Pelan namun pasti, twitter sudah diakui pengaruhnya di jagad maya Indonesia. Sudah jutaan orang Indonesia yang menggunakannya. Mulai dari artis, penyanyi, pemasar, politikus, olah ragawan, orang IT, wartawan, orang iklan, rohaniwan, sampai orang umum pun nge-tweet.
Ada yang bisa memanfaatkannya dengan baik, seperti Pandji Pragiwaksono (artis, presenter, rapper) nge-tweet untuk membentuk citranya sebagai artis yang peduli dengan ke-Indonesiaan, namun ada pula yang gagal memasuki lingkungan twitter seperti Mario Teguh (motivator) karena tweet-nya yang kontroversial.
Beberapa produk (brand) pun sudah memasuki twitter. Bahkan, perusahaan-perusahaan yang masuk dalam jajaran 100 perusahaan TOP dunia kebanyakan telah menggunakan twitter sebagai salah satu alat pemasarannya.
Bagaimana dengan Anda? Sudah punya account di twitter? Apakah Anda juga menggunakan twitter untuk memasarkan diri dan atau brand Anda?
Berikut ini beberapa tips yang semoga bisa membantu Anda ketika memanfaatkan twitter sebagai alat pemasaran.
Pertama, nge-tweetlah sesuatu yang bernas. Ingat, twitter merupakan microblogging, dibatasi 140 karakter untuk sekali posting. Jadi, cobalah untuk nge-tweet sesuatu yang berkualitas seputar topik yang kita tekuni atau di mana kita terlibat. Jika memang tweet Anda bermutu, pasti akan banyak yang me-retweet. Apa untungnya ketika Anda diretweet? Tentu saja, Anda akan lebih banyak dikenal, sehingga akan difollow, dan pendapat anda dijadikan referensi.
Kedua, follow orang-orang yang sekiranya penting bagi Anda. Follow orang / tokoh yang selingkungan dengan ceruk pasar Anda. Follow juga website-website penyedia referensi penting tentang dunia Anda.
Ketiga, pantau tweet dari lingkungan ceruk pasar Anda. Kemudian, berinteraksilah dengan mereka. Ciptakan dialog dengan mereka. Bila perlu, tambahkan sesuatu yang bernilai ketika berinteraksi.
Keempat, ikutilah apa yang sedang menjadi trending topik. Paling tidak, yang sedang tren di timelines Anda dan di ceruk pasar Anda. Twitter adalah social media yang real time. Jadi, ikutilah. Tapi tetap ingat, saringlah informasi-informasi yang penting.
Kelima, integrasikan blog / website Anda dengan twitter. Jika perlu, gunakan robot twitter. Tentang pembuatan robot twitter telah dibahas dalam website ini.
Keenam, ketika Anda / brand Anda sedang mengadakan program-program atau acara, baik offline maupun online, jangan segan untuk “melaporkan”nya secara real time melalui twitter.
Ketujuh, ciptakan karakter Anda. Mungkin ini yang butuh proses agak lama. Yang terpenting adalah, konsistensi. Konsisten dengan topik yang Anda tweet, konsisten dengan bahasa Anda, dan konsisten dengan kontinyuitas tweet Anda.
Semoga tips tersebut bermanfaat. Jika Anda punya tips lain, saya sangat senang jika Anda mau berbagi juga di sini.
…not surprised to discover how ignorant this Twitter business is. Okay, so I was away from the internet for about 18 months. I return to find this latest fad called Twitter. I have been on the net for 9 years (okay – 7 and a half if you want to be precise) and I have seen a lot of silly ideas pass across my browser. But this is really one of the real doosies of modern communication.
I was curious as to what this Twitter biz was all about. Was it a new kind of blog? Or just another plea to get me to join another useless forum or message board group of idiots who can’t talk about anything related to the subject of the board or forum. Anyway, I sign up and begin to try to use this crappy piece of useless techno junk. Within a few seconds, I realize that this is just a sort of electronic game of tag. I supposed to follow so and so around all day and read his or her little dribbles of info, like “Going to the store now..” and I am in turn supposed to write to him or her back something like “Good, hope the store has what you want.” Now another person is supposed to join into the conversation and add something like, “What store are you going to?”
I suppose that Twitter is in line with the current fad of text messaging every detail of your working day off to the world. I suppose it also is in line with the theory that everyone has such an interesting life that people from all corners of the globe want to know precisely what you are doing 24 hours of the day.
Bull hockey!
This is just another childish fad, another cheap plea for attention from spoiled twenty-first century children, like the way they took MTV and turned it from a show about rock n roll with real music videos 24 hours a day (yes, real music videos with no ads and nothing to buy), took MTV and turned it into a campus fashion show. Twitter is as useless as beepers, and more annoying to the intellect of human beings than silly putty on an ice cream cone. I guess I am just too mature to handle this latest craze of text crapola. It will pass eventually, like a bad meal, or like tattoos and poking metal rings into every corner of your body. And when it passes, someone will write a book about “How I Spent My Summer Vacation Twittering Away Every Detail of My Life and How No One Really Gave a Crap… continued in Book 2, The Twittering Nightmares!”
So…………… I leave you with this PHOTO THOUGHT OF THE DAY
Britney Spears was the beginning to a long line of pop stars. A lot of them owe their respects to Brit, however one of today’s “biggest” pop stars is denying Brit the respect that she deserves.
In Ke$ha’s new song “Styrofoam” she sings about how nothing ever lasts and how nothing is permanent, except for styrofoam that is. She disesses the songstress in a line, which has created a trending topic on Twitter (#Keshawho)
The line goes, “In 10 years, Britney Spears…Britney, who?”
