<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<rss version="2.0"
	xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/"
	xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/"
	xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/"
	xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"
	xmlns:sy="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/syndication/"
	xmlns:slash="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/slash/"
	>

<channel>
	<title>Blogsessive &#187; Twitter</title>
	<atom:link href="http://blogsessive.com/tag/twitter/feed/" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
	<link>http://blogsessive.com</link>
	<description>Visit Blogsessive for daily WordPress blogging tips.</description>
	<lastBuildDate>Sun, 22 Apr 2012 07:56:29 +0000</lastBuildDate>
	<language>en</language>
	<sy:updatePeriod>hourly</sy:updatePeriod>
	<sy:updateFrequency>1</sy:updateFrequency>
	<generator>http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1</generator>
		<item>
		<title>Social Media Mind Control &#8211; Say What?</title>
		<link>http://blogsessive.com/blogging-tips/social-media-mind-control/</link>
		<comments>http://blogsessive.com/blogging-tips/social-media-mind-control/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 15 Dec 2011 18:53:17 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Alex, Blogsessive</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Blogging Tips]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Social Media]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Facebook]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Google Plus]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[infographic]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[social media]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Twitter]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blogsessive.com/?p=2043</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Blogsessive recommends WP WebHost for quality WordPress blog hosting!As you sit there, slogging away at the social networks, has something titilated your brain? Have your senses been &#8220;tweaked&#8221; alerting you to some unseen element? You may be an unwitting victim of social media ruining your mind. That&#8217;s right, you read correctly, recent studies may have [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Blogsessive recommends WP WebHost for <a href="http://blogsessive.com/go-wpwebhost/" title="WordPress Hosting" target="_blank"><strong>quality WordPress blog hosting</strong></a>!</p><p>As you sit there, slogging away at the social networks, has something titilated your brain? Have your senses been &#8220;tweaked&#8221; alerting you to some unseen element? You may be an unwitting victim of <strong>social media ruining your mind</strong>.</p>
<p>That&#8217;s right, you read correctly, recent studies may have revealed links tying social media to all manner of ills. Not only could your ability to multitask and your focus be adversely affected by your incessant networking, so might other cognitive functions. As the infographic from <a href="http://assistedlivingtoday.com/" title="Assisted Living Today" target="_blank">Assisted Living Today</a> below shows, science may have once again found fodder for hazard warnings and labels, this time maybe on Facebook!<span id="more-2043"></span></p>
<p><code><a href="http://assistedlivingtoday.com/p/resources/social-media-is-ruining-our-minds-infographic/" mce_href="http://assistedlivingtoday.com/p/resources/social-media-is-ruining-our-minds-infographic/"><img src="http://assistedlivingtoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/social-media-is-ruining-our-minds.jpg" mce_src="http://assistedlivingtoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/social-media-is-ruining-our-minds.jpg" width="630" height="5410" alt="How Social Media is Ruining Our Minds Infographic"/></a></p>
<p>Infographic by <a href="http://assistedlivingtoday.com/" mce_href="http://assistedlivingtoday.com/">Assisted Living Today – Assisted Living Facilities</a></code></p>
<p>Facebook, Twitter and now Google Plus, social media has supplanted blogging as the most popular outreach and expressive tool, at least for many. Social media participation, as the graphic tries to illustrate, may in fact dull the senses dramatically. But, is social media really running our minds? More data will be needed there, but until then perhaps your personal blog and an IM can be a preventative?</p>
<hr /><h3>Free PDF eBook: Corporate Blogging Guide by Blogsessive</h3>As a subscribe reader of Blogsessive, this is my gift to you: a guide to corporate blogging (but not only) that will help you in your blogging adventures! <a href="http://blogsessive.com/wp-content/plugins/download-monitor/download.php?id=8" target="_blank">Download now, for FREE!</a><br /><br /><hr/><div style="background: #eeeeee;">Advertise on Blogsessive! <a href="http://buysellads.com/buy/detail/310/" title="Advertise on Blogsessive">125x125 banners</a> for <strong>$50 per month</strong>!</div>&copy;2008-2010 Copyright by <a href="http://blogsessive.com" title="Blogging tips">Blogsessive - Blogging Tips</a>. This Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement. Please <a href="http://blogsessive.com/contact" title="Contact Blogsessive">contact us</a>, so that we can take legal action immediately.<img src="http://blogsessive.com/?ak_action=api_record_view&id=2043&type=feed" alt="" />]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://blogsessive.com/blogging-tips/social-media-mind-control/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>2</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Twitter button WordPress plugin</title>
		<link>http://blogsessive.com/blogging-tools/twitter-button-wordpress-plugin/</link>
		<comments>http://blogsessive.com/blogging-tools/twitter-button-wordpress-plugin/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 13 Aug 2010 00:14:09 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Alex, Blogsessive</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Blogging Tools]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[WordPress Plugins]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[download]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[plugin]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Twitter]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Twitter button]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[WordPress]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blogsessive.com/?p=1834</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Do you need quality design resources? Graphic River has them. Tons! And cheap...Since Twitter is yet to offer an alternative to those less savvy with code implementation, I&#8217;ve decided to offer you a WordPress plugin to help you include the official Twitter Tweet button in your blog posts. Download the plugin and from this point [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Do you need <a href="http://blogsessive.com/go-graphicriver/" title="Quality Graphic Design Resources" target="_blank"><strong>quality design resources</strong></a>? Graphic River has them. Tons! And cheap...</p><p>Since Twitter is yet to offer an alternative to those less savvy with code implementation, I&#8217;ve decided to offer you a <strong>WordPress plugin</strong> to help you include the <strong>official Twitter Tweet button</strong> in your blog posts. Download the plugin and from this point on, it&#8217;s all as easy as 1-2-3.</p>
<p>Current plugin version: 1.1<br />
Supported WordPress versions: Most recent. Pre-3.0 versions not yet tested.<span id="more-1834"></span></p>
<h3>Twitter Button WordPress Plugin Options</h3>
<p>To easily adjust and include the Twitter button in your blog posts, you have a plugin administration panel. Here&#8217;s a screenshot of the options:</p>
<p><img src="http://blogsessive.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/twitter-button-wordpress-plugin.gif" alt="Official Twitter button WordPress Plugin" title="Twitter button WordPress Plugin" width="500" height="505" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-1835" /></p>
<h3>Download the Twitter Button WordPress Plugin</h3>
<p>Click here to <a href="http://blogsessive.com/wp-content/plugins/download-monitor/download.php?id=9" title="Download Twitter Button for WordPress"><strong>Download the Twitter Button WordPress Plugin</strong></a></p>
<h3>Plugin Updates</h3>
<p>Version 1.1 has been released. Download link is still the same (above). Fixed a bug that prevented recommendations to be displayed. Please re-download and re-upload. No need to deactivate the plugin. Just overwrite the files in order to keep your settings.</p>
<h4>Known issues</h4>
<p>Since Twitter did not offer an image based alternative to the button and counter, feeds will only display a CSS styled <strong>Tweet button</strong> without a counter. As soon as Twitter completes their API, I will also implement it in the plugin.</p>
<p><small>* Support for the &#8216;Twitter Button for WordPress&#8217; plugin will be offered only through the comments. Thank you for downloading and enjoy your new retweet button!</small></p>
