Profitable Mommy Blogging » Social Networking

Social Bookmarking: StumbleUpon

Amber Passey — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 05:48:48 +0000

This week we are exploring social bookmarking. Social bookmarking is a great way to keep track online of sites you like and a great way to drive traffic to your site. The first social bookmarking site we’ll look at is StumbleUpon. This site is fascinating and rather addicting.

Here’s how it works

You sign up for an account with StumbleUpon. You fill out your profile including keywords related to your interests. Now you have two options.

Option 1: Let StumbleUpon show you different sites people have liked that are related to your keywords. Simply click Like It! if you want to see more posts along the same lines or Thumbs Down if it’s not for you. Then stumble onto the next website.
Option 2: Go out to your favorite blogs and websites and add them to StumbleUpon. You can choose to add a review to the page when you stumble it.

Here’s how it affects traffic

Typically when a post or page on your site is stumbled, you’ll see a dramatic increase in traffic within minutes. It’s amazing how quickly the traffic pours in. It’s great to be stumbled! The down side is that this traffic often bounces. You get a lot of traffic, but they don’t tend to stick around. A few people will hang out and click around your site or follow a link in your post, but don’t expect many people to do this kind of browsing on your site. Most people who use StumbleUpon are in pure surfing mode and are poised to click the “Stumble” button, not the “post a comment” button.

Is it worth it?

Yes, it’s worth it! Even if only a handful of people browse your site and even fewer subscribe to your RSS feed, that’s still more than zero. Plus it keeps track of sites you find and like so you can refer back to them later when you want to link to them in a post.

Additional Features

You can add friends in StumbleUpon and then subscribe to their StumbleUpon RSS feed so you can see what sites they are interested in. You can advertise your site through StumbleUpon. Based on a pay-per-click model, you can drive traffic to your site by asking StumbleUpon to specifically send people to you. Once a few people have given you positive reviews, be sure to remove your site from the advertisement pool so that you don’t continue to pay for traffic that can now be generated from the previous positive reviews.
photo credit: topgold

Social Bookmarking

Amber Passey — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 04:59:20 +0000

I was recently introduced to the term social bookmarking. As I’ve explored the networks associated with social bookmarking I’ve become a huge fan! Since social bookmarking has unique characteristics which differ from social networking, I thought it would be valuable to define social bookmarking and spend a few posts discussing social bookmarking sites individually.

What Is Social Bookmarking?

You’re surfing through the Internet. You find a blog and follow a link to another blog which links to another blog with a super perfect and timely post. You want to capitalize on this information in your own blog. You leave a great comment introducing yourself and find another interesting blog in the comments. You click on that link which leads to another link and before you know it, you have moved several blogs away from that awesome post. You try to retrace your steps but you can’t find that post anywhere.

Social bookmarking is the solution to this problem! You can add that amazing post to one of several sites dedicated to keeping track of what you like online. Instead of cluttering up your toolbar or creating a bookmark menu a mile long, you are able to keep track of all these places you want to visit again through an online site. Thus you’ve bookmarked your find.

The social aspect comes because now you can share your list of bookmarks with friends, fellow bloggers, the entire online community. You can help promote posts, products or any other content that you feel is important and beneficial in some way. You are interacting with people, engaging them in your online community.

This sharing also provides links to pages and helps them get indexed by search engines. It also drives traffic to those pages because people are interested in what others are finding of value online. Can you see the potential for driving traffic to your own site? But, it’s not as effective if you are the only one bookmarking your sites or if you’re only bookmarking your own sites. Invite others to bookmark your post and bookmark others’ sites, too.

Social media is about connecting with people and sharing valuable content. Social bookmarking is just another way to connect with your community and build relationships that lead to trust.

Pop Quiz!

Name three social bookmarking sites. No research, just off the top of your head.
Extra credit if you already have accounts with them!

Intro To Social Networking

Amber Passey — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 04:37:26 +0000

Here’s a quick overview of social networking.

