Tag: Twitter

Meet Medium: The New Publishing Platform from the Twitter Guys

by Katherine Elsasser

Earlier this week the Obvious Corporation, the company led by Twitter co-Founders Biz Stone and Ev Williams, announced a new product aimed squarely at the publishers of content. It’s called Medium, and it while it may remind you of a lot of Web 2.0 platforms you’ve seen before, it manages to be new without being hard to understand.

Medium Collection Example
The Obvious Corporation’s Collection on Medium

The basic idea behind Medium, at least according to Ev Williams, is that it should be a place to publish that rewards and promotes quality while still being open to everyone, including the unknown individual. Publishing is of course the domain of Obvious, given that before they created Twitter the same people were responsible for Blogger, which helped unleash self-publishing on the world.

The Medium platform itself is flexible enough to allow lots of kinds of content, including photos, videos and text (long or short form). Those individual pieces of content are then organized into collections. The Medium team has posted examples, including travel photography and crazy stories. Collections are either open or closed to submissions, depending on the creator of the collection, but all pieces of content can be voted on by users. The most popular (ie highest quality) items go to the top of the list, ostensibly to relieve readers of sifting through tons and tons of stuff. Read More

Ad-Free Social Network App.net Exceeds its Fundraising Goal of a Half-Million Dollars

by Katherine Elsasser

What if there were a social network that promised not to sell your personal data to advertisers? Would you join, even if you had to pay for it? That’s the premise of app.net, a very bright idea from developer Dalton Caldwell, who felt that Facebook didn’t respect his contribution to their social ecosystem — or that of their users. App.net logo

We all rely on the big platforms like Facebook and Twitter, either as small businesses reaching customers, or as developers looking to create the products that help businesses leverage those platforms. Generally, it’s a one-sided relationship, where the big platforms do what they think is best for them – and the rest of us struggle to keep up. App.net was conceived as a way for those integral to the social process – the users and developers – to have some control over the process.

So, what is App.net offering to set it apart from the other social networks? Read More

The risks involved in giving apps permissions to login with your Facebook or Twitter accounts

by Mario Armstrong

Even when you get your privacy settings just right (assuming that’s even possible!) your personal info and data is still at risk every time you give an app permission, or sign in to an application using Facebook, Twitter, or any other social media service. In my latest on HLN, I look into the risks you take when associating your social media accounts with 3rd party applications.

How to Advertise on Twitter

by Justin Alcon

When I first heard about Twitter, I was skeptical.  However, I’ve really come around to it, and in some senses it has really come around to more pragmatic users.  Specifically, if you have ever wondered what it is that twitter can do for your business, especially something measurable and tangible, they have the answer to that question for you.  Over at their advertising blog they have announced a product aimed squarely at the small business market.

Last month, twitter partnered with American Express to offer its small business card members and merchants the chance to use Twitter advertising.  Initially, only a small group of had access, but access is expanding.

So what’s good about this? Read More

Don’t be useless! People are only enjoying one-third of your tweets. Here are some tips to help

by Mario Armstrong

I recently appeared on HLN to talk about a shocking statistic—that people only care about, on average, one third of all tweets. What does this mean? 66% of your attempts at communicating on Twitter are useless! But don’t despair, I’ve got some quick tips to help you tweet about the stuff that matters, so check out the video below for all the details. Still stumped on how to make the most out of Twitter? Then hit up my most recent article on AT&T Networking Exchange blog where I dish out 5 secrets that will help you build a successful Twitter following!

Organization Tip: Use @myEN to Sends Tweets to Evernote

by BrothaTech

I use Evernote to save just about everything. The most important feature to me is no matter which device I use, I know all my notes will be synced up for access anywhere, even on the web.

I say “just about everything” because I was still doing some wonky stuff when it came to saving tweets to view later in Twitter. Sure, I could save them using the built-in favorites feature, but that’s only for messages in your timeline.

If you want to send tweets you compose to Evernote, there is an underrated feature that lets you do so by adding @myEN (My Evernote) to a tweet. It can be anywhere in the tweet and it can be a public tweet/reply or a Direct Message for your eyes only. As long as it’s there, your tweet will be sent to your default notebook in Evernote. Keep reading to learn how to set up this awesome feature. Read More

Premade Recipes Make ifttt Awesome

by Justin Alcon

A while back, we found “if this then that”, a cool new way to automate some of the logistical work of your social media campaign.  “If this then that”, or just “ifttt”, is a way to write custom recipes or routines that fit your social media campaign perfectly.  That’s awesome, and what’s even more awesome is that you can share these recipes with the world.  You’re also free to use the recipes that have already been shared by others, rather than having to make them all up from scratch. Today I’m going to take a look at some of the coolest recipes I’ve found, and let you know how you can put them to work with your social media outreach. Read More

ifttt makes social media a breeze

by Justin Alcon

Social media is a big part of any modern marketing campaign.  However, managing social media properly can mean a lot of time-consuming work.  It’s one thing to have a solid plan, but the real work comes with the day-in, day-out hands-on implementation of this plan.  There are lots of products that claim to automate this process, but they’re all missing a key thing: variety.  You can set your tumblr to auto-update to your twitter, and your twitter could update your facebook, but this creates a single monolithic, repetitive structure.  So, how do you add nuance to your social media plan without adding complexity and hours to your day? Read More

TweetBook for BlackBerry PlayBook – A Native Twitter Feel

by BrothaTech

Twitter hasn’t released a native app for the BlackBerry PlayBook. They have recently improved the mobile-friendly web app that looks…good. But for those of us who want a native app that can deliver more features and customization while we surf Twitter, TweetBook might just be what you’re looking for. Read More

BlinQ: Control your TV with your iOS Device

by Justin Alcon

At a recent tech expo,  a newer contender in the world of universal remote apps for iOS devices caught my eye.  Although not an original idea, this particular implementation has a relatively low cost considering its rich feature set.  This type of app represents the direction I believe that TV is going: businesses should be prepared to engage customers in new ways using ancillary content like ads, interactive games, and social content.

Ryz Media’s BlinQ TV has the newest twist on this idea. BlinQ’s big “get” is that, instead of routing commands over Wi-Fi, BlinQ gives you an IR blaster that plugs into the device’s headphone jack.  The small blaster can control a TV, cable box, and most other devices with no intermediary hardware. Best yet, it’s very affordable at ten bucks.

BlinQ offers a guide that allows you to forget channel numbers and just concentrate on content. It does this by focusing on the popularity of shows among BlinQ users–the popular stuff is at the top, and there are pop-ups that alert you to trending shows. You can recommend what you’re watching to your friends via Facebook and Twitter.  This product is a great look into the developing relationship between the TV and mobile devices; as soon as we don’t have to find a little gizmo to plug into our phones to get this functionality, absolutely everyone will use their phone as their remote.  So, start thinking about what kinds of games and social features you might want to integrate into your company’s TV advertising campaigns, because it’s going to be the norm in the very near future.