The first thing you will notice is a site redesign. Thanks to Brazilian web developer Rafael Cavalcante site has a great new look and mascot. I have enjoyed working with him in this project and am sure he could help you with any web development you might need, as well.

The second major change is how you login. I will no longer be sending people unique passwords for them to login. Instead they will use Twitter’s Oauth interface. There are many advantages to this- many of which are behind the scenes- but the greatest is that you don’t have to remember yet another password to use FeedTwit. Instead you will login to FeedTwit through your own Twitter account.

One important note about oauth login… You have until August 16th to connect with the new FeedTwit or you will no longer receive any messages. That is the day (also known as the oauth-apocalypse) where Twitter is requiring all programs to connect with their users over oauth. Consider yourself warned.

Some of the other advantages of this new way of account verification will lead to:

• Quicker turn around for your @ replies
• No more duplicated messages (BUT PLEASE READ BELOW)
• Everything is just a little simpler- basically you just need to press the button on the FeedTwit homepage in order to begin

About duplicated messages
Previous users of FeedTwit will have to take one extra step in order to prevent duplicated messages: after you login to FeedTwit you will have to delete the RSS feed associated with your @ replies. Without boring you with the programming details, this is how I used to know if anyone mentioned you on Twitter. If you don’t delete this, you will receive messages by the new way AND by the old way = duplicated messages. I wish I could automatically remove this for you, but there’s no way I can do it without harming people using the service who haven’t had a chance to login.

I have worked hard to keep the rest of the site up and running through this transition. This includes the popular Twitter uptime status widget- that tells you if Twitter is running or not- and the Twitter usage statistics page- which shows you when people are on Twitter. Along with this I have cleaned-up the Twitter cell phone page, which keeps a list of phones people use on Twitter (be sure to add your own, by the way).

I hope you enjoy the newly redesigned FeedTwit site (and hope it works a little better). Tell me what you think in the comments below.

1. Tweet with Keywords. If there is only one thing you do, be sure to use keywords in your Tweet. This way, in the least, your tweet might appear in personalized results at the bottom of search engine requests for that keyword. If someone trusts your opinion enough to follow you, they might take your suggestion when you mention a what they are looking for in a tweet. Now, I am not suggesting you send a tweet with just keywords- please don’t spam! Nor should keywords be unnaturally squeezed into every tweet. Just find something productive to say that happens to include your keywords.
2. Always Include a Link. I’ve experienced the affect a link on Twitter can have on SEO. I’ve seen previously unindexed pages without any links going to them suddenly indexed by Google once they appear on Twitter- eventhough Twitter adds a “nofollow” attribute to a link. Get the Googlebot to your page by Tweeting it. Please remember that indexing and ranking are two different things. A page needs to be indexed in order to rank but a page won’t rank just because it is indexed.
3. Use an SEO-Friendly URL Shortener. The number of URL shorteners is growing in direct proportion to the influence of Twitter. This is because we want to share something, but need to do it within the 140 character limit that makes Twitter so much fun (that is how I think of it- really!). Don’t just pick a URL shortener because it offers the shortest possible link or because it comes with your favorite Twitter app. You need to make sure it throws a “301 Moved Permanently” header code. This code tells the one following the link to the new page that this old link is now in a new location- as opposed to a 302 code that tells them this change is only temporary. This is important for SEO because Google flows page authority through a 301 redirect but not through a 302. Search Engine Land has the definitive list of URL shorteners.
4. Use a Twitter Link Monitoring Service. There are a couple websites out there, twitturly is my favorite, that tracks links shared by a particular Twitter account. Make sure your Twitter account is being tracked by one of these websites. Twitter adds a “nofollow” attribute to links from their website, negating any link benefit from them, but these link monitoring sites often allow link authority to follow through the link. This does more than build links to your website- or whatever website you mention- but it also the content of your tweet becomes the anchor text (clickable words) of the link. This way, if you’ve used your keywords in your tweet, you will have a higher-quality keyword-based link. (Not all Twitter link monitoring services allow you to determine your keywords- Topsy uses the title tag of the webpage)
   

Can you think of any more tweaks to your Twitter account to benefit SEO? Share them with the rest of us, in the comments below.

Although Twitter has been used in previous civil unrest- from the Iranian protests to dissent in Georgia (which, rumors say, lead to Russians attempting to shut down Twitter’s service)- this is Twitters first successful revolution.

It will probably not be the last. As Twitter grows in popularity, especially in non-Western countries, we can expect more. This is because Twitter offers:

• Efficient communication- If you can’t say it in 140 characters, is it worth saying? 140 characters can communicate a lot: just look at the Kyrgyzstan opposition leader’s tweets (translated)
• Mobile communication- You don’t have to be sitting at your computer to receive a tweet: you can get Twitter over your cell phone through your data plan or SMS.
• Nearly instant communication- With all the ways to connect to Twitter, you can receive these messages fairly quickly
• First hand communication- You can get information from people who are there, right now.
• Unfiltered communication- You choose who you follow so you get information from sources you trust.

These are the same things that make Twitter valuable for marketing.

• Efficient communication- People aren’t interested in reading your long explanation on why your product is superior. If you can’t say it in 140 characters, you’ve already lost your customer.
• Mobile communication- Why limit your marketing reach to people who are sitting at a computer? Social media is becoming the new Search Engine: people ask their networks about where they should eat, what movie they should see, or what doctor they recommend.
• Nearly instant communication- Sometimes I just want a quick answer to a question, and social networks can provide that from people I trust.
• First hand communication- Rather than a static web page telling me about a business or product, I can learn about it from someone who has used it themselves.
• Unfiltered communication- Rather than getting information from whatever website Google determines is giving me the right answer to my question, social networks help me get information from people I trust.

