As social networking sites grow and try to better monetize their services, “new features” aren’t necessarily free (LinkedIn’s new Profile Organizer) and “new enhancements” aren’t necessarily better than their previous functionality. In fact, sometimes these new features aren’t even accessible to everyone! (LinkedIn Features: Does Everyone Have Equal Access?) That’s why it is such a breath of fresh air to see Twitter adding a new feature which was truly needed: one-click, anonymous reporting of spam! And it works like a charm!
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I got sick of Twitter spam, and I decided to do something creative about it. And I think it’s working. You can help join the fight too. I don’t know if you have noticed recently, but Twitter spam has now gone beyond the mere obnoxious automated Direct Message. There has been a sudden uptick in spammers mentioning your name, along with a few others, together with a few words and a link. “Build a list bigger than Oprah’s!,” “New Affiliate Program,” etc. are usually the text with an affiliate link to try to sell you something. You will notice these …
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When I spoke at the Cool Twitter Conference in Los Angeles recently (I’ll be speaking there again in San Francisco on September 24 and in Orange County, CA on November 5), there were many in attendance who mentioned that they didn’t even use their personal email anymore to communicate with their friends. After all, all of their friends were on Twitter, and they all had their Twitter accounts activated so that Direct Messages sent to them would automatically be sent to their cell phones. Why bother with email? In fact, a friend at the conference asked why I hadn’t responded …
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The never-ending question of quality vs quantity of Twitter Followers is similar to the argument of how many people you should connect with on LinkedIn or “friend” on any other social networking site. Yesterday I wrote that without enough connections on LinkedIn, you will not show up in as many search results. With Twitter, the Followers vs Following ratio is an important one that will also speak lots about your Twitter Brand. Windmill Networking treats all of the social networking sites the same. It all comes down to your objective, your brand, and implementation of these through the unique functionalities …
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I have had the pleasure of “meeting” many real estate agents recently on social networking sites LinkedIn and Twitter. I should point out in advance that I have a positive view of those in real estate; not only is my brother an agent but I have also signed up to get licensed if and when I can find the spare time. Most recently, I met with my good friend Cari Gilbert and her good friend Lynn Aglipay to discuss how they can use social media to assist in their real estate practice. One of my So Cal Sushi LinkedIn Group …
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Twitter not working today, you thought? Today we all witnessed a massive Twitter outage, which apparently was caused by hackers that also targeted Facebook. Whenever we lose something we love, as we did temporarily with Twitter down for a few hours, it gives us a chance to reconsider how much value that thing has in our everyday lives. And Twitter, for those that use it and understand it, is a lovable thing that we can no longer live without. With this morning’s Twitter outage, what did I miss the most? Exactly where I see Twitter has value in:
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There are still a lot of people who ask me this question, both new Twitter users as well as veterans. I thought I would write a post that would hopefully serve as a resource for the entire Twitter community to better understand this phenomenon. It also serves as a conclusion that I have reached on how to #FollowFriday that will ideally serve as advice for you as well. If you have been on Twitter for awhile, you have probably noticed the messages on mainly Fridays (although they start coming on Thursday and last until the beginning of the following week…) …
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With many newbies on Twitter these days, the etiquette of the social networking site is constantly changing. On the one hand, there is more social media marketing (= more spam) going on; at the same time, more people are understanding the potential for Windmill Networking on Twitter and are reaching out and creating meaningful conversations with others virtually. However, regardless of how long you’ve been on Twitter, you have probably noticed that you are getting more automated Direct Messages (DMs) from your new followers. And I believe it is coming from both the spammers as well as the newbies. Let …
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Many of my LinkedIn contacts have started sending me emails asking me to “follow” them on Twitter, so I thought this was a good time to take a look at what you should be doing differently on each site.
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This is a question geared more towards those that are not yet familiar enough with the platform of tweets. I could, and will, write a whole different series of blog posts on Twitter.com, but there is one point (and one advertisement) I would like to make in this post about what excites me most about Twitter that LinkedIn lacks: immediacy. Tomorrow, Tuesday April 21 at 20:00 EDT, I will be on my first Twitter realtime chat discussing and answering questions on using LinkedIn for small businesses for one hour. This is being hosted by John Sternal, and Steven Burda and …
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