Do you think that using Twitter hashtags helps your tweets be found, or do you think that they are becoming a waste of time and effort? I’m leaning towards the latter as I’m noticing things like the term #nascar is no longer needed, as NASCAR itself will do just fine when it comes to trending topics. (As one example.)
During the Super Bowl I was trying to figure out the best hashtag to use and found out just how ill-defined the use of Twitter hashtags are. No one controls them so there’s no centralized focus. Then I started wondering just how useful are hashtags if there’s as many different hashtag as there are Twitter users for the same subject?
-
Twitter hashtags are how people mark their tweets sent out on Twitter. It’s a sort of keyword system that seems to stem from a blogger’s mentality to earmark what a tweet is about.
Initially, hashtags were used as a search function aid. But they’re slowly losing any real meaning, for the most part. For example, if I write that my “car exploded when starting it,” and append my tweet with a #fail, seems, well, like stating the obvious.
Sure, the tags can be useful. When a TV show puts their hashtag up on the screen when the show is on, at least that solidifies all the users use of a common tag. Or when a business might suggest their name as a hashtag, so be it.
But when left to their own devices, hashtag usefulness is wasted on the medium because so many make them up as they go along. Or so it would seem.
-
[click to continue reading…]
Starting today (February 2nd, 2012), Lionsgate is engaging The Hunger Games fans in yet another fashion to catch your attention, adding to the wonderful viral campaign they’ve had going so far.
Lionsgate has 50 different websites (IE, 50 days until it opens in theaters) giving away tickets to see The Hunger Games, for free. That’s because today, there are only 50 days to go until the movie hits your local movie theater!
All you have to do is hit up Twitter and search for #HungerGames50 and find the websites that are participating in the free ticket give-away to the World Premiere of The Hunger Games.
Lionsgate also announced that they will have an exclusive, one week engagement with IMAX screenings, starting on its theatrical release date of March 23, 2012.
[click to continue reading…]
Will you be seeing Joss Whedon‘s The Avengers in 3D? I wasn’t planning on it, but Disney may have swayed my hand here! Damnit!
-
As far as 3D movies go, I’ve dug my heels in hard. It seems pointless to fork out extra cash for most live-action 3D movies unless there’s CGI involved like in Tron: Legacy, or Transformers: Dark of the Moon. Animated features seem to benefit the most from 3D, bringing that type of movie to life.
But there’s very little that can get me to fork out the extra bucks for a live-action 3D movie these days. It doesn’t add anything to the live-action movie. But then again, it looks like Disney has found my weak spot!
Disney and RealD have come up with the concoction of custom designed 3D movie glasses based on characters from The Avengers.
And I have to tell ya, it’s tempting, if for anything else, to have a pair of your own super cool 3D glasses.
[click to continue reading…]
Nothing says class like how the San Francisco 49ers lost to the NY Giants, and seemingly to a tee, the team showed solidarity and support to Kyle Williams, who has one heck of a burden to bear.
Williams flubbed a return in overtime (his second flub of the game) which got NY within range for a field goal. (Williams’ first flub ended in a NY touchdown also.) My first impressions say that his two floundered moves gave it to New York, and that’s a shame. But it is a team sport, and that’s that. NY Giants are moving on to play the New England Patriots in the 2012 Super Bowl.
At least I thought that was it. Then the demonstrative behavior started, which to me, seemed rather disappointing.
While the team was backing him up and told Williams to keep his head high, the media was reporting on TV that coach Jim Harbaugh was evidently upset enough and was declining TV interviews immediately after the game. I found that disappointing. His would have been the first best example of losing gracefully. Whether he later chatted with the media, I’m not sure.
But then it seems, Twitter erupted with death threats directed at Kyle Williams.
Seriously folks… death threats? Because one man flubbed a few times and seemingly gave the game away all by himself?
[click to continue reading…]
![Consumer Bits on Brusimm 200w logo, [Consumer News, advice and reviews]](http://brusimm.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Consumer-Bits-on-Brusimm-logo-v03-200w.jpg "Consumer Bits on Brusimm logo v03 200w")
It seems that of all the “social” circles I travel, I seem to be seeing nothing but bad news or poor opinions of this SOPA act.
SOPA stands for Stop Online Piracy Act. Its intent is to protect copyrights and defeat copyright infringements. IE: Those internet movie pirates that believe they’re entitled to steal content without paying for it.
So the premise is to protect the major players of the entertainment industry.
But it would seem that the way it was written, there are catches that seem, per so many perspectives being made on the web, to threaten even the smallest web entrepeneur… you.
-
The concerns are that websites can be shut down, even if you’ve done nothing wrong yourself. IE: A site visitor leaves a comment with a link out to something… BAM, your site is done!
(Suggestion: I have this site set up to not allow links in comments. They all have to be approved.)