<hr /><h3>Free PDF eBook: Corporate Blogging Guide by Blogsessive</h3>As a subscribe reader of Blogsessive, this is my gift to you: a guide to corporate blogging (but not only) that will help you in your blogging adventures! <a href="http://blogsessive.com/wp-content/plugins/download-monitor/download.php?id=8" target="_blank">Download now, for FREE!</a><br /><br /><hr/><div style="background: #eeeeee;">Advertise on Blogsessive! <a href="http://buysellads.com/buy/detail/310/" title="Advertise on Blogsessive">125x125 banners</a> for <strong>$50 per month</strong>!</div>&copy;2008-2010 Copyright by <a href="http://blogsessive.com" title="Blogging tips">Blogsessive - Blogging Tips</a>. This Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement. Please <a href="http://blogsessive.com/contact" title="Contact Blogsessive">contact us</a>, so that we can take legal action immediately.<img src="http://blogsessive.com/?ak_action=api_record_view&id=1834&type=feed" alt="" />]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://blogsessive.com/blogging-tools/twitter-button-wordpress-plugin/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>94</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Social Media&#8217;s new creed: Power from the people</title>
		<link>http://blogsessive.com/blogging-tips/social-media-power-from-the-people/</link>
		<comments>http://blogsessive.com/blogging-tips/social-media-power-from-the-people/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 10 Aug 2010 20:22:23 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Alex, Blogsessive</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Blogging Tips]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Social Media]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Digg]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Facebook]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[opinion]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[power users]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[social media]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[StumbleUpon]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Twitter]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blogsessive.com/?p=1822</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[With the StudioPress WordPress themes you can really take your blog to a higher level!]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Do you need <a href="http://blogsessive.com/go-graphicriver/" title="Quality Graphic Design Resources" target="_blank"><strong>quality design resources</strong></a>? Graphic River has them. Tons! And cheap...</p><p><img style="float: right; margin-left: 10px;" title="Networking" src="http://blogsessive.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/networking.jpg" alt="social media width="200" height="200">The social component is thought by many to be the true spirit of what we obsessively hear called as the Web 2.0. Not the round font logos, nor pink or blue gradients.</p>
<p>The need for more human interaction and developing an online identity has lead to the apparition of thousands of social networks and social media platforms out of which only a few managed to get the blessing of the masses. What set them apart from the rest? What made them turn from social experiments to successful businesses? <strong>The user, their biggest asset</strong>.</p>
<h3>Power to the people</h3>
<p>During development stages and also while growing in popularity, these social media platforms understood the need to focus on what users wanted or needed:</p>
<ul>
<li>The means to connect with people who they shared interests with;</li>
<li>The means to discover content based on their own interests;</li>
<li>The means to become an important part of a community.</li>
</ul>
<p>Driven by such needs, some members of these social networks turned into what we call power users. They were the most prolific users of each platform, gathering masses of other users around them, sharing the most content and most times acting like evangelists for the services they used.</p>
<p>The idea of one day becoming one themselves, of wielding the power that such users have, attracted more and more people to these social networks, giving them the boost required to reach mainstream and go beyond, turning them into the <strong>multi-million dollar businesses</strong> we know them to be today: Facebook, StumbleUpon, Digg, Twitter.<span id="more-1822"></span></p>
<h3>Social Media is shifting perspectives</h3>
<p>The mirage of power users also had the unlucky, but somehow normal, outcome of attracting people who’d want to bend the rules and exploit the system in order to obtain personal benefits. So, unlike our wall-climbing-building-jumping superhero Spiderman, they did not get the fact that “with great power comes great responsibility”. Also, to an extent, the social media platforms themselves, turned into online business superheroes, neglected the concept completely and focused their actions against power users instead of thriving to come up with solutions to prevent such exploits. They chose the path of reaction instead of action and so, <a href="http://blogsessive.com/blogging-tips/the-stumbleupon-witch-hunt/" target="_blank" title="The StumbleUpon Witch Hunt">a witchhunt began</a>.</p>
<p>The people that were once their most respected assets and their closest allies were forbidden to do any kind of self promotion, no matter the percentage of it compared to the contribution they made to growing the platform, nor the fact that most times, this so called self promotion was nothing more than addition of new content, quality content even. When money is involved and these platforms offer advertising methods to “self promote”, you have to be at least the next online Messiah, sharing fish and bread to the people expecting nothing in return.</p>
<h3>Power from the people</h3>
<p>Such is the case of StumbleUpon and more recently Digg. The idea of being a StumbleUpon power user was at some point similar to being some sort of modern Robin Hood. You’d have to keep quiet, do your thing and hope you won’t get noticed by the local SU sheriff. Shortly, Digg followed in their footsteps hunting such high profile users to the extent of banning them from ever using the service again. How dare they get any kind of profit from using the platform and not share it in part with the owners?</p>
<p>On the other hand, we have the platforms that have always encouraged you to be as active as you can, with limited restrictions (mostly common sense restrictions) and let the rest of the users decide if you’re worth following and thus becoming a power user or not. A notable example would definitely be Twitter .</p>
<p>Have you ever seen a <a href="http://blogsessive.com/blogging-tips/twitter-user-profile/" target="_blank" title="Ideal Twitter user profile">Twitter user</a> being banned because they dared share a link to their own website or blog, unless it’s a shady business or pornographic content? I haven’t. Indeed, Twitter is yet to discover its own successful money making recipe which might turn things around at a later stage.</p>
<p>And what about Digg’s new approach? <strong>The power users are still there, only they are not real people.</strong> They have been replaced with large media corporations and publishing groups that pump steroids into their content with the help of Digg users. Why aren’t they hunted down? The answer is truly simple: money. They bring in the cash for the platform, but their success depends on the mass-appeal of the platform. This way, the old creed of “power to the people” shifted to “power from the people”.  But how long will this last?</p>
<p>People started noticing that StumbleUpon is nothing but a way to pump up your Alexa rank. While a few years back this would have meant the world for a website’s advertising efforts, now that most advertisers seek results and real conversions, that you have more chances to get through cost-per-click or cost-per-lead than with the old cost-per-mile model, StumbleUpon’s model is outdated and thus has severely decreased in popularity a lot.</p>
<p>For Digg it’s just the beginning. When people will start realizing that their content will virtually have no chance to outrun the competing corporate content, they’ll abandon ship and Digg will be forced to either reconsider its position or take the fall.</p>
<p>These are the past and the present of social media, and u<strong>nless the user is the center of attention of both, there will be no future</strong>.</p>
<hr /><h3>Free PDF eBook: Corporate Blogging Guide by Blogsessive</h3>As a subscribe reader of Blogsessive, this is my gift to you: a guide to corporate blogging (but not only) that will help you in your blogging adventures! <a href="http://blogsessive.com/wp-content/plugins/download-monitor/download.php?id=8" target="_blank">Download now, for FREE!</a><br /><br /><hr/><div style="background: #eeeeee;">Advertise on Blogsessive! <a href="http://buysellads.com/buy/detail/310/" title="Advertise on Blogsessive">125x125 banners</a> for <strong>$50 per month</strong>!</div>&copy;2008-2010 Copyright by <a href="http://blogsessive.com" title="Blogging tips">Blogsessive - Blogging Tips</a>. This Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement. Please <a href="http://blogsessive.com/contact" title="Contact Blogsessive">contact us</a>, so that we can take legal action immediately.<img src="http://blogsessive.com/?ak_action=api_record_view&id=1822&type=feed" alt="" />]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://blogsessive.com/blogging-tips/social-media-power-from-the-people/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>6</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>How to decide who to follow on Twitter</title>
		<link>http://blogsessive.com/blogging-tips/who-to-follow-on-twitter/</link>
