The State of Twitter Thriving but Not for Everyone Eric’s Tips

The State of Twitter: Thriving but Not for Everyone

This is the follow-up to my recent State of Twitter Part 1 post, in which I talked about the growth of Twitter, its proliferation in the media, and my decision to give it a try.

Along with my previous post, I conducted a survey about Twitter to over 1,500 participants.

This post is to report the results of the survey, along with my observations and a few opinions throughout.

The participants were mostly members of my Eric’s Tips newsletter. However, I also publicized it to my facebook friends, and it was re-tweeted by a few people which brought in some diversity as well.

But overall, I’d say that 80-90% of the participants were Internet marketers and aspiring entrepreneurs.

There were 927 Twitterers and 610 non-Twitterers.

I started by asking the Twitterers some basic questions about their use of Twitter:

The State of Twitter: Thriving but Not for Everyone | Eric’s Tips

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Learn How To Become A Better Copywriter With Twitter

The Recurring Themes of These Successful Tweets Are:

One: Make it clear what your message is about.

Two: Make it clear what they can expect from clicking on the link

Three: Provide an element of intrigue.

Four: Provide a call to action that will encourage them to check out the link and share it with their friends and Twitter followers.

It goes without saying that you should only recommend links and resources that provide value to your followers, otherwise it will lower your reputation and reduce the number of people who will click through on links that you post in the future.

One final thing to bear in mind when constructing your tweets - If possible, keep your tweets under 120 characters in length.

Learn How To Become A Better Copywriter With Twitter

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The Twitter Revolution Brings Us To the Post Media Era

I believe these are not new media.. we are entering a post media era.

Television gave us the chance to have a shared experience.. to watch things from afar in the comfort of our living room.. but it required our attention and conformity and that allow advertisers to stick their products into those same living rooms.

This wasn’t because we wanted to sit in front of the tube.. it was just a necessary step to getting to the programing.

Now we can have video anywhere, and 2 way conversations. We don’t have to choose one place to have the telephone, or one room to watch entertainment.. and advertisers are not happy with our lack of conformity.

The Twitter Revolution Brings Us To the Post Media Era

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The next big thing…

Confessions of a social media skeptic…

OK. April Fool’s Day was 15 days ago, but what can I say? I’ve been busy.

But there is a serious message here.

I know that some social media tools have attracted millions of users. I also know that social media can be used to “juice” SEO rankings and monitor and influence your marketplace.

Nothing wrong with any of this, but I’m seeing what I consider an alarming trend.

New marketers (and many old ones) are starting to make these tools their primary focus.

Big mistake  Ken McCarthy's BlogWords of wisdom from an Internet marketing pioneer » The next big thing…

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A message from a friend

How can a thesaurus help when I form queries? Many searchers use a thesaurus (traditional or online) to generate an initial keyword list of synonyms. By using a thesaurus, you will often find new meanings that simply wouldn't have occurred to you otherwise. There are a number of well-designed online systems that will help you plumb the depths of a word's meaning.

 The IMSA Thesaurus tool ( http://21cif.imsa.edu/nym )prompts you to browse through word meanings as you look for the right keywords.

 Thesaurus.com ( http://thesaurus.reference.com ) has an online thesaurus that offers in-depth suggestions, classified by concept. The site has many language tools including a dictionary, language translator, and a dictionary toolbar.

Plumb Design offers a unique online Visual Thesaurus that prompts the user to work in 3-dimensions as they explore word meanings. ( http://www.visualthesaurus.com/online/index.html )

How can I quickly find synonyms as I search?
One of the best ways to find synonyms is to look in the documents returned by your first query. Pay attention to an author's use of professional vocabulary. You may see words that more precisely describe just what you are looking for. Also some search engines will refine your query by suggesting alternate keywords along with the results of your
search.  A message from a friend

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Arianna Huffington: The Debate Over Online News: It's the Consumer, Stupid

Instead of trying to hold back the future, I suggest that media execs read The Innovator's Dilemma by Clayton Christensen (since I keep mentioning the book and giving copies to friends, I'm thrilled that Christensen is now blogging for HuffPost), and see what he has to say about "disruptive innovation" and how, instead of resisting it, you can seize the opportunities it provides.Or go to any college, as I often do, and ask a group of students how many of them, during the campaign, saw Tina Fey doing Sarah Palin. It's usually 100 percent.

