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

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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

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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

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“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

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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

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Ever since I did my 5 part series on twitter, I’ve been getting a lot of search results related to it. Most of the search words were answered, but its understandable that people don’t have the time to go through an entire post for a piece of information that isn’t highlighted.

Here’s a list of questions that have landed people on The Base.

How to Create Twitter Hashtags?

Creating hashtags is easy. All you have to do is follow @hashtags from your twitter account and then add a # symbol before the word you want to create a hash about. 

I recently tweeted about a competition I won over at WahmBizBuilder. I tweeted something along the lines of  ”I won the Seth Godin Book content from @wahmbizbuilder! ” Now if I wanted to create a hashtag for the word ‘contest’, I’d writer it as #contest.

I hope this make it clear. For more information, check out the Twitter Fan Wiki for hashtags.

What Does RT Stand For?

RT is short for Re-Tweet. Retweeting means repeating someone else’s tweet for more exposure or simply because you like it.

If you’re twittering from the web, add ‘RT’ before your tweet, then copy and paste the tweet of your choice.

Does replying to twitter help you be seen?

It most definitely does! Replying to other users on twitter helps you engage in conversations and network. Not only are you ‘being seen’ by other people, but you’re also building your personal brand.

Just be friendly and mind your manners when interacting with other twitter-ers and you’ll see your follower numbers increase.

What is twitter and how do you use it?

Twitter is a social networking web service that lets you communicate with people. There’s a catch though. You have to communicate your message in 140 characters or less.  It may say that it’s meant for friends, family and co-workers to communicate, but that’s not how most of its users use twitter.

Twitter is used to network with people with similar interest as yours. If you’re a writer, you’ll start following writers and interact with them. Not only will you get to know some pretty amazing people this way, you’ll find plenty of opportunities to build relationships.

Technorati Tags: Social Networking, Twitter, twitter questions, Twitter tricks

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Just dropping in for a quick hello. Well actually, I just wanted to toot my horn. My first post (ever!) for another blog got published a few days ago.

Major cool moment I tell you!

Check out ‘12 Places to Get Business Cards Online’ over at SmartLifeBlog. I even got my own bio! Cool huh?

In related news, Chris Cairns is great to work with!

Out of curiosity, how many of you budding freelancers have business cards? And where’d you get them designed from?

Technorati Tags: Business cards, Freelancing, Social Networking

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We’ve covered all the serious topics about twitter. Now it’s time for the most important aspect of twitter. Having fun. These tools are for fun and mostly just feel good stuff!

If you’re twittering and not having fun, then dude? What are you doing on twitter in the first place?!

1. Twitemperature

Want to know how ‘hot’ you are on twitter? Check your twitter profile temperature at Twitemperature. When I checked mine a couple of weeks ago I was a hot 85 degrees and Twitemperature had the following to say to me:

“Let’s put it this way: if Twitter were Middle Earth, you’d be Aragorn, always in the fray.”

Did one just now and I’m a cold 49 degrees. This is what Twitemperature had to say to me:

Remember how Alf ate cats? Yeah, well you’re the only one who cares. Stop boring the rest of us!

*sob*

2. Twitterholic

Twitterholic is a stats tool. In their words “We’re in your twitter pages, reading your stats”. They list the top 100 twitter users based on the followers. Barack Obama still leads the way.

Moi? Since December 3rd, I’ve gone from 36 followers to 429 and from 69 updates to 1,186. That’s approximately 14 tweets a day. I need to get more active on twitter! No wonder I’m a cold 49 degrees!

3. Twitscoop

Twitscoop tracks buzzwords on twitter in real time. Well almost real time. It updates every 20 seconds. You can put in your username, keyword etc and track conversations or topics. You can also tweet about the most popular buzzword to attract more followers.

This tool mostly serves to satisfy my curiosity. Yes, I did a scoop on myself to find out what people were saying. What? You’ve never stalked yourself?

4. Twitzer

Twitzer is a sneaky little FireFox add on that lets you use more than 140 characters. Install the add-on, ignore the negative word count when typing your tweet and once finished with the update, right click and select ‘Twitzer Text’.

Voila!

5. Twitblocker

Ah yes, the very cool, very hand and so very very sneaky tool that comes in the form of a greasemonkey script.

To quote Twitblocker:

Are you being overwhelmed by twitter friends who can’t stop talking, but they’re like… still your friends?

Install this greasemonkey script, then double clicking the chattering peeps will temporarily remove their tweets from your timeline. Restart your browser to get them back. Simple eh?

6. Twitter Grader

Twitter Grader is fun and a great way to discover people in your area of interest. Based on its calculations, it gives you a grade out of 100 (I’m a 97.7), display your tweet cloud and list other twitter users based on your bio.

