2011-01-31

Why choose Tropo over Twilio? | Diggz.org Johnny Diggz Blog

A few weeks ago I was in Portland at the CivicWebs Hackathon talking with Amber Case and Aaron Pareki when Amber asked me why Tropo is better than Twilio.  She acknowledged that while she and Aaron love Tropo and built their GeoLoqi app on Tropo’s API, a lot of other people seem to like Twilio.   “So why is Tropo better?” she asked.

I responded with all the certainty, aloofness and charm I could muster: “Because we are!”

For most normal people, that answer might suffice, but Amber Case is a Cyborg Anthropologist.  It’s hard to win her over with just charm.  So I started laying out some of the reasons why Tropo is just plain better, and I figured rather than just keep them between me and Amber and Aaron, I’d share…

1) Features – Twilio for pranks, Tropo for business

This is where Tropo really blows Twilio away, and even Twilio’s own people acknowledge it.  At an API vendor shootout session at Internet Telephony Expo earlier this year, Danielle Morrill, Twilio’s head of marketing, said that Twilio would never be able to keep up with Tropo on features.

Twilio is great for making prank phone calls

Tropo offers a ton of advanced features that Twilio just can’t match: Voice recognition, SIP connections (critical for integration with other VoIP systems), Skype integration, instant messaging, short codes, hosting, numbers in 41 countries, speech in multiple languages, and a host of other things.

Furthermore, Tropo is a unified API. The days of needing one app for voice calls, another for SMS and a third for conferencing are over.  The same code you use to say something over the phone can also respond via SMS, IM, and Twitter.

2) Tropo’s Extreme Support

Twilio works on a credit system that requires developers to pay to play.   Tropo is and always will be 100% free for developers.  No credits, no limits on minutes, no ads played to you or your callers.  Every developer gets 24×7 support from engineers that know how to write code.  Paying customers measure their response times in minutes.  Our support team is consistently ranked the highest in customer service and satisfaction, at the top of not only our industry, but above all other software and telephony companies.

3) Scalability, Reliability and Portability

Twilio’s service is based on Asterisk, a free and open source telephony framework and runs on Amazon’s EC2 network.

Tropo runs on Voxeo’s SIP Cloud, the largest worldwide voice application host. Voxeo has been running phone+web applications for 10 years.  Because Voxeo’s been doing this stuff for so long they know that business customers demand security and reliability, which is why Voxeo manages their own datacenters that connect directly to major carriers and delivers tens of millions of voice minutes a day for the largest companies in the world, including half the Fortune 100.

Portability is another factor.   If someone develops an app on Twilio, they’re pretty much locked in to Twilio.  Hopefully it will be a happy marriage, but what happens if they want to switch providers?   Tropo, on the other hand, can be run in your own network.   You can even run Tropo on Amazon EC2 (if you want to).

If you haven’t tried out Tropo, you should give it a whirl. Here’s a great tutorial to help you get started: How to build a Twitter Bot using Tropo and JavaScript

Related Post:  Twilio vs. Tropo AKA A little more noise for Dave McClure

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Corporate US Media’s Woeful, Sanitized Egypt Coverage Amounts To Censorship | Philip Brennan

Anti-government mass uprising? What anti-government mass uprising?

Steve Watson | PrisonPlanet | 31 January 2011:

While the ailing dictatorship government in Egypt is busy rounding up and arresting Al Jazeera journalists in an attempt to control the release of footage and accounts of the mass uprising going on throughout the entirety of the country, the disgraceful corporate American media has once again shown itself to be just as strictly regulated in terms of the content it provides to viewers.

In Britain and Canada anyone interested in following the mass unrest in Egypt can simply turn on the television and tune into the English version of Al Jazeera, which has round the clock reports and uninterrupted live footage from journalists on the ground in Cairo and around the rest of the country.

The channel has been running and offering its content worldwide since 2006, yet unless you live in certain parts of Ohio, Vermont or Washington, D.C., you cannot even access the channel in the US, because the cable carriers are not interested in allowing you to see it.

Occasionally, if you are lucky, Fox News, CNN or MSNBC might break away from reporting on some mindless fluff to show you a short loop of some footage that appeared on Al Jazeera English a few hours previously.

This corporate censorship has resulted in a two-and-a-half thousand percent increase in web traffic to Al Jazeera’s website, where it is broadcasting a live stream.

