Have you ever been to an event and eyed with envy the twitterfeed projected onto a screen displaying tweets using the event’s hashtag?

TwitterFall is a simple web based app which allows you to quickly set up a twitterfeed for your event.  Twitterfeeds are great ways to encourage user interaction at any event both for those attending and those watching on from home or work.

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If you’re a blogger did you know that you can feed your blog automatically into Facebook. In this weeks video blog we show you two ways to do this:

1. Using the existing “Notes” application
2. Using Networked Blogs:

If you want to know more about some of the coolest social meida applications  join our Facebook page, where every Monday we feature a “Monday Morning Cool Tool” last weeks tool turned text uʍop ǝpısdn.

Running a competition or draw can be a great way to attract new followers.

You can offer a prize draw for those who retweet a particular phrase, for tweeps who uses a particular #tag or a simple have a draw from new followers.  It not only helps raise your twitter profile but it also adds a bit of fun and interaction to your tweets.

You can of course run the contest manually but there are some tools that can make it easier:

Twitrand.com allows you to either choose one follower randomly from all of your followers or choose a winner from those who have ReTweeted a particular phrase.

Tweetaways.com has a free service and a very reasonably priced paid service.  The free service allows you to pick a winner from those who Retweet a phrase.  The biggest difference between this and Twitrand is that Tweetaways requires you to verify your twitter account. When you sign up it sends you a unique key that you can use in all your contests. The paid service allows you to run the entire competition through the application, giving you more stats etc.

If you want to draw from a group of followers, for example you may want to choose a winner from every 100 followers, I have found two applications that work well in conjunction with each other.

Random.org allows you to pick a number randomly from a set that you specify.  For example 101-200.  To save the hassle of counting back through your twitter followers you can use MyTweeple.com which lists your followers numerically.

If you like playing with cool social media tools join our Facebook page where we have introduced “Monday Morning Cool Tools”.  Designed to blow away the Monday morning blues each week we will be featuring one of our favorite social media apps.

Flock is fast becoming my favorite browser.  With lots of added features that enable you to keep up with all your social networking, video and photo sharing and email accounts, it means you no longer have to have multiple tabs open.  It also means you no longer have to log in and out of accounts.

Flock is a one stop interface for all your social media activities.

Download Flock here.

I was asked by a customer during the week if you could post pictures to twitter.  Twitter is text based but it is possible to link to a picture externally.  By using a link shortener you can post a link to the photograph on Flickr, Pix.ie, Photobucket etc.

Even simpler are the web based applications that synchronise with your twitter account allowing  you to tweet a picture and caption for you.  These services also give you an email address that automatically tweets photographs to your twitter stream.

I trialed two of the many applications available for doing this are Twitpic and Twitflog. Both work well.  Twitpic is probaby the most common twitter photo service, it’s easy to use, the upload time is short and it is simple to view comments on your photos.

On Twitflog the interface is nicer, once you have synced your accounts the home page mimics your twitter page.  I found the upload time to be slower.

Both services are very user friendly and easy to use. On upload time alone I think I prefer Twitpic so here’s a quick rundown of how it works:

• Log into Twitpic using your Twitter username and password.

• Click ‘Upload Photo’ on the top right hand side.

• Click ‘Choose File’ and find the photo you wish to upload on your computer.
• Add the tweet that you would like to accompany your picture.

• Click ‘upload’ and your message will be tweeted.

Here’s one I made earlier:

To email a picture from your phone or email app you will need to make a note of your unique email address. Click the ‘settings’ menu on the top right hand side of your screen to find out what it is. Attach the photograph to your email and add your tweet into the subject line.

Remember to let us know your social media questions no matter how big or small. Leave a comment below with your question.

Some cool social media apps to play with:

Listorious a list of lists, a directory of Twitter lists. Search tags to find lists of interest and add your own lists.
and
Addict-o-matic highly addictive fun way to see results from all across the web on one page.  You can customise and share your page.

Hootsuite is a great tool for managing your social media. This week’s video blog shows you how to integrate your Twitter lists into your Hootsuite Dashboard and how to create a search column to keep on top of the latest tweets in your area of interest.

Video blogging is a great way to increase traffic to your website, and offering value like video tutorials can be an even bigger draw.  But how do you record what you are doing on your screen so that you can insert it into your videos?

Last week Amanda investigated a few of the solutions.

The two applications featured are:

Copernicus

and

Jing

Spiderworking.com offers tailored training to businesses in recording and editing YouTube videos.

For more information contact us.

In my last post about shortening links I mentioned that alot of people accessed twitter through third party software.

As you can see from above I’m loving Hootsuite at the moment but here are some links to other solutions.  Feel free to enter your favorites in the comment box below:

Tweetdeck

Tweetie

Hootsuite