Helping You Rock Out Your Site Like A Rockstar!

After I got back from watching the movies with my boyfriend, late Saturday evening, I was going to twitter and talk about the movies. Lo and behold, a blaring, account suspension was posted. I was shocked and confused why this was up. I do not use Twitter any differently than I did months ago when I was very active.

The reasons they list for people they flag and suspend are those that spam, impersonate others, mass creating user accounts, and more. However, as I recall, I have done nothing new in the past couple days since being able to finally access my computer from home. I use to post almost all day and evening. I am myself, so it is not an impersonation, and I re-tweet informative links, giving credit to the original person who posted the information.

I am quite confused. Has anyone had any issues like this with Twitter. It kind of sucks since I have been an avid promoter of Twitter and have written many encouraging blog posts about the site.

I was actually writing this blog up when I got a link from another Twitter member ( @denharsh ), that you can claim your Twitter Profile on Technorati.

Of course, for those who have already done it, you can claim your blog by simply adding your URL and Technorati gives you a key (a claim URL) to put on your blog. You can do the same exact thing with your Twitter account. You can simply add your twitter account URL (Example – http://twitter.com/blondishnet) click enter. Technorati will automatically produce a claim URL that you can put in your Twitter account.

You do not have to put it in your profile information. You can simply insert it into your Twitter stream and it will work the same. When you have done that, you can click the submit button in Technorati to claim your Twitter Profile. It is pretty nifty!

After reading the TechCrunch article Facebook’s Response To Twitter which goes over the fact that Facebook has changed up its look to phase out the use for Twitter, I am still not impressed. It still loads slow, and that is more to do with both interface and the advertisements.

Facebook is bulky and as I usually describe it, a serious, but cousin of MySpace. Money-wise, definitely Facebook is big, but Twitter has become a great alternative to the chat room. I remember the days in the mid 1990s that I was chatting away on Yahoo! Chat and had to block spammers.

With Twitter, I can even access it on the phone and text with my followers and friends. For what it does, as a singular function, it does well. Facebook is trying to become the monopoly of social media. I do not blame them as I would love to make the money they are making any day. However, one fact is that I was never motivated to join Facebook until I was able to find former buddies from high school that I had not been able to find anywhere else, including MySpace. Of course, theses days I rarely go to my MySpace account but a couple times a month.

My only hope that the talk about Facebook wanting to acquire Twitter only stays just an interest, but not. I do not want to go to Facebook when I can use Twitter quickly in any application whether Twitter itself, through text on the phone, or even Tweetchat. Of course, there are those who do not feel Twitter is worth the time and the fact there are people just amassing tons of strangers as followers, but there are people that are using Twitter for information exchange and even talking with others they either know offline (IRL) or have met through online through a common interest. However, what is the difference when the same thing can by done in other social media websites?

Well, it is a day later than I was going to blog on my 5 day experiment with TweeterGetter. For those who are just reading about this, I blogged almost a week ago about TweeterGetter in the article “TweeterGetter – Is It Really Worth Your Time?”

In the beginning I lost only a dozen followers after sending the link out. However, I got most of those back after I sent a tweet out on Twitter warning them about the experiment. I noticed that the 6 people before me listed in Tweetergetter did follow me.

Afterwards, I did not notice any difference in my normal intake of followers a day. Usually these people follow me due to a similar interest or when I give WordPress tips and help. Some follow because they like my blog. However, TweeterGetter did nothing. I got 6 followers from the site.

My issue is that there waswas to see if TweeterGetter was considered the evil scheme that others have called it. No, it is not. It does not hack anyone or collect information. No money was exchanged, therefore it cannot be called a ponzi scheme. You can unfollow anyone you chose. Really, TweeterGetter filled the ‘follow bank’ of its creator.

As for the questions I wanted to find out:

• 1. What type of people are following me? There were no difference in followers than normal and those that did not match my interests I either blocked or did not follow. All 6 before me that followed were interested in social media and business.
• 2. Did I make any new meaningful connections through this? I make meaningful connections daily, but none starting with any that may have followed through TweeterGetter. I had only a few DM (direct message) exchanges with 3 of the 6 that did follow.
• 3. What type of people did I unfollow? Some were adult related or explicit material.
>4. What type of feedback have I drawn in testing this out? Not much feedback other than a few saying that it was a scheme and they wanted to avoid it. I have not had any backlash.
• 5. Did it work? No. Not really unless you count 6 as being significant, but according to TweeterGetter, this would be a failure.
• 6. Was the venture really worth it at all? No. It was not worth it. If the site promised it, then it should have worked only one time. You would have to constantly plug the produced TweeterGetter link into your Twitter stream to get it to work. However, you could possibly lose those followers that you may talk to regularly.

