duminică, 16 octombrie 2011

SEOptimise

SEOptimise


How to clean up your act and your timeline on Twitter

Posted: 14 Oct 2011 05:58 AM PDT

In this day and age, it's probably fair to say that we're all aware of the value of Twitter – both on an interpersonal level and in a business context – so I'll spare you the "why everyone should be on Twitter" blurb. Those 'in the know' will know that following the right people is important in terms of reaching out to an appropriate audience – those it will benefit you to interact with and who will share your tweets with their followers. As you build up your Twitter followers, you've probably done a fair bit of work to follow people who appear to share your interests. But in the process, you've probably ended up following a load of Twitter users who add little or no value to your Twitter experience, and I've discovered a great tool to help you weed them out.

Twit Cleaner assesses the list of people you follow and categorises the ones who aren't adding much value according to a range of different annoying behaviour, including posting nothing but links, posting the same tweet several times, never interacting with anyone else and only tweeting about themselves.

Running the report on my 'Following' list on my personal Twitter account, @RachelsWritings, was quite an eye-opener. For any Twitter user, there are two main benefits to this exercise.

  1. Most obviously, you streamline your timeline to ensure that you're only receiving interesting tweets from people you wish to engage with.
  2. You learn from other people's mistakes by becoming more aware of the kind of Twitter behaviours that other people find annoying.

So what can we learn from a report run on the list of people I'm following on Twitter at the moment? The Twit Cleaner report gives you a neat list which looks like this:

As you can see in the screenshot, you can even unfollow the offending users directly from the report – convenience itself!

Key points to take away from a report like this in terms of how to run your own or business Twitter account in an appealing way – and how to avoid appearing on an Unfollow list yourself! – are as follows:

  • Post a range of content – not just links to other posts. If you only link to your own stuff it makes you look self-promotional, and if you only link to other people's stuff it makes you look as though you can't come up with anything original yourself (and this applies equally to people who only retweet other people's tweets). That doesn't mean you have to rule out links altogether – obviously not! – but make sure you throw in a reasonable number of 'proper' updates for your followers to engage with on Twitter itself, without being taken away from your actual tweets.
  • Don't send out the same tweet twice – and if you're accounting for audiences in different time zones, reword the tweet so that it's unique. E.g. "in case you missed it earlier…"
  • Tweet regularly – don't set up a Twitter account, get really into it for a week or two and then forget about it. I've seen plenty of surprisingly big businesses who've done this and it looks unprofessional and a bit lazy, quite frankly.
  • Interact – don't just post your own stuff:  reply to and retweet other people's tweets. If you want to be a success on Twitter, you have to treat other people the way you'd like to be treated – or, as I would now like to paraphrase this old adage, "tweet other people the way you would like to be tweeted"!. If someone replies to one of your tweets, acknowledge them! There's nothing worse than businesses who don't respond to customers or people who can't be bothered to take the time to reply to someone who's taken the trouble to message them.
  • Avoid automated content – Twitter users want to engage with humans, whether you're a business or not. With the amount of spam and general background noise on the internet these days, a real human voice stands out.
  • Don't just talk about yourself – it's boring! Take an interest in other people and they will take an interest in you.

Finally, and (hopefully) for a bit of an ego-boost, Twit Cleaner also tells you how you appear to the rest of Twitter. Luckily yours truly got a clean bill of health. ;-)

So if you're in need of a wake-up call about your tweeting habits, this is where you get it!

What habits do you find annoying on Twitter? Are you guilty of any of them yourself? Let us know in the comments section below!

© SEOptimise - Download our free business guide to blogging whitepaper and sign-up for the SEOptimise monthly newsletter. How to clean up your act and your timeline on Twitter

Related posts:

  1. Twitter Netiquette: 10 Reasons to Unfollow Someone
  2. 30 Quick & Clean Conversion Optimization Techniques for Buttons, Forms, Copy, Shopping Carts etc.
  3. 30 Very Useful Twitter Tools You Must Be Aware Of

Seth's Blog : Yelling and whispering

Yelling and whispering

Have you ever encountered a really stressed, undertrained gate agent at an airport? She starts yelling into the microphone, strangling her words and insisting, demanding and EMPHASIZING just how urgent it is that David Johnson come to the gate immediately...

It doesn't work, because we shut her out. Like a toddler ignoring his ever more insistent parent, it's so easy to turn off the yelling. Just as we ignore the all caps emails, the flashing banner ad and the sirens in New York.

As a marketer, you resort to yelling more often than you should. There's an alternative...

Whispering piques our interest and demands our attention. Yelling, on the other hand, is a waste of time, regardless of how urgent the issue is.

PS some new posts on the Domino blog you might like...

