Shrinking Long URLs with Bit.ly and J.mp

The URL shortener space is getting increasingly crowded, with a ton of new and existing companies bringing their offerings to the table. A few come to mind like: is.gd, tr.im, cli.gs and TinyURL. Although not yet for public consumption, Google has even launched its own service called Goo.gl. Google's launch comes on the heels of Facebook having quietly launched its own URL-shortening service called FB.me. Heading there in your browser simply takes you to Facebook's home page, whereas sharing links through Facebook's mobile site will shorten them for you using a shortened FB.me URL. Surprisingly, I've not seen much from Facebook about their new service.

As usual, I digree.

The one service I've failed to mention, and the one that I use the most ... the focus of today's article is bit.ly. Actually, I use the bit.ly powered j.mp, which's two characters shorter. J.mp ("jump") is in fact bit.ly but with a shorter domain name. You can learn more about it here. And in a World where every character counts (especially on the likes of Twitter), j.mp with the power of bit.ly is the best all around URL-shortener (IMHO, of course).

Although I use bit.ly's j.mp domain, I will be referring to the parent company, bit.ly, from here on.

Besides the basic functionality of shortening URLs, it also provide feature for URL analysis. You can track number of clicks, locations, referrers, time of clicks for any bit.ly URL without having to register, login or install any software. Bit.ly also offers customizable URLs, tracking, 301 redirection and a mobile version among many other features.

Bit.ly is trying to stay ahead of the competition with products like bitly.tv (more on that in a few) and bit.ly Pro, which currently allows a limited set of beta users to create their own branded short URLs. In essence, white-labeling the URL shortening service.

Bitly.tv displays a collage of the most-linked videos (through bit.ly) of the moment. Users can also sort by the top videos from the last day or the last two days. The site looks really slick and is well presented. When you click on a video, a light-box pops out, which plays the video as well as displays a variety of sharing options (Facebook, Twitter, e-mail) and shows a live stream of tweets about that piece of content. The live stream is especially compelling since you can see what other people are saying about the video as you formulate your own opinion.

In addition to powering Twitter (replacing TinyURL), bit.ly is baking into its Web service the Yfrog picture-sharing service made by Imageshack. Yfrog competes with other Twitter-friendly image-sharing services such as Twitpic. Imageshack is what power all of ahmadism.com's image hosting needs for free. For users who want to create easy short links to images they upload from their computers, the integration with Yfrong will be a bit of a time-saver. Also, users will get the real-time click through data from their images on the bit.ly site.

Bit.ly also announced on its blog that Google Reader and Typepad now generate bit.ly links natively.

I'm sure I've only revealed a few of bit.ly's offerings. For example, I know that bit.ly provides a very neat API. If you’re as API driven and like to automate the tasks around you, you’ll be happy to know that there is a new open data table that can shorten URL’s using YQL.

But let's go back to the stats feature for a minute. Did you know that if you put a + (plus) sign at the end of any bit.ly URL, it immediately goes to the info page for that link, displaying all those juicy stats, as opposed to the link itself? For example, for url "http://bit.ly/8ifP7w", open url "http://bit.ly/8ifP7w+", this will redirect to "http://bit.ly/info/8ifP7w" and show all the statistics for this shortened url.

With all this talk about shrinking long URLs, and being a cynic & a skeptic, made me want to see where some of these shortened URLs go before I click on them. Enter a bookmarklet. If you know me, you shouldn't be surprised at the introduction of a bookmarklet.

Get Long URLs

Simply drag the "Get Long URLs" link above to your browser toolbar. Alternatively to dragging and dropping, you could right-click the link and click "Bookmark This Link" in Firefox (my browser of choice), or "Add to Favorites..." in IE. Of course, IE will present you with some blocks to running them, which's why most serious-net-browsers do not use IE.

Short URLs generated by URL shortening services say little about the landing site but this bookmarklet can rewrite all short links on a web page so you know exactly where those links are pointing to. Once bookmarked (in your bookmarks), and you're on a page that that has a shortened URL (like a Twitter page, an email, etc.), click on the bookmarklet and it will convert all those shortened URLs back to their source giving you visibility to the destination.

Do you use a URL shortener? Which one? Tell us in the comments.
ahmadism.com is not affiliated in any way with bit.ly or any other URL shortener. This article was written solely out of experience with the various tools.  ▣

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Tips for Browsing & Working Faster

As someone who does most of his work online, the browser has become the cornerstone application I run at all times. And being in technology for almost 15 years, I can't help but notice some of the browsing habits that my family, friends and colleagues have. In most cases, I'm their tech support and their first line of defense for most of their PC needs (purchase, how-to, strategy, approach, web site, email, etc.). So, I wanted to write a few browsing (and some non-browser) tips to help speed things up and help all to not only be speedier, but more productive.

It is worth mentioning (up front) that these tips are derived from my own personal style, and may not all work for you. However, I'm hoping that at least a few of them will come in handy and perhaps help you develop your own style. Since the objective of these tips is to be speedy and more productive, it should come as no surprise that this means I rely on the keyboard for most of them (instead of the mouse) minimizing "lift." That is, the act of lifting my hand and going to the mouse to only click on something once and allow me to resume typing. A perfect example of this is the URL bar/field. Many take the mouse to click on that field so that they could type away the URL in mind. I'm getting ahead of myself, but I figured an example is in order.

