Nsight a twitter tool that allows you to search the Twitter archives

Social media aggregator Nsyght caused a stir last week with the launch of a new feature aimed at serious Twitter users: the ability to search the archives of people you follow.

Users of the first feature can look for all references to – and comments on – particular topics made within their Twitter lists. For example, you can search for all references to PR within a media list, or references to Apple within a technology list.

Currently, the Nsyght lists feature can only search for tweets posted within the last couple of months, although it may be eventually extended further back in time. The feature also works across other social media: specifically Last.fm, Delicious, Flickr, StumbleUpon, Facebook, Digg and MySpace, allowing those topic searches to go truly multimedia. You can, for example, narrow your search down to all references to photos or videos on a specific topic – a company event, a presentation, a keynote, a YouTube video, etc.

The business potential is obvious: with social media an increasing focus of attention for B2C companies, brands could use Nsyght to quickly and easily keep track of what is being said about them across the web.

Sounds great, right? Unfortunately the registration function doesn’t appear to be working at the moment. Hopefully a temporary blip – I have my eye on this site!

This was a guest post by Cameron Patterson, a writer and PR professional with a big interest in Twitter and social media in general.

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Six types of tweets that get Retweeted

Have you ever posted tweets and wondered why they were not retweeted?

Well, wonder no more now that you are here. Get your tweets noticed by knowing how to draw retweets (RTs).

1. Quotes

My favourite way to get RTs is to post quotes from famous people such as Anthony Robbins, Brian Tracy, and other self-help gurus. These tweets are without a doubt the easiest to come up with and at the same time viral because they are likely to be appreciated.

This is how I do it:
“If you don’t set goals for yourself, you are doomed to work to achieve the goals of someone else.” #quote Brian Tracy

Do not make your tweets too long lest there are insufficient characters remaining for others to include you in the retweets.

2. Humorous/Interesting

Humorous tweets could save anyone from boredom or a monotonous day at work. Hence, it could also help you get people interested enough to find out more about you.

Tweets like “10 Weirdest Toilet Papers” are light-hearted and hence easy to pass on.

Find more humorous/interesting tweets at Oddee.com.

3. Trending Topics

To capture people’s interest, you should also ride the wave by tweeting content that are or related to popular news. Updates such as “10 Weird Things you didn’t know about Michael Jackson” were retweeted by many after the shocking death of MJ.
Look out for daily trending topics on your Twitter homepage as well!

4. Breaking news

People love to get updated on the latest happenings. Breaking news in 140 characters, for one, is always welcomed on Twitter. The death of late MJ in one day became the most talked about news on Twitter, and the launch of the new iphone also became part of many people’s tweets. Tweeting on the latest news automatically makes you more involved on Twitter and part of the most talked about topics.

5. Tips/ How-to tips

Tips or how-to tips are valuable to people. If you really want to benefit all your followers, you could have tweets that are not solely under your niche area.
Even if you’re in the Social Media niche, you are not limited to tweeting on your niche area. As long as your tweets are helpful, tweeting on other subjects would also receive positive responses.

6. Questions

Questions very often attract retweets as well. One day, I was doing a small chat with some friends on Twitter and to invite more opinions, I posted a question to all my followers. On the same day, I received tons of RTs with many asking their own followers for their sentiments. All the tweets had my profile @askaaronlee retweeted, giving me exposure beyond my own group of followers.

7. Creative Tweets

Creative tweets are uncommon and powerful. They are by nature, attention grabbers.
My best creative tweet was:

“Finish this word. Twitter is…? Your response will be RT”

In a short while, everyone posted their replies and the number of RTs was uncountable. Their responses, notably the interesting ones were retweeted by me. Some of the responses were:

“Twitter is interesting” “Twitter is a waste of time” “Twitter is connecting”
Conclusion

These are practically the types of tweets that stand out amongst others. They create opportunities for people to connect with you and are simple ways to get you noticed on Twitter. For instance, by doing exactly what I shared with you, I was recommended by #followfriday people as an interesting person (Not that I am bragging). Try them out!

This is a guest post by Aaron Lee,  No.1 Twitter in Malaysia, which owes it to him being a Twitter addict since March 2009. He reads self-help books during free time and a true follower of Anthony Robbins. Currently an International Marketing student in Malaysia. You can read his blog and his original post here or follow him on Twitter.

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Twitter’s not stupid – you just have boring friends

This is a guest post from Andrew Dubber.

I’ve been having conversations over the past 24 hours about the ‘value’ of social media. The social transparency and personal profile that this kind of medium affords is one of those things that crops up from time to time in articles such as this one in Techcrunch and this one in Music Think Tank – and I find myself ending up defending Twitter, which certainly doesn’t need my help.

