ThePodcastSisters

Twitter Hall Of Fame

As you know, you'll find Anna and I on Twitter.

I've seen a steady increase of entrepreneurs, media companies and corporates start to join the Twitter community over the recent months.

Twitter has become a place to research, build friendships and even promote your business. But I don't recommend jumping in to the Twitterverse without doing a little research first.

Yes you can microblog and each microblog post is only 140 characters maximum. But remember that each Tweet that you make is indexed in Google and will come up in Google searches and Google Alerts- so be careful what you Tweet.

As part of your research, why not take a look at this article from InsideCRM called the 'Twitter Hall of Shame' which shares 50 notable Tweets covering information from business to political Tweets, and from marriage proposals to wine tasting parties on Twitter.

And if you are on Twitter, don't be shy about connecting to Anna and I.

What stories do you have to share about the difference Twitter and microblogging has made to you?

Attribution: Thanks to Fiona King of InsideCRM for sharing the 'Twitter Hall of Shame' article with me.

How Twitter Can Help you to Find People in Your Local Community

For people new to Twitter who wants to see who is twittering around your own locality there is a tool that combines the googlemap application and twitter users - called Googlemap Twitter Mashup. All you do is put in your zip or postcode and it will show you "tweets" from people who live near you.
May be useful in finding contacts around where you live - interestingly there was no one who lived near me!

Free Teleseminar 12 May 2008: Social Media For Solopreneurs

I'm afraid it's been a bit quiet over here on The Podcast Sisters recently as Anna and Heather have been travelling and then Anna has been ill.

If you are missing our voices and views about social media, then you might want to hop on my call this week for Biz Growth Live, where I am in conversation with Peggy Murrah and Chris Muccio about social media for solopreneurs and how it can help you attract more clients.

You can find out more about the call which is a FREE teleseminar masterclass taking place at 1pm ET/6pm Ireland and the UK on Monday 12 May 2008 here.

If you already receive my newsletter you will have the details of the call in number so you don't need to register again.

Hope to hear you on the call soon.

Encyclopaedia Britannica Webshare

When you are writing a blog post or an article for your website, if you are looking for a definition of a word, then it's likely that you will hyperlink to Wikipedia.

Well another source that is now available to you is Encyclopaedia Britannica where if you are a blogger or webpublisher, you can apply for an account to cite Britannica in your articles. This means that you can bring your website visitors and blog article readers access to the robust definitions on Britannica and they do not need to have an account to access the site which costs US$70 per annum - they have access to the definiton you link to.

And our friends over at the For Immediate Release podcast, Shel and Neville have been working with Britannica to support them in this strategy - thanks Shel and Neville for encouraging Britannica to make the resouce freely available to web publishers and bloggers.

So why not apply for your account for Britannica Webshare today?

Oh I almost forgot - you can also follow Britannica on Twitter and receive a daily Tweet about an article on Britannica too.

iQ Content Online Marketing Bootcamp: Dublin 22 - 24 April 2008

As I mentioned on The Podcast Sisters show we recorded this evening, if you are in the Dublin area between the 22-24 April 2008, I highly recommend that you check out the details of the forthcoming Online Marketing Bootcamp being hosted by iQ Content. Read on to find out how to avail of a 10% discount on the registration fee.

The online marketing bootcamp includes workshops on the following areas:

• Search engine marketing 202: More advanced techniques for enhancing your website's search engine visibility
• Content strategy: Getting your content mix right to drive traffic, engage customers and increase conversions
• Writing for the web 101: Creating great content – the fundamental techniques
• Writing for the web 202: Beyond the basics – writing to convert and persuade
• Accessibility for web managers: Planning, procuring, delivering and maintaining an accessible website
• Information architecture that works: Essential techniques for structuring and organising your website
• Killer web applications: Designing usable and effective web applications
• Personas – Getting into the head of your customers: Tools and techniques for understanding your customers
• Practical user testing: Planning, conducting and reporting on user tests
• Web analytics 101: Fundamental techniques for measuring the success of your website
• Web analytics 202: More advanced techniques for measuring the effectiveness of your website
• Website healthcheck: How to evaluate the effectiveness of your website and benchmark it against your competitors
• Kick-start your web strategy: Defining and implementing an effective online strategy
• Web governance: Getting your organisation organised – people, teams and processes
• Web project management: How to deliver a successful web project
• Email marketing: Planning, creating and delivering effective email newsletters
• Online advertising: Conceiving, creating, implementing and measuring an effective online advertising campaign
• Search engine marketing 101: Driving more traffic to your website – the fundamental techniques.

You can attend for 1 day, 2 days or 3 days and as I'm speaking at the event, you can use the special code I've been given by the event organisers and can therefore avail of a 10% discount - please note this is not an affiliate link - I asked the organisers if my community of readers could benefit in some way and am delighted that they made this discount available.

All you need to do is put in the code 'speaker' when making your booking.

