On Blogging and Social Media

I don’t think anyone can question that Twitter has become an Internet phenomenon. With an estimated 500 Millions active users each month. What remains at question is how effective is it as a tool both for sharing and retrieving information?


To get the best out of Twitter you really need to understand the anatomy of a Tweet.

Here’s a simple Tweet:

This is a break down of the anatomy:

The message

• The message part is quite short and this is the basic information you want to share “another fabulous web2.0 tool http://www.interestinglink.com/”

For me twitter is pretty limiting in terms of sharing any real depth of information, but it’s a great way to share sources of deeper information such as links to site, blog or articles.

The Hash tags: #elt #tefl #efl #Esl #edtech

• These are pretty vital. Although many people ‘follow’ hundreds or even tens of thousands of people, they very seldom follow the main stream of information from their followers because it just moves too quickly and nobody has that much time, so what tends to happen is people follow particular tags. By clicking on one of these tags in a tweet you can find what the twitter community as a whole has to say about this specific topic. Believe me that’s much simpler and more useful than trying to scan a constant stream of information as it feeds into your page.

Likewise, if you want to share information and you actually want people to see it including an accurate hash tag will dramatically increase your chances of it being picked out from the massive crowd of information.

With longer term Twitter users ‘following’ hundreds if not thousands of people, I would estimate that most Tweets that simply consist of 140 characters of ‘message’ are actually seen by very few, if any, people, so following the right people and getting your hash tags on is really a vital part of exploiting the network.

The sources

• The other key part of the tweet’s anatomy these “RT@zzTechstuff: RT @NikPeachey:”
  They show the sources of the information. This one shows that the original source of information was @NikPeachey and it was then shared again by @zzTechstuff
  

This is really useful information as clicking on these source names takes you to their profile pages and you can find out what other information they share and then you can decide if you want to follow them.

Getting the best out of Twitter really depends on knowing how best to you use it to get what you want.

How about you?

• What are your tips for getting the best out of your Twitter network?

Most of us who have blogs these days also participate in a range of other social networks and use a range of social networking tools. Tying these together can help you to promote all the things you do, build your profile and make visitors to one service aware of other services you provide and so help you to develop your network. I've been looking for a long time for a good tool for this job and finally I think I have found it with http://about.me .

Here's a quick look at my social profile page to see what it looks like. Be sure to have a look round a few others to get some design inspiration.


As you can see it is just a single page with a nice design, a bit of blurb about me and those all important links to all the things I do online. Below the surface though it also has a range of tools to help you track those services and it gives you information about how effective they are in building your network of contacts.

How to set up a social profile page

Let's start with the set up though. You'll need to go to: http://about.me register (for free) and you'll need a good high quality digital image of yourself that you can use as background (mine wasn't very good quality so I was forced to 'tile' it.

Once you are logged in you can start to design your background by choosing an image from your computer or selecting one from the site (best to have your own, but you can change it later).

Next you add your biography by simply typing your text into the fields. You then choose the colours and fonts for your text and the 'bio box' frame for the text. Be sure to use colours that make the text standout against the image background.


Lastly, the most important part is to start adding your services. This is simple to do. You just click on the service you want to add and then enter your username. If the service isn't there or you want to add a link to a website or another profile, just use the button that says 'Add URL or RSS' and you can add links to any web based site or service.


Once you have added your services, visitors to the page can have a peek at all the things you do. without leaving the page.

Building your network

This is all good stuff, but what is really great about this is the 'Dashboard' that gives you access to analytics information about your profile and some of the services you add there. You find out how many people click through to your profile and for how long. but you also get information about things like Twitter and find out which people retweet you the most or mention you etc. This can help to provide you with useful information about your network and find the best people to network with.
All in all I think http://about.me is a very useful free tool, whether you are building a network of friends colleagues or promoting your work.

How about you?

• What tools do you use to create synergy across your social networking activities?
• How do you reduce the amount of time you spend 'feeding' your networks?
• What are the best tools for promoting your network activities?

By all means leave a comment or a question.

