What's There For Me In Twitter ?

Twitter can be used for umpteen reasons some of which are as follows.

Live Connection With Contacts
Twitter is a live connection between you and your friends or family members. Prizes won, missing a safety pin, current song on your iPod, crossed stages in your video game or need of cash, any thing can be instant communicated through Twitter.

Social Reforms And Activities

You can raise your voice against any social injustice or create social awareness like #SavePlanet, #GreenEarth, #EnergyConservation etc. Political campaigns (#Obama), for a Presidential candidate, reasons to support or not can also be carried out. You noted the #hash before some of the above words. Want to know more then read this - Tracking Twitter Keywords: The Key To Success on Twitter.

Business Or Product Promotion
The most common use of Twitter today is the promotion of business , site, blog, product or service. Without this ability the growth of Twitter wouldn't have been till this extent. Majority of the Tweets now carry a URL which points to the blog or site introducing a product or a service. If you also intend to have any of these benefits, you have enough reasons to join Twitter.

Ramifications Of Basic Usage
The popularity of Twitter and the availability of API has led to the development of zillion apps and sites to increase the usability. For instance, sharing files , sharing Google Docs, managing personal finance, fitness management, travel management and much more can be done using these third party applications or sites.

What Is Twitter ?

Introduction

Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay in touch, through small SMS type updates. The updates are an answer to a simple question, "What are you doing".Each message is 140 characters in length. It is also known as microblogging.
In order to use Twitter you should either have a computer or a mobile phone, along with an internet connection.

History

Twitter was crated in 2006 by Jack Dorsey,and is a privately funded startup with offices in the SoMA neighborhood of San Francisco, CA.  
Twitter has gained notability and popularity worldwide. Companies backing
Twitter are Union Square Ventures, Digital Garage, Spark Capital, and Bezos Expeditions (led by Jeff Bezos of Amazon).

How To Use Twitter

Crate an account on Twitter. Login and see the box " What are you doing". Write in the box and click on the Update button. Start sending messages, which are lovingly called tweets on Twitter.

References:
Photo Jack Dorsey from Creative Commons.Original Link to Photo By Joi.
Twitter About Page and  Wikipedia

How To Share Google Docs on Twitter

In my previous post I discussed about sharing files on Twitter through third party sites. Here we will see how to share Google Docs on Twitter.

You Need

1. Google Docs
   
2. Bit.ly
3. Twitter

Create the required document on Google Docs. Publish it as web page. Google will give you a URL of the published document. Copy the URL and Shorten it with Bit.ly ( Sample link to try http://bit.ly/4df8Hf ).  A smarter thing to do is get the Bit.ly Button, as it makes the task Much easier.
Copy the shortened URL. Open Twitter and paste. There you go ! If you have an account on Bit.ly linked to Twitter the you can post it from Bit.ly without leaving the page.

TIP:

How to share MS Office (.doc, .docx, .ppt, .pps, .xls, .xlsx ),or OpenOffice.org (.odt) StarOffice (.sxw) and RTF format document ?
Just upload the MS Word, OpenOffice.org, StarOffice or RTF document on Google Docs. Publish it, get the link, and follow the same procedure as described above.

Read More Twitter Related Articles Here .
Meet me on @Twitter,  Jaiku and Plurk too.

How To Insert Emoticons Or Smileys in Twitter

Make the most of 140 characters, Express yourself.
Tweemoticons offer numerous creative, useful and conversation enhancing emoticons.
Install Greasemonkey add-on in Firefox web browser.
After this install a simple script from Tweemoticons.
Now login into Twitter.
Start sending tweets on twitter and have fun with Tweemoticons ;)
You can follow @Tweemoticons on Twitter.
Read More Twitter Related Articles Here .

How To Make Stumble Upon Toolbar Appear In Your Tweeted Links

Ever wanted to know how to make StumbleUpon Toolbar appear in the links you have posted as tweets on Twitter. Here I show you how to do it.

You Need

1. StumbleUpon
2. Bit.ly
3. Twitter

First submit your post on StumbleUpon. Open it from there itself. You will find that your post is being displayed with the StumbleUpon tool-bar on top. Copy this link from the address bar of your browser.
Go to Bit.ly. Shorten the URL you have just copied. A smarter thing to do is get the Bit.ly Button, as it makes the task Much easier. Copy the shortened URL.
Open Twitter and paste. There you go ! If you have an account on Bit.ly linked to Twitter the you can post it from Bit.ly without leaving the page.
Now when your followers on Twitter will click, they will be presented with the StumbleUpon tool-bar on top. Happy Stumbling.
NOTE: You can very well use the same shortened link for Jaiku and Plurk too.

