Latest posts from Danny Brown

Enjoy the latest posts from Danny Brown, and feel free to add your own thoughts in the comments after the post.

Better Twitter (and ROI) with Topify, Seesmic Desktop and bit.ly

People talk about Twitter and ROI (return on investment) and how there’s no real definable way to measure success or use the tools to your best advantage. At least, not unless you put a whole load of time into it.

While that can be true depending on your needs, there are also plenty of ways to use Twitter more effectively as well as offer measurable ROI. Here are three of the tools I use – hopefully they’re as useful to you as they are to me.

Topify

The way Topify works is pretty simple – it takes over your email account from Twitter. It doesn’t hack into your existing email to do so. Instead, you set up your account at Topify and they provide you with a personal email address.

You then go into your Twitter account settings and replace your normal email address with the Topify one.

Once you’ve amended your settings, Topify starts to send you the same alerts from Twitter that you used to get, but to the power of ten. Now, you get to see the user’s bio, their followers/following ratio, when they joined Twitter, their five most recent updates, their website – basically everything you’d see on their Twitter homepage.

Topify then gives you the option of following that user by simply replying to the Topify email. No message needed – just hit reply. You can also send direct messages by replying with your message, or block unwanted users by forwarding that user to Topify.

By giving you all the options via one single email that it could take you several minutes to check out via Twitter itself, you can see why Topify is gaining popularity with Twitter users.

Seesmic Desktop

Up until now, the reigning champion of third-party applications to help run your Twitter account has been Tweetdeck.

Its use of columns, groups and account management has been hugely popular. Now, its time as undisputed champ might be near an end, thanks to Seesmic Desktop.

From the same guys that gave us Twhirl, Seesmic Desktop is more than just a possible alternative to Tweetdeck – it’s better (to me, anyhoo). Here’s why:

Cleaner layout with fresh neutral colours as opposed to the dark Tweetdeck (although Tweetdeck’s colour options can be changed in the settings)
Multiple accounts, ideal for users who want separate personal and business accounts
Excellent Facebook integration
Better API usage – Tweetdeck limits how many updates you can have per hour, Seesmic seems to avoid this (so far)
Less memory suck on your system compared to Tweetdeck
Easier navigation between columns and searches
Remembers your preferences for URL shortening services and image uploaders

There are numerous other little tweaks – suffice to say, as an alternative to Tweetdeck, Seesmic Desktop comes up trumps. And then some. I love it.

bit.ly

Since Twitter only allows 140 characters per message, you need to optimize your space and make sure you’re not wasting any real estate.

To help with this, there have been a host of URL shorteners that allow you to share a website link without having to post the complete URL. My favourite is bit.ly.

While you can use bit.ly straight from the box, the really good stuff happens when you sign up for an account. Once you’re logged in, you can tweet your link and message straight to Twitter.

You can then track how many times your link was clicked, who by, what’s being said about your link and more. There are also a host of additional tools, including support for Firefox, Gmail, email, Facebook, mobile use and much more.

A really cool feature is bit.ly’s support for Google Documents – you can create a Google Spreadsheet template and convert your links into an Excel report. Of all the URL shortening systems, bit.ly is definitely my favourite.

So these are three great tools – but where does the ROI come into play? There are a few ways:

Better time management, allowing you to interact with more people, more effectively, building the relationships that could lead to customers/clients
Keep tracks on the searches that matter most to you, your brand and your customers/clients
See who’s discussing your links, helping you target warm leads for promotional or sales campaigns

Of course, you don’t need to worry about ROI if it doesn’t affect you.

But, if you’re trying to convince your boss (or client) why they should get on Twitter from a business point of view, and need to convince them it’s not a waste of time and does offer ROI, you could do a lot worse than the three examples here.

How about you? What are you using to better manage your time on Twitter and how are you measuring success?

Update Friday May 22 – Topify have very kindly released 100 beta invites to readers of this blog. You can get your invitation to try Topify by clicking .

photo credit: arikfr
photo credit: adamjackson1984
photo credit: Christopher Blizzard

I Want to Fall in Love With You

Sweethearts I’m a romantic. I think that love is the one constant that we all want to be in.

We want to love and be loved; being in love is infinitely more preferable than being alone and unloved.

You, as a business, want me to love you. Or you should. You should be wooing me big time. Singing me sonnets, delivering me flowers, buying me dinner, taking me to a movie. I’m a pretty straightforward guy – I know when I’m in love. And I’ve already told you I believe in love, so it makes your advances easier, no?

I’m not a material guy, either. You don’t have to spend millions on me to make me love you. In fact, as long as you just take the time to let me know you care once in a while, I’m pretty much good to go.

Customers are great because every single one of us wants to love your business. It’s pretty easy for you to love us, too. We can even seal it with a KISS.

Keep us at the top of your mind all the time.

Initiate contact with us before we have to contact you.

Sell us just the good stuff. Don’t fake it with us.

Save the technobabble for your internal meetings. Just give us the simple version of what you have and why we need it.

