Ever notice that A List bloggers are always talking to each other? Wouldn’t it be nice to get on their radar? One way to do this is with Twitter chats. These are very powerful if you find the right Twitter chats, for instance, those that let you share what you know, connect with like-minded bloggers, and increase your social media influence. Here’s how to do it.

Using Twitter Chats to Connect With A List Bloggers

The key, as always, is planning.

1. Choose the Right Twitter Chat. Look through the different Twitter Chat directories and see which works for you. For example, I use the KaizenBlog (Elli StGeorgeGodfrey) as it relates to my areas of expertise and it suits my schedule.
2. Schedule your Twitter Chat. I use Google Calendar to remind me of the next Twitter Chat. I’ve it set to repeat for the next 20 weeks so I don’t miss any. As I’m in Europe, I focus on Twitter Chats, such as SmallBiz that start early in the day or on the East coast.
3. Use Twitter Chat Software. I use Tweetchat.com to chat with others during the sessions. Using the twitter interface is very difficult and even Hootsuite can be a bit cramped. Try Tweetchat (free) and it will make things easier.
4. Turn Up On Time. If you’re going to join in, be there at the start. Let everyone know how 10 min before it starts that you’re about to attend.
5. Help the Host. Help the person leading the Twitter Chat by sending out reminders, tweets and RTs during the week. This type of goodwill will be noticed and, in time, come back to you.
6. Share what you know. It’s called chat for a reason. Join in and share what you know. Remember to quote others and thank them (without being too gushy.)
7. Don’t be that guy. Try to be positive and helpful. Until you know folks well, keep negative or conferential comments to yourself. Jokes can also backfire very easily. Be discreet. Engage with others and respect their opinions.
8. Stay On Topic. Don’t deviate from the main subject. Respect the ‘theme’ or topic under discussion. Stay focussed.
9. Use the Hash tag. If you don’t use the hash tag, e.g. #blogchat, then others will not see you in their chat. Remember to add it to your comments. One trick I use is to type in MS Word and then paste into Tweetchat. Works for me!
10. Short Comments. If you write short, concise comments you leave space for others to respond and retweet your comments to their followers, which is what you want, right? Don’t ramble!
11. Respect the Format. If the chat uses a specific format, like ‘Q1. Q2. Q3. etc’ then use the format. This keep the chat organized and helps the moderator with the transcripts.
12. Don’t Hog Attention. If there are many voices trying to be heard, use discretion and post every now and then. Nothing is worse than someone who ‘chats’ non-stop cluttering up the twitter stream.
13. Move Around the Room. Don’t tweet/retweet the same people all the time. Reach out to others and bring them into the conversation. Look for ways to compliment others.
14. Respect the leader. Thank the person who organized the chat. Remember to remind others when the next Twitter Chat is coming up.
15. Be Kind. We’re all in this together. The people on the Twitter Chat are probably in the same situation as you. They want to share, help others, and get a little publicity for their business. Can you help them do this?

Do Twitter Chats Work?

The only way to find out is try. I focus on three chats every week. When I look at my stats the next day, there is usually an increase of traffic to my site, increase in subscribers to my email, and more sales. What’s not to like?

What do you think of Twitter Chat? Have they helped you develop your business? What’s the one thing you’d like to know about them?

Should you use Twitter as part of your Marketing Plan? If you’re looking to increase sales, generate leads, or connect with prospects, it seems a no-brainer, right? The problem is if you’re starting out with Twitter it can be hard to see where it compliments your Marketing Plan. The most practical approach is to create a dedicated Twitter Plan in the same way you’d create any marketing plan. Here’s how it works.

What is a Twitter Plan?

A Twitter Plan is very simple to develop once you understand how Twitter works and you have a specific goal you want to achieve. Like all marketing tactics, the more specific the goal, the better the return.

A Twitter Plan works as follows:

• Goals – Define a specific goal, for example, increase traffic to my blog by 10 percent in 4 weeks.
• Message – Define the message you will use to connect to a) current followers, b) prospective customers, c) others.
• Hashtag – Identify the hashtags – e.g. #business or #sales – others will use to find your tweets. Hashtags are tags used to identify a specific topic, trend, business etc by Twitter users.
• Keyword – Identify the keywords others will use to find your tweets. I’ll explain below.
• Phrase – Identify the phrases others will use to find your tweets. For example, ‘increase online sales’, ‘business development opportunities’, ‘ways to reduce carbon emissions’ and so on.
• Schedule – decide where you will schedule the tweets. For example, at 7am, 11am, 3pm, 7pm, and 11pm. Scheduling your message throughout the day increases the likelihood that twitters will see your message at some point.
• Frequency – decide how frequently you post tweets per day. I recommend no more than 5.
• Tone – examine how others communicate on twitters, especially the more successful marketers and adapt their writing style until you find your own voice.
• Tactics – Use a little variety when writing your tweets, for example, ask questions, make observations, share poll results, and quotes. Again, study the masters and see how they do it.

Once you have thought about this, type the questions into an Excel spreadsheet (or Word if you prefer) and get ready to start.

Tools for Twitter Plan

The nice thing about Twitter Planning is that there are really no costs other than your time.

I use the following tools to schedule my tweets and coordinate my efforts.

