Alliance Blog Reviews

Guy Kawasaki is a social marketing talent, he tweets every post of his blog three times a day, eight hours apart. Every time he gets hundreds of clicks. The tool Guy Kawasaki uses is Otweet , which is a paid web app that lets you schedule your tweets. Since Otweet is not free, you may be not interested, but luckily, there are some other similar and FREE web apps that let you schedule your tweets, among which, below 11 websites are the best for your reference: 1. CoTweet You need to register before you can use CoTweet, which lets you schedule the tweets and send them right now or in any specific time to one or multiple Twitter accounts. You can read, reply or retweet the tweets of the mention/direct messages, your friends’ updates and your twitter lists. If the URL is shortened by bit.ly, you can see how many times it has been clicked. 2. Dynamic Tweets You need to create a new account in Dynamic Tweets, then you can schedule the tweets and send them immediately, how many minutes/hours/days/weeks later, or in a specific time. You can add tracking code and spinnable text to every tweet. You can also send the tweet to multiple Twitter accounts at a time. 3. FutureTweets You can register a new account, or log in with your OpenID. Once your Twitter account is verified, select your timezone, input the tweets, and then schedule the publishing time. There are 3 funny things you can do with FutureTweets: add some funny images to the tweets, flip the tweets, and set the time by moving the clock needles. 4. HootSuite HootSuite lets you manage multiple Twitter accounts as well as your Facebook, your LinkedIn and your Ping.fm. You are able to attach pictures, videos and document to the tweets, to schedule and post the tweets to all the accounts at a time, to read, reply or retweet the tweets of twitter lists, and so on. 5. SocialOomph SocialOomph was called TweetLater before. You can register a free account or a paid account. For free account, you can schedule how many minutes, hours, days, or weeks from now on the tweet will be posted to one or multiple Twitter accounts, but you can only schedule 12 tweets per hour. 6. Taweet You need to sign in with Twitter OAuth and verify your email account, then you can schedule your tweets, post the tweet to multiple Twitter accounts one by one, read the tweets of your stream, replies, and direct messages, and so on. There will be a link added to every tweet you send from Taweet. 7. Twaitter You can sign in with Twitter OAuth or your username and password. Twaitter lets you schedule public tweets and publish them in any time. And you can reply, retweet, or favorite the tweets, see if the tweeple follow you, manage your multiple Twitter accounts, and so on. 8. Tweet-U-Later When you sign up, you will get an email address, to which you can schedule your tweets with Tweet-U-Later by sending emails. You are able to schedule public tweets as well as private massages, you are also able to schedule recurring tweets, but just don’t violate the Twitter rules. 9. TweetFunnel You need to create a new account in TweetFunnel before you can schedule your tweets, which also can be published right now or held in the draft. You can see the tweets of home stream, mentions, direct messages and reply, retweet, or favorite them. 10. Twittontime Sign in with Twitter OAuth, select your time zone, and then you can schedule your tweets. The Twittontime dashboard just looks like a calendar, you select a date, write down your tweets, and schedule the publishing time. 11. Twuffer Sign in Twuffer with your Twitter username and password, select your timezone, and then you can schedule the tweets by hours, which means you are not able to set a specific time like 8:30 am, but only 8:00 am or 9:00 am. Among the above 10 websites, HootSuite is my favourite, which one is yours? Or do you have any other nice similar web applications to schedule your tweets? © 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips . 11 Websites to Schedule Your Tweets Online for Free

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11 Websites to Schedule Your Tweets Online for Free

At the rate Yahoo is dumping its own technology and partnering with others, the only thing left that will be “Yahoo built” will be these bloody big pens: A little over a year since Yahoo announced the expansion of Yahoo Profiles, the search engine, portal, social network , we-don’t-know-what-we-are company is apparently ready to ditch its own social network aspirations and jump into bed with Facebook : It will enable them to connect with Facebook friends on Yahoo!, view a feed of their friends’ related activity on Yahoo!, and share content—such as photos from Flickr or comments on news stories—with all of their friends on Facebook. The content that consumers share with Facebook friends will then create a loop that drives visitors back to Yahoo!. OK, so you can’t blame Yahoo for making this move. After all, social networking is Facebook’s strength, and not Yahoo’s. But, I’m starting to worry what Yahoo has left to call it’s “strength.” When your business is supported by the strength of other companies, it becomes very easy for your foundation to be undermined by them.