Falling in love is easy. Staying in love takes work and commitment. Thing is, if you work on loving us, you can be sure we’ll share our love for you with others that we love.

Love really does make the world go round. So, are you ready to love the world and go round with us?

photo credit: adwriter

A Tale of Two Twitters

It’s been quite a few days for social networking site Twitter.

Many users are up in arms about a recent change that Twitter implemented regarding replies to other users.

I’ll be the first to admit that, originally, I thought it was a major overreaction on the part of the users who were complaining the loudest. After all, the problem stemmed from something that was never a part of Twitter’s original toolset.

So, to take the stance that a lot of users were taking (abuse and bile directed at the Twitter team being just part of the response) seemed an ineffective way to try and make a point.

There are still people doing that, and I don’t think it helps the situation. But that’s by the by. What is clear now is that there are two very distinct sides to this situation, and both have merit.

Twitter Is Right

The reasoning behind Twitter’s “meddling” with the reply system is that it can be confusing. They discussed this very topic over a year ago on their blog – unless you’re up to speed on Twitter’s kinks and terminology, it can be a very confusing place. Hashtags, @’s, RT’s and? tweetchats are just some of the idiosyncrasies that await users.

As Twitter looks to find the model it needs to succeed from a business point of view – and it is still primarily a business model in progress – it needs to be as accessible and as easy to use for the majority as possible. This means having less confusion, which Twitter thought the reply system caused.

Cue the amendment and subsequent Twitter user backlash.

Twitter is Wrong

One of the effects that the new Twitter reply system has had is that it’s effectively blacked out the feed of many Twitter users. Whereas before you could see a friend’s conversation to another user even if you weren’t following that other user, now you no longer have that luxury.

So this means that users that only follow a small amount of other users will have a very barren feed. This was pointed out really well to me by one of my closest people on Twitter, and something I may not have realized initially (sorry, Freddly!).

So, instead of seeing all the conversations that I’m having with everyone I’m connected to (and possibly checking them out as well), Freddly can only see the conversation if it’s to someone she mutually follows. This is where the new Twitter reply option is letting users down.

Those of us with a lot of connections will be fine – others, not so much.

Endgame

So, what’s the solution? There are a lot of angry people around, and this is leading to a lot of friction on both sides. The pro-change camp say that you can still find new people using the search option, and if you don’t hit the Reply button then everyone following you will see the message.

The anti-change camp suggest that it’s nothing less than censorship and that Twitter is bowing down to the celebrities and post-Oprah crowd. They suggest boycotting Twitter until the old reply function is reinstalled.

Twitter, for their part, are listening to the criticism (constructive and otherwise) and trying to appease users with halfway house solutions.

Bloggers are sharing their views, some calmly and sensibly, others not so much. It’s a touchy subject and one that’s causing a lot of heat in the Twitter feeds.

From my own perspective, it doesn’t affect me as much as it may others. The people I’m connected with and converse with are mostly mutual connections to others, so the conversation hasn’t really been affected on my feed.

But, I can see why this isn’t the case for people like Freddly, and on that count, Twitter seems to have messed up a key part of the user experience. It’s clear to see that there’s some major work ahead for Twitter to try and satisfy both camps.

In the meantime, though, I’m not sure if the mob mentality will help or hinder this process. And seeing some of the Twitter power users asking “Social Media or Social Control?” seems sensationalist.

How about you? What’s your take and where does Twitter go from here?

photo credit: Archie McPhee Seattle

Availability Factor Ten

I’m not too keen on using this blog as an advertisement. It’s one of the reasons you don’t see any affiliate banners, badges or sponsored posts. I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with that – it’s just not for me.

Today, I need to change this. But don’t worry – it’s just a one-off, so hope you don’t mind too much.

A little back story. I’m in Canada, having arrived here Christmas 2006. I applied for my residency and it’s been a nightmare from start to finish. Delays between the UK and the Canadian government departments talking to each other meant expired paperwork and medical reports that I then had to go through again.

This week, I learned that my residency application had been denied, because they hadn’t received my updated medical report. Despite me paying $200 last year for the privilege of a government recommended doctor to examine me. You can imagine I’m a little galled, and both the government and doctor will be hearing from me quite sharply.

Jump forward a little. I’ve put the appeal letter in and advised that the medical was carried out, confirmed, and sent off. So, get your asses in gear, official paper shufflers.

This is where my advertising comes in.

Because I am now still classed as a visitor, I can’t work in an employed capability (even though I have a temporary Canadian tax number). And despite the fact I have had companies interested in employing me. So, it’s back to contractor status.

So here’s the deal. I am currently available if you have any projects you wish me to look at with you. I’m currently working on a long-term project but have room for a few more.

If you know me from online, you might have an idea of what I can do. If not, you can find details here. If you’re looking to build your awareness, let’s talk. If you don’t need any projects at the minute but know someone that does, feel free to send my way. Here’s my bio, if that helps.

Like I said at the beginning, I don’t like advertising on this blog, so I hope you’ll allow me this one particular ad.

Thanks for listening, guys, appreciate it.

photo credit: Curtis Gregory Perry