Ke$ha has only recently become famous from her single Tik Tok, and her other song featuring 3OH!3 Blah Blah Blah ( A huge disappointment ) Now she is making it seem she has taken the throne away from every other pop star out their. Sorry Ke$ha your brand new and talentless, Brit has been around since the 90’s making hit after hit, what have you done? Made 2 catchy songs, thats it. Like Britney or not, she’s been around for over 10 years, and she’s still on top with her most recent successful single, 3.
MY PERSONAL MESSAGE TO KE$HA-
It is not hygienic to brush your teeth with a bottle of jack, I use toothpaste. Second if I felt like Pdiddy in the morning, I would go to the doctors, third-You are the degenerate sister of Hannah Montana with the idea that you are a rebel because you don’t bathe and wear leather… classy
Wherever you go people are talking about Twitter. It certainly is a great way to “micro blog” things.
If you have a mobile then it’s not possible to not be able to tweet as long as you have a signal. There have also been various applications on every phone that’ll let you tweet more easily.
Most notably on Nokia devices is a program called Gravity. Great interface, loads of features and a joy to use.
Android has loads of different Twitter apps, some are good, some are too basic but there has yet to be an official Twitter application.
Androidandme.com has reported rumours that this may actually be on the way to Android devices. Whether you’ll actually want or need to use this application will obviously be down to your personal preference.
Those of us who will be using the HTC Sense UI will have built-in Twitter access so may not need to look elsewhere.
Have a read of the Androidandme.com article and see what you think
My brain is overloading with the coolness of this little LEGO robot. On top of being remote-controlled, NIKO can receive its commands via Twitter! Now that’s a cool use of social-robo-networking!
There’s lots of competition, you’ll have to get lots of views for your content and you’ll have to do so fast. So why subject yourself to that? Because, quite simply, to do otherwise is to leave your business in your competition’s dust. YouTube content receives more than a billion views every day, and if you aren’t getting a piece of that pie your business is never going to flourish as much as it could.
The good news is this: There is some expert help out there. Social media marketing experts uSocial.net have figured out how to change the video marketing game in your favor. They’ve added a new service to their roster of social network marketing products, and this latest addition is designed to help you make money through video marketing. How, you ask, is this possible? They’ve figured out a way to help you get the video views necessary for success – by buying them.
“After we launched our other social marketing services, we saw video as the next obvious means for expansion,” says uSocial.net CEO Leon Hill. “Once we found a way to quickly generate loads of quality views to videos, we knew we were onto something that people would go crazy for.”
USocial.net can bring video viewers to your content either from within YouTube or through other social sites like blogs.
Hill says that what makes the company different is that they “can guarantee fast, targeted traffic to videos, instead of relying on traditional means like hoping for viral use, or pay-per-click advertising,” explains Hill.
Bollywood celebs like Priyanka Chopra and Farhan Akhtar are on Twitter to connect with friends and fans, but actor Parvin Dabbas found a novel way to use it – he got a title for his directorial venture thanks to the social networking site.
“It was actually Mr. Anupam Kher who suggested to me to take to Twitter to hunt for the title,” Parvin told IANS over telephone.
The actor had initially announced a cash reward of Rs.15,000 to whoever would suggest a title that he would choose.
“I had announced about the cash reward within my cast and crew. One day Anupam-ji came and asked me to post it on Twitter as well. He also Tweeted about it. We had a few other titles but finally ‘Sahi Dhande Galat Bande’ was selected,” he said.
Parvin is still trying to find out who gave him the film’s title. The only cue is that he is one among Anupam Kher’s 26,420 followers on Twitter.
“We are figuring out who the person is and where he lives. If he’s someone from outside Mumbai, we’ll get him here and give the reward,” said Parvin, who has acted in films like “Monsoon Wedding”, “Maine Gandhi Ko Nahi Mara” and “Khosla ka Ghosla”.
Parvin’s “Sahi Dhande Galat Bande” is an action comedy with a political twist, and revolves around a gang of four guys. Apart from Anupam, the film also stars Vansh Bharadwaj of “Heavens on Earth” fame, newcomers Kuldeep, Ashish Nair and Tina Desai.
The cast also includes Kiran Juneja, Sharat Saxena, Yashpal Sharma, Neena Kulkarani and Vipin Sharma.
Parvin is not only directing the film but is also acting in it. Asked if it was difficult to tackle both the responsibilities, he said: “I did a lot of preparation in terms of storyboarding as well as acting. I knew how I would be handling it.”
Delhi boy Parvin has mostly shot the film in various parts of the capital and claims his film doesn’t cater to a specific audience.
“I am not a kind of person who keeps a target audience in mind. It is a film that will be watched in multiplexes, single screens across towns and cities,” said the actor.
“It has been an interesting journey. I am happy to get work that I enjoy. I try to do something that people would enjoy and get entertained,” he said.
Apart from his directorial venture, Parvin is also doing films like “Undertrial” and “Alibaug”.
Instead of mapping out a long-awaited plan to sell ads on Twitter, CEO Evan Williams yesterday unveiled a new feature, “@anywhere,” that allows other Web sites to link to Twitter feeds. Users will be able to send tweets through participating sites without having to jump to Twitter. AllThingsDigital/MediaMemo: When will we see Twitter’s planned ad platform? WebNewser: Twitter’s Evan Williams on what @anywhere means for publishers.
