Twitter Twiddle

Hello and welcome to TwitterTwiddle. I am Gary Jinks and I hope to entertain and help you along on your Twitter adventure. You can get my Twitter tips and Twitter guide for FREE via email or keep up-to-date with TwitterTwiddle via RSS. Feel free to contact me.

7 Reasons Why Twitter Will Make You're Friends & Family Hate You

So, you love Twitter? With the excitement of being on the front line of breaking news, all those unique people to talk to and the never ending flow of informative articles, funny pics and inspirational quotes who wouldn't right?

Well, lots of people actually!!

The fact is many people simply do not 'get' Twitter! More than that, some people HATE twitter and you're enthusiasm for it can lead them to hate you too!

These haters are often you're closest allies and this includes you're friends and family!

This thought has led me to compile this list of reasons why Twitter will make you're friends and family hate you.

1.)    You stop going out on Friday nights. After all, you cant possibly miss #FollowFriday!

2.)    You start 'air hash-tagging' during interesting conversations.

3.)    You start RT'ing conversations out loud you hear while out with friends.

4.)    You start recommending you're friends to random passersby.

5.)    You ask you're friends to start recommending you to random passersby.

6.) You start referring to yourself by your username. Example: "Hello @Furry_Bannana residence"

7.)     You spend all you're free time watching you're Twitter-feed waiting for the next celeb death, natural disaster or link to the latest Paris Hilton home movie.

Now they hate you! Can you think of anymore? Let me know.

Gary

New More Obvious Twitter Ads Seen

Recently I have heard reports of ads being spotted in the Twitter sidebar (although Twitter claim this to be false). Today however something a little harder to dismiss has been seen hovering over tweet-streams.

This was also reported by Techcrunch whom Twitter co-founder Ev Stone got back to and said:

"This is not an advertisement and it's not just for one browser- It's customised based on which browser you're currently using"

So, according to Ev you should only see the upgrade 'ad' if you're using the old FF? Well tell that to these guys:

Something smells fishy to me! 

I guarantee (this is not a guarantee) that by this Christmas Twitter will be displaying full blown sponsored ads exactly where these FF prompts are now!

What do you think?

Twitter Goes On Account Suspending Rampage.

Over the past couple of days I have noticed an influx of tweeters complaining that they have had there Twitter accounts suspended for no apparent reason.

Some of these claims are even coming from some of the high profile twitterati such as @marismith . All of these people claim to have done no wrong so something must 'be up'.

Further investigation reveals all!

Twitter have made a statement claiming a human error has resulted in many Innocent accounts being suspended. You can read the full admission here.

So even Twitter makes mistakes. If you have been affected don't panic. Twitter are working at reversing the suspensions so you should be back  tweeting soon. However, if you want to make sure then it can't hurt to send a message (via a dummy account) to Twitters spam account.

Michael Jackson Dies! According To Twitter Anyway!

EDIT::>> It has unfortunately been confirmed. Michael Jackson HAS died.

As I type Twitter is telling me something astonishing. King of Pop Michael Jackson has apparently just died of a heart attack!

There I was just browsing my twitterstream when I notice a rouge tweet claiming that Michael Jackson had suffered cardiac arrest. Naturally I investigated a little further and found, to my horror that there were thousands of tweets streaming in about the pop legends death!

If this is indeed correct then this will be one of those moments in life that I will remember for the rest of my life. It is definitely a "where were you when..." moment.

On a side note this is a perfect example of the power of Twitter's search engine. I checked Google and Bing immediately after hearing this sad news and there wasn't a single mention of it. Twitter wins!!

Sad News,
Gary iTwiddle Jinks

How To Unfollow Tweeps Who Have Stopped Tweeting With One Click

We all know that Twitter is the latest love of social media users (and celebs and nans and big uncle Joe). Some people will 'get it' and others won't, same as any other internet 'fad' (not that I think it's a fad). 

Those that 'get it' like you and me will happily tweet our little hearts out 5, 10 or 20 times a day. Easy. No problem! The 'don't getter's' won't last more than a few weeks at best.

That's fine! Each to their own. However, the problem that you have as an avid Tweeter is that these drop-outs are clogging up your valuable 'following list'. 

That's bad for a couple of reasons.

1. There's no point in following an un-interesting, un-responsive person. It defeats the point of Twitter.

2. For those that are interested in growing their followers list for commercial reasons having dud users clogging up your account can limit your growth potential. After all, your promoting your product to no-one, then there's Twitters internal limits to worry about.

Fear not readers! There is a solution.

I've came across a site that hunts down these time-wasters and un-follows them for you all in one click. Best of all it's free.

Check out UnTweeps.com

Hope this helps

Gary iTwiddle Jinks

Find Jobs On Twitter - It's Easy When You Know How

The Internet age makes it possible for anything to be done in a few clicks - even job hunting. Never underestimate social networking sites because they are not only used for meeting friends. They can also enable you to do business online, and you may even find jobs on Twitter. 

