OK, so you have decided to go guns-a-blazing into the Twitter marketing universe. You have your Twitter account(s), and you are making tweets like a madman. Your following is growing and you might even be using handy tools such as Tweet Adder to build a targeted following, but then you hit a road block. Once you have followed 2000 people, Twitter wont let you follow anymore accounts. Why is that? Well, Twitter is trying to make sure that it’s service doesn’t digress into a useless tool of spam. Twitter knows that when a person follows another person that person often follows them back, therefore Twitter marketers generally follow hundreds or thousands of accounts and a large percentage of those accounts follow-back, this creates a “spammy” atmosphere and therefore Twitter has placed limits on the amount of people you can follow. But wait…. are we saying that you can never follow more than 2000 people on Twitter? No, not exactly. The Twitter limit on following people is only in place if the amount of people following you in return is not close (within 10% or so).

Get it? If you are following 2000 people you need to be followed by approximately 2000 people.

Example, lets say you have 1000 people following you and lets say you are following 1999 people. You will hit your “follow limit” the next time you follow a person on Twitter. Then you will not be allowed to follow anymore tweeters with that account.

So what can you do when you hit your follow limit?

You have two options:

1. Reduce the amount of people you are following.

2. Patiently wait and hope that you gain followers simply by making tweets. Once your following is around 2000 you will then be able to start following new people again (although you will need to keep those two numbers close to each other).

We feel the best option is #1. (Reduce the amount of people you are following). Unfollow people who are not following you back. Unfollow spammers. Unfollow tweeters that don’t interest you. The easiest way to accomplish that task is to use a tool such as Tweet Adder that can automate the process of unfollowing accounts that don’t meet the criteria you desire. Tweet Adder also features a great option which is to only unfollow accounts that were generated through Tweet Adder in the first place which insures that you will not accidentally unfollow accounts that you have hand-selected to follow.

The bottom-line is you need to have the number of followers at or around the same number as the amount of people you are following. If you keep the ratio of followers to following around 1.1 to 1 you will never encounter the dreaded Twitter following limits.

Google Buzz is Google’s attempt to capitalize on the growing social media market. Google Buzz integrates into gmail and allows you to share photos, videos, updates and more. One nice feature of Google Buzz is that there is nothing to setup, you are automatically following the people that you email and they are following you back as well. You can share your updates with just your friends or you can share with the entire public. To get all the details go to buzz.google.com or check out the video below.

Yeah, yeah we have heard all the horror stories… cell phones cause brain tumors, and text messaging while driving is now illegal because it’s dangerous. Yet just when everyone is picking on texting we find our that texting can actually save your life! Sure it’s not wise to attempt to send or read text messages while you are driving your car but texting isn’t all bad. Check out this recent story from New Zealand:

Tourist’s texts to Greece save him in New Zealand

A tourist who got lost on a New Zealand mountain was rescued after sending text messages to his family in Greece, newspapers and websites reported on Monday.

Marios Symeonidis was visiting Mount Ruapehu, home to New Zealand’s largest skiing and snowboarding area, this weekend with a friend, but then lost his companion while taking photographs, website www.stuff.co.nz reported.

He was not equipped for an overnight stay and was only wearing light clothing.

Symeonidis sent text messages to his family in Greece, telling them he was lost. They then passed on the information to police in New Zealand via Greek emergency services.

Four teams were dispatched to rescue Symeonidis, who ended up spending the night on the mountain and was then picked up in the morning by another tourist, who drove him to the rescue teams.

Rescue pilot Henry de Waal said Symeonidis was well after his ordeal, and extremely hungry.

source

In a recent article the folks at Mashable did a great job of rounding up stats from analytics company called Net Applications on browser usage on the internet. The good news is that quality browsers such as Chrome and Safari are growing in usage, yet the bad news is the worst browser of all-time Internet Explorer 6 is still the 2nd most popular browser with 20.07% market share.

From the article…

5.20% of the market is actually impressive for a browser as new as Chrome, but Internet Explorer still dominates. IE8 takes up 22.31% of the market and IE7 carries 14.58%, but it’s upsetting to see that IE6 on its own is still the second most popular browser version (behind IE8) at 20.07%.

