Twitter Has Reached Load Capacity

Posted on August 4, 2011 by Amber Whitener

Ha ha. This is what you’ll see when twitter is going over its traffic limit.

Dried Up Twits

Posted on June 30, 2011 by Amber Whitener

I have noticed there are quite a few people who begin tweeting some very useful information. Like many technological marketing schemes they seemed to have gotten bored with the prospect of continuing their campaign (You’ve heard it before: “I tried it and Twitter is useless.”) or perhaps didn’t see the instant benefits of their effort or someone failed to measure their campaign’s success.

No matter what the reason, at any rate they discontinue tweeting and leave quite a wealth of knowledge behind for no one ever to see.

Sometimes, it’s not exactly a wealth of knowledge as much as some very handy tips to point us back to the path of success when we get lost in the muddle of information we get bombarded with elsewhere.

In the interest of saving this information, I have decided to weed out some of the better Twitter tips and put it back into good use via this blog when I happen across such morsels.

I will also add in a few Twitter tips here and there for you to launch or revive your own Twitter campaigns.

The new tag will be called: Dried Up Twits… all in good fun.

Heard of Twitter?

Posted on April 10, 2011 by Amber Whitener

This Wizards of ID comic about Twitter was in today’s Sunday paper… I hope it’s ok that I scanned it, I kinda liked it.

Apparently it’s a cut down version of this:

Twitter Tools Version 2

Posted on February 7, 2011 by Amber Whitener

Managing Friends and Followers

There are some peeps who go and mass follow a bunch of people on twitter and then, mass unfollow after they get the poor unsuspecting peeps who followback. This is SO CHEATING! Find out if people unfollowed you (then unfollow those twits!)

Friend or Follow – Find out who is a friend and who is a follow collector.
Tweepi a geekier, faster way to bulk add quality followers and flush the unfollowers.

Add Us as Friends
We’ll add you back, as long as you don’t spam us. Amber: @FindingAnswers, Jennifer: @thesnflwrgrl, Kena: @KenaRoth

Get Tons of Followers on Twitter

Top Twitter Followers – You used to be able to go to this page and follow all of these people on twitter, and they’d follow you back! Now, you are probably going to have better luck following the latest peeps who have commented on this post and they will follow you back.
Twitter Search – search for anything peeps are tweeting. Are they tweeting

Automate a Few Tweets Here and There

Hey, you aren’t going to be on twitter all at the same times that some of your followers are on, it’s ok to send an automated tweet now and then when you’ve got an important message.

Twuffer – Queue up your tweets with Twuffer, but you cannot queue up tweets that are identical to your current status with this tool.
TwitterFeed – Feed your blog posts to twitter automatically with this awesome little app.

Twitter Profile Make It Yours

TwitBacks – Get a Twitter Background because there is only so much the profile allows you to share about your business, but for personal use remember not to ever share too much info about yourself!!!
Twilk.com has a more fun idea for your twitter background. They will put your twitter followers pics on your background! How fun is that?

The Unspoken Rules

**BTW, try to keep your ratio of followers and following kinda even. If people see that you follow like 500 people, and you only have 50 following you, then there must be something wrong with you and they shouldn’t follow you. **
Don’t buy into thinking you have to stoop to some kind of tacky twitter tactic to get sales! People who do this just make the marketing tools like twitter less valuable.
~~TweetLater.com – Send your new followers a “Thanx 4 the Follow” msg~~ – I totally change my mind on this one. After getting hundreds of hey! thanks for the follow! Check out my website www.blahblah.com! Guess what? Everyone does it and because everyone does it, everyone ignores it… so just be classy and don’t.

I wrote the post Twitter Tools in June 8, 2009. And we all know that any post about twitter that old is pretty much useless! I have written updates on the twitter topic, like when we all started using Twitter Lists posted Oct. 31, 2009, and my fun little post on how so many peeps are still twitterpated and how twitter is still definitely working for them posted April 19, 2010. And yet, I still never got around to posting an updated version of my favorite twitter tools list. These tools will still help you reach & keep followers on twitter!

The Dark Side of Social Media

Posted on May 3, 2010 by Amber Whitener

Look at these faces. Aren’t they beautiful? You can’t help but wonder, “What could a young, attractive teen like you have to be sad about?” The following photos are those of real teens who committed suicide after struggling with a vicious epidemic called cyber-bullying.

Ryan Halligan, age 13
Died: October 7, 2003
humiliated and back-stabbed via AOL instant messenger

Megan Meier, age 13
Died: October 17, 2006
betrayed & verbally abused by a friend’s parent who got on MySpace pretending to be a 16 year old boy?!

Phoebe Prince, age 15
Died: January 14, 2010
harassed via text messaging and Facebook

Alexis Pilkington age 17
Died: March 25, 2010
cyber-bullied on Facebook and formspring.me

If social media is so powerful that it is affecting our youth on such a deep level, then we must see to it that these powers start getting used for good.