This is why if you are marketing anything, you need a presence on a social network like Twitter.

What do you think? Will we see more revolutions or civil unrest organized over Twitter? What does this say about the value of Twitter? Does Twitter have value outside of revolutions?

Leave your comments, below.

As a proud Jayhawk, I was glad to see Twitter pick Kansas to win the entire tournament. In fact, it predicted that all the #1 seeds would make it to the Final Four.

In addition to the Final Four, Twitter also chose these teams to be part of the Elite Eight:

• Ohio State
• Florida
• Washington
• Notre Dame

It also predicted eight upsets in the first round:

• Houston
• Ohio
• Florida State
• Minnesota
• Oakland
• Florida
• Washington
• Missouri

You can fill in the rest by deduction.

How can I quantify these results?
In order to compare teams, to see which would win, I’d need a way to quantify the teams. Last year I used GoogleFight to judge the winners. This basically figures out how many pages have been indexed for a particular term and declares the term with the most pages indexed to be the winner. In quantifying this I couldn’t just use the name of the university- that would favor teams named after states- so I had to lengthen the keyword string by adding “basketball” to the search string (as I did last year). By this method, Washington would win (just like it predicted last year).

Because Google didn’t predict the winner very accurately, I wanted to use Twitter to fill out my brackets this year. How could I quantify Twitter?

At first I though I would use Google site search to search Twitter for mentions of the teams. This involves adding “site:twitter.com” to a Google query string, plus the keyword, to give me the number of times a keyword is mentioned on Twitter. By this method Texas would win the tournament. Not likely!

I ended up using my favorite Twitter linking site, Tweetmeme. This would tell me how many people shared links regarding each team. Like Google valuing links into a site to determine which is the better site, I would use links shared over Twitter to judge the winner of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tourament. The team with the most links, won the game. By this method, Kansas would win. Now that’s a good prediction!

I’ll return here to comment on my results as the tournament unfolds. You can also follow me on Twitter: dizzySEO to keep up with my method.

One of the ways Corey suggested we could stop processing and start working is by managing your inboxes better but putting all communication into one place. Pick one email account and direct everything to that one place.

This is really hard when it comes to social media. Those of us involved in internet marketing are typically participating in many different social networks. Constantly monitoring social networks is hard work to process and can be a big distraction.

Then I thought about how my Twitter app, FeedTwit, could help. Although most people use it to send Twitter mentions as SMS to their cell phones, you could also use it to send your Twitter mentions by email. This way when anyone mentions you on Twitter you will be able to see it in the same place you’ve directed all of your communication. Once it’s in your inbox, you can then decide if there is something you have to do about it (reply, thank someone, answer a question, etc) or just delete it.

There’s more… since FeedTwit can send any RSS to your Twitter account as a direct message, you can use it to help monitor important RSS feeds or even other social media accounts- like your LinkedIn contacts- all in one location: your inbox.

It’s easy to start using FeedTwit:

1. Follow @FeedTwit from your Twitter account
2. In less than an hour you will receive a password.
3. Take that password to http://feedtwit.com/ and login
4. Tell FeedTwit what you want to receive as a direct message to your Twitter account

1. From your Twitter account, tell Twitter you want to get all your direct messages sent to you by email (from Settings > Notices > Direct Text Emails)
2. Follow @FeedTwit with your Twitter account
3. When you get a password by direct message, take it to http://feedtwit.com/ and sign in
4. Tell FeedTwit what you want to receive: your Twitter @ replies (mentions), your favorite RSS feeds as a direct message (which is how FeedTwit is better than Twitterfeed) or even the RSS feed from another social network.
5. Soon you will begin getting your Twitter mentions as emails

Why would you want your Twitter mentions by email?

• Easily monitor what people are saying to or about you without having to visit the Twitter website
• Keep a log of people who mention you on Twitter so you can
  • remember to suggest them on #followfriday
  • thank them for telling people about you

Can you think of any other uses of getting Twitter mentions by email? Leave them in the comments below.

If you would like to make this same migration, I would like to offer my experience as services to you. As a professional SEO I can offer further assistance to take your b2evolution website to the next level.

Pay for these services can be negotiated on a case-by-case basis. Payments can be accepted by snail mail or online through PayPal.

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Here’s some other things you can do with FeedTwit besides get your @ replies

• Keep track of your LinkedIn network through your Twitter account
• Keep up with local traffic through your Twitter account
• Follow a blog through your Twitter account (better than TwitterFeed)
• Follow a twitter list through texts/direct messages
• Twitter track a keyword, phrase, or hash tag
• Privately follow people on Twitter using their RSS feed. For instance,
  • follow political figures in an account you use for business
  • follow your competitors without appearing to endorse them.

What are some other things you can do with FeedTwit? If you have any other ideas, leave them in the comments below.

No matter what you call them, when you use Twitter by text messages you run into a big problem when it comes to your mentions- Twitter won’t send you an SMS when someone mentions you!

Sure you could tell Twitter to send you a text every time someone you are following posts an update- but do you really want that many messages?

A better solution is to use a Twitter app like FeedTwit- that can send your Twitter mentions to you by SMS.

FeedTwit is easy to use, and requires no program to install on your cell phone. All you need to do is:

1. Follow FeedTwit from your Twitter account
2. In less than an hour you will receive a direct message with a password.
3. Take that password to http://feedtwit.com/ and login.
4. Tell FeedTwit you want to get your @ replies as text messages
5. Begin receiving your Twitter messages by SMS