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Yahoo Partners with Facebook, Plans to Focus on Selling Big Pens?

How do you share files on Twitter? Growing your followers means you will move beyond the people that you personally know. I’ve met scores of people on Twitter that I will never meet in real life. I also don’t have personal contact information for many of the people I know on Twitter either. So how do you send someone a file online without their email address? Surprisingly, there are at least nine different sites that can answer that question for you. From presentations to mp3s to documents to zip files and anything else, they can now be sent via Twitter. This really opens up the use of Twitter from a simple communication tool to a new way to share large amounts of information. I sat down with my co-workers and created a wish list of qualities that we as marketing people want in a Twitter file sharing tool. Of course, all the apps have to be free, easy-to-use and require no downloadable client. Beyond that, we wanted to be able to: * store at least 15 mb of data * share multiple file types: mp3, doc, ppt, zip, pictures, videos * public and private tweets * use OAuth so you don’t have to create a new account * have it self-delete after a certain amount time * share across multiple platforms The evaluation method was simple. I visited each site and registered. After my profile loaded, I took a screenshot of the interface and then spent about ten minutes looking around the site. A decent site should be able to explain itself in that time. After using the application, I rated each site against my wish list. Tweetcube Tweetcube allows you to upload zip, rar, pdf, jpg, png, gif, mp3 and txt files. Or at least it says it says it does. I could only get to step two and wasn’t able to upload anything. According to Tweetcube, you can upload as many 10 mb files as you want, and after 30 days they get deleted. Or you could if it worked. Ten megabytes seems to be the lower end of the uploading spectrum anyway. PROS: You can upload up to 10 mb, uses Twitter OAuth so you don’t have to create an account. CONS: It doesn’t work. Tried several times over two days to use the site. At first it wouldn’t let me login. After I got past that, I was never able to upload a file. RATING: Thumbsdown Tweetmojo Tweetmojo allows you to share videos, photos, files and tweets of up to 1400 characters long. There is no mention of upper size limit on file sharing and a tweet to their Twitter account didn’t get a reply. I tried uploading a 36 MB pdf and after waiting 10 minutes, nothing happened. It didn’t give me any indication that the file is being uploaded, so I don’t know if I didn’t wait long enough or if it never tried to upload the file. The Twitter OAuth didn’t work either so I could never log in to post anything to Twitter. There is also a timeline so you can see what other people have uploaded from the site. Tweetmojo does allow you to record your own video and post it from the site by using the Viddler video recorder. That is, if the sign in feature worked. PROS: Allows you to upload any file type and you can record you own videos from the site. Nice feature that allows you to add long posts without having to upload a file. CONS: It didn’t work. I was able to upload smaller photo files and record a video, but could never sign in to Twitter to use it. RATING: Thumbsdown Twitt Twi.tt gives you the ability to upload pictures, videos, documents, audio and create a poll. The screen is divided into tabs so you can select from which area you want to upload. Under each tab is a selection of options, such as upload from computer, get from website, capture from webcam or post by email. Most of the these options aren’t available yet but there is a message that it should “be added in just a few days.” You can choose between posting your file to Twitter or just putting it in the Twi.tt public timeline. There is no mention of file size or how your files are hosted on their system or for how long. PROS: Hurray, it works! There doesn’t appear to be a file size limit and a 29 MB file uploaded just fine. CONS: Most of the site’s features don’t work yet. It’s unclear what happened to your uploads after you share them. RATING: Thumbsdown TwitFS TwitFS offers a free non-account version, which is pretty good. You can upload up to 100 MB at once, you can share videos, audio, pictures and