At Mashable, we’ve made it clear that we believe IE6 must die. It has stifled innovation and left its users vulnerable to security threats for too long, and compared to modern browsers it’s a hassle to use.

Google agrees, and so do many other companies; that’s why it’s phasing out support for the browser, hoping that in doing so it can convince users to either upgrade to a newer version or switch to a competing browser like Firefox, Chrome or Safari.

The good news is that this seems to be working, albeit very, very slowly. IE6 has been declining gradually for months. It just can’t happen quickly enough.

Read the entire Mashable article here.

The following review of Tweet adder is not a “canned” review. I really did buy the product and I really use it everyday. I hope this review will be helpful if you are considering using Tweet adder.

Here we go…
I haven’t been this excited about a product in a long time! Tweet adder is no gimmick and produces great results. Tweet adder is a software product that will help you build-up your Twitter account without the undesired result of a twitter-train scheme (Twitter -trains are bad because the followers you get are not targeted therefore they are a waste of time). Tweet adder is really nothing more than a way to automate the natural and best-practices processes of building up a Twitter account  (i.e., following the right people, unfollowing, following back, etc.). If you are doing all of these steps manually for one or more Twitter accounts, Tweet adder is for you. The best thing is that Tweet adder allows you to put all these processes on auto-pilot so you can be building your Twitter accounts while you are shopping or relaxing in your hot tub.

I cautiously bought Tweet adder about a month ago to see if it would be a good tool for me and I have used it constantly everyday since that time. I have taken several stale Twitter accounts and turned them into valuable marketing resources with the help of Tweet adder. For instance, I had an old Twitter account for a internet forum community that I manage and the account only had 59 followers and wasn’t growing. I didn’t have much time to manually build up the account so it was essentially worthless. I added it to my Tweet adder automated routine and within one week the account now has 360 targeted followers and is sending great traffic to my website. (keep in mind once you build up your Twitter following you still need to make good, compelling tweets to send traffic to your website)

So what is Tweet adder?

Tweet adder is a desktop software application runs on Mac or Windows and allows you to create a large list of folks you would like to follow based on whatever you deem worthy (tweet keywords, profile keywords, location, followers of another user, or users followed by another user). Then you set up Tweet adder to follow a predetermined amount of those users everyday. A large percentage of those users will follow you back and BOOM!! You are now growing your Twitter following with targeted users. And if those users don’t follow you back you can have Tweet adder automatically unfollow them.

My personal favorite Tweet adder strategy is as follows:

- Pick a Twitter user that has followers that I wish were following me (eg. if you had a football website you might want followers that follow the NFL Twitter account).
- Auto create a list of all of those followers and have Tweet adder follow 100 of them per day (or whatever number you want).
- Have Tweet adder auto follow back any user that follows me for any other reason (this builds strong relationships).
- Have Tweet adder auto unfollow users that don’t follow you back after three days (this keeps your Twitter account lean and clean)

Tweet adder can also send automated Tweets, replies and direct messages but I like to do that stuff myself so I don’t use those features although I might in the future when things really start rolling. Currently I have 6 Twitter accounts that tweet adder is building for me and each one is growing every single day.

In a nutshell… Tweet adder automates the tasks that will help you build up your Twitter followers in a real and targeted way. Other Twitter building schemes might be able to get you tons of followers but those followers will likely NOT be targeted and therefore be a waste of time and a distraction to your Twitter marketing campaign. I would rather have 100 targeted followers than 10,000 untargeted followers. When someone asks… “how do I effectively use Twitter to market my website/product” I tell them they need targeted followers and the best way to get targeted followers is to start following people that you want to follow you and unfollow the ones that don’t follow you back (that, combined with making good tweets is the best way to build a twitter account). Tweetadder automates that process and speeds it up so you can build you Twitter account more rapidly via automation, and therefore have time to work on other projects.

Tweet adder offers a free demo so download it today and see for yourself how powerful Tweet adder is.

