If you’ve used Twitter for more than a couple of hours, you’ve probably already seen a tweet or two containing a word with the hash symbol (”#”) attached to it. That’s what Twitter users call a “hashtag,” and at any given time at least one of them can usually be found among the trending topics on Twitter. But what exactly is a hashtag?
Hashtags are essentially a simple way to catalog and connect tweets about a specific topic. They make it easier for users to find additional tweets on a particular subject, while filtering out the incidental tweets that may just coincidentally contain the same keyword. Hashtags are also often used by conference and event organizers as a method of keeping all tweets about the event in a single stream, and they’ve even been used to coordinate updates during emergencies. In fact, hashtags were first popularized during the 2007 San Diego wildfire, when the tag #sandiegofires was used to identify tweets about the natural disaster.
You can create a hashtag simply by appending the hash symbol to a word, like this: #hashtag.
How to Utilize Existing Hashtags
Because hashtags tend to spread so quickly and because Twitter users often search hashtags for content from people they aren’t following, using hashtags can be a great way to extend your reach on Twitter and connect with your current audience in a more meaningful way. There are a wide variety of already established hashtags and new ones being created daily that you can join. You need to be careful, however, that your use of hashtags is consistent with both your brand and the tag itself.
Unfortunately, as hashtags have become more popular, they’ve also become a vehicle for spam. You should never use a hashtag on a tweet unrelated to that tag, and you should never stuff your tweets with currently popular hashtags with the sole purpose of appearing in Twitter search results. Proper etiquette dictates that you should only use hashtags if your tweet is actually relevant to the tag’s associated meme or topic.
So which tags should you participate in? That depends wholly on your business and your purpose for using Twitter. For example, it’s probably a bad idea to participate in the #robotpickuplines hashtag if you own a health club and use your Twitter account to offer customer service to members. But if you own a record shop, you’ll more than likely want to join in the #musicmonday hashtag, in which people tweet about what music they’re listening to and suggest other musically-inclined users to follow every Monday. Or if you own a restaurant, why not tweet out your specials or some recipes on #tastytuesday.
what the trend image
Use sites like Twubs, a hashtag directory, and What the Trend?, a wiki that attempts to explain what certain hashtags (and other Twitter trends) mean, to locate and identify hashtags that make sense for your business. Also, pay attention to tags being used by your followers and search for them on Twitter to see what sort of tweets are associated with those tags. If it makes sense for your business to jump on board, compose tweets that are on topic and compatible with that hashtag.
How to Start Your Own Hashtags
While you certainly shouldn’t use hashtags to describe all of your tweets, they can be very helpful for small businesses as a way to track social media campaigns or create memes that help establish a sense of community and build your company’s mindshare among your core customers. The first step in creating a hashtag is deciding on the tag word itself. You should pick something memorable, easy to spell, and perhaps more importantly, as short as possible. Remember that Twitter gives everyone just 140 characters per tweet, so no one wants half of it to be taken up by an unwieldy hashtag.
Once you’ve figured out the tag itself, the next step is simple: start using it and promoting it. Make sure your tweets using the hashtag are worthwhile and add something of value to the conversation. Promote your tag or the social media campaign that uses the tag via other social media channels, such as your blog or email newsletter. Tweet out calls to action explaining your new tag at regular intervals (but don’t overdo it!). For example, let’s say you own a bookstore, and you’re running a Twitter contest to give out a gift card to your store. Your explanatory tweet might be something like, “What’s your favorite summer reading material? Tweet using #beachreads to win a $100 gift certificate to Al’s World of Books!”
How to Keep Track of Hashtags
Of course, now that you have people using your new hashtag, you need to be able to keep on top of it so you can respond to participants. One of the easiest ways to track hashtags is by using Twitter Searchtweetzi Twitter Search. You can watch people using your hashtag (or any other tag you want to track) in real-time, and subscribe to an RSS feed of the results. Monitter and TweetGrid are two other good web-based dashboards for performing real-time Twitter searches of hashtags.
You can also use the built-in search functionality of popular desktop clients like Seesmic or TweetDeck or set up alerts on business-oriented Twitter dashboards such as HootSuite or CoTweet.
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Monday, September 21, 2009
Twitter popularity in India
India has officially become the third highest user community for Twitter, according to web statistics website – Alexa.com. Unique visitors to the increasingly popular microblogging site increased from 475,000 in February 2008 to over 7 million in February 2009.
