Holi Twitter backgrounds – Rang Barse on Twitter!

Celebrate the festival of colors on Twitter, this year. With these colorful holi twitter backgrounds.  Splash a dash of color on your twitter page to spread good cheer among friends and followers.

So, before you take your pichkaris and head out to drench your friends in color; before you start splashing those non-toxic gulaal powders on the little ones; and before you get high on bhang and jive to a holi Bollywood number, add these cool holi twitter backgrounds to your twitter profile and get into the holi spirit of exuberance. Read more

50 interesting social media terms!

Social media is very much a part of our cultural mosaic. Social media sites like Facebook and Twitter have changed the way the world communicates. And blogging has given everyone an opportunity to express their views on anything under the sun. What’s more, these new-age media channels have affected all aspects of our life and have created a parallel universe in which people converse, connect and network across geographical boundaries. So, it’s fitting that social media has generated several interesting terms that best describe the social media lifestyle.

Here are 50 interesting social media terms, have fun reading it! Read more

Did you hear the Save Our Tigers roar on social media?

The tiger is roaring loud and clear, all over Facebook and Twitter.  And the reach and extent of its roar, within just a few days is simply amazing. Right now, Stripey the Cub (saveourtigers’ Facebook profile) has 20,702 fans and the saveourtigers twitter profile has 1,461 followers.  And the numbers are growing exponentially. Plus, what’s really amazing is the extensive user participation in the form of comments, discussions and re-tweets. Facebook fans have even gone ahead to form saveourtigers local groups! And to think that hardly a few people knew that our national animal was facing extinction, until a few days ago, the buzz created by this campaign is amazing.

Saveourtigers campaign is a fine-example of how mass media and social media advertising can be successfully synchronized to produce overwhelming visibility and active user participation.

Here are a few reasons why the saveourtigers cause has received tremendous response on social media, right from the word go:

1. The television campaign and  the use of celebrities has given the much needed visibility to the website
2. The saveourtigers website design not only informs but also involves users. It urges users to act – by reading about the cause in the blog (which has just one post now but we are sure more will follow), viewing videos on youtube,  by donating or by joining the cause through Facebook and Twitter
3. What really hooks the visitor on to the website is the Join the Roar application, where the user can pledge his support and help unravel a part of the tiger’s image.
4. Facebook allows for active participation and initiates action through  discussions, comments and even creation of local groups
5. Twitter keeps followers posted on latest developments happening on the blogs/Facebook profile/website.
6. There is a seamless flow of information across both media – mass media as well as social media, one directing the user to the other
7. Active exchange of information, views and ideas across all online channels, especially across social media networks – Facebook and Twitter, initiating greater audience participation.
8. Both mass media and social media complement each other, lending maximum mileage to the cause.

We’ll be watching to see how the saveourtigers campaign unfolds over the next few weeks. We would love to hear your thoughts and opinions on this cause and the channels used for promoting it. Please leave your comments.

Top 7 romantic ways to celebrate Valentine’s Day on Twitter

Cupid’s all over twitter. With hot background picks, cool deals on Valentine’s Day goodies, contests and what not. So, get the romance going this Valentine’s Day on Twitter. Show your love with sugar-coated tweets and make someone feel very special, twitter style.

Here are 7 romantic ways to celebrate Valentine’s Day on Twitter.

