Tag Archive: Twitter


I was reading my newsfeed the other day in Seesmic Desktop.  I realized I often read from the top (most recent) and work my way down until I either run out of time or start recognizing items.  This results in some strange results for me:

  1. I ended up reading threads of related items in reverse order sometimes, unless I skip down more and then read up.
  2. I find myself only caring out current stories – sometimes remembering a news item I would like to no more about – but since it’s not recent I don’t see it.
  3. Sometimes I find myself skipping (also in Facebook) links to articles/blogs (i.e. depth) as I don’t want to take the time to read them – just give me a quick bite of information… View full article »

I just finished reading “No One Size Fits All – From Mass Marketing and Mass Handselling” – by Tom Hayes & Michael S. Malone.  This book is about the changing marketplace – that mass media marketing will become less and less effective.  That the Internet is returning us to a world of smaller, more insular communities.  That companies need to change how the interact with customers – from telling them about their products to engaging in their communities.

Overall it’s a book worth reading – but it’s a little dry.  There is a lot of research that the author references to make his points – a lot of sociological research.  While I’m not fully on board with the author – I think it’s worth considering how the world is changing how to market to customers.

Like in some of my other Book Reviews – I will talk less about the book and more about some observations about it.  I see some of what the author sees – as the growth of online communities is large and growing.  I’m on Facebook a lot, read Twitter posts a lot and support a number of online forums (from a technical perspective).  I see trends in TV watching – that people are using the DVR, watching things online – that old days of everyone watching the same thing are over.

One of the fascinating things the book points out is the human need to form groups – to find a sense of community.  One of the things I find fascinating is how much money (hundreds, even thousands of dollars) people will spend on their hobbies.  I can’t imagine spending that much money (probably because I don’t have it) on a hobby – but I see it over and over across many hobbies.  I’ve often wondered why that much money is spent – is it just because they enjoy the hobby that much – or is it about a sense of community?  About how by joining other in that hobby – of that shared passion – they find identify and comfort in that shared community. View full article »

A friend shared with me a new Twitter account: http://twitter.com/COMMON_SQUIRREL At first glance this seemed pretty innocent and funny – but the part I don’t get is how this account is following other people.  If this is just a fun, but strange, idea what is the point of following other people?  Is something going on here?

I finally have a good recommendation for a Twitter/Facebook Client: Seemsmic Desktop.  I’ve tested Tweetdeck, Hootsuite and Seesmic and found they all have good features.  For me the Seesmic Desktop had the set of functions I needed to be effective:

  1. I needed access to the following.

I’ve played with Google Buzz some the last few days and have some first impressions.  Frankly I’m still trying to find my equilibrium with social networks – the best way to interact with them.  I had heard about Buzz (from Twitter) so I decided to try it.  This involved doing something I hadn’t done for some time – log into Gmail.   I’ve never really been a Gmail user – as I’m used to my Outlook client and the multiple e-mail addresses I have.  In fact recently I merged 2 different outlook files together – plus and archive file.  I’m a pack rat when it comes to e-mails – keeping just about everything. View full article »

Here’s a brief guide to creating a customer twitter background.  I put one together – I’m not completely happy with it but I wanted to experiment with it – see https://twitter.com/andrewhelpme for what it looks like at present.  Here are the basic steps I took to make one:

  1. I started with a basic rectangle that was 1600 x 1200 – so that it fills most monitor screens without repeating.
  2. I added in a 200 pixel wide rectangle on the left.  This represents the maximum size my custom sidebar can take up. (I left this in place for demonstration purposes).
  3. I then added a rectangle as the background.  In my case I picked a color off the header of my website (a bluish color).  I then picked a gradient option for that fill color and played around with gradient points to get a decent look.
  4. I then started adding my own content:
    • I put a picture of me in the upper left-hand corner (unfortunately this doesn’t look as good as I hoped)
    • I put the logo of my corporation toward the bottom
    • I added in a catch phrase for my businesss
    • I put my website name vertically along the side
  5. Here is the initial version of the background:
  6. I wasn’t happy how that came out so I played around with it some more.
    • I made my picture smaller as it was too grainy.
    • I moved the website name to the top so it’s along the left edge – but starting from the top.
    • I made the logo smaller and moved it underneath the picture.
    • I then made a box around my picture, logo, etc. that had no interior but a hazy white exterior.
    • I removed the corporate log – as it was extraneous
    • I also then applied a “pattern” to the background rectangle to make it more interesting.
  7. Here is the 2nd version of my custom twitter background

I did all my graphic editing in Macromedia Fireworks (now owned by Adobe) – but you could do this in pretty much any picture editing suite – except for paint.  I’m definitely not a graphics designer – so I’m trying something pretty simple…

Here are some other guides I found:

http://www.twitip.com/custom-twitter-backgrounds/

http://www.mytweetspace.com/

I enjoyed reading “What Would Google Do?” by Jeff Jarvis.  This book, despite the title, was not so much about Google but about the impact of Google/Internet has had on companies – especially looking to the future.  Overall this book was a good read – as you can tell Jeff Jarvis is a college professor by the insights he has into the effect of Google.  If you wondering what the future will possibly be like for many businesses in an Internet age I would highly recommend this book.

For my own sake (and hopefully yours) I will now note some of the items I really learned from this book:

View full article »

I found this interesting – that a section of blogspot (Google) and Twitter look the same.  First is blogspot, next is Twitter:

Actually they are the inverse list – followers vs. following…. but the UI is very similar.

I was thinking today about the new decade (still hard to believe) but especially about digital pictures and video.  I’ve loved going digital with pictures – as opposed to film (am I the only one who never got around to developing film?).  I love the ability to take multiple pictures,  to review them, to see them on the computer, make slideshows, and videos.   I think it’s important to take these snapshots of our lives -as they’ll never occur again. View full article »

Sometimes I wonder if I’m addicted to information – I find myself enjoying Twitter and Facebook feeds, of listening to informative podcasts, reading books, watching Discover channel type shows, reading web page articles, etc. (sometimes at the same time).  I like the mental stimulation – sometimes continuous – to the point that playing with my kids can be boring sometimes.  When I’m cleaning the house I usually like the TV on for mental stimulation – at work I listen to podcasts to keep my mind occupied.  I’ll even listen to a podcast of the news while walking the dog.

Does that mean I’m addicted or is this a cultural trend? I’m not sure that I’m always spending my time in the best way – as I may be missing some of the quality things in life.  I know silence is valuable but I have such a hard time with it.  Of course, as I write this I’m watching  a football game – as I can’t just sit and watch the game….

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