There are lots of different widegts out there that you can plug into your blog, but my favourite by far has to be the Wibiya tool bar. I have it in all of my blogs now (except at present this one) and I am so impressed. Wibiya has enables me to get rid of half a dozen other quite baisc but necessary widgets that were cluttering up my side bar and slowing down my site and has combined their functinality and some other very useful functions into one really useful tool bar widget that you can see along the bottom of my blogs. (See Quick Shout)

Here's what the Wibiya widget can do:

• It has a built in search that can search through your blog archive or through Google. So that enabled me to get rid of the Blogger search bar from along the top of my blog and the one I had in my side bar.

• It is integrated with Google translation tools so now at the click of a buton my visitors can read my blog in any of ten different languages.

• Visitors to my site can now scroll throuugh an index of recent articles that have been published on the site or just click for a random posting. This is great for blogs that have loads of archive pages that seldom get visited and it enables me to get rid of another two widgets from my side bar.

• There is the RSS subscription widget and the 'Share' widget. Both of these were widgets in my sidebar, but now I have this which enables users to post my articles to any of the most popular bookmarking or social networking sites.

• It integrates with my Facebook profile, so my status updates are posted to a small Facebook community feature on the site and visitors to the site can join the community and leave messages there. This should enable my visitors to build connections both with me and each other through the site. This doesn't mean they become Facebook friends though, unless they take that extra step themselves , it just enables them to see what's going on with me and see what other Facebook members are visiting my site. There is an option to integrate this with a Facebook fan page, but I haven't tried that yet.

It integrates with Twitter (so there's another widget I can get rid of from my side bar) and very nicely too. It shows my Tweets and how to follow me in one column and in the other it shows any Tweets that have mentioned my blog. This is really handy because I can then track down the people on Twitter who have a similar interest to mine and follow them. It also enables vistors to the site to do the same thing, so the whole community benefits and moves a bit closer together. Fantastic.

• It has a humble message feature that you can set to display a small message every time someone comes to your blog. You can change these messages so it's a great way of flagging up events that you might be involved in or notifying visitors of future down time etc.

Well, I thought it couldn't get any better, but it does. When you go in to your Wibiya account and go to the dashboard, you also get stats showing you which features have been used and how many times, etc.

Is there a catch?

Well I can't find one. It's absolutely free and really easy to install and it starts working pretty much straight away. If there is a problem it is that you can only have one account per email address, so that means you can't run multiple blogs from the same account.

It's also still in beta at the time that I wrote this so it takes just under a week after registering to get your account. Apart from that I think this is a fantastic tool bar for a blog or website and one that can help you and your users build a lose network around your site and help visitors to access much more of the site. That's great.

How about you?

• What are your favourite blog or site widgets?
• How do you get vistors to look further than the first page on your blog?
• How do you build community around your site?

Please do leave a comment.

Well it's high time I got this blog moving again and I'm grateful to Karen Schweitzer education writer and author for sending in this guest post to get me started. Here she presents 10 great tools ranging from the basics for getting your blog started to some really interesting tools for getting your blog noticed. Thanks Karen.
Teachers who are interested in starting their own blogs or creating and managing student blogs, can find a number of helpful tools online. There are free blogging platforms made specifically for educators, virtual classrooms for students, and tools to help make other people more aware of your blogging efforts. Here are 10 free tools that would be particularly useful to teachers.

Edublogs - Edublogs is a free blogging platform for students and teachers. The WordPress powered platform hosts hundreds of thousands of education-related blogs. Teachers use it to host their own blogs, to manage student blogs, and to supplement classroom learning. Edublogs offers a wide range of features (20 MB of free space, customizable themes, step-by-step support, and import/export capabilities) and allows for simple uploading of images, videos, and other files.
Ning - Ning is a free online service that can be used to create your own social network. Ning networks can be kept private or made public. Any member who joins a network also has the option of keeping their profile private. Some of the things that can be placed on a Ning network include blogs, photos, videos, member profile pages, messaging systems, and RSS support. More than one million networks have been launched with Ning in the last two years, so if you would prefer, you can also find an existing social network to join.