The Browser Itself

I wouldn't be surprised if the main application most of us use in today's age is the browser. Heck, I'm willing to go as far as suggesting that the browser is the new operating system (OS) of today. And your choice of browser says a lot about you, your browsing habits, and a whole lot more. Let me be short, sweet and to the point and say that if you're using Internet Explorer (IE) and you don't really have to (because of your work's IT, etc.) then do us all, and do yourself, a favor and switch. And if you're on IE6, then know ahead of time that you'll have to choose a side. Yes, it's that serious. Personally, I use Firefox. And if I wasn't, I would use Google Chrome. Why? Well, the number one reason I use Firefox beside the its compliance with the standards out there is its add-ons and extensions. There are some I simply would rather not work (or live) without.

Keyboard Shortcuts

As I previously mentioned, avoiding that reach to the mouse is sure to save you time and help accomplish things more efficiently. Addressing my earlier point, seeing a professional reach for the mouse and clicking on the URL bar only to type "www.google.com" kills me. Within most browsers (yes IE too), you can alt+d to put the cursor within the URL bar highlighting the entire current URL ready for you to type over it with what ever your heart desires. Besides copy (ctrl+c) and paste (ctrl+v), going to the URL is the next most common thing ... heck, I think it may even beat copy & paste.

While we're at it, you don't really need to type "www." and the ".com" at the end. Just type (in the example I used of going to www.google.com) "google" and hit ctrl+enter. That combo adds "http://www." before the string and ".com" after the string. The string being the "google" part.

Here's a list of keyboard shortcuts that apply to most browsers, but are listed here with Firefox in mind (yes, I'm bias):

• Go back one page in history: Backspace [or Alt + Left Arrow]
• Go forward one page in history: Shift + Backspace [or Alt + Right Arrow]
• Home Page of browser: Alt + Home
• Reload current page: F5 [or Ctrl + R]
• Stop loading current page: Esc
• Page down (i.e., scroll down) in current web page: Spacebar
• Page up (i.e., scroll up) in current web page: Shift + Spacebar
• Go to bottom of current page: End
• Go to top of current page: Home
• Zoom in (i.e., increase text size of page): Ctrl + =
• Zoom out (i.e., decrease text size of page): Ctrl + -

• Find a word in current page: Ctrl + F
• Find again: F3 [or Ctrl + G]
• Find Previous: Shift + F3

• Print current page: Ctrl + P
• Bookmark current page: Ctrl + D
• View Page Source: Ctrl + U

• New Tab: Ctrl + T
• New Window: Ctrl + N
• Close Tab: Ctrl + F4 [or Ctrl + W]
• Close Window: Alt + F4 [or Shift + Ctrl + W]
• Select Tab (1 to 8): Ctrl + (1 to 8) [for example, to select 2nd Tab: Ctrl + 2]
• Select Last Tab: Ctrl + 9

• Toggle Private Browsing: Ctrl + Shift + P
• Select location bar: Ctrl + L
• Select search bar: Ctrl + K

This keyboard shortcut list does not do it justice. My favorite list can be found here.

Don't expect to memorize half of them. Simply refer to the shortcuts and use them; and you'll learn them in due time. Despite my technology tenure, I learned one keyboard shortcut today, for example (shift+spacebar).

Use Tabs

I remember once reading something similar to the following line (I'm adapting it a bit): If the browser is the new operating system, then the tab is the new system process, and the tab bar is the new taskbar. There are always reasons to launch a new browser window, but for the most part try and use tabs whenever possible.

There are many add-ons (for Firefox) that help optimize tabs and their use. Most should know how to open a link in a new tab (just right-click the link ... when in doubt, right-click). As evident by the keyboard shortcuts, there's always more than one way to do the same thing. So look it up and see if using it works for you ... but be fair, give it some practice first. When I don't have a link but know my URL, I simply ctrl+t (open a new tab), type the main domain name & hit ctrl+enter to make it a .com url with the www part and I'm off to go. It's longer to read (and type) than to do, I assure you.

Get Organized

Organize your bookmarks in folders. I know that many use outside social bookmarking sites, and even local bookmarking is usually heavily tagged (meta-data); but I still think folders in this case (for bookmarks) rule. And I recommend creating as many of them as you can. Later, if you're serious about organizing, you'll find yourself consolidating some of the folders or even nesting some within others. The end result, in all cases, should be a more organized browser, a more accessible list of links and more efficient cataloging.

For example, I have a bookmark folder sitting on my Bookmarks Toolbar called E-Mail. In it are all the email sites I visit (gmail.com, mail.yahoo.com, hotmail.com, etc.). Another easily accessible folder (although this need not be this accessible) is a folder I created called Bookmarklets. More on those in a little bit. Another folder, again on the Bookmarks Toolbar, is (replaced with the company for whom I'm working). In it are links to the intranet, and several other internal links. In this same folder, I also keep the external and internal links (when they're different) to access my mail over the web. The next point should tie nicely with the reason behind this madness.

