Increase Your Twitter Followers Dramatically with TweetBig

TweetBig is a new “brilliant” Twitter management tool that helps you to drastically increase your followers and build your network. The beauty of TweetBig is that is can do most tasks automatically, which is a huge timesaver. The sneaky thing about TweetBig though is when signing up, you don’t realize that there is a fee for the service until the end. It runs you through the entire process of setting up your account, and then won’t let you actually begin using the service until you pay the $4.95 7-day trial fee.

For the purpose of this review, I really wanted to fully test out the service so I decided to pay the small fee. After the 7-day trial, you can cancel or pay $17.95 per month to keep the service going. So, if you’re not a heavy Twitter user then it may not be worthwhile for you to use this service. There are definitely many free tools out there that can do almost all of what TweetBig does — even though you may have to use more than one service to match the features. Besides the surprise fee though, the service is pretty useful and very easy to setup.

First you’ll need to connect your Twitter account via OAuth.

Next you’ll set up the Piggy Back feature. Here you can “add (up to 15) competitors or users in a similar niche as you and TweetBig will analyze who follows them and identify the best users to follow.” You should choose people similar to what interests you; this will ensure that you get relevant user suggestions. TweetBig will then check regularly for new users to follow. They will also determine which of those users are the best quality and will most likely follow you back. From there (after paying) you’ll be able to mark which users you’d like to follow (see picture below).

Next you’ll set up the Keyword Gather feature. This step is pretty much like the Piggy Back feature (above), except you’ll enter keywords and phrases that interest you. Once again, TweetBig will then go and find people using and talking about those keywords and phrases. They will then show you the best, most qualified users that are most likely to follow you back. From there (after paying) you’ll be able to mark which users you’d like to follow (see picture below).

Lastly it walks you through the Follow Timebomb feature. This is a simple feature that you can choose to turn on or off. “When turned on TweetBig will wait the specified number of days for a user to follow you back, if they don’t they’ll be unfollowed.” If you are someone that doesn’t care if people follow you back or not, it’s best to simply leave this feature off — though this is one of the top techniques used by many in order to increase followers.

Once you pay for the trial, you can then access your account in full. You’ll be able to pause the service and turn it back on whenever you like. You will also be able to turn on the Auto Follow Back tool which will automatically follow back any user who follows you; by default this feature will be off. There is also a Tweet Scheduler that lets you schedule tweets to be posted at a later time. The scheduler also includes a URL shortener.

As far as the users that are picked out for you under Keyword Gather and Piggy Back, you can set TweetBig to automatically follow them or you can choose to do it automatically. I find that the listed users under Keyword Gather are not very detailed (as you can see in the picture above). It doesn’t tell you how many followers a user has or what the percentage is that they will follow you back (like the Piggy Back area). Also, for both areas there is no way to totally remove a user or show that you’re not interested in following them.

Then there’s the Red Carpet feature which will constantly monitor your followers and show you who has the most influence and biggest following. It takes a while for them to go through your users and show something here; after a few hours I still have nothing there. Lastly, there is a new feature that will be coming soon. Christopher, from TweetBig, let me know that the feature will let users add RSS feeds to their account which can then be automatically posted to Twitter whenever the RSS feed is updated.

Given the long review, you can see that TweetBig is definitely beneficial for those really wanting to give their following a boost. It’s just a matter of whether you think the fee is worth it or not. Christopher also let me know that “some users are able to get around 1-2k (relevant) new followers monthly” using the service; that’s pretty impressive.

What do you think? Is TweetBig worth your money? Let us know in the comments.

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Cup of Joe: Is Social Media Making Us Stupid?

So, about a month ago I started creating some content for a side project of mine. The plan was to do a very in-depth study on the major players in a niche industry and see how they are doing on the internet. The goal was to study each corporation’s branding, their SEO efforts, and traffic to their web properties. I took about four weeks to do case studies on each corporation.

After I collected my data I wrote up an analysis on each in each area. I then made corresponding charts that showed my findings in a clear and easy to understand format. After it was all finished I put it all together and sat back to marvel at my work! I thought, this piece of content is sure to go viral.

So, with out further ado, I went ahead and started seeding the content to my favorite social media gateways. I shared it with my friends and pushed it hard through niche networks and groups. And then I started to monitor my traffic. At first I got a pretty good spike from the initial push, but quickly saw my numbers come to a standstill. I went back and checked my server stats to make sure I wasn’t having technical problems and everything looked ok. So I went back to the networks and niche groups that I originally used to push the content and found the problem.

