140Char

The ultimate guide to Twitter applications has been an idea many people have had. In fact, I even blogged about trying to start one with other Twitter bloggers back in January. But now Laura Fitton (@pistachio) and an engineering team have unveiled oneforty (no relation!) which is effectively the Twitter version of the iPhone app store.

Sign in with OAuth, and you can fill out your profile, including listing your favourite Tweeters etc. The site will automatically list any applications it picks up from your account – and then you can start finding and adding any others that it might have missed.

badgergravling on oneforty

There’s a curated list of Essential Applications, Most Popular, and the ability to suggest apps that may have been missed. Developers can list and claim their applications, add screenshots and reviews etc, and members of oneforty can then rate and review any application they wish.

Laura is also the Principal of Pistachio Consulting, which concentrates on microblogging, and the author of Twitter for Dummies. So she knows her stuff.

Then Mashable has ‘the complete guide‘ to Spymaster.  Personally, it’s the type of game I would have probably enjoyed a few years ago, but can’t really justify even trying at the moment – my use of Twitter is mainly for discovering information, sharing information, and building connections with people.

But, that doesn’t mean it’s wrong to take part in Spymaster,  or the latest frivolous use of # hashtags.

Whatever you do on Twitter, and however you use it, is entirely down to you, as long as it’s within the Terms and Conditions of the site. That’s the beauty of it – and possibly why so many people find it a bit scary and drop from the site so quickly.  Whereas Facebook etc have a defined purpose of connecting with people yu already know, which provides an initial safety blanket, Twitter suggests users and friends, but ultimately you can interact how you like, with who you like, when you like.

So while I won’t be joining you on #spymaster or #whateverthelatestcomedytrendis , and I might hope for better filtering to avoid trending topics when they overwhelm my stream,  I’ll never tell you to stop!

I’m still trying to compile all the effects Twitter has on the link economy, but now Louis Gray has added another one, in his post: ‘Are you writing your headlines for Google or Twitter.

As an online journalist and blogger, I’m well aware of the best practice for constructing a headline to maximise SEO opportunities – although as a blogger I often ignore it in favour of indulging myself by being able to write for fun.

But now Louis is noticing headlines which aren’t aiming to contain keywords and search terms, but are also restricting themselves to 140 characters (or 125 characters to allow for a short url). He quotes the example of Techcrunch making sure their articles work for microblogging.

Personally, I hope that most people write their own message if they’re kind enough to Retweet an article from here (although there’s also the automated option). I’d rather have a smaller number of heartfelt recommendations than a flurry of copy-and-pasted headline Retweets (although the traffic might be nice!)

What’s interesting is that rather than simply prescribing the ‘correct’ way to use microblogging services, people are experimenting and coming up with the things they see working for themselves, or for other people. Which is a better option, as it allows people like me to completely ignore the supposed best practice if I want! Although if it’s guides you’re after, you can start with Dan Zarrella!

Meanwhile I’ll keep mixing personal messages with recommendations, and occasionally go mad whilst chatting about an event like #motogp. And, most shocking, I’ll keep using Magpie to send out the occasional (less than one a day) advertising message as long as it helps to cover hosting costs and some new projects! I’ll just keep relying on the fact that a surprisingly large amount of people continue to see value in interacting/following me despite the fact I’m rubbish at following rules outside of 9-5.30pm.

Much like the constant updates of Twitter itself, picking what to write about after a break enforced by work/family is tricky as a huge amount of microblogging and Twitter coverage flows through my RSS feeds on a daily basis – so expect plenty of catching up shortly.

The admirable Laura Fitton (@Pistachio) reminded me this morning that there’s only a week left for open contributions to Twitter for Dummies.

The good thing is that you don’t need to write everything up:

‘Want to see your tip, idea or case study in Twitter for Dummies? Submit it today and get your friends to vote it up. We can’t include everything, but we’ll mention as many of the best ones as we can.

We’ll keep taking ideas for one more week — until Wednesday, April 8, 2009. We can’t guarantee your story will make it into the final edition. We CAN guarantee that the most popular charity submitted and voted up will get 10% of the royalties from book sales.’

So as long as you interact by Wednesday, you’ll get to share some knowledge, possibly be listed in a Dummies guide, and raise some money for charity.

It may because I’m tired and a bit ill, and the fact I’m following an ever-increasing number of Twitter-related blogs, but it seems that there is a never ending stream of guides to starting on Twitter, or gaining followers, and 90% of them have the exact same advice. (Even the New York Times carries a Twitter beginners guide!)

For the record, I didn’t feel the need to do one after I read Luke Razzell’s excellent Twitter guide back in October. Search traffic be damned!

Whether you’re an individual or brand, the tips are always to be human, interactive, interesting etc.  Which is basically the same as you’d get for any network, or for your offline life.

So I’d like to suggest that following most of these guides is a complete waste of time – if you’re a spammer by nature, or your company is in fact the work of evil robotic overlords, then you’ll revert to your true nature eventually, and you’ll have wasted everyone’s time until the mask falls.