Use Keywords on Your Bookmarks

I don't use this as heavy, or even in the same way as most people do. Let's first talk about what they are: Once a bookmark is created, you can go back to it, go to its properties and see a field called "Keyword." It is in this field where you can set a small word or phrase (I'd keep it concatenated) to use instead of the actual bookmarked URL itself. Let me elaborate ... Let's say you bookmarked "http://mail.yahoo.com." Then you go give put "ym" as the string in the Keyword field. Now, all you have to do is type ym in the URL bar and hit enter. Circling back to the keyboard shortcuts, you would do alt+d then ym and enter; and voilà, you're at Yahoo! Mail. Of course, you can make your keywords as long or as short as you need them to be.

But where this is the most handy is with longer URLs that you want to bookmark. For me, the longest URLs I seek the most are bookmarklets. Excellent segue into the next section ...

Use Bookmarklets

I don't like to use toolbars outside of what came native with the browser. Heck, even that I butcher to maximize my browser real-estate on my old laptop (a used Dell Latitude D505). I don't install the Google Toolbar, the Yahoo! one, or any other. Toolbars will slow your browser down and are a security risk I'm simply not willing to take. Don't get me wrong, there are a few especially for developers that are absolutely amazing. Nope, I don't use those either. If I had a browser that had them, I'd have them disabled most of the time.

So what do I use instead? Most of what I need, and most of what the toolbars do, can be done with bookmarklets. Bookmarklets are basically JavaScript that calls that have been bookmarked. For example, javascript:alert("hello world"); is technically a link that can be bookmarked. Many sites offer bookmarklets that you can drag to your toolbar for later use.

JavaScript is used on most web pages. Those JavaScript bookmarklets allow you to run your own "manipulations" against the page that you're currently on/viewing. For example, you can force most pages to have a black or white background using a bookmarklet. Amongst such bookmarklets are the ones from such social bookmarking tools I previously mentioned, like Delicious, Tumblr, and others. Amongst my most used bookmarklets are URL shorteners. They not only provide a shorter URL for whatever I want to send out, but tracking (if you're logged in ... free account) all those URLs as well. I digress. You can read more about it here.

Now that I have my bookmarklets, I organize them in a folder called just that (see above), and then I assign my most used ones a keyword of their own to make accessing them a breeze. Like the Yahoo! Mail bookmark, now I can invoke a bookmarklet with alt+d, , enter.

Bookmarklets is what I use the most. And if you've been following my articles, you'll know I'm a bookmarklet-collecting freak. And I use a lot of them. I love the ones that help me read or watch YouTube by dimming everything else (two different bookmarklets). I use bookmarklets to help me write my blog (masking images and aligning them), to QA, to test accessibility, etc. There are many server services, with URLs, out there there that you could pass a URL to (like the current URL of a page) to do something with the page for you. Among such services is PrintWhatYouLike. I know this is not a bookmarklet article, but assigning such a bookmarklet a keyword and using it can have green implications (saving ink and printing paper).

A Couple of Words on Bookmarking ...

Where many use Delicious, Tumblr, or even others like Google Bookmarks and Instapaper, I've not been able to make that jump yet. Perhaps it's because I use Xmarks (formerly known as Foxmarks). Xmarks syncs my bookmarks and allows me to choose which ones are visible/accessible on different profiles. So my "work" profile only shows these folders, and not these others. I could also always go to xmarks.com and access my bookmarks from any computer with internet access.

I do, however, use photo/image bookmarking through a 3rd-party. Where most use such services as vi.sualize.us, I've found myself in love with weheartit (pun intended). I've added their bookmarklet to my collection, made sure it's in my Bookmarklets folder (organized) and have assigned the keyword "loveit" to it. Now, when I'm on a page/site that contains an image or a photo I like, I simply alt+d to go to the URL field, type loveit and hit enter. I then pick the image on that page that I want to "bookmark."

Other Browser Tricks

There are other tricks you can use to boost the likes of Firefox, which you can find here (speeding Firefox itself), extensions and add-ons that are highly recommended, and finally hacks to Firefox's configuration.

These are all things you can do to enhance Firefox. The bulk of the browser tips (and most are generic to apply to other browsers as well) came before the last paragraph, and they are discipline-based with a few technical ones here & there to help you along the way.

Outside of the Browser World

I'll try and be brief here. I find myself often needing to take a note. Nothing elaborate. I'm usually jotting a phone number down (although I do a lot more ... like this entire article), and I usually need it quick ... like NOW! My application of choice is Notepad. But in the spirit of keyboard shortcuts, I do not click on the start menu, find all programs, accessories, yada yada. Instead, I type ctrl+alt+n. That's the shortcut key I've assigned Notepad. I've also assigned one to the calculator (ctrl+alt+c). Now I'm only 3 -key presses away from getting what I need done.