This is the only place in America that you will see continuous live footage from Egypt – an utter disgrace, but no surprise whatsoever, given that the major US networks are all wholly or part owned by mega corporations comprising the military industrial complex.

As noted by Salon.com, during the time that President Hosni Mubarak’s ruling party headquarters was torched and set on fire, Al Jazeera had a live feed and an opposition party leader on the phone responding to the events. Meanwhile, Fox News waited to conclude an in depth feature on anchor babies, and then switched to an interview with John Bolton, who said words to the effect of “those darn muslims are up to no good again”.

“A bit earlier, Al Jazeera reported on what could be live ammunition fired by police outside the heavily guarded radio and television building. And Fox went live to Chicago, where two men tried to rob a Brink’s truck.” notes Alex Pareene.

MSNBC went one better by conducting an interview with Dan Senor of The Council on Foreign Relations live from a luxury elite hideout in Davos. There’s some straight up unbiased geopolitical analysis for you.

Any other reporting on Egypt that airs on US cable news consists of repeating loops of the same few minutes of footage with similar paid for and owned “analysis” slapped over the top.

Of course, in the past when Al Jazeera has covered the Iraq and Afghanistan wars a little too in depth for the liking of the US government, it has become the target of US bombs.

In the absence of having any actual facts, the written media has remarkably decided to defend the dictatorship in Egypt, with The LA Times noting that “Egypt and its President Hosni Mubarak are strong US allies in a region rife with anti-Americanism” and the New York Times adding that “the downfall of Mubarak could pave the way for Islamist radicals eager to increase their clout in Egypt”.

Once again, the “free press” at is hard at work keeping Americans in the dark.

Related video: Alex Jones: Corporations, US Government Run News Media

Click here for the original article...

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RT Raw Footage: Thousands on Cairo’s Tahrir Square demanding Mubarak goes | Philip Brennan

BBC News - South Sudan referendum: 99% vote for independence

South Sudan referendum: 99% vote for independence

A Sudanese young man waves the regional flag of southern Sudan (image from 15/1/11) There was a vast turnout for the vote, which lasted a week

Some 99% of South Sudanese voted to secede from the north, according to the first complete results of the region's independence referendum.

A total of 99.57 percent of those polled voted for independence, according to the referendum commission.

Early counting had put the outcome of the ballot beyond doubt, indicating Southern Sudan had secured a mandate to become the world's newest nation.

The poll was agreed as part of a 2005 peace deal to end two decades of war.

Final results from the 9-15 January vote, which Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has said he will accept, are expected early next month.

If the result is confirmed, the new country is set to formally declare its independence on 9 July.

Hundreds of officials and diplomats gathered in Juba at the grave of rebel leader John Garang for the first official announcement of the results.

'The prayer of a country'

The revered South Sudanese leader died in a plane crash just days after signing the January 2005 peace agreement ending more than 20 years of conflict between the black Christian-dominated south and the mainly Arab Muslim north.

"The prayer I say the people of Southern Sudan have been waiting for for 55 years, the prayer of a country," Episcopalian Archbishop Daniel Deng said as he opened the ceremony.

Sudan's Historic Vote

  • Voted: 9-15 January
  • Vote a condition of 2005 deal to end two-decade north-south conflict
  • Most northerners are Arabic-speaking Muslims
  • Most southerners Christian or follow traditional religions
  • Final result due 6 February or 14 February if there are appeals
  • South will become continent's newest nation on 9 July 2011
  • National anthem and flag chosen, but not new country's name

"Bless the name of this land, Southern Sudan," he said.

According to the commission website, 3,851,994 votes were cast during the week-long ballot.

Five of the 10 states in Sudan's oil-producing south showed a 99.9% vote for separation, the lowest vote was 95.5% in favour in the western state of Bahr al-Ghazal, bordering north Sudan, Reuters reports.

North and south Sudan have suffered decades of conflict driven by religious and ethnic divides.

Southern Sudan is one of the least developed areas in the world and many of its people have have long complained of mistreatment at the hands of the Khartoum government.

The BBC's James Copnall, in Khartoum, says independence for the South now seems inevitable.

Our correspondent adds that though the South Sudanese are celebrating that their dream of having their own country is a massive step closer there are still issues to resolved - including underdevelopment and inter-ethnic conflict.