• Hootsuite – this is a free Twitter desktop application that lets you do all your twittering as well as run multiple accounts, search for topics, and bulk upload tweets. Instead of doing them individually, you can upload a spreadsheet and it will schedule them for you. There is also a Pro version. http://www.hootsuite.com/

• SocialOomph – this is also free and comes with a wonderful range of tools. The user interface is a bit odd but you will get the hang of it. There is also a Pro version with very advanced features. http://www.socialoomph.com/

• Twitter Alerts – Use this to track conversations that mention your products, company via hourly email updates. http://tweetbeep.com/

Sample Twitter Plan

This is based on a recent twitter plan for a client. There are different ways to do this but should give you an idea of how to get started. We were developing Business Proposal software and wanted to:

1. Attract others interested in Business Proposal software.
2. Get listed on Twitter lists about Business Proposal software.
3. Highlight advantages of Business Proposal software.
4. Discuss risks and how the software would help.
5. Answer questions about Business Proposal software AND
6. Position us as THE AUTHORITY about Business Proposal software on Twitter.

Our goals were to generate leads, create buzz, and establish our expertise.

Day 1

Before you start:

• Twitter account – Create a new Twitter account if you’re developing a brand, e.g. BizProposal, as Twitter and Search Engines factor this into their results.
• Keywords – Add keywords to your Twitter bio for the same reasons.
• Connect – Search for like-minded folks on Twitter (http://search.twitter.com/) and encourage them to follow you back. Use SocialOomph to automate this process.

Day 2

• Sequence five tweets per day.
• If your site, product or service is specific to a region, then factor location into the times.
• Add a hashtag to each tweet. Vary the hashtags during the plan.

For example:

1. Starting to write new Business Proposal. Any idea what MUST go in? #SME
2. You can reduce Proposal Development writing time but not quality #government
3. How many pages should be in good Business Proposal plan? #help
4. What’s the biggest problem when writing Business Proposal documents?
5. Adding Costs to my Business Proposal plan. #finance
6. Looking at gaps in other Business Proposals. Most seem to overlook risks. #pm
7. Formatted the Business Proposal template. Wonder what font is best?

Day 3 – 5

Use different variations of these questions to create interest in your twitter stream. Remember to reach out and connect with others who retweet you and who have a similar marketing fit.

Twitter Plan Mistakes To Avoid

Let’s look at the tweets I sent out.

Starting to write new Business Proposal.

Put keywords near the Start of the tweet, e.g.

Business Proposals: what MUST go in?

This is ideal both for search engines and humans. Take a look at how Seth Godin writes his blog titles, especially older ones, and you’ll see how he does it.

Any idea what MUST go in?

Bring others into the conversation. Ask for help. Think dialogue. How can I write my tweets so others are more likely to engage?

#SME

Add one hashtag. Adding two makes it harder to read, confuses Google, and dilutes the message.

Next…

Develop the theme over the course of the week by highlighting the typical risks, issues, and pain points others are encountering.

Then write your tweets based on these. Again, asking questions is one way to do this and getting more followers.

Reduce Proposal Development writing time but not quality #government

Call for #help here. You could also say, ‘I’ve heard that Business Proposals in the US are shorter than in the UK. True?’

This might get folks off the fence and tell you if you’re right or wrong, which leads to more followers, of course.

How many pages should be in good Business Proposal plan? #help

Then, keep people informed of your progress. While they may not comment (in public), they will see what you’re doing and start to take more of an interest.

You can develop more tweets along the same lines, such as:

• Adding ‘Something interesting’ to my Proposal plan. Hope to finish by Friday!
• Looking at gaps in other Business Proposals. Most seem to overlook risks. #pm
• Formatted the Business Proposal template. Wonder what font is best?

…which are all designed to bring others into the dialogue, increase awareness and start to position you as an authority on this subject.

Conclusion

The advantage of a Twitter Plan is that it gives you a structured way to use Twitter and focus your message. I’d recommend starting with a short Twitter Plan over five days and use a specific metric to gauge how well it works. Look at the stats and build upon what you’ve learn in the next marketing campaign.

The objective of your Twitter Plan is to extend the reach of your Marketing Plan. Don’t get too engrossed in the tools at this point. Keep it simple and look for ways to compliment your other Marketing efforts, then see how you can develop an integrated marketing plan that works across all Social Media platforms. Baby steps, of course…

What other ways to do use Twitter for marketing?

You know GTD? It’s also known as Getting Things Done. David Allen wrote the best-selling book on GTD and has been using Twitter to increase his fanbase. You can learn from watching how these folks use Twitter as they have access to the best brains in the business and are usually one step ahead of the rest of us. I’ve been following GTD on Twitter for a few months and, as they say, you learn for the best. I’ve looked at how he uses Twitter and try to blend that into the approach I use. And it seems to work.

Do’s And Don’ts For Using Twitter

Twitter is about publishing. Twitter is about writing. And it’s about having fun, making connections and sharing things. Here are some ways I use Twitter and some ways I don’t!

I’ve made a focused effort to use Twitter a little more strategically since May as it tied in with some other business aims. And it’s started to work.

Don’t …

1. Thank me for following you. I don’t read DMs as I get over one hundred and fifty every day and it’s just not possible.
2. Get angry with me for not thanking you for following me.
3. Send me get rich quick schemes or introduce me to ‘Natasha.’ I’m fine thanks
4. Tweet every mundane details of your everyday life. Some is fine but I don’t need a running commentary of your daily life. No one does! No, really, they don’t.
5. Tweet embarrassing (for me to read) private details of your significant relationships. And your partner may not want it in the twittersphere either.
6. Moan, especially about Microsoft Word. You try and build a better office suite and see how far you get.
7. Start flame wars with people in twitter. They’re out there, just ignore them.