There are many other things/quirks I do to help me work faster and being more productive. One overlooked item that I use almost always is alt+tab to switch/cycle amongst running applications within Windows. I cycle through tabs, since the browser is the bulk of what I use, with ctrl+tab. Sometimes, it's easier for me to do ctrl+1 for the 1st tab. On many occasions, I find myself guessing the number of the tab (hmm, it's about the 6th open tab so ... ) ctrl+6. All it does is bring focus to that tab. No harm with being wrong. I just adjust the number based on how close I got.

Using services that consolidate multiple touch points for you will inevitably, and perhaps by definition, help you work faster & better. Many of us use instant messengers like Yahoo! IM, AOL IM (AIM), Facebook chat, MSN, GTalk, Jabber, etc. But we also use Twitter, check our email, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. I use one application for them all: Digsby. It's a standalone application that's not browser based (must install it on Windows), but it's free and worth it if it was not.

Another highly recommended tools to help you work faster, better and be more productive include password managers like 1password and KeePass. Combining their use with your browser life and perhaps some cloud computing services (umm, like Dropbox ), and you'll quickly be armed with security on the go. Read more about that here.

As you can see, what you use outside of the browser (like to listen to your music, to watch video, etc.) can also help you be more efficient. Naturally, not all things that consolidate are worth a lick. Some things are best left separate.

That's the tip of the iceberg for my style and what I do. What's yours? I would love to learn new tricks (wuf wuf). Share them with us in the comments.  ▣


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Call Your Friends Without Knowing Their Phone Numbers

In today's Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco, Morgan Stanley's Mary Meeker presented some internet trends. Amongst them is

1. Mobile Internet Usage Is and Will Be Bigger than Most Think.
2. Apple Mobile Share Should Surprise on Upside Near-Term.
3. Next Generation Platforms (Social Networking + Mobile) Driving Unprecedented Change in Communications + Commerce.

Also that AT&T’s mobile data traffic has increased by 4,932% over the last three years; and there will be over 1 billion "heavy mobile data users" by 2013. Most of her 68 page presentation shows that social networking + mobile are driving big changes in communication and commerce.

Enter OrganIP. The name initially lead me to believe it had medical or musical applications; but I think that perhaps it's supposed to be a play on the word "organize." Who knows. What matters is that the service talks to Meeker's trend analysis and may help make phone numbers a thing of the past. OrganIP makes it possible to speak anyone’s name and call them using voice over IP (VoIP) technology. A company called Digitrad developed the service by combining its Yes.tel unified identity technology and its messaging services — just as Digitrad says it wants to destroy the business card with Yes.tel, it now says you may never have to remember a phone number again.

The idea is compelling: if tens or hundreds of millions of people make calls to their social network "friends," someone will be able make a lot of money from it. So far, though, no one has had much success in appealing to such users. That is, until France-based Digitrad presented at last month's DEMO conference trying to turn social networks into giant phone books.

Here's a video of the presentation from youTube:

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3c-GsUryyQ

"OrganIP solves two problems I have. I can't remember anyone's phone number and there are too many ways people can connect with me," said Chris Shipley, Executive Producer of the DEMO Conferences. "With OrganIP I have a single, easy to remember way for people to connect with me. What makes this great is that OrganIP finds me - whether I am in a social network, surfing the net or on my mobile phone, and connects with me in the way that makes the most sense for me. Simply type my name and OrganIP will find me."

Basically, OrganIP requires users only to know the name of the person they're trying to call. Once they type it into the OrganIP Web interface, the service will look the person up in Facebook and other places. If the person is logged into Facebook at the time, it will pop up a screen. Clicking will let recipients accept the calls via headsets or computer speakers and microphones, or send it to voice mail. They can also choose to have voice mail messages transcribed and sent to them as text. OrganIP uses Flash technology, which is built into almost every browser in the world, to deliver the audio streams. Calls can also reach recipients on landline or mobile phones through PSTN gateways.

Users can initiate OrganIP calls in one of two ways. The first is by accessing the service's Website through their own browsers. The second is through mobile client software running on smart phones. The software is currently available for Android, with BlackBerry, iPhone, PalmPre, Symbian and Windows Mobile versions to come. If the user is connected to the Internet via Wi-Fi, OrganIP provides a SIP URI for them to access. Otherwise, it gives them a temporary local phone number to ring to make the connection.

Besides Facebook, OrganIP currently looks up names in Google contacts, as well as via the open .tel directory system. Unsurprisingly, OrganIP parent Digitrad is in the business of issuing .tel addresses. The service will soon search LinkedIn, Plaxo and MSN as well. The goal is to provide instant access to over 700 million social network users. If it succeeds in reaching only a fraction of those, it will be well on the way to replacing phone numbers with names.

Based on their press release, OrganIP's service was suppose to become available in open beta yesterday. Unfortunately, their site says nothing about it, the delay or any other info. that I've found.

It's worth mentioning that other newcomers are sure to follow suit. Although I personally fail to see its usefulness, another socio-mobile (if I can call it that) service is JAJAH. The service, a month or so ago, launched in beta its @Call feature. The calling service works when a member tweets “@call @twittername.” The tweet will cause both phones to ring, and the Twitterers will be connected without the service sharing either telephone number.

