? Are you proud of the one you have created for yourself? I’d love to see them so do leave your comments and links below.

Not long ago I was trawling the Internet to find a tool that would show me which of my tweets was shared the most. There are a few out there. Crowdbooster shows you the reach of your tweets, Bit.ly sometimes shows you all the shares of a link you have shortened using their service, but only sometimes. This weeks cool tool seems to be the solution. MyTopTweet lists the most RT’d tweets from your account or any other Twitter account you ask it about.

Here’s how it works

- Visit www.mytoptweet.com

- Sign in with Twitter, check that you are happy with the permissions you are giving the app

- You can check the top tweet from any account not just your own making it a great stalker tool – just type the username in to the box including the ‘@’

- Click ‘find top tweet’

- After a couple of minutes it will show you not only your top tweet (measured by the number of RT’s) but a list of your top tweets.

Mine was a tip that I shared from the Social Media World Forum earlier this year. What was yours?

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Category Archives: Twitter

ReTweet The Old Fashioned Way With Classic ReTweet – Cool Tool

Here’s How It Works

The Importance Of Conversation Part 2 – Linkedin, Pinterest, Twitter and Google+

Linkedin

Twitter

Pinterest

Google+

How To Delete A Twitter Virus

Don’t Miss The Important Tweets – Filter Twitter With Tweetdig

Here’s how it works

Who Retweets You And How Far Do They Reach? – Find Out With Retweet – Cool Tool

Here’s how it works

What’s the benefit?

Find Out Who Is Sharing Your Links On Twitter With BackTweets – Cool Tool

Here’s how it works:

Add Twitter Cards To Your WordPress.org Blog With Yoast – Cool Tool

What’s the benefit of Twitter Cards?

Here’s how it works

Delete Your Tweets In Bulk with TweetEraser – Cool Tool

Here’s how it works:

Quick and Easy Twitter Header Images from Twitter Covers – Cool Tool

Here’s how it works

What Was Your Most RT’d Tweet? MyTopTweet Tells You – Cool Tool

Here’s how it works