Though Twitter users are still predominantly in the US, it’s popularity is spreading like wildfire to countries all over the world with Germany, India, UK, Japan and Brazil completing the top 5 Twitterers.It’s interesting to see Twitter increase in popularity at such a rate in a country where only 7% of the population are online, however, as infrastructure, accessibility and affordability to the internet improves in India the nation today stands at the fourth highest number of online users in the world.
Previously Orkut and Facebook dominated the social networking craze in India but it would be interesting to see how Twitter fares at the end of the year. Orkut, a Google-owned company, currently has over 18 million users.
I am a big fan of progress, especially in developing countries, and it looks like the younger generation and businesses are realising the importance of social networking in today’s world. I’d like to see an Indian-formed social networking group dominate the world just like Facebook, mySpace and Twitter has.
Though Twitter users are still predominantly in the US, it’s popularity is spreading like wildfire to countries all over the world with Germany, India, UK, Japan and Brazil completing the top 5 Twitterers.It’s interesting to see Twitter increase in popularity at such a rate in a country where only 7% of the population are online, however, as infrastructure, accessibility and affordability to the internet improves in India the nation today stands at the fourth highest number of online users in the world.
Previously Orkut and Facebook dominated the social networking craze in India but it would be interesting to see how Twitter fares at the end of the year. Orkut, a Google-owned company, currently has over 18 million users.
I am a big fan of progress, especially in developing countries, and it looks like the younger generation and businesses are realising the importance of social networking in today’s world. I’d like to see an Indian-formed social networking group dominate the world just like Facebook, mySpace and Twitter has.
Sunday, September 20, 2009
How does twitter work for cellphones
Twitter is primarily designed to work with the SMS protocol. SMS allows the user to exchange messages from a cellphone to other services like landline phone or an internet website. Any message sent to Twitter is collected by its mobile switching centre (MSC) and processed by a series of redirections before getting posted on the website.
The website sends the message back to all the people in the user’s network by reversing the process. To target a larger user base, Twitter operates on the SMS protocol as it is the most widely used and supported by all service providers across the globe.
The website sends the message back to all the people in the user’s network by reversing the process. To target a larger user base, Twitter operates on the SMS protocol as it is the most widely used and supported by all service providers across the globe.
How does twitter work for websites
Twitter's design relies heavily on cellphone text messages and hence tweets can only have up to 140 characters. In the World Wide Web it works on a Representational State Transfer (REST) architecture. REST enables it to work with most web syndication formats. Web syndication is an application that gathers information from one source and sends it to various destinations.
Most of us have seen or been asked, typically by news websites, to subscribe for syndication services called feed. Whenever the administrator adds some content, feeds are sent to all subscribers. Twitter also operates in a similar way by sending messages to everyone who is following the particular user. In simple terms, if you are following your friend or any celebrity then you are simply subscribing to feeds.
Most of us have seen or been asked, typically by news websites, to subscribe for syndication services called feed. Whenever the administrator adds some content, feeds are sent to all subscribers. Twitter also operates in a similar way by sending messages to everyone who is following the particular user. In simple terms, if you are following your friend or any celebrity then you are simply subscribing to feeds.
How is twitter different from other social networking websites?
Unlike other content-based social networking websites, which allow the user to create contents like uploading photos, videos, keeping a blog and incorporating various multimedia programmes, Twitter operates by managing the simplest mode of social networking, that is sending and receiving messages. Perhaps, the simplicity has made it the fastest growing website in the social networking category.
How did it develop?: It was developed by Evan Williams, Biz Stone and Jack Dorsey. Williams is the same person who created Blogger, which was later acquired by Google for whom he started working. After leaving Google, Williams and Stone started their podcasting company called Odeo. It was named Twitter by Stone, because the exchange of short bursts of information is like the chirping of birds (uttering short tweets in succession).
Twitter was a product of Odeo that became so popular that Williams bought out Odeo and Twitter from investors and formed Obvious Corporation. Jack Dorsey joined the Obvious Corporation and Twitter came up in its present form. In March 2006, it split off from Obvious and Twitter Incorporated was formed.
How did it develop?: It was developed by Evan Williams, Biz Stone and Jack Dorsey. Williams is the same person who created Blogger, which was later acquired by Google for whom he started working. After leaving Google, Williams and Stone started their podcasting company called Odeo. It was named Twitter by Stone, because the exchange of short bursts of information is like the chirping of birds (uttering short tweets in succession).
