Twitter Study: Photos, Videos Lead To Most Retweets

Tweets that have a photo or video URL tend to lead to the biggest increase in retweets for verified accounts on Twitter.

That’s the key takeaway from a Twitter study out this week that analyzed more than two million tweets sent in the span of one month from verified accounts related to TV, news, radio, government and sports. Twitter’s data team looked at measurable tweet elements like photos, hashtags, videos, links and numbers (to measure tweets with sports stats and scores), and then compared its results to the baseline count of retweets that these accounts typically get.

Overall, Twitter’s study found that tweets with photos and videos produced the biggest jump in retweets — 35 percent for photos and 28 percent for videos.

But, that wasn’t true in each of the verticals that Twitter looked at. As you can see below, TV-related accounts saw more retweets when their tweets included a quote. And for both sports and government accounts, using a hashtag led to more retweets than videos, quotes and numbers.

Since this study was focused only on verified accounts in specific verticals, the results may not apply across the board. But they do validate other studies that have found similar results about the benefits of using visuals in social media posts.

As always, whatever industry/vertical you’re in may see different results, and it’s smart to do your own testing to see what resonates best with your audience.

How To Get Started Using Twitter For Business

What’s Twitter for business? No, it’s not about buying Twitter ads for your business. Rather, it’s about how a business can use Twitter as a means to create conversations about its company, brand and products.

This topic — “Twitter for Business” — was the title of a great session I attended at Marketing Land’s SMX West conference this week. It was geared toward the community manager at a company charged with making Twitter work for business reasons.

The session was presented by Ric Dragon, CEO of Dragon Search and the author of Social Marketology, a hands-on guide that aims to add process to social marketing for businesses.

Ric started his presentation at the beginning with Twitter, literally. He noted that Twitter was first unveiled at South by Southwest in 2007. It’s amazing what’s happened since then. He recalls that MySpace was still the king of social media – Facebook hadn’t really made a splash. The first iPhone hadn’t yet been produced. Now I feel old.

A Twitter Glossary

Listening to Ric, I was surprised that he spent so much time on the basics, but then I realized that the audience was largely new to Twitter. Sometimes, as practitioners and managers, we forget that there are still people out there who don’t really know how Twitter works, and that a basic discussion such as this is actually very valuable.

So the tracing of the evolution of Twitter and its ecosystem, from tweets to follows and now to advertising, was actually very instructive. And I did love Ric’s characterization of the Twitter ecosystem when he used one of my favorite mixed metaphors, “it’s not rocket surgery.” Nice one!

The basics included a solid and quite useful glossary:

• Name: real name
• Handle: Twitter user name)
• Hashtag: a word or phrase preceded by a hash or pound sign (#) and used to identify messages on a specific topic. (By the way it’s Chris Messina who’s widely credited as having invented the hashtag)
• Retweet / RT: reposting or forwarding a message posted by another user
• Modified Tweet / MT: a retweet that was truncated or edited in some way)
• Via: Using this work within your original tweet is a way to crediting the person who originally tweeted about a subject or person. Attribution is important! Ric also pointed out that favoriting tweets is like giving the tweeter “a little gift.” Well put!

In Ric’s slides at the end of this article, you can also see illustrated examples of these terms.

Profiles, Tools & Etiquette

Ric also covered the basics about Twitter profile pages. Companies should pay attention to the background of their profile page – brands can use them effectively by adding logos and humanizing the brand – see GEICO for a good example. Also, in your Twitter profile, use hashtags in profile – good tip. Oh yeah, and the profile picture is another good place for company logos and/or pictures of real people.

We reviewed a number of tools in this session as well. Namely Commun.it, a freemium CRM tool for Twitter, and Twiangulate, a research tool where you can input 2 or more twitter user names and see who they follow in common, who they are followers of, and their respective reach. Also we looked briefly at hootsuite, a handy tool that solves some my earlier complaints by making it easy to filter your news feed.

It was refreshing that Ric also talked about Twitter etiquette. Because Twitter is such a “wild west” environment, it’s helpful to have guidelines, if not standards and best practices before you jump in and start tweeting. Make your tweets engaging, interactive and informative.

Key Tips

Here are some of my favorite tips that Ric offered:

• Use more @ tweets: Use Twitter to communicate directly with others.
• Don’t automate your tweets: the payback isn’t worth the risk of something going wrong and ruining your credibility.
• Add value in what you tweet: think of it as story telling.
• Don’t self-promote: Be authentic.