No body was sharing it.

Ok a few folks shared it. But by and large this amazing piece of content was sitting in cyberspace like a dead duck. I couldn’t figure it out. Why didn’t anyone digg, stumble, or retweet my post? I used the same seeding strategy that has helped me push numerous pieces of content much further. And then it finally dawned on me. My post wasn’t going anywhere because it actually made people think, it wasn’t sexy, and it didn’t “entertain” anyone.

Have you noticed the recent surge in popularity of infographics? I mean whats with those? Are we to busy to read, or just to lazy? Whats with the constant retweeting of “Top 10 List”? Have we forgotten how to read text when not in bullet form? Why is it that longer blog posts tend to get less comments than the shorter ones? Has Twitter damaged our attention span that badly?

So this is just one man’s opinion, but it seems that if you want to get people to spread content in social media, you better dumb it down first. So my real question to all of you is:

Is social media making us stupid? Or are stupid people attracted to social media? I am awaiting your answers in the comments, that is if you actually read this whole post!

[photo credit]

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Facebook Adds Browser for Fan Pages

A few posts ago, I wrote a piece about how Facebook ads are more effective when they contain a picture. Facebook is taking this idea to heart with a newly released browser page that emphasizes photos over text for fan pages.

The browser is divided into categories such as Movies, TV, Sports, Politicians and Brands. When you click on a topic, you’re presented with a page of icons with a line of text underneath. Clicking the picture will set your phasers on “Like”, clicking the link will take you to the fan page for a look around.

The upside here is that photos are much more compelling than a long list of links. Categorizing works as a suggestive sell figuring if you like the TV show Bones, you’ll probably like Castle.

In addition, the sidebar shows you a list of your friends ranked by how many fan pages you share. This is kind of fun and I was surprised to see who of my friends ranked highest for shared interests. It wasn’t who I thought it would be.

On the marketing end, there’s a lot of good here. The biggest favor is the fact that Facebook has a tab for Brands. That took some guts to put up there because even though the TV shows, Movies and Musicians are all trying to sell their product, it’s not as blatant an advertisement as a branded fan page. It’s kind of like TV Guide listing the commercials as well as the shows.

What I don’t know is how the system is choosing which fan pages to show and in what order. It’s not the same for everyone. I checked with a variety of logins, so it’s not by popularity. It’s probably based on an algorithm that pairs my current interests with similar pages.

The other thing I can’t figure out is how you’re supposed to find the browse page if you don’t have the link. Maybe once they’ve tested this thing they’ll make it a clear button somewhere but at the moment, I don’t see it.

To access the new Facebook Browser Page click: http://www.facebook.com/pages/browser.php

What do you think of the new page? Useful tool or just another place to waste some time?

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Retailers Seeing Social Media Value

Retailers have been using social media to their benefit. It seems, however, as if they took this path not because they could lure more people to them but because that’s where the people were already. Not exactly cutting edge thinking (since reacting to a situation rather than creating a need is less desirable) but it is what it is.

eMarketer reports on a study conducted by the Aberdeen Group that gives some insight into retailers and their use of social media. First, a look at why they are there in the first place.

I’m not sure why this seems backwards but it does to me. The way that the industry reports the evolution of social media in the retail space, it would seem as if innovators were creating great places for social networkers to go and share their ‘find’. It looks like the other way around though according to these findings since retailers had to react to the changing habits of customers and follow them to where they were going.

Less than ideal but that’s the way it happens more often than not in business: react to the change rather than create the new need and inspire the change.

As for social media KPIs (key performance indicators) there is a mix of the qualitative and quantitative elements although true conversion (a sale) isn’t on the list.

So what conclusions can we draw from these findings? Hard to tell since not every retailer has the same profile with regard to their own internal structure and capabilities around social media and just how social media savvy their customers are.

One thing for sure though is that retailers can be led around on a leash by their customers, which is a dangerous place to be because the customer doesn’t always have the retailers best interest in mind.

Your thoughts?

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5 Simple Yet Useful Firefox Addons for Social Networking Users

Firefox is one of the three browsers I use on a regular basis, and it’s the only one I use on both my Mac and PC. One of the main reasons I usually open it up is to use one of my favorite addons (aka extensions) that is not available on either Chrome or Safari; then there are other times when things just seem to work better in Firefox. In any case, if you’re a Firefox and a social networking user, then here are five simple yet useful Firefox addons that may come in handy for you. It’s hard to pick just five when there are hundreds to choose from; so feel free to add your own suggestions in the comments.