Instead, I’ll present the one suggestion I think should be given out to everyone as the way I’d love to see people using Twitter.

Rule 1: Try to make other people’s lives suck a little bit less.

That’s it.

There’s no ‘how to’ guide because it varies for every individual. It could be providing great customer service (Do I need to reference @ComcastCares or @Zappos?). It could be by responding to someone asking for messages to demo Twitter to their colleagues, or finding a bookmark someone has lost.

Or it could even be auto-posting from your blog via Twitterfeed if that’s how people want to receive information (despite all right-thinking wisdom pointing to the contrary!)

It could be something more formal, like helping out with a great charity project like the Charity Water campaign by @Pistachio, or contributing to a personal attempt to help a family.

It could be posting something that makes someone think, laugh, cry or start a conversation.

It’s simple, but easy to overlook when you’re thinking about other things.

‘We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give‘ Sir Winston Churchill.

I’ve mentioned Pistachio Consulting and Laura Fitton (@pistachio) in previous posts. Laura and Pistachio focus on microblogging, or as they term it, microsharing.

So who better to write the first Twitter for Dummies guide?

Twitter for Dummies

Well, us it turns out! Laura has taken the wise and cool decision to crowdsource ideas and topics from the mass of Tweeple. You can (and should) contribute you ideas, and vote/comment on others at the Twitter for Dummies site.

And it turns out she’s not the only Twitter-inspired author. Shel Holtz has announced his next book, Twitterville – How Business can Thrive in Global Neighbourhoods. Meanwhile, German speakers could check out Nicole Simon’s ‘Twitter Mit 140 Zeichen zum Web 2.0‘ which is out mid December.

It’s amazing how the use of social networks, and increasingly microblogging networks like Twitter, can lead to the most wonderful examples of perfect timing!

I’ll be honest and admit that there have been times recently when I’ve wondered whether I’m committed enough to maintaining two blogs – particularly with the slow loading of the site and admin pages I’ve recently experienced, and the fact that all the other lovely contributors have managed to all get busy with their day jobs at the same time. Plus other sites have started appearing which have developed some of the original ideas for 140char a little further (particularly if they’ve had access to developers!). The most recent example is Just Tweet It, which does great directory listings for Twitter. Plus there’s some great blogs keeping track of the latest apps, like Twitterholics, the overview at Twittermaven, and the always great Pistachio Consulting Touchbase blog.

Plus I’m happy to be getting asked to contribute more and more to various projects at work to integrate social media – and I’m about to take a bit of an offline break.

So it took me a day or so to catch up with the source of a lot of buzz on Twitter – Luke Razzell’s awesome guide to Twitter.

Luke Razzell's great Twitter guide

I know there have been several guides to Twitter, and various posts about Twitter etiquette, but having finally sat down and had a look at Luke’s 11 page short paper, he’s combined being accessible for new users with being comprehensive for the more experienced. It’s also packed full of great examples (all hyperlinked). It really is that good!

And having read through it, I was amazed to find, on Page 10 ’see 140Char for some sharp analysis of Twitter and its competitive landscape’

Blimey.

I had to check the url twice to make sure he meant me!

So I guess I better keep going! I’ve had quite a few ideas recently around revamping some of the site, and making sure the focus is on something different and complimentary from the other great blogs and sites out there. And there are a few things I think I can offer.

So although I may or may not have the opportunity to update over the next week, rest assured I will be back – and the site will be new and improved on my return (once I’ve sorted the email overload etc!). And there should be some new and interesting bits.

And in the meantime, go and download Luke’s paper. Read it. And then tell your friends, colleagues and readers.

And make sure everyone thanks Luke at @weaverluke.

Here’s an interesting guide to live twitting from events – guest posted by Julius Solaris, blogger and event planner extraordinaire.
On the 29th of November 2008, I’ll be involved in ecoCampLondon a BarCamp about the environment and sustainability. The aim of the camp is to produce a document with all the discussion of the sessions. For the previous edition we just gave out a template which the session promoter needed to fill in. Boring and time consuming.
We felt that this solution was a bit 1999, so we decided to look at new ways to collect discussions. And here it goes: LiveTwitting

How does it work?
- Every attendee needs to follow either @livetwitting or @livet

- There are very simple commands to learn

- You can manage all the sessions talks on the LiveTwitting website.

BarCamps are a fork of Open Space Technology. The aim of these unconferences is to produce something in a team effort rather than just loosing all that precious interaction among attendees. When the method was elaborated it was the mainframe era and static websites were common. With Web 2.0 things change.
Twitter allows to capture conversations in a great unbiased manner and therefore should be used for most if not all conferences, tradeshows and events in general. The 140chars nature of the service pushes attendees to actually summarize what is going on and synthesize the content in a great way.
Making your event more compliant with new technologies is the way to go and you may be missing out on precious feedback and content if you fail to do so.