Advanced Twitter Tactics

Ric also covered some more advanced Twitter tactics for businesses, namely using lists, tweetups, and twitter chats. These topics require quite a bit of work and care to get them right, so I wouldn’t recommend embarking on any of these strategies right away, until you’ve definitely got the basics down. We’ve certainly seen success in Twitter chats, particularly when we choose our chat partners carefully.

But back to community managers, the target audience here. I had a chat with one attendee who did ask the question “what is a community manager?” and we talked about the community manager as being the voice of the brand. I added that at our company we have not only a community manager but also an industry outreach person who participates, as herself, in the conversation around the industry. The strategy is to credibly increase awareness of our products and services in our industry, with the goal of having others (influencers) tell our story for us. It’s exciting when it works!

Rick threw out an interesting statistic (I didn’t catch the source) that indicated that 25% of tweets are not worth reading, 36% are worthy, and 39% are “meh,” just so-so.

My personal experience is that the vast majority of tweets are worthless and only a small fraction of what I see is of any value. Maybe I’m just cynical, but this seems to me to be a real and growing problem for Twitter. I love the platform, but the signal-to-noise ratio seems to be low and sinking.

Regardless, Twitter is large and growing, thanks in no small part to the proliferation of mobile devices. Ric points out the marriage between Twitter and mobile is a perfect one. True.

So all in all I thought this was a very solid session. Ric took us from the very basics of Twitter to the semi-advanced. To me, the big ironic takeaway was that one of the main themes in Twitter (and social media in general) is that it’s important to be human and authentic in our communication. Imagine that, using machines and technology to be more human and authentic. Strange days indeed…

Twitter To Start Including Promoted Accounts In Search Results

Twitter announced the launch of a new feature today giving Promoted Accounts a more prominent home by including them in search results. Promoted Accounts are an ad unit that allow you to give your tweets special placement in the timelines of users who follow you, as well as have your account show up in the “Who to Follow” list to be seen by users who don’t follow you.

Now another benefit of Promoted Accounts will be special placement in Twitter’s search results, similar to what Twitter has already been doing with Promoted Tweets. They also come with precise targeting options, you can target your Promoted Account to reach more people who are similar to your current followers, or you can target by demographics and interests.

With this launch, relevant Promoted Accounts can be presented to users in search results along with recommendations of people to follow. We automatically select relevant search queries for presenting Promoted Accounts based on an advertiser’s targeting choices, so no additional action is required for your business to access this capability.

As Twitter is built around conversations of events around the world unfolding in real time, one of the best ways for users to instantly find out what’s happening at that moment is through search. Search is now also a powerful way for marketers to connect with customers.

Based on an August 2013 study, 72 percent of consumers said they’re more likely to buy from a brand that they follow on Twitter.Also, 34 percent of those surveyed interacted with a brand after seeing an ad with their Twitter handle. So there are proven benefits to reaching more people on Twitter through Promoted Accounts.

What Type of Content Gets Shared the Most on Twitter?

Have you ever wondered what type of content you should be creating for Twitter? Whether it is blog posts, quotes, memes, there has to be a content type that helps your traffic and branding more than other types of content, right?

I actually had the same question, which is why I decided to analyze 1,000 Twitter users and 398,582 tweets to see if I could figure out what type of content gets shared the most.

What I learned is that all content types are not created equal. Some get shared more than others…

Here’s how each content type stacks up against the rest.

Images perform better than videos

Users on Twitter tweet images 361% more than they tweet videos.

Even more interesting is to look at the number of favorites and retweets. Images tend to get 128% more retweets than videos, but videos get favorited 49% more than images.

From a branding standpoint, it’s easier and quicker to make images, so I recommend that you focus your time on image creation over videos.

The other thing that I learned when analyzing images is that 62% were humor-based, while 38% were other types.

If you want to maximize your branding efforts, you’ll have to come up with creative ways to infuse your corporate brand with humor. For example, this would be a great image to share potentially on Twitter if your company was KitKat:

On the flip side, if KitKat just shared an image of someone eating its candy bar, that tweet wouldn’t do well.

Text performs better than images

Who would have thought that text performed better than images? Ninety-three percent of all the tweets we analyzed were text-based. In other words, they didn’t contain any images or videos.