Do …

1. Use Hootsuite or Tweetdeck so you can track by keyword, monitor things, and share information quicker
2. Create lists like this http://twitter.com/ivanwalsh/thoughtleadership and follow all of these wonderful technical writers as they tweet.
3. Follow other lists like this http://twitter.com/tom_peters/cool-friends from @tom_peters
4. Retweet others tweets. This is the fastest way – by far – to increase your number of followers
5. Tweet things that are interesting. Such as… pictures, articles, websites, news items, exhibitions, shows, tutorials. You get the idea.  Share, share, share
6. Help others. Reach out to those who ask questions and see if you can point them in the right direction.
7. Tweet your own blog posts. I’m still amazed that so many business writers write so little. C’mon, folks get a blog like these guys.
8. Share quotes, sayings, and interesting thoughts.
9. Share jokes and humorous items. We all need a laugh during the day. I use Twitter at short breaks and catch up with friends. If you share something funny, I’ll pass it on to them.
10. Re-write tweets to make them more interesting. You’re a writer, go on, give it a go! Think of it as a challenge. How can I make this tweet more interesting?
11. Add hashtags like this #smb. But don’t go overboard. One is fine.
12. Track your Twitter stats on http://twittercounter.com/compare/ihearttechdocs/month/followers. This is my list. See how it’s grown in the past 30 days.
13. Think long-term. Remember that Rabbit and the Hare? Use Twitter for 15 minutes every day and stick with it.
14. Start conversations. Don’t always be in broadcast mode. Create a dialogue and get others to join in.Act as a conduit between different people.
15. Be the link that joins.
16. Parse your text back to 100 words. Why? So there is space for others to add to what you said.
17. Open with a question. This encourages others to think, consider, and act on what you said. Your goal is to get a response.
18. Add those who retweet you to your most important list. Retweet them every now and then.
19. Schedule tweets for 2am. Someone, somewhere is online at 2am. Don’t post at 9am when everyone arrives at the office. It will get lost in the deluge.
20. Tell people where you are. It adds a personal touch.
21. Connect Facebook to your Twitter account and also the other way around.

Write, re-tweet and be interesting.

What else?

I’m @ivanwalsh

I have a troll. Do you? We call him Spartacus. Trolls slither over the internet. They start as lurkers, then get brave, creep out and spit things at you. 10 out of 10 trolls feed on attention.

Negative or positive – they don’t care. Attention is the oxygen that keeps them going. Here’s the story of how I found my troll and what we may do next?

How did I get my troll?

I found him on LinkedIn. Or rather he found me. Then (this is true!) he popped up on my site. Odd, I thought, but ‘hey, it’s the web’. Then played peek-a-bo on Twitter (sad but true!) and back on my website again.

Little trolls fingers go click, click, click all day, looking for the next place to make a ‘stand’. Paradoxically, most trolls are highly-moral and like to sermonize. Middle-aged trolls especially. I guess the kids don’t listen to them at home, so they wander online.

Etymology of Trolls

Troll is possibly a truncation of the phrase trolling for suckers derived from the fishing technique of slowly dragging a baited hook from a moving boat, waiting for fish to strike, a technique known as trolling. The word also evokes the trolls portrayed in Scandinavian folklore and children’s tales, as they are often creatures bent on mischief and wickedness. The verb “troll” originates from Old French “troller”, a hunting term.

6 Signs of Trolls

1. Clinging to the high moral ground. They live there. Convenient, I guess.
2. Looking for a ‘fight’.
3. Having the last word. Trolls can’t rest unless they’ve had the final say thus…
4. Finishing tweets with the word PERIOD. Remember: it’s one-way traffic with these folks.
5. Warped pleasure in others misfortunes. Grammar police are often pseudo-trolls or apprentice trolls.
6. Quoting. Prepare to have biblical passages & Gandhi thrown at you. They’re better than you!

What to do with Trolls?

There are different ways to approach this:

1. Don’t correct them when they misquote passages.
2. Agree with them. This confuses the troll. What to do next?
3. Give them the last word and pray they go away.
4. ‘Even if this is true……’ and give your side
5. Although this is on-topic..’
6. Don’t DM your troll. Ever!
7. ‘Can you provide a source for this…’

We’ve nicknamed our troll Spartacus. He’s a bit of a joke at the table.

‘Any word from your Spartacus today?’

Over to you

Do you have a troll or trollette? How did you get rid of it? We’re hoping it will go away but sometimes I wonder what he’s doing now…

I’ve started to use my social networks more strategically rather than adopting a ‘shotgun approach’. In other words, I try to leverage each site by seeing the opportunities it offers and then using these. Recently, I’ve started to shift away from Facebook and moved to LinkedIn.

Ivan Walsh's Linkedin Profile page

5 Reasons You Should Leave Facebook and Join LinkedIn

What does LinkedIn offer that Facebook doesn’t? Here are five reasons to Leave Facebook and join LinkedIn instead.

