Using Twitter for Social Media Updates
July 28, 2008 at 6:19 pm (Social Media, Tips and Tricks) (applications, facebook, myspace, twitter)
Twitter is a bit controversial. Some people love the quick access to information dispersal. Others feel overwhelmed by the tweet overloads. Personal opinions aside, I have found a very useful way to use twitter.
One problem with social media sites like myspace and facebook is the high probability that your page will get stale. There are little commenting games and applications that you can fiddle with, but in general, otherpeople don’t really care about that. But if you connect twitter to these accounts, new doors open.
Imagine including a new link with a brief descriptor in your twitter account. Using the magic of technology, you can hook that twitter account into a myspace presentation box and your facebook activity log. When you insert your link, it immediately appears as fresh content on your social media pages. On top of that, through facebook, all your friends will be made aware of your update and new link on their homepage.
It’s a pretty nifty little method. To start integrating twitter into your accounts, check out this page for facebook, and this page for myspace.
Gather – A New Social Media Site (for me, anyway)
July 16, 2008 at 8:19 pm (Opinion, Social Media, review) (gather, Social Media, wine group)
I recently got involved with Gather, a new social media site. It seems like Facebook with a slant for publication.
Gather invites users to create profiles, and to post writing, images, and other original works on their site. I found this interesting both from a writing and SEO perspective, as it allows for increased brand visibility and external links. This opportunity could be valuable for writers trying to get their work out, or for marketing folks who want to improve their brand.
Diving right in, I found the sign-up and profile creation process fairly painless. They allow for a wide variety of personal info and images, should one be interested in utilizing it.
But what really interested me was the group and content creation. I searched for existing wine groups and only found a few scant ones in existence. I saw this as a potential opening and created The Gather Wine Group. I was able to create the group no problem and invite a bunch of potential friends through their invite program.
I did encounter one issue though – it is difficult to find particular people, or people of a particular interest, to invite to the group. There were a few profiles that I knew about and tried to find through their search element and failed. That is something that seems to need the kinks worked out.
Overall, I think Gather is worth a peek. The community seems very vibrant and willing to interact and publish new material. I don’t think it is revolutionizing any mediums…but still…not bad at all.