What was even more interesting is that 65% of those text-based tweets contained a link. The link part is important because not only does that mean you can drive traffic back to your site, but it also means that tweets with links get retweeted 86% more often. Plus, if you can keep the tweet under 100 characters, you’ll also get 17% more engagement.

Although this may seem obvious, the best way to drive traffic to your website is to tweet with a link.

Focus on list-based or how-to type of content

When we were diving into the text-based tweets, we found something interesting.

We assumed that people loved reading personal tweets such as how someone’s day was going or what that person was eating for dinner. Interestingly enough, those tweets had the least number of favorites or retweets.

But what did extremely well from a retweet perspective were tweets that linked to how-to or list-based articles. On average, they received 3 times more retweets than any other type of text-based content.

If you want to tweet about something personal, tweet about luxury lifestyle because those tweets did the best. In other words, if you were to tweet about a fancy car, watch, home, or a yacht, you would get more favorites than if you were to tweet about what you ate for dinner. You still won’t get a ton of retweets compared to tweeting a how-to article, but you will get a lot of favorites.

Quotes outperform questions

When analyzing the tweets, we found that quotes tended to get 847% more retweets than questions. And although that percentage may seem big, it’s not that surprising.

What was surprising was that users who tweeted quotes had 43% more followers.

On the flip side, questions contained more replies than quotes. In general, questions had 1,050% more replies. So, if you want to create a conversation with your followers, consider asking them a question.

If you want to brand yourself through the use of quotes, you can always create image-based ones like the one below.

Through image-based quotes, not only will you get the retweets, but you will also increase the number of people who start seeing your corporate logo.

Twitter users aren’t big fans of memes

Compared to Facebook, there aren’t as many memes that get passed around on Twitter. And they make up the smallest percentage of tweets.

If you want to generate traffic or increase your branding, you should consider staying away from memes. As a business, it doesn’t make sense for you to focus your marketing efforts on memes because even if the meme does well, the quality of traffic it produces is so poor that you won’t see many conversions.

Conclusion

If you are trying to get the most traffic from Twitter, consider creating how-to or list-based content on your site. Then push it out on Twitter, and have your friends, co-workers, and family members do the same.

If you want to maximize your branding, the simplest thing you can do is create image-based quotes with your corporate logo, and then push them out on Twitter.

How to Improve Your Google Ranking

Following last year’s Google Hummingbird update, along with the saturation of the market and Google pushing their organic search results further down the page in favor of their paid listings, it is becoming increasingly difficult to be noticed online without paying Google for the privilege. These tips may not make your website the first one to appear in the list, but they just may help your Google ranking  move up a little.

No matter what you do to improve your Google ranking, make sure you make a site that you want to visit. If you’re gaming the system, sooner or later Google, like Facebook, will figure it out and change their formula. You’ll end up plummeting in the top Google search results and wonder why.

6 Tips to Improve your Google Ranking

Unique and Relevant Content

Quality content is the number one driver of your Google ranking and there is no substitute for great content. Quality content created specifically for your intended user increases site traffic, which improves your site’s authority and relevance. Never sacrifice good writing for SEO. The best pages are written for the user, not for the search engine. Regularly updated content is viewed as one of the best indicators of a site’s relevancy, so be sure to keep it fresh.  

Tag your content and media

Make sure that your site is optimized for the search engines and that all meta tags and robot tags are constructed properly. These tags are not visible on your web page but Google looks for this title tag and it’s one of the most important on page elements for Google. If you have been placing images on your website without bothering to place ALT tags, now is a good time to add them. An “ALT tag” is just a way of putting a brief description of what your picture shows. 

Redirect your URLs

Often website owners don’t realize that are seen as different pages by search engines. This can result in any links that you receive being diluted between the two pages. The solution to this common problem is to tell Google that you want all the links and clicks from  to be counted towards. This can be easily implemented by using a permanent 30 redirect link from one pages to the other.

Push Social, especially Google+

In the “post hummingbird” Google search world, social referrals are now counted as indicators of “content quality”, but not as internal links. The only exception for this is Google+, the foundation layer for all of Google ranking going forward. If you share content out on Google + and people indicate they like it by clicking on the Google + button this will help with Google ranking of content. So if you don’t have you +1 button intergraded to your site yet, be sure to add it.

Comment on Relevant Sites:

Commenting on forums relevant to your industry is crucial. Commenting and adding a link back to your content on forum posts and blogs is a great way to increase links to your web site, and is a great way to drive some new viewers to your web site. Users who over-indulge in self-promotion will be perceived as spammers which may result in your efforts to be simply ignored, or, even worse, your website being added to blacklists.

