Archive for the ‘Useful Resources’ Category
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Every day, tens of thousands of new users sign up for a Twitter account. If you’re new to Twitter, you want to make sure you don’t shoot yourself in the foot, looking like a complete Twitter Noob. That’s why you need to avoid these 7 mistakes.
1. You only update once a week—Building a successful Twitter presence requires consistently providing quality content to your followers. Remember, it’s called “social media.” It’s all about establishing solid relationships. You can’t expect to build relationships or credibility by Tweeting rarely.
2. Every Tweet is a pitch for your company—Just because you’re using Twitter to further your business doesn’t mean every Tweet should be an advertisement for your company. Self-promotional Tweets add no value to your followers and it’s completely the opposite of the concept of social networking.
3. You don’t have an avatar—Seriously, nothing screams “Noob!” like the default brown Twitter avatar.
4. Every Tweet says “Please RT”—Asking for a ReTweet on every post completely negates the purpose behind “Please RT.” Only ask for RTs when it’s for something truly important. Otherwise, people will begin to completely ignore your requests and eventually you.
5. You don’t interact with anybody—I’ve already said it a couple of times in this post, but I’ll say it again: It’s called “social networking.” Sending out a bunch of one way Tweets will get you nowhere fast. You need to spend time networking with others, interacting with your followers, and laying the groundwork for useful relationships.
6. Your bio is non-descriptive—Many times, the bio in someone’s profile is what convinces me if I should follow them or not. So, make sure your bio describes who you are and what you do. Include relevant keywords that your target audience would look for.
7. Auto responding to new followers—Sending out a canned auto reply every time someone new follows you is impersonal and a little spammy (especially if your auto response is a pitch for your products and services). If you don’t have the time to personally send a short DM or @ Tweet to your new followers, then instead focus on getting to know them over time.
What other mistakes to Twitter noobs make? Add your favorites in the comments.
Related Posts:-
How to Stop Wasting Time and Start Being Successful with Social Media
10 Reasons You Should Use Twitter
19 Handy Twitter Mashups and Tools
How to Build Strong Relationships on Twitter
Posted By Thomson Chemmanoor
Twitter mashups and tools put a unique spin on the way we use Twitter. By “mashing” information from Twitter with other applications, you get an unmatchable user experience that can be both fun and useful. Enjoy these top 19 Twitter mashups.
1) Twitter Burner – Tweetburner is a twitter mashup that allows you to create tiny URLs and also allow you to track how many times they where clicked on it. Ideal for someone who lets out a lot of links on twitter.
2) Twalala – Get ready to take control of your twitterstream. twalala is a client for Twitter that allows you to control what you see, and more importantly, what you don’t see in your twitterstream. Using twalala, you can filter tweets out of your stream by keywords and phrases or mute individuals who get a bit too chatty. Finally, Twitter with a mute button.
3) Twitspy lets you see what people are posting on Twitter in realtime by spying on the Twitter public timeline. Twitspy also tracks website links within tweets.
4) Twitter stats – In your Tweets, Graphin’ Your Stats! Weekly Stats. Graph your Twitter Stats including. Tweets per hour; Tweets per month; Tweet timeline;
5) Twittervision is a web mashup combining Twitter with Google Maps to create a real time display of tweets across a map.
6) mail2twitter is a free service that allows you to post tweets through e-mail, and the most important, from any email-enabled mobile device.
7) The TwitterCounter -Add a daily updating TwitterCounter to your blog so everybody can see how popular you are
Twit Pic, Share photos with your friends on twitter with twitpic. No signup required, just login using your twitter account.
9) Twittercal – It’s a free service that connects your Twitter account to your Google Calendar. Add events in a snap from your favorite Twitter client.
10) Geotwitter - This mashup uses the Google Maps API and Twitter API. The most recent updates are fetched from the public timeline and mapped once every minute. If you have any comments suggestions or ideas feel free to leave a note on our blog.
11) TwitterFox is a Firefox extension that notifies you of your friends’ tweets of Twitter. (previously known as TwitterNotifier)
12) TwittyTunes is a FoxyTunes companion Firefox extension – it allows you to post your currently playing songs to Twitter with a click.
13) Twitbin – Send and receive messages to all your fellow twitterholics, right from your firefox browser.
14) TwitterBar – allows you to post to Twitter from Firefox’s address bar. A small unobtrusive grey icon sits to the right of your address bar; clicking on it will post your tweet, and you can hover your mouse over it to see how many characters you have left.
15) StockTwits is an open, community-powered investment idea and information service for financial investors.