This video is a couple years old so we now have Twitter in the limelight while MySpace has lost popularity blog promotion.

Prior to watching this video, I hadn’t considered how our social network’s potential is hidden in real life.

For me, my local community is an important place to build readership and work with local brands. I need to be more proactive in uncovering these networks when I can’t access them on Facebook or Twitter.

What potential are you overlooking in your social network?

Developing Your Brand in Two Steps

Amber Passey — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 04:49:47 +0000

As a blogger we are part of an online community. Since blogging is a social act, we often extend our social activity outside of our blog and venture into other communities like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and niche specific forums or communities.

As we visit each place, networking and building relationships with readers and fellow bloggers, we want people to know who we are from place to place. I want people to know that I am Amber Passey on Twitter and that I’m that same Amber Passey on Facebook.

There are two easy things you can do to be consistent which will help people recognize you as they move from community to community. By the way, as people connect with you in different communities they are able to see all the sides of you, your blog and your business. This builds trust as they see you be consistent in your values and behavior.

Step One: Choose the Same User Name

As you sign up for different communities, choose the same user name or ID to have appear next to your activity in the community. You can choose your name or your blog name. There are merits to each depending on your goals. But for branding yourself, the important key is to be consistent.

I use the same user name whenever that user name is available (which it has been so far every time I’ve signed up for a new community.) When people see the same user name in two different places it rings a bell and they feel connected to that person because they’ve seen that name before.

Step Two: Use the Same Picture

To solidify the connection people make between communities when you have the same user name, always use the same picture. Again, this could be a picture of you or the button or logo for your blog. In social media, though, it’s about connecting with people so I would lean toward a personal picture rather than your logo.

Seeing the same picture with the same user name eliminates any question about you being the same person in each community. You now have a brand that people will recognize. As you participate in these communities and people get to know you, they will begin to trust your opinions and recommendations.

How to Attend a Twitter Party

Amber Passey — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 02:12:52 +0000

And benefit from it!

A while back Twitter parties hit their peak of popularity and then were criticized by severely for a variety of reasons. Namely that Twitter parties increase the number of conversations during a set time thus “polluting” the Twitter stream with irrelevant content. Another gripe is that Twitter parties promote brands in an ineffective way and just bug the people not interested in participating. One final complaint I saw a lot was that people participating in Twitter parties were often rude or aloof to questions about the Twitter party.

I explain all this so you understand the reputation these parties have developed for themselves in order that you can make an informed choice about attending or not attending a Twitter party. While I understand to some extent the complaints I’ve mentioned regarding Twitter parties, I believe there is merit to them, especially for Twitter users trying to find people to have conversations with.

How to Attend a Twitter Party

Refreshing your home page at Twitter.com is not going to cut it given the speed at which Twitter parties travel through the Twitter stream. My favorite way to attend a Twitter party is with TweetGrid.com. Choose a 1×3 grid to help you follow the conversation better. In the first column enter the hashtag of the party (e.g., #gno). In the second column enter From:”TwitterID” of the host and panel members of the party. In the third column enter @”yourTwitterID” to see when people talk to you.

How to Participate in a Twitter Party

To follow the main conversation, refer to your middle column where you’ll see what the panel members and host are saying. You can respond to the questions posed there or make comments on the answers the panel give. to respond, hover your cursor over the tweet in the box. Blue arrows will appear in the bottom along with some other symbols. Click on the left-pointing arrow and it will put the @”username” in the Tweet box for you. If you click the right-pointing arrow, it will retweet the message by putting the message in the Tweet box for you then you just Tweet!

Use the left column to see what other attendees are saying. Find comments that you have soemthing to add to, even if it’s just “Me, too!” and reply to them. this helps get you into a conversation. It’s not necessary to talk to everyone at the party. Look for tweets that seem to match your personality and reply to those people. Just like social networking in real life, you need to be interesting and add to the conversation. This will encourage people to respond to you and engage in conversation with you.