1. Target Audience – the average age on Facebook is 20 something and female. It’s a great place to meet people, swap videos, and chat. But it’s not a business platform. LinkedIn’s average age is 41. Most everyone is a business professional trying to meet other business professionals. So, for me, this gives it a huge edge of Facebook.
2. Business Groups – LinkedIn is designed around business groups. You can join these and instantly connect with people with similar interest. On Facebook, there may be fan pages, but it’s often just that, fans! No real dialogue goes on.
3. Recommendations – you can build relationships with people on LinkedIn and once they know/trust/do business with you, will give you recommendations. These professional endorsements give you an element of credibility that you don’t get elsewhere. And while this can be abused (I recommend you if you recommend me) it does seem to work.
4. Integration with other platforms – you can connect to LinkedIn from multiple social media portals, such as BusinessWeek, AMEX Open Platform, and even from Facebook.
5. Knowledge Exchange – I’ve kept the best for last. The conversations I have on LinkedIn are with the best people in their fields. You can learn a huge amount just by listening. Ask questions and see what comes back. The quality is very high. And unlike other sites, the conversations rarely degenerate into slanging matches. You can also receive the comments by email every day or bundled into a single email every week.

I will highlight other business benefits in the coming weeks. These are the first that come to mind.

Your thoughts

What do you think of LinkedIn? How does it compare to other business sites you’ve used? What would you like to see changed in it? How could it be improved?

PS – You can view my profile here – http://www.linkedin.com/in/ivanwalsh

If you have multiple Twitter accounts, want to schedule your tweets, want to see stats on your tweets, and want it all in a new user interface, then try Hootsuite. I used to use TweetDeck but have moved to Hootsuite as it offers better stats and integration with Facebook. Here are 10 tips to get the most out of this desktop twitter client.

1. How to add multiple Twitter accounts

To add multiple Twitter accounts (ie profiles), click Settings and then the Social Networks tab.

Enter your Twitter credentials and it will display in a new tab (usually to the right).

2. How to allow an Editor (e.g. friend) to access a Twitter profile?

Once you have added an editor to your account, click the Social Networks tab in Settings. Select the Twitter profiles an editor can have access to.

Click the box next to the editor(s) name in order to grant access to the Twitter profile.

3. How to monitor my brands?

Set up a search column or a keyword column.

Click Add Column and enter the keywords you want to track. This column is displayed to the right of the screen.

4. How to add tabs?

To add a tab, click the [+] Add Tab button next to your current tabs .

Name it and decide how often you’d like that tab to refresh.

Hootsuite gives you 20 tabs – should be enough!.

5. How to add columns to tabs?

Click Add Column and choose which type of feed you’d like to add.

6. How to configure column options?

The Profile Feed lets you add your Home feed, Mentions feed, Pending tweets, Sent tweets, and Favorite tweets.

7. How to use Keyword Tracking

Enter the keyword and then hit Add.

Hootsuite lets you create customized Twitter searches and perform searches like “from:username” or @username

8. How to change refresh frequency?

Click Edit Tab and select the frequency.

The default is 30 min.

9. How to change the user interface layout

You can drag and drop the tabs to change thee layout.You can also drag/drop the columns in each profile.10 How to create a List?

Create a new column and click Lists.

Enter an existing list or create a new one.

Here I’ve added a LinkedIn list. This let’s me see all the people I have ‘tagged’ as having useful links/info regarding LinkedIn.

Do you know any other good Hootsuite tricks? If you do, please add them below.

Want to be on the very first page of Digg.com? You’d be famous, right? Here’s how to do it.

Link Bait has one specific aim — get me to the top of Digg.com. The idea is that once you get there, others will click through to your site and you can reap the rewards once they arrive. Of  course, it’s not that simple but if understand the mechanics of how Digg works —and what interests Diggers—then you’re one step closer.

So, pull up a chair, grab your coffee and sit back.

1. Study Digg – this is the number 1 mistake people make. They don’t hang out on Digg, get a feel for what’s happening and learn to judge what will work or not. So, sign up, log in and engage.

Why bother?

Well, it’s like writing a travel guide on Italy without ever having pizza on the Step of Rome. Once you’re there, everything makes more sense. Digg, Delicious and the rest are all the same.

Tip — if you want to succeed with link bait, focus on one site. Don’t spread yourself too thin.

Ok, you’ve signed up. Use a real name if possible, not greenpig715.

People relate to real names; they are more likely to dig you if you sound human than use an avatar. But there are exceptions, I know.

2. Create a Swap File.

A what?

This is a file where you will keep links, snippets of text and other link bait that impresses you.

Told you it would take some time!

Now, this isn’t hard. You just need a text file and then copy/paste in whatever stands out.

Why is this so important?

Ans: headlines.

3. Headlines

Look at the DIGG homepage. What do you see?

Headlines. Lots of them.

Copy and paste the top 10 headlines into your swap file. Do this as often as you can.

Notice anything?

Most of them are lists.

• 5 ways to sleep while working
• 7 ways to wash your iPod
• 10 ways to alienate your children

People like lists. And what else do they like?

4. Benefits

Give your heading an extra boost by adding a nice, juicy benefit.

For example,

• 5 beers that get you drunk faster & make you smarter
• 7 ways to break your iPod & get an instant refund
• 10 ways to alienate your children & win an award

You get the idea.

All of these are slightly idiotic but—here’s the thing—you’re tempted to see what’s on the other side of the link.

5. Write to be scanned

No-one reads on the web, they all scan.

