Today, Twitter has announced that it added a few new features to make Twitter even more useful. Unfortunately, these new features are only available in the US and worldwide users will either have to wait for such functionality to arrive their countries (doubt it) or just drool on the fact that we won’t have it . Anyway, here is an excerpt or the news:

We’ve always been big fans of trusty SMS messaging. In fact, sending a text was originally the only way users could tweet. This is why Tweets are 140 characters — they need to fit into a text message.

We value SMS because it’s simple, instant and universal. Recently, we’ve added a few new features to make Twitter even more useful with SMS.

Fast Follow. Anyone in the US can receive Tweets on their phone even if they haven’t signed up for Twitter. This is a simple way for people to get information they care about in real-time. For example, let’s say you want to get Tweets from New York City’s office of emergency management (@NotifyNYC). Just text ‘follow NotifyNYC’ to 40404 in the US.

Try it out the next time you see a Twitter @username at a restaurant or store, on a billboard or on TV, or if you hear one mentioned on the radio. If you want to appear in a user’s followers list or start to get followers, you’ll need to create a Twitter account. You can SMS by texting ‘signup’ to Twitter.

As Twitter mentioned, Fast Following without creating an account is currently available only in the US, but they are working on it to bring it to other countries.

Read the full story here

With over one hundred million Twitter users, it is most likely that there are several Tweeps out there that shares the same interest as you. Finding them can be a problem as there are so many to look at and yet, it is certainly sure that there are some that you would find interesting to follow. Recently, Twitter has begun a simple feature which is to recommend similar users based on many factors which allows a user to easily pinpoint people that you might be interested in following. This feature will be visible to you when you view another users profile.

When you see recommendations for similar users, all you need to do is to follow them and you are good to go. Simple

Do you find this nwe feature interesting? Do you think it will benefit you in any way?

I’ll let you be the judge for that one. Anyway, today I hopped over to see my SponsoredTweet account just to take a peek and see if there was anything for me on the table ($$). As usual, just some 2 cent CPC opps and a few that were slightly more appealing. Kinda disappointed, I was curious what those celebs out there are charging for every Tweet. So I went over to the featured SponsoredTweet listings and here is a list of the Top celebs and how much each of them will charge for a single Tweet:

OK. So I guess it does pay off to be a celebrity after all, and still quite disappointed because I have to call someone and most likely “negotiate” an insane amount for Kim to send a Tweet for me.

Anyway, I do have another question? It does appear that being a celebrity has its perks, but what about on the advertisers perspective? Do you really think that if I paid KhloeKardasian to tweet for me that I will get the exposure and return I would expect (or will that depend on what my expectations are)? How many followers do you think she can give me if I asked her to Tweet “#FF Just followed (me), the coolest guy on the Twitterverse.”, lol.

Unfortunately, if you are looking for an answer to this question I regret to inform that it is no longer possible to perform such tasks as Twitter’s API TOS has prohibited any service to allow for “Check and Uncheck” all functionality. The reason why I am telling you this is that I have been receiving some emails about some previous posts that I had, which indeed where pointing to services that allowed to do so. Rather than answering to them individually, I just decided to say it here in a quick post that such services, although many still exists, do not offer this feature anymore. As a matter of fact, I seriously doubt that there are still any that exists as they where certainly “blocked” or “banned” from offering the mass unfollow and unfollow option by Twitter.

How Do We Follow And Get Followed On Twitter?

The only way to achieve more amounts of followers is to do it the intended “original way” and that is to build relationships, gain trust and credibility. Nothing is more powerful than this in today’s social networking arena. Obviously there is still the time consuming form of doing it which is checking individually each person and/ or company that you wish to either follow or unfollow. Also, it appears that there are some alternative forms to mass check and uncheck people on some services by means of using addons or your browser. I would not know how they work and if they actually deliver because I have not used any of them and I think I will never do.

Twitter has gone way beyond just a “what are you doing” right now platform and its users has learned the hard way. There is no need to have thousands of followers that do not pay attention to your Tweets. Help others, SPAM less, be supportive, interact, are all highly recommended to build a good network of followers and there is no way around it.

How about you? Do you still know of any service that offers this functionality? Do you miss having it or are your building your way towards achieving more followers by means of what I mentioned earlier.

I have already been convinced by the developers of Hootsuite a long time ago that they are way worth being one of my favorite Twitter application. Hootsuite recently introduced additional features that will make existing users happier and the undecided ones closer to being convinced. The most professional twitter client has just gone better and here is why.