Have you heard of Google Goggles yet? Google Goggles is a visual based search engine. To search just use your camera on your cell phone. The technology is still new but offers some exciting new capabilities that might make using your cell phone even more productive. Google Goggles is available for Android based cell phones.

Twitter is all the rage, online marketers, affiliate niche site owners, media outlets, family, and friends are all tweeting up a storm. It seems like you can’t swing a dead cat without hitting somebody who is talking about or using Twitter. In 2010 it is estimated that 20 million people will sign up and use Twitter regularly, that’s 10 times less than the amount of people who use Facebook but it’s clear that Twitter is gaining fast. And while Twitter seems to be the next “big thing” not everyone is singing it’s praises.

5 Reasons why Twitter sucks:

#5. No advertisements. How am I supposed to get great bargains on Viagra or deals on car insurance when Twitter doesn’t serve me ads? I wants banner ads on top, on the side, as well as endless looping pop-up ads every time I try to leave Twitter.

#4. Registration is too simple. I prefer going through several pages of forms during the registration process and entering a captcha at least 6 times until I can get it right. Furthermore, no email account activation is necessary. I don’t know about you, but I look forward to the scant opportunities I get go snooping through the 1,273 items in my junk mail folder to find an email activation link. Twitter, you’ve let me down again.

#3. No endless Farmville, and Yoville status updates. When my second cousin buys a chicken for her Farmville farm I want to know about it ASAP!!

#2.The name is dumb. Who came up with the name Twitter anyway?

#1. I didn’t invent Twitter. The most pathetic thing about Twitter is that I didn’t think of it first. It should be me who is holding out for the first billion dollar bidder to fatten my wallet and send me laughing all the way to the bank. I mean come on people… I could have thought of Twitter… anyone could have thought of Twitter… but specifically, it should have been me. That makes me 0 for 3, I didn’t think of MySpace, Facebook, or Twitter… heck I didn’t even think of YouTube! So off I go thinking up the next big thing and trust me… it will be much better than Twitter.

Today we take a look at Tumblr. Tumblr is a blogging tool that similar to Posterous and fits somewhere in between Twitter and a full blown Word Press blog. I must admit I am a bit conflicted about the usefulness of both Posterous and Tumblr because they are so close to full featured blog yet lack the tools to monetize the blog therefore leaving you stuck somewhere in the middle. If you are not going to monetize your blog why not just use Twitter where you will have the advantage of the massive membership? Even still, tumblr is a really cool tool! Tumblr has much more robust tools than does Twitter therefore if Twitters leaves you wanting… Tumblr is for you!

Tumblr is free and creating an account is beyond simple. With Tumblr you can post text, photos, links, music, and videos from your browser. You can also make blog posts easily from your phone and there is also a great iPhone app for Tumblr. One feature I found interesting is the ability to make a “call in” post from your cell phone. I was expecting that the call in feature would turn your voice message into a text message and then post that text on your blog. Instead, the call in feature merely posts an audio recording of your call on your blog which is cool but not that useful, especially for SEO purposes.

Tumblr lacks a cool widget to place back on your Word Press blog (or other website) and therefore falls short of Zannel in that regard. Companies such as Tumblr and Posterous need to keep in mind that publishers need to be able to use every tool in a way that benefits us in some way, we need to be able to monetize the tool or use the tool to enhance our existing projects in some way shape or form.

So who might use Tumblr? The best use for Tumblr would be for creative folks who want to catalog ideas, images, videos, and create a sort of online portfolio of stuff from the net or Twitter marketers who need a “home”, i.e., a place for their users to be directed to that contains more detailed information. If you plan to create a blog that will feature Adsense or other affiliate banners for revenue generating purposes Tumblr doesn’t seem to be the solution unless I am missing how that might be accomplished.

Tumblr easily connects with Twitter for cross posting, i.e., you can auto post to Twitter from your Tumblr entries or post your Twitter entries to your Tumblr blog. Tumblr also supports Facebook posting as well as a variety of other tools via RSS feed posting which is really cool.

Customizing your Tumblr blog is easy and there are some great themes to choose from, you can further customize your theme if you like digging into the html code. Tumblr’s web 2.0 look and feel is very well done and the dashboard is simple enough to find your way around with little trouble.

