Just added the twitter widget to the blog.  Very simple and can be done in less than 5 minutes!

1. Go to http://twitter.com/goodies/widgets
2. Select “My Website”
3. Select “Profile Widget”
4. Enter your twitter username
5. Change the preferences, appearance, and dimensions to your liking
6. When you’re done tweaking click “Finish & Grab Code”
7. Copy your code
8. Paste it into a WordPress “Text” widget
9. Save
10. Check it out!

And by no means is this the best option.  Just another way that simple and can be added to any site.  There are numerous WordPress plugins that also work well.

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While reading my random blogs I came across a beta web app called Radiusly.  The website was very simple, almost too simple.  There was the logo and then a “request invite” button/link.

Upon clicking it I was redirected to my twitter page and my status text box was populated with “What does @bestbuy @virginamerica and @intuit have in common? Send me an invite to Radiusly so I can find out: www.radiusly.com”. To request my invite I would simply have to click “update”.

So… How is this done?  Create a graphic, button, or even a simple HTML link and add the URL info: http://twitter.com/home?status=Hello World

Click here to change your status to “Hello World”.

Enjoy and remember… keep it under 140 characters

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There has been some discussion on URL Shorteners at work and some individuals just don’t get it… So, I decided to create a list of the ones that I’ve used or have been exposed to and a brief explanation to what they are.

Q: What is a URL shortener?
A: A URL shortener is an application/service that will take a long URL (Example: http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/17/oprahs-first-words-on-twitter-hi-twitters/ ) and will shorten it (Example: http://tinyurl.com/ca2q2p ).

Q: Why should I use a URL shortener?
A: To keep your URLs short and neat when posting to blogs, twitter, Facebook, MySpace, etc.  Some applications, such as twitter, only allow a certain number of characters to be typed.  A standard URL might be too long.

Q: How long are the shortened URLs good for?
A: Some services will redirect the shortened URL to the longer one forever and some services will not.  Depending on what you’re using the shortened URL for I would double-check with the service to verify the longevity of the URL.

Examples:

• TinyURL
• bit.ly
• is.gd
• tr.im

To streamline your use of shortened URLs most of the above examples have browser plugins for Firefox or even a drag and drop feature to create shortened URLs.  You might even notice that some applications have a URL shortener bulit in.

Play around, have fun, and I hope this helped.

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Awesome video about Twitter.  There are some good one-liners and it’s almost true

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I’ve noticed that while following people on Twitter that there are a few reasons why people partake:

1. Document your life story – “This is what I’m doing at this exact moment and I just wanted to tell you.”
2. Link sharing – “Here’s this sweet link I found and I wanted to share it with all my Twitter peoples.”
3. Business communication – “Here’s an update to some of my businesses products and services. Check us out!”
4. Most followers – “It’s my personal goal to get as many followers as possible.” This is usually done through RT’s (retweets) and there are numerous strategies on how to get RT’ed.
5. Share blog updates – I follow some blog through Twitter.  Also, when I’m not posting this will also be posted on Twitter automatically.
6. Curiosity – “What’s this whole Twitter thing about?”
7. Networking – Twitter is definitely a different community if compared to Facebook, MySpace, and LinkedIn.
8. Documenting events – This is one of my favorites.  Instead of documenting your life, you’re documenting some sort of event.  Instead of having live TV coverage you have individuals updating via Twitter.  This is often done with the hash tag (#).

I personally like Twitter for sharing a few links here and there and to see what’s going on in the internets.  There are many different tools to use for Twitter (maybe this will be a different post) that make it easier to follow and post.

Keep on Tweeting

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