Bitly URL shortner

StumbleUpon the Stumbling site

Magical Bits : the final result with the tool bar.

Stumble Upon Launches Su.pr: Shorten URL and Share In A Single Click

Su.pr is a URL shortener with the capacity to post your links and updates directly on Facebook and Twitter. It provide both syndication and discovery in one tool. Su.pr also provides some useful tools like tools to identify the best times to post, schedule future posts and see real-time results on clicks, tweets and traffic associated with your posts.


It is now in Beta and can be accessed from here.

To get the INVITATION CODE follow @Su.pr on Twitter.

6 Animals To Follow For Better Blogging

Though the human beings are gifted with immense power and ability, sometimes observing and assimilating the qualities of animals can be of great advantage for bloggers. One most important qualities of the human beings is to learn and adapt, so he can definitely learn from all other creations and apply it for his own benefit, be it blog or life.

The Bee
The Bee chooses the most beautiful flowers, collects nectar, digests it properly and makes honey out of it. The inference is that to write you need to study and know your subject well. As a blogger you should hop for the best source of knowledge, research thoroughly, collect gist (nectar), and make an original composition. It is bound to serve the readers will all the goodness just like honey. Won't the readers return in search of more ?


The Woodpecker
With a beak of the size of your fingernail, it pierces hard woods and makes a house to live in. The might of the largest sequoia, cedar or oak cannot come in the way of its determination. A saying goes "If you don't have the best, make the best of what you have". Does it matter if it doesn't have the abilities of the Weaver Bird to build a beautiful nest. It concentrates on its own abilities and the result is well known. What if you as a blogger don't have the resources enough, to spend on domains, hosting, email newsletter service, advertising services, dedicated office, paid writers, fancy accessories etc etc. You can still make a wonderful blog and get it running successfully too. Just utilize what is there and forget what is not there.


The Stork
For its target to be achieved, the stork stands for several hours on one leg. Dedication is a must for any blogger to succeed. Never Give Up.


The Ant
It has the ability to carry loads, several times its own weight. Another important quality is that she marks its way with pheromones, well in advance that she has to follow. Never deviates from that path till one work has been accomplished. Multiple tasks, multiple blogs, part time blogger, theres no excuse, you can do it and you should do it. Moreover choose your path, the niche carefully and stick to it. Success is on the way.


The Peacock
What happens when there is thunderstorm, black clouds, tremendous breeze and heavy rains ? The peacock dances and enjoys every moment. He knows well that this has to pass, its not permanent. Never be bothered if there are difficulties, less traffic, no clicks. Its your choice, whether you pass this period dancing or crying.


The Tortoise
This humble and slow creature has been a part of our moral lessons since the very child hood. Elaboration on "Slow And Steady Wins The Race" is not required.


Would you like to suggest some other qualities to be followed ? Please feel free to write in the comment box. Thank You !

Feed Burner: Geographically Yours

The Analytics Style Map Overlay now enters Feedburner breaking all boundaries. An array of services that Feedburner already offered is enhanced with another feather in its cap.
Now you know whom to to feed(burn) what and when according to local taste and preferences.


Be it declared, a map for every feed!

Tracking Twitter Keywords: The Key To Success on Twitter

Why Track Keywords ?
If you are chatting on Yahoo! on a certain topic you need to join a chat room. The reason is that you want to share a thought related to that particular topic. Twitter doesn't have rooms but they have enough room for thoughts related to a certain topic and that is possible by a keyword or a #hashtag. When you search for a hashtag all the tweets mentioning it will appear. Similarly if you want to put a product or a site related to a certain words and want others attention in search results, you have to use the key words.

How To Track Keywords ?
Twitter by default shows the 10 most trending topics on your homepage itself but if you need more then you can try these sites.
Twitscoop shows keyword tag clouds that change size in real time.In the Hot Trends section it shows graphs of trending tpoics in hours as well.
Another strength of Twitscoop is that you can also see the number of clicks on bit.ly urls in the tweets itself. And if the tweet contains photos posted on Twitpic it is visible right there by hovering the mouse over view button .