They also have the ultimate feel good —  called the ‘Twitter Elite’. They calculate the twitter elites according to users, locations, cities, US states and countries. So if you’re in the US and can’t find yourself in twitter elite for your state, type in your neighbourhood and you’re sure to be there.

Of course to be in the twitter elite in the first place, you’ve got to be twittering regularly!

7. Tweetworks

You love twitter but wish there was more of a community feel to it? Tweetworks lets you do that. Sign in using your twitter information and join in conversations and group. I jumped right into ‘All things WordPress’. It’s nice to know other people are new to it too!

8. Tweetparty

You know how all the cool kids in high school had their own little soirees and parties that made you feel so left out? No? Well then, you’re obviously one those ‘cool’ kids. Phooey on you!

Tweetparty lets you sort your twitter users into groups and even lets you send direct messages to those groups. Yep, make your followers feel special (or left out) by sending direct messages to only the group members.

Planning that party already?

9. Portwiture

This has got to be my favourite! Twitter status in Flickr images. Portwiture scans your latest tweets and finds pictures from Flickr related to it. Cool, simple and a very easy way to discover great pictures.

I fell in love with ‘Gravity is only a theory’. The picture screams of fun and laughter. And since I live in the UAE, I know places where I can defy gravity too!

10. What Is Your Tweet Worth?

You’re spending all that time twittering, talking to people, linking to great blogs and sites, engaging in conversations, endorsing brands and people. In short, you’re spending precious time doing PR stuff that no one is paying you for. Of course you’re having fun and increasing your social network but it still a lot of fun to know how much you’re worth on twitter right? Even if no one’s gonna pay you that amount it’s a nice feeling to know that you twitter effort is worth cash!

Find out how much you’re worth on twitter through What’s your tweet worth?

I’m worth $44.93/month.

Gives me a warm fuzzy feeling inside!

Technorati Tags: Social Networking, Twitter, Twitter Tools

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Once you start twittering, there’s really no stopping. Before you know it, you’re fighting to keep abreast of all the updates, @ replies, DMs and RTs. It’s a crazy world out there! Luckily for us, there are crazier apps that make our twittering lives easy.

1. TweetDeck

First up is my favourite adobe air application. I’ve used TweetDeck for a couple of months now and I couldn’t be happier! Its best and award winning (well it should be!) feature is the option to sort your twitter users you’re following into groups. TweetDeck lets you group users into separate group that you can follow simultaneously.

Their latest version has a new channel for stocks called ‘Stocktwits’ and another one for Hashtags. It also lets you follow/un-follow, email, translate/un-translate, favourite, add to a group, view profile etc from within the tweet itself.

2. Twhirl

The next best thing to TweetDeck is Twhirl, also an adobe air application. All it’s lacking is the group option – which is where it loses big! Twhirl isn’t only for twitter though.

Twhirl released it latest beta version recently and has been getting rave reviews! While it still doesn’t have the one option that has made TweetDeck such a hit, it’s come up with an excellent search system. The search option in Twhirl is powered by search.twitter.com and opens them up in tabs. Not only that, it gives you the option to ‘activate’ the search after which it will keep updating it (after the initial search) as more tweets are posted regarding the search topic.

You can also record video in the new Twhirl from within the app. What’s more? Their website says they’re working on getting the grouping option up and running! Now if only they had a maximize button…

3. Twitterrific

This one’s for Mac only and comes with a free version as well as a paid one. The free version has most of the same features as the paid one but comes with ads. If you want an ad-free experience, you can buy Twitterrific for $14.95.

Since I don’t use a mac, reviewing the application wouldn’t be fair. Twitip however has a detailed review of it.

Check out the Twitterrific Review.

4. Twitterified

This application holds a lot of surprises. It has a unique interface and offer a few options that other applications do not. The biggest surprise was being able to preview Twitpic pictures in the tweet. 

While this application has a lot of options that others don’t, it’s still in it’s beta version which means that it reserves the right to act up at times and naturally has a few bug issues.

Other options include,

• Minimizing tweets.
• Hovering over the picture of a twitter user displays their profile information.
• Clicking on the user picture slides open a tab on the left with more options.
• You can ignore and/or block a user through Twitterified.
• Post links to picture or snap one right there from within the app through your webcam.
• Displays friends and followers in separate tabs.
• Has an option for viewing the public timeline.
• It tracks your @ replies as well as your own tweets in a separate tab.

Did I mention that it gives you a preview of Twitpic pictures linked to within the tweet?

5. TwitterFox

This isn’t exactly a desktop application but a Firefox add on. If you feel applications like TweetDeck and Twhirl distract too much or you’re too busy to open a new program and tweet, TwitterFox is for you.