• Redesigned Interface – HootSuite’s freshened interface offers more screen space to increase workflow efficiency — plus adds a bit of style
• Site Analytics – Monitor your social outreach campaigns within the HootSuite dashboard with baked-in Google Analytics to identify trends and compare tactics
• GeoSearch – Discover localized conversations and sources with GeoSearch — just click the ‘Geo’ icon to display search results posted near your current location (requires HTML5-enabled browser)
• Drag & Drop Upload – Attach an image or other file easily using Chrome 5, Firefox 3.6 and Safari 5 browsers — Just drag from the desktop and drop into the message box to upload with a pre-shortened link
• Enhanced FaceBook – Share more on Facebook by including photo thumbnails plus titles, descriptions in wall posts, and view pictures and videos from friends in-stream
• New Retweets – Share Twitter messages with your network using Twitter’s Retweet tool, plus add streams to display RTs to you, by you, and by your followers
• Localization – Use HootSuite in your preferred language with complete Japanese localization and more linguistic choices on the way
• Instaload – Display your social streams even faster — using HTML5, HootSuite caches content for immediate recall and less waiting for updates
• Themes – Personalize your dashboard with unique themes — choose from familiar green & blue ‘Classic’, sleek & stunning ‘Blue Steel’, or darkly cool ‘Magnum’
• plus all the other Hootsuite Barn Owl features..

Go ahead and give Hootsuite Twitter App a try and tell me if you agree with me or not. Happy Tweeting!

Android phones or Google Nexus One are fairly new and already several developers have managed to create some free Twitter apps to enhance your Twitter experience for this type of platform. That said, here are some Twitter apps for android powered phones all of which can be downloaded through the Android Market.

Seesmic: One of the best Twitter clients for Android out there. Already a popular desktop application, it offers many features including video sharing, location sharing, photo sharing, URL shortening, Multi-accounts and cross-posting, background notifications, saving tweets as drafts, quick access to Twitter profile, and many more.

Hootsuite Android: The web based Hootsuite is one of my favorite Twitter Application. Android users can enjoy HootSuite from anywhere with a choice of full-featured and lite versions of the popular social media dashboard. Built to utilize Google open web platform, Android users will now enjoy the same benefits iPhone user have raved about, including:

• Managing multiple identities and accounts
• Creating custom views for tags and searches
• Understanding reasons for trending topics
• Scheduling messages for the future
• Adding followers to lists and accounts
• Sharing photos and shortening URLs
• Plus HootSuite Android version includes a few new tricks including background notifications so messages keep on coming even when you’re browsing elsewhere.

Choose between two versions – including a free option. The full-featured allows unlimited Twitter accounts plus on-board, click-through statistics tracking. The Lite versions – available for no cost – are limited to three accounts. An excellent choice.

Twidroid: A twitter client for android and among the most used twitter applications across all platforms. It is simple to use and it is available both as a free and paid version that supports all twitter features as well as functionality that is customized to the capabilities of android devices. Some features on the free version include:

• full-featured twitter client
• postings, mentions & direct messages
• view user profiles
• follow/unfollow users
• native retweet option
• threaded view for DM
• integrated search, synced saved searches
• auto-completion
• in-app image & website previews
• direct sharing from android browser & gallery
• list your followers & friends
• share tweet via email, sms, etc.
• reply-to-all messages
• twitter trends
• geo location support
• background notifications, etc.

There you have it. If there are other Twitter Apps for Android that you can recommend, please let our users know about them here. Enjoy and happy Tweeting.

I love stats. Do you? If you don’t, you’ll still want to read this as I am convinced that this is one of the best Twitter Analytics Tool I have found to date on the sphere. Think of it as the Google Analytics for Twitter. Now, you may be asking, why all this excitement and what tool am I actually talking about?

Enter Twitalyzer, one of the industry’s most popular, widely used Twitter analytics application. The next question is why am I all excited about this tool? Here’s why:

• First and foremost it is 100% free. No catch, no trials, no sale pitch, nada. It is free, period.
• Integration with Google Analytics.
• Powerful Interactive Charts and Graphs.
• Rich Data Visualizations.
• Easy to Read Summary Metrics.
• No need to register. If you login via the Twitter OAUT protocol though, the metrics you will get will catapult you to a dashboard where insane features are readily available. Some of these include the Google Analytics integration, segmentation tools, goal tracking, and user tagging.
• and much, much more…

Twitter Influence Calculator

Now called Impact for better semantic accuracy, it is a combination of several factors, these being:
* The number of followers a user has
* The number of unique references and citations of the user in Twitter
* The frequency at which the user is uniquely retweeted
* The frequency at which the user is uniquely retweeting other people
* The relative frequency at which the user posts updates

What other Twitter Metrics can be obtained?
Ther are so many stuff that it is better if you download the PDF document the Twitalyzer developers have created and read at your leisure.

How to Get Started in Twitalyzer in Five Minutes?

Whew! Hopefully I have convinced you to give Twitalyzer a try. In fact, here is a challenge. I like this tool so much that I am willing to take a risk. Try it and if you don’t like it, never visit my website again. If you do like it, please come back, comment and ReTweet this post and others like crazy to help me be one of the most influential person on Twitter How’s that for a guarantee?

This is actually one of the posts I am writing that does not have anything to do with how to Retweet but rather send a message for those who think that Retweeting is all about clicking a button.

Why do you retweet?

Well for starters and maybe the most simplest answer to this question is because you liked the Tweet and wish to share it with your followers. As you all know, Retweeting is one of the highest form of compliment and is also a very powerful method to spread the word around the Twitterverse. Things is, do you even read what you are Retweeting?

