Posts Tagged ‘hashtags’

• Firefox and Twitter get into bed together

  Friday, November 11th, 2011

  
  Firefox 8, which is now available for download, includes a Twitter search tool built into the browser inside a drop down menu for search.

  This may seem a minor upgrade in a new browser version which also isn’t a major upgrade, but for Twitter users the search facilities within Twitter have long been a subject of discussion and ire. Applications have sprung up across the entire cyberworld to try to redeem Twitter’s major failing – searching #hashtags, @usernames and Tweet histories. In fact, there are so many of them that inputting “Search twitter app” into Google may keep you busy for several weeks or more trying them all out.

  Being able to search Twitter is a canny move on Firefox’s part after Google dropped real time search from its engine just prior to launching Google+ earlier this summer. Whilst others have stepped in to add functionality by different apps, building it into the browser was an obvious move, and Firefox the most likely opponent in the browser wars to capitalise on Google’s elimination of the feature.

  For journalists, news junkies, and the Twitterati, this simple drop down choice may see yet further users running multiple browsers at once simply to get to the information they need when they require it. It is likely that Google will re-introduce a replacement for real time search sooner rather than later following Firefox 8′s release; however, one wonders how Twitter feel about letting Google play again after removing the facility, seemingly with little to no warning.

  The removal of third party add-ons and a new feature that checks your existing add-ons for compatability when updating means that you may find that some of the addons and plug ins you had become reliant on are no longer available in Firefox 8 until they are compliant. Whilst this is not a bad thing per se, it is likely that many of us will simply find alternatives for tools we had been using in order to get back to our previous capabilities as quickly as possible. One of the add-ons disabled is Google Toolbar for Firefox so it will be interesting to see how quickly this is brought up to date!

  (Much of the SEOmoz toolbar etc also seems to need updating, and I for one will seriously miss that until it is back, so if you use these sort of tools regularly, you might want to hold off the update for a few days/weeks until everyone catches up. Greasemonkey etc all seem fine though….).

  Interestingly, whilst doing the upgrade, the first windows that opened after the details of which add ons would be disabled and enabled, were a series of crash reports. Which doesn’t bode exactly well! I shall report back once resolved…..

  The full options available in Firefox 8 can be found on the Mozilla blog, and if you are a (website) developer, you will be interested in this list of all the new attributes etc that Firefox 8 supports.

  Tags: @usernames, addons, browser, firefox 8, Google, hashtags, mozilla, plug ins, real time, search, twitter
  Posted in Uncategorised

• Social Signals, Twitter and Online Business Success – Part 2

  Tuesday, May 3rd, 2011

  

  In Part 1 of this series, we looked at the importance of social media in a coherent marketing strategy, both on and offline. In the next parts, we are going to focus on how to use Twitter as one of your social media marketing tools to do so.

  

  Too much time is spent developing marketing strategies which then fall into the grip of unintended consequences. Do not waste time nor money endeavouring to guestimate what the results of a campaign will be.

  Social media is all about human interaction, and there can be nothing more unpredictable than people.

  Don’t strategise, Just Do It!

  What is more important is to develop rules of engagement, and then test, test and test again.

  Step 1 – The Basics: Learn to use Twitter.

  In brief, Twitter is an opportunity to communicate in 140 characters. With people and brands around the world. There are rules of engagement, but understanding the netiquette of Twitter is not rocket science – it is about understanding people.

  Set up a Twitter account, where possible using a very short but recognisable version of your brand or company name. e.g. you can follow us on @clickthroughsem

  Find out who within your company or tribe can already use Twitter. Ask them to share their experience and knowledge with everyone else within the company who will be helping to execute this strategy. A simple 30 minute training session in-house will reduce the need for individuals to ‘work it out for themselves’.

  • Loiter first and watch how people converse, interact and respond.
  • Follow conversations to see how relationships develop.
  • Look at major brands and search for positive and negative sentiments and clout for those brands. Consider what they may be doing right, or wrong.
  • Read the case studies of how not to use Twitter.
  • Do not jump on a bandwagon or trending topic with an off-topic tweet, and do not over-promote or hard sell.

