Twitter applications Archives by Mark Murnahan

How To Become Popular on Twitter Without Actually Being Useful

If you have used Twitter for very long, you surely know the type. It is the popular Twitter user like that jerk in high school all the kids wanted to be like but nobody could really say for sure just why. Fortunately for you, I have taken it upon myself to tell you how to become popular on Twitter without actually being useful. This is that secret recipe all the cool and popular people on Twitter did not want you to know about, but I am telling you. Let the death threats begin.

Now Let’s Make You One of the Popular People on Twitter

Follow along, because you don’t want to do this wrong. If you tweet the wrong thing, people will hate you. They will rip you up and make you wish you left your iPhone on the night stand and never downloaded that fancy-schmancy Twitter application. They may even unfollow you, and the “unfollow” on Twitter is worse than a bad fart on an airplane.

If you follow this list without deviation, you are sure to become massively popular. Just remember that if anybody says “I hate you and hope you die a miserable death” or “You deserve a really bad case of herpes” … those people are just jealous because they will probably never be as popular as you. Just as long as they don’t “unfollow” you … that is when you know it has gone beyond jealousy and they may actually hate you.

Here is the secret list. It is not an all-inclusive list, but it will get you started. If you want the whole story, I guess you will just have to buy the book.

Become Popular on Twitter: Tip One

Tweet everything you ever see about breaking news. Those news sites like Google News, CNN, and etcetera, just don’t seem to have enough ways to reach people. If you put it on your Twitter, people will respect you more as an authority because you will always seem to know everything before anybody else.

Become Popular on Twitter: Tip Two

Tweet anything new about techie stuff. If it is about an iPhone, iPad, or anything else with a partially eaten apple on it … Tweet it! If you see it on Mashable.com or TechCrunch.com, tweet it twice … per hour. That stuff is hot, and any popular Twitter user knows it. If it includes people complaining about something techie, it is even better. People love to join into bitter battles over Google security vulnerabilities, Facebook privacy, Mac vs. PC and other juicy stuff like that.

Become Popular on Twitter: Tip Three

Tweet about a cause. It does not really matter if it is just another charity to feed starving kittens in the latest place with a natural disaster. Twitter it with passion (preferably with frequency and urgency) to show that you really are a person who cares. Those kittens are getting more hungry by the hour, after all.

Become Popular on Twitter: Tip Four

When in doubt, retweet it! People love people who retweet (repeat) things they say! Didn’t you hear about those starving kittens? You should pass that along, because it is a really important cause. Any extra funds raised will go to buy the latest iPhone for the kittens.

Become Popular on Twitter: Tip Five

Watch what is trending on Twitter. Trending means it is hot stuff that nobody else on Twitter knows about yet, and you should tweet it over and over … but only until something new is trending.

Become Popular on Twitter: Tip Six

Create a trend on Twitter. It is best to seek something from other networks, because Twitter has not heard about it just yet. Watch Google Trends, Digg, and Alexa’s “What’s Hot”. This stuff is practically un-twittered, and can make you look like a totally amazing Internet Einstein!

Become Popular on Twitter: Tip Seven

Get more Twitter followers. It is like a virus! If you get more Twitter followers, you will look more important and then more people will follow you which will make you look even more important … and all of the sudden you will be so popular it will blow your friends’ minds. Best of all, you don’t even have to ever actually be useful and do anything unique. Just be sure to retweet anything that says “#followfriday” in it.

Become Popular on Twitter: Tip Eight

Join one … no … ALL of those programs to get more Twitter followers. They will even send out automated messages to tell people the stuff you sell, and there is a good chance you will get rich with that!

Become Popular on Twitter: Tip Nine

Remember … It is all about the numbers! Marketing is just a numbers game. If you can put yourself in front of enough people, you can sell damn near anything. Trust, creativity, and talent do not matter if you can get enough spam out there. People say they hate spam, but the secret truth of Twitter experts is that those haters are just jealous of you for being more popular than them!

Summary of How To Become Popular on Twitter

If this does not make you more popular, just don’t blame me. If you use this list, you are the one trying to imitate instead of being an individual and doing something different. I can’t fix that. The best I can do is to offer some encouragement. Do something different and stop worrying about being popular.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Social Media Applications Are Not always as Described!