JAJAH@Call also works independent of the platform you use, so whether you use the web, a destkop client, or a mobile application when tweeting, the tweet-to-call service should work without hiccup.

Though pretty unique, JAJAH@Call has some interesting conditions associated with the service, none more interesting than the 2 minute talk time limitation, which the company considers the verbal equivalent of a tweet. Also, in order to work, both parties — caller and recipient — need to be members of the JAJAH@Call service.

I'm curious, are you likely to use either or both services? Let us know in the comments.  ▣


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Visual Bookmarking - We Heart It (we♥it)

I have a vast collection of bookmarks that I've collected over the years. I often revisit one only to be dumbfounded by why I bookmarked the site in the first place, the page no longer exists, the image or the video behind the reason I bookmarked the page is no longer active/available, etc.

As I slowly comb through and clean up/out my bookmarks, I've come to realize that in this day & age of social media I really don't need to bookmark an entire page. Some times I want just the text. And some times, I want just images or the video. And other times, I want the whole site preserved and saved to my computer's hard drive.

I use different solutions for each of the three. For the 1st one, I use a Google product (more on that on a different day). And for the last one, I use a piece of software, which I've enjoyed having for a number of years. But for bookmarking (not saving) images and/or video, I've come to find one service to be the easiest: weheartit.com

I come across many many great images, photos (yes there's a difference between the two) and videos that I want to bookmark/remember. Sometimes I want to look at them all on one page either by category/tag or just have them all there. That's where weheartit (we♥it) comes.

Are there other services out there? Yes, there are plenty. To name a few, there's the by-invite-only ffffound.com, which is really aimed more for the artsy type. Then there's dropular.net, which's another invite-only service; except this one is "mostly designed for fashion designers, photographers, architects, graphic designers and artists." Then there's vi.sualize.us. If I wasn't using weheartit, I'd likely be using vi.sualize.us; but I like weheartit's ease of use and simplicity. Of course, there are many others; but these are the ones that come to mind at the moment.

So how do I use it? Well, when I come across something I like ... something that I want to remember for later ... but mostly something I find inspirational and/or just beautiful, I ♥ it.

More specifically, weheartit provides a bookmarklet that I assigned (in Firefox only) a keyword to ("loveit"). From there, while I'm on a page with the photo/image/video I like, I simply type "loveit" (without the quotes, of course) in the browser's URL and hit enter. I immediately get the pink border around the objects of that page allowing me to click on the heart of the one I'm interested in saving. Voilà.

If I wanted to, I could then use a URL shortener like bit.ly (I use their sister shortener called j.mp) and tweet or post on Facebook an image or video I liked. In a way, making my own twitpic.com replacement.

Are you using a visual bookmarking service? Which one? How are YOU using it? Let us know in the comments.  ▣


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Twitter: Beyond Tweeting

A few weeks ago, we talked about Twitter and how to use it beyond the mundane "I'm going to ..." posts. With the proliferation of "smart phones," and more specifically web-enabled phones, and the fact that 80% of Twitter usage is on mobile devices (imagine what that means for bad customer experiences!), it should come as no surprise that Twitter is being used beyond tweeting.

Twitter's open API (OAuth) allows 3rd party applications & services to extend the microblogging service beyond novice tweeting reinventing what one can do in a 140-characters or less. Once Twitter evolved from just a status updating platform, it was photo sharing that came to the scene next.

Consequently, photo-sharing services will not be covered as an alternative in today's beyond tweeting list. This includes indirect photo-sharing services like FriendFeed, via SMS or email like Posterous & Twitxr or others out there. For those who are interested, however, here are a few of the direct photo-sharing services worth noting: TwitPic, TweetPhoto, Pikchur, Picktor, yfrog and Twitgoo. Another new comer is Flickr2Twitter, which was Flickr announced the end of June, 2009.

So ... what else can you do with Twitter; beyond tweeting, that is?

1. Exchange Business Cards

twtBizCard is awesome if most of your business contacts are on Twitter. The service lets you set up an electronic business card that can be easily tweeted to your contacts by sending them an @reply with the hastag #twtBizCard.

I can't say that I've had the opportunity to put the service to a real life test, but I'm very familiar with the concept --I use Contxts to send SMS cards, and I love it. iPhone users have at least 8 free options to send an e-business card from their phone in addition to using Contxts. But hey, this is about Twitter and how to use it beyond tweeting; remember? (I'm reminding myself)

2. Twitter As Someone Else

The addicting cTwitLike allows you to view Tweets from those being followed by a certain user. They've improved the interface quite a bit, but even before then, the service has proven to be very interesting and fun to use. Simply enter the Twitter name of anyone (celebrity-watching anyone?) and you'll see all the latest tweets from the tweople that person follows.

3. Social Bookmarking Anyone?

Bookmarking is not a new concept, obviously. And services like Delicious out there are plenty. I personally rely mostly on Xmarks (previously known as Foxmarks), and on my account (must be logged in) with Bit.ly.