16) Twitterholic – Provides a list of the 100 best twitterers based on their followers, the people they follow and the number of their updates
17) TwitterFeed – Feed your blog to twitter, post RSS to twitter.
18) TwitterBuzz shows you what people using Twitter, a microblogging service, are linking to.
19) Twitter Map – Provides users with the ability to update their locations on a Google Map and send a tweet with it
These great Twitter mashups and tools represent some of the best ways twitter data can be used to create a great twittering experience. Please feel free to leave your thoughts on these mashups and tools in the comments on our Web Design and Marketing blog.
Twitter Rank has been get a sizeable amount of tweets lately. Whether Tweeples are just fanning their egos or checking to see how their profiles stack up, Tweeples are turning over their user names and passwords to Twitter rank – all to get a statistic.
Oliver Marks posted an article about this here where he says:
I picked up on this after seeing Tantek Çelik retweet:
@t RT @brianoberkirch Twitterank is a vast conspiracy I created to steal all of ur passwords + shame Twitter into OAuthing. + make u look vain.
Check out this screenshot of the source code captured by @nateritter:
When reading the Tweet and the comments in the source code, it hints that the developer has a chip on his shoulder with Twitter’s API policies.
Having been told that Twitterank.com is stealing passwords and has potentially stolen yours; coupled with the above evidence; it would be easy to get worried and start to warn others. Does this mean that Twitter rank is guilty of anything bad?
The comments in the source code never claim that there is anything harmful being done with the passwords. In fact, the text on the actual page says the exact opposite.
It seems that Twitterank.com had the viral effects of the social web help it’s blazing speed growth, and consequently, the spread of rumours and fear among twitter land in the worst possible way…..virally.
Adam Ostro wrote a great article on this: Twitterank Might Not Have Been A Phishing Scam, But It Sure Was Intersting
Post by Eric Brantner
Since social media is, well, a social medium, it’s important that users understand the proper ways to behave online. No, just because you’re behind a computer monitor in your mom’s basement doesn’t mean all social etiquette goes out the window. It’s quite the opposite—following proper social media etiquette is a key to being successful online (and to making sure you don’t make a complete idiot out of yourself.)
1. Give More than You Receive- If you want to receive attention from others online, you have to be willing to give it first. It’s the old “I’ll scratch your back if you scratch mine” routine. You can’t bust onto a social media site with a sense of entitlement thinking you should be a top user immediately. You have to earn respect from others. How do you do this? By giving more than you receive.
2. Don’t be a Keyboard Gangsta- Probably the worst thing about the Internet is the keyboard gangstas. You’ve surely run across at least one of these in your lifetime. They sit at their keyboard talking trash to everyone they encounter. They say things online that they would never have the nerve to say to a real person’s face. Don’t try to ruin everyone else’s online experience because you don’t have any friends in real life.
3. Add Value to the Site- At the end of the day, the thing that will earn you great connections with others is if you add value to the community. This means not submitting content that nobody cares about and not constantly promoting your brand. Before you ever submit anything to a social media site, ask yourself “Does this article really add value to the community?” If not, reconsider submitting it.
4. Don’t Sabotage Other’s Efforts- This is self-explanatory. Drop all of your e-beefs and hatred. Don’t try to bury others just for the sake of getting ahead. Making enemies on social media sites will get you nowhere fast, and you really do reap what you sow.
5. Remember that Cheaters Never Win- Instead of trying to game the system, why don’t you focus on building a successful social media presence the right way. Sure, you might be able to get some amazing results by cheating, but eventually, you will get caught. And once everyone sees you for the cheater you are, you can’t un-ring that bell.
6. Build Quality Relationships- People are more willing to help those who they really know. By building quality relationships with other users, you’ll always have someone in your corner to back you up. Remember, relationships require the participation of both parties; so, always be a good participant in your social media relationship.
7. Stop Pushing the Envelope- One of the fastest ways to alienate people online is to constantly flood them with requests for helping you out. Whether you’re constantly shouting your content or always Tweeting asking people to comment on your blog, eventually, everyone will lose their patience with you. It’s like the boy who cried wolf. People will tune you out if you’re constantly pushing the envelope.
8. Respect the Community- This might be the most important rule of social media etiquette. Show respect to the community. It’s not that hard to do. Just make sure you don’t step out of line, and always treat everyone the way you want to be treated. These are simple social skills you should already be following in real life; now, you just have to follow them online too.
9. Listen to Others- Your first reaction whenever someone disagrees with you online is probably to tell them how wrong they are. Instead of constantly fighting back, take the time to listen to what they’re really saying. Listen to the people commenting on your blog or Tweeting at you. Understand where they’re coming from. You don’t know everything, and you can learn from others if you take the time to listen.
