Funny thing is, that’s not who I am.  Sure, I’m using social media as tools to learn new things and market my blog(s).   It’s definitely not my goal to be a social networking maven.

I need to refocus and study the topics that I’m more interested in, such as Christianity, Technology, Economics, Science, and Computers.  Looks like I’ll need to find a different set of sheep to follow.

This article was posted on Rudy Amid's Blog:

Finding the Right Sheep

Related posts:

1. My Blogging and Social Media Flowchart
2. Follow Up on Twitter Stuff
3. Following Twitter

1. Duplicating Brightkite updates to FriendFeed (FF) and Twitter.  In FF, google map tagging is available automatically when I post via BrightKite.  Ideally, I would like to update only in Twitter and let it update FF.  But google map tagging is not working with Tweets on FF.
2. Duplicating blog post on both Twitter and FF.   Through my FriendFeed profile, it’s unclear how to navigate into my blog site(s) – it’s only listed in a bunch of icons¹.  At least with my Twitter profile, it clearly shows the link in a prominent location.

With more sites coming up, this diagram will evolve.  The bottom line is, FriendFeed is the ultimate place to find out what I’m doing online.

This article was posted on Rudy Amid's Blog:

My Blogging and Social Media Flowchart

1. Blog feed came from RSS

Related posts:

1. Twitter’s Down and It Bothers Me
2. Being (Online) Social
3. In The Know Using Twitter

I read an article by Hal Niedzviecki when he invited his Facebook friends to a party and had only one person show up.  It’s a poignant look of having “online friends”.  How many of us actually have the nerve to invite our online friends to a party, where we can all meet face-to-face?  I have to expect the worse.

Then I read Catherine Smith’s post on The Change Blog about the dangers of virtual living.  She correctly points out that we still have a need to stay real, and not be fooled by the illusion of being able to build relationships online.  I can pretend that I’m content with my “cyber-friends”, but at the end of the day, that feeling of emptiness still lingers.

Having that face-to-face connection and a meaningful relationship, not just casual ones, are important.  It doesn’t matter how many Twitter followers I have.   It doesn’t matter how many LinkedIn connections I’ve made.  How many people invited me to their house lately?  How many people showed up for my birthday lunch?  How many people will offer help when there’s trouble in my life?  If the answer is “not many”, then I’m spending way too much time online.  I need to stay offline more, and make real friends.

This article was posted on Rudy Amid's Blog:

Reminder to Foster “Offline” Friendships

Related posts:

1. Technology and Being Connected
2. The Internet is 40 Years Old!
3. Lunch Bits – Edition 26

1. Summize
   It’s becoming de facto search engine for Twitter.  Fast and reliable.  Hat tip to Rachel who pointed this out to me.
2. Twitpic
   Sharing pictures over Twitter has never been easier with it.  The built-in picture post from Twhirl is a nice bonus.
3. Twerpscan
   I sometimes wonder how many people I follow don’t follow me back.  Well, this site will help me figure it out.  What I haven’t figured out is whether I should unfollow them.  I can learn a lot from the “A-List” talking heads.  I must confess that I’ve unfollowed some of the big names, which will remain nameless.
4. Twitter Sync
   A Facebook application that lets me use my Twitter posts as my Facebook status updates.  Fully configurable.  It worked great until Twitter decided to temporarily disable their IM feature, which pretty much broke the app.  Nevertheless, it’s a useful application and I’m anticipating Twitter IM to be re-enabled so I can use it again.  I don’t like changing my Facebook status manually.
5. Everything Twitter
   Not an application, but it’s a blog run by the social media diva, Corvida.  She has everything related to Twitter.

Bonus:

Because people noticed every single thing wrong with Twitter, the company decided to create their own, ever useful, Twitter Status Page.  It’s not always up-to-the minute but it provides useful information on their progress, or lack of it.  Since I’m already a tumblr user, I just simply follow the updates in my dashboard.

This article was posted on Rudy Amid's Blog:

Follow Up on Twitter Stuff

Related posts:

1. Following Twitter
2. Twitter: Familiar Communication
3. In The Know Using Twitter

Twitter’s a tool that I’ve actually grown to love and use a great deal. It’s definitely not fun to see it go down unexpectedly. It’s like driving on the main highway, where I always commute on, and have it closed down due to an accident. It disrupts my routine, and I even dare to say it stops my productivity. I always want to be “in the know” and well informed. With the current people that I follow, I usually get a lot useful information. I’ve grown to appreciate their contribution to my knowledge base.