Tough negotiations remain on how to divide up economic resources between north and south - which has the bulk of oil, he adds.

Sudan: A country divided
Satellite image showing geography of Sudan, source: Nasa

The great divide across Sudan is visible even from space, as this Nasa satellite image shows. The northern states are a blanket of desert, broken only by the fertile Nile corridor. Southern Sudan is covered by green swathes of grassland, swamps and tropical forest.

More on This Story

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BOLIVIA PODRÍA DENUNCIAR CONVENCIÓN DE 1961

La Paz, 31 ene (ABI).- Para lograr el respeto del uso tradicional y cultural de la hoja de coca, "Bolivia busca mecanismos y líneas de acción que podrían llevar hasta la denuncia de la Convención de 1961 de la Organización de las Naciones Unidas (ONU)", manifestó el lunes el presidente Evo Morales Ayma.

En un encuentro con los jefes de las misiones diplomáticas acreditadas en Bolivia que le presentaron el saludo protocolar anual, Morales se refirió a la enmienda enviada a la ONU para lograr la despenalización del masticado o "acullicu" de la hoja de coca.

Esta práctica cultural ha sido penalizada por la ONU e inclusive la hoja de coca fue incluida en la lista de estupefacientes de la mencionada Convención.

El Jefe Estado lamentó que "por falta de información, en algunas naciones todavía se confunda la hoja de coca con la cocaína, a los productores de este cultivo con narcotraficantes y a las poblaciones que usan la coca en su estado natural como dependientes".

Mencionó la existencia de estudios realizados inclusive por universidades de Estados Unidos que establecieron que la hoja de coca es un alimento y hasta sirve para fines medicinales y no es una droga.

El canciller David Choquehuanca convocó la pasada semana a dar a conocer la investigación realizada por la Organización Mundial de la Salud (OMS) sobre la hoja de coca en 1998 que establece que este cultivo cuenta con propiedades alimenticias y medicinales.

Choquehuanca expresó que es inexplicable que la OMS no haya hecho público el estudio para que la comunidad mundial conozca la realidad de la coca.

En la reunión con las representaciones de países amigos, el presidente boliviano manifestó el lunes que, por razones políticas, algunas naciones se niegan a aceptar esa realidad y pretenden imponer el mantenimiento la cláusula de penalización de la hoja de coca.

"Es una enorme contradicción que, por ejemplo, Estados Unidos anuncie que respeta las tradiciones culturales de Bolivia con relación a la coca, pero no apoye la enmienda de despenalización internacional del masticado del producto, pese a la existencia de suficientes estudios que demuestran que no daña a la salud humana".

Indicó que algunas naciones ya han planteado la necesidad de que si no es apoyada la enmienda presentada por Bolivia, el Consejo Económico y Social (ECOSOC) de la ONU convoque a una Conferencia Mundial en la se debata la totalidad de la Convención de 1961.

"Es un derecho de los Estados miembros de la ONU denunciar la Convención de 1961", anotó el Primer Mandatario.

Aclaró que la demanda boliviana tiene como objetivo despenalizar el masticado de la hoja de coca porque es una práctica cultural y tradicional de los pueblos andinos, como Perú, Ecuador y Colombia, además de otros como Chile y Argentina.

Organizaciones sociales de Bolivia han iniciado el lunes vigilias en espera de la determinación de la ONU, una vez que vence el plazo dado a sus naciones integrantes para que manifiesten su apoyo o no a la autorización del masticado de coca.

Uno de los piquetes de ese movimiento social se ha asentado frente a la sede de la embajada de Estados Unidos en La Paz.

De acuerdo con los informes, bastará que solamente uno de los 190 miembros de la ONU no respalde la enmienda de Bolivia para que se mantenga en la Convención.

Sin embargo ese hecho puede dar lugar a la convocatoria de una Conferencia que debata a profundidad la mencionada Convención.

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Intel hit with chipset design flaw in Sandy Bridge rollout | ZDNet

Intel hit with chipset design flaw in Sandy Bridge rollout

By Larry Dignan | January 31, 2011, 7:18am PST

Summary

If you just purchased a system powered by Intel’s Core i5 or i7 chipset, get ready for a return or repair. Intel has a chipset issue that affects the launch of Sandy Bridge.