 

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sâmbătă, 15 octombrie 2011

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis


Occupy Wall Street Protests Go Global, Turn Violent in Rome

Posted: 15 Oct 2011 01:49 PM PDT



Link if video does not play Occupy Protests in Rome Turn Violent

The BBC reports Rome protest against cuts descends into violence
Riot police have fought militant protesters in Rome as the biggest of a series of global rallies against banks and politicians tipped into violence.

At least 70 people were injured, three of them seriously, as police fought masked rioters with tear gas, water cannon and batons.

Other protesters tried to stop the rioters as they attacked cars and businesses, marring a peaceful rally.

The day saw coordinated protests in cities worldwide, most of them small.

Inspired by the Occupy Wall St movement and Spain's "Indignants", demonstrators turned out from Asia to Europe and back to New York for an event organisers said on their website was aimed at initiating "global change".

"United in one voice, we will let politicians, and the financial elites they serve, know it is up to us, the people, to decide our future," they added.

Tens of thousands of people had turned out to demonstrate peacefully in Rome.

However militants dressed in black infiltrated the crowd and began attacking property. Offices belonging to the Italian defence ministry were set on fire, some cars were burnt including an armoured police vehicle, in addition to attacks on cash dispensers and bank and shop windows.
Occupy Wall Street Protests Go Worldwide

Please consider Occupy Wall Street Protests Go Worldwide, Turn Violent in Rome
Protests against corporate greed and inequality were spreading to cities around the world Saturday, with rallies expected in more than 80 locations, including Spain, where such demonstrations were held as early as May.

In Rome, protests turned violent.

Protesters there smashed shop windows and torched cars as violence broke out during a demonstration in the Italian capital.

In Madrid, where hundreds took to Puerta del Sol square earlier this year, calling themselves "los indignados," or "The Indignant," demonstrations were planned for Saturday night.

In New York, where much of the momentum for the movement has been refueled – giving it an international spotlight -- anti-Wall Street protesters, who call the campaign "Occupy Wall Street," headed into Saturday campaigns emboldened by a change of plans among park property owners and police to usher them out of their lower Manhattan encampment for cleanup and impose restrictions that would have essentially shut down their Occupy Wall Street headquarters.

Supporters in Sydney, Australia, on Saturday waved signs such as "you can't eat money."

In Frankfurt, continental Europe's financial capital, some 5,000 people protested in front of the European Central Bank, while in London, around 500 people marched from St. Paul's cathedral to the nearby stock exchange.

Hundreds marched through the Bosnian city of Sarajevo carrying pictures of Che Guevara and old communist flags that read "Death to capitalism, freedom to the people."

Hundreds of people also joined peaceful protests in Sydney, Tokyo, Manila, Hong Kong and Seoul
Political site Gather reports Movement Goes Global
The Occupy Wall Street campaign, which started off in New York City, has now spread to Europe, Asia, and Australia. In the Italian capital, Rome, 200,000 attended a rally that passed by the iconic Colosseum, and started off peacefully, before deteriorating into violence.

Government buildings in Rome were set alight, banks were attacked, and cars were torched. The more militant protestors were confronted by peaceful demonstrators, who tried to bring calm to the situation. Police used water cannon and tear gas on the huge crowd. There were also baton charges by the police.

Social media played its part in the Occupy Wall street protests. Just as with the success of the Arab Spring, Facebook and Twitter were utilized to swell the numbers of the demonstrators.

Another huge protest was held in Madrid's Puerta del Sol Square, which was organized by Spain's 'indignant' movement. This is a group formed in 2011 to complain against what the group deems to be an unjust social and economic system. Dozens of rallies were held all over Spain.
Protests in London, Frankfurt, Madrid, Rome, 82 Countries

The Guardian reports 'Occupy' anti-capitalism protests spread around the world
Economic protests inspired by Spain's "Indignants" and the Occupy Wall Street movement in New York spread to cities around the world on Saturday. Tens of thousands went on the march in London, Frankfurt, Madrid, Rome, Sydney and Hong Kong as organisers aimed to "initiate global change" against capitalism and austerity measures. Rallies were expected in 82 countries.

As dusk fell on more than 2,000 protesters assembled in front of St Paul's Cathedral in London, earlier addressed by the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, New York was bracing itself for a takeover of Times Square in a continuation of the Occupy Wall Street protests. Manhattan has seen a regular encampment of protesters in Zuccotti Park and violent clashes with police and officials.

There was civil unrest in Rome, where police turned teargas and water cannon on the crowds. Smoke hung over Rome as a small group broke away from the main demonstration and smashed windows, set cars on fire and assaulted television news crews. Others burned Italian and EU flags. "People of Europe: Rise Up!" read one banner in Rome.