Teacher Lingo - Created by a retired middle school teacher, this teacher blog community is a great place for teachers to connect, share ideas, and find lesson plans online. Teachers can begin their own blog or feed a previously created blog to the site. Teacher Lingo also offers a forum for friendly discussion.

Tumblr - Tumblr is an excellent option for teachers who are just beginning to blog. This free online blogging platform is easy to use and fully customizable. Features include the ability to create private blogs or private posts, multiple posting options, built-in apps, and ad-free themes. Tumblr also tweets posts automatically (or selectively if you choose.)

21Classes - 21Classes is a cooperative learning and blogging platform for students and teachers. It can be used to launch a class homepage and create individual blogs for students. Each student receives 1 MB of space with the free edition. Teachers have access to a central console to manage student accounts and content. More space and additional features are available with paid accounts.
ClassChatter - ClassChatter is a safe, secure, and private blogging platform for students and teachers. It can be used to create individual student blogs, group blogs, and assignment blogs. Unlike some blogging platforms, ClassChatter is free of advertising and includes an email-like communication option.

Class Blogmeister - Developed specifically for classrooms, this blogging engine offers free accounts to teachers, professors, school leaders, librarians, and other education professionals. Accounts can be used to post assignments, student writing, and instructional activities. Students are not allowed to have their own blogs but they can participate within the account established by their teacher.
IntenseDebate - IntenseDebate is a free commenting system for blogs. The system is meant to encourage more comments and enhance commenting capability. Features include comment threading, email notifications, reply-by-email, Twitter integration, hardcore moderation, blacklisting, comment voting, and many other useful widgets and plugins.

AddThis - This free online service can be used to build social bookmarking and feed buttons for your blog. These buttons make it easier for blog readers to stay up-to-date and share your content with other people. AddThis supports more than 50 popular services including Delicious, Digg, Facebook, MySpace, StumbleUpon, Twitter, Tumblr, and WordPress.

Twitterfeed - Teachers who blog and use Twitter will love Twitterfeed. This free web-based app tweets blog posts automatically so that you can share blog content with your Twitter followers.

Guest post from education writer and author Karen Schweitzer. Karen is the About.com Guide to Business School. She also writes about online classes for OnlineClasses.org.

How about you?

• What blogging tools are you using?
• Which of these 10 will you be checking out?

Related links:

• Blogging as part of the community
• Structuring your posting
• Testing your blog idea
• Creating a personal homepage
• When Twitter isn't Enough
  

Twitter is an enormously popular tool at the moment and literally thousands of third party companies have starting developing applications that can enhance its capabilities, but which of these are good and which ones can help teachers to grow their network and use this tool in a more effective way? Karen Schweitzer from the About.com Guide to Business School has volunteered the guest posting on her top 25 Twitter applications. Thanks Karen.


Twitter is a great communication, teaching, and learning tool for teachers, but it can be made even better with Twitter applications. These web apps have built-in scripts that complement Twitter. There are currently hundreds of free apps available and more being created every day. Here are 25 Twitter applications that should be useful to teachers:

1. Group Tweet - Group Tweet is a popular app among teachers. It can be used to send Twitter messages instantly and privately to a specific group of friends, students, or parents.
2. Tweetparty - This group messaging service can help you put your friends in groups so that you can message them all at the same time. Tweetparty is great for classrooms and for teachers who want to keep parents up-to-date on student events.
3. TwitterFone - With TwitterFone, you can send messages to Twitter from your mobile phone. TwitterFone records your voice when you call a special local number and automatically updates your Twitter feed. Perfect for teachers who want to Tweet without typing or logging onto the Internet.
4. Twitter Mail - This Twitter application makes it easy to tweet via email. The app gives you a special email address. When you send a message to the email, it is automatically posted to your Twitter feed.
5. Tweet Later - Tweet Later is a productivity app for people who want to schedule tweets ahead of time. The app can also be used to track keywords, save and reuse drafts, shorten URLs, follow people automatically, and keep your inbox tidy.
6. Twitoria - If you follow a lot of different people, Twitoria can reduce your Twitter clutter. This application analyzes the people you follow and helps you weed out people who no longer tweet.
7. LoudTwitter - This Twitter app is great for teachers who want to keep non-Twitter parents up-to-date. The app sends tweets to your blog so that they can be viewed by everyone.
8. TweeTube - This Twitter application was created to make it easier for Twitter users to share YouTube videos with each other. TweeTube has since expanded to allow other types of file sharing, including pictures, web cam recordings, and website URLs.
9. TweetCube - TweetCube allows you to share files via twitter with other people who are online. File types that are supported include music, video, and images.
10. HootSuite - This suite of free Twitter applications is an all-in-one interface that allows you to manage multiple accounts, pre-schedule posts, and analyze your Twitter experience.
11. TwittEarth - With this Twitter application, you can watch tweets as they happen and see where people are posting from. TwittEarth is easy to use and fun to play with.
12. Twitter Answers - This Mosio application combines Mosio and Twitter to create a unique Q and A forum. Users post a question and receive an answer from a real person.
13. Twrivia - This daily trivia quiz on Twitter is a great way for teachers to introduce Twitter to students in the classroom. Students can answer the quiz question and learn more about each topic by clicking on a link that provides hints and background information.
14. Plinky - Plinky is a fun site that works with Twitter, Facebook, and blogs. A new challenge, question, or prompt is posted to Plinky each day. Visitors are encouraged to respond with text, photos, play lists, maps, and more.
15. Twitterbox - This Twitter client was created specifically for people who play Second Life. With Twitterbox, you can post and receive messages on Twitter while you are playing Second Life.
16. TwitterLit - TwitterLit is a fun site that delivers the first sentence of a book twice each day. It is a good way to discover new books and challenge people who love literature trivia.
17. Swotter - This book project is reading books to the world via Twitter. One line is read every fifteen minutes. Swotter is currently being used to read James Joyce's Ulysses.
18. Twitter Toolbar - This free toolbar makes Twitter instantly accessible through shortcuts and quicklinks.
19. Twhirl - Twhirl is a desktop client that works with Twitter and several other social sites. It can be used with Windows or Mac and has multiple features. Twhirl notifies you about new messages, shortens URLs, cross posts updates to other sites, spell checks, and much more.
20. Twitter Score - This Twitter application is a good way to see how you rate against other Twitter users. It analyzes your Twitter popularity and gives you a score between one and ten.
21. TwittieMe - Teachers who want to gather more followers fast can use TwittieMe to advertise their Twitter page for free. One free ad is allowed every 24 hours.
22. Mr. Tweet - Mr. Tweet is like a virtual assistant for people who use Twitter. This application helps you discover new followers and new people to follow. It also allows you to write recommendations for other people so that you can give your friends a boost.
23. Just Tweet It - This Twitter directory is a good place for teachers to find other educators with similar interests. Just Tweet It separates Twitter users into groups so that you can quickly locate and connect with like-minded people.
24. Educators on Twitter - This Google spreadsheet serves as a directory of teachers and educators who use Twitter. You can search for users by location or subject.
25. Twapps - Twapps is an enormous archive of Twitter applications. Categories include web apps, desktop apps, mobile apps, and Firefox plugins.

This guest post from Karen Schweitzer from the About.com Guide to Business School . Karen also writes about online colleges for OnlineColleges.net

How about you?

• What are your favourite Twitter apps?
• Which of the 25 above will you be checking out?
• Which do you think you could use with students?
  

Please leave your comments.

Related links:

• Building your Twitter network
• Microblogging for EFL with Plurk
• When Twitter isn't enough

Twitter has become one of the hottest Web 2.0 apps of 2009, but what can it really do for you and how can it help you and your with your personal development and your blog?


Well Twitter serves two main purposes and these are in simple terms:

• Information in - getting information from many sources coming to you in one place
• Information out - broadcasting your own information to many sources

Information in

Twitter is a really powerful way to get very up to date information from Twitter users all around the globe. To do this just involves tracking down who the best sources of information are and subscribing / following them.