Thumbnail Zoom

This addon will automatically enlarge pictures that you scroll your mouse over on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Amazon, Picasa, Flickr, LinkedIn and Hi5. You may have heard of a similar addon that works just for Facebook, but this one gives you a larger variety of social networks to work with. Additionally, “each site can be enabled or disabled using the status bar menu and the addon settings dialog.”

Dropico

This addon lets you easily share Web photos on Facebook, Picasa, Twitter, MySpace, Flickr and Photobucket. This is done by simply right clicking the photo and selecting the “Save to Dropico” option. You can also use the Dropico Media Manager sidebar to drag photos from any social network and drop them directly into Gmail, Yahoo Mail, WordPress and more. You will need to have a Dropico account to use both options.

Qwisk

This Web tool has been covered on Blogging Tips before, and also has a very useful Firefox addon. With it you can toggle the sidebar on any web page and see what your friends are sharing on Qwisk, Twitter and Facebook. It also adds two buttons to your Firefox toolbar: one for sharing the current page you’re browsing on Twitter and the other for sharing the current page on Facebook. Lastly, you can drag images from the Web and drop them to share on Twitter, Facebook and Qwisk.

Hootlet

If you are a user of HootSuite then this addon will be very handy for you. The Hootlet lets you share the current page you’re viewing on any account you have linked to your HootSuite account. Once installed you can click the toolbar button anytime to shorten a link, add your own text and then share it on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Ping.fm, MySpace and/or Foursquare. You can also add an image or file, schedule the message or save it as a draft. A similar, more advanced addon like this is Yoolink.

Amplify

Well we’ve got photo and link sharing covered, but what about full Web content? Well, Amplify is great for that! First, you’ll need an account which is easy since you can login with your Facebook or Twitter account. From the toolbar button you’ll then be able to clip content from any Web page or just share the URL. You can then share the content or URL on any of the accounts you have linked to your Amplify account. Currently Twitter, Facebook, Google Buzz, Posterous, Tumblr, WordPress, Blogger, Ping.fm, Plurk, FriendFeed, Diigo, Delicious, Clipmarks and Bit.ly are supported.

Which social networking addon is your favorite?

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Insights from Ogilvy 360 DI Gov 2.0 Exchange Panelists

What is Gov 2.0? What are some of the trends and opportunities in this space? What are some of the exciting break throughs? How can an organization benefit from it? Why should I care?

On Monday September 27th, Ogilvy 360 DI will be bringing together some of the preeminent thought leaders in this space to discuss these very questions. The event which will focus on how social media tools are shaping government, the 2010 elections and issue campaigns is standing room only. Nearly two hundred people have registered on Eventbrite. Seating will be on a first come first serve basis.

This week I had the honor of interviewing a couple of the panelists that will be featured during next week’s Ogilvy 360 DI Gov 2.0 Exchange. Their responses were candid and compelling; and provided a sneak peek at the conversation and themes we will tackle on Monday.

Ogilvy 360 DI: What do you see as the vision of Gov 2.0 and why is it relevant?

A: MICAH SIFRY, Co-founder and Editor, Personal Democracy Forum

At Personal Democracy Forum, we prefer the term “We-government,” the co-creating of new forms of collaboration and service that use technology, public data and the social web to address vital issues and solve public problems, that enables us to do more with less. It’s neither Right nor Left, not small government or big government, but effective do-it-ourselves-government.

This is relevant for obvious reasons. In many ways the old ideologies have run out of steam. Laissez-faire capitalism has been badly discredited by the financial meltdown (and Enron and accounting scandals before that); big government liberalism, where wise technocrats supposedly engineer good public policy on behalf of the public, has also run out steam, captured by special interest groups that block innovation.

Meanwhile we are living in a paradoxical moment of political gridlock and technological transformation. Every day that ordinary citizens watch their elected leaders struggle and mostly fail to get anything done in the face of organized blocking minorities, makes the public feel more powerless. But at the same time, every day a new tech innovation puts more power literally in our own hands. In such a moment, should we be surprised that the single biggest Twitter burst seen around any national event was not for President Obama’s State of the Union speech this past winter, but for the unveiling of the iPad, a few days later?

People are looking for new answers, and a lot of innovation is starting to emerge from the edges, where civic hackers are inventing new ways of combining public data with community engagement. That is the promise of We-government. Not e-government, where the authorities use the web to provide the public with information and services delivered from above, but where we reinvent government as a platform connecting all of us around the issues and needs that matter in our own lives most.

