Facebook’s “reconnect” feature is a nuisance and comes off as a little bossy.  It might suggest you find friends for someone, or to write on their wall.  It suggested to me that I encourage my mother to post a picture.  She doesn’t want to put a picture up and I respect that. 

What’s really pushing some buttons is the suggestion to add or write someone who is an ex- or worse- someone that has died. Seriously Facebook?  This goes beyond insensitive.

Facebook’s way of dealing with this issue is just ludicrous.  They suggest you memorialize dead friends and loved ones so that they are no longer suggested for you to write to or to add as a friend.  You must contact the company in order to do this.

In addition to the chaos and upset these reconnect suggestions are, Facebook has also implemented Live Feed.  People are so upset about this new feature that hundreds of thousands have organized to protest.  One group in particular, “Please Give Us Our Old News Feed Back” has to close to 500,000 members and may have already topped that number.

Facebook has taken it upon itself to decide which posts are interesting in the News Feed.  It uses algorithms that decide popularity of posts based on the number of comments a post recieves.  Users can then switch over to Live Feed view which shows all posts.  Live Feed, however, is not live at all.  You have to refresh the screen.  Most people had no idea these changes were coming.  They woke up to find the interface had changed, and not for the better in some opinions.

Thanks Charlie for this helpful tip:

For those who liked Facebook as it was before – FACEBOOK is blocking all your friends news feeds EXCEPT for 250 THEY choose. TO UNDO BLOCK: Here is how you can change it back to the old.

1. Click “Home”

2. Look to the top left menu and click on MORE.

3.Then drag STATUS UPDATES to the top. ……After dragging to top, click on it. That becomes your default and it is like before.

Your ball Facebook.

Shortly after I wrote my blog post on how to do Follow Friday, I learned that Twitter is rolling out a new feature called “Lists” which will kill Follow Friday dead. Frustratingly, this feature is in beta testing and early users were not supposed to tweet about it but, uh oh and oops, they did.  So, I’m finding that Twitter is an exclusive club and top users get to try out all of the new features first, while the rest of us have to hear about how cool it is without being able to see for ourselves.  The same is true for Twitter’s new retweet feature, which is not available to but a handful of “select” users at this time.

The Twitter “Lists” innovation is supposed to change the way people use Twitter.  The networking site has always been changed by its users (they invented Follow Friday, the @mention, etc.), but this time Twitter itself is integrating these changes. 

The nature of Twitter is to find interesting people to follow and hope that they find you interesting enough to follow back. While “Lists” may function to aid people in finding others to follow, I do not see how this will help to get people to follow you back.  If you simply follow someone else’s entire elite “list”, how will the people with few followers survive this cliquish behavior?  What if you’re not on any list?  Also, what people choose to call their multiple “lists” will only inflate egos or hurt feelings.  If you ask me, this new feature is for the power user, the Uber-popular Twitter stars and will hurt new users or turn them off altogether.  This will undoubtedly hurt Twitter’s user retention problem.

What I’m taking home from this lesson is that Twitter and Social Media in general are an ever-changing media and you’d better be able to keep up.  Maybe it will be like the much begged for Google Wave invite- once you get it you find out it is like talking to yourself.  There’s no one to collaborate with yet.

• Subscriptions- Subscribing to a site’s feed is easy to do.  You simply hit add subscription or paste in the site’s URL.

• Organization- Managing your feeds is as simple as making folders with the “manage subscriptions” link at the bottom of the page.  You can also delete feed that you become uninterested in.  In case you’re not sure if something is interesting enough to keep, Google reader puts it in black and white for you. At the touch of a button you can see what percentage of updates you actually read on any given site.

• Sharing- You can elect to share or email posts to people who you know share your interest in the subject. For example, you could share this blog with someone and perhaps they too will subscribe to the rss feed and keep up with me on Google Reader. (Forgive the shameless plug.)

• Convenience- Google Reader is available offline and on most mobile phones, so it’s easily accessible under most circumstances.

• Relevant- There is no faster way to keep up with what’s current. 