In London, police made seven arrests and kept the crowd "kettled" near St Paul's. Assange made a dramatic appearance, bursting through the police lines just after 2.30pm, accompanied by scores of supporters. To clapping and some booing, he climbed the cathedral steps to condemn "greed" and "corruption".

Assange aside, perhaps the strangest event of the day came when a bride arrived at the side-chapel in St Paul's. Across the road, scores of police were changing into riot gear as she entered the cathedral. It was clear that Scotland Yard had opted for pre-emptive strong-arm tactics in the wake of the summer riots. Last week the new Met commissioner, Bernard Hogan-Howe, had pledged to "win days of action".

In Germany, about 4,000 people marched through the streets of Berlin, with banners calling for an end to capitalism. Some scuffled with police as they tried to get near parliamentary buildings. In Frankfurt, continental Europe's financial capital, some 5,000 people protested in front of the European Central Bank.

Another 500 people gathered at a peaceful rally in Stockholm, holding up red flags and banners that read "We are the 99%" – a reference to the richest 1% of the world's population who control its assets while billions live in poverty.
Social Mood is Ugly and Getting Uglier

Bailing out the bondholders ever is simply wrong. Those who take risks need to pay the price.

These protests are just a start of what we will see if bondholders and banks are bailed out again on the backs of taxpayers.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post List


U.S. Supreme Court Upholds Right of MERS to Foreclose in California Via Refusal to Hear Case

Posted: 15 Oct 2011 08:52 AM PDT

Here's another nail in the MERS "show me the note" coffin: Supreme Court Declines to Review MERS Challenge
The United States Supreme Court has denied a writ of certiorari in a case involving MERS, refusing to reconsider a California court ruling, which upheld MERS' right to initiate foreclosures.

The case in question, Gomes v. Countrywide, was originally decided by Judge Steven R. Denton, who ruled that the language in the deed of trust allows MERS to initiate non-judicial foreclosure actions and that the borrower concedes this right to MERS when he or she signs the deed of trust.

"Courts in California have ruled consistently that MERS' legal standing as beneficiary gives MERS the authority under state law to take action on behalf of the owner of the note," said Janis Smith, MERSCORP's VP of corporate communications in a statement announcing the Supreme Court's denial of the case.

She added that Gomes' claim "lacks merit" and that "[a]s stated in the deed of trust, Gomes agreed by executing that document that MERS has the authority to initiate a foreclosure."

"The MERS business model has been upheld by numerous courts around the country, and is operating in all 50 states," Smith added.

However, MERS issued a policy update in July stating that MERS will no long initiate foreclosure actions.

Gersten believes MERS' foreclosure actions were not legal and it "does away with land laws" when initiating foreclosure actions. When a homeowner faces foreclosure, he or she should at least know who is filing the foreclosure "and who has a legal right to foreclose," he stated.
The right of MERS to foreclose is the correct ruling which is not the same thing as saying I like the MERS model (because I don't).

Together with the ruling from the 9th Circuit Court - Cervantes vs. Countrywide (please see 9th Circuit Court Ruling Legitimizes MERS) gives legitimacy to MERS and deals a major blow to many of the arguments that attorneys representing homeowners try to make.

There are other issues, primarily fee related, that have yet to be resolved, but it's high time the "show me the note" nonsense is buried forever.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post List


Damn Cool Pics

Damn Cool Pics


Man Jumps Over Speeding Lamborghini

Posted: 14 Oct 2011 10:29 PM PDT



We know all about high jumpers, but jumping high enough to avoid death by this speeding car is pretty incredible.

The Lamborghini Gallardo comes frighteningly close to the man before he jumps over the vehicle as it dashes right under him. We don't even want to imagine what could've happened if the timing wasn't just right.


Libyan Guitar Hero

Posted: 14 Oct 2011 09:35 PM PDT

Historically music has always been a feature of battle, from drummers keeping armies marching in time to buglers playing laments for the dead.

In recent years, however, the role of the battle musician has largely been relegated to an anachronism.

Not so in Libya, apparently. An extraordinary picture has emerged from the country, credited to the AFP/Getty agency, which appears to show a guitarist in full song during a fierce gun battle in Sirte.

The photo by Aris Messinis, which was published on 10 October, almost looks too strange to be real. There is no note attached to the photo to say what song was being played - or, indeed, why. But it is certainly a strange insight into the very human chaos of modern warfare.




Source: dailymail


Soda Can Sized Puppies

Posted: 14 Oct 2011 07:58 PM PDT

If you like dogs this will be a real treat for you, here is a collection of dog puppies who are just about the size of soda can. These little pups are the definition of cuteness and it must be because of their size! Probably the smaller it is, the cuter it gets!