Ogilvy 360 DI: In your opinion, what are some of “the success stories” that exist in the Gov 2.0 space?

A: ALEXANDER HOWARD, Gov 2.0 Correspondent, O’Reilly Media

Alex Howard

First, given recent assessments and what I view as a general consensus by close observers, we’re in open government’s beta period. There are definitely both risks and rewards to the use of Web 2.0 by federal agencies.

While U.S. CTO Aneesh Chopra has hailed 2010 as the year of participatory platforms, they are still relatively early in their development. As is the case everywhere open government is in beta, the question of whether crowdsourcing national challenges at Challenge.gov leads to better solutions will remain outstanding for months time to come. While Challenge.gov may be the most visible platform, the first US CTO is thinking big in terms of using technology to meet the policy goals of the Obama administration. The re-launch of the Federal Register is definitely a success story. Other case studies include the Department of Health and Human Services, where CTO Todd Park is working on making community health information as useful as weather data. Open health data from Health and Human Services is driving more than 20 new apps. As Tim O’Reilly observed in his post on NHIN Connect and open healthcare records, “there’s some fresh thinking going on here, influenced by the best practices of open standards and rapid Internet development.”

The reboot of FCC.gov and rollout of APIs and developer engagement holds some promise. The launch of the Civic Commons code-sharing initiative could be a big deal to state and city governments. The progress of bringing open government to courts bears close watching. And if you’re tracking the technology that will make government better, it’s clear that network visualization and the mining of open data sets will have major utility for fraud detection and reduction. Abroad, the growth of government 2.0 in Australia and development of open government in Britain are key examples, particularly Data.gov.uk.

If you review the Gov 2.0 activity in summer 2010, however, you can see that the steady progress in this space. As we look ahead to the next Congress and the second half of the Obama administration’s term, it’s clear that open government is a mindset as much as a technology challenge. Taking on open government challenges at California scale is hard enough; making that transition at the federal level will be even harder.

Come join us on Monday, September 27th as we continue the conversation with these two luminaries and their fellow panelists Mark Murray, deputy political director for NBC News; Ari Melber, correspondent and blogger for the Nation magazine and Politico; and Gwynne Kostin, Director at the Center for New Media and Citizen Engagement at the GSA. To learn more about the event, read Rachel Caggiano’s post and if you have not yet, RSVP on the Eventbrite. 

Photos courtesy of Micah Sifry @ personaldemocracy.com and Alex Howard @ oreilly.com

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LinkedIn Reels In Review Site Talent

The online space and its obsession with reviews have been mostly relegated to the B2C space. LinkedIn, which is the networking / social media place for ‘professionals’ (whatever that means) is seeing that their audience needs some review help as well. It makes sense. If you want someone’s opinion about a restaurant then why not seek it out for an accountant?

LinkedIn has purchased the start up ChoiceVendor as reported by Bloomberg Businessweek.

ChoiceVendor, a San Francisco startup founded in 2008 by two former Google (GOOG) employees, provides customer reviews about accountants, call centers, payroll services, and other vendors. Financial terms of the deal weren’t disclosed in a LinkedIn statement on Sept. 23.

It appears as if LinkedIn is following the practice of many of its users in the recruiting industry by looking to acquire talent as much as acquiring new products to offer.

“You’ll continue to see us do acquisitions for talent,” Jeff Weiner, LinkedIn CEO said in an interview with Businessweek.com. “Our top operating priority is building a world-class team.”

The talent, in this case, are the two founders of the company who are former Google guys.

With ChoiceVendor, LinkedIn gets co-founders Yan-David Erlich, a former product manager at Google and the creator of instant-messaging service Social.im, and Rama Ranganath, a former engineer at Google and Microsoft.

LinkedIn continues to grow in an almost stealth manner because of its status as being a networking tool for the professional community. With revenues estimated at $228 million for 2010 and a valuation estimated at $1.87 billion by Global Silicon Valley Partners, it looks like stealth works just fine.

So where will this lead for LinkedIn? An IPO is not out of the question for sure.

Adding talent and technology tools that appeal to business customers may help LinkedIn win favor with Wall Street should it decide to hold an initial public offering. “The better we execute, the more options we’re going to have ahead of us, and IPO would be one of those options,” said Weiner, a former executive of Yahoo!

Are you a LinkedIn user? How do you utilize the service? Would formalized reviews be a good addition? Tell us in the comments section. Thanks.

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