We’re in a new stage of consumer evolution thanks to the latest advancements in technology. The last decade has seen Myspace, Facebook, the Wii, Dr. Horrible’s Sing-a-long Blog, Hulu, Netflix, iPods, iPads, and the myriad of innovative explosive consumer cache that these devices inherently spawn.
Facebook games, iPhone applications, and product placement are only a few examples of the highly (surprisingly) profitable weeds that sprouted from capitalism’s planter.
Jesse Schell, Carnegie Mellon professor and former Disney imagineer, spoke at the 2010 Design Innovate Communicate Entertain (DICE) Summit about these capitalist wet-dreams.
“Facebook is weird,” he announces to the crowd, “Webkinz. Wha? Really?”
Technology is revolutionizing not only our relationship with technology but our relationship with reality. Webkinz is so obscenely successful because it employs psychological tricks to keep our children playing. All the games on the website are free – in which you earn points and in game money – but the only way to spend your hard earned money is to pay a small monthly fee.
In 2007 Club Penguin, a children’s internet game, was purchased for 350 million dollars by Disney.
According to tech crunch there are over 350 million Facebook users. By the end of 2009, Twitter reached 18 million users. Now, note that there are more Farmville accounts than Twitter accounts; the massively popular facebook game has purportedly surpassed 80 million active users.
The law of inertia finds that technology converges: Refrigerators fit with wi-fi, computer/tv screen, and anything else you could possibly imagine – or want – from one kitchen appliance.
Pockets are the exception.
“Pockets turn the law of divergence inside out,” said Schell, “The iPhone is a modern digital swiss army knife.”
Schell’s speech, “Design Outside the Box” is fairly short (28 minutes) and extremely interesting. The last few minutes are a cheeky but probably not so inaccurate extrapolation of what our future will look like wrapped in Tech. Here is one of Schell’s many extrapolations: internet-synched ad tattoos. Scenario: See a friend at a BBQ who has the same ad-tattoo as you. The ads “link-sync” and you and your friend high five – because that is how you score points in the ‘game’ (winning you and your friend achievements which you can use for tax breaks). This ‘game’ teaches you to pay more attention to ads.
It makes more sense if you watch the video, which I’ll post below. I also linked directly to the video in the beginning of this article.
Xbox 360 Games – E3 2010 – Guitar Hero 5
The extent to which we are immersed – and continue to be immersed – in technology reminds me of the award winning Young Adult novel Feed by M.T. Anderson.
This is Amazon’s summary: In this chilling novel, Anderson (Burger Wuss; Thirsty) imagines a society dominated by the feed a next-generation Internet/television hybrid that is directly hardwired into the brain. Teen narrator Titus never questions his world, in which parents select their babies’ attributes in the conceptionarium, corporations dominate the information stream, and kids learn to employ the feed more efficiently in School. But everything changes when he and his pals travel to the moon for spring break. There Titus meets home-schooled Violet, who thinks for herself, searches out news and asserts that “Everything we’ve grown up with the stories on the feed, the games, all of that it’s all streamlining our personalities so we’re easier to sell to.” Without exposition, Anderson deftly combines elements of today’s teen scene, including parties and shopping malls, with imaginative and disturbing fantasy twists. “Chats” flow privately from mind to mind; Titus flies an “upcar”; people go “mal” (short for “malfunctioning”) in contraband sites that intoxicate by scrambling the feed; and, after Titus and his friends develop lesions, banner ads and sit-coms dub the lesions the newest hot trend, causing one friend to commission a fake one and another to outdo her by getting cuts all over her body.
But the title of this post targets advertising.
Hulu introduced us (and has already spoiled us) to easy, legally accessible, virtually commercial free TV viewing. A half hour show will typically have about 3 thirty second ads.
One might assume viewers could sit through a 30 second ad and indeed, we might, if only advertisers tailor their systems to the internet. So far they have taken the broadcast commercial and transplanted it directly into online viewing, an arena that is submerged in distractions – even for thirty seconds of free time. Thus, these same old, flat, repetitive commercials are not keeping holding internet-attention spans. And thus, the 30 second time spot is already dead.
Here is a very thorough post by Frank detailing the reasons we should rightly hold a memorial for the 30 second advertising slot. He concludes: “The bottom line is this: advertisers and marketers need to embrace new media now or else.”
The two “new media” approaches I see having a future online are: storyboard and interactive ads.
[I'm going to quote my comment on his post]
One thing that makes commercials so unbearable, especially for me, is redundancy. I can’t stand seeing the same (usually boring) commercial several times in one night – and on the same channel. Hulu is a front line offender with its 15 second to 2 minute ads. With only one ad per spot (about 3 spots/ 40 min show), Hulu often plays the same ad in each spot. Viewers already have distraction at their fingertips by virtue of watching from the internet and consequently will abandon an ad – even if only for a 15 second Twitter quickie – even faster than tv watchers.
There are two hulu ads which stand apart from this trend. One is interactive and literally lets the viewer explore a set scene (say, a barbershop) to discover facts about a product such as shampoo or combs. The second ad is actually a series of ads that play out essentially like three acts in a play. Act 1: see boy at soccer game make a mud-sliding save. Act 2: mother applies detergent [product] to uniform Act 3: clean underwear all around.
I even see multiple products advertised in one storyboard ad. Perhaps, both detergent and the type of washing machine.
This could be seen as already in use by shows that incorporate a good amount of product placement (30 Rock). I do wonder if product placement will become standard in all television shows in place of, or in addition to, 30 second commercial spots. (Let’s hope it doesn’t go too overt e.g. The Truman Show).