[click to continue reading…]
Kasey Kahne
It looks like NASCAR Sprint Cup driver Kasey Kahne encountered something of a surprise in a supermarket and found himself on the wrong end of the Twitter opinion world the other day because of what seemed to be some sociably inappropriate comments about breastfeeding.
-
While Kasey Kahne was shopping in a grocery store last Tuesday (12-27-11) when he found himself observing a woman breastfeeding her baby in the store, near the produce section. He commented on how one boob was in and one boob was out and further exemplified his experience by stating his surprise and apparent disgust of the situation with the hashtag #nasty on one of his tweets.
He then claimed he did not feel like continuing his shopping experience at that store after seeing that.
Kasey has around 100k followers on Twitter and as it is with the better looking NASCAR drivers, some or maybe many of his followers are women. His tweet of surprise generated a reply from one of his followers stating that they hope one day he will have someone tell his wife that breast feeding is a nasty event. She finished her tweet with
“Stay classy a**hole.”
Kasey unfortunately, after having taken quite the social beating over this, finally added further to his social internet dilemma by replying a tweet by saying
“And your a dumb b****.”
After the heat of the moment passed him by, Kasey then tried deleting his Twitter posts and later wished everyone a Merry Christmas.
But when you delete your end of the conversation, well, that only works on your end while the other participant of the conversation still has their tweet history of their part of that convo.
Plus when other mainstream media find good “hooks” to spin an article or event, it takes on a life of its own.
-
[click to continue reading…]
After a bit of frustration with how some website owner/operators run their ancillary feeds these days, I find myself dropping all but their RSS feeds. It’s more about the lack of professionalism in the personalities behind the social feeds vs. a pretty basic RSS feed.
Read on and find out why I think, for some, RSS Feeds is the best way to follow a website.
=
In this day and age, every website owner/operator puts their content out in every possible fashion. They scramble to figure out every last trick that Google has for them and how to game it and rank well within that nebulous web ranking system. They also play on the human factor by using bait title tactics, report the news bites or generate interesting opinion pieces.
To get those pieces of work out, they use different venues for getting their content in your face. Some sites stick with the basics of Facebook and Twitter. Others pound out other venues for their regurgitated content.
For you the web surfer, you have to decide how best to spend your time, because your time is a pretty valuable commodity. Period.
Do you want just the info, or do you want to interact and feel like the web author is a human. And therein lies the sales pitch to website admins… to “engage” the community.
-
The average web surfer spends maybe around 90 seconds on a blog/website, skittering along looking for or at things that might catch your attention. If nothing does, you either move on or never land there.
And you have good reason for skittering through a website… In 2011, there were roughly around 150 million blogs out there. And you only have so much time.
-
[click to continue reading…]
The other day I had taken note that none of my posts were being distributed out to Twitter and that confused me. Using WordTwit Pro, it’s been pretty flawless. But like anythings else in life, you can have a good product or a good service, but one can be totally dependent on outside influences for your success.
In this case, while obviously updating or upgrading some of their inner workings, Twitter deactivated WordTwit Pro‘s credentials that were embedded in the OAuth API of Twitter. What then happened was that any WordTwit installation not designed around a custom Twitter App designed by the user, stopped transmitting.
The gang behind WordTwit Pro were all over this and addressed the issue via the note
”
Yesterday we were contacted by the Twitter API team and informed that WordTwit Pro‘s use of the API was not inline with the Twitter’s terms of service for third-party applications. The reasons given by the Twitter API team were:
“[WordTwit Pro] facilitates serial posting across multiple accounts, tweet/retweet automation, tweet branding and automated affiliate advertising.”
After reviewing the alleged violations by the Twitter API team, we are of the opinion that the reasons given are not justified based on the typical use cases of WordTwit Pro users.
”
[click to continue reading…]
I’ve now had my Motorola Droid X from Verizon Wireless for close to a year and half or so. I love it. And it being a Unix-based OS, on it’s own, it never needs rebooting. On its own that is. But it’s funny as you add apps, how the thing gets a bit flaky on you. But as I’ve learned through the years, the more software you add to your computing platform, the more likely it is you will start to develope issues amongst competing drivers and what not. It seems to be the name of the game.
Over the many months, I’ve tried, played and deleted many an app on the phone.
I tread wearily when I tried apps so I can avoid some of the horror stories I’ve seen, IE: bricking the phone, etc.. Treading carefully means means that when I hit up the Droid App Store, (the Market), I look carefully at the reviews. A lot of reviews are not from the greatest minds on the planet, so I weigh them out and ponder the sources, but if I see a pattern of issues from multiple reviews, I tend to go on my merry way and ignore the app. Of course, there are those apps that come from outside the Market, but I only install those apps from trusted sources, or huge name companies, etc.. Organizations that I have had good dealings with.
But even large name orgs sometimes have problems, as, you will see.
[click to continue reading…]