Update your status from within Firefox (you do use Firefox right?) and read new updates of your friends. You can also retweet, open a tweet in a new tab, mark all as read etc from it. Updates are shown in a pop up balloon at the bottom right of the screen.

It can handle multiple accounts and can be used through keyboard shortcuts as well.

Technorati Tags: Social Networking, Twitter, Twitter desktop applications, Twitter Tools

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The sheer amount of tools out there for twitter offering different services is practically insane. From running a poll, to posting pictures, to… I’ll just get on with the list of tools and let you find out for yourself.

1. TwitPic: Where there’s social media, there’s pictures. TwitPic lets you share pictures on twitter. There’s no sign up and no program installation. All you have to do is sign in with your twitter username and password and upload pictures and post them. They’ll send a tweet from your account about the photo. Easy peasy.

2. TwtPoll: Twitter followers are great for polls. If you’re running a poll on your website, running a similar one on twitter can get you more participation and help you gather more data. Using TwtPoll is a breeze. Enter your username, post your question, list your options and click on ‘Create Poll’. It’ll give you options of posting it on twitter, Facebook or your website. Choose the one you want and your followers are ready to poll!

3. TweetLater: If you’re an avid twitter-er or are working on a marketing campaign where you want to tweet regularly through out the day about something then tweetlater is for you. You can schedule tweets through it – so even when you’re sleeping, tweetlater is tweeting your preset tweets for you. Keep in mind not to schedule one promotional tweet an hour to avoid becoming a spammer. Remember, just one.

Tweetlater also lets you track keywords (my favourite), send automated DM’s (my least favourite), and also gives you the option to auto follow your followers among others.

4. Qwitter: The nifty little service catches your twitter quitters. After you sign up for this service (only requires your twitter username and email), qwitter will send you an email every time someone stops following or un-follows you. Not only that, it will also tell after which tweet of yours did the follower quit on you.

It’s a great service and lets you find out which tweets of yours offend people but don’t get obsessive over every single quitter. Of course, if you lose 50 followers over night, then it’s something to look into.

5. TwitterFeed: You’ve RT’d enough tweets and promoted countless links by tweeting about them. It’s only fair that you promote your own blog. Enter twitterfeed. Submit your blog URL in twitterfeed and let it post a tweet for you every time you update your blog. Depending on your posting frequency, you can set up a timer for the service to check if you’ve published your blog. This blog post will be tweeted about 30 minutes after it’s published.

<6. TweetVolume: Tweetvolume lets you put in specific words and runs a search to tell how many times the words have been used in twitter stream. The time period is since twitter’s birth. Tweetvolume is a good tool for keyword comparison and a great way to find out how much ‘buzz’ there is about a topic, brand, campaign, person etc.

Check out the comparison I did between freelance, writing, blogging, social media and clients.

7. Tweetag: This tool let you browse the twitterverse according to the most popular topic. Their homepage lists the 40 most frequently discussed topics. So if you want to know what the buzz is about at twitter. You can also search for any topic you want.

A search for ‘Twestival‘ (tell you later what it is) came back with 1518 results out of which 695 tweets had links in them, 164 were questions, 779 were replies and 171 were retweets.

8. BubbleTweet: If you’re a video blogging fan, you’re going to love this one. Bubble tweet lets you add a video message to your twitter profile in the form of a very manageable bubble size. It’s an excellent way to add a voice and a face to your profile and overcome the limitations of the bio line in your profile. There are currently only 651 tweeple using bubble tweet, so if you use it, it’s still going to be unique.

9. TwitterSnooze: If you follow a lot of people, there is bound to be someone who is a little too ‘verbose’. So if their chatter is distracting you or hindering you from following other conversations or tweets, twittersnooze lets you mute their tweets out for a specified period of time.

All you have to do is enter your username, password and the username of the person you want to hit the snooze button on.

However, twittersnooze has a downside to it. Every time you unsnooze a person, it sends them an email alerting them that you’re following them again. Not so feasible if you want to mute people out quietly.

10. Twellow: Want to find people in your industry or area of interest? Twellow lets you search users according to categories. Freelance, blogging, Photoshop, SEO etc are some of the categories of interest to me. Unfortu
nately, searching through category had little success for me, but searching under ‘all people on twellow‘ yielded very interesting results.

To turn up in searches in twellow it would be better to get listed there. A search for my username brought back a tweet from 3 weeks ago and still lists my followers as 155 whereas my followers have grown since then.

It isn’t the best of services, but it has the potential to be a great one. I’d be keeping my eye on this one to see if it better develops.

For a service as simple as twitter, tools like these add all more value to it. These are just 10 of the countless twitter tools/metrics out there.

What twitter tools do you use? How do they add value to your twitter experience?

Technorati Tags: Social Networking, Twitter, Twitter Tools

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