You can check out the Tumblr account I whipped up in just a few seconds. InternetPoop on Tumblr.

In summary, I really love Tumblr but I’m not sure how I will use it in the future. I can’t put a ton of effort into something that’s difficult to monetize. However, I do believe there is a need for tools such as Tumblr and if Tumblr (or Posterous for that matter) ever decide to include a customizable side bar for Adsense ads or other custom affiliate code these tools might just give Word Press a real run for it’s money.

Las Vegas PubCon 2009. Hanging out at PubCon has been a blast, I’m here with my protection (the Social Networking Ninjas) and we are checking out the exhibitors on the convention floor today. I plan to give a more in-depth review of PubCon when I have more time but a few of the folks that caught my attention are: LotusJump, PR Web, and Seo Samba, very cool stuff!

On the down side I lost my parlay bet on the Colorado Avalanche game last night and I also failed miserably at the roulette wheel. Hopefully tonight will paint a different picture.

On second thought I don’t think I will add to this review. PubCon was a bit of a disappointment. Whatever you do DON’T pay for the exhibit hall, it’s a monumental waste of money. No offense PubCon but that should have been free. On the bright side I ended up winning back almost all of my money on the roulette wheel and Mario Batailli’s restaurant was AWESOME!!!!

Twitter is the hottest social networking tool on the planet, especially for businesses and internet marketers. Most internet marketers have several Twitter accounts which makes updating and tracking these multiple accounts somewhat tricky. After all… logging in and out and back in again to every Twitter account would cause most folks to tear their hair out and give up! Along comes the Twitter desktop app! A Twitter desktop app will allow you to stay logged into all of your Twitter accounts, see every update, see all your replies and direct messages, as well as easily tweet and retweet from your various Twitter accounts. Desktop Twitter apps also integrate URL shortening services so that tweeting shortened links has never been easier.

And the 3 best Twitter apps are:

#3 Seesmic Desktop

Seesmic’s Twitter desktop app has the potential to end up #1 on our list at some point in the future. We love this app! It’s column based and you can see all of your Twitter accounts together in one column. Seesmic also offers Facebook support which is important to some users (I find it as a distraction). Seesmic is still a tad rough around the edges (literally). We would love to see Seesmic not try to mimic the look and feel of the operating system, instead, come up with a unique look and feel that separates it from the operating system. Still this is a up-and-coming Twitter desktop application.

#2 TweetDeck

TweetDeck was my favorite Twitter app until Tweetie came along (see #1 below). TweetDeck has a slick user interface and TweetDeck makes it easy to follow multiple Twitter streams. One big problem with TweetDeck is setting up the columns is complicated and often times confusing. All of my tweets, replies, and direct messages should automatically be grouped together without me needing to arrange them. One thing I love about TweetDeck is the ability to Tweet to multiple Twitter accounts all at once (just enter your Tweet and then select the accounts you want to Tweet to and hit enter!) very cool. If TweetDeck would move away from the horizontal scrolling model and come up with an integrated way to keep each Twitter accounts tweets, replies, and direct messages together it might regain it’s top spot in the list.

#1 Tweetie

Tweetie kicks butt and takes names, it’s everything you want in a Twitter desktop application. Tweetie features a stunning user interface and is totally intuitive, anyone can quickly start using Tweetie without reading a single instruction. All of my Twitter accounts are in one column and I can easily select tweets, replies, or direct messages. It’s tough to find anything wrong with Tweetie although if you want to avoid some minor advertisements you need to cough up $19.95 and there is no Windows version that I am aware of. Tweetie does not offer Facebook support but guess what? Who cares?? This is a Twitter client not a Facebook client and frankly I use Twitter in a dramatically different way than I use Facebook so I prefer that they are totally separated. Tweetie just looks and feels right and I am very surprised that Tweetie doesn’t get more attention from the people who review these types of things, Tweetie is generally a after thought among most reviewers but if you ask me it’s at the top of the heap!

Truth be told… all three of the above Twitter clients are excellent, but at the moment Tweetie reigns supreme!