Talking about money is tacky right? Apparently not so much anymore.
Meet Blippy -- think of it as social purchasing. What you purchase you share with your friends. Say wha? Yep, you link up your credit cards and bank statements -- setup with Twitter and Facebook and HELLO OVERSHARE ALERT -- the world now knows what you spent, what you bought and where at..
Okay, I love new stuff -- but this I just I don’t get. I know you can set perimeters as to what you share, but what I purchase, how much I spent and money to me is still a taboo subject. Call me old-fashion.
Even though this isn’t for me, this will probebly blow up soon. People love to share and brag. Maybe Visa or Mastercard is behind this encouraging people to go into more debt so they look good to their friends?
What is Blippy good for? 2 things come to mind.
1. If you need an accountability partner for your spending
2. If you have an overprotective spouse who wants to know what you spend where.
Neither apply to me, so I’m going to have to say -- no thanks.
Well the days of instant messaging being cool, are apparently no longer. With Facebook and Twitter and other social media platforms, the once communication vessel for talking to your friends while you should be at school or at work is no longer the popular thing to do.
Paul Armstrong, director of social media with the PR agency Kindred, believes that the rise of the likes of Facebook and Twitter – which allow users to do much more than just send messages – simply had more to offer.
“With instant messaging you have to stay at your computer,” he says. “With social networking, you can use your phone’s web browser or SMS.
“Rather than shifting away from instant messaging, people are using the functions of instant messaging on different platforms.”
David Letterman dishes on the top 10 signs you spend TOO much time on Twitter:
10. You miss son’s soccer game waiting for Lady Gaga to post what she had for lunch
9. You answer the phone: "Twello?"
8. You’ve spent millions developing iPhone waterproofing technology so you can tweet in the shower.
7. You haven’t touched your CB radio in months.
6. You ask yourself, "What would Jesus tweet?"
5. You sleep-tweet.
4. No number 4 — Writer on Twitter.
3. You stopped paying attention to this list after the first 140 characters.
2. Even Ashton Kutcher thinks you Tweet too much.
1. Walking in on the Landscaper "retweeting" your wife.
PS: In Twitter news – Twitter acquired the iPhone app Tweetie (I HEART TWEETIE!). Tweeie will be renamed to Twitter for iPhone and the price will be dropped from $2.99 to FREE!
You are apart of my every day. Some days, more so than email! While for the most part I LOVE YOU, there area few things I wish you would change. I think of you as a virtual friend, and after reading this from Seth Godin, I thought I’d egg you on and demand the best from you:
Real world friends are hard to find and hard to change.
But virtual friends?
If your online friends aren’t egging you on…
If your online friends don’t spread the word about the work you’re doing…
If your online friends aren’t respectfully challenging your deeply held beliefs…
If your online friends don’t demand the best from you…
While typically I use Tweetie or Hootsuite – some improvements to the Twitter.com interface would not frustrate me when I come to visit.
So Twitter, here are my recommended updates:
Show Me How Many People Mention Me Since My Last Login
On my right nav in Twitter – show me how many people have mentioned me since my last login. This will help so that I make sure to respond to all those who mention me.
Mass Deleting of Direct Messages
Okay, so yes I know that if I had just started deleting these when I receive a direct message – this problem wouldn’t exist. But it does, so help me fix it. There is not a way thru your interface to delete direct messages in bulk. This annoys me.
On a happy note – I did find a work around by using a Firefox Bookmarklet called DM Wacker. This will delete your Twitter direct messages in bulk.
Listing All My Friends to Send a Direct Message
I only see a short list of those I follow (and that follow me back) listed on the direct message screen. While yes, I know I can type d <twitter handle> in the prompt, I have a HUGE fear of sending something private to the world.
Tweet Archive by Dates
There really isn’t an effective way to search tweets by a particular date. Often I’ll read a tweet and then remember it days later. Trying to fish for it is a joke. By organizing tweets in a way to search archival posts, you would greatly simplify the process of searching and eliminate my frustrations of "now where is that link."
Notification at Login
Each time I login, if there was mention of new direct messages or mentions at the top – it would allow another way to keep on top of the latest from people who are tweeting you directly.
While I know Twitter emails you your direct messages – my emails always seem to land in spam.
So Twitter, I still love you. I say these things with a caring heart. You are doing a great job so far, but there is more to improve on.
Your Virtual Friend,
Digital Mom
P.S. What updates to Twitter would you like to see improved?
Spring has SPRUNG and so have redesigns. YouTube launched last night a plentora of updates to their user interface and this past Tuesday, Twitter relaunched their homepage.