Build Links with Bookmark and Directory Sites

As we all know, one of the factors that contribute to a page’s Google ranking is the number of links pointing to that page. One way to increase the number of quality links to your site is by submitting it to as many social bookmark sites that you like. Also, submit your site to as many directories as you can, especially to those with high page rank like DMOZ or yahoo directory or to any smaller directory with lower page rank.

 Want to learn more about SEO and website management? Be sure to follow Infolinks  on Facebook, Twitter and Google+

5 Common Marketing Message Mistakes You Need to Avoid

The task of encapsulating what you stand for via the perfect marketing message is a daunting challenge. You need to appeal to your target demographic by creating a clever statement that encompasses your brand’s identity and clearly conveys what you can offer.

Many businesses have the tendency to compromise their goals in creating this all-important message. The message can become too boring— and sometimes buried or lost, by focusing more on the business’s agenda and less on the customers’. At worst, a business can even alienate the very audience it is trying to court.

But the real question here is: Would you rather be remembered as an epic fail or something wonderful?

Social media marketing can be a minefield of terrifying traps seemingly designed to keep you from the wonderful. So, here’s a bit of disaster prevention for you; a list of some of the more typical social media marketing fails you’ll want to dodge while you’re building a reputation for your business online.

Messaging is Lost In Transition

The problem with most US-based businesses is once the message goes international, not enough thought is paid to how the intent will translate, literally or figuratively. This can result in a marketing campaign that lands with a resounding thud on foreign shores. In more extreme cases it can even be offensive.

For instance, when Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) launched its first franchise in China, the famous slogan “Finger-lickin’ good” was accidentally translated to “We’ll Eat Your Fingers Off!” which certainly frightened customers.

Source: http://9gag.com/gag/6564095

It may sound great in one language, but if translated mechanically and without cultural context, it can be fatal for your business.

Another example is when Coors translated a slang phrase “Turn It Loose” into Spanish, which turned out to be an expression that meant “Suffer from diarrhea.” For that, Coors left a unintentional and perhaps unforgettable mark on its Spanish audience.

And Parker pens got the attention of their foreign female customers when the popular slogan, “It won’t leak in your pocket and embarrass you,” was translated for a Mexican ad as “It won’t leak in your pocket and make you pregnant.”

Source: http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/fact-fiction-international-expansion-blunders-list

Not Humanizing Your Message

Don’t forget who it is you need to hear your message. To generate a message with impact, you’ll need to understand how it can be meaningful to your target audience. You want to create a “pull.” Building a connection with your prospects is way better than simply handing them the information, right? By doing so, you let them figure out how your products and services can be valuable to them.

From The Nielsen Global Survey of Trust in Advertising, it was cited that a high number of respondents resonate more to humorous (47%) advertising messages, closely followed real-life situations (46%).

Good Deed Gone Bad

Another thing brands should avoid is using charity or any tragic event as a promotional opportunity. Exploiting cancer, AIDS, poverty or sensitive issues can only put a dent on your reputation.

It is utterly wrong no matter what angle you choose. There should be an adequate application for sensitivity.

Sources: https://www.facebook.com/lowcostholidays, https://www.facebook.com/papajohns, https://www.facebook.com/Durex

AT&T also felt the “burn” when they tweeted a post regarding the 9/11 tragedy. It wasn’t well-received by their followers and caused them to delete the post. The same goes for Kmart, after sending a tweet meant to pay respects for the Newtown shooting incident in which they mistakenly [and shamelessly] plugged a promotional hashtag #SMH.

Sources:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/atandt-removes-apologizes-for-911-tribute-tweet/2013/09/11/6d8f8806-1b06-11e3-a628-7e6dde8f889d_story.html
http://www.businessinsider.com/kmart-newtown-tweet-2012-12
http://www.complex.com/tech/2013/07/internet-fail-history/celeb-boutique

Of course, it also pays to be attentive if you’re going to use trending topics. Celeb Boutique committed an embarrassing fail when they connected a trending hashtag with their same-named product, apparenntly unaware that it was about the Aurora shooting.

Not Being Sensitive Enough

Highlighting gender differences can be a funny way to create loyalty for your product. However, if not executed with the right amount of sensitivity, that approach can have the opposite effect.