Then ask how many saw it on Saturday Night Live. It's usually no more than one or two. Yes, SNL could have said tune in to NBC Saturday Night at 11:30 or don't see it at all. But Lorne Michaels and Jeff Zucker obviously don't want to go the way of Rick Wagoner and his Detroit buddies.Delivering the keynote address at the Newspaper Association of America's annual conference on Tuesday, Google CEO Eric Schmidt cut right to the chase, telling the assembled newspaper men and women: "Try to figure out what your consumer wants.

If you piss off enough of them, you will not have any of them."After we posted the Charlie Rose segment, HuffPost commenter osage weighed in: "EVOLVE OR PERISH. If AP refuses to adapt to the demands of the internet marketplace, it will disappear just as surely as 5 1/4" floppy disks and public pay telephones have disappeared. Resistance is futile."I'd love to hear your take. Fire away in the comments section.

Arianna Huffington: The Debate Over Online News: It's the Consumer, Stupid

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Would You Pay To Read Your Newspaper Online?

Would You Pay To Read Your Newspaper Online? by Rachelle Money,  Would You Pay To Read Your Newspaper Online?Newspapers are struggling to find a new business model for their online editions. Some have folded at the challenge and packed up the printing presses while others have thrown up pay walls. The only question editors want the answer to is, are readers prepared to pay for online content? It's the Sunday morning ritual shared by millions across the world. You trot down to the local newsagent and hand over a few dollars for a newspaper. When you get home you sift through the sections – fashion magazine, sports, international news, business and the TV guide – with each of your family taking their pick. Some of the more dedicated of you may purchase a newspaper every day but I'm guessing the majority (and I include myself) would rather log on to the laptop and read the same newspaper stories online for free.

This has resulted in many commentators accusing the online reader of contributing to the demise of print.It's no secret that the business model associated with print journalism has become as useful as an ashtray on a motorbike. Advertisers have been drifting away from newspapers, magazines and local publications for years now in favor of online platforms, and classified ads have gone online too – they were the newspapers' main source of income but is now disappearing. 'What now?' is the question on every media tycoon's lips.I was at the Guardian's Changing Media Summit in London the other week where the major players in UK media industry put their brains together to answer that very question.  Newspapers Online

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Simple Video Marketing Tips: A 3-Part Simple Video Marketing Tutorial Series | Attraction and Relationship Marketing Classroom

Simple Video Marketing Tips: A 3-Part Simple Video Marketing Tutorial Series This post was written by Jim Hickey on March 31, 2009Posted Under: Attraction and Relationship Marketing I recently encountered a series of three videos on YouTube describing a simple video marketing tutorial series easily employed by even the newest person to attraction and relationship marketing. Three of the videos provide key actions to enhance the visibility of your marketing videos on YouTube (though it can also help with other video sites and search engines such as Google). In the following video, the presenter identifies the importance of choosing an effective title for the video as well as a simple process to aid in the selection of great title.

Simple Video Marketing Tips: A 3-Part Simple Video Marketing Tutorial Series | Attraction and Relationship Marketing Classroom

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Spring won't let me stay in this house any longer! I must get out and breathe the air deeply again

It is that time of year again, the birds are finally chirping outside and occasionally I am given the rare opportunity to crack a window and let the fresh air waft through. I am getting on in my years because the new fresh smells always stimulate my memory and guide me to a simpler time. I recall the days when mama would be doing the “wash”, she would bring the sheets in from the line, and they smelt just as I imagined it to be if you shoved your nose in a cloud.  Roofessions | Anonymous Confessions & Rants

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Who Are The 5 Funniest People on Twitter?