10. Be Accountable for Your Actions- Because of the anonymity the Internet allows, there is little to no accountability online. People say and do whatever they please without facing any repercussions. Don’t be that guy. Instead, try to be honorable by taking responsibility your actions online. By being accountable, people will respect you, whether they agree with you or not.
11. Be Nice- All of these points add up to one thing—just be nice. Is it really too much to ask for people to be kind to one another? Call me old-fashioned if you like, but there’s nothing wrong with being nice to others online.
What rules of social media etiquette would you add to the list? Share them in the replies!
Posted By Thomson Chemmanoor
Cheat sheats, or reference sheets, are a helpful and quick way to remember things. Web designers, by nature of their work, are forced to cram their heads with TONS of information ranging in many different areas. In this particular post, we have created a dynamite list of 70+ helpful cheat sheets we found on the web to help web designer’s manage all this information. If you are a web designer/web developer looking for reference sheets on HTML, XHTML, CSS, PHP, JAVASCRIPT, PHOTOSHOP, COLORS & HTACCESS, this list is for you! Also comment on your favorite cheat sheets and any other which we have missed. Enjoy.
HTML Cheat Sheets
1.HTML Cheatsheet from Web Monkey for Beginners
2.Forget what some of the tags in HTML do?
3.List of up-to-date HTML tags / codes Cheat Sheet
4.HTML cheat sheet is a one-page A4 printable document
5.COMMONLY USEDHTML ELEMENTS AND THEIR CORRESPONDING CODES
6.A free online cheatsheet by VisiBone
7.HTML Code Cheat Sheet to look up HTML tags
8.HTML Cheat Sheet lesliefranke.com
9.HTML Cheat Sheet by Dave Child
10.HTML Cheat Sheet from Petefreitag.com
XHTML Cheat Sheets
11.XHTML cheat sheet provides an at-a-glance perspective of common XHTML practices
Action Script Cheat Sheets
14. AIR Cheatsheet ActionScript Card
JavaScript Cheat Sheets
17.JavaScript reminder and reference sheet
19.JavaScript and Browser Objects Quick Reference
20.The most common DOM methods at a glance
21.Addison-Wesley’s JavaScript Reference Card
23.Javascript Document Object Model for Web Browsers
24.Printable Javascript Cheat Sheet from John Robert Morris
25.Prototype JavaScript Library 1.5.0
CSS Cheat Sheets
27.Cascading Style Sheets Quick Reference Guide
30.CSS cheat sheet is a one-page reference sheet
32.Cheat sheet for creating Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) files.
34.Cascading Style Sheets Level 1 properties Cheat Sheet
35. CSS Cheat Sheet from Petefreitag.com
36.CSS LEVEL 1 AND CSS-P QUICK REFERENCE CHARTS
AJAX Cheat Sheets
38.Ajax a web 2.0 cheat sheet by Amy Hoy
Web Color Cheat Sheets
41.Hex Web Color Cheat Sheet from funky-chickens.com
44.Web Designer Color Reference Hexagon Mouse Pad
45.RGB Values for Macbeth Color Checker
PHP Cheat Sheets
47.PHP Cheat Sheet from Blue Shoes
48.The PHP cheat sheet is a one-page reference sheet
49.Popular PHP Cheat Sheet in widget form
53.Php Cheat Sheet from Digilife
55.PHP tips/tricks Cheat Sheet
56.Smarty Cheat Sheet for Template Designers
Adobe PhotoShop Cheat Sheets
57.Adobe Photoshop CS3 Keyboard Shortcuts
58.Brush Tool cheat sheet for Photoshop
59.Photoshop 911 FAQ and Short tips
60.Adobe Photoshop Quick Reference Guide.
61.Black & White Cheatsheet For Photoshop
62.Photoshop Quick reference card
MySQL Cheat Sheets
63.MySQL cheat sheet is designed to act as a reminder and reference sheet
64.Handy Cheat-Sheet of MySQL Commands
66.Quick MySQL Cheat Sheet/Quick Reference
.htaccess Cheat Sheets
67.simple cheat sheet for the .htaccess file
69.Apache htaccess cheatsheet list
Word Press Cheat Sheets
Some of the other places where you can find some useful cheatsheet resources
Cheat Sheets
Lorelle’s Cheat Sheet Lists
Cheat Sheets for Front-end Web Developers
Cheat Sheet Round-Up: Ajax, CSS, LaTeX, Ruby
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