Twitter tip: How to find people to engage with on Twitter

Sep 5, 2010

Quick tip:

I have for a long time wanted to use boolean search on Twitter to find people to engage with. By this I mean using more advanced search functions to find people discussing my niche.

For instance, to find people talking about SEO on Twitter is simple. You can visit http://search.twitter.com and type SEO into the search bar to find people discussing that right now. But, what I want is to find people asking questions on the subject so that I can offer assistance.

Unfortunately, the search function on Twitter does not take the punctuation into account and will return the same results as the non punctuated query. Boolean logic states that if I surround the search string in inverted commas, I will get results for the exact phrase – question mark included – but it doesn’t work.

Solution:

Use a third party app to carry out the searches. One way of doing this is to use Hootsuite, a web app that offers an alternative – and a powerful one – to twitter.com.

After setting up an account, you can add a feed to your interface. This can be your home feed or a list or a saved search. When the feed appears in your Hootsuite interface, click on the upside-down triangle at top of the column and select “filter by” and select “keyword”, then simply type in the question mark and only tweets with question marks will appear - hence only people asking questions will show in the feed.

If it were my home feed, I would type in SEO? to see which of my contacts are asking questions about SEO. If it were my saved search for SEO, I would simply type in a question mark to find users in the wider twitter community asking questions about SEO. That’s my cue to join in!

Simple.

Tweet button for WordPress

Aug 14, 2010

If, like me you are using a WordPress plug-in for social bookmarking, it is time to check it’s suitability.

A majority of social actions on your blog/website will be either a Tweet or Facebook share. Many of the available plug-ins use the Tweetmeme button which can be inaccurate. Twitter has now released an official button for websites much along the lines of the recent Facebook Like button.

There are three plug-ins worth installing through the WordPress Dashboard, namely:

Original Tweet Button – Adds the button at the end of each post.
Original Tweet Button Shortcode – Adds the button wherever you add the shortcode in posts or pages.
Digg Digg – This is the plug-in I use. It has just been updated to use the official button instead of Tweetmeme.

There is another plug-in by Mohanjith which can be downloaded here. I haven’t tested it, but I know Mohanjith’s work and I trust it.

Now to go and find a plug-in for the Facebook like button.

How to Create Android Apps

Aug 9, 2010

Oooh – I’m really excited about this one!

Google have released a Beta version of App Inventor for us, the great unwashed, to play with. Previously it has been tested only in schools – some say as a way of forcing Android to be the default option for the next generation.

I’ve been looking for something like this for a while and having been put off by the negative feedback frenzy some “advert monetised” apps; such as Genwi Apps, have created, I’ve been thinking about going to a specialist app developer – indeed I have been in conflab with one only recently.

And get this – the new tool is WYSYWG too. You can find it here. Well, hopefully. In this first roll-out stage, you will have to apply and wait for your invite. Shouldn’t be too long.

I will most definitely be spending some time playing with this and will report back.

RIP Google Wave

Aug 4, 2010

Google Wave, Google’s high profile product is no more. Google have announced on their blog that they will no longer be developing the product, but the source code will continue to be available.

Google Wave launched in 2009 and was mooted to be the next big thing. Google described it as how they would have invented email if email had not already been invented, however, they forgot to integrate it into gmail. A large error if you ask me.

I sat through the entire hour long video on how Wave works and watched the real life examples but I still didn’t understand it. I couldn’t for the life of me think of a use for it.

Well, it seems I wasn’t alone. Come to think of it, I’m not entirely sure I know what Buzz is all about either.

Will Buzz – touted as a Twitter killer (by me) – be next?

How to find good backlinks

Jul 23, 2010

This is one of the most asked questions and one of the most contentious issues.

Firstly, let me briefly explain why backlinks are required. There are two main elements to the Google ranking algorithm:

1. Relevance – on page factors
2. Authority – off page factors

Relevance is dictated in general by the page content and can easily be controlled by the webmaster or SEO. For this reason the relevance is known as the on page factors. Self explanatory really! Continue reading

SEO Tools bought to you by Captain SEO

Jul 21, 2010

We are happy to announce the launch of our SEO tools this week. The tools can be found on this page.

In this new blog category, I will go over each tool to show you how it works, the significance of the findings, and general usage tips i.e. what to look out for and traps to avoid.

So, don’t forget to subscribe to our feed, follow us on Twitter or like our new Facebook page to follow this exciting SEO tools thread.

Facebook launches search engine in a head-to-head battle with Google.

Jun 25, 2010

Over the last two or three years, there have been many search engines launched with a great fanfare and all touted as potential Google killers. There was Amazon’s A9 search engine, then there was Cuil and more recently Bing. Well, none of these lived up to the hype. Google; although only a young company, were the first to get it right and we – the great unwashed – appreciated it and loved Google for saving us so much time. To Google something is an accepted verb. In short, Google is here to stay – or is it? Continue reading

Google rolls out Property Search on Google Maps

Jun 18, 2010

It’s been talked about for some time and now it’s here.

Google has put together a deal with property search companies in order to stream their data to Google Maps. The companies I have seen using this service so far are:

Zoopla, Zoomf, Ezylet, Property Pal, Net Movers, and SmartNewHomes with glaring omissions being Rightmove and PrimeLocation. Continue reading

Google Caffeine update underway.

Apr 21, 2010

It appears that the much-discussed and long-awaited update to the Google ranking algorithm; called the Caffeine update, is rolling out. Certainly it appears to be in operation on the data centre(s) used by Google UK.

I had a meeting with a client this morning and we were both quite surprised to see some major changes to the established rankings. Some long-term number 1 performers dropped and some we were pushing suddenly in. On my return to the office a quick check of client accounts confirmed that irregularities are widespread. Continue reading

Are link exchanges good or bad? The definitive answer.

Apr 20, 2010

Bad!