I like to think of Google Reader as a productivity tool.  It allows me to keep all of my useful and interesting reading material in one place. Perhaps if you’re not already using Google Reader you’d like to give it a try?

I would not exactly consider myself to be an expert on all of my Twitter clients as I am constantly discovering new features on old apps.  However, I think I can give you a pretty good idea of the pros and cons of Tweetie 2.0.  For a more comprehensive tutorial of the application you might want to check out The iPhone Blog and their article “App Walkthrough: Tweetie 2.0 Twitter Client for iPhone”.

From the standpoint of a neophyte, I’m breaking this review down into three categories: Pros, Cons, and Not Sure.  I think pros and cons are pretty straightforward, but the third category is basically for features that I’m not sure if I like yet. 

Screen Shot with Blue Glowing Notifications

Pros

• App Persistence- Basically, the app remembers where you leave off when you are interrupted.  This is a cool feature, since text messages and calls are going to come in while tweeting.
• Offline Mode- This is another characteristic that lets you keep up the momentum when you lose your connection.  Offline mode lets you keep tweeting and when you regain your connection your updates are sent out to Twitter.
• Notifications- A blue glowing dot alerts you to unread tweets, @mentions, and direct messages.
• Profile Editing- You now have the ability to edit your Twitter profile on your phone within the app.
• Right Side Avatar- To differentiate your tweets from other users, your avatar now appears on the right side of the feed, while other users’ avatars still are left side oriented.
• Timeline Search- At the top of the timeline, you’ll find a search field that allows you to search within the timeline.  This is pretty neat if you are looking for just your followers’ tweets about a particular subject and not tweets from all of Twitterdom.
• Services- Tweetie 2 gives plenty of options when it comes to services you can choose from.  Among them are lists of services for images, videos, and URL shorteners.  You can choose to use Tweet Blocker, Follow Cost, Favstar.fm, Favred, Tweeteorites, Instapaper, and Read It Later.

Screen Shot of Geotag In Map View

Cons

• No Push Notifications- For many power users, this is a deal killer.  I, personally, find push notifications to be a battery killer.  If you want to know exactly when you receive a direct message, tweet, or @mention you will not be happy with Tweetie 2.
• No Themes- You cannot change the look- no dark theme or bubble theme.  I’m not sure how important this may be to some of you due to eyestrain.  I prefer dark text on a light background.
• No Grouping- This inability to group is going to frustrate those with a large following and other power users.

Not Sure

• Geotag- You can find this feature under “search” -> “nearby”.  I can honestly say that this function creeps me out.  Being able to see a list of users who are 25km or even 2km away is quite different from being able to see what street a person lives on in the map view.  I cannot see how this feature is at all helpful and I see the potential for harm.  You can, however, choose to see a list view instead of the map.
• Landscape Mode- This feature might be more valuable if it did not take so long to flip back and forth between landscape and portrait view.  To turn off this feature go to “settings” -> “advanced” ->”auto rotate” -> and choose between “compose screen only” or “never”.

For those of you who have not yet made the decision to purchase this app for the first time or as an upgrade, I hope this review will be helpful.  I find it to be worth the repurchase and wonder if I will ever use the computer for tweeting again when this handy app is so feature rich.

Follow Friday is a weekly Twitter event that takes place every Friday during which a good percent of users suggest people to follow on Twitter.  The phenomenon is hugely successful, great fun, and is a valuable way to find new friends to follow.

One user, Micah Baldwin, started this trend and it has been a success ever since. 

To participate in follow Friday you select people that you are following who you think others might find interesting as well.  You simply use the hash tag symbol (#) and FF or friendfollow followed by @username.  Most people use the FF instead of the longer spelled out version because it saves valuable characters.

People come up with all kinds of interesting ways to show #FF love and shoutouts.  One friend of mine, @tollehaus, has a very unique way to show his suggestions.  He is one of the funniest people on Twitter and follows plenty of other comedians.  He usually RTs a funny tweet and adds the #FF to that tweet.  This allows users to see that, indeed, his suggestions are worthy of a follow  I, personally, group people into categories such as funny, engaging, photographers, etc.