Look for people talking to you in the third column. Here you’ll see people talking to you or responding to your tweets to them. The benefit of a Twitter party is to find new people to engage in conversation with on Twitter. Try to keep the conversation going.

What to Do After the Party

Go back through your tweets and follow the people you sent @replies to. Then, and most importantly, go through your @replies and follow all the people who talked to you. This is how you acknowledge your conversation with them and say, “Hey, I thought you were interesting. I’m going to remember who you are so we can chat in the future.” Then, be sure to read their tweets from time to time and respond to them. Also, feel free to initiate conversations with your new acquaintances so they can become friends and allies in your online world.

Social Media For Beginners

Amber Passey — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 02:35:36 +0000

I found this terrific video that explains social media using a simple allegory.

It’s a great introduction to Social Media and will serve as a solid foundation for exploring this topic more in depth.

How do you participate in social media?

Do you blog, podcast or vlog?
Do you provide feedback?
Do you use feedback to improve your business?

5 Things To Do When Setting Up Your Twitter Account

Amber Passey — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 04:18:41 +0000

Taking the plunge into the Twitterverse can be a little intimidating, not to mention a bit overwhelming. By following these 5 steps when setting up your Twitter account, you’ll get started on the right foot and be one step closer to developing a strong presence on Twitter. By the way, the first four are what I look at in deciding to follow someone on Twitter. If they are missing this information, I usually don’t follow.

1. Choose Twitter ID

There’s a choice to make here. Do you use your personal name or your blog’s name for your Twitter ID? there are pros and maybe some cons to each. I use my name because I feel most like myself that way. Also, I want to be known as an expert in my niche and I want people to know MY name, not just my blog.

Using your blog name helps build the brand of your blog. It helps people connect that you on Twitter is the same as you on your blog. However, Twitter IDs are only 15 characters long so you may need to do some tweaking.

Speaking of character length. Here are a few things to keep in mind. Longer names are harder to remember, especially if they include numbers that appear random. You may know that 985 is your anniversary, but no one else does and will therefore have a harder time remembering the numbers. Also, shorter names leave more characters for conversation. This is particularly important when you ask people to retweet.

2. Add Your Website

Once you click through the pages on adding followers, you are directed to your Home page. In the top menu bar on the right click on Settings. Here you’ll add your website. This is important for getting Twitter followers/potential followers to visit your blog. Avoid using a MySpace page and never, never, NEVER use your Twitter page as your website.

3. Add Your One Line Bio

Describe yourself in 160 characters. Don’t be too fancy, but please make it readable. Long lists of hobbies or areas of expertise don’t draw me in. Say something unique about you. Also include what topics you like to discuss.

While on this tab you can also add your location. This is important if you are building a network based on where you live. If you want to be invited to those cool blogger events, people need to know where you live! I am also turned off of a profile when the location is sarcastic or overly general: the universe, for example.

4. Add Your Profile Picture

This is so incredibly important, I cannot stress it enough. Add your pic. Before you tweet. Before you follow people. Add that picture! Click on the Picture tab at the top of the Setting page. Upload a pic that you like. If you don’t have one, use your computer’s camera and take one now. It’s that important.

As I mentioned earlier, I look at all this information when making the decision about following someone. I’ll give a new Tweep a chance if they have this filled out and match my interest, even if they don’t have many tweets yet.

5. Set Up TweetBeep

TweetBeep is a nifty little service that sends you an email notification if someone sends you and @ message on Twitter. Twitter sends you an email if someone sends you a DM, but as far as I know, TweetBeep is the only way to know that someone said something to you publicly on Twitter without checking your Twitter home page. In fact, you can set up notification for any information that’s tweeted that you want to know about.

Finally You’re Ready to Start Tweeting

Now you may send our your first tweet. Make it interesting. Make it relevant to your blog audience since that’s who you’re hoping to attract on Twitter. It’s also great to start with a conversation. Shows you know people on Twitter and lends a bit of authority and authenticity to your presence. If you’re just starting, you can talk to me, @ajpassey, in your first tweet. I’ll respond, I promise! Even if it’s not your first, you can talk to me {wink, wink}

How to Have a Successful Cross Blog Conversation

Kelly — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 17:25:48 +0000

I love a great Cross Blog Conversation.

