Thoughtpick: A unique perspective of the Web and social media...
A unique perspective of the Web and social media...

November 17, 2009

For a better RT chance: Shall I tweet less or more?

I have been reading, with much enthusiasm, the blog of Dan Zarrella (@DanZarrella) which contains a lot of useful information about social media. Zarrella defines himself as a social media and viral marketing scientist. The most interesting part of his work is the research he has done around the Twitter RT (retweet) functionality. He actually studied the “science of retweets” over a period of nine months and analyzed roughly five million tweets and 40 million retweets to discover the art behind getting retweeted.

Retweet Decision Model

Zarrella had come up with a flowchart model that illustrates the steps a tweet needs to go through in order to get retweeted. The flowchart is one of those things that we all know is common sense, but then we realize that  it gives a better idea when we have it illustrated.

[read full article >>]

July 27, 2009

How To: 5 Top Methods & Applications to Reduce Twitter Spam!

How much of Twitter’s trending topics are polluted by spam? How many Twitter verified accounts are there? Have you ever thought of reaching Twitter utopia: a spam-free Twitter where information and knowledge sharing are the main purposes for using Twitter? Is Twitter doing enough to protect us from spam? Would you like to find all the top 5 solutions to cutting down on Twitter spam in one place?

No Spam!

No Spam!

Thoughtpick is here to save the day!

While reading the post about Twitter closing down thousands of spam accounts, I found that it would be interesting and very beneficial if I researched the web to present you with the top 5 methods and applications which could help Twitter users cut down on incoming spam and better enjoy their overall Twitter experience.

  1. Manual Selection: This method might be fun at the beginning yet could become a bit overwhelming especially to those following thousands of tweeps. Basically, this method entails that you monitor the activity, profile, links and tweets of those you are following and manually unfollow and block those who seem to be spammers rather than true tweeps. Things you should be well aware of when manually following and unfollowing tweeps:
    • Be ware of suspicious-looking shortened URLS; these could be links to viruses, pornography, trojans or spam. For example, if you see the same URL with 10 different descriptions!
    • Be careful of trending topics; spammers use those with a combination of hashtags so they would show up more often on Twitter search,
    • Be ware of fake followers; followers who will not RT you or provide you with valuable information, instead, they use their Twitter account to send our promotions to sell their services.
    • Know who you follow before you follow them and unfollow and block anyone who seems to be a spammer immediately.
  2. Tweepi.com: A new application, still in beta, for Twitter users which allows you to cleanup spam users using numbers that are able to reveal bots through various ratios such as number of tweets vs. number of RTs and the number of links per tweets. So if you’re following a few thousand people on Twitter and you noticed that many of them do not engage in conversations, never retweet anybody, or simply just ramble about nonsense stuff all day long (no links to useful content whatsoever!), Tweepi is your answer!

    Tweepi.com's Cleanup to find and unfollow Twitter spammers

    Tweepi.com's Cleanup to find and unfollow Twitter spammers

  3. [read full article >>]

May 25, 2009

Interview140 with @cheth – A Designer, Blogger and Social Media Enthusiast

Interview 140 Brief: During our research and while looking into different profiles on Twitter, we stumbled upon a certain trend being carried out by a few great Twitter lovers who have the ability to use Twitter in a way that makes the world a better place! Thus, the idea of Interview in 140 characters came into play! We decided to pick one Twitter user every once in a while and interview him/her about different topics of interest to the whole Twitter community and us as well.

Thoughtpick's twitter interviews...

Thoughtpick's twitter interviews...

A line about the interviewee:

Chethan defines himself to be a designer at heart; he has a great passion for web design and excels in creating distinguished graphics. He is also an avid blogger where he posts his design work and news. He has a big interest in social media and uses it efficiently to communicate and share his work with other designers over the web. His expertise in design, blogging and social media blend together in a beautiful way and make him stand out as an interesting individual in the twitter universe.

Chethstudio, the name of Chethan’s blog, is known for its freebies. He enjoys sharing his graphics with other people, and people love him for it. With 15,558 update and 15,195 followers on twitter, one can derive an idea about how active and popular @cheth is.

Interview140 Analysis and Lessons:

I tweet therefore I am

I tweet therefore I am

Social media has opened great opportunities for web designers, it brought them together to communicate and share their work. It had also facilitate designers’ work exposure to the world and served them with instance feedback about their work.

“I tweet therefore I am” @cheth told us; a phrase that shows the state of twitter today as an essential tool for people’s existence on the web.

The secret behind @cheth’s popularity is the value he provides for his fans. He continuously tweets good design related article, he has listed 100+ incredible Twitter background at his blog and he often offers free social media icons and templates. [read full article >>]