		<comments>http://blogsessive.com/blogging-tips/who-to-follow-on-twitter/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 05 Aug 2010 13:53:37 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Alex, Blogsessive</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Blogging Tips]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[General Blogging]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Social Media]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[advice]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[how to]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[social media]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[tips]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Twitter]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blogsessive.com/?p=1803</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[With the StudioPress WordPress themes you can really take your blog to a higher level!We&#8217;ve already established that how you act on Twitter is paramount in determining your success when using this microblogging platform. What you say, how you engage others, how you act towards them, all these matter in positioning you as either an [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>With the StudioPress WordPress themes you can really <a href="http://blogsessive.com/go-studiopress/" title="Take Your Blog to a Higher Level" target="ejejcsingle"><strong>take your blog to a higher level</strong></a>!<p>We&#8217;ve already established that how you act on Twitter is paramount in determining your success when using this microblogging platform. What you say, how you engage others, how you act towards them, all these matter in positioning you as either an <a href="http://blogsessive.com/blogging-tips/twitter-user-profile/"><strong>ideal Twitter user</strong></a> to follow or a nuisance. </p>
<p>The following question is <em>how to effectively choose <strong>people to follow on Twitter</strong></em>. There are literally millions of options to choose from and in most cases you know nothing of that user prior to seeing their <a href="http://twitter.com/Blogsessive" target="_blank" title="Blogsessive on Twitter">Twitter profile</a> page. What should you look for, what criteria are there to be used to decide if clicking the follow button is a good choice?<span id="more-1803"></span></p>
<p>Again, this does not necessarily apply to people you know or whose work you follow. If your favorite bloggers are tweeting, of course you will follow them. You will probably also follow some friends and relatives for diversity. But these are people you already trust or look up to and the value of their tweets needs no further proofs. </p>
<h3>1. Check out the numbers</h3>
<p>How many people do they follow? How many follow them back? How many tweets have they posted already? If for example the person you want to follow has been tweeting for a week, has 3 tweets, follows 1500 people and only 5 follow them back, of which 3 are bots, that user is not someone you should follow. </p>
<p>If on the other hand they follow 10 people and tens of thousands follow them back, they won&#8217;t be a valuable Twitter connection. The most common scenario is that you&#8217;ll follow them, they won&#8217;t follow back, you will never engage in a meaningful conversation with them.</p>
<h3>2. Check out their content</h3>
<p>Is what they tweet interesting to you or your own followers? If the content they post is not in any way related to the fields or activities you&#8217;re interested in, following them makes no sense. Some people you follow for the great information they post, relevant to your job or line of business, some you follow because they cover your hobbies or passions, some you just follow because their tweets are a great way to relax. Of course, the reason you follow them might be the same for which other people follow you and retweeting their messages might be valuable to you. But if what they post is something you may as well leave without, the logical decision is to continue to ignore them. </p>
<h3>3. Check out their conversations</h3>
<p>Do they retweet other people&#8217;s stuff? How many people to they exchange replies with? If you&#8217;re on Twitter, you&#8217;re there to exchange ideas with other people, share tips and offer advice and be introduced to fresh content to users you might not be introduced to otherwise. If the only thing you get from following someone is fresh news from a field, there are dozens of other services that broadcast constantly.</p>
<h3>4. Check out tweet frequency</h3>
<p>If a certain user has not posted an update to their Twitter account in over three months, they probably won&#8217;t use that account again. They might come back later, but following them just to add a number to your counter has little value of any kind.</p>
<p>If they post on a regular basis, also check out how many tweets they post each day. Some people are power users that post a few updates every 5 minutes. If that does not bother you, then follow ahead. If you cringe at the thought of too many messages flooding your stream, step away from their profile</p>
<p>What do you check before deciding <strong>who to follow on Twitter</strong>? Which are the best criteria you&#8217;ve used up to now?</p>
<hr /><h3>Free PDF eBook: Corporate Blogging Guide by Blogsessive</h3>As a subscribe reader of Blogsessive, this is my gift to you: a guide to corporate blogging (but not only) that will help you in your blogging adventures! <a href="http://blogsessive.com/wp-content/plugins/download-monitor/download.php?id=8" target="_blank">Download now, for FREE!</a><br /><br /><hr/><div style="background: #eeeeee;">Advertise on Blogsessive! <a href="http://buysellads.com/buy/detail/310/" title="Advertise on Blogsessive">125x125 banners</a> for <strong>$50 per month</strong>!</div>&copy;2008-2010 Copyright by <a href="http://blogsessive.com" title="Blogging tips">Blogsessive - Blogging Tips</a>. This Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement. Please <a href="http://blogsessive.com/contact" title="Contact Blogsessive">contact us</a>, so that we can take legal action immediately.<img src="http://blogsessive.com/?ak_action=api_record_view&id=1803&type=feed" alt="" />]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://blogsessive.com/blogging-tips/who-to-follow-on-twitter/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>8</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Portrait of an ideal Twitter user</title>
		<link>http://blogsessive.com/blogging-tips/twitter-user-profile/</link>
		<comments>http://blogsessive.com/blogging-tips/twitter-user-profile/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 02 Aug 2010 14:23:09 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Alex, Blogsessive</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Blogging Tips]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Social Media]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[advice]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[social media]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Twitter]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[users]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blogsessive.com/?p=1779</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Have you read "How To Be a Rockstar WordPress Designer" yet?It&#8217;s been already established that Twitter is a great channel to form relationships, network and connect. Moreover, it is a great tool bloggers have to promote their writings. If your followers read the stories you tweet about, retweet them to their own connections, it translates [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Have you read "<a href="http://blogsessive.com/go-wprockstar/" title="How To Be a Rockstar WordPress Designer" target="ejejcsingle"><strong>How To Be a Rockstar WordPress Designer</strong></a>" yet?</p><p><a href="http://twitter.com/Blogsessive"><img src="http://blogsessive.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/twitter-e1280758776413.png" alt="Twitter user profile" title="Twitter user" width="200" height="200" style="float: right; margin-left: 20px;" /></a>It&#8217;s been already established that <strong>Twitter is a great channel to form relationships</strong>, network and connect. Moreover, it is a great tool bloggers have to promote their writings. If your followers read the stories you tweet about, retweet them to their own connections, it translates into more traffic, more comments and leads for the business part of your blog. </p>
<p>While some get great results when using Twitter, others fail to see any positive outcome from their 140 character writing endeavor. Who are these users that get all the attention and added benefits of traffic, always more followers and business success? Let&#8217;s see how <strong>ideal Twitter users</strong> look like!<span id="more-1779"></span></p>
<h4>They are not self-absorbed</h4>
<p>Twitter users with steady crowds reading fervently their every update don&#8217;t think the world revolves around them. They don&#8217;t exclusively tweet their own stuff, urging others to worship them. The only such users that actually are successful are the stars and wannabe stars in the entertainment world, and they are the exception to the general rule &#8211; narcissism does not work in social media!</p>
<h4>They value conversations</h4>
<p>Twitter is not just broadcasting your own products and services. It&#8217;s about engaging in meaningful conversations with your network. Be it to find out how they&#8217;ve been, to advise them or share some useful piece of news, <em>popular Twitter users</em> talk a lot with their followers. </p>
<h4>They are the first to offer something</h4>
<p>Power users know that the examples they set will most likely be followed. If they engage their online friends, if they answer their questions, if they retweet their stories, the same will happen to them. You cannot simply show up on Twitter, post a few updates and expect everyone to drop everything and concentrate on you. Most of them follow hundreds of people and need to notice you first. What better way to discover you than a reply or a retweet with a valuable comment. </p>