One harsh post from the Abu Dhabi distributors of Subaru recounted a terrible accident and attributed it to women. It clearly wasn’t a brilliant idea, so they apologized after being heavily criticized by social media users.

Image Sources: https://www.facebook.com/subaruemirates
https://www.facebook.com/BayRidgeAutos

Using Social Media Features Incorrectly

Since the dawn of social media marketing, countless companies have attempted to get exposure via social media sites. Some have been successful, some, not so much…

Reddit’s “Ask Me Anything” (AMA) wreaked havoc when Academy Award Nominee Woody Harrelson hosted one— and it remains infamous in Reddit history. Apparently, the users weren’t happy with Harrelson’s AMA chat and got the impression that the movie star was just using the site to market his project. Collective criticisms were aimed at Harrelson and his upcoming movie.

Source: http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/p9a1v/im_woody_harrelson_ama

Hashtags Gone Wrong— When McDonald’s Twitter campaign, #McDStories, meant for users share nostalgic memories and experiences in McDonalds, it took an unexpected turn when users started to share unfortunate and horrific tales instead.

Source: https://twitter.com/search?q=MCDstories&src=typd&f=realtime

You know there is something bad bound to happen with Automated Tweets/Responses. An infamous example is when AmericanAir replied to every tweet even unpleasant ones, consequently blurring sincerity and attentiveness on customer feedback.

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/american-airlines-will-respond-to-every-tweet–no-matter-how-offensive-2013-2

To sum it all up, one of the keys to building—and maintaining—a successful brand is knowing and catering to your audience. The truth is, there’s real potential to do crash-and-burn damage in every marketing campaign. However, taking the time to get to know who you want to reach, what you want to say, and how it will be best received, can help you get your message out while avoiding any dents or dings to your image.

Twitter one of the fastest ways to shape opinion

Twitter has fast become the conventional wisdom clearinghouse and real-time echo chamber for major political events- not to mention the forum where opinion on President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address seemed to crystallize Tuesday evening before he had even finished speaking. 

“The media party line where everyone can listen in,” said Mike Murphy, a Republican strategist. 
“The town hall for the media and political elite,” said Erik Smith, a Democratic strategist and founder of Blue Engine Message and Media. 
The power of Twitter to shape the debate (for better or worse) was on display shortly before Obama began, when Rep. Randy Weber, R-Texas, posted an error-riddled message that quickly went viral: “On floor of house waiting on ‘Kommandant-In-Chef’… the Socialistic dictator who’s been feeding US a line or is it “A-Lying?” 
Indeed, Twitter’s ability to focus the pundit class helps explain why, in the fierce competition to control the political narrative, lawmakers, candidates, operatives and even the president are increasingly turning to it and other social media. The battle is the same as before, but they are now hoping to prevail 140 characters at a time. 
“Conventional wisdom is like fast-drying concrete in the Twitter age – it doesn’t take long to harden,” said Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y. “Twitter is one of the fastest ways to shape opinion.” 
The State of the Union address spawned a bipartisan embrace of new photo- and video-sharing platforms, and a rush to create tweet table graphics and synchronized hashtags to amplify messages. Democrats and Republicans competed to make their views majority realities, perhaps with little regard to what the president actually said. 
Congressional Republicans rallied around the hashtags #CloseTheGap, to push their message of reducing income inequality, and #YearOfAction, to call on Obama to act on some of their major proposals in the coming year. (Of course, especially after the president called for a “year of action” in his address, the #YearofAction took off among Republicans and Democrats alike.) 
And, perhaps more notably, Republicans set up “recording stations” on Vine, the Twitter-owned platform for sharing six-second videos, and Instagram to allow caucus members to record short responses that they could share before, during and after the speech. 
When Obama got to the part of his address where he said he had a pen and a phone, and was willing to go around Congress, when possible, through executive orders, Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., was ready. As if on cue, he tweeted out a prerecorded Vine video featuring him sitting behind his desk and stating, “If the president has a pen and a telephone, we have the Constitution.” 
Last week, Republicans brought in Sean Evins, Twitter’s partnerships manager, to give a tutorial on the best ways to use Vine. (Democrats did the same in November.) Evins’ message was simple: Use Vine and other social media platforms to bring constituents closer. 
“You can report a Vine or send a tweet from your pocket from a different perspective than your constituents would ever get from just looking at TV,” Evins said. “They actually get to walk with their member towards the chamber or walk with their member into the office, and get the perspective the member has.” 
Congressional Democrats were also encouraged to record short videos that echoed the administration’s themes and were shared on social media. Lawmakers were coordinating hashtags to underscore core Democratic goals for the coming year, including, in the Senate, #MinimumWage(to raise the hourly minimum wage to $10.10) and #Renew UI (to renew the emergency unemployment insurance benefits that expired in December). 
Not to be outdone, the White House posted graphics and charts during Obama’s speech that echoed its themes and that were shared on Facebook or Twitter with one click. 
In many ways, the heightened emphasis on social media reflected a new, risky way forward in U.S. politics: React now, reflect later. 
“It has the strength of speed, with the limit of impetuousness,” Murphy, the Republican strategist, said. 
But proponents argue that when social media functions properly, it can also have a democratizing effect. 
“It doesn’t have to be an officer holder or even a member of the press,” said Joe Trippi, a Democratic consultant who was an early adopter of social media. “It just has to be a citizen who says something interesting that catches the eye of a reporter or an office holder or a blogger, and all of a sudden it gets picked up by Twitter, and it may be one of the tweets that defines people’s view of what happens in the speech.” 
One hashtag that seemed to catch on organically was #SOTUinThreeWords. 
“Another wasted hour,” one Twitter user wrote under the name Conservative Realtor, offering a hypothesis for the evening. No word yet on whether that will be the tweet that goes viral.