So, write to be scanned.

Write your article or blog post so that readers will scan down through the article — like you’re doing now — go, “yeah, I like this” and then, fingers crossed, hit the DIGG IT button and do us all a good deed.

Sounds to easy. It is. You need to also…

6. Add ‘off-beat’ images

Avoid PC junk. Add an image that captures the mood and will appeal to the reader. Something with an edge but not too risky.

Humor also works. Get it wrong and you look lame.

7. Credibility

It takes time but if you join other networks and comment on others post, guess what?

They’ll hang out with you and give you a few digs. This does work but it’s a really slow way to generate link bait. It does work, but, well, it’s not for me.

8 & 9  Test & Re-Test

Here’s something I do and it works.

Write a 300 word article. About anything. Doesn’t matter.

Spend 20 min and come up with 20 variation on the same headline. Have fun. Shuffle the words upside down, inside out and back to front.

It’s yours to play with. Enjoy it.

• Mon – submit the 1^st headline. On Wed, record the Diggs.
• Thurs – change the headline and submit it. Record the Diggs.
• Sat — change again and submit it. Record the Diggs.

And so on…

Then what happens?

Patterns begin to emerge. Some headings bomb.

No-one clicks on them.

Not even your Mom, kids or pet Labrador, Caesar.

Others take off!

Paste these into your swap file (remember him) and use this as a starting point.

Twitter is also another way to test headlines.

Remember – No-one bookmarks tweets.

It you know how to write, people will click thru.

And finally…

10. Practice

Like all things, the more you practice, the better you get.

Focus on writing amazing headlines, develop super-sharp content, and you’ll get the Diggs.

Want to know more?

Top Diggs of the year

7 Days – http://digg.com/all/popular/7days

365 Days – http://digg.com/all/popular/365days

Check these out and you can see what people are interested in. These are the big hitters.

Avoid news of the day type material. The web is saturated before you even get there.

Write, submit, Digg.

What do you think?

What’s the best example you’ve seen of link bait? Was it the words or the images?

Zachary M. Seward http://www.niemanlab.org writes that The Huffington Post applies A/B testing to some of its headlines. Readers are randomly shown one of two headlines for the same story. After five minutes, which is enough time for such a high-traffic site, the version with the most clicks becomes the wood that everyone sees.

Put the Author’s name above a headline to get more clicks

Paul Berry, Chief Technology Officer at The Huffington Post, said Huffington Post editors have found that “placing the author’s name above a headline almost always leads to more clicks than omitting it.”

Also, The Huffington Post’s new social media editor, Josh Young, has also been soliciting better headlines from readers on Twitter. Interesting use of Crowd-sourcing?

Takeaway

The Huffington Post is considering separate East Coast and West Coast editions.

Why?

Take the Oscars, It’s old news to East Coast readers by noon, but fresh for the West Coasters logging on.

Read more here: http://www.niemanlab.org/2009/10/how-the-huffington-post-uses-real-time-testing-to-write-better-headlines/

Will real-time rating lead to “better” headlines or more popular ones?

Dustin Curtis likes experiments. He re-arranged the words Follow Me on Twitter and the position of the hyperlink to see if it would increase the number of followers, i.e. click-throughs. Changing the text increased the clickthrough rate from 4.7% to 12.81%. Here’s how he did it.

At the bottom of his posts, there’s a phrase with a link to his Twitter account.

He started by “using commands instead of statements for guiding users.” The idea was to test what he calls “forceful phrasing”.

Using a Statement

a. “I’m on Twitter” 4.70%

The original phrasing led to a 4.70% clickthrough rate.

Using a command

a. “Follow me on Twitter” 4.70%

The clickthrough rate increased by 55% to 7.31%.

Note: Using a lower case “t” for Twitter led to a slightly higher rate of clicks (up to 6% more).

Using a stronger personal command

c. “You should follow me on twitter.” 10.09%

Using the words “you should” increased the clickthrough rate by 38% to 10.09%.

Adding the literal callout “here”

d. “You should follow me on twitter here.” 12.81%

Adding “here” as the link at the end of the phrase increased the clickthrough rate by 27% to 12.81%.

To recap:

“You” identifies the reader directly,

“should” implies an obligation, and

“follow me on twitter” is a direct command.

Moving the link to a literal callout “here” provides a clear location for clicking.

He tried other permutations that dulled the command, for example, using “please” in place of “should” and made the whole sentence a link. None performed as well as the final sentence.

You should read his article here

http://dustincurtis.com/you_should_follow_me_on_twitter.html

For those of you with an interest in social media and real-time data distribution, Adobe’s Andrew Shorten talks to Iain Dodsworth, founder of TweetDeck, about his experiences of developing this AIR application and how using Adobe technology contributed to TweetDeck’s success. See this intervieww withTweetdeck_Founder

RJ Jacquez shares the line-up for this year’s Adobe Learning Summit 09 and gives us 11 reasons why you should consider joining us on November 9th in San Jose, CA.

1. Shantanu Narayen, Adobe’s CEO, will open the conference

Shantanu will speak about Adobe’s commitment to the field of eLearning.

2. Clay Shirky will deliver the Keynote

Author of Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations

3. Learn Best Practices from top eLearning Customers

Best practices and lessons learned from Xerox, Rexi Media, Franklin Covey, Florida Dept. of Law Enforcement, Thomson Reuters, Constellation Wines, Brookwood

4. Be the first to see a sneak peek of Adobe Captivate for MAC

RJ will deliver a sneak peek session at the conference, showcasing Adobe’s development progress of Adobe Captivate for MAC.