documents, and you can publish to Twitter, blogs, Facebook, MySpace, message boards and send via email. You can also store your file for 30 days, send a direct message to an individual or message everyone in your tweetstream. Once uploaded, your file gets its own page and you can share the url or embed it in another program. If you register with TwitFS, you can upload a file up to 250 MB, a file manager, a direct link to the file, parallel downloads and unlimited file storage. For a small fee starting at $0.99, you get up to 2.5 GB maximum file size. PROS: It does everything we could want from a file sharing site. It’s worth registering with the site for added features. CONS: Um….can’t find any. RATING: Thumbsup Filetwt Filetwt is another simple site. You enter your Twitter username and password, enter a 114 character message and upload a file up to 20 MB. The file then goes out on your public Twitter stream. The site creates a TinyURL that links back to a page where you can download the file. It works basically the same as Filesocial, but not as well. It also offers the ability to sign up for an account, which allows you to send private tweets, better storage and allows for creating a friend list to send files to. The friend list isn’t a complete list of your Twitter followers. PROS: Easy to use and share files with a simple one step process. CONS: You don’t get a link to your file unless you go to your Twitter stream and find the tweet. The registered version doesn’t pull in all your friends and doesn’t give you the option to add friends that are missing. RATING: Thumbsdown FileSocial FileSocial is the prettiest site of the file sharing tools. You can upload any file up to 50 MB and post it to your public Twitter timeline. The file is stored on their servers for an unknown amount of time. FileSocial sends out a message to your Twitter stream with a TinyURL. People can view your file, download it or leave a message on it. It also opens the file without having to download it. There is also a downloadable client that allows you to drag and drop files you want to share. PROS: Easy tool that allows you to share any type of file on Twitter. CONS: FileSocial only allows you to post to Twitter. You can take that URL and share it on other sites or post in an email, but you can’t do that directly from the site. RATING: Thumbsup TwitDoc TwitDoc uses the Twitter OAuth to log you into their account. You can upload up videos up to 25MB, documents up to 15MB and photos up to 10MB. I’m not sure why they are using different file sizes for each type of file. Once you’ve uploaded your file and sent your tweet, you get a TinyURL, which links to a page where you file is. It’s a simple site that gives you the ability to share files quickly and easily. There is also a downloadable client that allows you to use the site’s features from your desktop. PROS: Easy to use single function site. CONS: There is no list of all the files you upload. You can’t control the files once they are uploaded if you don’t have the URL. It doesn’t handle audio files. RATING: Thumbsdown Acamin Acamin is designed with a nod to the academic community. That doesn’t mean it’s limited to that field. You can post files to your Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn account. I tried adding a picture and was given a series of error messages before finally being told that my image was posted to my Twitter account. When I clicked on the URL to link back to the image, I got a “This file is not available!” error message. According to the icons on the page, you can attach a file to an email, publish it online, get the code to embed your file and convert it to a pdf. PROS: The ability to publish files on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, as well as being able to convert documents to a pdf file. CONS: It doesn’t work. I counted at least six error messages before the site attempted to send the file, then got another error message after posting. RATING: Thumbsdown Conclusion TwitFS did the best by ultimately having the best features. It’s simple to use, accepts the largest files and allows you to share the file across multiple networks. Best of all, it works without any problems. FileSocial is also recommended for it’s ability to view the files without having to download them. © 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips . 8 Twitter Apps That Make It Easy To Share Files