‘Heal’ yourself using Facebook and Twitter

Writing on Facebook makes users reflect upon their action, helping them understand and improve themselves, a new study has found.

Social networking sites can be a form of self-therapy, said researchers from Queensland University of Technology in Australia.

“Social networking sites invite people constantly to share their thoughts and actions with others, confess their wrongdoings and highlight their achievements,” said Dr Theresa Sauter of the Australian Research Council (ARC) Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation (CCI) at QUT.

“This turns these sites into tools for self-reflection. It’s like keeping a diary, but it’s more public, frequent and up-to-date. For users, it can become a therapeutic tool that helps them to discover how they feel and how they can improve themselves,” Sauter said.

By posting about achievements, from cooking a good meal to being successful at work, users show that they are doing well in their day-to-day lives, the study said.

Conversely, when they publicly admit their mistakes through Facebook posts, they show an awareness that they’ve digressed from what is good, normal and ethical behavior.

In doing so, users share their own reflections as well as inviting feedback from their friends and connections, the study said.

“However, this is not necessarily a conscious practice: it is a by-product of using Facebook regularly. While public self-writing was previously limited to an intellectual elite, social media technology now makes it accessible for everyone,” Sauter said.

Sauter said posting more could encourage people to reflect more frequently on their own behavior, even though they were unaware of it.

“Throughout their day, when people think about how they can portray an event on Facebook or

“Social networking sites invite people constantly to share their thoughts and actions with others, confess their wrongdoings and highlight their achievements,” said Dr Theresa Sauter of the Australian Research Council (ARC) Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation (CCI) at QUT.
“This turns these sites into tools for self-reflection. It’s like keeping a diary, but it’s more public, frequent and up-to-date. For users, it can become a therapeutic tool that helps them to discover how they feel and how they can improve themselves,” Sauter said.
By posting about achievements, from cooking a good meal to being successful at work, users show that they are doing well in their day-to-day lives, the study said.
Conversely, when they publicly admit their mistakes through Facebook posts, they show an awareness that they’ve digressed from what is good, normal and ethical behavior.
In doing so, users share their own reflections as well as inviting feedback from their friends and connections, the study said.
“However, this is not necessarily a conscious practice: it is a by-product of using Facebook regularly. While public self-writing was previously limited to an intellectual elite, social media technology now makes it accessible for everyone,” Sauter said.
Sauter said posting more could encourage people to reflect more frequently on their own behavior, even though they were unaware of it.
“Throughout their day, when people think about how they can portray an event on Facebook or Twitter, they are reflecting on what they have done and how that aligns with what is expected of them,” she said.

“So writing on social networking sites is more than an outlet for narcissistic bravado or a way to express oneself and communicate with others.

“People can use these sites to work on themselves. It doesn’t mean they create new personalities on Facebook, but rather that they understand and keep reshaping their own identity through self-writing,” Sauter said.

The study was published in the journal New Media & Society.
“So writing on social networking sites is more than an outlet for narcissistic bravado or a way to express oneself and communicate with others.
“People can use these sites to work on themselves. It doesn’t mean they create new personalities on Facebook, but rather that they understand and keep reshaping their own identity through self-writing,” Sauter said.
The study was published in the journal New Media & Society.