[end quote]
Frankly, I am surprised at how lethargic advertisers have been to adapting to the internet. As a frequent and primarily internet-television viewer, I do not want to be bored by ads. I welcome those ads are find a happy medium between intrusive in my browsing and flat, boorish designs.
My sister and I used to play a game in movie theaters giving thumbs up or down to trailers to indicate our anticipation level for the advertised movie. I would imagine that everyone in the theater could hit a button “thumbs up or down” and the theater’s collective interest or disinterest would show up on the screen after each trailer. People live to interact with their technology. We love integration, adaptation, and enhanced reality (just a shade shy of actual reality). See: motion-detecting video games and games like Second Life.
How long will it take for advertisers to evolve with the rest of us? And how far are we willing to take it?
I recently saw a cartoon that I thought was both very funny and very sad. It shows a young man, presumably the boyfriend, chastising a young woman, presumably the girlfriend. He’s telling her that he recently checked his texts, his voice mail, his Blackberry, Facebook, and Myspace and couldn’t find any updates from her, that it was like she had dropped off the face of the planet. He was practically distraught, he says. The girl responds by asking him if he has checked Twitter. When he does, he reads aloud, “Going to the bathroom. Be back in two minutes.” What makes it funny is how utterly true it is. What makes it sad is how utterly true it is.
I have a friend who has her cell phone synced to several people’s FB status updates, a half a dozen Twitter feeds, weather reports from four or five cities, as well as alerts whenever someone responds to her comments and updates and blog entries. That’s in addition to the regular influx of text messages she gets from however many friends she is in near constant contact with. It’s safe to say that if her cell phone isn’t going off every two to three minutes the battery is dead. I once (or twice or three times) suggested that she turn it off for an afternoon and spend the time going for a walk, alone with just herself and her thoughts. She informed that there was no way she could do that. She has to stay busy, she has to stay connected, she has to stay (my words) distracted.
And that’s what it really is all about. Staying distracted. For most people these days the scariest place on earth to be is alone, and the scariest person in the world to be there with is themselves. An hour of absolute, uninterrupted quiet time would be unbearable for them. The most foreign place in their world is their own mind. And so they fill each waking moment with distractions and deaden each sleeping moment with sedatives to keep from having to journey into that most unfamiliar place.
And what of that place? What is there that is so frightening, so foreign, so unfaceable? I really don’t know. I grew up in a farming community in the Appalachians. I spent many days wandering up into the hills and through the woods with nothing but my thoughts to keep me company. I have spent more time in my own head than anywhere else on earth. That is a practice I have carried into my adult life. To take a break from the noise, the crowds, from the external , seems to me not just a natural thing to do, but an essential one. I have to get away from time to time to cleanse my mental palate. I walk the trails in our parks from every now and then and the other walkers I pass almost always have earbuds in, or are talking on their cell phones. Why come to a place of contemplation and then not contemplate? They are simply passing by on their way from one place to another. Their trip along this trail through the woods is emblematic of the trips they take through their own minds. Hurrying along, comforted by distractions, they are there out of some vague notion that this is supposed to be good for you. “Walks in the woods can be very relaxing,” says the article in Distractions Illustrated. “Cool,” says the distracted person. “I think I’ll take a walk in the woods. I wonder if they have Wi-Fi there.”
How did we come to this? I’m not sure, really, except that the media has told us we need more sound, more noise, more colors and flashing lights in our lives. We need to stay connected/em>, we’ve been told. And we’ve believed them. I’m not so old that I can’t remember a silent house. TV off by 9:00 PM, my parents on the porch in the darkness—my mom most likely smoking a cigarette and my dad most likely having a beer— and me in my room or, sometimes in summer, on the porch with them. Each of us alone in our own heads. And none of us distracted. Scary thought, eh?
I haven’t done a very good job of keeping track of the time spent on the site for the last two weeks. I know I’ve spent a lot of time, just not exact… I’ve been so focused on getting the blog entries edited, and finding and uploading the photos to complete the articles. But around 11:45 pm last night the last entries were completed – yay!
In our presentation, I took note of suggestions made by classmates and have made changes to the site accordingly. The letter spacing of the font has been adjusted so things aren’t so squished. I’ve added padding to the content area to align the text with the slider module. I have increased the timing on the slider module to make it less distracting, however; I can’t make the module loop. I finally found the CSS for the slider module to adjust the background colour of the module so it is the same as the wrapper colour (this took a LONG time!). I’ve also lightened up the header so it is not so dark and heavy.
I’ve worked on getting a better WYSIWYG editor installed to make editing of the articles and uploading images easier for the client. This was put into use for editing the last two dozen blog entries; uploading and adding photographs to those entries as well. I have also set up the search function on the site and it is working correctly.
This week, I also downloaded the comments modules and got that set up (that I know took about 3 hours to do site visitors can comment on the individual blog entries. I’ve also been doing some user testing on the site to see if there are any issues that need to be resolved. The group will be doing further testing once the e-commerce function is a little further along (this should be occurring early next week after our meeting with the client on Monday).
I still need to install and set up the social media sharing functions to distribute the blog entries to the client’s Facebook page and Twitter account. And finally (well, probably not finally ) there will be the client training and manual to produce!
I’m feeling very optimistic that we are getting this project done on schedule. Whew!
The portal has opened and I am faced with a smorgasbord of the latest technology. I have a blog. I am on facebook. I will soon be on twitter and linkedin. And for the life of me, I do not know what made me decide I needed to have a webcam to see around the world, but I got one. We stayed up what seemed like half the night trying to communicate across the room to find that the only cooperation we got was with Skype; imagine using Skype to call each other in the same room rather than in different countries.