I am asking this question because often I see a lot of people in my timeline ReTweeting tweets like crazy. Sometime during the day, I will head over my favorite Twitter app, Hootsuite, and will check out what my followers and people I am following have to say. I will check for new blog posts, interesting articles, any news, etc. In particular, I pay attention to ReTweets. I do this this because I trust that a Retweet is something someone liked very much and is sharing it for more people to know about it. The problem is that I have found countless times, people Retweet just for the sake of Retweeting (calling the persons attention for something for example). I will head over to the link they provided and do not see any “indication” at all that they have been there. Sometimes, it is just sheer crap. When this happens, I give it one, two and three, then you strike out. I will unfollow you as fast as you can Retweet any BS again.

So to avoid this, here are some things you should consider when Retweeting.

1) Don’t Retweet just for the sake of Retweeting. Read at the least what it is about. Just because it is some A Lister’s tweet, it does not necessarily mean it is interesting.
2) You do have a topic that you are particularly interested in, right? Retweet tweets that are similar to your niche. If I know you, and you are someone I trust to provide information say about cameras, why do you think I will jump over to a link that you retweeted about a fishing pole? Makes me wonder, unless you do occasionally share other topics of interest.
3) Leave at least one comment on any post you Retweet. This will give an indication that you actually read what you have Retweeted and makes you more credible to the sphere.

4) OK, I understand. You also Tweet for money. But the question remains. Do you at least read and find out where you are directing your followers to go? Sponsored Tweets are acceptable, in small doses, but give me something gooood.

That’s basically it. I think you get the point. I would love if you can add your opinion and make this list grow. Let’s here them please.

You all have heard about followfriday or have seen the hashtags on Twitter that looks something like this – #followfriday or #FF. Follow friday has been widely use on the Twitterverse to recommend Tweeps on Twitter. It is either a form of gratitude or simply a way to let the world know about great Twitterers. You do this by typing in the people you want to recommend and tweet it with the #FF hashtag.

This is easier said than done. You might have several followers and also have many people you want to recommend due to them being actively Retweeting your Tweets. You might want to recommend people who recommended you. There may be several reasons why you want to do this and it can be a daunting tasks specially it you have a huge base of people you follow or follow you. The next obvious question is, can this be done easier? Enter FollowFriday Helper.

FollowFriday Helper Twitter App

This tool makes it easier for you to recommend anyone on Twitter. You can filter people in a variety of forms, some of which are:

# People who recommended me
# People I RT’ed
# People who RT’ed me
# People who mentioned me
# People I favorited

In addition to #FF, there are many other available Tweet types which you can use. These are: #ThankYou #TY #Gratitude #Top #FollowSaturday #FollowSunday #FollowMonday #FollowTuesday #FollowWednesday #FollowThursday #FollowNow #FollowEveryDay #MustFollow #FollowerOfTheDay. Use it to recommend multiple people or make it more personal, you decide.

There is no need to register to use the FollowFriday helper, all you need is a valid Twitter account to log in via the OAUT process and you are good to go. If you want to recommend people using certain criteria, then this tool will certainly help. You can even write more personal #TY, #Gratitude, (..etc) tweets by simply using the user’s name, URL, bio and location with just a few clicks.

As I said before, there is a reason why Hootsuite has become my favorite Twitter client. Their team’s constant quest for perfection makes Hootsuite one of the best Twitter apps in the block. With that said, they have recently announced the release of Tools for Agencies and Groups.

Here’s what they have to say:

These Team Collaboration tools are specifically designed for collective message publishing and conversation monitoring by groups. This will allow enterprises and agencies to coordinate their efforts with colleagues and clients without sacrificing control over valuable account info or compromising the timeliness of messaging.

Business and organizations can now assemble specific Teams to manage accounts, topics or projects. Plus, anyone can add their own social networking accounts without an administrator, adding even more flexibility.

Users can also save keystrokes with the highly-requested “Reply to All” option, and can spread messages auto-magically with streamlined adding of RSS feeds to any social network.

Own Your Team
Key Features:
* Each social network account now has an Owner who “holds the keys” to that account. Owners can then invite Team Members to publish to different social network accounts.
* Anyone can invite Team Members to their HootSuite account – it’s easy: Just enter their email address, add a message if needed, and select the social network you want to grant them access to.
* Advanced Team Members can manage Basic Team Members’ permissions, plus modify the details of assigned social networks, while only Owners have the ability to delete accounts.
* Changing with the times is easy — Owners can migrate Ownership to another Team Member on an account when roles or personnel changes. You can also revoke someone’s access quickly and easily at any time.
* Team Members can add additional accounts to their HootSuite accounts — great for managing work and personal social networks side by side, or for handling external projects.
* You’ll choose an Owner for each social network account when you first log in. Work with your colleagues to decide who will be the “owner” for your networks (Don’t worry, you can transfer ownership at any time).

Here’s a brief tour on HootSuite’s Team Collaboration Tools

What do you think about this new addition to Hootsuite? Isn’t it one of the best Twitter tools currently available? Don’t agree, voice out your opinion in the comment section.