Blogger Info

Larry Dignan

Biography

Larry Dignan

Larry Dignan

Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of ZDNet and SmartPlanet as well as Editorial Director of ZDNet's sister site TechRepublic. He was most recently Executive Editor of News and Blogs at ZDNet. Prior to that he was executive news editor at eWeek and news editor at Baseline. He also served as the East Coast news editor and finance editor at CNET News.com. Larry has covered the technology and financial services industry since 1995, publishing articles in WallStreetWeek.com, Inter@ctive Week, The New York Times, and Financial Planning magazine. He's a graduate of the Columbia School of Journalism and the University of Delaware.

For daily updates, follow Larry on Twitter.

Sam Diaz

Biography

Sam Diaz

Sam Diaz

Sam Diaz is a senior editor at ZDNet. He has been a technology and business blogger, reporter and editor at the Washington Post, San Jose Mercury News and Fresno Bee for more than 18 years. He's a member of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and a graduate of California State University, Fresno.

Andrew Nusca

Biography

Andrew Nusca

Andrew Nusca

Associate Editor

Andrew J. Nusca is an associate editor for ZDNet and SmartPlanet. As a journalist based in New York City, he has written for Popular Mechanics and Men's Vogue and his byline has appeared in New York magazine, The Huffington Post, New York Daily News, Editor & Publisher, New York Press and many others. He also writes The Editorialiste, a media criticism blog.

He is a New York University graduate and former news editor and columnist of the Washington Square News. He is a graduate of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He has been named "Howard Kurtz, Jr." by film critic John Lichman despite having no relation to him. A native of Philadelphia, he lives in New York with his fiancee and his cat, Spats.

Follow him on Twitter.

Intel said Monday that it discovered a design flaw in a chipset circuit and has “implemented a silicon fix.” The chip giant also said it will work with PC makers to handle returns and repairs.

Specifically, Intel found a design problem in a support chip, the Intel 6 Series, which is code-named Cougar Point. In a nutshell, chipsets with Serial-ATA ports could degrade over time and hurt the performance of hard drives and DVD drives.

This potentially faulty chipset was used in Intel’s latest Core processors, or Sandy Bridge.

In a statement, Intel said:

Intel has stopped shipment of the affected support chip from its factories. Intel has corrected the design issue, and has begun manufacturing a new version of the support chip which will resolve the issue. The Sandy Bridge microprocessor is unaffected and no other products are affected by this issue.

The company said it will deliver an updated version of the chipset in late February with full volume in April. Intel added that it will work with PC makers to handle returns of the chipset and support motherboard replacements.

At least Intel caught the issue early. The faulty support chip has only been shipping since Jan. 9. Customers impacted will be those that bought second-generation Core i5 and Core i7 systems.

This recall will also lead to a financial hit relative to previous expectations. For the first quarter, Intel said the chipset problem will cut revenue by $300 million as it “discontinues production of the current version of the chipset and begins manufacturing the new version.” The total cost to repair and replace systems will be about $700 million.

Intel added that the issue, which technically occurred in the fourth quarter, will cut previously reported margins to 63.5 percent, down from a reported 67.5 percent. Intel will also take a first quarter charge that will cut margins by 2 percent. Revenue projections for 2011 aren’t changed.

Since Intel was updating its outlook, the company said it also closed the purchase of Infineon, which will be known as the Intel Mobile Communications Group. The McAfee deal will close by the end of the first quarter.

Here’s Intel’s outlook, which excludes McAfee at this point:

  • For the first quarter, Intel expects revenue to be $11.7 billion, give or take $400 million. The previous outlook was $11.5 billion, give or take $400 million. Gross margins will be about 61 percent, down from the previous outlook of 64 percent.
  • The company is projecting revenue growth in the “mid-to high teens” compared to its previous estimate of 10 percent. For 2011, gross margins will be 63 percent compared to the previous outlook of 65 percent.
  • For 2011, R&D spending will be $8.2 billion, up from a previous outlook of $7.3 billion.

Bottom line: Intel takes a hit on the chipset design flaw, but things could have been much worse.

Related:

Kick off your day with ZDNet's daily e-mail newsletter. It's the freshest tech news and opinion, served hot. Get it.

Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of ZDNet and SmartPlanet as well as Editorial Director of ZDNet's sister site TechRepublic.

Disclosure

Larry Dignan

Larry Dignan has nothing to disclose. He doesn’t hold investments in the technology companies he covers.