It is in situations like these that I begin to question technology and wonder why I am doing any of this. It is a momentary lapse. I do still love all of this technology and pride myself in being something of a techno-geek; but right now I am a bit frustrated.
I feel a bit like the old college professor’s saying of ‘publish or perish’. I am sure I will prevail on all fronts. And as soon as I do, something new will have been invented for me to take another quantum leap in learning to use. But for now, let’s blog!
Can you sense the excitement in my voice? I just have to quickly give some props to two of my favorites – Alien Workshop and Andy Warhol. Word was released today via @thewarholmuseum on Twitter, and on Alien Workshop’s company site, that they have been working collaboratively to bring the world – wait for it, wait … Yes! Andy Warhol Skate Decks!!! Get in line; according to Alien they will be available Spring 2010. The 10 limited-edition pro decks feature work from Andy’s Death & Disaster Series, along with 5 of his iconic pop creations (they even got the packaging right!). You can find them at the Andy Warhol Museum and through Alien Workshop. Check ‘em out -
Since we’re talking emerging media, I decided to do a little checking up on these two underground mega-brands. As a designer, I’ve worked in the same town that Alien was born in, and it has been awesome to watch them grow. Apparently Alien is so cool now that it doesn’t even have to start its own brand page on Facebook. At last count, the largest FB fan page for Alien (there are several) had 8,113 fans, absolutely no posts, no company info, but 3 pages worth of fan photos – mostly of Alien boards. Those are some pretty impressive fan numbers for any brand and they should like that people are that so interested, they’re promoting the brand on their own. Alien can be found on Twitter (@alienworkshop) but be warned, not sure if this is a brand page either. There are a cool 710 followers, but only 14 tweets. The Tweets are mainly about events that seem attended by Alien. There are awesome action shots like this one:
Apparently Alien subscribes to the same mentality that most skaters do, come and find us, and see how ya like us then. Skaters are known for guerilla tactics, and Alien would be a prime candidate brand to slap a few more stickers on the walls of social media. Other big skate brands have done it and fans are flocking. Alien is already huge, but by reaching out a deck, they can continue to thrive by giving fans what they want – more Alien bada@#ness.
On To Andy
Andy’s always been a buzz builder. The man’s been dead for decades and his pop brand is still making people talk. As the man said himself – “Art is what you can get away with” (Andy Warhol). That’s what makes the union of skateboarding and pop art such a perfect fit. Skaters have been looked down on for years – arrested for using public places, picked on by class bullies, and yet, they’ve gotten back up, dusted off their chucks, and kept on riding towards the X Games. The critics never cut Andy any slack either. He did what he wanted, when he wanted, how he wanted, and where he wanted. He made art. You can like it, or you can hate it, but it’s his and he made it. And he really doesn’t care if you like it or not.
The Warhol museum and foundation are now in charge of his legacy. They’ve kept him in the spotlight with unique displays, articles, Twitter and Facebook pages, and informative Andy sites. Andy’s got buzz whether he’s dead or alive, and surely you can at least appreciate his hyped up style.
Just days before 2009 was coming to an end, two of my work colleagues decided to come to Alexandria for a day trip. There trip was to just get out of Cairo to have a change of scenery, see something new, have a fish meal and visit me. I truly enjoy it when colleagues, family or friends make a trip to Alexandria, it gives me the chance to be a host and their guide in the city that I have fallen in love with. I try and show them the hidden beauty of what is buried beneath the modern Alexandria of today.
Mariam and Radwa wanted to go some where ‘authentic’, I racked my brain and finally came up with a place that has a lot of history and was probably where the elite of foreign society used to have tea. Delice still know for it’s bakery and view of Saad Zaghlool square and the sea is where I decided to take them. My sister and I love to go there and buy their giant sized macaroons and mini meringues. My elderly neighbour ,Mme Yamna Souccar who used to live on the floor above my parents flat, loved their jam busicuits and when ever I could, I would go and buy her a box when I would go and visit her. My friends really liked the place because it had an air to it and it’s noticable in its fading decor. I be it was a spectacular place back in it’s glory days. The three of us ate our brunch, caught up on each others news and discussed where we were going to go next.
The Biblioteca Alexandrina was our next destination. We decided to leave the car in the parking area across from Delice and walk along the Corniche (sea) to the Library to work off brunch and to breath in the sea air, (plus, parking near the Library is a nightmare!) Along the promenade I pointed out some landmarks and told them stories that had be told to me and they in turn shared their experiences and memories of Alexandria.
We bought our full pass tickets to enter the Library, turned in our bags with our cell phones got our number and began our journey back in time. The first muesuem that we went in to is below the planetarium to the right. It was one I had never been to before and I have been to the Library many times, (that’s what I love about the place, no matter how many times I visit, I always see something I hadn’t seen the time before). The first was of Egypt’s assasinated President Anwar El Sadat (http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/515786/Anwar-el-Sadat), looking at the items in the display cases and reading the explanations of what things were for and what he did and accomplished, I but feel sad. We as a nation lost someone great, some one with a vision and direction for the futre of Egypt.
* One of my great Uncles from the El Shindy side of the family was a politician and before Sadat came to be president, he and Sadat were in exile together. It’s strange to think that members of my family were and apart of the Royal family and others worked along side the president and shared now that personal history is lost because some greedy putts sold tapestry of our family tree and now have no chance of ever being able to retrace our linage or ancestry.
