When twitter changed its default setting disallowing users to see @ mentions of people they weren’t following, it became harder to meet and follow interesting conversations and people.

I for one got seriously mad. Twitter practically told me to stop snooping into other people’s conversations with people I wasn’t following. The nerve!

For a while, I was stuck with following back people who followed me. I was at a loss on how to follow new folks. I didn’t have the time to go through countless profiles and see who was following who.

Considering that twitter played the ‘We can’t undo it anytime soon’ card, there wasn’t much that I could do – except find other ways to find people to follow.

Here are two ways I accidentally stumbled upon to converse with people who normally would not have come in my twitter radar.

1. Blip your way to new conversations

As someone who routinely listens to music while working, I like to share it too. The need to share and tell the world about my music taste (cuz I’m a show off that way) made me want to do it on twitter too. After all, music makes you like, totally cool y’know?

Blip.FM is a great way to connect with new people. After spending a few weeks blipping songs for around one hour every couple of days or so, I realized that I was hearing from people who weren’t following me!

The reason was simple, they liked my choice of songs and wanted to share their opinion or recommend some more. Sometimes people would @ me out of the blue because I blipped UB40 and they got nostalgic. Or because they were living in their native town and thought I’d be interested in the trivia – which I was.

Another thing I noticed was that my current followers would RT a song I’d blipped if they liked it. Since RT’s can be seen by everyone, I started getting @ replies from people I couldn’t see them conversing with. (Ha! Take that you meddling twitter!)

Regardless to say, I’ve been conversing with new people regularly and I already know we have our taste in music in common. So not only do I find cool people to follow through twitter, I get an immediate ice breaker too.

For those of you who’re wondering about finding people to follow in your niche through blipping songs, that is taken care of when your followers RT your blip and their followers leave you a message. Half the time, the person is from the niche you’re interested in.

2. RT tweets without links

I tend to RT tweets that I’ve enjoyed for the opinion they express, laugh they gave me or because I identify with it.

It has been a great way to start a conversation with people I follow but don’t usually talk with and find new people to follow.

The key is to add your own two cents to the RT to get the conversation going. A lot of people reply back as they share their own opinions and conversations tend to get interconnected introducing a lot of tweeps to each other.

The IranElection hashtag was the perfect example. I’d RT differing opinions and the conversation flowed. That’s when I realized the impact of RT-ing linkless tweets. I don’t talk politics and/or religion as a general rule and I was not looking to start a conversation on the Iran elections at all.

My reason behind the RT was that I found the sentiment expressed in the tweet in question interesting. That’s where my interest in it ended. My personal thoughts and opinions were supposed to remain my own.

But suddenly people were replying and discussing and I learned some important lessons.

• Don’t RT stuff you’re not willing to discuss
• Linkless RT’s encourage people to talk to you.
• Tweet stuff (thoughts, opinions, sentiments) that will get you Retweeted

Since then, I’ve been RTing tweets that encourage an opinion from people. As a result, I’ve seen an increase in the RT ratio of my tweets, both the linkless tweets and the ones with links.

Everyone has their own story of how they find more people to follow. What’s yours? Have you found any unconventional ways to network on twitter?

Image credit: Respres

Technorati Tags: Social Networking, Twitter, Twitter tips, Twitter tricks

We’ve heard what Michael Martine of Remarkablogger, James Chartrand of Men with Pens and Naomi Dunford of Ittybiz have to say about being interesting to your audience. It’s time to find out what you guys have to say.

Before starting this series, I had my final post all drafted and was looking forward to typing it to perfection.

Then I published my first post of the series and Starliteve left a comment that bested my views in every sense of the word. She was matter of fact where I would have gotten er… emotional and to the point where I would have rambled.

So instead of my pearls of (very questionable) wisdom, I present to you Starliteve’s three points that make a blog interesting to her. Feel free to substitute blog with business, product,  services etc.

1. Your blog is interesting because it gives me information and a perspective that I can’t get anywhere else.
2. Your blog is interesting because you go out and find the best information and save me the time by linking me to it all at once (with your glowing commentary).
3. Your blog is interesting because you tell me intimate and interesting things about yourself that are entertaining or thought provoking.

Do you guys look for the same things? Or does something else hold your interest? The floor is now yours.

Image credit: Chris Owens

Technorati Tags: Blogging, Freelancing, Social Networking

When I decided to send one-question interviews to people I found interesting, I knew there would be one person I’d be interviewing for sure – and hounding them if they refused.