To bookmark what you tweet, however, requires a whole new service. Namely one that combines the feature of a URL shortener like Bit.ly and the accessibility of Xmarks or Delicious. And for me, a bookmarklet is an absolute must. Enter Fleck (lite edition). If you share a lot of links on Twitter, like I do, and you want the option to remember them later, Fleck (lite) is for you. Here's a video that should help familiarize you with the service, if you're not using it already:

4. And Share Some More

I'm sure you already know that you can share pictures on Twitter (and I mentioned a few lines above), but how about sharing your music? Want to share your videos on Twitter? How about sharing any file you want (with a size limit, of course)?

That's right. There are services out there that do just that. Let's go down that list, shall we? For music, there are simply many out there. After all, it depends on what you want to do really. Blip.fm and Song.ly top that list based on my observations in the Twittersphere. One that should be added to that list, however, is Songza. Personally, I'm more of the type that listens to my own collection or a radio station that has a web presence. For my own collection, I stream it from my house without exposing what files I have and don't have using Orb.

For video ... I've honestly not used any! So I'm just going to list the ones I know of. It would be great if I got back some comments back on why one is preferred over the others.
It's my understanding that YouTube positioned itself as the way to share video inside of Twitter's status updates; but again, I don't have that confirmed. Other services include TwitVid.io, TwitVid.com, Tweetube, twitLENS, Twitc and Twiddeo.

As I previously mentioned, you can really share any file on Twitter. FileSocial gives you a maximum file size of 50MBs to share your heart out. With sign-up, which gives you 20MBs, you can send a person-to-person file privately using FileTwt. The downside is they don't use OAuth for authentication.

5. Train, Show, Demonstrate and Educate

Screenr allows you to record screencasts for your Twitter followers with their web-based tool, and without the need for any installation. This makes the web-based tool available on PCs and Macs. And the screencast will play on iPhones too. Screenr's seamless integration with Twitter makes it easy to post your completed screencast as soon as your done with it.

Screencasters have a few handy tools at their disposal including the bookmarklet, which allows you to click to record from anywhere on the web. We also like that users can opt not to tweet screencasts, one-click publish to YouTube, download the .mp4 file for personal keeping, and grab the embed code to share on the web. --Quoted from Mashable.com

As a bookmarklet freak, Screenr had me at "record."

There are many other things you can do with Twitter beyond tweeting. The above five are just a glimpse of the applications/services available out there at your disposal. Do you have one you'd like to share with the rest of us? Let us know in the comments.  ▣


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Social Networking Faux Pas

Social-networking sites are a connection to the World at your fingertips, and their popularity is growing daily. Although they're old statistics, MySpace saw a 72 percent increase in visitors in 2007 over the year before, while Facebook showed a 270 percent increase over the same time, according to comScore, a leader in measuring the digital world. MySpace may be declared dead; especially since Facebook has officially grown to 250 million active users across the world in July of this year, according to a post on the company blog by CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

"For us, growing to 250 million users isn't just an impressive number; it is a mark of how many personal connections all of you have made, and how far we at Facebook have to go to extend the power of connection to the billions of people around the world," Zuckerberg wrote. (The post is accompanied by an animation of how Facebook's growth spread around the world, which is pretty cool.)

Less than 3 months prior to that, in March or April, Facebook announced that it had reached 200 million members. Then, Facebook commemorated the occasion with the launch of a new nonprofit-focused initiative, Facebook for Good. This time, they're not launching anything fancy, just assuring members that they're continuing to develop and innovate.

I don't want to concentrate on Facebook when Twitter has experienced very similar growths. The latest numbers from Nielsen Online indicate that Twitter grew 1,382% year-over-year in February, 2009, registering a total of just more than 7 million unique visitors in the US for the month. Not only is that huge growth in one year, but in one month as well, as in January, Twitter.com clocked in with 4.5 million unique visitors in the US, meaning the service grew by more than 50 percent month-over-month. Other figures show that Twitter grew even more in the following months, which correspond with the same period for Facebook's growth.

With access to millions of people all over the World just a click away, these sites (not just Facebook & Twitter) have become valuable tools for many things including finding employment. Employers are checking job applicants' profiles on sites like Facebook, Brightfuse and LinkedIn, according to a CareerBuilder.com survey in 2008.

Twenty-two percent of employers say they use social networking sites when evaluating job candidates, and an additional 9 percent intend to do the same soon. Yet, only 16 percent of workers with social networking profiles have modified their pages with potential employers in mind.

It's not just about how your social networking habits can impact your career, it's about how you carry yourself and your personal brand. Sarah Evans with Mashable put it best when she said:

Your social media personality becomes part of your brand’s legacy. Don’t brand your personality for the day, the month or the year. This is serious stuff. What you post stays around for a pretty long time and the information (good and bad) isn’t too hard to find. Your social media posts offer vast archives of information about you.

This means, what you share, post or tweet today should reinforce your brand tomorrow. Think about each message you share via social media as an email which has gone public to your entire organization and all of your stakeholders. Now, imagine if they are reading this email and RESPONDING to it. That’s part of the power of your social media brand.

With more than 100 social networking sites out there, it should come as no surprise that there are faux pas to avoid --The dos and don'ts of social networking, if you will.