Who Are The 5 Funniest People on Twitter? *Brevity is the soul of wit. At least, that's what Shakespeare tried to teach us - and he wasn't particularly brief about it. What would the poet have thought of Twitter, where every joke is 140 characters or less? We'll take a look at the funniest people on Twitter, the folks who put the "wit" in "twit," and the people largely responsible for my flagging productivity at work (actually, one of them is a cat).The Funniest Tweeple I Know

Who Are The 5 Funniest People on Twitter? | Twittown Blog - The Apps and Widgets Community and Forums

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Reversing Old Age By Turning Back the Clock Naturally

Healthy Aging & Turning Back the Clock The End of Old Age I’m not a big believer in magic bullets. Everything I’ve ever learned says that you’re only as strong as your weakest link. That’s why I’ve always preached that the key to health is raising your entire Baseline of Health. But that said, I have to admit that what we’re talking about here today is a uniquely important anti-aging discovery.What Is Aging?The best place to start is at the beginning. What is aging? What makes us age? There are actually many factors that contribute to old age (free radical damage, hormonal changes, etc.), but of all of the things that make us “old,” two things stand out because until now, they have been so untouchable: * The Hayflick Limit * The glycation of proteinsThe Hayflick Limit: Cell Life Span

Reversing Old Age By Turning Back the Clock Naturally

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Six Foods You Should Be Eating

Dear Friend,

By the time you are finished reading this page, you will know exactly why and what type of nutritional supplement you should use as part of your daily health regimen.

We all know that everyone wants to live a long and healthy life. But managing a rigid dietary and exercise regimen to make it so is far from easy.

The best way to "cheat" is to use a high-quality nutritional supplement on a daily basis. Let's face it, it is far easier to take a powerful daily supplement than to avoid fried and processed foods, eat spinach around the clock, and spend 2 hours a day exercising at the gym.

If you are concerned about your health, then you are probably already taking a multi-vitamin. This is a good starting point, if the manufacturer of your multi-vitamin uses high-quality natural ingredients and the right delivery system to ensure the nutrients are properly absorbed by the body.

http://digg.com/health/Six_Foods_You_Should_Be_Eating

Inside Paul's Brain - Internet Marketing ideas, make money online thoughts.

Am I a weird twit? By Pauls Brain I am thinking that maybe I am a twitter anomaly, some of the things I do seem to be against the grain and certainly against the things that others are doing and possibly teaching.- I don’t follow people I don’t know, if I do follow them and all they do is post links I unfollow-I don’t follow all the “gurus” just because they are considered to be “gurus” -I don’t think size counts, number of followers doesn’t matter it is what you do for them that matters.-If every tweet has a link in it I will just unfollow, this to me is the equivalent of people who have a mailing list and just email them some rubbish offer every day.Twitter has great potential to share info about yourself and what you are doing and your thoughts but if all you are looking for is somewhere else to throw links to the latest resale rights rubbish then please don’t bother.Use it to try and allow people to build up an image of you and your brand, don’t just look on it as a place to sell stuff to saps, I know that sounds harsh but it is how a lot of people seem to look on it.If you haven’t already downloaded it feel free to get a copy of my free twitter guide Feel free to follow me on twitter @paul_forcey

Inside Paul's Brain - Internet Marketing ideas, make money online thoughts.

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SubmitterBot - Semi-automatic directory submission tool

Question: Why directory submissions are important?Answer: Directory submissions are good for your site by two reasons: a) your site will receive some extra traffic b) your site will get backlinks which is increasing your page rank

Question: How long does it take to submit my site?Answer: Its only depending on you. In most of the cases the submission process must be less than half hour. This is the fastest semi-automatic way to submit your site  SubmitterBot - Semi-automatic directory submission tool

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PARTICLES - The Web Services Company Facebook

*HEY!WATCH, the first professional, robust and affordable Online Video Encoding platform* - http://heywatch.com

Video transcoding is not easy to handle even if many companies believe it. Video is an expertise, a real knowledge that may lead to technical and financial issues if misjudged.
Besides, it needs investments in terms of hardware, software and people to maintain. At the end, it will becomes very money consuming for your company for sure.