Have you ever been hit with a rogue application on Facebook, Twitter, or other social media sites? I was, and the application was called “Photas”.

The world is not always as it seems. This often goes double for third party applications for social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. I see it all the time when somebody falls for another app that will spam all of their friends. It never happens to me, because I generally stick to only a few known applications, but it happened to me today. A Facebook application titled “Photas” said that somebody has tagged me in a photo. Well, I checked it out, and sure enough, it was false. There was no photo of me. Instead, it sent out the same message to all of my friends. When they allowed the app, the life cycle is complete.

Just a simple warning for you: Think before you click … and beware of “Photas” on Facebook!

Has this ever happened to you? Tell us about it … leave a comment!

Loic Le Meur on Seesmic Desktop Updates

I visited with Loic Le Meur today about Seesmic Desktop while preparing for the release of my new book, “Twitter for Business: Twitter for Friends”. Loic answers questions about the future of Seesmic Desktop including the list as follows:

How soon do you expect to release the next Seesmic Desktop update, and what additional features do you plan to implement?
Is Twhirl a relic, or will you continue to improve it and release updates?
Have you considered adding column filters in Seesmic Desktop?
How is API resource management handled in seesmic Desktop?
Have you considered an option for opening profiles directly to a browser?
It seems that account management of multiple Twitter accounts is a hit. Would you like to expand on this?
How do you feel about recent negative reports concerning Twitter’s user retention, and do you believe Seesmic can help to change this?
I have noticed that Seesmic Desktop does not ask the popular question of “What are you doing?”. Should this imply something?
It is pretty obvious that Seesmic does not have any specific branding to Twitter, such as Tweet, Twit, or Tweeps, in the name. Do you plan to add additional micro-blogging or other social media platforms, aside from Twitter and Facebook, in the future?
How will Seesmic benefit from creating and maintaining Seesmic Desktop? How will you monetize Seesmic Desktop?
What is your vision for Seesmic?

Since Loic and myself are both very busy, we did not have a lot of lead time for this talk. We initially Webcasted this live with both of us on-screen, but uStream does not record co-hosts, so this video only includes the audio for Loic. Also, try to ignore the typo in his name on the banner … Sorry Loic! In my defense, I have no aspirations in television broadcast. I am fortunate to have spelled my own name correctly. 🙂

Twitter Web Applications List

In great social media fashion, we all use Twitter in our own unique way. Use of Twitter often includes the use of many Twitter-related web applications. This means applications that are Web-based, and that we use to manage functions of our Twitter use. There are many great tools for finding people with common interests, finding people based on geography, scoring users’ perceived usefulness, arranging tweetups, viewing and sending tweets, and more. In many cases, we are blessed by brilliant visionaries who saw a need and got to work to provide a new tool to help us.

Help Create a List of Twitter Applications

I want to hear what you think. As many of my readers already know, I will soon launch my new book, “Twitter for Business: Twitter for Friends“ to help people to gain a greater understanding and value from their use of Twitter. In order to make it as useful and up-to-date as possible, I am calling on you to share your experience with the many Web-based applications available today. I hope to review and use your suggestions in my book.

Please add your comment to this blog post and include the name of the service, the Web address, and your Twitter username. Please include your Twitter account in the form of http://twitter.com/username, and not just @username.

PLEASE NOTE: What I am seeking here is strictly Web-based applications and not desktop applications. Click here for my survey of other Twitter applications.

Twitter Application Usage Statistics

I have seen many reports of application usage with Twitter, but since I will be releasing a new book on the topic of Twitter very soon (“Twitter for Business: Twitter for Friends“), I am seeking some data of my own. Many reports show massive use of the Twitter Website, with TweetDeck coming in second. I have a suspicion that my figures may vary simply for the fact that many users I tweet with tend to be very active and engaged users of Twitter. So let’s find out. Please take this very simple poll to answer what you use the most for sending and receiving your Twitter updates. If you use the Twitter Website, please answer “Other”, but what I am really after here is the popularity of each Twitter application produced outside of Twitter. I welcome your comments here on the blog.

What best describes your use of Twitter?

While I have you here, I am also interested to know which of the answers below best describes your use of Twitter. This is not intended to be a comprensive list of reasons for using Twitter. I simply want to know which best describes your usage.