1. Get a romantic background: Start the Valentine’s Day Celebrations by sporting hearts for your profile background. Take your pick from sites like Twitrounds and Twitterbackgrounds. It’s the best way to get into the romance mode.
2. Win a diamond necklace for your love: Cinemablend has announced a contest on twitter to celebrate the release of the movie The Valentine’s Day. All you have to do is log in to your twitter account and follow @cinemablend and then tweet this message: “@cinemablend Happy Valentine’s Day! Enter me to win the prize pack.” The lucky winner gets to win a diamond necklace, the perfect Valentine’s Day gift for your loved one.
3. Follow the love and win gift cards: American Greetings’ “Follow the Love” contest lets you win cool retailer/cash gift cards. Follow @AmGreetings, submit a tweet based on the question of the day, and tag your submission #LoveAG. Win a gift card and splurge on a romantic treat!
4. Get some romantic ideas: Looking for some sizzling ideas to boost up the romance quotient, this Valentine’s Day? Then, look up Feb14th Ideas for some red-hot gift ideas, decoration themes and a lot more.
5. Book a candlelight dinner: Look up great deals on Valentine’s Day dinners and book ‘em in advance. TrioPalmSprings offers a great dinner package. So, do a host of other resorts and restaurants. You can even win a free dinner giveaway. Harbormagic offers one, right now.
6. Get a taste of some Twitter love: Give your loved one some Twitter candy. Now, those little heart-shaped Valentine’s Day Sweetheart candies come with messages like ‘Tweet me’ and ‘Text me’. Your love has a one-in-80 chance of getting such a tweet message on her sugary treat, this year.
7. Send love tweets by the minute: If nothing else works for you; if you are a little hard up for cash or if you haven’t had the time to prepare the perfect Valentine’s Day dinner, fret not. Simply send love-struck tweets, say every 10 minutes, round-the-clock on Valentine’s Day.  You can even pick up some messages from sites like Romanticmessages and send them as tweets. After all, what’s more romantic than reading tweets like this: “Falling in love with you is the second best thing in the world. Finding you is the first,” all through the day!

Now, Twitter, Twitter, everywhere…even at the Grammy’s!

Did you know Twitter is now a part of the Grammy’s? Artist Imogen Heap accepts a Grammy Award for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical wearing a specially crafted “Twitter Dress.”  The dress has its own Twitter feed and displays twitter pics sent by fans in real-time using hash tag  #twitdress. Imogen Heap says that the dress was a way to let fans “accompany me on the red carpet.”

Well, you can call it a very weird idea for a red carpet dress but what really comes out is twitter’s unrivalled popularity among celebrities and the common man, alike. And what’s more, twitter is the bridge that connects the two, that too in a global platform like the grammy’s. It’s like the fans get to be on the stage along with their favorite stars.

No doubt, twitter is now really a global phenomenon and a huge brand in itself. What with celebrities going out of the way to utilize its services and brand name to further their visibility.  Its ability to connect people and convey important messages in short, crisp sentences in a very short time frame is its biggest draw. And the number of twitter users is growing by the hour.

Twitter is really become the voice of our times and has now become accepted as a part of the popular culture of our day and age, along with Lady Gaga’s strange costumes and alien-ecosystem movies – a theme that’s beautifully reflected in Imogen Heap Twitter Grammy’s dress!

Why Bill Gates couldn’t ignore twitter. And why you shouldn’t too!

So, Bill Gates (@BillGates) has finally arrived on twitter. A bit late, though. But did he receive a rousing welcome or what? Within 8 hours of signing up for a twitter account, he surpasses 100,000 twitter followers. Right now, he has 375,609 followers and the numbers are going up by the hour. And it’s barely a week since he joined twitter and he has sent just over 20 tweets in this time. It surely pays to be the richest man in the world, right?

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9 ways to promote non-profits using Twitter

What’s happening?  That’s the question everyone’s answering these days. Twitter is quite a rage with the online folk these days. And people are not just using twitter to tell others when they woke up in the morning or what they ate for breakfast, twitter is now being used to promote brands and build businesses. What’s more, twitter has become the perfect medium to promote non-profits because of its wide reach and its ability to attract followers with less than 140 characters.

Here are 9 easy ways to promote non-profits using Twitter:

1. Create a Twitter profile

Start promoting your non-profit by creating a twitter profile on similar lines – http://twitter.com/pathsurestart/ .This is your online address on twitter and you can add a small bio of your organization. You can even use http://twitbacks.com to create an interesting background to your profile

2. Follow other non-profits

Use twitter to connect to other non-profits. Take part in conversations with other non-profits, reply to their messages or re-tweet them to your followers. This way, you build relationships on twitter and earn a lot of good will for your cause. Also, you get to be active on twitter and gain some visibility for your cause.