<h4>They respect their followers&#8217; interests</h4>
<p>If you&#8217;re an expert in a field, have an unusual hobby that you tweet about, have a niche blog, your followers most likely read your tweets for that very reason. You can mix it up with personal updates, funny videos and other such casual conversations, but most of your tweets will be about your topic of interest, the one generally described in your Twitter bio. </p>
<p>If people have followed you because you initially posted a lot of great resources for small business and you switch to ranting about unimportant, unrelated details and only write a useful tweet once a week, they are bound to leave. </p>
<p>In conclusion, the recipe for success is not complicated, at least not in theory. All you have to do to be a successful Twitter user is to get to know the community you are about to join, find out what their interests and preferences are, then join the conversation and try to help whenever you can. The rest is mostly based on reciprocity and being nice.</p>
<hr /><h3>Free PDF eBook: Corporate Blogging Guide by Blogsessive</h3>As a subscribe reader of Blogsessive, this is my gift to you: a guide to corporate blogging (but not only) that will help you in your blogging adventures! <a href="http://blogsessive.com/wp-content/plugins/download-monitor/download.php?id=8" target="_blank">Download now, for FREE!</a><br /><br /><hr/><div style="background: #eeeeee;">Advertise on Blogsessive! <a href="http://buysellads.com/buy/detail/310/" title="Advertise on Blogsessive">125x125 banners</a> for <strong>$50 per month</strong>!</div>&copy;2008-2010 Copyright by <a href="http://blogsessive.com" title="Blogging tips">Blogsessive - Blogging Tips</a>. This Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement. Please <a href="http://blogsessive.com/contact" title="Contact Blogsessive">contact us</a>, so that we can take legal action immediately.<img src="http://blogsessive.com/?ak_action=api_record_view&id=1779&type=feed" alt="" />]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://blogsessive.com/blogging-tips/twitter-user-profile/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>11</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Xmas Contest: ReTweet to Win a Premium WordPress Theme</title>
		<link>http://blogsessive.com/blogging-tools/xmas-contest-retweet-to-win-a-premium-wordpress-theme/</link>
		<comments>http://blogsessive.com/blogging-tools/xmas-contest-retweet-to-win-a-premium-wordpress-theme/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 22 Dec 2009 08:25:04 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Alex, Blogsessive</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Blogging Tools]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[News & Reviews]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[WordPress Themes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Christmas]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[contest]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[contests]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[free]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Premium Themes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Twitter]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blogsessive.com/?p=1712</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[With the StudioPress WordPress themes you can really take your blog to a higher level!How long has it been since I&#8217;ve held the last contest on Blogsessive? Too long, but since holidays are close, lets have some fun and make two of you folks the owners of a brand new premium WordPress theme from ThemeForest. [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>With the StudioPress WordPress themes you can really <a href="http://blogsessive.com/go-studiopress/" title="Take Your Blog to a Higher Level" target="ejejcsingle"><strong>take your blog to a higher level</strong></a>!<p>How long has it been since I&#8217;ve held the last contest on Blogsessive? Too long, but since holidays are close, lets have some fun and make two of you folks the owners of a brand new premium WordPress theme from <a href="http://blogsessive.com/go-themeforest/" target="_blank"><strong>ThemeForest</strong></a>. It is a simple contest and everyone owning a <a href="http://twitter.com/Blogsessive" target="_blank">Twitter</a> account is invited to join in!</p>
<h3>Xmas Contest Prizes</h3>
<p>Two of the contest participants will each win a premium WordPress theme of their choice from <a href="http://blogsessive.com/go-themeforest/" target="_blank"><strong>ThemeForest</strong></a>. Contest prize selection is restricted to the WordPress category on the previous mentioned website.</p>
<p>The two winners will be <strong>randomly picked</strong> by me on the day of December 26th. Read the rules below.<span id="more-1712"></span></p>
<h3>Xmas Contest Rules</h3>
<p>Do you own a Twitter account? If so, there are two things you need to do in order to enter this contest:</p>
<p><strong>First</strong> you will have to retweet an exact copy of the following:</p>
<blockquote><p>Win a Premium #WordPress theme in @Blogsessive&#8217;s Xmas Retweet Contest! http://bit.ly/XmasRT Click to enter!</p></blockquote>
<p><strong>Second</strong>, after you&#8217;ve retweeted the above message, come back here and post a link to the Twitter status containing the retweet in this post&#8217;s <a href="http://blogsessive.com/blogging-tips/xmas-contest-retweet-and-win-a-premium-wordpress-theme/#respond">comments section</a>.</p>
<h4>Important:</h4>
<p>Entries are valid ONLY if both steps have been followed exactly. Participants are allowed one entry per Twitter account!</p>
<h3>Xmas Contest Results</h3>
<p>The contest results will be made publicly available on December 26th. I will contact the winners via the email addresses they will use to leave comments on this post, so make sure you comment with a real <strong>valid email address</strong> in order to claim your prize.</p>
<p>Good luck to you all and let the fun begin!</p>
<hr /><h3>Free PDF eBook: Corporate Blogging Guide by Blogsessive</h3>As a subscribe reader of Blogsessive, this is my gift to you: a guide to corporate blogging (but not only) that will help you in your blogging adventures! <a href="http://blogsessive.com/wp-content/plugins/download-monitor/download.php?id=8" target="_blank">Download now, for FREE!</a><br /><br /><hr/><div style="background: #eeeeee;">Advertise on Blogsessive! <a href="http://buysellads.com/buy/detail/310/" title="Advertise on Blogsessive">125x125 banners</a> for <strong>$50 per month</strong>!</div>&copy;2008-2010 Copyright by <a href="http://blogsessive.com" title="Blogging tips">Blogsessive - Blogging Tips</a>. This Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement. Please <a href="http://blogsessive.com/contact" title="Contact Blogsessive">contact us</a>, so that we can take legal action immediately.<img src="http://blogsessive.com/?ak_action=api_record_view&id=1712&type=feed" alt="" />]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://blogsessive.com/blogging-tools/xmas-contest-retweet-to-win-a-premium-wordpress-theme/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>45</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>How to waste my time on Twitter</title>
		<link>http://blogsessive.com/blogging-tips/how-to-waste-my-time-on-twitter/</link>
		<comments>http://blogsessive.com/blogging-tips/how-to-waste-my-time-on-twitter/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 27 Oct 2009 19:05:06 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Alex, Blogsessive</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Blogging Tips]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Social Media]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ramblings]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[spam]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Twitter]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blogsessive.com/?p=1592</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Blogsessive recommends WP WebHost for quality WordPress blog hosting!And anyone&#8217;s else for that matter. It&#8217;s not hard, you just have to ignore the most basic common sense rules of web-sharing and communication. Be an &#8216;Internet Marketing Guru&#8217; Yes, a guru, a ninja or a rockstar. You choose your title. After that, add me on Twitter. [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Blogsessive recommends WP WebHost for <a href="http://blogsessive.com/go-wpwebhost/" title="WordPress Hosting" target="_blank"><strong>quality WordPress blog hosting</strong></a>!</p><p>And anyone&#8217;s else for that matter. It&#8217;s not hard, you just have to ignore the most basic common sense rules of web-sharing and communication.</p>
<h4>Be an &#8216;Internet Marketing Guru&#8217;</h4>
<p>Yes, a guru, a ninja or a rockstar. You choose your title. After that, add me on Twitter. I&#8217;m a trusty fellow and allow Twitter to announce me when I&#8217;m added so that I can check everyone out and see their beautiful tweets. But not you Mister I.M. Rockstar. Let&#8217;s see how your profile looks:</p>
<ul>
<li>Following: 65.000 (roughly)</li>
<li>Followers: 64.000 (roughly)</li>
<li>Tweets: 5000 (roughly)</li>
</ul>
<p>Out of all these people you&#8217;re following or follow you, you TALKED to how many? You retweeted how many links from them, or from other accounts/websites? Why are your last 5-6 pages filled with links to your amazing schemes to make money online fast and online sales pages to obscure ebooks for which people have to pay to learn that they can use AdSense to monetize their blogs? Come on! <strong>Add me! See if I care!</strong></p>