Amongst such social networking faux pas is one, again, from one of my favorite editors Sarah Evans with Mashable:

Don’t be a social schizo

Multiple personality disorders do not work well in social media. If you confuse, you lose. If you are a business expert one day, a media maven the next and live news feed after that, people will ultimately stop connecting.

A very simple approach is to make a short list of what you WILL talk about via social media. Stick with it. The pay off? When someone thinks about an expert in interior design, they will think of you because you will have BRANDED yourself as one. (DISCLAIMER: This is not an opportunity to "play a doctor on T.V." You should actually be an expert in the areas you claim to be.)

The same concept applies for joining multiple networks. Keep the same personality for each.

Ever heard the compliment about a truly admired person, "he or she is the same in public as he or she is behind closed doors?" This is what I believe to be the golden rule of your social media personality. Live your brand across all networks (including offline).

Here are a few other faux pas.

Don't forget others can see your friends

Unless you've opted to keep your friends list private, your friends can see the contacts you've made. So in addition to keeping your friends' risqué pictures and comments off of your profile, be cautious about whom you befriend and when. Tying this back to how social networking could impact your career ... According to a report on MSN.com, several companies are now using the "friends" on an applicant's social-networking page as references. Not only are they looking at your page on sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn, which can easily be found through a simple Google search, they may also take the next step in contacting your friends. It's important to be selective with whom you choose as a friend on these sites, because what they say weighs on whether you land the job.

Don’t market yourself on anyone’s Facebook page — or even look like you’re trying to

"Some people really cross the line," says Matthew Fraser, a senior research fellow at INSEAD and co-author of Throwing Sheep in the Boardroom: How Online Social Networking Will Transform Your Life, Work, and World. "As soon as you accept an offer to be their friend, they’ll write a note on your wall: ‘I’m Bill Jones. I’m a life coach. I help people solve their problems.’ You realize someone is using your personal space as a billboard for their business, and it’s irritating."

Don’t let your networking end online

I'm a huge fan of this one particular point, and have talked about it in the past. Many people rack up new connections on sites like LinkedIn without ever solidifying the relationships they’ve started there. Try to set up an in-person meeting when you can, or perhaps even arrange a "virtual coffee," where you both chat by phone over a cup of coffee at your desks. Once you’re in a real relationship with someone, you find out who they are and how they’re doing. That way, your contacts, especially on such sites as LinkedIn, are more real than most. It makes it easier for you to help them; and in return, for them to help you when you need it.

For Facebook, I strongly encourage everyone to read Facebook Faux Pas - What Not to Do in Social Network View. Another good source, which made good headlines recently, is HowStuffWorks' "Top 10 Things You Should Not Share on Social Networks."  ▣


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Twitter for Your Business - Part 3 of a Comprehensive Twitter Guide

Over the last three weeks or so we've covered a lot about Twitter. If you're interested in knowing what are the @word, #word, RT, what to tweet about, how to tweet interesting material you find without leaving that page or even if you simply want to know "why Twitter," then I strongly recommend that you read those previous articles.

I didn't want today's article to cover all the different tools out there, which you can use with Twitter. There are simply too many of them out there. I stopped counting at 200 and gave up. I do have a few I call my favorite, but that's for a different day. Instead, I wanted to write today about how to use Twitter for your business. Granted, Twitter launched "Twitter 101," which is aimed at businesses. Unfortunately, Twitter 101 begins with the bare bones of the service, with a dictionary of the lingo and instructions on how to sign up and tweet for the first time. Although a bit bias, I do feel that our series concluding with this-here article offers a much more comprehensive guide to Twitter, and is a better Twitter 101.

It is worth mentioning, however, that the real meat of Twitter's 101 is the best practices and case studies from companies like Dell, JetBlue, and Pepsi.

Most of you know (businesses or not) that Twitter can be used for much more than just announcing the mundane tasks like when you had coffee, when you went to bed, etc. (I personally can do without seeing such mundane tasks. They are a pet peeve of mine, really). Many of you already know you can still take Twitter further and use it to land a job interview, market your business, grow your network and gain free publicity — all in 140 characters or less.

It's true that Twitter is what you make of it. Some people publicize their daily activities, some make it about link love, some share quotes all day long. People using Twitter for business mix it up. Here are some ways on how to use Twitter more effectively in your business.

Share Expertise to Build Credibility



• Help others with problems.
• Share tips related to your business and work-life balance.
• Share photos (Twitpic makes it easy) of conferences, travel, products and other interesting finds. In some cases, it might be best that you host your own images and simply provide a short-URL to the images. That way, you maintain the rights to your product images. I reserve Twitpic for ad-hoc shots I take with my camera phone, etc. There are image hosting services out there, which are free, available as well like ImageShack.
• Provide selected highlights from a conference or event.
• Report industry, company, world and other news that's related to your business, together with some commentary.
• Link to articles and content posted elsewhere (not yours) with a summary of why it's valuable.
• Post original thoughts on your topic, industry and business.