Twitter was a product of Odeo that became so popular that Williams bought out Odeo and Twitter from investors and formed Obvious Corporation. Jack Dorsey joined the Obvious Corporation and Twitter came up in its present form. In March 2006, it split off from Obvious and Twitter Incorporated was formed.
How does Twitter work
Like any other social networking website, users have to sign up, register their phone numbers and create their own network of friends. In the terminology of the website, you ‘follow’ your friends or some celebrity while your friends will ‘follow’ you. To converse with your friends, you post a message (Tweet) and unlike email services, where you have to add the name of each recipient, the website distributes it to the entire network of people who are following you. Hence, the same message will appear in everyone’s homepage.
Twitter, as a result, can be used for addressing several people by the same message. For instance, in his presidential campaign, Barack Obama used it for publicity by simultaneously addressing thousands of people who were following him. Apart from sending messages by internet, any user can post tweets simply by sending an SMS to the Twitter phone number. The message will get posted on the tweeter’s home page and in some countries users also get updates from Twitter.
Twitter, as a result, can be used for addressing several people by the same message. For instance, in his presidential campaign, Barack Obama used it for publicity by simultaneously addressing thousands of people who were following him. Apart from sending messages by internet, any user can post tweets simply by sending an SMS to the Twitter phone number. The message will get posted on the tweeter’s home page and in some countries users also get updates from Twitter.
Why Do You Need a Website
Suppose people want to know who you are and what you have to offer or your potential clients are looking for you and you are NOT THERE at the 'right' place and at the 'right' time - will this be a desirable situation???
The world is going the digital way!
Every day there are more and more people on the web than before. Almost everyone with a computer and a phone line has an internet connection and for people without a PC the internet cafes are bringing the cyberspace at their fingertips. With the vast amount of information available online the internet has become the primary source of researching information, companies and products.
A web site means ...
A web site will represent you, your organization or your business online. It's an opportunity for you to publish knowledge, ideas and products to the world and become accessible to anybody and anywhere, 24 hours a day and 7 days a week, that is, the web gives you a round-the-clock interactive service at a reduced expense! Can you think of any other cost effective communication medium that can do this for you???
Increase your visibility, communicate with the world and expand your client base globally!
More and more individuals and business persons are looking to the Web for products and services.
From the most remote location you can reach people anywhere, announce upcoming events, post images and get feedback at any time of the day and from all over the world. A web site is an ideal place to communicate with customers, suppliers, prospects, sales people and the general public -- tell them about your products or services, your business hours, your methods of payment, how to find you, etc.
100% current and time-sensitive information for an international audience!
What if your materials need to be released no earlier than midnight -- the quarterly earnings statement, the grand prize winner, the press kit for the much-anticipated film, the merger news? Well, you sent out the materials to the press with the "Do-not-release-before-such-and-such-time" statement and hope for the best. Now the information can be made available at midnight or any time you specify, with all related materials such as photographs, tables, charts, etc. released at exactly the same time. No brochure, radio spot, newspaper or TV/cable ad can sustain or refresh your message as can a web site. To retain your customers you need to keep them informed about the latest news, activities, events and services. Your web must also change to cater to your users' changing needs. You can even attach your web page to a database that customizes the page's output to a database you can change as many times in a day as you need. No printed piece can match this flexibility. Thus having a web site and being able to update it any time allows you to compete with your largest competitors on an equal footing.
Heightening public interest!
Your widget is great but people would really love it if they could see it in action. Again with no airplay nobody will know that your album sounds great! How about a 3D view of the interior of a room? Exploit the immense power of this high-tech world to make a good impression and attract clients! Add animated logos, high-resolution images, sound files, virtual reality effects and much more to your information. Unlike print, on the web not all visitors will proceed through the same pages serially. Hypertext can provide alternate views of information and alternative routes for users to follow based on their needs and interests. Rather than just forming a vague idea the visual, interactive and dynamic qualities of the web allow your visitor to have an all-encompassing view of your products or services -- it really complements an actual visit to your place particularly for your remote clients.
High-quality and instantaneous customer service!
