Tag: twitter

  • Making my blog more social?

    To many people the internet is still something to be wary about, a huge thing that only nerds and rocket scientists can understand, although to many of us its familiar, useful and in many ways our home-from-home.

    I have been using the internet for personal and business-y related stuff for 12 years now – and for most of that time i have had some form of making-my-blog-more-socialwebsite or blog. However, it is only the last few years that i have started to truly understand the potential there is to be had from a highly ranked long-standing website.

    So i have decided to start making my blog more visable to the world in an attempt to spread my very limited knowledge just that little bit further.

    The last few months has seen me dive in to the world of twitter head first, and to be honest its the only social networking site i have ever really liked! And i have recently picked up the slack in regards blogging about stuff. I had really died down with it due to other work commitments.

    I dont particularly want to use the sidebar widgets that my mate wiggy uses – he gets a lot of traffic and comments from them, but in order to get this traffic he has to browse sites and do stuff in return and i am a busy guy so allocating time to do that is harder than you might imagine.

    So i have decided to use the power of wordpress and its huge plugin database to help make my blog more social.

    Im using twitpress which posts a message to my twitter page every time i add a new blog entry (dont worry i dont blog that often) Its something i try and do now and then anyway, so having a plugin do it for me automatically is just a bonus really!

    I am also going to give my blog an overhaul using the thesis framework as it is something i have bought recenlty and have been using for a while – and i love it!

    Once i have the design out the way i’m also gonna look at other subtle ways to get my blog noticed a bit more on the internet.

    If anyone has any ideas then feel free to leave a comment! 🙂

  • FSS – Facebook Status Syndrome

    So i was reading some stuff that was sent to me via twitter, and i was browsing the BBspot website when i saw an article labelled “Doctors Notice Increase in Facebook Status Syndrome”

    They claim that people are starting to become obsessed with changing their status to refelct their every move. And are starting to “verbalize every move they make”

    “It’s a continuation from the online world into reality, and it can be debilitating as well as quite annoying.”
    Many times FSS goes unnoticed, because most victims have no social interaction outside Facebook or other online social networks.  It’s only when these people journey out in public, when it becomes noticeable”

    Its kinda like that little britain sketch with George and Sandra – “Putting a bit of beef on the old fork, putting the fork to my little-britian-usa__595977amouth, short pause while i chew.”

    It makes me wonder though, if people are getting this bug because of facebook, then what the hell is going to happen to us twitter fans? As the whole point of twitter is to document your every move in 140 characters or less.

    We’ll soon all be walking around speaking everything we do, “just opening the door, just walking through the door, just shutting the door” or even worse we’ll be strapped up with sensors and shit and literally our every move will be recorded automatically on a website. I can actually see that happening with twitter soon to be honest as i have already seen a bakers in london that has an automatic twitter updater when something comes out the oven and a guy who had his chair sense when he farted and updated his twitter status accordingly.

    Who knows where it will all end up!

  • Why i like twitter

    Ive had accounts on most of the top social networking sites just because they were there i suppose. I never really got on with the myspace interface, and the flashing backgrounds and 4 different songs starting at one time started to piss me off a bit. Facebook is a excellent way of finding people you have lost touch with, and sharing what you and your friends do at the weekend.  But i just see facebook as a way of sharing things we are doing with thousands of people. A marketing tool so to speak. Plus i get so annoyed having to block applications, deny gifts, and cancel all the other crap everyone sends me!

    Then along came twitter.

    Initially i had no idea what the hell use it could ever be. It was so simple, and i really saw no benefit to anyone. Then i started following a few people. I added people that made software i had bought, and i started receiving up-to-date info about the next release of that software. I added Jimmy Carr and found a funny one liner popping up every now and then. I added some people who do similar work to me, and the things they were talking about were relevant to what i do every day.

    I suddenly found myself hooked to this on the pulse news being sent to a tab in my browser.

    Then i didn’t have access to my pc for a day, and when i got back to work i had totally forgotten all about it. Once i remembered i went back on and started to notice it was quite inconvenient having to check that tab every time i wanted to see if anything had been said.

    So i looked for an app to help me keep updated. I noticed a friend of mines posts were from something called twitterfox, DING, it hit me. What an idiot. I have everything else plugged into my browser, and i hadn’t even thought to look for a firefox extension! Thanks stu!

    Now i get instantly notified of any tweets and im finding it more and more useful each day.

    I also like how they have left it VERY simple, and they have left everything else you might be able to use twitter for up to everyone else.

    Ive noticed LOADS of sites that use twitter in different ways. Finding hot talked about topics, integrating pictures even finding specific people to follow in an attempt at getting them to return the favor for use in advertising etc.

    I heard that google are looking to buy twitter, too. T hat should be interesting.

    Peace out, im now going to bed – and then going on holiday.

    Adios!