I first learned the concept from Liz Strauss of Successful-Blog.com. I had my first Cross Blog Conversation with my pal Nicole Dean. You can see the thread of our conversations here:

Nicole then Kelly then Nicole then Kelly then Nicole then Kelly then Nicole then Kelly

Awhile later, I had another great conversation with Reba Collins of Internet Marketing Boomer. I made up a cute little graphic for my posts.

Kelly then Reba then Kelly then Reba then Kelly then Reba then Kelly then Reba then Kelly

A CBC can last forever if both bloggers wish, but in both of these examples, our Cross Blog Conversation ended without closure. We got busy and lost track of what we were doing. The lesson I’ve picked up from that is to have a firm beginning and ending – so both sides know how long they’re committing to participate and know when it is finished.

Here’s the plan:

You write a post that first explains what a Cross Blog Conversation is, then tells your readers who you’ll be conversing with. Finally, you’ll write a section like a letter composed directly to your conversation partner, ending with a question for them to answer.
Now, on their blog – they will let their readers know that they have been engaged in a Cross Blog Conversation. They will link back to your explanation and question. Then they will write a section directly to you, answering your question and closing with a question for you.
Now, on your blog – you will let readers know that you’re continuing the Cross Blog Conversation, link to their answer and question – then write a section directly to your CBC partner, answering their quesion and asking another of your own.
Now it’s their turn. They link to your question, answer it and ask another.
Now it’s your turn. You link to their question, answer it and ask another.
Now it’s their turn. They link to your question, answer it and ask another, letting readers know this is their last one.
Now it’s your turn – answer their last question and close the CBC with a special thank you for their participation.

It would be great if you created a final wrap up post that lists all of the posts in order so that those who come upon it later can catch up on the whole conversation.

Some Tips for Success:

Have fun with your Cross Blog Conversation. Ask engaging questions that will inspire answers that people really care about! Don’t ask dull questions that have been asked a hundred times before.

Keep your attention on the other blogger and write TO them, not to your readers. The idea is to create a voyeuristic situation where others are observing.

If you don’t know your CBC partner very well, a quick phone or Skype conversation is in order. Get to know each other a little bit, that will help you create a great friendly tone in your blog posts.

Here are some more Cross Blog Conversations for you to check out:

Debbie then Jill then Debbie then Jill then Debbie then Jill then Debbie

Jamie then Edie then Jamie then Edie then Jamie then Edie

Breaking News From MomDot

Jendi — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 14:46:54 +0000

Want more exposure for your blog? You can be a contributor on MomDot.com. Here’s an announcement from Trisha Haas.

MomDot.com has recently changed its site where you can promote your own articles, ideas, and link back to your sites. If you would like to submit any of your articles to be included in the lifestyle, frugal, or any of the many many sections and categories we have set up. If you would like to be a feature author weekly for us, please contact me.

Also, you can go to the site, register, and login. Then submit an article. Please feel free to link your site, your bio, pictures, etc. in order to advertise yourself as well!

24 Hours On TweepMe

Jendi — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 17:22:46 +0000

The bare facts:
Started June 2 with 1,072 followers and following 1,048.
Deactivated June 3 with 1,420 followers and following 1,569.

Why did I start?
I volunteered to do a review of TweepMe after a quick perusal of their site. I cleared my inbox of new followers so that the above stats would be accurate. Then I signed in with my twitter name and password and got $2 off for sending a tweet that I was joining. I left the API limit per hour at 50.

What happened next?
There were no further instructions so I started browsing to see if there was something else I needed to do. I noticed a lot of standard avatars without pictures when browsing tweeps. I clicked on 2 pictures of nice ladies. One I followed. The other was all in German. I have nothing against German; I just can’t understand it.