As we continued through the library and visited other exhibits, we came to my favorite. The Awad collection of maps and pictures of Alexandria. Looking at the framed maps and pictures deepened my sadness the city was breath taking. No wonder so many people chose to leave their homelands to come and live here. It had a melange of European and Oriental feel to it. Now the city as well as the country is in shambles if I was to compare it to what it used to be like,’ The pear of the Middle East’. You would think that with all our technology and education that we as a race or society of people would have advanced and improved, but I honestly think that we are moving backwards.
I have been to Saudi Arabia & Jordan and I am ashamed to admit it, but they have more pride in their country and make an effort to keep it clean. Egypt compared to them and to what it used to be like is a garbage dump. The streets are littered with trash because people throw their tissues, crisp packets, wrappers and cans from their car windows as they drive by. The garbage cans are over flowing and no one seems to care! WHY??? Don’t give me crap about it’s because our country isn’t governed by a sovereignty, what’s that got to do with being clean? Islam promotes cleanliness of self and home….then surly that should also include our country too.
I have no idea how this problem can be rectified. I don’t know if campaigning would work. I think reprogramming peoples brains maybe the only solution.
Please don’t mis-understand me. I am not against Egypt. I am very proud of my heritage and where I come from, but I find it so frustrating that we were once ‘the it spot’ in the Middle East and Mediterranean and now we aren’t when we very easily could be! I guess you could say I am just venting!
Follow me on Twitter (I don’t have very many tweets) – http://twitter.com/tsepulveda
What are YOOOOOUUUU Doing?
Our lives are filled with so much “stuff.” So much of the “stuff” is just junk that really doesn’t matter. But all that junk takes space and time. Time that could be given to “stuff” that is not junk. Ok, I’m already tired of the “quotations.”
Anyway, when was the last time you took some time to evaluate the important things? For instance, when was the last time that you evaluated the time and effort you put in to serving…the people at your church….your community….the world? What about using your gifts? When was the last time you used your gifts in the church setting?
In our American brand of Christianity, we very easily fall into the model of going to church on Sunday, hearing the message that hopefully touches us, dropping a few bucks into the offering plate, saying hi to some friends, going out to eat for lunch and then going about our week to start it all over again. What about going to church and using what God has given you to give back or minister to someone who is hurting or whatever. Then, doing it the rest of your week.
We shouldn’t go to church, but instead BE the Church. What would your Sunday be like if you went to church with that mindset?
Kindness?
Ok, this lady spent her birthday doing random acts of kindness for others. Check out the blogpost. It’s pretty awesome…and can give you some great ideas! http://mixmingleglow.com/blog/?p=1358
Zig Ziglar
If you’ve seen my other blog posts or Twitter, you would know that I’ve started downloading and listening to the Zig Ziglar podcast. I can honestly say that I feel good/pumped after listening to one of the episodes. His podcasts range from dealing with self-talk to parenting to making more sales…you name it.
I decided to visit his website and noticed that you can sign up to attend a free online webcast. They have 2 that you can currently sign up for and watch live when it happens. After you sign up, they send you the link info. through email. The next two are called, “You Gotta Get in the Game” and “The Only 3 Ways to Increase Sales.” The website is http://www.ziglar.com/home.html Check out the other resources too!
Lifelong Learning
I recently did a short video on how to find and download podcasts. You can view the video at my school blog – http://cyfair1.schoolwires.net/198720511182019637/Blog/browse.asp?A=398&BMDRN=2000&BCOB=0&C=65055
The posts are called Lifelong Learning 2a and 2b.
Sunday Sharing
This week – Galatians 3
Do you want to read Galatians 3 in a different version? You can go here - http://www.biblegateway.com/ If you want to look at Greek and Hebrew words, you can go here - http://www.studylight.org/
Small Group Questions* – Galatians 3
In this passage, Paul explained the relationship between law and faith. The law given by God is unable to save anyone because no one can perfectly follow it. It points out our sinfulness and our need for a Savior. Only Jesus, our Savior, can deliver us from our awful predicament. Only he can clothe us in his righteousness and make us right before a Holy God.
OPEN
1. What would life be like if you never made any mistakes?
EXPLORE
2. How were the Galatians attempting to live out the Christian life? (3:3)
3. What is the curse on those who depend on making rules and adhering to rules to make them right? (3:10)
4. What important element is missing in the law? (3:12)
5. What did Christ do in response to the law’s curse? (3:13)
GET IT
6. In what ways do believers try to live the Christian life in their own strength?
7. When have you felt most successful in living the way Christ desires Christians to live?
8. How does it make you feel when you really blow it in your faith?
9. What contrasts can you be drawn between rule-keeping and a relationship as a basis for spiritual living?
APPLY
10. How would change your life to make all your actions perfectly consistent with the belief that you cannot earn a good standing before God?
*taken from Ilumina Bible Software
Old Tibits?
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Subscribe
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* Which customers or collaborators can help your business grow?
* Decision makers, always in the market for quality information.
* As long as it’s relevant, clear and concise. Really concise.
* Don’t expect them to read wordy, derivative articles or blogs.
* Or hang around networking events and flaccid Facebook pages.
* They demand real value, in messages that’ll fit on iPhone screens.
* Offer them bite-sized solutions to business problems and challenges.
* Excellent concise content can transform leaders into your followers.
* They’ll read articles like this on Twitter, posted one line at a time.
* So your messages will help business succeed for years to come.
* Just keep the messages short and sweet. Tweet tweet.
Found at Social CRM is a Journey, not a Destination – Revisited | CustomerThink.