  

  Learn how to use hashtags and which hashtags will help you to reach your core audience. (Hashtags make it easy to search, follow specific conversations, tune into ‘channels’ identified by certain hashtags and reach target audiences).

  Click on the hashtag image for some more great links to hashtag advice…..

  Part 3 tomorrow…..

  Tags: hashtags, netiquette, Social media marketing, twitter
  Posted in Blog, Social Media

• How not to use Twitter as an SEO

  Monday, August 10th, 2009

  Spamming Twitter is a no-no.

  Even though Twitter has only a few days search capacity for previous Tweets (due to the monster amount of tweets that are written every minute, let alone day), there is no need at all to keep posting the same Tweet over and over again. Nor to pick on a trending topic and put those hashtags in if they are not relevant, as Habitat discovered!

  Today, some plank who claims to be an SEO pro has spent the entire day spamming certain channels on Twitter. I cannot begin to imagine what that has done to any business opportunities he may have been seeking to gain, but I do know that several people have tracked down the culprit and as he is US-based are now taking matters into their own hands to get his ISP to disconnect him.

  Repeatedly tweeting the same message is bound to get people’s backs up. Why do it? Unless you change the text every time, the only people who will see it are your followers (watch them unfollow, fast) and those scanning for/monitoring certain keywords – as I was.

  Before you develop a social media strategy, and adopt tools where required to do so, make sure you test them and don’t do anything like automate repeat tweets that will undoubtedly gain you far more enemies than friends.

  

  Tags: hashtags, SEO, Social media marketing, spam, strategy, twitter
  Posted in SEO, Social Media, Tips & Tricks

• Habitat get it wrong on Twitter

  Friday, June 26th, 2009

  Habitat managed a major faux pas this week when they misused the hashtags on Twitter in an attempt to jump on the trending bandwagon.

  Topics that trend on Twitter are those where hashtags are used to create a ‘channel’ to allow users to easily follow all tweets on that particular topic.  For example #MJ has been trending all day, unsurprisingly. As more people use the hashtag, so the topics begins to trend. Obviously, if you tweet and include a trending hashtag, it is likely to be seen by the many followers of that particular hashtag, giving an ideal opportunity to be heard, for your link to be clicked on etc.

  None of us are innocent about including a trending hashtag for our own benefit.  HOWEVER,whilst leaping on the bandwagon is fine if you notice a hashtag trending that is highly relevant to your business, abusing hashtags is more than just not cricket, it is spam. As the hashtag protocol came from within the twitter community in the early days, this self-same community – the Twitterati – responds very badly to its misuse, and particularly by big name brands who should know better.

  The damage to Habitat’s reputation may at this rate equal Ratner’s, particularly when it took days for Habitat to delete the posts and publicly apologise. Apparently, it was an intern (read student in English) who decided this would be a fantastic way to use Twitter, so I guess they may be having to find some other work experience this summer.

  The moral of the story is….in fact, there are multiple morals…are….

  1) For any business planning to use social media as a marketing tool, learn the ropes and netiquette before you dive in – lurk before you leap.

  2) Ensure that each and every person who is involved in implementing your social  media strategy has had some guidance and has some guidelines to follow that have been created by someone with some experience of social media

  3) If you do cock-up, then apologise immediately, publicly.

  4) Learn from the mistakes of your competitors and from history. Johnson & Johnson got it wrong with blogs, Ratner with the trad media, and if you go back further, undoubtedly there are multiple examples of corporates saying completely the wrong thing (feel free to add any in the comments!) via smoke signals, pigeon post, telegram, etc.

  Yet another salutory lesson to all who intend to use social media that this is not an easy toy to play with. Be very careful or you will find yourself facing the noise of a major #fail and the damage could be long-lasting.

  

  Tags: Habitat, hashtags, Social Media, Social Networking, twitter
  Posted in SEO, Social Media, Stats & Trends