5. Meet Adobe

Throughout the conference, you will have the opportunity to meet Adobe employees who work specifically on the Adobe eLearning Suite, Captivate, Acrobat and Acrobat Connect Pro. Furthermore, during the closing general session, attendees will have an opportunity to pose their questions to the Adobe experts.

6. Network

This is your opportunity to meet and network with other eLearning Professionals who use the same eLearning toolbox that you do, and who are likely thinking about the same things you are, Social Media, Informal Learning, Virtual Classrooms, Rapid eLearning, Twitter, Mobile Learning, etc. Speaking of Twitter, if you haven’t done so, please consider signing up and be ready to tweet your view of the conference by using the #als09 hashtag.

7. Adobe Captivate Beginner and Advanced sessions

Regardless of your level of expertise with Adobe Captivate, there are plenty of session to take your knowledge to the next level.

8. Adobe eLearning Suite

This conference is a great opportunity for you to learn more about the benefits of the Adobe eLearning Suite and how all the tools in the Suite are well-integrated and provide everything you need to create rich eLearning experiences.

9. Connect Pro as a Learning Management System

Both Peter Ryce and Randah McKinnie, from the Adobe Connect Pro team, will be on hand at the conference and will also deliver presentations on why Acrobat Connect Pro Training is a great LMS solution and Tips and Tricks for delivering Virtual classrooms respectively.

10. Check out what participants said about last year’s Adobe Learning Summit

Last year’s conference was a smashing success. Check out what participant’s said about last year’s conference. Click HERE

11. Adobe Learning Summit 09 is co-located with DevLearn 09

I know I said 10 reasons, but here’s an extra one. This year’s ALS conference takes place on November 9th and is co-located with DevLearn 09, which begins the very next day, 09/10, so if you are going to DevLearn, please consider also attending the Adobe Learning Summit.
Click here to learn more: http://blogs.adobe.com/rjacquez/

Jing Pro lets you make a high-definition video recording of what you see on your PC, which you can then email, Twitter, send to Facebook, Flickr, or YouTube. It’s brilliant. But, there’s a catch. There a free versions (which does most everything) and a premium version.

So, if the free version is so good, should you upgrade?

There are some limitation and restrictions on Jing Pro.

Jing  Pro Limitations

Here’s a few to start with.

Tip: Complete list of features is here.

1 It doesn’t let you edit proxy settings within the JING application. So, if you are behind a firewall or need to reconfigure on the road, it may get tricky.

2. You can’t use it as a standalone app without connecting to Screencast.com.

3. You need to be online as it’s web-based. Fine at work but not much good when you don’t have web access or if the web goes down.

4. When it does go down, you need to re-enter your username and password again. This became such a pain for me that I stopped using it and went back to SnagIt.

5. There is still a 5 minute limitation. So, if you’ve video is more than this, you’re out of luck.

Jing  Pro Advantages

The Pro version is fine if you don’t want to upgrade to Camtasia Studio but want an easy-to-use video-capturing software, for sharing videos on YouTube/Facebook.

Jing is very good at what it does and for $15 per year is not so expensive.

For light-weight users, the Free version should be fine. You can take nice screenshots, small videos and upload to Screencast.com which also offers 2 GB of storage space.

On the downside, the Free version support only SWF format while Jing Pro supports SWF ands MPEG-4 video, which is required for YouTube HD.

Should you buy the Pro version?

No.

Of all the limitations the 5 minute restriction is the biggest barrier. Actually, this is the main reason I have not signed up. If this was raised to 15 minutes, then yes, I’d signup. But 5 minutes is too short!

Simon makes this point on the blog: “In the above “94 Comments” 5 min is mentioned over 50 times … I think that you should listen to the user group and as I stated before: “drop the time limit on the Pro version and you will make conversions of people from free version to Pro version, and at the end of the day some $$$”

Matt adds “great job with the Jing project. The idea for allowing users to cut down videos to 5 minutes is a good alternative. The problem you may face is losing the beauty of simplicity that Jing offers and still leaves the 5 minute constraint.”

But the bottom line is that the 5 minute time limitation is a show-stopper.

Leonardos Bardelotto says that “5 min is bad, but they want to sell the Camtasia for bigger time and much more money.”

I agree.

This is the real limitation on this product. I‘ve flagged it on their site. Most others seem to agree and have encouraged them to make it free to get more market share.

There are so many free apps out there that charging for this – and the overheads that go with it – don’t seem to justify this decision.

But, it’s they’re product.

What do you think? Have you tried it yet?

PS: here is a quick list of the key features

• Screenshots directly to Snagit where you can edit the image.
• Publish it Screencast.com where you can store, file, organize and track the videos.
• Edit Jing created screencasts in Camtasia Studio. You can also combine multiple videos into a single video, or string several together with a table of contents.
• Create different Jing folders on Screencast.com, by topic/project/client.
• Adjust the video’s size to fit your blog or website.
• Centralize conversations and comments with the new commenting feature.
• Annotate captured images with arrows, callouts, text and highlights to add emphasis
• Narrate Jing-recorded screencast videos for even greater clarity before sharing
• Generate HTML code to so you can embed it on your blog or website
• Customize the sharing buttons so those they use most are only a click away.
• Screencasts are delivered in HD-quality video for the Web
• Jing logos and links are removed from the start and end of newly-recorded videos.
• Publish directly to YouTube, Vimeo, Viddler and MSN Video, Flickr
• Jing Pro produces MPEG-4 AVC video files for Flash delivery with H.264+AAC compression.