I do not find this as a disappointment. I had a feeling it would not work.

Not long ago I blogged about how it takes quality tweeting on Twitter to organically build your followership. Of course, in the past few weeks, the site TweeterGetter has surfaced, promising users that if the join the cause, then they could get over 19K followers within 30 days. Already the creator of TweetGetter, Gary McCaffrey.

Now, I am not seeing that Gary is not being like bots and being stagnant. He is actually twittering, though I am kind of disappointed. I am sure he will have people fall out because his idea says if you do his system, you will follow the 6 people in front of you, and those after, will follow up to 5 levels deep. Sounds familiar… hmmm… like a pyramid scheme.

Although the idea behind it is brilliant, it kind of cheapens the experience, at least from my first thoughts. For shits and giggles I did try it. Though I am skeptical. Personally, if I am going to do something like this, then I am going to talk with the other people I am following. Also, because I have already said almost two months ago, I was going to try some of these and give feedback, this is actually the first time I will get to try it.

Although it is not certain what types of services, Twitter has recently blogged that they have been contemplating on extending their services to include paid areas. Please note, as @Biz has said, they will not charge individuals or organizations money to use twitter.

I think this is great. I know some people might huff and puff, but really, for those like myself who tweet more than 20 times a day (I tweet around 40 times a day on average), that Twitter is very useful and should try to implement a few paid services. They might make obliterate other services, but if there is anything that Twitter can do to make it more convenient to use them instead of many resources already, then that would be great.

Although I am just a lowly blogger, here are my ideas:

• 1. Include services that allow people to change their twitter page like rearranging their page and giving them the ability. Or offer layout templates where they can switch around or add to it.
• 2. Allow users to add something like DandyID does to blogs where people can find their followers-turned-friends on more social platforms.
• 3. Invoke some type of twitter karma where if you have been resourceful or someone just enjoys you, they can give you a kudos.
• 4. Do their own “magpie” type program. I am skeptical about Be A Magpie as I have not seen any come across my stream or my followers and even a lot of followers that answered my question, were not seeing anything. This ability will allow both twitter and the user to make money and giving them the ability to approve or deny tweets as well as limit the ratio of twitter ads posted. This may be a controversial idea, but I am not against people trying to make money. The economy is bad enough. My only suggestion is to approve tweets that are relatable and in a way it will not be obvious that is all you wish to do.
• 6. Paid subscription to increase amount of tweets that can be posts within a certain time.
• 7. Paid subscription to just plainly show your support of twitter. Yearly subscription gets you a special icon on your page that says you are a twitter patron.
• 8. Have Twitter put another type of role in your followers. Not just have a “followers” section, but a “daily” or “friends” section where you can click to make a follower a friend, which will allow you to keep closer tabs instead of surf through a ton of followers.

Some of my ideas may be moot to use, but they are just ideas.

My only worry is that it will allow users to exploit the system. Already there are programs out there to “teach” tweeps on how to get more. That is not an organic way and proof in this is that I have several times tried to intelligently converse with the makers of these “tutorials” and no response. Their streams are filled with chit chat not even deep enough to express their opinion and they constantly plug their gimic. I subscribed to this out of curiosity, but have been unimpressed and disgusted by this activity.

With Twitter contemplating services, I hope that if they do, at least text ads on their part to earn more revenue. They deserve it. I think I have enjoyed Twitter far more than my past involvement running Yahoo ! Clubs (now Yahoo! Groups.)

Would you pay for services offered by Twitter? If not, why? If so, if Twitter decides to offer some paid services, what would you like it to be?

