Twitter adds a description feature to its lists
A maximum of 100 characters is now available to create a description of your Twitter lists.
For those people who have Twitter lists or are in other peoples Twitter lists it is often a guessing game based on the Twitter lists name to decide what the list is about.
To add a description to your Twitter lists simply choose the edit list feature and write a description under 100 characters. It should be noted that this is not compulsory but it is a great way to promote your lists further.
OS Commerce Tips for new addons
Upgrades and add-ons to OS commerce can cost more than the original development if some basic steps are not taken before updates and add-ons are installed.
Always make a full backup of your site and download the back up for each module. Keep the backups stored away for at least a few months.
If anything goes wrong with your site from the new installation it is easy to restore your site back to its operating state.
2. Prior to any install of a new add-on or an upgrade, as a site owner you should ask your developer (if it is not you doing the install) to note the module and version number they are using and the os commerce URL. Keep these details in a log record of your site.
In the future if your developer no longer works for the same company or you change developers then there is a clear record of what has been added to your site and that record will often allow the new developer to quickly ascertain how your system works and where any current issues will be coming from. It will also allow your developer to quickly ascertain what if any security issues need to be updated on your site or the origin of error messages that may appear.
Twitter Lists
Allow you to create lists of your followers into groups. Popular lists are grouped by geography, profession and services. The lists are publicly available and followable from your Twitter homepage.
Each Twitter account can create up to 20 Twitter lists that contain a maximum of 500 people per list. When creating a Twitter list you can choose to make it public or private. Private lists are for your own personal viewing. Lists that are made public as a part of your Twitter profile and can be followed by anyone. At the time of writing lists do not appear to be readable via the major Twitter clients including Swirl and TweetDeck.
Create a Twitter List
Creating a list is a simple task but may take a long time to sort out which followers to add to your lists. You should also make your lists worthwhile to both yourself and others.
- Log into twitter.com
- On the righthand side of your page underneath the search option select “create new list”
- Name your list
- Make the list public of Private. We recommend making it private till you have completed compiling the list.
You should create all of your lists before you begin adding people so you can save time.
Adding people to your lists
1. To add people you can either
(a) Search people to add to your list via the search box
OR
(b) You can also add people from your Following page or anyone’s profile page.
2. .Select the Lists button to add the desired people. NOTE: You can select multiple lists to add people to.
Benefits of creating Twitter Lists
- Enables you to put organise the people you follow.
- By adding people to your lists the other people will see that you have placed them in a list creating an extra view or recognition for you.
- Greater networking opportunities with people in your own profession or local geographic area.
- Once you have created a great list you can share it in a Tweet.
Benefits of following Twitter Lists
- Allows you to follow a group of people with the same interest, for example SEO practioners without the need to directly subscribe to them individually.
- Follow large groups of categorised people for short times such as a project life cycle.
- Weed out the people that you really want to follow.
Your Twitter home page shows you how many and which Twitter lists you have been added to. If you appear on a list and do not want to be on it for what ever reason, there are currently two options available to be removed unless the list is malicious and breaks the Twitter Terms of Service.
-
- Ask the list owner to be removed from their list
- Block the users account. This should only be your last resort as it will stop them following you and vice versa.
LinkedIn and Twitter synchronise services
LinkedIn and Twitter now offer several ways to interact with each service including LinkedIn updates as Tweets, LinkedIn as your Twitter tool, timely status alerts to your company name being mentioned in Twitter and sending urls from within LinkedIn to Twitter.
Updates can be one way between LinkedIn and Twitter or both ways by using the hastags #in and #in.
I would recommend that if you use Twitter for personal updates with friends and family as opposed to using Twitter to distribute professional information that you do not have Twitter update your LinkedIn account.
Benefits of having LinkedIn update your Twitter feed include:
- Twitter updates are searchable and a potential employer could notice you
- If not all of your Twitter contacts are a part of your LinkedIn network then this is a new avenue of self promotion.
- You can find other people to network with on LinkedIn via Twitter.
- If you do not visit LinkedIn on a regular basis then this is a great way to keep your profile updated.
- Tweet LinkedIn slides and other relevant resources directly from LinkedIn.
- See how your networks are using LinkedIn and Twitter together.
- Share what is being said about you and your organisation via Company Buzz.
Installation of Twitter to LinkedIn
Installation of all the Twitter Tools can be made via the option to Edit your LinkedIn account under “Account and Settings”.
WordPress Backup made easy
WordPress operated web sites are so common that there is a myriad of widgets, themes and plugins freely available and able to be installed at the click of a button. This in turn increases the chances that a new installation could create issues for the web site that results in the need for a backup to be installed.
There are a number of plugins that allow a live backup to synchronise with your desktop and web server. The issue with this is that you could end up with a backup of a broken web site on both your live web site and as your backup. Thus being a pointless task backing up or restoring.