This will help you stay informed about what’s happening in your field and could also give you some relevant topics, tools and resources to write about on your own blog. Once you have a network you can also get help from them when you need it and send out questions about where to find help or resources.

Here are some tips for finding good people to follow:

• Start with the big names in your professional field. When you follow these you will also be able to see who they are following and who is following them. Personally, I usually ignore the people following them and go straight to explore the people they follow. Most people will allow anyone to follow them, but are much more discerning about who they follow, so this is a ready made endorsement that you can rely on.
• Before you follow someone, check out the information they are broadcasting and see if there is anything useful there. For me useful usually means links to resources or information. I’m not really interested in finding out what people have for breakfast or which airport they are sitting in.
• Another useful way to find people to follow is to check out the various Twitter directories and look for people in your field.
  
  
• Here are useful possible sources:
  ELTweet: http://www.eltweet.com A directory of ELT related Tweeters
  TwitR: http://twitr.org A general directory of Twitter users that you can search.
  Directory of Learning Professionals: http://c4lpt.co.uk/socialmedia/edutwitter.html A directory of learning professionals from both education and corporate training.
  
  
• Here are some ELT and EdTech names that are worth checking out to see who they follow:
  Jeremy Harmer: http://twitter.com/Harmerj
  Scott Thornbury: http://twitter.com/thornburyscott
  Gavin Dudeney: http://twitter.com/dudeneyge
  Larry Ferlazzo: http://twitter.com/Larryferlazzo

It's important to remember, if what you are after is good information then the quantity of people you follow isn't important. Follow a few good quality people who are sending out good links and valuable information. Following too many people will dilute the information and make it more difficult to get at the good quality stuff.

Information out

Twitter can also be a very useful tool to broadcast information to promote your blog. You can post messages whenever you create new blog postings or whenever you see something interesting that you would like to share with fellow professionals in your field.

Information out is little more complex though, because to broadcast your information you first need to build your network and that means getting people to subscribe to / follow you.
Here are some tips for how to build your network and get people following you.

• One key thing, before you attempt to get people following you is to start actually posting some tweets. This sounds a bit strange as you will be posting information with nobody following it, but one of the keys to getting people to follow you is the quality of the information you are broadcasting. If your tweet page is blank, then people are unlikely to want to follow you.
• Be sure you set up your Twitter profile with a link to your blog or website, so that users can see who you are, what you are interested in and what kind of information they are likely to get if they follow you. Again, you should do this before you sart trying to build up followers.
  
• Get a Twitter widget plugged into your blog or website. This will enable anyone who comes to your site and likes what they see there to follow you directly from your site.
• Following other people who are in your field can be a good way to get them to check out your tweets and your profile and if they like what they see they may well decide to follow you.
• Think about the name you use for your Twitter account. I use my real name, but you could use the name of your company, school or blog. Using a common name across all your social networking activities establishes it as a kind of ‘brand’ and helps you to build reputation on that name. Using funny, witty, foolish or anonymous type names that don't identify you as a real person with genuine professional interests are likely to put off some potential followers.
  
• There are a number of directories that you can apply to or register yourself on. Being on these registries can help people in your field find you and follow you. These were mentioned above but here they are again.
  ELTweet A directory of ELT related Tweeters
  TwitR A general directory of Twitter users that you can search.
  Directory of Learning Professionals A directory of learning professionals from both education and corporate training.
  

These basic tips should help you to get your network started and growing. Your Twitter network can be a very powerful tool and if you use it correctly it will continue to grow. Be sure to respect the people following you. Post information that you value, re-tweet information that you find useful there and be part of the community. Read people’s messages, try to respond in a helpful way when you can and give something to the network you create.

How about you?

• What's your approach to building your network?
• Do you let anyone follow you or are you selective?
• Who do you enjoy following?
• Have you added your Twitter profile to any registers?
• Anything you can add to these tips?
  

By all means leave comments and links to further reading on Twitter.

Related links:

• 25 Twitter apps for exploiting your network
  
• Microblogging for EFL with Plurk
• When Twitter isn't enough

© Nik Peachey