Archive for March 24th, 2010

Twitter Mania – Follow Me And I Will Follow You Back

Twitter, the social networking and micro-blogging service that allows its users to send and read other users’ updates (otherwise known as tweets), which are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length, has no-doubt become quite a phenomenon. It is widely rumored that Twitter turned down an acquisition offer from Facebook for $500 Million. A recent TechCrunch report stated that Twitter’s valuation has reached in excess of $250 Million. There are reports that state that the reach of Twitter has exceeded that of Digg in a very short span of time.  With an excess of 5 Million users and over 50 Million monthly visits, everyone’s tweeting!

Needless to say, what’s made Twitter a revolution is its ease of use.  From signup to search, from following others to getting followed by others, to tweet or to retweet, to use the web or the phone, Twitter is just plain simple.  Add to this the power of Twitter APIs, there are hundreds of tools, utilities and apps that continue to spring from nowhere.  Today, there is a twitter tool just about to do anything you want on twitter.

Some use twitter for chit-chat.  Ranging from “I just got up, and am off to a shower” to “Please get out and vote for me”, much is being said in 140 characters or less.  Folks are asking questions and people in hundreds respond.  Advertisers market their products, Affilaites promote products, News sources announce breaking news and Bloggers post their blogs as tweets – whether for personal or for business, Twitter is seen everywhere and used by everyone.

It has never been easier to build a network of followers.  Never before has it been so easy to build a network of a 1,000 followers who follow what you have to say and are ready to receive a message from you.  And best of all, it costs nothing to do it!  Just think about what you would have to do to get a following of a 1,000 people – whether it is cold calling, or mail advertisement, or opt-in email marketing or a paid squeeze page lead capture – it takes a lot of time, money and effort.

The benefits being obvious, everyone is looking to build a wide follower base.  There is a widely prevalent phenomenon on Twitter that is increasing in popularity – “Follow Me and I will Follow You Back“.  This simply means that if you follow me on twitter, I will follow you right back.  There are two schools of thought on this.

The first school of thought is that it is not appropriate to follow everyone that follows you.  The second school of thought obviously thinks not.  The idea of not following everyone that follow you has some logic to it.  You could think of some parallels to this – “Buy my product, I will buy your product back” or “Subscribe to my newsletter, I will subscribe to your newsletter back”.  One could also argue that if you follow 1,000’s of people, you really can’t do justice, as multiple tweets from each one (assuming each one is active) would just be information overload and you simply can’t follow any tweet, giving it justice.  Both of these arguments could be argued as having some merit.  But, also not.

Think for a moment why people use Twitter.  True, one of the primary objectives is for you say what you are doing now and for others to tune in (or “follow”), but Twitter can be used for reasons well beyond that.  Twitter is a wonderful networking tool, where you can build relationships with others and communicate not just now, but for months and years to come.  You can sure tweet for the moment, but you can just as well message the other person in private.  And if it is true that Twitter is a social networking tool, and if others have something of value to offer to you in return, there is nothing unusual about you tuning into their message as well.  After all, you only stand to benefit!

The school of thought that says “Follow Me and I will Follow You Back” does has merit.  Just because two parties follow each other, there is no commitment or obligation.  Either party can ignore tweets, or can search through tweets by name, by RSS feeds or utilizing one of the infinite tools available, if the ongoing tweets are missed.  Either party can message each other, and either party can choose to review or ignore such messages.  And if one does not wants to be bothered, that could be done as well.  Worst case, one could unfollow and/or block others as well. Just as anything else in life, if you use the tool effectively, you will only stand to benefit.

Twitter is real.  Twitter works.  Twitter is the tool of the century – probably bigger and better than any other Social Networking or Web 2.0 tool.  Embrace it!

And if “Follow” bothers you, because you simply can’t follow 1,000’s of people (which I agree with and in that context, Twitter allowing one to follow 2,000 people may not make sense either, unless most are not active, in which case they should not be on Twitter in the first place!), then follow others on Twitter (and be followed) so you can use it to “Send and Receive Messages“.   Again, there is no better tool, whether online or offline, that allows you to be able to send and receive messages to such a wide audience that has mutually agreed to receive and send messages to each other.

If you agree with this thought process, maybe we should rephrase the theme to “Receive Me and I will Receive You Back“.    And, maybe we are not just talking Twitter, but rather an enhanced Twitter, one that is naturally Two-way, maybe we are talking Twowitter

 

Thoughts on Southern California Vacations

Southern California is a pretty well-known vacation destination and there are a great many hotels to be found.  Some travelers are on business trips and are looking for mid-price hotels with easy access to the local freeways and airports.

We’re talking mostly about vacation travelers here, and for them you’re looking at a much wider range in quality and price.  In either case, here is a good website intended to help you find good hotel deals.  The site offers information about places to visit in Southern California and a lot of other useful material, but certainly will help both business and vacation travelers.  You can use this website to find package airline and hotel deals also, which is convenient.

For additional information and tips about hotels in Southern California visit the Southern California Vacation Guru website.  This site also covers a wide variety of Southern California vacation topics and destinations, including Six Flags Magic Mountain, Knott’s Berry Farm, Disneyland Resort, etc.  You will find a wealth of local advice and information to enhance your vacation stay.

If you are interested to hear what others are thinking about travel in general, you might visit Travel Talk.  This has lots of input on a very diverse spectrum of travel-oriented topics.  You can find subjects ranging from trips to India to driving trips by yourself to careers in the travel business.

 

Look Up For Awesome Presents At Compare Travel

Compare Hotel RatesCompareBookings.com is not just dedicated on giving you the links that may help you save up to 75% on automobile rentals for a trip from a foreign land. It is also not just created for you to compare bookings of various hotels from a certain position you are planning to go for the break. They can also give you added thought on wherever to go so you can have enjoyable but expend fewer.

In compare hotels, they will offer you the top deals of this day, fantastic deals on car rentals, hotel accommodations, and cruise, and also other packages you could avail for a vacation plan, similar to cheap hotels in hong kong or perhaps a cheap hotels in boston. In a very precise section in their website, you possibly can go for what presents you are able to seek when you want to save over a travel. They suggest some top deals to the day somewhere you can have discounts over a romantic getaway over a resort, for example, for up to 50%. They also have links to discounted fares on airplanes. With this, you just can not save over a hotel accommodation, but as well as the fare to the plane. In addition to which are the other offers of discounted services of hotels, automobile rentals, and cruise around the globe so that one could possess a perfect vacation with out too much spending.

Gather further facts for a fun, memorable, and inexpensive vacation from CompareBookings.com. You’ll find more presents and deals which have been available in their site waiting for you to discover it. See it for yourself now.