I have just listened to the co-founder of Twitter on TED and I was fascinated to hear about how twitter has evolved from the original idea and how people have invented new ways of organising and getting their messages across.
The @ and # symbols are just two of the key devices integrated into Twitter at a later stage.
The @ symbol allows to you to refer to people by their twitter username, i.e @gicela. You can use this at any point in your tweet and it’s also public.
The # tag is used to refer to a group of people following the same topic, for example a fundrasing event #Twestival or a conference #SXSW. You can create your own #tag to point to people to the same topic of conversation.
In the last week or two, a new service called wefollow has created a new Twitter directory based on people assigning ‘tags’ to themselves, e.g. #gardening, #biking, etc.
I often hear business owners talk about the frustration of dealing with their web agency. More often than not, it’ll be about a small edit they want to make to their existing website, and how it can often be both costly and inflexible.
Now WordPress is a blogging platform which offers powerful CMS capabilities. You no longer need to ask your web agency to correct the spelling mistake you made! Nor do you need to ask them to upload the photo you emailed to them yesterday.
I have been using WordPress as both a blogging platform for small businesses, and for owners of small websites who need the CMS capabilities and the social elements that a blogging platform offers. Combining both can create a powerful web solution that in the past would have been an expensive business.
WordPress is open source software, which means that you can use the software for free and customise it to your needs. Small businesses who require only a handful of web pages do not need to employ a costly web agency.
It’s a good idea to browse through some of the blogs hosted in WordPress.com to give you an idea of the features that WordPress offers.
Twitter is quickly being adopted by individuals, organisations and businesses as a new way to communicate to the world. By attempting to answer the question ‘what are you doing?’ , people come up with all sorts of interesting facts, anecdotes, thoughts, links, questions and answers… and the list goes on.
Twitter is a micro-blogging platform that allows you to write anything – so long as you keep to 140 characters. You decide which people you wish to ‘follow’ and in turn those people might follow you back.
You can use a Twitter profile to deal with customer queries, like Zappos, the successful USA online retailer, distribute the latest news like the Guardian Technology News, raise money for a good cause like Mara Triangle (pictured), share news of your travels, like Stephen Fry… or simply join the conversation.
Mara Triangle Twitter Profile
I learn a lot from the people that I ‘follow’ on Twitter, and in turn I like sharing links and thoughts with those that follow me. This makes Twitter a particularly valuable tool. Try it – ask a question and you will get inundated with answers!
You can also make your Twitter profile ‘private’ – although I really don’t see the benefit of this. Most people go public!
There is a service called Yammer, which is similar to Twitter but for businesses and lives behind a firewall. Only people on the same domain name can access to it.
But hold on, I have email, and an intranet in my organisation. Why would I want to have yet another application? Well, people who like your products or services will tell you so, and those that don’t may also tell you why. This is valuable feedback that you would have not gained otherwise.
Thanks to my friend Aaron Acutt of Point6, who gave me a hand with tweaking the illustration, which was acquired from iStockPhoto.
It was hard to find a theme that would make me happy. Here in England, I miss the sunshine, so I wanted something to cheer me up. The sun and cactus is the perfect combination. I also love the way the ‘nopal’ (‘prickly pear’ if you prefer) grows in the direction of the ’sun’.
I have lots of exciting things to share with you over the coming months. But for now, just wanted to say ’salud!’ to my new blog theme.
Thank you for stopping by. I'm a techie at heart and passionate about the social web. I help people embrace open source technologies and coach them to use online tools effectively.