What makes this event fun is that you get to be generous and show how valuable you find your friends to be.  Also, it’s an ego boost to see that people find you worthy enough to suggest others follow you.

Finding new friends through these helpful suggestions is as easy as clicking on the name, taking a look at the profile, and pressing the follow button. 

I have developed a less time-consuming way to tweet my Follow Friday list.  I have compiled a list of my suggestions, breaking them into categories.  This allows me to have lists that will fit into the 140 character limit.  I use Twitter’s update field to make sure each mini-list  is under 140, then copy and paste it into a word document I call “followfriday”.  I add new people each week, so there is some maintenance to this list.

Here is my Follow Friday list for today:

Please follow my husband and soulmate #ff @JoeRemax

Also please follow my very good friends and bff’s who are new #ff @chrisforyou @mjmeliss @nlymuel @MsMelMil

Please follow my bestie from the West #ff @crod888

Amazing photogs #ff @petapixel @amazingpics @mattgeorge @lightstalking @str8photography @Ahhphotography and of course my daughter @wendy_belle

Some of the nicest, coolest ppl #ff  @Gar1n @Interawesome @amrekkang @djjoey43 @JAJMiami @robwillb @tollehaus @deegirdler @mpeskoe

More of the best ppl #ff @chfoulk @sirkaizen @jaycataldo @georgescifo @ifreddie @krystynchong @buzzedition @sergeojonathan @tsauthor @nolajess @joshcharles

Interesting tweets #ff   @eduifyquotes   @mashable @twitter_tips  @favstar100 @postsecret @ltgenpanda

Passionate, engaging ppl #ff @mattmargolis @wayneypot @laraffinee @windemere818 @zaphodsplanet  @ithumbmynose

Cool tweets and the nicest guy #ff @zaibatsu -Mr. Reg Saddler and Twitter superstar.

Funniest ppl #ff @tollehaus @xrayedman @petherwin @fireland @adamisiacson @lonelysandwich @shitmydadsays @badbanana @gsouder @sween @modat

Also very funny #ff @blondediva11 @davysunshine @balthazr @rexhuppke @robkroese @davegorum @hotdogsladies @bakemyfish @fizzyduck @mrsstephenfry

Who do you #FF on Twitter?

Part one of the series detailed ways to find followers on Twitter.  Part two of the series deals with how to get people to follow you back.  People will not follow someone who looks spammy.  What does spam look like? Think about what you see when you look at someone’s profile.

• Avatar- It’s not a good idea to use the default avatar.  Many spammers don’t bother to upload a picture, and this is one of the first indications that you’re not who you say you are.  While you are creating your account go ahead and upload a picture. A real picture is best to use, but if you absolutely do not want to put your picture on Twitter, use a custom avatar. Seductive pictures are suggestive that you are a porn bot or webcam girl.  Don’t go this route either.  Twitter is not populated with people who want to follow spammers.
• Profile Name- Nonsensical strings of letters jumbled together are dead ringers for spam.  Other names indicative of spammers are: QuickCash, MakeEasyDollars, CallGirl, and SexyBottom or names such as these. Think of something clever (that is not suggestive of sex or money) or use your real name.
• Bio- Fill your bio out all the way.  Make good use of the 160 characters Twitter gives you to list positive things about yourself, your interests, what line of work you’re in and that sort of thing.  Using your real name is best as that allows friends to find you on Twitter.  Take advantage of the url space that Twitter gives you to link to your website, blog, or your Facebook page.  This valuable link allows people to check that you are real.  Be specific as to your location.  People living in your community already have something in common with you.
• Follower Ratio- It’s best to keep your numbers of following to followers in the same ballpark.  If you’re following 900 people and only 5 are following you back, people will wonder why 900 people chose not to follow you.  Go ahead and follow some people to get started, but not so many that you look spammy.
• Updates- For goodness sake Tweet.  It’s ok and probably best to say that you’re new.  I, personally, am very welcoming to new people because we were all new once.  People will look to see how many tweets you have, when you joined, and how active you are.  It may seem intimidating- it may even feel like you’re talking to yourself- but just go ahead and at least fill the first page with updates.  Try to engage some of the people you are following with @ messages.  Post a cool link or two.  You can get interesting links from Tweetmeme.