3. Promote blogs/news

Use twitter to build a buzz around your cause. Promote your blogs; update your profile with news on a regular basis. You can use twitter to promote stories and experiences in your blogs. You can create polls for twitter using applications like http://twitter.polldaddy.com/ and ask people to cast their vote or even play your games through twitter messages. The more information you give out, the more likely people will get excited about your cause.

4. Tweet useful information

Give out information that may be useful to people, so they may be willing to RT it to their followers. Re-tweeting is a great way to spread your message. And people will re-tweet only when they know that the message is funny, interesting, useful or if it really touches their heart.

5. Use pictures, videos and more!

Share pictures:

Only 140 characters are allowed in a twitter message. But a picture speaks a thousand words. Say a whole lot in your tweet using pictures. Use http://twitpic.com/ to add pictures to your messages and post it on twitter

Share videos:

You can share videos from youtube and myspace on twitter. The reach is more and a touching videos inspires better.

6. Nominate for a twitcause award

Nominate your charity for a twitcause award http://www.experienceproject.com/twitcause.  If people think that you’re cause is good and you are doing a good job, they will vote for you. Your cause is recognized and awareness about your work also spreads in the twitter world.

7. Petitions to spread awareness

http://twitition.com/ helps you create, sign and share petitions on twitter. Spread awareness about your cause by requesting tweet people to sign a petition pertaining to your cause. You can spread the word about your cause and also get people involved in your work through petitions.

8. Raise funds

http://twitter.com/WeGiveMealPacks uses twitter on a regular basis to collect funds and other necessities for their projects. So do a host of other non-profits. http://twitter.com/RangDe uses twitter to raise micro-credit to help the marginalized in India.

9. Create a twibbon

Use http://twibbon.com/ to promote your cause. Create a twibbon and request your supporters and followers to use it on their profile. This way they can show solidarity to your cause and also help spread awareness about your work.

So, the next time you tweet for your non-profit, remember, 140 characters can indeed make the world a better place!

7 Reasons to Use TweetDeck

With over 19% Twitter applications market share, TweetDeck is the most popular Twitter application (according to June 2009 reports). TweetDeck is an Adobe AIR desktop application that can be used to access Twitter. TweetDeck has a number of integrated features and settings that can be used to enhance the experience of using Twitter.

Here are seven reasons for using TweetDeck:

1. Ability to manage multiple Twitter Accounts

TweetDeck allows you to add, monitor and post to multiple Twitter accounts from a single easy to use interface. This is the primary reason why I use it. Read more

Social Media Websites’ – Who Is Making What – Insight Into Revenue Generation

Social media sites, notably Twitter, FaceBook, MySpace, YouTube and LinkedIn have become household names and have become an integral part of people’s life so much so that it is tough for regular users to imagine a life without social media.  Social networking websites have become virtual celebrities, with an enormous fan following and all the glitz and popularity that is hoarded on them.  But are they making the kind of money that real world celebrities get to make is the million dollar question.

The people behind these social media websites had remained mute about this until recently, probably because the sudden rush of success was more than a sweet surprise and they themselves did not know how to monetize the maddening popularity received by these websites.  Of late, there seems to be lot of thought put into revenue generation and the paparazzi is finally getting their questions about revenue answered.  Here is a report of the popularity score of some social media giants and relatedness of their respective revenue generation.

Facebook

Brief History: Originally called “thefacebook”, Facebook was incorporated from a hobby of Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg.   The hobby soon crossed the realms of Harvard dorm rooms and Facebook was officially launched in February 2004.

Key takers: High school and college students.