Biography

Larry Dignan

Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of ZDNet and SmartPlanet as well as Editorial Director of ZDNet's sister site TechRepublic. He was most recently Executive Editor of News and Blogs at ZDNet. Prior to that he was executive news editor at eWeek and news editor at Baseline. He also served as the East Coast news editor and finance editor at CNET News.com. Larry has covered the technology and financial services industry since 1995, publishing articles in WallStreetWeek.com, Inter@ctive Week, The New York Times, and Financial Planning magazine. He's a graduate of the Columbia School of Journalism and the University of Delaware.

For daily updates, follow Larry on Twitter.

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Nuance Advances Voice Biometrics Portfolio through Launch of VocalPassword and FreeSpeech

Nuance Advances Voice Biometrics Portfolio through Launch of VocalPassword and FreeSpeech

http://persay.com/news-content.asp?pageId=news&newsId=01_27_2011#

 

First New Voice Biometrics Offerings based on the Powerful Combination of Nuance and PerSay Multi-Channel Verification Solutions

BURLINGTON, MA, January 27, 2011 - Nuance Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: NUAN) today announced Version 7.0 of Nuance VocalPassword™ and Nuance FreeSpeech™, which provide underlying technology for the world’s largest customer-facing voice biometrics deployments. These solutions handle millions of voiceprints and help address the security demands of leading financial institutions, telecom service providers, healthcare providers, enterprises, and law enforcement and government agencies.

Nuance’s enhanced voice biometrics portfolio draws upon the innovation and technology leadership ofPerSay, a voice biometric company that Nuance acquired in 2010. The combination has accelerated innovation and the benefits that customers can achieve from deploying voice biometric solutions, including customer identification and verification across contact center, mobile devices and internet application environments. Further, these voice biometric solutions help businesses address critical security requirements such as risk management, regulatory compliance, and fraud and identify theft.

Nuance’s VocalPassword targets automated remote verification based on an individual’s voice, while Nuance FreeSpeech performs verification and fraud detection in the background of conversations between callers and agents in the contact center.

“Enterprises have long been interested in the promise of voice biometrics to improve security and customer satisfaction,” said Ryan Joe, associate analyst at Ovum Research. “By acquiring PerSay, Nuance has gained significant technology assets, bolstering its own capabilities to deliver solutions that ensure a personalized and secure user experience.”

“At Bank Leumi, safeguarding our customers from fraud and providing a positive customer experience is of number one importance to us,” added Zahi Ovdat, head of contact centers project administration, Bank Leumi. “Through the new capabilities delivered in VocalPassword 7.0, we will be able to provide enhanced accuracy and secure all our customer interactions via multi-factor authentication.”

“The combination of Nuance and PerSay is exciting for us, as we are now able to deliver the next generation of secure voice biometrics solutions, the first of many to the market,” stated Dan Faulkner, vice president of product management & marketing, Nuance Communications. “Integrating the new versions of VocalPassword and FreeSpeech into the Nuance portfolio underscores our commitment to help businesses ensure secure, convenient interactions and transactions in the global commerce and customer service marketplace.”

Nuance VocalPassword employs a multi-engine capability that will enable the support of the legacy verification product Nuance Verifier 4, and will enable existing customers to seamlessly migrate their applications to the new product line.

Nuance’s voice biometrics platform delivers an array of new capabilities:

  • Provides text-dependent, text-independent, and text-prompted engines to deliver higher accuracy and flexibility.
  • Prevents identity theft via new fraud detection and its ability to mitigate interception and vhishing (voice phishing).
  • Delivers advanced tools for configuration and setup, system monitoring, and other day-to-day activities such as end-user support.
  • Supports integrated security, with role-based authorization now containing an improved encryption mechanism that supports custom (customer-provided) encryption - for increased security.
  • Supports full multi-tenancy, enabling a single system to support multiple voice biometrics applications using different algorithmic engines and configuration setting.
  • New installation kit supports multi-server, multi-site and high-availability deployments, and a flexible licensing mechanism.
For more information: http://enterprise.nuance.com/voice-biometrics

About Nuance Communications
Nuance is a leading provider of speech, imaging and customer interaction solutions for businesses and consumers around the world. Its technologies, applications and services make the user experience more compelling by transforming the way people interact with information and how they create, share and use documents. Every day, millions of users and thousands of businesses experience Nuance’s proven applications and professional services. For more information, please visit www.nuance.com.