<p>Twitter is about communication. About states. About the moment. Twitter is about friends and great content. Twitter is not about &#8220;I&#8217;m a guru in my own backyard!&#8221;. Twitter is about &#8220;I&#8217;m an Internet Marketing ENTHUSIAST, and I want to SHARE some amazing content with you!&#8221;<span id="more-1592"></span></p>
<h4>Make me click&#8230; and click&#8230; and click&#8230;</h4>
<p>This happens so often lately. Way more often than it should (aka NEVER). These days folks share link on Twitter that send to Digg or some other obscure Digg clone. And as if that is not enough, the link posted on Digg leads to another &#8220;news&#8221; aggregation website that rarely has an excerpt listen, and in its turn links to the original post. So, to access that content that YOU PROMISED me within your tweet, I have to go through 2 websites that I don&#8217;t give a c**p about. I&#8217;m definitely not going to vote anything before I read it. And surely, if I vote, I&#8217;ll vote for the original website, not the news aggregation website!</p>
<p>But it&#8217;s cool. People need to pull their page ranks up, their traffic levels. Domains can be sold later for a better price. We know. We were not born last week.</p>
<p>So, the next time you do that, think of it as if you were actually <strong>spamming</strong> the Twitter flow, cause that&#8217;s what you are doing. Don&#8217;t expect Twtter love back, RTs, and followfridays.</p>
<h4>Yes, I&#8217;m venting</h4>
<p>Why do I care about it? Because I enjoy the tweets I get from my followers. Because I trust them with my &#8220;follow&#8221; and expect the same respect back. If you wrote a GOOD article and need votes (if that&#8217;s the case), just state it. Link to the original article and give me a voting link so that I can vote if I feel like it after I read it. That&#8217;s SOCIAL. That&#8217;s MEDIA. Not what so-called &#8216;gurus&#8217; understand. Time to clean up my Twitter account.</p>
<p>Happy and smart <a href="http://twitter.com/Blogsessive" target="_blank">tweeting</a> folks!</p>
<hr /><h3>Free PDF eBook: Corporate Blogging Guide by Blogsessive</h3>As a subscribe reader of Blogsessive, this is my gift to you: a guide to corporate blogging (but not only) that will help you in your blogging adventures! <a href="http://blogsessive.com/wp-content/plugins/download-monitor/download.php?id=8" target="_blank">Download now, for FREE!</a><br /><br /><hr/><div style="background: #eeeeee;">Advertise on Blogsessive! <a href="http://buysellads.com/buy/detail/310/" title="Advertise on Blogsessive">125x125 banners</a> for <strong>$50 per month</strong>!</div>&copy;2008-2010 Copyright by <a href="http://blogsessive.com" title="Blogging tips">Blogsessive - Blogging Tips</a>. This Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement. Please <a href="http://blogsessive.com/contact" title="Contact Blogsessive">contact us</a>, so that we can take legal action immediately.<img src="http://blogsessive.com/?ak_action=api_record_view&id=1592&type=feed" alt="" />]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://blogsessive.com/blogging-tips/how-to-waste-my-time-on-twitter/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>10</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>How to make your blog and tweets work together like a charm</title>
		<link>http://blogsessive.com/blogging-tips/how-to-make-your-blog-and-twitter-work-together/</link>
		<comments>http://blogsessive.com/blogging-tips/how-to-make-your-blog-and-twitter-work-together/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 20 Oct 2009 13:30:56 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Alex, Blogsessive</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Blog Writing Tips]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Blogging Tips]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[General Blogging]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Social Media]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[advice]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[blogging]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[guest posts]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[tips]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[tweets]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Twitter]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blogsessive.com/?p=1530</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Have you read "How To Be a Rockstar WordPress Designer" yet?Tweetmeme buttons, plugins to show latest tweets on blogs, Twitter accounts linking to the owner’s blog, new posts being tweeted, and blog addresses and twitter links in signatures. If that’s not enough, I don’t know what else would show that blogging and tweeting go hand [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Looking for really <a href="http://blogsessive.com/go-themeforest/" title="Affordable Premium WP Themes" target="_blank"><strong>affordable premium WordPress themes</strong></a>?</p><p>Tweetmeme buttons, plugins to show latest tweets on blogs, Twitter accounts linking to the owner’s blog, new posts being tweeted, and blog addresses and twitter links in signatures. If that’s not enough, I don’t know what else would show that blogging and tweeting go hand in hand for tons of people. If you think of names, blogging and microblogging, you kind of see the connection. If you think microblogging appeared later, you’d think much of the blogging knowledge is applicable. But how can you be on both platforms and make them work individually and as a team?</p>
<h3>1. Spot the similarities</h3>
<p><strong>Blogs and Twitter are of the same species</strong>. They come from the world of the social web where the same rules apply. You know, give before you ask, be nice, share relevant information, never, ever, ever limit yourself to broadcasting, be conversational, help out. It’s not rocket science and it’s definitely not new. To make it more clear, here’s the example section: comment on other blogs before you expect comments – or – retweet before you expect your followers to retweet your 140 characters of content. </p>
<p><strong>Catchy and interesting content is crucial for both</strong>. If your blog post is a big hit, make your tweets the same. “New blog post + link” won’t make a lot of people click. “Star Trek is real! We can all now teleport! + link + Fresh from the blog” might work a lot better. </p>
<p>They both need <strong>frequent updates</strong>. If you’re planning to create a blog and never post after the first time, you’ve failed. If you’re planning to get a Twitter account to say hi and have a cool button on your blog without ever doing anything more, you have failed. People expect updates from both bloggers and microbloggers.</p>
<p>Both need <strong>monitoring</strong>. You need to check responses, reactions and trends to be on top of your game. And if you’re blogging and tweeting right, that will take a whole lot of time. <span id="more-1530"></span></p>
<p>Your blog and your Twitter account need to be <strong>welcoming and make it easy for visitors / followers to take action</strong>. Login required, captchas and about three other levels of security make it difficult to comment. Protected tweets make it difficult for new followers to 1. decide if they want to follow you and 2. actually do the following. It all has to be easy and accessible. </p>
<h3>2. Acknowledge the differences</h3>
<p><strong>Blogs and tweets need different frequencies in updates</strong>. While it’s OK to post a couple of times each week on your blog, that might not work that great for Twitter. It’s more like a few posts per day. Yes, it takes time. It does take less time than to write a blog post. Plus content is readily available: your posts, industry news, tweets from those you follow. Add a few replies and you’ve got a quite active Twitter stream!</p>
<p><strong>140 characters vs. virtually no limits</strong>. You need to adjust what you want to say to the platform you’re posting it to. Keep ideas short and sweet for Twitter and develop on the blog. Yes, we’ve all seen the huge ideas split into 4 consecutive tweets&#8230; But if you follow a few hundred people, you’ll see how fast the meaning gets lost in between tweets. </p>
<p><strong>Different pace, different tempo</strong>! It all happens faster on Twitter. Yes, you can reply to a comment after two days. But if you reply to a tweet after the same amount of time, you have 90% chances that the person getting the response will have no clue what you’re talking about. </p>
<h3>3. Fuel the team spirit</h3>
<p><strong>If it’s a team, it has to look like one!</strong> You are in the end promoting the same brand, so make sure to have common visual elements on your blog and Twitter page. </p>
<p><strong>If it’s a team, it should feel like one!</strong> The style on the blog and that of your tweets need to be somewhat similar. People have to sense the same spirit behind it all; otherwise the connection between the two will be feeble. They’ll stick to one or the other, and your plan to make them work together would have failed. </p>
<p><strong>If it’s a team, it should have the same purpose!</strong> Be it to promote your business, stay in touch with friends, position yourself as an expert, you need to have a common goal for both platforms. You can’t try to drive leads your way with the blog and talk about raising kids on Twitter if you have any plans to promote one through the other! </p>
<h3>Over to you!</h3>