There are several common complaints:

1) It’s inane. People just tweet about what they had for lunch;
2) It’s just celebrities and narcissists full of self-importance;
3) It’s a waste of my time;
4) It makes people I thought were interesting and exciting seem mundane and ordinary.

And I have very simple responses to those complaints.

1) No it isn’t. You clearly follow boring people with nothing to say. Don’t do that;
2) Again, no. You can follow celebrities if you want, of course – but it’s far from compulsory;
3) Really? Having conversations with other human beings is a waste of your time, but passively watching television shows you don’t actually like is a good investment of your attention? Writing a sentence about what you’re up to or thinking about a couple of times a day is a time-consuming activity that takes you away from all that important stuff you were doing?
4) If you want real people to be profound, entertaining or fascinating each time they open their mouth, you’re always going to be disappointed. If you want larger-than-life heroes, go to the movies. If you want to just be entertained and not engage, just turn on the TV. If you want mythology, read a book.

The trouble with Twitter

The problem for many people is that Twitter fails to be something they’d like it to be, when that’s not what it’s for. They want to be entertained with profound, funny and engaging content. In other words, they think it’s like broadcasting, when it’s conversation.

So that’s like turning up to somebody’s house for a cup of tea, and saying “right – entertain me”, leaning back, and waiting for a performance packed with one-liners, deep insights and useful tips.

Second, they think of the people they follow as an ‘information source’. There are some Twitter feeds that provide information of course, but they’re in the minority. Mostly it’s human beings living their lives, talking about the things that they specialise in or engage their attention. And if that’s boring, go back to your Eastenders.

If you follow me because you think I might be entertaining, or because I might be a good source of information about online music marketing strategies (or jazz, or Birmingham, or digital culture, or media studies, or whisky, or whatever), you’re probably going to be really disappointed. I do, of course, mention all of those things. But I do other things too. My twitter feed is about me, the things I’m interested in, and the people I engage with on a day to day basis – it’s not just packaged nuggets of information about my specialist subject.

But if you want to get to know me – it’s a brilliant way to engage. You’ll not only hear about the stuff I’m up to, thinking about, listening to or concerned with – you’ll also get to overhear the public conversations I have with other people I happen to think are really interesting.

My personal tribe

There’s this anthropological theory that we can deal with about 150 social relationships – and when things get bigger than that, we tend to split our tribes into smaller, more manageable groups. I’m not sure how effectively that carries over to Twitter, but all the same – at present, I follow around 140 people.

Some of those people are pictured above. They live in many different parts of the world, are a range of ages and social backgrounds, have different tastes, and do lots of different things. I consider most of them to be actual friends. They’re all people I work with, hang out with, or that I just happen to think are really interesting.

None of them are super-famous (I don’t follow Stephen Fry or Ashton Kutcher for instance), though some of them have what might be thought of as a modicum of ‘celebrity’ status.

For instance, I follow Gilles Peterson, a BBC radio DJ who plays music I happen to like – and I’m friends with his business partner; Alys Fowler, a gardening TV show presenter who I’ve met through mutual friends; Brian Travers, who’s the sax player in UB40; S-Endz, a rapper in an internationally well-known Desi-funk band called Swami; David Hendy, a media historian and author; Martin Atkins, a drummer from some famous 80s & 90s rock bands like Public Image, Nine Inch Nails, Ministry and Killing Joke; Krause, a contemporary Dutch electro-pop star on the rise; John Campbell, a New Zealand television news presenter and journalist; Rhodri Marsden, author and columnist for the Independent newspaper; and Mark de Clive-Lowe, a keyboard player & music producer.

These ones are all people who have some sort of public profile, but who I’ve also actually met and had conversations with. It’s not a rule for me – and from time to time, I’ll also follow people that I’ve only ever really seen on TV (like Mark Steel or Charlie Brooker) – and some Twitter-only fictional characters I happen to find amusing (like Diana In Heaven and Average Batman). I sort of drop in and out of those ones. I tend to stick with people I’ve at least had a drink with, for the most part.

And, of course, lots of the people I follow have no ambition whatsoever to be famous or become ‘public figures’ – and nor do they do anything that would tend to bring them that sort of attention.

Following people that I already know and like in real life on Twitter is like sitting down with them in a café. And we have the same sort of conversations. But we don’t have to be ‘always on’. It’s a conversation you can drop in and out of. Some of it’s just thinking out loud. Some of it is extended back-and-forth dialogue.

People I’ve only ever encountered on Twitter

All that said, you don’t have to ‘know’ people to find them interesting. There are lots of people who follow me on Twitter who, presumably find me interesting enough to not worry about the fact that I’ve never popped over to their house for a cup of tea.

Likewise, I follow Darren Hemmings (Digital Marketing Manager for the PIAS group), Nancy Baym (a social media academic and author), Joe Muggs (an arts and music journalist), Hannah Nicklin (playwright and academic) and Katy Bairstow (a freelance tech writer).