Nuance and the Nuance logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Nuance Communications, Inc. or its subsidiaries in the United States of America and/or other countries. All other company names or product names may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

The statements in this press release relating to future plans, events or services, are forward-looking statements which are subject to specific risks and uncertainties. There are a number of factors which could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those indicated in such forward looking statements, including fluctuations in demand for the our products and services. The reader is warned not to rely on these forward-looking statements without reservation, since these are simply reflections of the current situation. Nuance disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements as a result of developments occurring after the date of this document.

 

Contacts:

Nuance Communications
Andrea Mocherman
Tel: (206) 552-2348
E-mail: andrea.mocherman@nuance.com 

GRC for Nuance Communications
Lora Friedrichsen
Tel: (949) 608-0276
E-mail: nuancecare@globalresultspr.com 

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The missing guide to Twitter: Unorthodox ideas for exceptional people like you! | ZDNet

The missing guide to Twitter: Unorthodox ideas for exceptional people like you!

By Stephen Chapman | January 28, 2011, 10:42am PST

Summary

Sure, you’ve used Twitter… but have you used it like THIS?

Blogger Info

Stephen Chapman

Biography

Stephen Chapman

Stephen Chapman
Stephen Chapman has cut his teeth on blogging and various aspects of Internet marketing for a number of years now through freelance, consulting, and agency work. A proponent for -- and implementer of -- white hat SEO, Stephen has grown tired of not personally combating the negative stigmas often associated with SEO. Through ZDNet, Stephen aims to dispel the myths, educate the masses, and become one more positive voice for real SEO. When not focusing on SEO, Stephen happily spreads himself thin between blogging about Microsoft, writing music, photography, playing Quake Live, and much more.

As you may or may not know, Twitter is the bees knees of social media these days (where Facebook may be considered the rest of the bee). As such, if you’re not on Twitter taking advantage of the opportunities awaiting you to garner followers, traffic, feedback, et al, you are seriously missing the boat — or as the case may more appropriately be — the little blue bird. The Internet is chock-full of ways to use Twitter in the typical sense of “have tweets, will follow,” but I’m not here right now to tell you things you probably already know or will run across in every other Twitter guide out there. Likewise, I’m not here to sell you a dream. It’s easy to tell people all the ways Twitter will help them gain traffic when you have 20,000+ followers, but the truth is, those methods don’t work at a 1:1 ratio. In some cases, it’s not even close.

For instance, if you sell or a client sells boat anchors, then you’re going to have to come up with some pretty darn impressive link bait to garner interest in that product outside of the niche. Now, read that again. The fact that you have to create something other than, “hey, check out these boat anchors you can buy” to get a significant number of eyeballs should be the revelation. No matter how much you Tweet or scream, “hey, check out these boat anchors you can buy,” your just not going to get anyone’s attention who doesn’t have an immediate need for a boat anchor. Perhaps “boat anchors” isn’t the best example, but I hope you understand the point I’m trying to convey here.

With that in mind, here are some ideas for your consideration. I’ve formulated these ideas from personal experiences and observations. Once again, I’m not here to sell you a dream or make it seem like these are the be-all and end-all Twitter tips that will work for everyone. As such, use what seems viable for you or your client(s)! In no particular order of importance:

Total number of followers: A near-useless metric

Have you ever seen a Twitter account where someone has THOUSANDS of followers? Let me go ahead and clarify for you now that the total number of followers a person has is — on average — only good for serving one purpose: To gather an overall picture of how popular they are. If someone has 10,000 followers and up, they’re probably pretty popular… but how many of those followers are genuine? How many are spam accounts? How many are Twitter feeds that simply retweet information? How many of them are even active on Twitter? How many of them will see all of the content that person tweets, on average? The list goes on and on.

For example, let’s say that out of 10,000 followers, only 7,000 aren’t spam of some sort. Out of those, 500 are feeds that simply retweet everything from those they follow. Of the 6,500 left, only 3,500 are truly active Twitter users. Lastly, let’s assume only 1,500 of those people care enough to check that person’s direct feed for everything they tweet. Of those 1,500 people, what’s the actual reach per tweet? It’s subjective. Just because you gain a dedicated follower doesn’t mean they’re going to click on everything you tweet!