<p>As it happens to just blogging, just tweeting, blogging and twitting, or any field for that matter, the pool of relevant information is always bigger than one person. <strong>What tips and tricks have you come across while trying to make your blog and twitter work like a dream team?</strong> Do share your advice in the comment box!</p>
<h4>About the Author</h4>
<p class="articlefeat" style="margin-bottom: 20px;">This is a guest post by <a rel="external" href="http://wordsofabrokenmirror.com" target="_blank"><strong>Alina Popescu</strong></a>, PR Consultant &#038; Founder of <a href="http://mirror-communications.com/" title="PR &#038; Marketing Planning" rel="external" target="_blank"><strong>Mirror Communications</strong></a>. If you’re looking for a fresh voice, balancing unique views on life with original PR and marketing tips, head over to her blog at <a title="PR blog" rel="external" href="http://wordsofabrokenmirror.com" target="_blank"><strong>WordsOfABrokenMirror.com</strong></a>, or better yet, <a rel="external nofollow" href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/WordsOfABrokenMirror" target="_blank">subscribe to her RSS feed</a>.</p>
<hr /><h3>Free PDF eBook: Corporate Blogging Guide by Blogsessive</h3>As a subscribe reader of Blogsessive, this is my gift to you: a guide to corporate blogging (but not only) that will help you in your blogging adventures! <a href="http://blogsessive.com/wp-content/plugins/download-monitor/download.php?id=8" target="_blank">Download now, for FREE!</a><br /><br /><hr/><div style="background: #eeeeee;">Advertise on Blogsessive! <a href="http://buysellads.com/buy/detail/310/" title="Advertise on Blogsessive">125x125 banners</a> for <strong>$50 per month</strong>!</div>&copy;2008-2010 Copyright by <a href="http://blogsessive.com" title="Blogging tips">Blogsessive - Blogging Tips</a>. This Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement. Please <a href="http://blogsessive.com/contact" title="Contact Blogsessive">contact us</a>, so that we can take legal action immediately.<img src="http://blogsessive.com/?ak_action=api_record_view&id=1530&type=feed" alt="" />]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://blogsessive.com/blogging-tips/how-to-make-your-blog-and-twitter-work-together/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>8</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>New phising attempts via Twitter DM</title>
		<link>http://blogsessive.com/blogging-tips/phising-attempts-via-twitter-dm/</link>
		<comments>http://blogsessive.com/blogging-tips/phising-attempts-via-twitter-dm/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 14 Oct 2009 15:56:52 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Alex, Blogsessive</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Blogging Tips]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[News & Reviews]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Social Media]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[DM]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[phising]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[scam]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[spam]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Twitter]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blogsessive.com/?p=1491</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Looking for really affordable premium WordPress themes?A new wave of phishing attempts makes its way through the direct messages (DM) system on Twitter. You might receive a DM from one of the people you follow that could look like this: Username: haha, that u on here? http:&#47;&#47;videos.ds*****w.com&#47; Clicking the link will take you to a [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Looking for really <a href="http://blogsessive.com/go-themeforest/" title="Affordable Premium WP Themes" target="_blank"><strong>affordable premium WordPress themes</strong></a>?</p><p>A new wave of <strong>phishing attempts</strong> makes its way through the direct messages (DM) system on <strong>Twitter</strong>.</p>
<p>You might receive a DM from one of the people you follow that could look like this:</p>
<p class="articlefeat"><strong>Username:</strong> haha, that u on here? http:&#47;&#47;videos.ds*****w.com&#47;</p>
<p>Clicking the link will take you to a page that for the untrained eye looks exactly like the Twitter login page. <strong>DO NOT</strong> enter your username &#038; password. It&#8217;s not a Twitter API or anything. You&#8217;d just be giving away your authentication data.</p>
<p>Also, don&#8217;t be quick to judge the one sending you the DM as a spammer and report him/her. He might only be the victim of one such attack.</p>
<hr /><h3>Free PDF eBook: Corporate Blogging Guide by Blogsessive</h3>As a subscribe reader of Blogsessive, this is my gift to you: a guide to corporate blogging (but not only) that will help you in your blogging adventures! <a href="http://blogsessive.com/wp-content/plugins/download-monitor/download.php?id=8" target="_blank">Download now, for FREE!</a><br /><br /><hr/><div style="background: #eeeeee;">Advertise on Blogsessive! <a href="http://buysellads.com/buy/detail/310/" title="Advertise on Blogsessive">125x125 banners</a> for <strong>$50 per month</strong>!</div>&copy;2008-2010 Copyright by <a href="http://blogsessive.com" title="Blogging tips">Blogsessive - Blogging Tips</a>. This Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement. Please <a href="http://blogsessive.com/contact" title="Contact Blogsessive">contact us</a>, so that we can take legal action immediately.<img src="http://blogsessive.com/?ak_action=api_record_view&id=1491&type=feed" alt="" />]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://blogsessive.com/blogging-tips/phising-attempts-via-twitter-dm/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Live Coverage of the Revolution in Moldova</title>
		<link>http://blogsessive.com/blogsessive-news/revolution-in-moldova-on-twitter/</link>
		<comments>http://blogsessive.com/blogsessive-news/revolution-in-moldova-on-twitter/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 07 Apr 2009 13:53:38 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Alex, Blogsessive</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[News & Reviews]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Social Media]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[revolution]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[social media]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Twitter]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blogsessive.com/?p=1246</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Do you need quality design resources? Graphic River has them. Tons! And cheap...Let me start of by asking you one thing: have you ever doubted the power of social media? The U.S. president, Barack Obama stands proof of its power and now the Revolution in Moldova too. After the recent election which are said to [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Blogsessive recommends WP WebHost for <a href="http://blogsessive.com/go-wpwebhost/" title="WordPress Hosting" target="_blank"><strong>quality WordPress blog hosting</strong></a>!</p><p>Let me start of by asking you one thing: have you ever doubted the power of social media? The U.S. president, Barack Obama stands proof of its power and now the <strong>Revolution in Moldova</strong> too.</p>
<p>After the recent election which are said to be manipulated by the communist party, Moldavian teen and teenagers started today that will probably go down in history as the first European revolution covered by live blogging and twittering.</p>
<p>Police, army, students, students that speak my language, as Moldova was once part of my country, Romania. Smoke, fire, fights, gun shots. These are the images that are spread via YouTube, Flickr, Twitter and personal blogs.<span id="more-1246"></span></p>
<p>In an attempt to stop these images to go live, Moldavian authorities have restricted internet access, have taken down websites and have shut down private TV stations and news sites. But even so, the revolution is still transmitted live.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s enough to check out these hashtags on Twitter and you&#8217;ll see how fast the information is pouring in: <a href="http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23pman" target="_blank">#pman</a>, <a href="http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23moldova" target="_blank">#moldova</a>, <a href="http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23chisinau" target="_blank">#chisinau</a>.</p>
<p><img src="http://blogsessive.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/revolution-in-moldova.jpg" alt="Revolution in Moldova" title="Revolution in Moldova" width="630" height="236" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1247" /><br />
<small>Photo copyright by <a href="http://www.unimedia.info" target="_blank">UniMedia</a>. More <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/84202503@N00/sets/72157616460787480/" target="_blank">on Flickr</a>.</small></p>
<p>So, my question to you: Do you still doubt the power of social media? Do you still believe that Twitter is only a tool to exchange links with your friends? Think again! <strong>These kids didn&#8217;t!</strong></p>
<p>Used in the right context, and for the right reasons, social media is the most powerful tool a common person can get.</p>