I wrote the following in September 2009 – 6 months ago. But, I could have easily written it yesterday, and it would not be too different:
“There has been a tremendous amount great conversation during the past couple weeks, regarding Social CRM. What it is as well as what it is not. I am not sure we have reached any conclusions yet, but we have all become smarter for the insights of a great many individuals. Interestingly, I am usually a bit opinionated, but I sat on the sidelines, just observing – for the most part.
As my title suggests, I do believe that we are all (customers, businesses, implementers and vendors) on a journey.
To be continued at http://www.customerthink.com/blog/social_crm_is_a_journey_not_a_destination_revisited?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+customerthink+(CustomerThink+-+All+Content)
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Recommended read: The 5 Stages of Customer Acquisition for the Social Business (Part 2) @CustomerThink (fredzimny.wordpress.com)
Social Software – key debates revisited (cmswatch.com)
Yesterday, I was trying to analyse my hours (!) spent on social networks in a day. And its more than 7 hours a day. Seven! I almost died when I saw this number. But hey, wait, I don’t waste my time on these networks. I don’t poke, ping, peek or gossip or chit-chat. I don’t take social network for granted like most of you (none offences meant, hope none taken). I ask and ask few more. I am one of those annoying kinds who believe there is no one right answer for everything. I read and ask and answer and analyse, also like most of you.
Mechanical Zoo were the smarter ones and created Aardvark. This ask-your-friend-in-your-network technology is truly amazing. Its brilliant. For those who are new to this product, FYI, its a social serach engine that allows the users to ask or/and answer anything in real time in your network of friends (which includes Google contacts and Facebook contacts). Interesting thing is Aardvark finds that person on your behalf based on some intelligent algorithm and gets you one of your people to answer. Since Google bought it ($50 million), Aardvark is installed as one of your friends on your Google-chat list and communicate through key words like ‘pass’, ‘ask’, ‘more’ et cetera.
Here is a screen shot of my Aardvark page for you all to look.
Screenshot of Aardvark
It’s navigation is easy and simple. One can share their Aardvark’s thread and post it on Twitter or Facebook. Not only that, through my Google Inbox I can easily manage Aardvark account without logging into Aardvark page. So, whenever Aardvark sees me online, it asks me or updates me about various queries to which I can answer through Google-chat itself. Hence, no multiple window hassle.
Now coming back to those 7 hours, I spend most of my online time on social networks; of which, as anticipated, Twitter and Facebook were on the top. I love Facebook. I love it! But I love Twitter more. I am not one of those fanatic T-users but yeah, I still find it more useful. I am a sucker for news. For me twitter is more like a news aggregator. A place where I get all my news packed together on one page (from individual and trusted sources).
But there are lot of websites that I don’t follow even though I want to for a simple reason that my twitter page looks cluttered with unasked-for news feed. For example, New York Times. I still have to go to their website to read news on Business and Technology and Media. I don’t want to know their Weather news or Science & space news. It’s great and useful, just not to me. All I am trying to say is that Twitter should work on some technology that can customise news feed coming from one source based on individual necessity.
New spring/summer scents have been uploaded to the Scentsy website. I cannot wait to get my hands on these new Scentsy Bar scents. Here is a list of the spring/summer scents: cherry limeade, go-go-goji, sweet clementine, mayflower, mad about mint, plum delicious, calypso, berry blush, sugar, and grape granita. I will have these in stock soon. While you’re waiting, check out “My Scentsy Auctions” going on right now on ebay. The 3 auctions end: Wednesday, March 10, 2010. Don’t miss out on these last minute savings. Supplies are limited.
Twittollower is a new piece of twitter direct marketing software,
it is a fully automated system that targets twitter followers in your chosen niche and adds them onto your twitter account. This is done all on autopilot 24 Hours a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year.
It’s great if your using twitter as a marketing tool as it guarantees you at least 2 thousand targeted followers each month.
If your using twitter as a marketing tool and your looking for some twitter ad marketing software then give twittollower a try.
How could I mention Twitter without talking about hashtags?
For those of you still in the dark ages (BT), hashtags are tags within your tweet (prefaced by #) which link to all posts mentioning the same tag. For example, if I mention an article about elephants, I can use the hashtags #elephants, #conservation, #wildlife, #animals, etc., in order to attract people searching for relevant tweets.
The most popular topics are listed to the right of your Twitter homepage. Don’t worry about clicking on any of them, though. The third most popular trending topic right now is #icheatedbecause. ‘Nuff said.
Like anything else in this beautiful world, hashtags are a wonderful idea which we should use wisely and in moderation. And any which use “your” incorrectly (#yourstupidbecause) should be immediately deleted.
Over the last few weeks, the Kalimatna team has been working on our presence in the wonderful world of social media. We created a page on the TYO blog where you can read more about our initiative, we began documenting our journey on flickr, and we created a Twitter feed!
While the overall goal of our project is to create a by‐youth, for‐youth multimedia kit to introduce the culture of Nablus to the world, our equally significant secondary goal is to engage an international audience in our journey. Entrez Twitter!
Twitter will allow us to share information about our work in Nablus with people beyond the city’s limits. We hope not only to imbue the image of Nablus with thoughtful and positive insights, but also to draw our audience closer to us, hold their attention and garner their support in order to improve our kit through intercultural and peer dialogue.
Kalimatna’s twitter feed will share news about our work, our journey, ourselves—our 140 character mini bios are already up–and our beloved city Nablus!
Please tweet with us @kalimatna to share your ideas about our work, our tweets and what you would like to learn about the culture and history of Nablus!