I'm speaking at the session on the Wednesday afternoon - the iQ FutureNow Seminar where we'll be covering emerging trends and technologies that you need to start thinking about. Do let me know if you plan to be there won't you. I'm trying to clear my calendar as much as I can as  know the content that will be covered at the online marketing bootcamp will be outstanding.

Twitter As A Travel Companion

New York has opened my eyes even more to Twitter, it has been invaluable

• Communicating with people and arranging meetups
• Asking questions about how to get around or where to eat.
• Making new friends
• No need for email
• Insight into people and their lives before I met them

Twitter at the moment has, I believe got about 1m users. However, I still think that this will be an important web package as it is so easy, so portable and intuitive to use. Remember if you want to find out about who is using Twitter in your locality then go to TwitterLocal.

In the meantime, I am meeting up with 3 people today that I would not have been able to, without twitter.

Blog or Website?

I think this is the question that I get asked most often. The answer for me is a blog..however, that is the right answer only if you see the power of blogging, that you feel comfortable with

• Building a readership over time - it is not a short term fix.
• Investing time in writing valuable content
• What your brand personality is and what you want to convey as your company's personality.

To help you decide there is a great article over at Problogger Tips to help you decide whether blogging is the right direction for your small business and internet marketing efforts.

Facebook Ban: Banned From Inviting Friends and Sending Messages

Yes you have read correctly - I have been banned from adding friends to Facebook and sending messages to Facebook friends in my network!

Today I thought I would spend some time adding some new friends in my Facebook network.

I had identified people who I know personally and people whose work I follow and respect and sent each one a customised invitation to invite them to join my network - yes every person received a note and invitation customised to how I knew of them and inviting them to join my network. I also gave a link to my blog in case they wanted to check me out first before adding me.

Well to my suprise I got a warning note from Facebook to say that I was potentially going to be banned from Facebook if I acted in this manner. It seems on checking the help notes in Facebook that I was adding people to fast and therefore was being perceived to be spamming in facebook.

Now I am in a position of not being allowed by Facebook to add any more people to my network.

The ban can last hours or days - the help notes on Facebook do not give a specific time line - just that it can be hours or days!

I'm also under warning that if I am seem to be acting in tis manner again I can be banned completely from Facvebook. I guess you could say I am in good company though as tis has happened to some of the worlds most famous social media experts!

I've sent an message to the support desk asking for guidance on how to avoid tis in the future as I clearly do not want to be banned from Facebook. I actually use it to connect with people and message them direct rather than through email.

What I don't understand is that this has never happened before event though I have taken a similar approach to builing my online network in Facebook. And in addition I has personally customised each invitation. Clearly the Facebook system is not sophisticated enought to recognise that was the case.

What is the most frustrating is that I then went to connect with a friend of mine in Facebook. But I can't! You see the ban on adding more friends to my Facebook network also means that I am also banned from sending messages to people who are already friends in Facebook. So now I have to use email to connect with them.

I therefore sent a second message to the Facebook support desk saying the following:

.... I now have a problem as I seem to be unable from sending specific messages to people who are in my Facebook network already. Can you advise why this is as adding new friends seems completely different from keeping in contact about business issues with my current network ....

So if you send me any messages or Facebook please don't expect a reply. I can't!

Anyone else had this problem before. I am hoping some friends of mine who are Facebook experts might be able to help me out and tell me how not to bet totally banned from Facebook!

I've never been banned from anything or anywhere in my life before - perhaps I have lived a sheltered life? A now I am banned from social networking on Facebook. You could say I am"virtually red" with embarrasment!

I'll certainly update you if I hear from the Facebook team so you can learn how to avoid being banned on Facebook when extending your social network.

Twitter Tip

You might recall we have covered the subject of Twitter last week on the podcast.

Most people leave their Twitter profile open so people can add them as a friend. However I noticed one of the people in my Twitter network seemed to all of a sudden have a privacy key saying that you had to be approved to follow them.

As I'd been receiving updates from them previously I wondered what had happened so I sent them an email.

Well it seems that they had been receiving inappropriate tweets from someone so they decided to switch on the privacy function so that meant that anyone who had been in their network was also prevented to see their tweets.

So if you are looking to switch on the privacy function when you have already been building your online network in Twitter, make sure that you approve the people previously in your Twitter community if you want them to stay in touch with your Tweets!

Top Posts and RSS Filter

I am always looking for ways to help readers find your best stories and promoting your blog work. Over at Read Write Web they introduce a new tool called Aide RSS...explaining

"The website does offer a couple of blogger-centric services, however. The "Sharing & widgets" page for every site indexed by AideRSS offers two services aimed at publishers: a syndication widget that provides RSS links to AideRSS-filtered feeds (good, great, and best) as well as a top posts widget that lists the top ranked posts over a given time period."

The tool can be used for filtering your RSS feeds that you have in your reader but I particularly like the ability to create widgets for your blog to promote your work - be it the posts with the most comments, most readers etc

The best part of blogs is that they are constantly feeding your creative mind with new content, however when people visit your blog for the first time they may not see your best work. Having this kind of tool allows you to put in the sidebar, a little "shop window" of work that you believe shows your most popular content.