Creating Twitter Lists In 3 Easy Steps

Posted on 30. Oct, 2009 by Zahid Lilani.

Twitter lists is an excellent new feature for Twitter devotees who would like to get more out of Twitter without the headache. Twitter lists will help you organize, segment, and discover. In plain English that means you can create a list that includes your friends, cool websites, blogs you read and anything else that moves you.

Creating a Twitter list is a breeze

Step 1

After you login to Twitter, look at the right column underneath saved searches. Click on ‘New List’ and you will see a small box pop up. Name your new list, decide if you want to keep it public or private. I personally don’t see a reason why any list should be private but Twitter is nice like that and gives you an option regardless.

Step 2

Now it is time to add people to your newly created Twitter list. The best way I would do this is by going to Twitter homepage. Once you are there, look for the person you would like to add to the list and then click on the username. Once you are at the profile, click on Lists and select the list where you would like to add the person.

Step3

You are done!

To access your lists go to twitter.com/yourname/lists. Any list you create will have a URL that looks something like twitter.com/yourname/listname.

Haven’t had much time to play with Twitter lists myself but I created a few. You can access it at http://twitter.com/ZahidLilani/lists

Did my 3 easy step tutorial help you? Do you have questions? What do you think about this new feature?

Facebook’s New Homepage Is Not For Everyone

Posted on 28. Oct, 2009 by Zahid Lilani.

Last week Facebook decided that they needed to tweak the news feed to make it more relevant. They created two kinds of news feeds, one is real time (live feed) and other is not (news feed) but is relevant to you according to Facebook.

Personally I said okay, that’s nice Facebook is innovating and providing me with relevant information but I went around asking friends what they thought. Teenagers told me “it’s dumb,” adults told me “it’s stupid,” and the most heart breaking comment came from my wife, “I hate It.”

My wife spends more time than I do on Facebook any given day, she is addicted to Farmville and we discuss growing pomegranate at the dinner table. She is right in her own way because she doesn’t find the News Feed and the Live Feed useful because it is not like she is missing out on anything as she is always online. According to her it is confusing to say the least.

I on the other hand think it is useful because I am not on Facebook 24/7 and then when I login, I get to catchup on items or status updates that I might have missed. That doesn’t mean that Facebook knows exactly what I like and what I donn’t.

At the Official Blog Post announcing this new feature, you can see that there are many people who think that the new feature is not useful at all. Well I guess the new feature is not for everyone and Facebook is under no obligation to give everyone what they want…

Interesting Social Media Links Of The Week

Posted on 25. Oct, 2009 by Zahid Lilani.

Round up of Interesting Social Media Links Of The Week. These links are mostly newspaper and blog articles but may include occasional audio/video. The links below are handpicked and not computer generated.

Social Media Newsrooms-nonsense or necessity? – Proactive Report

Writers, Reviewers and Social Media – Oregon Live

How has social media changed PR? – SF Examiner

How Social Media Can Actually Work – BusinessWeek

Why Investing in Social Media Now Will Keep Your Business Alive in 10 Years – 10e20

Social Media Is Going Down the Toilet (Literally) – Mashable

Facebook/Twitter Use May Now Mean More for Google/Bing Rankings – WebProNews

Book Review: 140 Characters by Dom Sagolla

Posted on 22. Oct, 2009 by Zahid Lilani.

140 Characters: A Style Guide for the Short Form by Dom Sagolla is an etiquette book for conversing in real time on Twitter, Facebook and other social media sites. Twitter co-creator Dom Sagolla talks about different aspects of conversations and how one can get most out of Twitter by learning the techniques of short form communication.

140 Characters is not just applicable to Twitter, it can be used to learn how to be effective social media communicator in general. First @Dom gives you an overview of Twitter followed by a brief history of Twitter and then explains different ways one can become a better communicator by following simple guidelines.

It is a challenge on Twitter to make the most out of 140 characters and @Dom teaches the fundamentals of writing in short form. He knows the purpose of Twitter, communicating in real-time using mostly mobile applications to reach significant number of people. Therefore he is able demonstrate with numerous examples what a tweet should look like, what should be the purpose, how it can add value and how to avoid common pitfalls.

Personal Opinion
There are number of books out there about Twitter, 140 Characters stands out and makes a mark because of the unique content and Dom’s attitude towards social media. Concept is excellent, topics are explained with many examples and quotes and we can all learn something from Dom about becoming an expert in short form writing.

Book Giveaway
I like to read books and then pass them along. Do you want my copy of 140 Characters? Here is what you need to do:

- Follow me on Twitter (@ZahidLilani)
- Re-Tweet this post!
- Comment below and tell me “Why do you use Twitter?”

Simple!

The person who comes up with the best answer to “Why do you use Twitter?” and follows the two rules will receive my copy of 140 characters. I will announce the winner on 10/26/09.

(Open to U.S. residents only)

First IRS and Now CIA

Posted on 21. Oct, 2009 by Zahid Lilani.

There are quite a few people making money online and most of them don’t try to evade taxes. Ones who do should be warned because IRS monitors social media. Federal Govt is broke and IRS is just helping out.

CIA is following on the IRS footsteps but of course, CIA is interested in what everyone is doing instead of selected few. Take a look at this recent story in WIRED “Exclusive: U.S. Spies Buy Stake in Firm That Monitors Blogs, Tweets”

CIA will start monitoring Twitter and other forms of social media services soon and collect data maybe on our behavior, tendencies, interests etc. Twitter makes really easy for anyone to monitor you, click follow and the spying begins… I am in no way suggesting you protect your tweets, that will just beat the purpose of Twitter.

See, there is really nothing new here. Some of you “less government, more freedom” folks might feel this is invasion of privacy but honestly it is not. Telephone is private, Twitter and Facebook on the other hand are means for you to get more attention. If CIA can eavesdrop using AT&T and other phone services then it can certainly spy on your Twitter page.

My guess is that CIA is not going to gain anything out of social media, maybe people can sue them next time they find out if a loved one tweeted “I am killing myself” and no help arrived even though the CIA was monitoring the feed. Can you make a case out of that? I am sure the lawyers would have fun with this one.