Why Do I Direct Message Your Reply

Twitter is an amazing service and I love it. It has become apart of my life (follow me) but I have noticed that everyone is using Twitter for different reasons and some may not understand all of the features.

Often times when someone sends me a reply to a message I have posted, I may send you a Direct Message rather than another reply. Just wanted to offer an explanation of why:

• Privacy: There comes in a point in every conversation when the topic has become to private for all of the internet to know.
• Bore the People: I have had to unfollow a few people that make their twitter into a public conversation. I understand and respect some public conversation (I do it myself, when I leave an option for someone else to comment) but most times no one else needs to know that level of detail.
• Some Still Use Their Phone (i.e. Text): I know some followers receive my tweets in text messages and maybe some of yours are doing the same thing. Do you really want that person to become point 2 (Bore the People)?

So just a few thoughts on why I choose to DM much more than @.

Excellent Wireframe/Layout Program – Iplotz

I was looking for a way to help my clients see what we were going to create for them before we created it. I stumbled upon this excellent software to get the job done. It is called iPlotz.

Iplotz

Why Do I Love This Software:

• Because I do not have to use Visio to make a wireframe when Visio is far from cost effective.
• It takes far less time to make a wireframe, you can go from making it in an hour to under 20 minutes.
• It works on Windows/Mac
• It allows multiple ways to export the wireframe (images, web pages, etc.)
• Allows collabortaion – I can invite others to comment on what I have done so I do not have to hold extra meetings.
• It allows you to group your wireframes by projects so as you create multiple wire frames they will not get confused with other projects

Extras:

• Now, I do my project management in another tool but if you are looking for a project management tool as well, this program comes with a basic project management tool. Especially for individuals that are stronger in design then in project management this would be great for them.

The pricing is great, ranging from FREE! to $495 for 10 users. I mean, it really doesn’t get any better than this. This program has become the default for my company to do web layouts and wireframes.

Also they company is based near where I am from in VA (I am from MD), so they can’t be a bad group of guys.

How To Use Twitter

Twitter recently has been getting alot of press and there are alot of non geeks getting on twitter. With that many are (a) confused or (b) misusing the service due to a lack of knowledge. One thing that is very interesting to me about the twitter main site is they poorly describe to the new user how to use the site.

I first joined twitter in 2007 and when I thought it was cool but didn’t really understand it at all. Well, a few years later, I got back on it and began to use it but because I couldn’t find my friends (Misconception #1) I got back and stayed with facebook. To me facebook was clean, made sense instantly and everyone I knew was there. But then in 2009, it hit me and I found out how to (1) extract value out of twitter and (2) put value into twitter.

Here is my list of ways to get and give value into Twitter.

1. Do not think of Twitter as a Social Network First
   1. This is the biggest misconception when you look at Twitter first as a social network you will quickly see it as silly or having no value.
      • View twitter as a way to follow leaders, movers, shakers, family, friends and see what they are thinking or doing.
      • The “follow” principal is based on that you are not where they are, you are not thinking what they are thinking but by “following” someone you can gain access to someone that you may not otherwise gain access to.
      • Think of Twitter of Follow/Followers First and Then as you develop a relationship it becomes social networking.
2. 140 Characters
   • First you may think, man how am I supposed to cram all of my super long thoughts into 140 characters?!?! That is the point.
     • The 140 character limit forces you into being conscise direct and hopeful meaningful. This does not mean to break a 500 character message into 3 updates, no one wants to read that… Trust me.
3. Statuses, Replies, Direct Messages, Favorites
   • Statuses
     • In the box with a simple message, “What Are You Doing?” can cause someone to update this with, “I am using the bathroom.” or “I am driving to work.” But this, I believe is the most ineffective way to use twitter. Think of the question not “What Are You Doing?” but “What Are You Doing/Thinking that Adds Value to Your Follower’s Life?”Want to find out if your statuses are of value? Are you loosing or gaining followers? If you are loosing followers, what better way to tell you… Post something of value.
   • Replies
     • Because of the lack of value put on Statues when you reply to someone’s status and they reply to you, why not just keep that party going? No! Your followers, do not want to follow the conversation of your friends unless it meets the rule of adding value to their life. No one wants to pull up twitter and have their feed filled with a conversation about you and your dog. Unless, you have mentions that are meaningful.
   • Direct Messages
     • That brings me to Direct Messages, the perfect place for a conversation. I will often times, I have a status or respond to a status through DM so that we can converse on that topic keeping all the details here. However, if something is said that is powerful or impactful then I move it to my status.
   • ReTwit
     • Lets say you like someone’s status and want to share it with everyone that is following you. You can “ReTwit” which means to take their take and make it your status. Twitter will automatically add their name so that the original poster can recieve status. This is how alot of news or information passes quickly through Twitter.
   • Favorites
     • This is one of my personal favorite features of Twitter. Often times I am reading Twitter on my phone using Twikini and someone says something of value but I can’t read it now. It may be a great link or a interesting status that I want to think about later. I will mark it as my favorite and then later come back to it to really evaluate it.I use this often with industry leaders. They post so much stuff, I can’t possible take it all in at that time, so I will favorite it and then come back when my life slows down.
4. Twitter Language (@, #, Follow Friday) – Another wrench is that Twitter does have it’s own lanugage and to a novice that language looks rather foolish.
   • @
     • When you are directing a message to someone you will use the “@” symbol. This is only used in statuses and not direct messages because it tells all of your followers that you are talking @calvinwilliams.
   • #
     • This is a really neat feature to me but you are able to tag your statuses so that others that maybe searching for the same subject can find it. For example, if this were a post “Going downtown to grab some #fastfood.” The “#fastfood” part will feature an underline (on my twitter apps) that would allow you to then click on the link and view everyone else that is talking about the same thing. It is a real quick way to guage the activity of a certain topic or term.
   • Follow Friday
     • If you log on Twitter on Friday, you will see status like #FollowFriday @calvinwilliams @freelancesw @xmgonline @beverlbr. That may just look like a bunch of WHAT?! But lets break this down with our current knowledge:#FollowFriday – ah telling everyone that follows me that I am posting a status about Follow Friday
       @calvinwilliams (and others) – giving everyone that follows me the names of other users

