Like ants at a picnic, it doesn’t take long for those persistent spammers and online marketers to appear with every new online experience. Just as it happened with pop-up and pop-under ads, with email, with Facebook, and with blogs, spammers are now appearing on Twitter. This trend is beginning to diminish the quality of the Twitter experience, and frustrate some of its most loyal users. For instance, spammers having been gaming the system by posting the popular hashtags, “Kanye West” for example, to attract traffic. Another exploit is to lure users into turning on the auto-following application, where users follow the people who follow them. This can be a mistake, allowing spammers to push incoming messages. A more legitimate example comes from Moonfruit, a British web site development company. Moonfruit ran a competition and challenged tweeters to include “#moonfruit” in their hashtags, in return for a chance to win a MacBook. Perhaps Moonfruit thought this promotional scheme was playing by the rules but Twitter didn’t see it that way, and put a stop to it. The Federal Trade Commission monitors the activity on Twitter. But in the context of constantly-changing technology, and the agency’s current project to combat deceptive product endorsements on blogs, policing Twitter isn’t one of the FTC’s top priorities. This leaves Twitter to protect its own interests, and keep the service attractive to its users. The company has recently updated its terms-of-use agreement to fight the abuse of hashtaqs, and has identified and deleted many “churn-and-burn” spamming accounts.
Twitter Spam
Random Twitter Deals
By searching on twitter I was able to find random deals for my holiday shopping as well as for completely random things.
- I found $11.95 PSP Games
- $4 Margaritas in San Francisco
- Half price tickets to a TCU football game
- Free Franchise Information eBook
- 50% Off flights from Quantas
Twitter is a very random collection of information.
Real Time Search
One of the best features of Twitter is their real time search engine because it allows you to search for any topic, or subject, and see what is on the consciousness of the “masses.” A great example of this is when Google recently went down on the East Coast, people turned to twitter’s search when they could not connect to Google, as a way to connect with other internet users to confirm that the services were offline. The ability to connect with a global community has previously been hard to find and often unreliable, so Twitter has given an outlet for people to voice their opinions online.
Chistmas Backgrounds for Twitter!
The holiday season is rapidly approaching the stores are getting ready. It’s time for them to break out their Christmas decorations and try to get you in the mood of giving! Send out those Christmas cards, cut down a tree and wrap the presents. But what about your twitter page!? You don’t want to leave it out of the holiday mood! Many websites have created Christmas backgrounds for your twitter account. From snowmen, snowflakes and Christmas trees; there is a great background to help your twitter page bring in the holidays!
Here is a site i found with some cool designs:
- Wish a friend_dot_com
Twitter as a News Source
Have you been following the trends on twitter lately? Twitter has now become one of the fastest growing news sources on the internet and has influenced a change in communication worldwide. Many companies have started using it as a customer service portal to respond to problems in real time and many governmental institutions have begun utilizing for safety and/or health alerts. The growing pandemic, H1N1, spread is being tracked via twitter and allows the public to feel involved and protected. By using Twitter, you can join this growing trend and become involved in the first major real time website.
Deals on Twitter
As we approach the Holidays it appears that more companies than ever are offering specials on Twitter. Companies such as Amazon, Woot, Vistaprint, TJ Maxx, Tiny Prints and more. Twitter is turning into a customer service/coupon feed for some of these larger companies. Before you start shopping this holiday season for your Christmas Cards, Electronics or Family Gifts make sure you check out Twitter so you can save!
Twitter Trends
Follow Friday and now Fat Girl Remixes are the hottest new trends on Twitter. The Independent wrote an article discussing the trends:
The term Follow Friday continues to make an appearance in Twitter’s trending topics on Friday, November 6. Every Friday people on the microblogging site take the opportunity to suggest interesting Twitter users or Lists of people to follow.
People are appropriating song titles and lyrics, modifying them to relate to food, over-eating or obesity, and posting them to their Twitter accounts. Some of the new “#fatgirlremixes” created by Twitter users are, “don’t – push – me – I’m – too – close – to – the – veg!”, “Black Eyed Peas: Eat Me Halfway,” “everything I do, I do it for food” and “your love’s got me lookin’ for chicken right now – Beyonce ‘crazy in l’oven.’”
Twitter in Plain English
Found this interesting video that really explains what Twitter is and what you could do with it.
Twitter is a very interesting Social Media, where else could you find out that Lindsay Lohan thinks her dad is a loser or about Levi Johnston’s underwear? Most of us do not care, but for those who do, you are in heaven.
Tweeting Companies
Many companies are now using Twitter to communicate with their customers and offer exclusive deals to their loyal followers. Vistaprint is just one example of a company that has a Twitter account to help their customers. They monitor the account daily and make sure that all their clients are happy. Many companies have already started to offer holiday deals on such products as photo calendars.
How To Make Twitter Available On Your Site
Integrating Twitter into your website is an excellent way to build the community of your business, gain followers on Twitter, and even promote your business when followers retweet you and promote your web page. Due to Twitter’s booming popularity, microblogging has become an efficient way to for owners of websites to engage readers and potential customers. Twitter’s self-made Widget is the easiest way to incorporate Twitter onto your website. Twitter has the option to place two different Widget anywhere on your site and both can be customized. The Profile Widget displays your Twitter updates on your site. The Search Widget displays a real time search for your name or company on Twitter. The Follow Me button is another one provided by Twitter. Placing it on your page allows viewers to follow your Twitter account with one easy click. Twitter provides a number of usable buttons, although many other sites offer an even bigger variety for you to choose from. Twitip ID is a plug-in that allows users to add their Twitter name, real name, and a picture in your comment form, enabling your community to grow even more, by getting the contact information of visitors to your site. The Twitter Buttons Re-tweet button can be placed on your site, and encourages visitors to share Twitter posts. It includes a counter that keeps track of how often your page has been re-tweeted. TweetSuite is a Wordpress plug-in that includes a variety of Twitter options, including a Tweet This button, a Re-Tweet button, and it gives you the option to automatically update your Twitter every time you post on your blog or website. It also has a number of widgets you can pick and choose from displaying your most tweeted, to tweets you have deemed your favorite. Consider adding Twitter to your website with these easy options to get your website the traffic and visibility you want.