From Adobe Tech Communication RJ Jacquez, ” I don’t think it would be an overstatement to say that thanks to Social Media, we are experiencing a fundamental shift in the way we discover, share and consume information. This was the topic of my closing presentation at this year’s Technical Communication UK.”

He just read how Dell took social media mainstream and there was one thing in particular which stood out to him, namely “On Twitter, word spreads like wildfire, and companies no longer have the option of ignoring the conversation.”

He (or Adobe) estimate that new technical information is doubling every 18 months with much of this content being user-generated.

To get you started, he is hosting a Twitter 101 session for Technical Communicators, where I will share from personal experience how you can become the go-to person for your customers looking for technical information about your products and services.

Click HERE for more information and to Register.

eSeminar: Twitter 101 for Technical Communicators

RJ Jacquez shares this tip for sharing large files on Twitter.

“If you are on Twitter, you know how easy it is to share photos with your followers, as well as URLs; and in fact many Twitter desktop clients, such as TweetDeck, make it as easy as drag-and-drop because they include built-in support for services like TwitPic and Bit.ly.

However sharing large files with your Twitter followers isn’t yet integrated into these applications and it can be quite confusing to most people.”

RJ recorded the following short how-to video, where he goes over how the free Acrobat.com Share service can be used to store and share large files with your Twitter followers.

Click HERE to watch the how-to video on Sharing Large files on Twitter via Acrobat.com

You can now link your Flickr account to Twitter, allowing you to send photos in real-time to this very powerful social media application. Before you start, you might want to read the tips on getting started over on the Flickr Twitter Beta site. It’s an easy read and you’re bound to pick up some nice tips there. So, how do I link my Flickr and Twitter accounts? Here’s how you do it.
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Step 1. Authorize posting to your Twitter account

You’ll need to authorize your Twitter account. Flickr doesn’t ask you for your Twitter username and password, but it does need to give Flickr permission to post to your Twitter account.

You can undo this as any time.

1. Go to www.flickr.com/account/blogs/add/twitter

2. Click the Head over to Twitter link.

This sends you to Twitter where you authorize the connection between the two apps.

If you aren’t already logged in you’ll be asked to do so. If you don’t have an account, then you need to setup an account, obviously.

Step 2. Click ‘Allow’ to give Flickr access to your Twitter account

Important: This step does not allow Flickr to go in and change your account settings or anything like that. It’s just allowing them to talk to each other and send messages from one system to the other.

1. Click Allow.

Step 3. Twitter sends you back to Flickr

Nothing for you to do here – except enjoy that nice warm feeling that something (for once) is working without a hitch.

Step 3. Ready to Go. You can now start Twittering from within Flickr

Actually, you have a few options here depending on how you want to do.

From Mobile Devices

Open up the address book in your mobile device and add your unique email+Twitter address. This is just your existing upload by email address with “2twitter” added.

From Flickr.com

Once you’ve authorized Flickr, you can Tweet photos either using the “Blog This” button, the API, or Uploaded by Email.

Via Email

When you upload via email, the subject line becomes your Twitter tweet, and a short URL to the photo is appended (added on).

Example Flickr Twitter

Here’s an example from Kellan’s Twitter account of what a post looks like: twitter.com/kellan/status/2062931580

A few other things

As they have added the Flickr URL, use 116 characters and not 140.

As it’s in Beta, they have yet to create FAQs, add this feature to your Account page and “Blog this” is available in English only (until launch).

Flickr/Twitter integration is still in BETA.

They’re always looking for feedback in the Flickr Twitter Beta group.

Link: http://www.flickr.com/groups/flickrtwitterbeta/

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Chris Brogan (read and bookmark!) just hit a new milestone.

He’s now getting over 600 emails a day on average. 50% were people asking me his time, 25% were “really nice people,” 20% were business opportunities, and 5% were friends. A quick bit of math: if he answered 1 email a minute, 600 emails would take me 10 hours to answer.

The thing is, we’re all busy. We all have tons of email. We have no time to get it all handled.

But what will you do to get your email answered (for the most part)?

I’ve got a few thoughts, and this relates to some of what Julien Smith and I talked about in Trust Agents: Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation, and Earn Trust.

If you want to improve your chances of an email being answered by someone (like me), here are some thoughts and ideas.

How to Get Your Email Answered

1. Brevity.

I have no time for huge rambling emails. Lead with what you need from me. Fill me in on the backstory (if you feel you must), and then end again with what you need from me. (Most imporant part: lead with what you need from me).

2. Connectivity.

If you talk with me on other platforms (like comment on my blog or talk with me on Twitter or Facebook), then I’m much more likely to know who you are.

3. Skip the flattery.

PR types: starting with “I love your blog” and then pitching me something I could care less about is a bit of a mismatch. You clearly don’t understand my blog if you’re pitching me stories that don’t relate to what I’m doing.

4. Get right to it.

Most emails have about 200 words of throat-clearing. Feel free to just be brief and to the point.