The kinds of Tweets that are guaranteed not to get you followers:

• “Want thousands of followers fast?”
• Any mention of turbo cash generating
• “Do not pay for teeth whitening”
• Tweeting the same tweet over and over especially links to your site
• Always self-promoting
• MLM or pyramid schemes

One other no-no is sending an unsolicited link in a direct message. That, again, is self-promotion and it’s redundant because your link is in your profile.

The next post in the series will cover Follow Friday in greater depth.  Happy Tweeting!

For the newbie, Twitter isn’t very engaging. You set up your account and a blank page greets you. It asks, “What are you doing?” Please don’t take this literally. This is a mistake that many new users make. No one wants a blow by blow description of your day or what you’re having for lunch unless you’re going to deliver. Twitter should ask, “What of value do you have to share?”. That’s the usefulness of Twitter. It’s an exciting social media tool that allows users to share information- clever remarks, links, videos, music, and pictures- in short bursts of 140 chartacters.  Dip into the stream and either share (retweet), comment, or just assimilate the information coming in.

Where does this material come from? Your stream of information comes from your followers. Following someone on Twitter is a bit like stalking, only it’s consensual. In fact, it’s an honor to be followed. It means that what you have to say is valued. Twitter gives some high profile suggestions of who to follow to get you started and, of course, you can follow people you already know. The celebs you first follow are most likely not going to participate in conversations with you. I suggest that you find followers by other means to fully enjoy this “social” media.

One way to find followers is to take a look at Trending Topics, a column you’ll find on the right hand side of the Twitter page. These trends are hot topics around the globe. If you find something that interests you, go ahead and click on the topic and you’ll be directed to tweets about that topic. Another way to find followers is by searching for subject matter that has significance to you. You’ll find tweets covering just about every subject, and will find users who share your enthusiasm for whatever you are passionate about through Trendng Topics or  searching..

You can search for people to follow by location as well. Type into twitter’s search engine

  near: New Orleans within: 25mi

Additionally, there are directories that allow you to find users. Twitter’s own directory or people search engine is at the top of the page under “Find People”. This is great if you know someone’s username- not so great if you don’t and the name is common. Twellow and WeFollow are two of the many great directories that let you search by location, interests and by name.

Finally, there is a huge event that takes place on Fridays. Twitter users suggest people to follow using the hashtag ( # )symbol and the letters FF (FollowFriday) with usernames so it looks like this #FF @wandywanz @Interawesome @tollehaus etc. As you become more familiar with your followers, you’ll get an idea of what kind of people they are likely to be captivated by. You’ll find your followers  #FF suggestions  to be very useful.

 Hopefully, this brief tutorial will help you get your stream started so that you can immerse yourself and meaningfully engage with interesting people.

A noteworthy look at the Mashable blog will help get you tweeting in no time. Please refer to The Twitter Guide Book.

The recent news that Twitter and Myspace can be two-way synced does not come as a surprise.  Everyone is trying to get on the Twitter bandwagon and many social sites are allowing the capabilities to cross-post updates across platforms; Facebook has an app for that as well.

Here lies the sixty four thousand dollar question- are my friends on Myspace ready for my tweets? I’m a bit of a twitterholic. My daily average is 23 tweets a day.  I’m an engaging person, so I tweet a lot of @messages to people that my Myspace friends won’t know.  I also tweet a great deal of links regarding news updates, social media tips, and tech news.  I’ve been going over this in my head for over a week now. 

Myspace was the first social networking site I joined.  I’ve looked over my Myspace friends (mostly people I know in person- family and close friends) and there is only one friend taking advantage of the two-way sync.  He doesn’t tweet the way I do.  His tweets look a lot like what you would put in your Myspace status update anyway, so I don’t think he’s confusing anyone the way I might.

