Rumors are flying around that Twitter is testing new features and settings
that would embed photo’s and video’s in your Twitter Stream.

The new feature/setting is said to be called Tweet Media. Certainly this
would really change the twitter user experience all for the good in my humble opinion.

Besides viewing photo’s and video’s by who you’re following, it’s been reported that users
we’ll have an option to view everyone’s photo’s and video’s.

Standby for more details as we receive them…

Please post your comments and what you know or would like to see with regards
to photo’s and video’s being embedded in your twitter stream..

Come rain or shine, every Friday people unite together on Twitter to share who they recommend others to Follow. It’s pretty cool and exciting to see all of the people thinking of you and mentioning your name.

While we see people using Follow Friday with good intentions, the problem is that most people do not know how to use it effectively.

So before I share some helpful tips on how to be Successful with #FollowFriday #FF,
let’s talk about how NOT to use follow Friday.

I have noticed for many months that a lot of people tend to just tweet a whole bunch of people to follow with with no reason as to why. That is an example of how to NOT use Follow Friday on Twitter. Why is that you may ask? Simply said, your followers probably do not see a reason as to WHY they should follow a bunch of people without knowing anything about them. Additionally, it can add to the noise of your twitter stream. The good news is that I have solutions for you…

Here are 3 tips on how to be successful with Follow Friday on Twitter

Tip #1: Simply recommend one person at a time for #FollowFriday or #FF. Then write a reason why people should follow the person on Twitter. Here is an example using #followfriday or #FF. “Meet @BobBurg Author of a great book called the Go Giver, I highly recommend. #FF.”

People that are truly interested will checkout Bob and are likely to follow him too. If you are effective (by providing value) with #followfriday, your followers will appreciate your act of kindness and in many cases return the favor back to you as well. I continue to have a lot of success by using Follow Friday this way.

Tip #2 is to list a small amount of people together and list their commonalities or how they may be able to help your folllowers. For Example “Checkout @Tony_Horton and @JillianMichaels to get in the best shape of your life. #FF

Tip #3: Try to leave at least 15-20 characters in your tweet so that others have space to Retweet your message. Retweeting is one of the true powers to going viral on Twitter and it opens the flood gates of opportunity for you. (more on that in a future post)

The great thing is that you can take advantage of these tips every day of the week not just on Friday’s.

I would like to hear what works best for you. Leave us a reply below…

@alferretti

@skeeterhansen

Discover how to use Twitter to your advantage with a Proven Training and Marketing System to help you.

Twitter recently posted an update regarding those missing from the Find People Search on Twitter.

We’ve updated this Known Issues page to include the issue of “searching for usernames with underscores.” Search is aware of this and we’ll update this page when it’s resolved.

To find Twitter accounts and follow them, access here

If you have or know someone that has a Twitter username with sn underscore in the name, stay tuned for updates here

Watching out for you, one tweet at a time -Twitter Watchdog

Follow Your Pal Al Ferretti @AlFerretti

Follow Skeeter Hansen @SkeeterHansen

In a blog post today, Twitter indicates that it has updated its terms of service, posting, “We will not allow any third party to inject paid tweets into a timeline on any service that leverages the Twitter API.”

This points directly to third party Twitter ad networks like sponsored tweets (sponsored tweets) and ad.ly (ad.ly) who place advertisements into user timelines.

According to Twitter, the decision to remove third party ad networks is all about “the integrity and relevance of the timeline.” Certainly, this will now enable Twitter to completely run their own (with no competition) in house ad network called Promoted Tweets.

Pertaining to the Twitter ecosystem, Twitter states “we will also be specific about the boundaries we will draw in order to preserve the integrity, health, and value of the network.”

This decision by Twitter is sure to stir the pot with the people like sponsored tweets and ad.ly who have created business models around Twitter in order to monetize tweets. For twitter users, it looks to prevent future confusion as there now will likely only be one ad network, Twitters very own “Promoted Tweets.”

That leaves us with, what changes are coming next to Twitter?

Watching out for you, one tweet at a time -Twitter Watchdog

Follow Your Pal Al Ferretti @AlFerretti

Follow Skeeter Hansen @SkeeterHansen

Are you taking advantage of the Twitter lists feature?

If not, here are three cool options that can make your twitter life easier.

1. You can create up to 20 different list with 500 people on each list.
2. Create different lists to sort and group people for easy reference.
3. View other people’s list and follow the top people from their list.

Creating a new Twitter List is a simple process.
In this short video, Skeeter Hansen shows you how to take advantage of the twitter lists feature.

Listorious (Listorious) is a third-party site that maintains a categorized directory of Twitter lists. You can search or browse through lists by category, and find the most popular lists.

How are you using the new twitter lists feature?
(please leave us your comments)

PS Feel free to add @alferretti and @skeeterhansen to your list.

Watching out for you, one tweet at a time -TwitterWatchDog

Get instant Twitter Watchdog Secrets, Tips and Tools that will help maximize both your personal and professional Twitter experience. Just enter your name and email address now.

Follow Skeeter Hansen @SkeeterHansen

Follow Your Pal Al Ferretti @AlFerretti

Over the past year Twitter watchdog has reported various phishing scams that are happening on Twitter.

Today, we found another phishing scam and wanted to make sure you are aware of it.
This scam promotes getting more followers.

Beware of Tweets that say the following:
* FREE MORE TWITTER FOLLOWERS!
* CHECK out this site, im a member of it, gets you more followers.
* WANT MORE TWITTER FOLLOWERS?
* Get more followers for free!

Byron Acohido with the USA Today Technology Live reported this phishing scam titled:

Tweets promising free Twitter followers is a phishing scam

A cyber gang continues to flood Twitter with an intensifying phishing scam that has allowed the bad guys to grab control of thousands of valid Twitter accounts.

“This is an extremely viral campaign that’s spreading rapidly,” says Patrick Walsh, chief technology officer at network security firm eSoft.

The criminals are sending out microblog postings — Tweets — from legit Twitter accounts suggesting that people click to a web service that will instantly get them 50 to 100 more followers. Visitors to the web page are asked to type in their Twitter logon and password to use the service for free.

Of course the information gets routed to the bad guys. They then use an automated program to instantly log on to the victim’s Twitter account and blast out a similar Tweet once every few hours. The shortened links carried in these postings are constantly tweaked to avoid being blocked or filtered.

“This is by far the biggest type of attack like this that we’ve seen, in terms of how many people are getting affected and getting their accounts hacked,” says Lee Graves, eSoft threat communications specialist.

For the moment, the gang appears to be intent on amassing thousands of valid Twitter account logons. To cash in, the gang can later access the accounts and blast out spam for worthless drugs or antivirus subscriptions. Or they could Tweet out links to infected web pages designed to turn over full control of a visitor’s PC to the bad guys.

Read more on this story here

Just remember, it’s not about the quantity of followers, it’s about the quality of followers. Don’t fall for this scam. People having success on Twitter are doing it by engaging, building relationships and providing value. Not by getting a mass amount of random followers all for the sakes of larger numbers whom they can broadcast to. Don’t get scammed.

Help your followers by retweeting this post!

Watching out for you, one tweet at a time. -Twitter Watchdog

@alferretti

@skeeterhansen

It’s been reported that there’s well over 50,000 third party tools that integrate with Twitter.

When you think about it, that’s great for customization, automation and flexibility options. But think again, and is it really just information overload and all just becoming part of the noise and confusion on Twitter?

Twitter Watchdog would like to hear what your favorite Twitter Tool or App is and why…

Your opinion matters, please share it by leaving a comment below