To my knowledge, I have never been in the same room with these people (forgive me if I have that wrong – I go in a lot of rooms), but through Twitter I’ve found out about them through others, listened to what they had to say – and not only find them to be interesting people, but I’ve now had conversations with them on multiple occasions over other things we both find interesting – and I’m sure if we found ourselves in a cafe or a pub together, we’d continue the conversation in person.

But what we find interesting need not necessarily be deep or serious, though sometimes it is. Occasionally it’s just “hey look – this is quite funny” and there’ll be a link. Other times it’s personal stuff that gives people a 3-dimensional quality. Like when people who you only know through their work talk about their family, or their record collection.

And it’s that shared interest – or at least overlap of interest that allows for a connection to take place. To me, that’s what Twitter – as the social media tool of the moment – has to offer. Not a marketing platform or an entertainment and information channel – but human beings talking to each other. Sharing ideas, swapping jokes, discussing issues and just being real people together.

And in fact, some people who I now consider to be my best friends are people who I’ve been introduced to on Twitter. And I’m a fan of their music too.

The best way to use Twitter

The way I use Twitter is not “the way” to use Twitter. I know people who claim to be able to cope with following thousands, and I know others who have private accounts, and only follow a handful of people that they know intimately.

The best way is to try it out and see what works for you. Follow people you think you’d like to get to know better, then unfollow them if they become dull. Check out who other people you think are interesting are talking to. Chances are they’ll be interesting too. Don’t feel you have to keep your finger on the pulse of “all that information”. Do whatever’s manageable, interesting and useful.

But complaining that Twitter is inane, pointless, time-wasting or just narcissistic bleating only means either a) the people you’ve chosen to follow are the wrong ones; or b) you’re expecting something from Twitter it’s not offering: passive entertainment.

This is a guest post from Andrew Dubber, who kindly allowed us to repost his content. Andrew is a Reader in Music Industries Innovation at Birmingham City University. He’s a member of the Centre for Media and Cultural Research, and is an internationally-renowned lecturer, author, consultant, public speaker, broadcaster and blogger. His research interests include digital media cultures, online music enterprise, and music as culture. Dubber is the founder of New Music Strategies and Music Think Tank, is a board member of Un-Convention, and is a member of the board of advisors for Bandcamp. You can follow Andrew on Twitter here.

If you would like to feature on the Tweasier blog, drop us an email with your story idea – we would love to hear from you.

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twitFlink – Find a link!

Hello there Tweasier readers!

Have you ever seen a really good link from one of your Twitter followers and forgotten to favourite or bookmark that link! Yes, I know your pain…believe me it’s easy to miss stuff on Twitter some times.

Well…there is a solution to that problem. The aptly named TwitFlink helps you to find a link posted on Twitter.

TwitFlink is very simple, if you want to find a link tweeted from someone all you have to do is enter the Twitter username your looking for in the search box. The genius of this website is that it only shows you Tweets contain links for you, helping you to narrow your search down.

Here’s one I did early

I was looking through Tweaiser’s very own founder Chris Norton’s Twitter account, for a certain link. It listed 44 results for me to look through.

Filter by keyword

Now the special KILLER feature of this website, is the ability to filter by keyword for the linked results for a particular Twitter Username. In a matter of seconds I was easily able to find the link I was looking for on Chris’s profile. Try it for yourself it’s an extremely useful tool.

About this blog post

If you enjoyed reading this blog post, then you can read Illiya’s other posts about social media on his Online Marketing blog or follow him on Twitter.

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Likemytweets.com – Get the Like Button for Twitter

Hey all, how is everyone doing? Nice to be back on the Tweasier blog.

Today I bring you Likemytweets.com, is a website that provides you with a like button for Twitter.

How it works?

1. Post a tweet from any twitter client. Your tweets will be modified by likemytweets. See example
2. Your followers click on the link to like the tweet.
3. You will be notified when a user likes your tweet.

If you “like” many posts and updates on Facebook, you’ll probably enjoy this tool. I can see this being a really useful tool for some Twitter users, I’m not sure how much I’d use it personally, but it gives you extra indication on how interesting or relevant a Tweet is to your followers.

About this blog post

If you enjoyed reading this blog post, then you can read Illiya’s other posts about social media on his Online Marketing blog or follow him on Twitter.

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A twitter app that tells you which tweets turn your followers off and on

I have been playing with TweetEffect this morning which is a new twitter application that tells you which tweets helped you gain and lose followers. I find this app rather egotistical and I think you could over analyse yourself after reading it.

You insert your Twitter username and it then processes your tweets and brings back a list of your tweets in chronological order. If they are highlighted in green you gained followers and if they are highlighted in red you lost them.