I immediately checked email and had 4 new followers. The first two that came through had protected updates, and one’s website was in Portuguese. Of those first four I followed 2. Then I had 2 more followers in email. Three hours later it said I had 66 new followers. By 9:00 that night I had 400 emails from Twitter. Of the first 35 I looked at I followed 11. Two of those I blocked, 2 were French, and 2 were Spanish. I spent 2 hours going through those 400 emails while watching a movie with my husband, but when I was done I still had 400 emails from Twitter! It seemed like they were coming faster and faster. I told Twitter to lock my updates because I didn’t know what was happening. It said I was following people that I would never even read.

What was going on?
TweepMe took over my twitter account and signed me up to follow whomever they pleased. I didn’t read that anywhere ahead of time. I thought that they would find people to follow me and I would reciprocate if I wanted. So don’t look at who I’m following until I get them sorted out because I’m following all kinds of spam, stupid people, and ones I don’t want to mention thanks to TweepMe.

Would I recommend TweepMe?
For people that want to actually connect and have conversation – no. I did find a handful of people that are normal and nice. For me the headache of wading through hundreds of emails was not worth the handful of nice tweets I found. Plus, now I need to weed out who I am following because there are a bunch whose pages I’ve never even seen with my own eyes.

If you don’t care who you associate with it might work for you. A lot of the people that connected – I’m using that term loosely – with me through TweepMe are all about automation. They have post links automatically publishing and TweepMe automatically gaining followers and following numbers through them. Lots of real estate people! Some twitter profiles only had 1 update and thousands in their number count. It seemed impersonal to me even though I now have pages and pages of auto DMs welcoming me. [A quick aside - if you had an important DM for me there's a good possibility it's lost in all the junk ones. Aargh!]

There you have it. Now I’m off to clean out the folder with 460 emails from Twitter. If you have questions I’d be glad to answer them.

How To Find People To Follow On Twitter

Jendi — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 07:31:31 +0000

After my first rash of following people I’d been letting my Twitter followers just grow by themselves. [The popular word right now is "organically."] I’d check out everyone who follows me and usually follow back. I’d see an interesting conversation and follow one or two more people. Recently I was told that I should be following a lot of new people every week. Every week? Yes, every week. Now I need to find people that I want to follow, and hopefully who will follow me back. Here are some ways I came up with.

One at a time

Check every blog you visit for a “Follow Me” sign. Make it a habit for every single blog you look at!
Go to your favorite tweets page and follow who they are talking to and who is replying to them.
Whenever you are following a new-to-you person check out who they’re replying to and you can quickly double the people you find to follow.

From lists

Join a group like Twitter Moms. They obviously all have a twitter account. Start following!
Check every forum you belong to. Forums often have a discussion started for members to list their Twitter name.
The Ultimate List of Moms on Twitter -’nough said.

Twitter parties

There is always a Twitter party going on. The way the tweets stay connected is by using a hashtag. A hashtag is a pound sign [#] followed by a word, initials, or whatever the power behind the party decided. If you click on a hashtag in a tweet it will bring up a page with a big list of tweets. Big list of tweets means big list of people you can follow!
See the popular hashtags and trends.
If you use Tweetdeck you can make a column follow a hashtag. Just click on the magnifying glass and type in the hashtag you want to follow. That column will come up every time you open Tweetdeck until you delete it.

Automated Sites

Mr. Tweet pulls up others that are similar to you.
Tweetfind is a live twitter directory
Tweepular has a section that will recommend people to follow.
Search for a topic on Twitter and find like minded people.
We Follow has a lot of celebrities. Just remember that they don’t usually follow back.

One more tip

We all want to be followed back. When you click follow for a new person see if there’s a tweet you can reply to. That might grab their attention and get you followed back quicker.

How To Irritate People On The Internet

Jendi — Tue, 26 May 2009 11:47:56 +0000

Want to make your username one of the most hated in the universe? Follow these eight tips and in one week or less you will start receiving hate mail and be banned from at least 3 sites.