To me, Myspace is more of a local community of friends, family, and acquaintances.  We share pictures, very personal news, plan events and even post rants.  I don’t see this clique benefiting from the kind of information I share with my global network on Twitter.  The Twitter community is comprised of a “geekier” crowd and I mean that in the nicest way.  My tweeps already know the secret language of Twitter: the retweets, #followfriday, #musicmonday, use of hashtags, etc.  If I dump my tweets on my unsuspecting Myspacers will it make them want to join me on Twitter or will it make them shake their heads in confusion and tune me out?  Worse, will I be unable to have the same intimate connection with friends and family if my updates are going global and unprotected?

At this point in time, it seems like the best idea is to keep local and global communities separated.  Perhaps when more Myspacers start tweeting I’ll reconsider.

Your thoughts?                                                                                    

Facebook is a very popular social network.  It boasts more than 300 million users, of which 50% log in every day.  More than 70% of people using Facebook use or have used third party applications.  Farmville and Mafia Wars are two of the really popular games that people are playing when they log on.  Those are pretty impressive statistics and I don’t think that these apps will stop being developed or used any time in the near future.

However, 30% of those 300 million users are not engaging with these platform apps.  That leaves 90 million users uninterested in using these applications. There are various reasons for this non-utilization.  It could be that users distrust what these third party apps are doing with the information they collect.  Also, people may find them too time-consuming for their busy lives. 

Whatever the reasons may be, I personally find that the status updates of citing statistics for games, quizzes, polls, etc. takes up valuable screen real estate.  This means you almost always have to scroll to read older posts and that takes time to load.

For those of us who choose to opt out of viewing these screen hogs, there is a solution- Facebook Lite.  Facebook Lite was designed for low bandwidth countries.  It’s a stripped down, clean, fast loading version of Facebook.  It looks a lot less busy as the left and right sidebars are either blank or not cluttered.  It almost looks like the Twitter feed, but even Twitter has a right side bar.   The major advantage I see is that there are no third party applications on Facebook Lite.

Options still exist to view your profile, check events, check your inbox, and to check notifications.  You are able to post links, pictures, and videos and see them as well.

The only disadvantage I have found thus far is that there is no opportunity to hide posts on your wall or create groups. Facebook Lite would not be for the power user.

In conclusion, Facebook Lite might be a solution for those who find third party applications to be a nuisance.

If anyone has found a work-around to not have to view these apps in the full Facebook version, I would love to hear  from you.

If you were to ask me which iPhone app is my favorite I would be hard-pressed to nail it down to just one.  However, if you asked me which app is the most fun to play with I would tell you without hesitation it’s Shazam.

There’s a game my husband and I play in the car where we each have to guess the artist singing the song on the radio in as few notes as possible.  When we didn’t know which one of us had guessed correctly or we just didn’t know at all, I’d turn to my handy, dandy iPhone. I’d have to go through the painstaking process of pulling up Safari and searching using the words in the Chorus and “lyrics”.  My trusty iPhone would never fail me, but it did take most of the song to do this.

Well, no more!

Since I discovered Shazam I can name that tune, artist, and album in just a few short seconds.  The beauty of the app is you simply hold up the phone to a music source and it very quickly scans its database. Once “tagged” it not only returns the aforementioned information, but supplies you with several other spiffy options.

One such option is the ability to download the song directly from iTunes or to see a Youtube video of the tune. If this doesn’t impress you (and it should ) perhaps the ability to share this tagged song with friends via Twitter, and email will wow you.

Songs can be stored until later if your data connection is poor. You also have the ability to organize your music or add pictures.

A new feature with the latest version of Shazam allows you to see your tag on a map. I have yet to see the benefit of this ability, but would be delighted to hear what you think.

A simple tap of the finger and artist biography, discography, and lyrics are available for viewing.

There are only a few drawbacks that I am aware of. It is not necessary to try this– I already have—but you cannot hum a ditty into Shazam and have it name the song. It just doesn’t work and not because I can’t carry a tune to save my life.  Additionally, the latest version is said to be “buggy” and has ads.  The ads, I find, don’t slow the app down and I didn’t even notice them until this review.  Shazam also has trouble recognizing very obscure music.

To get back to what makes this app great fun for me and my family, is that we get to make long trips in the car fun. And for me, nine times out of ten I get to prove to my husband that I guessed correctly before he did—Shazam!

What is your favorite phone app?