I used it on the @tweasier twitter stream and it told me that overall we had lost 79 followers recently. Note to self, I must be more interesting and write interesting tweets. lol

Tweeteffect describes itself in the following manner:

Simply enter your twitter name and we analyze your 200 latest updates and flag those up that made people follow or leave you.

Of course there are more factors that make people come or go, but it is an interesting indicator about the effect your tweet might have had on the world.

you could call it a hack to try out some of the Twitter API functionality mixed with free Yahoo and Google services. Maybe this will go places, maybe it won’t.

I think this is a nice little app that could be useful if you were using lots of Twitter accounts and you needed to why your followers were leaving. However, I would advise all users of this twitter tool to be thick skinned and use it as an indicator but not as gospel. Personally, I don’t unfollow people based on one tweet it tends to be when that person has tweeted too many salesy messages or tweets far far too much. If you want advice on how to tweet properly here are our beginners tips and our post on why people don’t follow you on Twitter.

What do you think of Tweeteffect?

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An interview with Tweasier CEO Chris Norton featurs in Web Designer Magazine

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Twitoaster – A twitter tool for threaded conversations

This week I have been using a tool I found called twitoaster. Basically it helps you see the threads of your conversations in one place and gives you a few statistics from your tweets.

This is how it pitches itself:

“Twitoaster threads and archives your twitter conversations, bringing you all the background, context and statistics you need. It’s all about improving & optimizing the way you communicate with your followers. It groups replies and retweets with the tweets that inspired them, displaying threaded discussions. Twitoaster provides analytics and statistics, helping you to tweet at the right time. It also archives and indexes all your conversations in a conversational search engine.”

This tool is the brainchild of Arnaud Meunier from Paris who now works for Twitter, so he must have done his job on this application pretty well. However, he made this great tool back in 2009 and is now focussed on his work with Twitter (According to the blog) so it says the application is unlikely to evolve much.

I think this is a useful little twitter application that presents your conversations easily. On the downside I think the RT statistics it presents could be a little out as the way Twitter produces these did change recently. So I think it might miss some of those, however, that said for a free application I think it is worth a play. One of my favourite elements is the graphs that tell you the best day of the week and hour of the day although for us these statistics were a little out.

What do you think of Twitoaster?

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Muuter: Mute Your Noisy Twitter Followers

Nobody likes a noisy neighbor, it has got to be one of the most annoying things on this planet earth. What about Twitter though? Are you tired of seeing the same Twitter user pop up in your Twitter stream like an annoying wasp or bee buzzing away?

Try Muuter, with it your problem is solved. Muuter, allows you to mute your friends on Twitter when they become too noisy for your own tastes. Sounds like a great idea, let’s take a look how it all works and what other features are available.

Muuter

Muuter works by signing into your Twitter account, once complete it will allow you to manually select a Twitter user your following, or this can be done automatically by using keywords to identify the Twitter user. Muuter then unfollows the muted Twitter user from your account for a specific period of time and then refollows them once that period of time is completed.

If that person is still Tweeting far too much for your liking, you can manually unfollow them using Twitter itself.

You can choose to Mute someone for an hour, or longer like a week, if you really feel like it. Or if you are really cruel, you can publicly tweet that you’ve muted this person and even worse you can tell them directly.

I’m not going to show you a screenshot here because I’ve muted one or two Twitter followers who have a tendency to post over 20 times plus a day. Some words of advice to you all, we all love Twitter but if you don’t want to be muted yourself then don’t post more than a couple of times a day. Nobody wants to hear from someone who tweets 30 times a day, it’s too much. Don’t do it!

About this blog post
If you enjoyed reading this blog post, then you can take a look at Illiya’s other posts on his blog or follow him on Twitter.

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Link Different: The Twitter Tool for Keeping Links Fresh

Hello Tweasier readers, today we bring you a new and exciting Twitter tool that I’m sure your all keen to try out.

Have you ever wondered if your followers have already seen the link you’re just about to share? Don’t you want to be person who breaks fresh, new content that nobody has read or seen before. If you do, read on…

Link Different

Let me tell you a little bit about Link Different. Link Different, allows you to check if a link has already appeared in your followers Twitter stream’s allowing you to provide more fresh content and keep your followers more engaged.

How it works

To setup Link Different you install a bookmarklet and click it from any web page you thinking about Tweeting, before sharing the link with your followers. Link Different, will tell you how many people have already seen that link to ensure your not duplicating something that has already been popular.

This could be quite a useful tool, I won’t take it’s results as the law though. Use these results as an indication of a links popularity or that it might have already been tweeted before by people you follow or whom follow you.

About this blog post
If you enjoyed reading this blog post, then you can take a look at Illiya’s other posts on his blog or follow him on Twitter.

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