12 Celebrity Twitter Account Mistakes

As you already know, Twitter is a great tool when you want to socialize with like-minded individuals, promote yourself or your brand, and to keep up with breaking news. It’s also the best social media platform to follow celebrities. With Twitter, we can now happily keep with up our favorite celebs while they attend award ceremonies, travel throughout the world promoting a new product or party with other famous people.

While Twitter is a great format for celebrities to interact with fans and others in the entertainment industry, it can also be a hotbed of (often funny!) mistakes. It only takes one inappropriate, ill-advised, or offensive tweet to cause a PR nightmare for a celebrity. You would think after all these years, celebrities would have learned from others mistakes.

Apparently, that’s not the case. For example, check-out the following 12 classic mistakes that celebrities have made on their Twitter accounts:

12. Arnold Schwarzenegger

Back in August 2009, people all over the world had one question on their minds? Why was then California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger wielding a gigantic two-foot-long knife during a video link posted on Twitter? No. It wasn’t for a role either. The 27-second clip was supposed to be a thank you to all of the constituents and their “great ideas” he received for “cutting the state costs,” which was at a $26 billion deficit. Holding an enormous knife to address the Twittersphere definitely makes…a little… more sense in retrospect.

11. Bow Wow

Rapper, and star of Like Mike, Bow Wow got into a little bit of trouble after going out with fellow Twitter mistake-maker, Chris Brown in 2010. Why? Because he stupidly tweeted about being drunk…while driving his Lamborghini. “Face numb im whippin the lambo. Tispy as f**k. Just left @livmiami. Im f****d up!!! Ohhhh damn. Y i drive the lambo. Chris might have to drive after next spot.”

10. Mark Cuban

Not only is Mark Cuban the owner of the Dallas Mavericks, he’s probably the team’s biggest fan. Unfortunately, this has gotten him in trouble several times. In 2009, he was fined $25,000 by the NBA after tweeting: “how do they not call a tech on JR Smith for coming off the bench to taunt our player on the ground ?” Cuban’s response was, “can’t say no one makes money from twitter now. the nba does.” Apparently, Cuban still hasn’t learned a lesson. In 2013, he was fined yet again after he tweeted: “Im sorry NBA fans. Ive tried for 13 years to fix the officiating in this league and I have failed miserably. Any Suggestions ? I need help.” Most recently, Cuban took a farewell shot at commissioner David Stern.

9. Al Roker

Either Al Roker was too enthusiastic or wasn’t using common sense when he took photos of potential jurors on his iPhone, and, in violation of court rules, posted them to his Twitter page. The “Today” show weatherman quickly apologized to officials at Manhattan’s Criminal Court and went on the defensive by tweeting “Folks need to lighten up.” He also added, “I’m not breaking laws …just trying to share the experience of jury duty. One that I think is important and everyone should take part in.”

8. Kenneth Cole

You can’t blame Kenneth Cole for trying to cash in on trending hashtags, but using the uprising in Egypt in February 2011 just seems a bit low: “Millions are in uproar in #Cairo. Rumor is they heard our new spring collection is now available online at http://bit.ly/KCairo.” Cole soon removed the tweet and issued an apology on Facebook apologize. That should have been the end of the story, but when problems arose in Syria in September 2013, Cole made yet another insensitive and inappropriate sales pitch: “Boots on the ground” or not, let’s not forget about sandals, pumps and loafers. #Footwear.”

*slaps hand on forehead*

7. Ashton Kutcher

What happened with former Penn State football coach Joe Paterno and the horrible accusations against Jerry Sandusky were more than just a major news story. It was a tragedy that affected the lives of numerous people. So, you would think that someone was a major part of Twitter and current events would check the facts before making assumptions. But, that’s exactly what Ashton Kutcher did after he Tweeted this to his millions of followers: “How do you fire Jo Pa? #insult #noclass as a hawkeye fan I find it in poor taste.”

It wasn’t surprising that the uninformed tweet infuriated people from around the world, which in turn resulted in Kutcher proclaiming “As of immediately I will stop tweeting until I find a way to properly manage this feed. I feel awful about this error. Won’t happen again.”