Be a Spammer!

There are multiple ways to accomplish this goal. Take over someone’s e-mail address so they have to change a valuable address on many sites. Leave totally irrelevant comments pushing a useless product. Scrape blog content that the author spent hours on and repost all of it on a stupid site. Make sure you have a web host that won’t reveal your identity and won’t help the original author.

DM often!

Send lots of Direct messages through Twitter. If you want to be slightly irritating send autos that say “Hello. Thanks for the follow.” If you really want to get under their skin send a plug for your latest product. Use your huge list of followers to plug your product, but never reply when they ask you a question or for a favor.

Be a cheater and never prosper!

After you enter a contest have a party and invite your extended family. You can have them all vote for you and skew the vote. Remember WordPress records the IP address so you will cause the author to waste time deleting all those false votes.

Become a Flaker!

Don’t follow through on your commitments. Forget how to say no and just say take on tons of work. Don’t communicate. Don’t tell your client that you need more time because you’re swamped or have real life problems. Let yourself be seen on social sites but don’t answer your emails.

Scam People!

Those naive, busy mothers are ripe for scams. You can promote yourself as an expert and charge up their credit card. You could cause their husbands to be mad at them and their children to go hungry. If someone actually confronts you about your scam ignore them. Just buy some sleeping pills and forget about it.

Whine Your Way Through the World Wide Web!

By whining on your blog you will manage to alienate your readers. By whining your way through forums, twitters, and other social media you can depress hundreds of people in 24 hours.

Give Bad Advice!

Don’t look at the questioner’s site. Don’t take into account the skill level of the person asking the question. Just throw out snippets of advice that you’ve read from the gossip magazines at the check out counter.

Fake It Till You Make It!

If you need to make some money online just promote yourself in a sneaky way. Tell the truth, but not the whole truth. Offer to teach what you know when in reality you don’t have a clue.

Need more of this excellent advice on how to irritate? Pay me $49.95 and I’ll deliver 10 more tips right to your inbox, as soon as I use that address to spam many more people.

And you MLM people – we’re watching you.

This post was inspired by WAHM’s Talk Radio podcast #267.

Are You A Twit Yet?

Jendi — Wed, 13 May 2009 12:10:06 +0000

People who use Twitter can be called twits after they tweet. What is Twitter? It’s a social networking tool. It’s blogging on steroids. It’s marketing for your blog. It’s free. It’s addicting. It’s plain fun! It’s a way to make your blog/business more profitable.

When you first start Twitter it will probably be a bit confusing. Just keep at it for a little bit each day and soon it will make sense to you. You might not be able to explain it to anyone, but it will make sense to you. It made a lot more sense to me when I started using Tweetdeck. There are some videos at The Ultimate Video Guide to Twitter for Business that explain how to get started, how to find people, and more.

What can I do on Twitter?

Make new contacts/friends
Find a new job
Connect with PR people from companies
Learn what’s going on in the world instantly
Ask questions and get answers
Promote your business/blog/giveaway
Find new blogs that you like

How do I get followers? Check your favorite blogs and look for the blogger’s twitter name. If they recognize your name from comments they will probably follow you back. It’s not a good idea to follow a whole lot of people at one time. Let the people you follow and who follow you grow naturally. Your following/follower numbers will stay closer together that way. If someone is following a lot of people but doesn’t have many followers they are probably boring, only tweeting links, or a spammer. Answering questions and joining in conversations is the best way to gain followers.

Who should I follow? The simplest answer is, “Anyone you want.” When you first join Twitter it’s tempting to follow back everyone who follows you so your numbers grow. From personal experience I know that will get overwhelming in a month or two. Who you follow depends on what your goal is. I want to make friends, have conversations, and promote my blog so I do not follow back people who have

less than 10 updates,
don’t update regularly,
only tweet links,
or really have nothing in common with me.

If you are already a seasoned Twitter user you can find a lot more information at the TwiTip blog written by Problogger.