Now, bear in mind that this is a fictitious example and the numbers I pulled out of thin air don’t apply to every person who has thousands of followers. My main point here is that there is MUCH more than meets the eye where the total number of Twitter followers is concerned. Yes, a person with more followers probably has more reach to more actual people, but quality of content, niche/market, quality of followers, time of tweet, etc. all play a role in the subjectivity of the true value of the totality of Twitter followers. Don’t worry, though! As grim of a picture as it seems I might be painting, I’m merely creating awareness. Sometimes, finding that person with 1000 followers instead of 100,000 may actually bring better dividends your way, so keep that in mind with the points to follow. :)

Their followers can be your followers, too.

Basically, the idea here is to take the time to seek out influential Twitter users/accounts that tweet about content similar to yours. If you make them aware of your content and they feel it’s a benefit to their followers, there’s a good chance that they will retweet your stuff! (BTW, “stuff” is my word-of-the-day as Mr. Professional ZDNet SEO Blogger-Guy ;) ). Even if it’s not the page you initially tweet them to make them aware of you/your content, then perhaps future articles, if they start following you. After all, your content is potentially providing their followers with value which — in turn — helps maintain the value of that user’s Twitter stream. While you may gain a number of followers along the way, each time you can get someone else to retweet your content, their followers are essentially your followers for the span of each retweet! So take the time to find the most influential people you can in your niche/market and clue them in! Of additional note is that it may be worth your time in some cases to go through the “following” list of those who you find to be the most influential.

Use Twitter to get Google’s attention.

Put simply, tweet content you want Google to see and index. If you ask people “please RT” (which means “please retweet”), every additional tweet that follows will help validate your content in the eyes of Google since they pay attention to and index tweets. Personally, I like to do this not to get content to rank, but simply to help get content indexed and noticed in the first place! From there, you can work on boosting your page’s rank through various link-building campaigns. Oh, and as for Bing, they index snapshots of users’ Twitter feeds but they don’t currently index tweets themselves — at least, not from what I’ve seen thus far. It’s worth it to get attention anywhere you can get it, but Google’s got the most bang for your buck here (as with many other things as well, of course).

Page 2: Standing out, Parodies, and More »

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Stephen Chapman has been involved with SEO for over 5 years and has grown tired of the popularized negative stigma that surrounds it. He has a very ambitious goal in mind: To make SEO much more tangible and accessible to everyone via ZDNet through defining SEO principles, simplifying SEO concepts, and educating the masses.

Disclosure

Stephen Chapman

Stephen Chapman is a freelance writer and SEO consultant. All work that Stephen does for ZDNet is on a contractual basis. With the exception of content populating the SEO Whistleblower blog and any off-page efforts he implements to promote SEO Whistleblower, Stephen does not currently perform SEO duties for ZDNet or any other CBSi affiliate.

It is left to Stephen's discretion whether or not to accept assignments from prospective clientele who discover him through SEO Whistleblower. Such endeavors have no association with ZDNet and -- unless otherwise agreed upon -- are kept separate and private in the interest of all parties involved. You may freely contact him for consulting, training, and/or public speaking inquiries.

Stephen does not sell links or create posts based on bribes (unless you're willing to pay him an extravagant amount of money -- just kidding). If you have a product you would like to be considered for a review, you can contact Stephen. A fully-functional version of the product is required solely for the intention of testing its full capabilities. Acceptance is not a guarantee of a review. Any review written based on preemptive measures will be noted as such within the review.

Lastly, while Stephen may accept complimentary passes, waived fees, payment, and/or covered travel costs to industry-related events (conferences, expos, etc.) as an attendee or a speaker, acceptance of such offers is not considered payment for -- or exclusive guarantee of -- any particular blog coverage of the event attended.

Biography

Stephen Chapman

Stephen Chapman has cut his teeth on blogging and various aspects of Internet marketing for a number of years now through freelance, consulting, and agency work. A proponent for -- and implementer of -- white hat SEO, Stephen has grown tired of not personally combating the negative stigmas often associated with SEO. Through ZDNet, Stephen aims to dispel the myths, educate the masses, and become one more positive voice for real SEO. When not focusing on SEO, Stephen happily spreads himself thin between blogging about Microsoft, writing music, photography, playing Quake Live, and much more.

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