<hr /><h3>Free PDF eBook: Corporate Blogging Guide by Blogsessive</h3>As a subscribe reader of Blogsessive, this is my gift to you: a guide to corporate blogging (but not only) that will help you in your blogging adventures! <a href="http://blogsessive.com/wp-content/plugins/download-monitor/download.php?id=8" target="_blank">Download now, for FREE!</a><br /><br /><hr/><div style="background: #eeeeee;">Advertise on Blogsessive! <a href="http://buysellads.com/buy/detail/310/" title="Advertise on Blogsessive">125x125 banners</a> for <strong>$50 per month</strong>!</div>&copy;2008-2010 Copyright by <a href="http://blogsessive.com" title="Blogging tips">Blogsessive - Blogging Tips</a>. This Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement. Please <a href="http://blogsessive.com/contact" title="Contact Blogsessive">contact us</a>, so that we can take legal action immediately.<img src="http://blogsessive.com/?ak_action=api_record_view&id=1246&type=feed" alt="" />]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://blogsessive.com/blogsessive-news/revolution-in-moldova-on-twitter/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>5</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Jennyfer, I Won&#8217;t Follow You! Ever.</title>
		<link>http://blogsessive.com/blogging-tips/blogging-blogging-tips/jennyfer-i-wont-follow-you-ever/</link>
		<comments>http://blogsessive.com/blogging-tips/blogging-blogging-tips/jennyfer-i-wont-follow-you-ever/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 15 Feb 2009 23:40:16 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Alex, Blogsessive</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[General Blogging]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[microblogging]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[opinion]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[spam]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Twitter]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blogsessive.com/?p=1073</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Have you read "How To Be a Rockstar WordPress Designer" yet?I&#8217;m a moderate Twitter user. A couple of tweets a day, sometimes announcing new blog posts, sometimes engaging in conversations. This evening I managed to finally get some free time to enjoy my Twitter account. The minute I started tweeting, in other words became active, [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>With the StudioPress WordPress themes you can really <a href="http://blogsessive.com/go-studiopress/" title="Take Your Blog to a Higher Level" target="ejejcsingle"><strong>take your blog to a higher level</strong></a>!<p>I&#8217;m a moderate Twitter user. A couple of tweets a day, sometimes announcing new blog posts, sometimes engaging in conversations. This evening I managed to finally get some free time to enjoy <a href="http://twitter.com/Blogsessive"><strong>my Twitter account</strong></a>.</p>
<p>The minute I started tweeting, in other words became active, I received 3 fried request. 2 out of these 3 requests were made by new accounts under the name &#8220;Jennyfer&#8221;, following about 2000 users.</p>
<p>Every account like this has one or two tweets maximum and all sound like this:</p>
<ul>
<li>I&#8217;ve made $6000 last night with &#8216;Some name&#8217;;</li>
<li>$15.000 overnight. Click here to find out how.</li>
</ul>
<p>It&#8217;s easy to see that these are spam accounts, and yet they average about 10 followers.</p>
<p>So, when I get a request from one of these accounts, what are my choices? Let&#8217;s see:</p>
<ol>
<li>Ignore the request;</li>
<li>Block the user.</li>
</ol>
<p>But what about my desire to actively fight spam accounts? What if I don&#8217;t want to &#8220;block&#8221; the user and protect myself? What if I want to report the user and protect everyone else?</p>
<p>I really think that <strong>Twitter needs a &#8220;Report spam&#8221; button</strong> and some text filters as most of the phrases these spam accounts use are standard presets.</p>
<p>So, <strong>Twitter, will you help the community actively defend itself</strong>?</p>
<p>Update: Until such options will be &#8211; if they will ever be &#8211; integrated, the one alternative is to follow Twitter&#8217;s spam dedicated account <a href="http://twitter.com/spam">@spam</a>, and report spam to them.</p>
<hr /><h3>Free PDF eBook: Corporate Blogging Guide by Blogsessive</h3>As a subscribe reader of Blogsessive, this is my gift to you: a guide to corporate blogging (but not only) that will help you in your blogging adventures! <a href="http://blogsessive.com/wp-content/plugins/download-monitor/download.php?id=8" target="_blank">Download now, for FREE!</a><br /><br /><hr/><div style="background: #eeeeee;">Advertise on Blogsessive! <a href="http://buysellads.com/buy/detail/310/" title="Advertise on Blogsessive">125x125 banners</a> for <strong>$50 per month</strong>!</div>&copy;2008-2010 Copyright by <a href="http://blogsessive.com" title="Blogging tips">Blogsessive - Blogging Tips</a>. This Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement. Please <a href="http://blogsessive.com/contact" title="Contact Blogsessive">contact us</a>, so that we can take legal action immediately.<img src="http://blogsessive.com/?ak_action=api_record_view&id=1073&type=feed" alt="" />]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://blogsessive.com/blogging-tips/blogging-blogging-tips/jennyfer-i-wont-follow-you-ever/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>13</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Enough with Twitter vs. FriendFeed vs. Plurk Already</title>
		<link>http://blogsessive.com/blogging-tips/social-media-blogging-tips/twitter-vs-friendfeed-vs-plurk/</link>
		<comments>http://blogsessive.com/blogging-tips/social-media-blogging-tips/twitter-vs-friendfeed-vs-plurk/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 06 Jun 2008 18:55:11 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Alex, Blogsessive</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Social Media]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FriendFeed]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Plurk]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[social media]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Twitter]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blogsessive.com/?p=106</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Do you need quality design resources? Graphic River has them. Tons! And cheap...Yes, that&#8217;s right! Enough with it! Why do we have to make all these comparisons between these services, when sometimes it just isn&#8217;t the case? For the past month my RSS reader has been literally filled with Twitter posts, FriendFeed posts and now [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Have you read "<a href="http://blogsessive.com/go-wprockstar/" title="How To Be a Rockstar WordPress Designer" target="ejejcsingle"><strong>How To Be a Rockstar WordPress Designer</strong></a>" yet?</p><p>Yes, that&#8217;s right! Enough with it! Why do we have to make all these comparisons between these services, when sometimes it just isn&#8217;t the case?</p>
<p>For the past month my RSS reader has been literally filled with <a title="Twitter" href="http://twitter.com" target="_blank">Twitter</a> posts, <a title="FriendFeed" href="http://www.friendfeed.com" target="_blank">FriendFeed</a> posts and now it&#8217;s time for <a title="Plurk" href="http://www.plurk.com" target="_blank">Plurk</a>. Each blogger tries to find the next big microblogging platform, &#8220;the Twitter killer&#8221;. I always love a visionary post, but sometimes we need to take a step back and analyze the facts. <strong>Twitter is not going to disappear any time soon</strong>.</p>
<p>Yes, Twitter had, and still has problems, but I can bet it&#8217;s a temporary thing. We&#8217;re talking about a huge financial investment here, and no investor will sit and watch his money flowing out the window. Further more, many communities have been built on Twitter. People have spent lots of precious time growing their number of followers, no one is going to give that up so easily. Beyond that, Twitter has a value that only few realize: it&#8217;s a great instrument to help you develop your writing skills by <strong>focusing ideas in concise, 140 character long, messages</strong>.</p>
<p>Twitter has the advantage of time and awareness. That&#8217;s one advantage that FriendFeed and Plurk don&#8217;t have. And no, I&#8217;m not writing this post because I&#8217;m some sort of Twitter fanatic or evangelist. On the contrary, I know I&#8217;ve never used it at its full potential due to time limitations. Further more, I really enjoy participating in discussions over at FriendFeed, but <em>I&#8217;m not a Plurk user, and probably won&#8217;t be any time soon</em>. I find it awkward for my taste. And sincerely, I prefer a bird instead of a headless animal.<span id="more-106"></span></p>
<h3>Why I don&#8217;t believe in the reality of this &#8220;war&#8221;</h3>
<p>The biggest problem with this &#8220;versus&#8221; hype resides in the fact that these services are different, providing different user experiences, at least Twitter and FriendFeed. A few days back I was watching <strong><a title="ShoeMoney" href="http://www.shoemoney.com" target="_blank">ShoeMoney</a></strong>&#8216;s videocast, co-hosted by <strong><a title="JenSense" href="http://www.jensense.com/" target="_blank">Jennifer</a> <a title="Jennifer Slegg" href="http://www.jenniferslegg.com/" target="_blank">Slegg</a></strong>. I asked them what do they think of FriendFeed. Jeremy&#8217;s answer was pretty straight-forward: &#8220;I&#8217;ve never used it&#8221;, and when it was Jennifer&#8217;s turn to answer I got the following: &#8220;I&#8217;ve signed up a few days ago, but I&#8217;m not convinced. I prefer Twitter.&#8221; (These are not exact quotes, but since I don&#8217;t have a transcript, I tried to reproduce them.)</p>