What’s your Twitter name?

Twimailer.com Transforms Follower Notifications

Stephanie — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 21:49:38 +0000

If you use Twitter you probably receive a ton of follower notifications. Annoyingly, the only information in the email is the follower’s Twitter name.

Twimailer.com has a solution to this annoyance.

With Twimailer you receive the follower’s name AND profile page. Now you can really see who is following you and if you want to follow them.

Twitter: Explained in 2½ Minutes

Stephanie — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 15:05:31 +0000

Do you understand Twitter? Could you explain it to a friend in 2½ minutes?

Lee LeFever can and does. Watch it here:

Did he accurately describe Twitter? Do you understand it better?

Let me know in the comments.

Consistent Branding: A 5 Point Check List

Stephanie — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 18:39:10 +0000

Keeping your brand in mind as you build your on-line reputation you will make it easier for readers, promoters and advertisers to find you. Instant recognition is to your benefit!.

Here are 5 ways to maintain a consistent blog and social media brand.

1. Use the same avatar on your blog, email signature, Twitter profile, and other social media sites.
2. Use an avatar that matches a design element on your blog or is a fairly recent picture of yourself.
3. Leave comments with your first name and blog name.
4. Match your Twitter username to your blog title.
5. Keep major design elements the same when you update the look of your blog.

For more ideas on consistent blog branding watch this video by Darren Rowse of ProBlogger.

Links to Free Twitter Skins

Stephanie — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 20:18:38 +0000

Are you tired of the standard Twitter backgrounds but can’t afford to buy a customized skin right now?

Well, I am thrilled to tell you I found some FREE Twitter skins you can download!

Split Decisionz has 7 background images or skins.
TwitterImage.com has 48 background images and a How-to Manual to guide you through the process of downloading/uploading.
Twitter Patterns has several pages of skins.

And just in case none of those appeal to you visit Twitter Designer and try your hand at designing your own Twitter background.

Twitter Tools for Blogging

April — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 18:48:59 +0000

In my last post about Twitter, I mentioned some Twitter tools that would help you get the most out of using Twitter to promote your blog. There are a lot of different Twitter-related websites and services and the list grows longer every day. I even received an invitation to Twitters Anonymous this morning. I sure hope someone wasn’t trying to tell me something!

The first type of Twitter tool I want to mention is the Twitter client which basically means a program you can use to access Twitter in ways other than going to Twitter.com. Two of the most popular are Twhirl and TweetDeck, both of which use the Adobe Air platform.

The advantage of using a Twitter client is that you can access it from your desktop without having your web browser open. They update automatically so that you’re not constantly having to refresh. It will also notify you when there are new tweets or DMs (direct messages) by either a sound or a pop-up or sometimes both.

Another great Twitter tool is Twitterfeed. Twitterfeed will check your blogs on a regular basis for new posts. If it finds any new posts since the last check, it will send a link to the blog post through a tweet so that everyone on Twitter who is following you will see that you have a new blog post and, hopefully, will click the link to read your new posts.

Twitter now has its own search page ever since it bought out the very popular Summize which is now called simply Twitter Search. I’ve used Twitter Search quite a bit for two specific reasons:

I can search for my name, my blog name, or my business name to see if anyone is talking about me
I can follow hashtags for specific topics.

What’s a hashtag?

Whenever you see a word or group of letters preceded by a # sign in someone’s tweets, it means that they want to include it as part of a Twitter-wide conversation.

For example, during the Presidential debates, Twitter was buzzing with political updates and opinions, many of which contained the hashtag “#debate08″. If anyone wanted to see what was being said on Twitter about the debates, they could just go to Twitter Search and enter the term “#debate08″ and the search results would turn up with all tweets containing that hashtag.

If you’re familiar with Google Alerts then you’ll understand the concept of Tweet Scan. Even though it looks like another Twitter search tool, it has the added benefit of sending you updates via email, just like Google Alerts.

