For Twitter and other uses, a shorten URL can be both handy and a necessity.
Here are a few of the most popular ones:
Bitly
https://bitly.com
Short URL
www.shorturl.com
Tiny URL
http://tinyurl.com
Please be careful when clicking on shortened URLs, just as with any link to avoid ending up at a bad site.
Here is another tool for Twitter that helps provide information about your followers.
Tweepsmap is an app that can tells you where your Twitter followers (tweeps) are located. The information can be displayed by country, state or city, in map, list or chart form.
The pros are:
The cons are:
These are listed as cons since it is better in general to keep control of choosing who to follow, updating your own profile and tweets.
You can learn more and download it from http://tweepsmap.com
There are so many things one can add to Twitter and other social media to make its use more effective and enjoyable.
Here is the first of the fun and useful tools that we like for Twitter that help provide information about your followers:
Friend or Follow
Description: Friend or Follow is a Twitter app that allows you to easily view those who are not following your account back on Twitter. This is a great tool to use especially since Twitter has initiated following limits to make sure you are engaging the right audience and enhance connectivity in both directions. Simply go to the Friend or Follow website, enter the name of your Twitter account and get results on who does not follow you back.
How It Works:
1. You type in the name of the account you wish to review and click “submit”. An image of the accounts not believed to be following back is displayed in a grid formation of a maximum of 13 per row and 20 per column, adjusted for how many are not following you with a maximum of 260 per each page.
2. Choose an image and hover your mouse over it. Information will be displayed about that account including account name, following and follower count, bio and location.
3. You can click on that to visit the account not following you or you can click the combined plus and person icon to grant permission for Friend or Follow to grant access. If you choose to grant access then this message is displayed, “Connect Friend Or Follow with your @YOUR TWITTERACCOUNT account to interact with your followers and share content through your timeline,” before beginning that process.
4. You can sign up for “Gold” membership which is currently $9.99/month. This grants special services such as generating these lists in CSV format and different ways of looking at lists.
Strengths: You can use this for free. You do not have to authorize Friend or Follow to use your account. You can make all the decisions of who you wish to keep following or who you wish to no longer follow. You can also pay and sign up for more benefits.
Weaknesses: We’ve noticed some errors on who has followed or not with the free and no access version. With the free no access version, only the images are displayed. There is no text list for accounts that do not follow back with the free no access version.
Recommendations: Bookmark this great tool. As always, check before deleting anyone to be sure they are not following you if you wish to delete those who do not follow back.
Where to Get: http://www.friendorfollow.com
All rights reserved. This article, all articles, images, etc., are copyright Little Mountain Web Design.
On 4 November, some of the major media sources ran what we already knew that the folks over at Langley were doing, watching, and analyzing social media including blogs, Twitter and Facebook. It should not come as a surprise. We already know that many employers and landlords check social media for perspective employees or tenants before making a decision. What was news was that a special interview and tour was granted.
During this, the CIA said it used librarians to aid in the research and analysis. For those of us who research online, including those engaged in white hat SEO (search engine optimization), this is a wise choice. Librarians continue to be one of the best resources for research on and offline because of their training and experience in reference research with keywords.
This research by those who have been nicknamed the “vengeful librarians” is combined with other sources of information such as those conducted from ELINT (Electronic signals intelligence), personal communications, chatrooms, newspapers, television and radio broadcasts. The Agency’s Open Source Center (OSC) reviews about 5 million tweets a day.
Links from a variety of sources with different perspectives:
http://www.npr.org/2011/11/04/142029141/cia-analysts-comb-social-media-for-trouble-spots
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/world/52850565-68/center-naquin-media-social.html.csp
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/11/04/cia_open_source_center/
All rights reserved. This article, all articles, images, etc., are copyright Little Mountain Web Design.
The next several blog posts will cover the introduction and sections for our multipart series, ”Website Basics: An Introduction to Important Terms and Concepts.” In this series, we will explain some of the fundamentals in having a website and what is needed to purchase and maintain one. While these articles primarily are aimed at persons who do not have a website and want to learn more about the basics, we hope that if you are familiar with websites that you will learn something new as well. At the end of later posts, there will be a website glossary of terms and website related definitions and link section that everyone may find helpful.
WEBSITE BASICS: AN INTRODUCTION TO IMPORTANT TERMS AND CONCEPTS
Websites are a valuable component in modern marketing and branding strategies of today’s businesses and organizations and have become an important part of a business’ or organization’s credentials. They can help your business to be found in this highly mobile society where more and more people who relocate turn to the Internet to help them move and find places, news and information. Local residents are doing the same to get more out of their communities. Websites provide many different types of services to both the business/organization and both potential and existing clients. It is important to understand what websites can do, how they work and what is necessary to have them and keep them going and maximize the benefits to both your business/organization and your website visitors.
Websites can have many purposes and fulfill many functions depending on the business/organization and its needs, its clients’ needs and its leadership and management style. These have been grouped into three general categories of purpose and intent:
1. Introduce Your Business or Organization or Ideas to Potential New Clients/Customers and Readers
For example, a list of your company’s or organization’s products and services can be displayed to make them easily found and understood by persons who come to your website. You can help keep your customers returning with new content, games, promotions, social media and more. The website should reflect not just who or what your business or organization is at this snapshot of time but meet expectations of the Internet user when they arrive. If your company produces precision made parts, your website should reflect this in its design, images and texts. If your organization focuses on creative elements such as art for children, your website should reflect that and be enticing not just to the parents but to the children. Press kits and brochures can be made easily available to the media and others.
2. Communicate with and Provide Functions to Existing Clients
There are many specific examples for this. Doctors’ offices can provide links to companies that can post test results securely online. Movie theaters can have special membership pages with coupons, discounts and other specials. Financial services can provide access to portfolios and have near real time access to changes in the stock market. Businesses and organizations can provide their own abstracts and news services on popular, useful and current events. News archives can be kept of important events specific to the company or organization including articles in the press.
3. Help Your Team Work More Effectively
For example, doctors’ offices can post HIPPA privacy notices, intake and other forms for easy download by the patient. This easy availability allows the patient to fill out the forms in the comfort of their own home saving valuable office staff time and minimizing the patient waits in the doctor’s office. Restaurants can post their menus online so that the customer can review them before coming to eat or to facilitate speedy ordering for take out.
Websites are composed of three main parts which require action:
Domain Name
Web Design
Hosting Service
We will explore each of these in our upcoming posts. Our next topic is domain names and will cover choices for domain names, domain registrars, ICANN and more.
Please return later or read on for the continuation of this series and other new website blog posts. Thank you for your visit.
All rights reserved.This article and all articles are copyright Little Mountain Web Design.