<p>So, here goes something that I did not expect from Jennifer, a confusion between 2 different services. Otherwise, I don&#8217;t see how Twitter popped into her answer. While <strong>Twitter</strong> is clearly a <strong>microblogging</strong> platform, if we really need to find a term for <strong>FriendFeed</strong>, the most appropriate should be &#8220;<strong>microforum</strong>&#8220;, in my opinion. How can we compare them? We should not, but unfortunately, this is the reality that&#8217;s been spreading lately.</p>
<h3>Letting the numbers speak</h3>
<p>If people are so eager to find the service that will grab the crown from Twitter, maybe we should take a look at some facts, for example the funding that these 3 services received (according to <a title="TechCrunch" href="http://www.techcrunch.com" target="_blank">TechCrunch</a>):</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Twitter</strong> &#8211; $5.4M + $15M (May 2008)</li>
<li><strong>FriendFeed</strong> &#8211; $5M</li>
<li><strong>Plurk</strong> &#8211; This I couldn&#8217;t find</li>
</ul>
<p>Higher funding does not necessarily guarantee better services, but it surely creates more premises.</p>
<p>Further more, let&#8217;s study the latest levels of traffic, including the last month, when Twitter was down and all the FriendFeed &amp; Plurk hype began.</p>
<div style="text-align: center;"><img title="Twitter vs. Plurk vs. FriendFeed" src="http://blogsessive.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/twitter-plurk-friendfeed.gif" alt="Twitter vs. Plurk vs. FriendFeed" width="588" height="540" /></div>
<h3>Is Twitter dying?</h3>
<p>You tell me. The numbers say that despite their technical and communication problems, all this hype has boosted their traffic way above the competition. From where I stand, Twitter is going to be around for a while, and I can see a nice future for FriendFeed too.</p>
<p><strong>What do you think?</strong></p>
<hr /><h3>Free PDF eBook: Corporate Blogging Guide by Blogsessive</h3>As a subscribe reader of Blogsessive, this is my gift to you: a guide to corporate blogging (but not only) that will help you in your blogging adventures! <a href="http://blogsessive.com/wp-content/plugins/download-monitor/download.php?id=8" target="_blank">Download now, for FREE!</a><br /><br /><hr/><div style="background: #eeeeee;">Advertise on Blogsessive! <a href="http://buysellads.com/buy/detail/310/" title="Advertise on Blogsessive">125x125 banners</a> for <strong>$50 per month</strong>!</div>&copy;2008-2010 Copyright by <a href="http://blogsessive.com" title="Blogging tips">Blogsessive - Blogging Tips</a>. This Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement. Please <a href="http://blogsessive.com/contact" title="Contact Blogsessive">contact us</a>, so that we can take legal action immediately.<img src="http://blogsessive.com/?ak_action=api_record_view&id=106&type=feed" alt="" />]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://blogsessive.com/blogging-tips/social-media-blogging-tips/twitter-vs-friendfeed-vs-plurk/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>16</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>A Week With FriendFeed</title>
		<link>http://blogsessive.com/blogging-tips/a-week-with-friendfeed/</link>
		<comments>http://blogsessive.com/blogging-tips/a-week-with-friendfeed/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 28 May 2008 20:57:07 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Alex, Blogsessive</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Blogging Tips]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Social Media]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FriendFeed]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[social media]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Twitter]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blogsessive.com/?p=93</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Some have used it for a long time, others - like me - have only recently joined. After a week of being a FriendFeed member, I thought about sharing my experience with it with goods and bads.]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Have you read "<a href="http://blogsessive.com/go-wprockstar/" title="How To Be a Rockstar WordPress Designer" target="ejejcsingle"><strong>How To Be a Rockstar WordPress Designer</strong></a>" yet?</p><p><img style="float: left; margin-right: 10px;" title="FriendFeed" src="http://blogsessive.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/friendfeed.gif" alt="FriendFeed" width="200" height="100" /><em>&#8220;Twitter is stressing out a bit now.&#8221;</em> Does that sound familiar? I&#8217;m sure it does. With all the buzz around Twitter&#8217;s tech problems, people started looking around for a service to fill in during downtime. And this is where <a title="FriendFeed" href="http://friendfeed.com" target="_blank">FriendFeed</a> comes in to play.</p>
<p>Some have used it for a while, others &#8211; like me &#8211; have only recently joined. After a week of being a FriendFeed member, I thought about sharing my experience with it with goods and bads.</p>
<h3>What&#8217;s FriendFeed about</h3>
<p>Just in case that the service&#8217;s name doesn&#8217;t ring a bell, FriendFeed is all about <strong>sharing your social activity</strong> with the world in a minimalist &#8211; and recently mobile friendly &#8211; environment.</p>
<p>With the recent addition of rooms to the service, people can form groups around their interests, hobbies or website. From my point of view, this is the greatest thing until now with FriendFeed.</p>
<p>People are able to share stories in these rooms and to comment upon them. Also, the interesting thing is that you could run a debate starting with a question and most of the times, get enough answers. So, <strong>FriendFeed adds a lot to the conversation</strong>. Rooms are moderated by their creator (administrator) and can easily be setup as private if you wish to restrict the public access.<span id="more-93"></span></p>
<p>Back to the buzz on Twitter vs. FriendFeed, after signing up and using the second, I can state that if Twitter is a great microblogging platform, FriendFeed has a good chance to turn into a nice, compact, microforum platform. On the matter of FriendFeed taking over Twitter&#8217;s throne &#8211; my personal opinion is that there&#8217;s no such &#8220;matter&#8221; &#8211; I would suggest you read some of <strong>SheGeeks</strong>&#8216; posts:</p>
<ul>
<li><a title="Permanent Link to The Problem With FriendFeed(ing): It’s Not Twitter" rel="external" href="http://shegeeks.net/the-problem-with-friendfeeding-its-not-twitter/">The Problem With FriendFeed(ing): It’s Not Twitter</a></li>
<li><a title="Permanent Link to The #1 Reason FriendFeed Will Not " rel="external" href="http://shegeeks.net/the-number-one-reason-why-friendfeed-will-not-dethrone-twitter/">The #1 Reason FriendFeed Will Not &#8220;Dethrone&#8221; Twitter</a></li>
</ul>
<p>And since FriendFeed it&#8217;s about sharing and discussing items and stories, it works with almost every important social media website.</p>
<h3>Don&#8217;t expect a huge buzz</h3>
<p>If you&#8217;re expecting to use FriendFeed as a way to get those traffic spikes, stop it, now. You most probably won&#8217;t. Since the best thing about FriendFeed is conversation over topics, I can assure you it would be better to <strong>use it for growing a loyal readers&#8217; base</strong> than for getting massive traffic.</p>
<h3>What&#8217;s wrong with FriendFeed</h3>
<p>While I&#8217;m sure that as we speak, features are being developed, I still have some things I really need along with my FriendFeed account:</p>
<ul>
<li>I need a place to browse all available rooms. Would be best if they were organized by topic also.</li>
<li>I need a possibility to change a rooms display picture. (<strong>Update:</strong> Has been implemented)</li>
<li>I need a way to promote room members to moderators or administrators, since a room that gets enough attention will be a target for fake-sharing, and by this I mean links under fake-titles. If this gets out of hand, I&#8217;ll need help.</li>
<li>I need a way to select multiple rooms if I decide to share a story. I don&#8217;t want to go back and re-share the item.</li>
</ul>
<p>Since I&#8217;m still testing out this service, I&#8217;ll probably come up with more points here, but until then, it would be nice to read about <strong>your experience on FriendFeed</strong>.</p>
<p><strong>My FriendFeed profile</strong>: <a title="Blogsessive on FriendFeed" href="http://friendfeed.com/blogsessive" target="_blank">http://friendfeed.com/blogsessive</a></p>
<hr /><h3>Free PDF eBook: Corporate Blogging Guide by Blogsessive</h3>As a subscribe reader of Blogsessive, this is my gift to you: a guide to corporate blogging (but not only) that will help you in your blogging adventures! <a href="http://blogsessive.com/wp-content/plugins/download-monitor/download.php?id=8" target="_blank">Download now, for FREE!</a><br /><br /><hr/><div style="background: #eeeeee;">Advertise on Blogsessive! <a href="http://buysellads.com/buy/detail/310/" title="Advertise on Blogsessive">125x125 banners</a> for <strong>$50 per month</strong>!</div>&copy;2008-2010 Copyright by <a href="http://blogsessive.com" title="Blogging tips">Blogsessive - Blogging Tips</a>. This Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement. Please <a href="http://blogsessive.com/contact" title="Contact Blogsessive">contact us</a>, so that we can take legal action immediately.<img src="http://blogsessive.com/?ak_action=api_record_view&id=93&type=feed" alt="" />]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://blogsessive.com/blogging-tips/a-week-with-friendfeed/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
		</item>
	</channel>
</rss>