6. Paris Hilton

Back in September 2010, the heiress was arrested in Las Vegas, for cocaine possession, which was found in a Chanel purse. Hilton did what every public figure does. She publicly stated that the purse was not hers, but actually belonged to a friend. But, unfortunately for Paris, she forgot that on the morning of her arrest, she had tweeted, “Love My New Chanel Purse I Got Today!” along with a photo of the purse. Maybe did Twitter just solved a crime…

5. Anthony Weiner

It was the perfect political scandal: an up-and-coming Congressman with a pun-tastic name,who accidentally tweeted a photo of his nether regions, opened the floodgates for what became known as “Weinergate”. The accidental tweet forced Anthony Weiner to resign from Congress in 2011 after it was discovered that he had been sending a woman sexually explicit messages and lewd images. Weiner tried to make a political comeback by running for mayor of New York City, but it turned out that old habits die hard. Even after his fall from grace, Weiner continued to have sexting sessions with women.

4. Amanda Bynes

We could spend an entire article dedicated to the Twitter account of the former Nickelodeon star. Some tweets were hysterical. Others were entertaining. But, there were one too many that proved Amanda Bynes had something wrong going on. For example, after her drunk driving charge in 2012, Bynes sent a tweet to President Barack Obama: “Hey @BarackObama…I don’t drink. Please fire the cop who arrested me. I also don’t hit and run. The end.” There were also the rants against other celebrities, like Rihanna and Drake, and even angry tweets directed at her parents. Hopefully she’s alright now, but we’ll always have the memories.

3. Alec Baldwin

In case you didn’t know, Alec Baldwin really likes Words With Friends. Back in 2011 he was so-enthralled with the game that he was kicked off an American Airlines plane at LAX because he had refused to turn off his phone. Naturally, the 30 Rock actor took to Twitter: “Flight attendant on American reamed me out 4 playing WORDS W FRIENDS while we sat at the gate, not moving. #nowonderamericaairisbankrupt.”

That, however, is pretty minor to Baldwin’s other rants via Twitter. He attacked journalists who claimed that his wife was tweeting during actor James Gandolfini’s funeral and also made homophobic statements, which resulted in MSNBC cancelling his show. PR firms most love Alec Baldwin.

2. Gilbert Gottfried

Unless you were a fan of Problem Child or enjoy dark humor, you probably know Gilbert Gottfried as the voice of the Aflac duck, which he had been doing since 2000. But, he was replaced after the comedian tweeted several jokes regarding the earthquake and tsunami that devastated Japan and claimed hundreds of lives in March 2011. Obviously, Gottfried apologized, but the damage was already done. The company, which does 75 percent of its business in Japan, had no choice but to severe ties with Gottfried after the inappropriate tweets.

1. Charlie Sheen

Much like Amanda Bynes, we could spend an entire article reliving the infamous tweets of Charlie Sheen. Whether it was attempting to get back at the bullies who had been picking on his daughter, mocking Ashton Kutcher or sending nasty messages to his exes, the former Two And A Half Men is no stranger to twitter controversies.

However, perhaps his biggest mistake came when tweeted his personal phone number to his over five million followers while trying to send a direct message to Justin Bieber, for some reason, in 2011. Because of the thousands of texts and calls, Sheen had no other choice but to disconnect the number. Glad he’s still winning.

Twitter acquires Spindle, a social development startup

A mobile based app which is generally offers a local search and on the other hand this term of acquisition which is not disclosed and also assist users to know what is developing.

Spindle has been acquired by Twitter and each and every time we have looked and played around with beyond local discovery.

The organization declared that they will no longer doing work on Spindle and also will an alternatively assist Twitter in its operation.

We have been impressed by the breadth and a very higher quality of content that is shared on Twitter.

Spindle acts as a Local Search Engine. Data from social network such as Twitter and Facebook, using position and time which are offered by a user, Spindle provides  information and facts as per user’s demand like local cab provider’s number, Gas/bar Station nearby and etc..

To be located out very useful, timely and so interesting information and facts about what’s happening around you which is registering forces with Twitter.

The staff member of  Spindle move around in to be registered  for the Twitter team in its headquarter in San Francisco.

Twitter can use their expertise and also to be developed a localized search service that is making an attempt to be discover out much most relevant tweets along with support person to discover local business enterprises, using twitter for affiliate marketing and any of other services or things of their interest.

The Boston based startup, that is Established in 2010 by a bunch of former Facebook and Microsoft employees, Spindle earlier raised $2.3 million in funding from a various number of investors.