This is sadly becoming a common issue. It could easily become even more common if children are left wading through the masses of social networking sites without a firm grasp on reality and heavy dose of self-assurance. Adolescent socializing is hard enough without adding the global factor of public confrontations. Education and the freedom to be open with a parent or other grown up support system when they are unsure of how to handle certain situations alone will save kids like Ryan, Megan, Phoebe, and Alexis.

Restriction is not the answer.

Many parents and teachers are concerned about sites like MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter providing too much information to and by our youth. Some believe that denying children (including teens) access to social networking sites will protect them from harm. It’s time to get real. Kids will find ways to set up online profiles at their friends’ houses, at school, or even at the local libraries. Electronic harassment is also happening via text messaging, instant messaging, and email.

Re-purposing social networking is the only answer.

Not only is it possible to used to emotionally hurt people, but I believe that it could really save people too. Social networking services that allow continual access to new resources for education and other public services. Students could talk to tutors on MySpace when they are having trouble with a certain homework problem. Alcoholics could get on Facebook and talk to AA leaders and members, even on Friday nights when their buddies are texting them to come out to the bars. Could Twitter become a useful part of the emergency broadcast system by tweeting weather warnings and Amber alerts to everyone’s cell phone within a targeted demographic area?

Ignoring it won’t make it go away.

Social media is swiftly bringing our world into a new age whether we are ready to see the change or not. Before, it was all about information, now it is all about sharing information. Social media could be the answer to some of society’s problems or it could make them much worse. If we decide to look the other way and tell ourselves that it won’t happen to our family, then the problem will get worse. We don’t have to sit by miss this opportunity for growth. We just need to learn how to use it appropriately, then we must teach our children.

No death should be in vain.

Dedicated to: Rachel Burdine, my best friend in middle school committed suicide at age 13. You could have really done so many great things. I still miss you.

Learn more.

Suicide Prevention

Parent Resources

Launch Gum & The Launch United Community: The Who, What, Where, When, Why, How interview

Posted on April 23, 2010 by Kena Roth

Launch Gum & The Launch United Community: The Who, What, Where, When, Why, How interview

What?

Launch Gum is an energy drink in a chewing gum. One can of launch gum contains 9 sugar free pieces, the energy equivalent of 7 energy drinks.

Launch United is an unprecedented online social network, where individuals buy launch gum, become Launch Reps, build a community and manage a grassroots salesforce.

Who?

The product and company were developed and founded by Justin & Eric — @launchgum & @pilonbignell. Launch Gum started when I knocked over Eric’s energy drink with an errant basketball shot and he made the ridiculous comment that “they should make an energy drink that does not spill”. From there we developed Launch Gum, an energy drink in a chewing gum.

The true supporters and drivers of the brand are our dedicated Launch Reps, the members of our one of a kind grassroots salesforce. From LA to New York, from professional and amateur athletes, to influential college students and everywhere in between, they are motivated individuals that love the launch products, are passionate about the brand and exemplify the launch lifestyle

When?

We started the company a few years back, right out of university and began selling around campus, out of the trunk of our cars, to local shops etc. Our customers were amazed by the innovation, effectiveness, taste, value and convenience. Our awareness and distribution exploded nationally and internationally within one year from our first sale.

Why?

Why is Launch Gum so awesome? – We utilize a proprietary slow-release formulation, with only the highest quality ingredients and utilize a pharmaceutical grade, cold manufacturing process that ensures unmatched active ingredient retention. Short Version: we make sure the product tastes good and works.

Why is Launch United so awesome? It takes grassroots, authenticity and a customer focus to a whole new level. Our sales, marketing and promotional strategies are focused on placing the power, value and dollars in the hands of our customers and our launch reps. Every action we take is aimed at supporting our customers, supporting our reps, supporting our community.

How?

With an unwavering focus on engaging, learning from and serving our customers. We are able to consistently adapt and improve through crowd sourcing and engaging directly and unfiltered with our Launch Reps. We are truly embedded in the culture we serve and have unbelievably loyal customers. Everyday we gain real-time intelligence direct from our consumers and execute to build a consistently improving 360 degree brand experience.

We absolutely love what we are doing. Launch is truly a community and we consider our Launch Reps and customers our family and friends. We deal with positive, passionate, motivated and inspiring people everyday. We have a product, brand and sales structure that matches our and our friends vision of what being from our generation is truly all about.

Thank You – Justin, and Launch Gum for taking the time to be my guest today!

Still Twitterpated? How’s that Working Out for You?

Posted on April 19, 2010 by Amber Whitener

Millions of virtual business owners like us are on Twitter. It is one of those tools that can seem exciting at first, then quickly become a “chore” by having to figure out ways to keep conversations going. If you haven’t found your “purpose” on Twitter, then this post will give you some ideas to finding your Twitter niche.