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8 Twitter Apps That Make It Easy To Share Files

By POYZN of WamWan – Follow them @POYZN . There’s countless Twitter widgets, tools and sites out there to make your Twitter experience more enjoyable. But the following sites are the pick of the bunch chosen from those sneaky discreet third party text-ads on Twitter itself, placed on user profiles, displayed under the stats. Since Twitter is officially endorsing these third-party fansites for free, then they must have some user benefit, right? Well, the following five chosen are actually pretty fun and useful: We Follow – Directory of interesting Twitter accounts . This site is terrific for fishing out the Twitter users in your niche, or the ones which simply interest you. You can add your own Twitter account to the directory too so others can find you. All users are neatly categorized and tagged for you to choose from by; industry, niche and location. All the celebrity tweeters are listed there too. Happy stalking. Favstar – Fast way to discover people’s favorite tweets. Favstar lets you track what your friends, followers, and everyone else has labeled as ‘favorite’ on Twitter. Ofcourse, you can also know how many Twitter users have your tweets as their favorite. Depending on your findings, it’ll either boost your ego or deflate it. Be prepared for a reality shock. Twitter Counter – Fun way to explore your social graph . This is basically Feedburner in a Twitter costume. It lets you show off the number of Twitter followers you have. Which is useful for the braggers. For everyone else, it’s a great tool to explore your account’s statistics in terms of overall rank, followers, friends, updates, etc, all broken down in a neat graph. You can also compare your account to others too. For instance, you can compare yours to Ellen DeGeneres and Ashton Kutcher’s. Go ahead try it, aim for the stars. Hype Machine – Easy way to find Twitter’s most popular music . This clever little tool keeps track of what Twitter users write about in regard of music selection. It’s basically an interactive music chart of songs being posted on Twitter. It’s a great tool in a way which you are able to find out and listen to what your fellow tweeters enjoy music-wise. The only drawback is that you’ll soon discover so many of which have terrible taste in music. Trends Map – Simple way to pinpoint map of local trends . This tool is a real-time mapping of Twitter trends across the globe. It lets you see what the world is discussing right now on Twitter, and from which location the trend originated. It’s really neat. It’s Google Maps but Twitterized. You’ll particularly love this one if your Twitter trend obsession is few levels above the average Twitter addict. © 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips . Twitter Approved – Five Fantastically Fun Fansites

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Twitter Approved – Five Fantastically Fun Fansites

By Matt Wilson . Follow him @MattWilsonTV . We all have them—”social media friends”—people who we talk to online but most likely have never met in person. We connected with them because of a common interest via Twitter, engaged in interesting conversation with them and shared a bond, but we don’t really consider them a true friend. Truly using Twitter to its fullest potential means networking not just for casual online interaction but actually creating long lasting relationships. Real friends will shout from the rooftops to promote your brand, real friends collaborate, work together and would do anything for each other. Let’s start making these Twitter friends into your own global network of people who have a vested interest in each other’s success. Besides, what good are your friends if you don’t really know them? But don’t be a creep! Ew, you want to meet me in person? Is it really okay to meet people online? Yes! It’s important to realize that there is a real person behind that avatar—not just another click thru to your blog. Make people feel like they know you. Your Twitter brand should have both personal and professional elements to it. In order to create real relationships your Twitter friends should trust you. Your avatar must look like you! You want people to stop you at events because they recognize you from Twitter. Take the time to look at someone’s profile and website. Know more about your friends than just their handle. Read their bio, check out their website and ask about them. People want to know you care! Post videos of yourself and ask questions—the more interaction people have with you on Twitter, the closer people feel to you. Engage your audience! Help people! If you are helpful on Twitter, chances are you are helpful offline. Networking is all about giving—remember you have to give to get. Providing value on Twitter eventually creates value in real life. Compliment! Flattery goes a long way on Twitter. Tell someone you admire their work and think they are a leader and you are much more likely to make a real friend! Post Twitpics. Your personal brand should have a personality; make sure they know you are real. Take interesting pictures from your everyday life. It doesn’t have to be a picture of your children, simply try a picture from an event you are attending. Now take networking offline! Attend or organize a Tweetup. Use http://twtvite.com to send out invitations. Get a few real friends who are on Twitter together and invite all your respective Twitter friends. Schedule phone calls. Meet someone on Twitter who you’d like to know better? Ask to schedule a phone call. Send a DM and specify a time limit of 10 minutes. Nobody’s time will be wasted. Imagine you did this every day? Don’t want to pay long distance or give out your number? Invite a Twitter friend for a #VirtualCoffee meeting on Skype. Connect face to face and have a real conversation. Have a column on Tweetdeck specifically for people you’d like to meet in person. You can monitor people more closely this way by organizing friends into one big column, or segment them into geographic location. Never eat alone! Traveling? Make a conscious effort to meet people you’ve connected with on social media. Of course meet in a public place and keep things casual. Plan this in advance. Attend Events: Go to tweetups, networking events, conferences, keynote speeches, unconferences or anything with a hashtag on Twitter. Tag everything with a hashtag and let it be known you are looking to do some real life networking. Take the leap! Creating a network of global friends means going out being assertive. Don’t be shy—start approaching people. Set a goal for yourself of 5 real life connections each week. Connect with one person daily or knock them all out in a single day of the week. It’s time to start using Twitter to its potential. [image] © 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips . Turn Twitter Friends into Real Friends