Finances: Facebook initially received a $500,000 funding from Peter Theil, co-founder of PayPal.  A few months later, it received a $13 million financial aid from Accel Partners and another 425 million from Greylock Partners.   A sum total of $40 million was conjured up to kick start the venture in a big way. 

FaceBook today: Facebook is one of the fastest growing social networking websites today.  Its interactive features and its global appeal have helped in its membership going viral.  Facebook now has over 250 million active users, with over 30 million active users accessing it through mobile devices.

Revenue generation:

• August 2006 was a milestone year for Facebook as it signed a three year deal with Microsoft to provide and sell ads on their website for a revenue split.  Silicon Valley entrepreneur Mark Andreessen who is also a board member of Facebook holds that Facebook would make well over $1 billion in the year 2009 if it pushed harder on selling advertisements.
• In the year 2008, Facebook was able to rake in $350 million, a huge progress from its 2007 revenue of $150 million.  (Source:  http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-9862792-36.html)
• However, the company had a $150 million negative cash flow for the year 2008, a deficit created by its $50 million EBITDA expenditure.
• But,  Andreessen has said that Facebook is on track and has expressed confidence in generating about $500 million revenue by the end of 2009.  The recent acquisition of social media site FreindFeed is sure to feed some funds as well.

The Verdict: The financial history of Facebook and the recent business developments indicate that Facebook is in a safe mode at the moment and also holds promise for upscale revenue generation moving further.  The company is full of investor cash including $240 million from Microsoft that nails Facebook at a massive $15 billion evaluation.

Twitter

Brief history: Twitter was the outcome of a daylong brainstorming session by the board members of the podcasting company Odeo.  The first prototype of Twitter was designed for the internal use of Odeo employees, which was later developed and launched for public use in July 2006.  But Twitter spun off as an official company in April 2007 when Biz Stone, Even Williams, Dorsey and other members of Odeo formed a formed Obvious Corporation and acquired Odeo and all of its assets including Odeo.com and Twitter.com from the investors and other shareholders.

Key Takers: Unlike other social networking sites, it is difficult to single out a particular kind of users who use Twitter most.  Twitter has gained wide popularity across the globe with diversified user population ranging from college students, entrepreneurs and entertainment freaks.

Finances: Twitter is backed by Union Square ventures, Digital Garage, Spark Capital and Bezos Expeditions.  Though Twitter has kept its funding under cover, its first round of funding is rumored to have been between $1 million and $5 million, followed by an equally enormous second and third round funding, all totaling up to an approximate US$57 million.

Twitter Today:  Since its creation in 2006 by Jack Dorsey, Twitter has gained notability and popularity worldwide.  Between the year 2008 and 2009, Twitter has seen a monthly growth of 1,382 percent.

Revenue generation:  Twitter has always been discrete about its revenue and has evevn projected losses in its earlier announcements.  However,  in an unfortunate incident,  one of Twitter’s computer was hacked and its revenue information was published by TechCrunch.  The records contained Twitter’s internal projections for 2009 that indicated revenue of $ 400,000 in the third quarter and a $4 million in the fourth quarter in its net earnings.

The data has projected that Twitter will have over 1 billion active users by 2013 and its future revenue run rate, a massive $140 million by the end of 2010.

Twitter co-founder Biz Stone has said that the company is developing various add-on tools and services for the businesses and professional users of Twitter, which could create a revenue stream for the company. He said Twitter plans to introduce some of these tools by the end of 2009.

But Stone dismissed the notion of selling advertisements on the popular service at least for the 2009, even though ad revenue is the main way most web start-ups manage to stay in business while keeping their service free for consumers.

The Verdict: Until recently Twitter was believed to be running a loss, and that did not seem to surprise anyone because sudden appraisal of fame and authority can be a bog down.  However,  the recent Twitter revenue leakage and the fact that Twitter did not retaliate to this in a big way seems to confirm that Twitter has a sound financing system or is at least in the path of stabilizing its finances.  And the unstoppable viral spreading of Twittering practices only adds to the joy of great finances.

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