5. Make it mutually beneficial.

It’s very nice that you want me to help you get attention, but it’s rare that this does anything for me. Is there anything you’re going to do for my community to make this more worthwhile for them to care about you?

6. Make every email about resolving to a close.

I hate open-ended emails. Examples: “what would you like for lunch tomorrow?” Instead, how about, “I’m thinking about either tapas or Korean BBQ tomorrow. Do you have a preference?” One makes things close faster. The other makes the message linger.

7. Give the right lead time.

Asking me for something today is probably not going to happen. Asking me for something in three months is going to be forgotten. Think more in terms of two weeks for a typical response, or two or three months for something involving travel. Make sense?

8. Equip a trust agent.

It’s easier to get some kind of response by having someone who knows your target person introduce you.

What else? What else do you think will help?

By the way, since I started my contact form, I’ve found that I *love* responding to information that goes through it. It resolves to a Google spreadsheet, and I can bang out several dozen answers a minute on the form.

Get Your Email Answered: http://www.chrisbrogan.com/get-your-email-answered/

Read: Trust Agents: Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation, and Earn Trust

Twitter Tools lets you integrates your blog with Twitter, so that every time you publish an article, it is automatically sent to Twitter. Even better, it can setup a daily and weekly blog post listing all the tweets you sent. One small thing is that the default setting for the blog posts is “New Blog Post”. Luckily, you can change this. Here’s how.

What it does

• Archive your Twitter tweets (downloaded every 10 minutes)
• Create a blog post from each of your tweets
• Create a daily or weekly digest post of your tweets
• Create a tweet on Twitter whenever you post in your blog, with a link to the blog post
• Post a tweet from your sidebar
• Post a tweet from the WP Admin screens
• Pass your tweets along to another service (via API hook)

It’s brilliant except for one small detail. Every post from your site shows up in Twitter with ‘New Blog Post:’ as its prefix. Luckily, it’s easy to change this (once you know how!)

How do I change the ‘New Blog Post:’ prefix when my new posts get tweeted?

You have to change one line in the plug-in file.

1. Click Plugins.

2. Select Twitter-tools.

3. Look for the file – twitter-tools.php.

This is located in Plugins/twitter-tools/twitter-tools.php.

4. Scroll down to $this->tweet_prefix=”New Blog Post”

5. Change ‘New Blog Post:’ to whatever you want, for example, ‘Tips‘.

6. Click Update File.

Congrats. Your file has been updated successfully.

Alex King, the developer explains that “The reason this is done this way, and not as an easily changeable option from the admin screen, is so that the plugin correctly identifies the tweets that originated from previous blog posts when creating the digest posts, displaying the latest tweet, displaying sidebar tweets, and creating blog posts from tweets (you don’t want tweets that are blog post notifications being treated like tweets that originated on Twitter).”

Read more at http://alexking.org/projects/wordpress/readme?project=twitter-tools

Ben Parr (Mashable) asks: “Say your project manager comes to you with his proposal that will be going out to investors, business partners, and potential clients.

Then you find that your manager has used “4” instead of “four”, “r” instead of “are”, and abbreviations such as lol, atm, and idk.

How would you react? “How To Mind Your Grammar On The Web.

When is it appropriate to use this type of language shorthand?

Ben has come up with this short guide on grammar on the web for business:

Do: Understand your audience and understand your company’s personality, especially when communicating with customers.

Do: Utilize some forms of Internet shorthand while tweeting.  Occasionally abbreviating to fit within the limit is an acceptable practice

Do: Be Authentic. If you’re known as someone that uses shorthand and you’re comfortable with that, then you shouldn’t do a complete 360 in your communications.

Don’t: Use Internet shorthand in emails.  It doesn’t matter whether it’s a customer, an employee, or a potential business client.

Don’t: Use Internet shorthand in business-to-business communication. This includes Facebook, Twitter direct messages, and email.

Ben: http://www.openforum.com/grammar-on-the-web-some-rules-of-thumb-for-business-ben-parr

To this I would add:

• Think Local: don’t write localize (US) when it’s localise for those in the UK
• Jargon – avoid using insider speak that only you and your company use.
• TLA – cut out three-letter-acronyms. Sometimes it’s fine, but if you are going to use it, then make sure you spell it out somewhere in your report, preferably near the start. Otherwise, no-one will have clue when you’re ranting on about.
• Small words are fine. Don’t try to impress people with multi-syllable words and strange noun structures. Keep it simple.

What’s the most common grammar mistake you see on the web?

Kim-Mai Cutler reports that Whuffie Bank wants to build a virtual currency based on reputation that can be redeemed for goods and services.
Whuffie is based on the currency in Cory Doctorow’s novel “Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom” where goods are abundant and scarcity has ended.

To use the app, log-in using Twitter and Facebook, and The Whuffie Bank assigns you a ranking and a number of “Whuffies” based on your network.

For example, the more retweets you get, the higher your reputation becomes or the more followers you have, the “richer” you become.

Venturebeat: http://digital.venturebeat.com/2009/09/15/tc50-whuffie-bank-wants-a-new-currency-based-on-social-reputation/

• What is a User Guide? http://post.ly/1EV7 #
• Posterous test – please ignore http://post.ly/1EV7 #
• PayPal – UK Online spending to hit $40 Billion by 2011 http://post.ly/1FPT #
• Indian e-payment market worth $150 Billion http://post.ly/1FTY #

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