Some of the blog articles I have recently started to publish have been about the social media venue, Twitter. Of course, like most systems that have gotten popular, there are people who abuse it by one of the following:

• Are people racking up numbers of followers to spam and not give valuable content
• Are bots created by people that rack a number of followers to spam
• Phish the site like they did during New Year’s Eve

Of course, for anyone who has done forums, and other types of social media places, this is normal, yet still annoying all the same. Of course, there are regular people out there who are not just politicians, celebrities, and businessmen. It is very much a diverse community. However, the name of the game people have come to get into is getting the number of followers… period. There are offered ploys by many in the Twitter community to “Get 10,000 followers in 100 days” and so forth. Although I can be optimistic, I was quite skeptical. I am sure it can be done, but some of the suggestions are quite agressive and frankly, for me, although I like to follow, I also like to try to converse with others. Come on, I spend 3 hours on Tuesdays with the GNO (Girls’ Night Out or trend topic #gno – A group of women on Twitter with a focal topic each week.) However, the formula of these ploys are done by simply joining and thinking that at least 25% of the tweeps that you follow each day will follow back. I know, I have subscribed to these out of curiosity and the fact that I knew eventually I would be blogging about things like what I am blogging in this article.

Tweepl is doing and experiment with Twitter that is a non-spamming bot to collect data on the value of collected followers and trying to prove that it is not important. Of course, with a lot of numbers, your tweets are streams on all of your followers timelines. However, they are not doing this. I am interested in what they will find out and will be following their journey from time to time.

However, anyone who uses Twitter can do the following if they are trying to organically build a following… that is, a meaningful one:

• 1. Follow 2-15 people in a day (this is depending on your time) and try to communicate with them honestly. You do not always have to tell them why you followed them, but try to take an honest interest and try to talk with them.
• 2. Even if you communicate with the people the day before, do not exclude them. They are worth the time and remember that. Everyone is worth a chance and worth the time.
• 3. Try not to use the Automatic -Direct Message (Auto-DM). It really may not pertain to anyone and if you do make one and could prov annoying. If you do make one, make a webpage specifically to welcome your tweep followerers by introducing yourself (not your business if you are one.)
• 4. It is okay to follow back for those who follow you first. However, if it is merely a business with no interest in communicating anything other than their specials, perhaps unfollowing is better. There are a few businesses that are honest people and have great products, so do not rule all of them out at first sight.
• 5. Engage new topics like: Question of the Moment, Fact of the Moment, Project of the Moment, Poll of the Moment, Thought of the Moment. These might bring a wonderful conversation. These are ones I actively use myself and enjoy the feedback.
• 6. Tweet your blogs, but do not overtweet them. This one is kind of an iffy, but if you believe you have content worth a look, then tweet it.
• 7. Visit some of your followers sites or ask them to DM you when they blog something new. If you have to ask daily, then do so as a reminder. It shows you are interested in at least reading their articles and they might give you a look in return.
• 8. It is okay to disagree with another, but to unfollow them based on the fact you disagree with them on an issue is not just rude, but ignorant. Arguments/Debates are ways to grow as a person and know more. Now, unless if it is totally against your morals, then perhaps it is best to bow out politely with a DM to the other tweep. They will understand.
• 9. Follow people who have filled out their profile either partially or fully. The profile might give you a clue if they are a person or a robot. Check out their stream and see if they have anything interesting to say. It might help as a great conversation starter.
• 10. If you have no idea what to talk about, try Tweetworks. It is another Twitter tool that you can use to focus on certain group discussions based on a topic.

Anyway, I am sure there are even more suggestions and sure it is okay to follow more in a day, but make sure you can handle it. Like anything, use Twitter with caution.

Here are some articles that Tweepl shares that I think are also worth both pluggage and read on the issue:

• Why numbers are not everything on Twitter by Bud Gallant – Tells how it is more important not to focus on the number of followers but the content quality of your tweets.
• Your Followers Are NOT Following You by Tweetworks – Lists reasons why people might follow or unfollow you and how to use twitter with meaningful conversations rather than bulk up in numbers.

There are far more blog articles on the issue and the majority of them read quite similar: Numbers are not always important.

So think about it. Why are you using Twitter? What do you want to talk about? What type of people do you want to connect with (if you do want interaction… at least I hope you do)? If it is for just the numbers, spamming and not for interacton, then why bother using it? What substantial topics do you have that another can take back with them or even respond?

In the end, remember: Real people will follow you if you are truly real with them. If you want the numbers and it makes you feel good in the morning, but you having absolutely nothing to talk about, by all means do use Twitter that way too. However, if you want to effectively use Twitter for what it was intended, then take this blog seriously. I did not waste 1000 plus words to come up with junk.