Monitter is real-time tracking site with a facility to view 3 different keywords on a single page. By default they show the Twitter Trending Topics but you can charge all the three engines by substituting your own keywords and watch all of them together.



To get hourly updates by email on the selected keywords you can try Tweetbeep.

Another site for email updates is Tweet Scan.

Google Analytics: The Graphs Of Your Success

Google Analytics is a versatile tool for gathering useful data and increasing the return on investment (ROI). In this first post for Google Analytics, I will cover the most basic feature and elaborate on the advanced features later.

How to Start Tracking Your Website / Blog With Google Analytics
Visit Google Analytics and sign in with your Google Account. You will get two different codes. Copy the code and follow the instruction for its placement. Once You are done, it will take some time for the tracking to start.

The Dashboard
You can watch the results by selecting the date slider, and the days, week and months view to get the required information.


Below this report you find other useful categories like Site Usage, Map Overlay, Traffic Source and Content Overlay.




Export And Email
You can easily save your reports in .pdf and xml format by clicking on the export button, above the dashboard. Along with this Google Analytics also provides you with the facility to email these reports immediately in PDF and XML format. If you want to repeat this event you can schedule automatic report delivery in your mail box daily, weekly, monthly or quarterly. Emailing has two more formats, CSV and TSV along with PDF and XML.

See Whats New In Analytics - Google Local Business Centre Dashboard
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Twitter: Share Any File On Twitter For Free

Are you interested in sharing a file with all your followers on Twitter ? Or may be to any one friend or family member - then read on.

The Sites For File Sharing

1. File Social
2. TwitDoc
3. FileTwt
4. Tweet Cube

File Social

File Social is the one I liked the most among the sites I checked. The reason being ease and ergonomics. You can upload max 50 mb. To share your files now visit File Social Here. No need of separate account. Just login with Twitter id.


Files Supported By File Social
Images, compressed files, videos, music, etc. In other words, file extensions like pdf, jpg, doc, txt, zip, rar, mov, avi and mp3, amongst many others. There’s no excuse for any format!

Twit Doc

TwitDoc is another handy tool for file sharing on Twitter. One the most outstanding and helpful feature is a client that supports " Drag and Drop". File sharing could never be so easy. To share your files now visit TwitDoc Here.


Files Supported By TwitDoc
You can upload pictures (jpg, png, gif), or documents: Word (doc, docx), PowerPoint (ppt, pptx, pps), Excel (xls, xlsx), PDF, PS, Open Office (odt, odp, sxw, sxl), and text (txt, rtf).

File Twt

FileTwt has two modes of file sharing. One is public, and the other is private. If you login with Twitter account you get to share it publicly. If you need privacy for sharing only to a specified person, you need to sign up. To share your files now visit File Twt Here.



Tweet Cube

TweetCube allows you to share files on Twitter. Simple as that. Blast out your images, videos, music and more with just a couple of clicks, and your files are automatically posted on Twitter.


Did it help you do something constructive and productive ? Would you like to have more articles of this sort ?

Gmail : Mail Search Hacks For You

"Your search for search ends here"

With the growing size of inbox, better search algorithms are a necessity. When labels, stars, superstars and simple searches do not give the desired results then try these tricks.

1. in:inbox from:Laeeq to search a mail that is in the inbox from the person Laeeq.
2. in:Family is:starred to search a mail that is in the folder (label) Family and is starred.
3. is:chat from:hamid to search a saved chat from the person Hamid.
4. from:jerry filename:pdf to search a mail from jerry with .pdf as an attachment.

If you feel too lazy to type then you can let "search auto complete" from Google labs lend you a helping hand. I hope you remember the green beaker icon. Type in a few words let it pour down the suggestion for you to gulp down.

Google Analytics : Google Local Business Centre Dashboard To Rule The Area You Live in

Google Analytics has come up with a new tool to rule the local market. This nifty little addition give you complete insight of the local market, accompanied with detailed metrics on traffic to local listings on Google Maps. It tracks the number of times your listing appears in Google search for local area market and products.

Pinning Hopes
Google analytics already listed the cities, and with Google Local Business Centre Dashboard it give you the information about the pin codes the visitors came from.

Bread and Butter from Pizza and Pasta
Earn you bread and butter with pizza and pasta search from you local area. Track the customers, assimilate the date for its greatest consumption, beef up your delivery in that area and enjoy.

Google Analytics Blog: Web Analytics Tips & Tricks: Announcing the new Google Local Business Center Dashboard