YouTube
Overall, the new vibe is fresh and appears to have taken in several key features and organized in a way that makes sense to the user. I am most impressed with their easy to use – step-by-step tutorial that shows you exactly what changes have been made. You can find this tutorial in the upper right hand box on an individual videos page. And if the interactive tutorial wasn’t enough – here are a few pages in their help section that address the new updates and features.
Twitter’s New Home Page
Twitter’s new home page is sleek, now featuring dynamic content from the "Top Tweets" as well as some of the Tweeps that are currently logged in, trending topics, tutorial link for businesses and overall a cleaner design with more information.
Twitter’s homepage is a work-in-progress. Today, we’re testing a new design that bubbles up more of the information flowing through Twitter. This builds on a series of changes starting last year when we redesigned the homepage to make search and trending topics more visible and easily accessible to everyone. With that version, we brought the power of search.twitter.com to the homepage and let people explore the value of Twitter without an account.
With all of this newness, this has me thinking of a redesign for Digital Mom Blog and Bargain Mama. As soon as I get this kid who is laying in my lap as I try to type to sleep thru the night, I’ll work on those. Oh the life of a digital mom. I love it.
It’s that time of year for us digital geeks – where we all embark on the great city of Austin, Texas to enjoy the festivities of SXSW Interactive (SXSWi). While I have to pass this year (wah!), I know the Twitter world we keep me a-buzzed to all of the happenings. One of the MANY things I heart about SXSWi, is the “first to know feeling” as you learn the latest and greatest before it hits the mainstream.
A few years ago, I recall the rage of this thing called Twitter. It was all the buzz. This year, rumors are circulating about the new-new thing being the location-based apps.
"What are these location-based apps you speak of?" you ask…
Whrrl (which isn’t mentioned but has recently added this element into their circle)
Three years ago, Twitter famously was the talk of the conference (it won the web award that year). While sure, it didn’t explode into mainstream popularity until sometime later, the writing was on the wall for the early-adopters who started using it there or shortly thereafter. Two years ago, it was arguably Twitter again that was the must-use service throughout the conference as it continued to mature. But last year saw some new entries rise. Both Foursquare and Gowalla launched at the conference, with Foursquare gaining much of the momentum coming out of the conference (as some of us predicted). And this year, I suspect it will be largely an extension of that, with location services in general being the talk of the show.
Obsessed? Maybe a little. Have an iPhone or iTouch? Download the Words with Friends app! Think Scrabble with a chat and multi-game option and you have this game!
This game has been spreading like wild fire. Not only because, who doesn’t love a game of Scrabble (I mean, Words with Friends) – but you can play whenever with whoever. The real viralness has come out of the invite friends from Facebook and Twitter function. With a simple click, you can share your username with your Twitter or Facebook world. This spreads the word of the game, and is the whole reason I downloaded it to begin with.
Just a warning, this game is VERY addictive. Want to see? Play me, search for my username: DigitalMom
Rev Run, inspire me? Who would of thunk that the Run DMC front man would be someone I’d care to hear from. I started following him on Twitter several months ago, and have to say he his 140 characters have changed the course of my day many times. Follow him on Twitter and be inspired. @revrunwisdom
So Facebook, you decided to wise up and embrace the greatness of Twitter for Fan Pages. Well good for you Facebook, and good for us!
Here’s the downlow: You can now have your Facebook Fan Pager status updates, links, photos, notes and event creations tweet the world – sending your tweeps back to your Facebook Fan Page. I actually like this much better than Tweeting and the tweets landing on your Fan Page. The groups I work with, do a lot of re-tweeting and the amount of tweets would be ultra annoying to a fan page.
How do you sync your Facebook Fan Page to your Twitter account?
First, you have to be an admin to the Fan Page. Other than that – linking the 2 accounts is super easy.
Select the Link to Twitter button next to the page you would like to link up
Select YES to allow facebook access
Last step is selecting which items you want sent to Twitter when you update:
Click Save Changes
That’s it! You can now enjoy having to tweet one less tweet!
I’m interested to see if this helps in bringing Twitter fans to Facebook pages. Let me know what your experience is. Are you seeing more of a response by tweeting out your Fan Page updates?
One segment of the company I work for, specifically is targeted to teen (teen girls, specifically). We have been utilizing Twitter for the last year and a half and quickly noticed, teens don’t tweet. But WHY and will this trend change? Teens LOVE their cell phones. I’m not buying that they are worried about text limits (any parent not buying unlimited texts is just dumb).
Twitter may not be effective talking specifically to teens, but what it does allow us to do is talk to different segements that are related purchasers, but not teens. Also – our Twitter goes to Facebook, so works as a handy content distribution mechanism.
Whether teens will utilize Twitter in the future? Only time will tell. Until then, we’ll maintain our relationship with them on Facebook, since that’s where all the cool kids are.