Other self help pages offer extremely complex solutions to generate a backup such as using the phpMyAdmin to export individual MySql databases and an array of other complex SQL code to understand. Then once the databases have been exported out more details describing how to use a ftp client to download the sites other files.
Easy Solution
I can not over recommend using a reputable web host that offers CPanel for their hosting.
With CPanel simply click the “Back up” icon. This will backup all of your files, redirects, aliases, MySql databases etc into a compressed file. I would recommend downloading the compressed file to your computer with either the File Manager icon in CPanel or an FTP program.
Reinstalling a backup is as simple as selecting the “Restore” option from the Backup section.
FaceBook new Friends updates
FaceBook recently released a new Friend Feed that limits the number of friends posts you can see on your wall. This has upset many FaceBook users with a myriad of complaints arising on the FaceBook page and a Group asking FaceBook to use the old feature.
For the interim, here is a qucik fix to the issue.
Go to your HOME page. Select LIVE FEED. Scroll to bottom, click Edit Options. You’ll see NEWS FEED SETTINGS. Change 250 to 5,000. You may have to remind FB that you are on the Live Feed page: at top of page, click News Feed, then click BACK to Live Feed. Now scroll back down to the bottom and follow the instructions.
Google SideWiki
Google recently released a new feature to their Web arsenal to assist businesses become more competitive and their customer service more transparent – Google SideWiki.
Google SideWiki http://www.google.com/sidewikiallows users to sign into their Google account and leave unmoderated comments and various other information about your company and staff. In turn your Google search rankings will be affected by the quality of comments.
The negative side to Side Wiki at the moment is the lack of ability to moderate spam and malicious comments in a timely fashion. Users also have the ability to send thier comments via Twitter, FaceBook and email.
Whilst there is a Google Terms and Conditions to make comments, there is no automated manner to see comments in real time. Organisations should check for new comments at least once a day. If your site has heavy traffic then you should adjust the amount of times per day accordingly.
Within days of Side Wiki being released users are making malicious and rude comments on some of the larger more well known brands such as Microsoft, Apple and WalMart.
Our advise is to sign up to the Google Webmaster Tools and make an introduction comment on your SideWiki thus allowing your comment to always be at the top of all the other comments. You should also update your Google Profile and add as many details as possible.
2 Twitter tips based on observations
Increasingly organisations are utilising Twitter. Sadly, many organisations and especially NZ companies are doing two fundamental things wrong that will stop people following them.
Worse still with the introduction of a myriad of automated Twitter tools that give statistics on users, these fundamental mistakes will make it look like you are a spammer.
Tip 1 – Don’t ask followers to verify themselves.
Do not ask people to verify that they are a real person when they follow you. Captcha tools are annoying and difficult for many people to read. If a spammer follows you this has no effect on your Twitter account.
For me personally using such tools tells me that you can not be bothered to see if I am worth following and you will have an automated process to follow me back.
Take a moment to follow only those Twitter accounts that you are interested in.
Tip 2 – Don’t make your Organisation Tweets Private.
By making your Tweets private to only your followers it gives the impression that you are hiding illegal, immoral or otherwise objectionable material. It also makes it impossible for potential followers to know if you have interesting information so they can follow you or not.
Book Review: Digital Engagement – Internet Marketing…
Digital Engagement – Internet Marketing that Captures Customers and Builds Brand Loyalty. Authored by Leland Harden and Bob Heyman. Published 2009.
This is an easy to read book of about 230 pages of text that is well spaced out over 11 chapters. The language is almost conversational and is accompanied by plenty of illustrations to some of the more detailed dialogue the authors create.
It is not a book I would recommend to any competent Internet consultant nor is it a book that will make you a competent Internet consultant. But I do strongly recommend this book for any small business owner that is thinking of creating an online presence or who already has an online presence.
Too often consultants mislead their clients as to what is required or omit to tell their clients of available services as the consultant does not have the necessary skill set to deliver these to you the client. This book gives a brief overview of what you should expect and the available services to market your online presence.
Digital Engagement is a little USA centric at times. But overall the advise is relevant for the New Zealand market but just with different resources, links and organisations.
Chapters cover an array of online marketing topics including; Search Engine Optimisation, Viral marketing, Video, Affiliate marketing, paid advertising and social media.
In summary this is a great book for any small business but you should still carefully choose a Internet consultant.
The book can be purchased from the usual online book stores and is available at the local library.
Status Tagging and its commercial implications.
Today FaceBook announced the ability to tag friends, Fan Pages and groups in your status updates by using the @ then your friends etc name. FaceBook call this new feature status tagging.
Simply type your message and then add the @ symbol. This will put a link to your friend/Fan Page or Groups. At the bottom of your status box will appear a list of your friends, fan pages and groups in a manner similar to the search options in FaceBook.
Apart from the large social benefits, there is an increased opportunity for businesses and brands to be status tagged with both positive and negative comments from happy or unhappy customers. Considering the fast spread of news amongst friends businesses and brand owners will need to keep a watchful eye this new service.