I don’t really use Twitter all that much to build my business. I happen to prefer Facebook. However, the usefulness of keeping up with my “peeps” has not lost its value. I use it often to teach and to learn about the virtual assistant world. You can learn so many helpful things while listening to live conversations that are happening around the world.

The best ways to learn about how to use tools like Twitter are by experience and by examples. These are five of my favorite peeps who I sporadically chime in on their conversations. They each have their own specific area to shine on Twitter.

@KenaRoth is the perfect example of a VA who has a true passion for Twitter. She shares social media tips, shows genuine interest in people by asking them about their lives/business/family/etc. She has established herself as an expert in her field with Twitter (and Facebook). Now, when people want training to use social media for business, they go to her.
I loved her blog post: Twitter, Some Get It, Some Don’t.
@JenFriel has a fun way of uniting nerds on Twitter. You’ll often see her high energy tweets with a #nerdsunite hashtag. She also shares new places and nerdy conventions she is attending with foursquare. She’s what you’d call an extroverted nerd.
@teksquisite (Bev Robb) is an internet security expert who is always keeping me up on the latest in cyber crime detection and prevention. You’ll often see her tweets hash-tagged under #scammers and #cybercrime. She has established herself as an expert in her field with Twitter. Now, when people are concerned about security threats, they go to her.
@joshchandler is a social blogger who can often be found chirping for charity. See how he shares information about a cause? He gets good causes moving with his tweets. Now this is what I call using your powers for good.
@VAForums uses Twitter to promote their newest resources and forum members’ news. If you are a virtual assistant and haven’t signed up as a member at the Virtual Assistant Forums, then you are missing some tons of helpful tools, templates, and peer support. All they ask is that you keep it professional.

Now you have a few ideas of how to use Twitter creatively for your business: to share tips and good conversation, let out your inner nerd, do your part to fight cyber crime, help a charity, and promote your business. Reach and keep followers with these Twitter tools.

Amber: @FindingAnswers

Jennifer: @thesnflwrgrl

Kena: @KenaRoth

Add That Nifty ReTweet Button on a WordPress.com Blog Post

Posted on March 8, 2010 by Amber Whitener

WordPress.com offers you your own free space to keep your small business blog until it is time for you to have your own self-hosted WordPress site setup. I’d like to share some tips on making this work for you, even if you aren’t the most tech savvy blogger out there.

Sometimes to add a little “POP!”, you have to learn a CSS trick or two.

Make sure you are in the “HTML” view of your post. (See ScreenShot)

Remember you must be in the HTML view to add this code or else it will not work!
This is the code to edit and add into every single post that you want to be retweetable:

<div style="float: right; margin-right: 20px;"><a href="http://api.tweetmeme.com/share?url=URLsource=TWITTERID" target="_new"><img src="http://api.tweetmeme.com/imagebutton.gif?url=URL" alt="Tweet: POST TITLE" width="51" height="61" /></a></div>
- Where is says URL: make sure you put in the full address of your post, not just the address of your homepage. When people tweet about a specific post, you want to make sure you help them look credible and send their interested friends or coworkers to the right place! Do not add any extra spaces or characters to the code, this could cause it to not function properly or at all.
- Where it says TWITTERID: you can type in your own twitter username there. The ID you type in there will show us as who you are “RT”ing.
- For all alt tags, all you need to type in place of POST TITLE is the title of your post. When visitors hover over your retweet image, they will see: Tweet: My Newest Blog Post.
- You can past these at the top or bottom or in the middle of any post. It’s best to wait till you are finished and ready to publish the post before dealing with adding this button. (Trust me.)
- You can make this image show up on the right side or left side of your post by changing the “float”. As you can see, I usually make my buttons float right, but it’s a personal preference. If you want it to “float” left, simply change the code: <div style=”float: right …to… <div style=”float: left …etc.
If you’d like to add a little something extra to track your clicks, you can even setup an account on bit.ly and add the API in this code to track your blogpost being tweeted with a URL shortener.

<div style="float: right; margin-right: 20px;"><a href="http://api.tweetmeme.com/share?url=URL&service=bit.ly&service_api=YOUR-API-CODE-FOUND-IN-YOUR-BIT.LY-ACCOUNT-SETTINGS&source=TWITTERID" target="_new"> <img src="http://api.tweetmeme.com/imagebutton.gif?url=URL" alt="POST TITLE" width="51" height="61" /></a></div>

This code probably works with many other url shorteners with APIs. If you have another type and test this, please stop by and let us know if it worked!

If it looks confusing, don’t worry, this is why there are plugins for self-hosted WordPress to automatically write this code for you. However, while your blog is still new, it’s ok to add this code to your favorite posts to make sure they are easily sharable.