How about making forms available to pre-qualify for loans, or having your staff to do a search for that classic Ravindra Sangeet record your customer is looking for, without tying up your staff on the phone to take down the information? Allow your customer to punch in sizes and check it against a database that tells him what colours of jacket are available in your store? All this can be done, simply and quickly, on the WWW. The personnel at your reception will tell you how their time is usually spent answering the same questions over and over again. These are the queries that customers and potential clients come up with before they deal with you. Post them on a WWW page and free up some time for your harried phone operator. You can also get instant feedback from your users and anticipate their changing needs. Moreover, an instant response to the frequently asked questions can be built into the web pages while they are still fresh in your customer's mind avoiding the cost and response-time of business reply mail.
So if you don't want to be left behind, if you want to be a part of the future come to us.
The world is going the digital way!
Every day there are more and more people on the web than before. Almost everyone with a computer and a phone line has an internet connection and for people without a PC the internet cafes are bringing the cyberspace at their fingertips. With the vast amount of information available online the internet has become the primary source of researching information, companies and products.
A web site means ...
A web site will represent you, your organization or your business online. It's an opportunity for you to publish knowledge, ideas and products to the world and become accessible to anybody and anywhere, 24 hours a day and 7 days a week, that is, the web gives you a round-the-clock interactive service at a reduced expense! Can you think of any other cost effective communication medium that can do this for you???
Increase your visibility, communicate with the world and expand your client base globally!
More and more individuals and business persons are looking to the Web for products and services.
From the most remote location you can reach people anywhere, announce upcoming events, post images and get feedback at any time of the day and from all over the world. A web site is an ideal place to communicate with customers, suppliers, prospects, sales people and the general public -- tell them about your products or services, your business hours, your methods of payment, how to find you, etc.
100% current and time-sensitive information for an international audience!
What if your materials need to be released no earlier than midnight -- the quarterly earnings statement, the grand prize winner, the press kit for the much-anticipated film, the merger news? Well, you sent out the materials to the press with the "Do-not-release-before-such-and-such-time" statement and hope for the best. Now the information can be made available at midnight or any time you specify, with all related materials such as photographs, tables, charts, etc. released at exactly the same time. No brochure, radio spot, newspaper or TV/cable ad can sustain or refresh your message as can a web site. To retain your customers you need to keep them informed about the latest news, activities, events and services. Your web must also change to cater to your users' changing needs. You can even attach your web page to a database that customizes the page's output to a database you can change as many times in a day as you need. No printed piece can match this flexibility. Thus having a web site and being able to update it any time allows you to compete with your largest competitors on an equal footing.
Heightening public interest!
Your widget is great but people would really love it if they could see it in action. Again with no airplay nobody will know that your album sounds great! How about a 3D view of the interior of a room? Exploit the immense power of this high-tech world to make a good impression and attract clients! Add animated logos, high-resolution images, sound files, virtual reality effects and much more to your information. Unlike print, on the web not all visitors will proceed through the same pages serially. Hypertext can provide alternate views of information and alternative routes for users to follow based on their needs and interests. Rather than just forming a vague idea the visual, interactive and dynamic qualities of the web allow your visitor to have an all-encompassing view of your products or services -- it really complements an actual visit to your place particularly for your remote clients.
High-quality and instantaneous customer service!
How about making forms available to pre-qualify for loans, or having your staff to do a search for that classic Ravindra Sangeet record your customer is looking for, without tying up your staff on the phone to take down the information? Allow your customer to punch in sizes and check it against a database that tells him what colours of jacket are available in your store? All this can be done, simply and quickly, on the WWW. The personnel at your reception will tell you how their time is usually spent answering the same questions over and over again. These are the queries that customers and potential clients come up with before they deal with you. Post them on a WWW page and free up some time for your harried phone operator. You can also get instant feedback from your users and anticipate their changing needs. Moreover, an instant response to the frequently asked questions can be built into the web pages while they are still fresh in your customer's mind avoiding the cost and response-time of business reply mail.
So if you don't want to be left behind, if you want to be a part of the future come to us.
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Stay Organized With Google Calendar
HOW TO: Stay Organized With Google Calendar http://ping.fm/QE69h
Stream Live Video on Twitter
Stream Live Video on Twitter from twitcam- powered by Livestream http://retwt.me/5usw
Affordable Websites
Hi Guys
Our vision is that everyone should own a website and hence we are creating low cost business websites. This sites would be very very affordable.
Our vision is that everyone should own a website and hence we are creating low cost business websites. This sites would be very very affordable.
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