Grow Your Network & Connections



• Ask about other locales so you can make the most of a trip, or meet up with Twitter friends.
• Connect with friends from other social networks. Can you name one person who has only one social network account? (Elders in your family on Facebook don't count.)
• Join industry and topic groups related to your business and career on sites like www.twibes.com and the previously mentioned www.wefollow.com.
• Feed your tweets into other social networks like FriendFeed. Although consider carefully before integrating your Twitter feed into other profiles, like Facebook, as a stream of tweets can overwhelm your contacts.
• Participate in Twitter chats related to your industry or business on a regular basis. Although you should beware that the stream of tweets from chats can overwhelm contacts that aren't participating in the chat, so consider using a separate ID for chats.
• Research prospects before meeting them. You can gain a lot of valuable information just from scanning their tweets, profile and contacts.
• Discover trends. You can use Twitter search for this purpose. Mashable also has a list of tools that you can use for tracking trends on Twitter.
• Stay in touch with friends and colleagues. You never know when a friend or colleague might have a lead for you. Although, I personally keep colleagues and business contacts limited to LinkedIn --I like keeping things separate whenever possible; but that's just my personal style.
• Get referrals.
• Give referrals.
• Ask questions.
• Answer questions.
• Recommend other Twitter users to your network including reasons to follow them — by sharing goodwill you will encourage others to reciprocate. I strongly recommend that you look into such trends as #followfriday.
• Use Twitter's search feature to find topics, keywords and locations. Use user-names to limit results to responses mentioning a person. You can use Twitter's search for hashtags (#), but I strongly recommend hashtags.org.
• Spread your tweets throughout the day, rather than posting them all at once, as people check Twitter at different times of the day. It's pretty much always prime time on Twitter.
• Find vendors and contractors.



Marketing



• If your site's down or not working, or you're suffering from another problem, then give updates on Twitter so customers know what's going on.
• Find "experts" to invite as a guest blogger on your blog or as speaker at your event.
• Seek sponsors for a contest or a program.
• Hold a contest using Twitter: it can spread like wildfire. Squarespace's iPhone contest, back in early June, 2009, made the trending topic list.
• Use applications and tools like clickablenow.com and twittercustomizer.com to enhance your Twitter background and profile.
• Put together a virtual mastermind group.
• Track conversations mentioning your name or your brand by using Google or Yahoo! Alerts.
• Respond to tweets talking about you and your brand (be careful with this. It could be a PR nightmare if you're not).
• Link to your content wisely and sparingly to avoid looking too promotional.
• Do market research and gain knowledge with polls and surveys.
• Share those survey and poll results.
• Publish your Twitter ID on all marketing collateral, including business cards, email signature, email newsletters, web sites and brochures, so prospects can learn more about you. It will also come in handy, as mentioned above, when your web site is experiencing technical difficulties.
• Share what you're doing so people learn about the type of work you do. I advise doing this with the important highlights of what you do; like a preparing for a conference, hyping up a new launch, etc.
• Avoid hard-sell tactics: focus on relationship building.
• Write honest and valuable recommendations for your contacts on sources like Mr. Tweet.
• Link to your presentations and videos (perhaps your YouTube Channel).
• Mention when you're attending or speaking at an upcoming event.
• Announce the publication of your newsletter's latest issue, along with a brief description.
• Post discounts, coupons and package deals. You'd be surprised how effective this will be when done right.
• Announce job openings to find qualified talent.



General Tips: Do the Right (and Fun) Thing



• Share information that is useful for prospective clients or employers to enhance your reputation.
• Be nice even when you have a difference of opinion.
• Save the “Thanks for following me,” “Thanks for the RT” or similar tweets for direct messages (DM).
• Use Twitter often to improve, tighten and sharpen your writing.
• Remember to laugh and have fun because it inspires you to innovate and be creative in your job.
• Make your goals public to compel you to reach them.
• Start your day strong: some people find Twitter interactions put them in a good mood.
• Use keywords on your profile and a fun fact to earn trust, add personality and enable you to be found.
• Dump the default Twitter avatar and use a photo of yourself or a suitable image (like a logo, perhaps?).
• Follow experts, companies, competitors and leaders in your industry.
• Limit Twitter automation, because it comes across as phony.
• Think of your followers in terms of quality not quantity.
• Be authentic, genuine and real. In other words, be yourself.
• Mix up the tweet types to include retweets (RT), @replies, original thoughts, and links to other people's content (not just your own).
• Don't get overwhelmed by the number of contacts you have. Organize them into groups using third-party applications like Tweetdeck, Twhirl and Seesmic.

There are many tools for businesses out there. Savvy startup CoTweet has come up with a magic formula for Twittering brands (like BestBuy, JetBlue, and Ford) that is one part CRM and one part marketing tool, that they hope companies will want to pay for. CoTweet, currently in private beta and specifically designed to help businesses maximize their Twitter ROI, tweaks the Twitter experience to match that of a more sophisticated CRM solution allowing companies to manage multiple accounts from a single dashboard, support multiple editors for each account, track conversations, assign roles, and create follow-up tasks.

Of course, there are sure to be many other things to do, and not to do, on Twitter for your business; but these should help get your started. If you have your own, share them with us in the comments.  ▣


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