When Twitter is down, it just feels wrong. Maybe I should have joined the “Twit-Out” group and not use it for a while. The alternative is FriendFeed where there’s plenty of discussion there about Twitter being down. Just follow Scoble, Shey, and Bwana. You can also find me on FriendFeed.

Let’s hope Twitter Inc. can get their acts together and stabilize the site. I hate to see everyone’s leaving the service and render it unusable.

This article was posted on Rudy Amid's Blog:

Twitter’s Down and It Bothers Me

Related posts:

1. My Blogging and Social Media Flowchart
2. Twitter: The Productivity Tools
3. Follow Up on Twitter Stuff

Twelve People Actually Worth Following On Twitter by @Nick

Favrd by @Textism

Top Nine Reasons Why Moms Primarily Read Mom Blogs by @Joeprah

And oh, I just followed @StephenTColbert, but I’m not convinced he’s the real Stephen T. Colbert.   He’s following too many people.  A real celebrity like @wilw has a dramatically lopsided following vs follower stats: follows a very select few, and has a huge number of followers.

Update: @StephenColbert is the real one.

This article was posted on Rudy Amid's Blog:

Web Comedy

Related posts:

1. In The Know Using Twitter
2. Following Twitter
3. Finding the Right Sheep

So I’m wondering, what does it take to be a Twitterati? It depends on these two things:

1. A large number followers (people who subscribe or “listen” to my tweets)
2. My reputation, or notoriety.

One example is Darren Rowse @problogger, who is a popular blogger, has over 3500 followers. Once in a while, he would tweet a question, next thing you know a bunch of people reply. Getting answers from Twitter is a good vehicle for a new blog post. Darren posted the Twitter answers in his blog. Similarly, Brian Clark @copyblogger have posted select Twitter answers in his site.

Speaking of notoriety, check out Wil Wheaton’s reason for liking Twitter.

For someone like me, an unknown in Twitter (and the internet), I can’t expect to stir up conversation at a drop of a tweet. I can’t expect my question answered at a moment’s notice on Twitter. I can’t expect my next blog post to be about the people who tweet back. Well, maybe I can:

And this one:

[Update] Ok, maybe that last one isn’t that exciting, but I’m just trying to show that sometimes people can respond to a trivial tweet.  I sometimes do that.  Just to be friendly, depending on my mood, etc.

My Twitter archive does come in pretty handy to record my life tweets.

Anyway, I’m striving to connect with more people and promote my site as best as I can, and learn from their wisdom. The information is out there. Lately, I’ve found the quickest way to get it is through Twitter.

Anything interesting you’ve read in Twitter, lately?

This article was posted on Rudy Amid's Blog:

In The Know Using Twitter

Related posts:

1. Twitter: The Productivity Tools
2. Following Twitter
3. Follow Up on Twitter Stuff

1. Twhirl
   Hands down, one of the best user interface client for Twitter. It gives me the ability to see my public timeline, send direct or @reply messages easily. It doesn’t have the ability to view all of archives since there’s a bandwidth limitation with the back-end Twitter API. It’s based on Adobe AIR engine, complete with transparent window. Both client and engine are updated regularly.
2. Jott
   Jott is a neat and unique way to post my tweets. I use it with my cell phone and dictate the words I want to post. I tried doing some tweets when I was in Disney World, and it worked pretty well. Accuracy is only as good as the clarity of my voice over the phone. It can also go to multiple destinations like to my tumblr site, or email.
3. Twitter Feed
   As a way to promote my blog, I use Twitter Feed to automatically announce new blog posts on Twitter. The site uses my RSS feed to figure out what’s new, and it’s configurable how many blog posts to tweet and how often it should scan per day. Some people are against seeing automatic blog announcements, but in my opinion, if it’s done sparingly, it’s OK to do it. Actually, if my headline is catchy enough, people will click on the announced link. I’ve seen it happen. I’ve clicked on a few of my follower’s Twitter Feed’s announcements.
4. Twitter Verse
   This is just a useful site to see what the Twitter “universe” has said recently. It’s sort of a trend discovery tool. Some of the words are NSFW, so be warned. The tweets are searchable all the way back to April 2007.
5. Friend Feed
   FriendFeed is probably the most important discovery I’ve ever made. It’s not built specifically for Twitter, but it enables me to keep track of specific Twitter folks more closely like Robert Scoble and Darren Rowse. It also aggregates recent news from the social media sites that they use, such as StumbleUpon, Digg, or Del.i.cio.us. It’s a great way to discover new sites. The key is to follow the right people in Friend Feed, otherwise it’s just another information overload.
6. Mosio
   I was looking for a way to data-mine Twitter and came across a site that promised to give me answers. Mosio is a cell phone messenger service, sending my text messages to their network, and also Twitter. When I tried it, most of the answers came from their network. It may not be that useful for the Twitter experience, but at least the interface is there, so I’m giving it an honorable mention.
7. Twitter Fox
   @Epiblogger recommended this to me. I like that it doesn’t take too much real estate on my desktop – only on bottom right corner of the Firefox browser. It’s also discreet by popping up new tweets. However, I’ve grown accustomed to Twhirl UI so much, it’s difficult to adapt to Twitter Fox’s UI. It is a lightweight app, so I may just it on my additional laptops in the house.
8. Tweet Scan
   It’s a search engine for Twitter. Very simple interface and quite fast.
9. Tweet Clouds
   Another fun site to find out what my favorite Twitter folks are saying. Check out my Tweet Cloud – it shows who I’ve been @replying to, and the most frequently words that I used.
10. Twubble
    This is a great app made by @crazybob, a Google engineer. It’s a nice way to find new people to follow, based on the existing people I’ve been following. Definitely a unique way to search. Catchy name too. Too bad Bob’s too late to register the domain name for it.
11. TwitterMail
    I use it to post on Twitter via email. The interface will also work with cell phone text messages by sending to a random email address supplied by the site. The @reply functionality is kind of quirky, but I can turn this off via the preference page.
12. Twitter Local
    @Jfhscribbles introduced this to me via his tumblr page. It’s a great way to find local Twitters by using my city or zip code. I found a few that I’ve followed in the Los Angeles/OC area.
13. Twist
    It’s another trend discovery site, but it’s limited to the last few days, so it’s for current topics . Type in a word or two, it will show the line chart of how many tweets use the word(s). It’s useful to determine if the topic I want to discuss is in Twitter recently.

Which one do you use?

Photo Credit: seydoggy

This article was posted on Rudy Amid's Blog:

Twitter: The Productivity Tools

Related posts:

1. In The Know Using Twitter
2. Twitter: Familiar Communication
3. Following Twitter

I started off following a handful of people. By checking out who they follow, I get to find more people. There are friendly people out there like @tiddlytwinks, @menwithpens, @ittybiz, @brettlegree, @ageekgal, @emom, @terencechang, @epiblogger, @deege, @conniefoggles, @wpcandy, @epochblue, @melissadonovan, @gorillasushi, @cbahm, @martinbowling, @jfhscribbles, and @saphrym. Following these people will jump start your pleasant Twitter experience!

It’s a little trickier to get people to follow me, let alone respond to me. For those with many followers with 1000+ tweets a day, it’s next to impossible to read all of them. They have limited attention span. Some have more ego than others, so they tend to ignore those with less notoriety. However, there are people who have a huge number of follower that are actually worth following, such as @problogger, @scobleizer, @doshdosh, @copyblogger, and @technosailor. These are the people who see the true value of the Twitter community, and have already built a friendly image.

Let’s build a community! Follow me and I’ll follow you. Let me know who else I should follow.

Photo Credit: Twitter Mosaic

This article was posted on Rudy Amid's Blog:

Following Twitter

Related posts:

1. In The Know Using Twitter
2. Follow Up on Twitter Stuff
3. Twitter: Familiar Communication

Twitter

Twitter is fundamentally an instant messaging platform. When I started using Yahoo! Instant Messenger five years ago at my work place, my co-workers and I would have these clever “status” messages to indicate what we were thinking, jokes of the day, or our current tasks. We used it a lot. Then Yahoo had a great idea to incorporate URLs we could click directly from the IM client. However, Twitter took this concept of people’s status messages, archived them, made them browse-able via the web, and let Google index them. My Twitter home page is essentially a form of micro-blogging, filled with current and short posts. It’s a lot of fun to use. I’ll follow up in a future post to detail how I use Twitter.

Meanwhile, Twitter has sparked some really creative writing. I am referring to the clever analogy by Ted Rheingold or the stereotypical male metaphor by Michael Martine. If you have, or know a post about Twitter, do let me know by leaving a comment. I’ll check it out and link to it.

Here’s a short and informative video from Lee Lefever on “What is Twitter in Plain English”:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddO9idmax0o

This article was posted on Rudy Amid's Blog:

Twitter: Familiar Communication

Related posts:

1. Following Twitter
2. Follow Up on Twitter Stuff
3. In The Know Using Twitter