Recently, I have joined a website that allows users to ask me questions, either with their user info or the fun of anonymity. It can literally be any question in the world, from any person in the world! The thought is very intriguing – who knows, I could be explaining why I would obey the five second rule if in fact the food was delicious enough, posed by Angelina Jolie. If she has time to go on the Internet, that is. Join in on the fun at Formspring.
Also recently, I spontaneously booked a European backpacking trip to London, England, Edinburgh, Scotland, and my longtime love, Paris, France for 8 fantastic days with my best friend. It stems off a much bigger issue: unemployment. I was recently laid off my job of two years last week; it was my first “real-world” job, so it’s quite a personal low for me. This is the first time I don’t have school or a part-time job to fall back on, so I’m afraid of sitting idle for too long. Several people posed the idea of taking a vacation, something I never had the time to do when I was working. Before getting too wrapped up in looking for full-time work again, or going the temp agency route, I decided I would finally to go to Europe, specifically Paris. I’ve been romantically involved with the City of Lights for as long as I can remember (I have an affair with the Big Apple), so it wasn’t a very hard choice to make. The money is tight, and the accommodations aren’t completely glamorous, but we’re going to make the most of it. I ask all of you to follow my preparations for Europe and my 8 day adventure through London, Edinburgh, and Paris March 16th-24th on Twitter. I’ll be using my personal account @stefkttn, so follow me for all the details, and of course, beautiful pictures that are sure to occur!
Finally, earlier this week, Sony’s older PS3 models started malfunctioning due to a bug in the internal clock. My fiancé is an avid PS3 gamer and was affected by the glitch, while I was just sort of annoyed that I couldn’t watch any Blu-Rays. On the flip side, a rather robust gentleman had some choice (and hilarious) words for Sony, as heard and seen below in my Video Kudos this week:
For my Media Copywriting class this semester, I added Twitter use to the syllabus. I didn’t add it for the sake of saying I was using Twitter to teach — after all, I preach goals first, tools second. My particular goal involved trying to boost and broaden class discussion.
A perennial challenge is that, while my students are bright and articulate, they often prove reluctant to participate in, or initiate, class discussion. I decided to start them 140 characters at a time. Their homework, on most class days, includes an assignment to answer via Twitter with a class-relevant hashtag. These work best when cultivating more thinking than a simple quantitative response. Top tweet topics so far include:
- Name a Super Bowl™ ad you thought was effective and why. As I’ve said before, having the Super Bowl™ during a class that involves advertising is a boon. Using students’ Twitter responses, I could call on them directly, show the ad they mention and ask for their analysis. When I tried this without Twitter, even as an official assignment, drawing participation was more difficult.
- What do you think your brand’s biggest weakness is? Students tend to select the brands they’ll work with their semester (Nike, Dunkin Donuts, Tim Hortons, Wegmans, Fender, etc.) based on strengths or qualities they like. But knowing a brand’s weakness, or perceived weakness, can inform the creative process as well, and provides a nice entree to critical thinking. It also ties into a research assignment I give them that involves a SWOT analysis, finding target demographics/psychographics and critiquing their brands’ current campaign.
- Tweet about the first thing you encountered on Thursday that annoyed you. They looked at me funny when I assigned it, but nonetheless talked about roommates, landlords, sinus headaches, slow drivers and other professors. I was providing practice in InDesign, so my in-class assignment was: Do an ad for a product (real or imagined) that would solve your problem (which also illustrates the suffering point concept). The students came up with all kinds of products including landlord repellent, traffic-beating hovercraft and The Shrink Ray, which neutralizes annoying psychiatrists. The amount of ingenuity many put into it was impressive, and the opportunity to blend creativity with problem-solving quite valuable.
As with the creative process itself, the quality of answers are only as good as the questions asked, so my challenge is to keep coming up with good questions. And I’ve noticed the class doesn’t interact with each other (although they do with me) on Twitter — though those accustomed to interacting via Facebook probably do so that way, and I’m not going to require them to cross-converse via Twitter unless I have good reason. But their rate of completing Twitter assignments exceeds 95 percent. And, strange but true, Twitter assignment completion actually runs higher than class attendance.
So Twitter — or any social media platform — can work in the classroom, as long as you tie it to goals you want to reach and are willing to put the time into it to make it relevant.
Check out the article posted this evening by Government Technology.
As of a few days ago, our government friends over at the Pentagon have verbally and visibly embraced the digital wave with “a newly released policy for using social networking and other Web 2.0 sites.” A lift on an imposed
The U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) on Friday, Feb. 26, released a policy “for responsible and effective use of Internet-based capabilities.” It essentially lifts a year-long ban on access to typically taboo (in this sense) to sites such as MySpace, the book of Face, Flickr and YouTube.
My thoughts, if I were a government employee affected by this situation: Yay! New ultimate forms of procrastination! (Just kidding.)
According to Karen Wilkinson’s article, under Obama’s administrative eye, “the policy also allows commanders to ’safeguard missions’ by ‘temporarily limiting access to the Internet to preserve operations security or to address bandwidth restraints,’ the release said.
What are your thoughts about the big P’s decision?
Pelan namun pasti, twitter sudah diakui pengaruhnya di jagad maya Indonesia. Sudah jutaan orang Indonesia yang menggunakannya. Mulai dari artis, penyanyi, pemasar, politikus, olah ragawan, orang IT, wartawan, orang iklan, rohaniwan, sampai orang umum pun nge-tweet.
) there will be the client training and manual to produce!
Image by www.bluewaikiki.com via Flickr
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