If you want a poster child for a blog/business that engages its readers and customers, provides excellent content, thrives on conversation and has a blog community to die for – then you don’t have to look further than the Men with Pens. James Chartrand is the face of MwP and the guy who heard my half crazed question that I didn’t voice.

Q: What is the one thing we should change about our approach to become more interesting?

James: Being interesting means being real. Gone are the days where companies boast and try to appear more than they are. Today’s consumers want to hear stories from the people behind the company. They want to have an experience, to get to know those they buy from personally.

Share your stories. Talk about your interests. Be genuine and show that you’re human too. Discuss past mistakes and what you learned from them. Mention accomplishments and what you went through to achieve them. Have fun and talk about something from your life that you’re passionate about – a hobby, for example.

You can be real and be approachable easily without losing professionalism. So enjoy what you do, have fun with it, and demonstrate that to your target audience. They’ll learn to love you for not only what you offer, but who you are as well.

And that, my friends, builds trust and loyalty, two huge factors to your success.

–

Thank you for the interview James. You guys totally rock!

Technorati Tags: Blogging, Freelancing, Social Networking

“You’re boring.” declared Seth Godin.

I could swear he was pointing at me.

“The only path left is to lean out of the edge and become interesting, noteworthy and yes, remarkable.”

‘But how do I become interesting?’ I wondered. Before I could voice that question, he’d gone off to his next post. I wanted to scream after him to come back and tell me how to be interesting. I didn’t want to go through his archives. I wanted my answer right now!

Knowing I’d fallen for Seth’s trap didn’t stop me from grumbling. He’d forced me to think and wonder about how to be interesting. I don’t know about you, but there was no way I was going to fumble around in the dark making a fool of myself in an effort to be interesting.

Of course, one could argue, that making a fool out of myself would be extremely interesting for a number of people.

I figured if Seth wouldn’t tell me (not that I asked him), I’d ask other people through a one question interview. Three stellar and totally awesome people replied to my one question interview.

I asked them:

What is the one thing we should change about our approach to become more interesting?

Yes, I realize. That’s got to be the world’s vaguest question. I was going to chicken out of sending the email to them if I hadn’t sent it when I did.

What I really wanted to ask was: “How the hell do I become interesting so that people like you will visit and read my blog? How do I catch and hold your interest? Tell me for God’s sake!!!”

The nice, professional blogger that I am, I couldn’t possible ask in exactly those words now could I?

So I sent the first question that popped in my head without stopping to frame it properly. And I got replies! Imagine my shock when the first email popped in within 24 hours! It didn’t even ridicule me or tell me to go get my act together.

Starting tomorrow, The Base will be featuring one interview per day for three days. Learn how to be interesting from three of the most interesting people online who know what it takes to keep their readers riveted.

Tomorrow, Michael Martine of Remarkablogger fame will be sharing his view on how to be an interesting blogger.

Tune in tomorrow to find how we can become interesting bloggers, the Remarkablogger way.

P.S: The Base will be updated every day this week and the review of Unit III of the Staff Blogging Course will return next Tuesday.

Image credit: Scragz

Technorati Tags: Blogging, Freelancing, Social Networking

The five part series on twitter that I did in february sent a lot of twitter related search to my blog. Out of the all the search phrases, I’ve narrowed them down to 8 most common phrases. The first four were answered in Twitter FAQ Part I.

Here are the next four. I hope this helps you guys get answers faster without having to read through a lot of content.

Preset Tweets

You can preset tweets by using a service called Tweetlater. It’s an online service that lets you schedule tweets which are then sent at the specified time.

Replying to a tweet

To reply to a tweet on twitter, all you’ve got to is add a ‘@’ sign before their username. Remember, type their username and not their real  name. Mine’s @samarowais. That’s my full name so it’s easy. But I know a lot of people who have very different username’s.

If you’re using a Twitter desktop application, then you won’t even need to type @. All you’ll have to do is click on the reply option.

DM tricks for twitter

DM stands for Direct Message. It means that other users will not be able to see or reply to this message. It can only be replied to by the person you’ve sent it to.

Sending a DM is as easy as replying to a tweet. If you’re twittering from the web, simply type ‘D’ before the username. Example: D samarowais ( D[space]username) followed by your message.

Remember that you don’t need to insert an @. Just the username after D.

Further Reading: 10 Twitter Tips and Tricks

Twitter Desktop Option

While twitter may have started as a browser based service, it has out grown it’s browser days. There are plenty of desktop options available if you want to use twitter more frequently and efficiently than a web browser allows.

For Twitter desktop options, check out Top 5 Twitter Desktop Applications.

Technorati Tags: Social Networking, Twitter, Twitter tricks