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Turn Twitter Friends into Real Friends

By Kalvin “Dr. Kal” Chinyere, M.D. of Dr. Kal’s Weight Loss Tips . Follow him @DrKal . TwitPic is an excellent application that further boosts Twitter’s usefulness. However, so many people use TwitPic incorrectly. Tweeters use TwitPic to tweet pictures of their children at Disney World or pictures of their grandmother at her 100th Birthday Party. C’mon! Your kids are not that cute, and your grandmother??? I don’t even want to see a picture of Halle Berry when she’s 100 years old. Using TwitPic as if it were Flickr is similar to using your iPhone as if it were an iPod. You are missing out on all of its capabilities. Below are 10 ways to use TwitPic to improve the quality of your life and the lives of those around you. How to Use TwitPic Weight Loss Pictures: Use TwitPic to chronicle your weight loss. Every Wednesday is Weigh-In Wednesday. Have someone take a picture of you and Tweet It! Sharing pictures of yourself will motivate you and your followers. Funny Pictures: Use TwitPic to spread laughter across the Twitterverse. If you see something funny, take a picture and Tweet It! Laughter decreases stress and this will lengthen the lives of your followers and help them lose weight. Drunk Pictures: Use TwitPic to improve your vision. You are out on the town and you have been drinking heavily. You meet someone who you find extremely attractive. Before you get into a cab with the attractive stranger, take a picture of them and Tweet It! Have your followers review the picture. There is nothing wrong with waking up to Ugly Betty, as long as you were not thinking you went home with America Ferrera. Food Pictures: Use TwitPic to get food advice. You are on a diet and you are unsure if you should eat something. Take a picture and Tweet It! One of your followers may convince you not to eat it. They may also just give you the nutritional information so you can log it properly. Blind Date Pictures: Use TwitPic to set up better blind dates. You are considering setting up one of your friends on a blind date. Before you take the plunge, take a picture and Tweet It! Make sure you send it to your followers that know your friend. Let the Twitterverse decide if you should continue with this “hook up.” Cheat Day Pictures: Use Twitter for memories. You are on a diet and it is time to eat your weekly Cheat Meal. Before you devour your food, take a picture and Tweet It! The picture will serve as a positive reminder for the rest of the week. If the food really looks good, send it to @FoodPorn also. Five-Second Rule Pictures: Use TwitPic to destroy the five-second rule. Your food just fell on the floor. You are thinking about enacting the five-second rule. Stop it. You are an adult. Instead, take a picture and Tweet It! Let the Twitterverse decide if the number of hairs and dirt particles exceed the eating threshold. Rash Pictures: Use TwitPic for medical diagnosis. You have a rash, but you don’t have health insurance. Don’t cry. Instead, take a picture of your skin disfigurement and Tweet It! There are thousands of physicians on Twitter, including myself. If we cannot diagnose your rash, at least your picture will serve as a warning to anyone considering dating you. Sanity Pictures: Use TwitPic to prove your sanity. You just saw Big Foot, the Loch Ness Monster, Notorious B.I.G., Elvis, Tupac, Santa Claus, or Pauly Shore. Take a picture and Tweet It! Now when you tell the story, your followers will not have you put in a Twitter Straight Jacket. Neighbor Pictures: Use TwitPic to bond with your neighbors. You just saw your neighbor “making out” with someone who is not their spouse. Take a picture, but DON’T Tweet It! Instead, use the picture to extort money from them. If they refuse, Tweet It! Hopefully, you now understand how to unleash the full power of TwitPic and you will save the pictures of you kissing your dog for Flickr. These are the ways I use TwitPic. If you have better methods, leave them in the comments. I’ll steal them, claim them as my own, and use them in my next post. Photo by Shermeee © 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips . 10 Better Ways To Use TwitPic

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10 Better Ways To Use TwitPic