       FollowFriday is all about promoting some good people that you follow to other people. It increases their “follow-ship” (just made that up) and is good for the community. Think of it as these are my top friends/associates on twitter.

5. Linking
   • Alot of statuses now have links to other content because of the 140 limit. So, often times people post a link that looks real short. They have used a URL shorten to make a long URL fit and take up less characters. Check out this site.
6. Twitter Applications
   • Twitter has such a following that they have some sort of economy around them (although not sure if everything is profitable). Instead of being on your desktop, logged on to www.twitter.com you can use applications to access twitter for you on the device that you use the most. They have applications for BlackBerry, Iphone, Windows Mobile, Ipod, Desktops, Plug In To Websites, Facebook, etc.It is all about where do you already spend much of your time and then finding the app that you like that fits your lifestyle.My suggestion of apps are for Mac and Windows, Windows Mobile, and Iphone. For Windows Mobile, I just have to highlight my favorite program, Twikini. I love this program! It is so easy to use. It has different profiles. It is out of beta now and it is great. It meets all of my needs for a twitter app (see screen shot) listed below. If you want to get it, you can visit here.What Do I look for in a twitter app?
     • Ease of Use
     • Attractive
     • Fast
     • Ability to Post/Read/Reply/Edit Status, Replies, Favorites and Direct Messages easily
     • Ability to click links out of the status

So, there are alot of other uses for Twitter but this is a good foundation and will get you on your way. One of the best things you can do on twitter is to follow me, lol. Can you blame me? Enjoy the Day.

C.

Another Reason Why Myspace is Failing

Myspace really is just not getting it, they have missed the boat on several levels and wonder if they are even trying.

I tried to visit a friend’s myspace page and there is not mobile viewer. This is crazy, facebook got that years ago and I think that’s one of the reasons that facebook took over.

In additional, their major flaw is their open archectiture for html. Although everyone loved the way that you could customize your page (to me just made everything look crazy) it opened the door for spammers. Which now, that is all myspace is to me.

Just a thought..

Please, More Stereotype Breaking Women in Technology

So, yesterday I spoke at the Career Fair as a “vendor”/”career type” at Smith High School and I definitely felt a little different before I set up our booth than I normally do when I go out and encourage the kids to go out and accomplish their dreams.

It is because of a new buddy of mine. I actually met this young lady through Facebook and we chatted for a few hours about various things and she really inspired me. I wondering why don’t we have more women in technology like her. She really defiles the stereotypes of a female web designer (probably because she models and does great web design).

Then there is another new buddy, she doesn’t do web design but is hard core geek. So the both of them, had my mine running like why are they are the only two that I have met like that.

So, I woke up and went with my buddy to the career fair because we basically do everything together. After we were both set up (pictures coming), I was beginning to think back on my new buddy and I began to be sexists toward the women. I started calling out all the young women and asking them if they had an interest in a career in Technology. I only had 2 yes’s and maybe 20-25 no’s. (If anyone has any statistics, please comment!)

I tried to make it as appealing as possible but it wasn’t until I had to leave did I figure out the proper hook for them and then I began to see the lights go off in their head.

After I left, I tweeted how I feel it is very important that we get more women in technology, not just so they can even things out, not just because women think differently than men and could provide a great point of view, but hey we geek men need hot geek women.

Seriously, we need more women in technology and I look forward to going back to Smith High School and going a presentation on women in technology. I can speak to it a little but there is nothing like seeing a woman speak on it as well. So, I look forward to bringing someone with me to make an impact in these young women’s lives and atleast make it easier for my son to find a hot geek wife.

C.

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