Twitter is a very famous social media site, and this means that it is accessed by thousands of people multiple times a day. In order for you to find jobs on Twitter, here are a few useful tips. Make sure to upload a professional looking avatar and include your areas of expertise under the “Bio” portion of your profile. If you want your career from your personal life, you may create another account just for the sole purpose of applying for a job. Joining the site is absolutely free so you won’t have to worry about any charges. 

There are a lot of recruiters that have profiles on Twitter. It is up to you to gauge if their profiles are legitimate. More often than not, these firms post their job openings through Microjobs, and this website sends out Tweets to the whole job searching community. Some companies have Twitter profiles so they can Tweet the job openings directly and people can easily find jobs on Twitter. 

What’s great about this feature is that they are all free and a lot of people benefit from these features. For one, they don’t have to scout other sites for job openings. The companies, on the other hand, have a larger pool of applicants which can enable them to select the best people for their firm.

All The Best,

Gary iTwiddle Jinks

Twitter Directory: It's Like The Yellow Pages....For Twitter

So you’ve already set up your own Twitter account. You already have friends and followers, but are looking for something more productive to do with your profile. Luckily, a Twitter directory has been developed to let you search for the users by name, age, and industry based on your profile.

The website works exactly as how yellow pages work, except there are no phone numbers and addresses rather profile details based on the bio you publish on the micro-blogging site. It is very easy to get listed in the Twitter directory called Twellow. All you have to do is sign in to your Twitter account and choose the “Get Listed” option. This can increase your chances of having more followers and visits to your page. You’ll never know which of these people can actually become useful in your business or career.

For your profile to be included in the Twitter directory, you have to make your updates public, even for those who don’t have a Twitter account. So if you have protected updates, you can’t really use this service fully. Directories are public domains too, so this means that everyone can search for your profile and view your updates.

A recommended alternative, not to mention a safer alternative, if you don’t want to broadcast your personal life is to create a separate profile for your career or business. In this way, you can still protect your personal Tweets and only get your professional Tweets listed in the directory. You can always browse the site’s FAQ section to learn more about the site.

Thanks for reading,
Gary iTwiddle Jinks

P.S: If you found this article useful then please feel free to share it using the buttons below =)

How To Twitter: A Dummies Guide

If you still haven’t signed up for a Twitter account or still don’t know how to twitter, you might be missing half of your social networking life. Here is a simple guide to how the networking site works. 

Upon joining the site for free, you can search for your friends who are also using the site and follow their Tweets as well. The site can be updated both on mobile phones and on notebooks. There is a limited 140 characters for you to publish on the site and to answer the question “What are you doing?” Your friends can reply to these tweets easily and are very effective means of communicating with one another. You can also hook Twitter to other applications and messenger so you stay connected all the time. 

Another basic on how to twitter is to know the difference between your friends and followers. Your friends are the people whose timelines you follow and tweets are visible to you. Your followers, on the other hand follow your Tweets. Your followers can view your Tweets but you have the option of not doing the same for their pages. 

Other private options also include Tweeting only for your friends. This can be useful for inviting people to parties or checking out a newly opened joint. For even more private messages, you can send them through the “Direct Message” function so it only goes directly to your friend’s page. The site is very easy to use and requires no joining fee either. If you are not adept with social networking sites, you can easily learn how to Twitter.

Twitter Saftey Tips - You Need To Know!

The goal of the social media site Twitter is to share to the world what the user is doing. Whether you’re having fun playing your favorite computer game or sending an email to your friends and browsing other social networking sites, your friends and followers can see this via your timeline and can reply to your tweets. However, sharing too much information about yourself can be quite dangerous. Here are some Twitter safety tips you should follow to keep safe. 

First of all, don’t tweet your exact location, as well as the places that you are going to visit for the day. You’ll never know if one of your followers is a stalker who is waiting to victimize you. The second Twitter safety tip is to only add the people you know. Although this is a great site to meet new friends online, it is still safer to add your real friends, acquaintances and relatives rather strangers. 

If you are staying home alone, never Tweet that you have no companion at your house. You can never know how people can trace your location and actually go to your place. Don’t give away too much personal information either. If you plan to go to a bookstore, then just type in “going to a bookstore” rather than naming the street where the bookstore is located. Final Twitter safety tip would be to set your timeline to private so that not everyone can see your Tweets, especially the lurkers that don’t have a Twitter account.  

Tweet Safe,

Gary iTwiddle Jinks

Twtmailer: How To Get @replies Sent Straight To Your Inbox

If like me you can't stand the thought of an unseen, un-replied to message then this is for you. 

Twtmailer is a new site that sends you almost instant notifications of new @replies directly to your nominated email account. This is especially useful to those of us that use one of the various smart-phones that have our email linked to them. We need never miss a mention again!

It couldn't be easier to set up either. Just log in to the site using your Twitter credentials (don't worry, it's encrypted) and type in your email address. Done!

Check it out!

Gary iTwiddle Jinks