With HeyWatch, free your company from all that. Externalize and automate all your video encoding processes and only focus on you core Business.
Finally, you massively reduce costs and also save your health. We have been maintained, updated, enhanced and optimized all your video encoding work flow since 2006. And we will keep the good work in 2009.

You can use HeyWatch via the interface or as you encoding engine via the API: http://wiki.heywatch.com/API+Documentation to build UGC websites and make any videos viewable online.Contact DetailsEmail: Website: http://particle-s.comOffice: USA/EUROPE  PARTICLES - The Web Services Company | Facebook

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Real Link Finder - Free Link Building Software by Neil Shearing

Quality Linkbuilding Software Makes Getting REAL Links Quick And Easy
... And It's Totally Free! Real Link Finder - Free Link Building Software by Neil Shearing

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Crank High Voltage Trailer Rumble

Crank High Voltage Trailer Rumble

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Blogging instructions Wizzer Says Goal setting

Many Blogging Beginners now have their sites live and I thought it was time to discuss “goal setting” in the context of giving some blogging instructions.Each of us has a certain amount of time available to allocate to our blogs BUT I’m going to make a bold and outrageous suggestion here…… part of the time we have available is wasted. I’d go as far as saying a huge percentage of the time available is simply frittered away by most of us. I talked about dangerous assumptions on my Guru Fodder blog the other day so I’m not going to get into that conversation with you now but let’s just assume for a moment that I’m right.

What I mean is this.Let’s say we have 2 hours a day to work on our sites.We turn on the PC. Let’s check our emails before we get started.There’s one from Buddy with a link to a YouTube video. Without thinking we follow the link and watch it. That was funny - oh look, right next to it there’s another video with the same guy - let’s check that out.

goal setting blogging instructions | WizzerSays

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10 things not to do in a recession

10 things not to do in a recessionBy Sarah ModlockIt's now unofficially official: we are in a recession. There is so much hype, so much information, and yet the way forward is far from clear. While the right thing to do may be different for everyone, there are quite a few wrong turns which could make your financial worries worse right now - and all the more so as we head to a traditionally expensive time of year. Here's 10 ways to make sure the recession doesn't get the better of you.

1. Panic stations

It's not the British way to get over-excited, but even the coolest heads can find it hard to maintain a steady approach to the current turmoil. Whatever you decide to do, don't do it in too much of a hurry. Keeping in touch with latest developments will help you judge how and when to take action. For instance, with the Icelandic banks, there was a small window after one was nationalised and the others were in the spotlight. Those who moved their money out in that fortnight are glad they did. At the other end of the spectrum could be decisions about your home. If you're struggling with mortgage payments, start talking to your lender rather than rushing around for loans to cover your arrears.

10 things not to do in a recession | Yahoo! Finance

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Add Google Friend Connect to Your FriendFeed Lifestream | Technology Goddess

Add Google Friend Connect to Your FriendFeed Lifestream
by Erika

Adding Google Friend Connect activity to your FriendFeed is not hard to do when you know a few “work around” tricks, and I can show you how to get it done in 10 easy steps! The challenge is that FriendFeed does not allow Google Friend Connect to be added to its’ stream yet and that your Google Friend Connect Feed that goes through Plaxo is not able to be read by FriendFeed, Facebook etc…

I have to say with a little bit of an evil chuckle, that by adding your Google Friend Connect to your FriendFeed, and having the FriendFeed app enabled in Facebook, you can now feed your Google Friend Connect activity straight into Facebook for all your Facebook friends to see… And since Facebook has made it so damn hard to integrate THEIR Friend Connect app on the average users blog, you will likely have some of your jealous Facebook friends climb out of the walled garden to come and play with you in the real world. *wink*

Here is a Handy Little 5 minute video i created that walks you through the feed setup:Below the Video you will find the text tutorial.

Add Google Friend Connect to Your FriendFeed Lifestream | Technology Goddess

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