For example, if your blog is about autism, you can have Tweet Scan send you updates of tweets containing the word “autism”. Not only will this help you find other Tweeters discussing a particular topic who you may then want to add to your list of people you follow, but other people may be able to find you this way. And one of those “other people” could just be someone looking for a guest blogger or someone to interview for an article.

The next two Twitter tools can help you stay in touch with your Twitter friends if you’re going to be unavailable for a while, such as on vacation or at your child’s soccer game. TweetAhead and TweetLater will allow you to schedule future tweets.

You can use these to remind your followers about a webinar that’s starting soon or a giveaway deadline. With TweetLater, you can also send automatic welcome messages to new followers or automatically follow people back who have started following you.

A word of caution: there are a lot of spammers on Twitter and there are also people who think automatic welcome messages take the “social” out of “social media” so you may not necessarily want to use these features.

Now I don’t want to make it sound like Twitter should be strictly business and that promoting your blog is the only thing you should be doing with Twitter. Not only is Twitter about building connections and meeting new people online, its also a lot of fun.

One of my favorite fun tools is TwitPic. TwitPic is an easy way to quickly share photos via Twitter. I’ve seen people use TwitPic for everything from sharing photos of their new baby to quick pics of their new haircut. I used it several times after we brought a new kitten into our family to share photos of the little furball.

Last but certainly not least, I want to mention MyTweeple. Every once in a while, I use MyTweeple to check and see if I missed any new followers or want to continue following people who never followed me back. MyTweeple will provide you with a list of all of your followers and followees and show you which of those are mutual, meaning you follow them and they follow you. This will help you manage your Twitter connections and keep your list under control.

This is just a quick summary of some of the various tools available to help you have a more enjoyable and less confusing Twitter experience. If you hear of a new tool and you’re not sure if its something you can use, just ask your fellow Tweeters. They’ll be more than happy to share their opinion and experience with you and maybe recommend some alternatives.

Are you using any of these tools? What is your experience with some of these, good or bad? have you heard of any Twitter tools but just don’t know what they’re for? Leave a comment and let us know!

Twitterpated

April — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 05:00:04 +0000

Hopefully you’ve at least heard of Twitter by now and you may already have an account. But have you thought about how you can use Twitter to promote your blog?

First, let’s back up a little just in case you haven’t heard of Twitter. Twitter is one of the many (and I mean MANY) social networking or social media services. Think of it as instant messaging with hundreds of people at once. Better yet, since you can only send messages that are 140 characters or less, its more like texting with hundreds of people. The basic concept of Twitter can be seen in the little box where you enter your text. Twitter asks “What are you doing?”

There are two components of “social media” – the social part and the media part. Unlike standard media (print, radio, TV), Twitter and other social media services involve conversation and interaction with your audience. In this case, your audience consists of the people who are following you because those people will see your updates.

This is where blog promoting comes into play.

By interacting with your fellow Tweeters,you will have opportunities to share links to your blog posts, ask for feedback, and promote other bloggers’ posts. I haven’t met a Tweeter yet who hasn’t appreciated some link love from one of their followers. For example, if I’ve read a great post by one of the other writers here at Profitable Mommy Blogging, I’ll send a “tweet” (Twitter update) that says “Just read a great post about [subject]” followed by the URL to the post. Most folks on Twitter are more than happy to return the favor by tweeting a link to one of your blog posts in return.

When it comes to promoting your own posts, you have two options. You can either include a link to the post in one of your tweets, or you can use a service like Twitterfeed which will automatically post tweets containing your latest blog entry for you. Because you’re limited to 140 characters, you can use Twitter as a summary or even a teaser to attract readers to your blog. More readers = higher traffic = improved monetizing!

This is just scratching the surface of Twitter so in future posts, I’ll share with you some other ways to use Twitter to your advantage, including some Twitter tools to help make tweeting easier, some basic netiquette, and a list of “must-follow” Tweeters.

P.S. If we’re not already following each other, feel free to add me on Twitter and let me know you found me on Profitable Mommy Blogging!