As you can tell, I’ve been spending time on Grooveshark listening to some tunes.  Here are the top 10 songs to Twitter to in no particular order.  Whether you chose to listen, or not, is entirely up to you!

Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep – Middle of the Road

The Birdie Song – The Tweets

I Will Follow – U2

Rockin Robin – The Jackson 5

Three Little Birds – Bob Marley

Freebird – Lynyrd Skynyrd

Twitter Rap -  Kabuto the Python

Waiting for the Worms – Pink Floyd – is there anyone out there?

Friends Will Be Friends - Queen

Follow Me – Shaggy

Its almost the festive season, the sun finally came out in Vancouver today after three weeks of rain and there is lots going on online.  Check out our new media reasons to be cheerful for this month:

Grooveshark – groove to your favorite music while you work.

About Men – a new men’s health site in BC.

Twubs - making sense of Twitter hashtags #.

Twittersheep – see what your followers are Twittering about.

Sprouter – collaborative networking tool.

Slickplan – Create flowcharts and site maps for free.

SiteScan – verify your Google Analytics tracking codes.

Enjoy!

A few months ago the buzz around social media was at its fanatical height. Everyone was talking about the new way to connect.  Why, even Oprah was Twittering.  Fast forward a few short months and now, thanks to media escapades like Balloon Boy, the news about social media is not so rosy.  Just this weekend, the Vancouver Sun ran an article warning that Twitter can be a legal minefield (and they are right).

Is social media losing its lustre as people begin to realize that its not the miracle cure for all business ailments?  Yes – and thank goodness for that.  Is social media about to implode? Not at all. What we are seeing is the natural process all new technologies go through in the market.  The Gartner Group hype cycle best illustrates this.

The hype cycle was created by the Gartner Group as a means to describe the hype and subsequent disappointment that typically happens with the introduction of such technologies.  As you can see from the graph below taken from wikipedia, social media has reached its “Peak of Inflated Expactations” and is quickly beginning the descent into the “Trough of Dissillusionment”.

If you ask me, its about time social media was put into perspective.  Too many companies have jumped on board the social media bandwagon simply because its the in thing without giving much thought to their customers, product, brand or strategy and even worse without thought for the longterm consequences of their social media action.

Its time to realize that social media is a valid marketing tool and not a toy to play with.  To be effective in these forums you have to know what you are doing and go about it strategically.

This week we will be looking at some of the risks of social media and the best practices that help you mitigate these.

More on the Gartner Hype Curve.

Another Friday Funny from Being Five – a boy and his blog.

You know about Twitter, but do you know about Twestivals? Twestivals are a particular kind of event organized through Twitter to support a cause. They’re organized in cities all around the world and last Saturday the Vancouver Twestival (tagged as #yvrtwestival) raised a bunch of money for the BC Children Hospital Foundation.

Though I can’t remember the official numbers,  I can tell you for sure that the Twestival gathered over 100 people at Ceili’s Irish Pub and raised over $2,000 for the BC Children’s Hospital Foundation. I’ll update this post once the numbers are posted on the Twestival Local site or I come across them elsewhere.

Rebecca Bollwitt, commonly known as Miss 604, and Amuse Consulting organized the event. They did a great job.  We were happy to sponsor the event with a Superhero Pass to our SEO for WordPress online course scheduled for tomorrow.  All in all, there were around 40 raffle prizes and three silent auctions.

I arrived at Ceili’s before the scheduled starting time and there were already people enjoying their beers.  I noticed the warm, sunny weather was working against us. People in Vancouver cherish sunny days for outdoor activities, especially with fall around the corner. The turnout was great, but I still think the weather affected the numbers a little.

Twestivals are like great parties. The best part are the mixed crowds. I spoke with people who weren’t familiar with Twitter, to the usual social media suspects. In the end there were lots of networking, food, beers, a few songs by Rachael Chatoor and a few jokes by Rob Cottingham.

Kudos to all the sponsors, in particular the organizers @miss604, @amuseconsulting, the venue Ceili’s Irish Pub and the beer @itsgoodtobehere (Granville Island Brewing)

I’ve posted some photos on Flickr.

This is Jose writing – I hope to see you at the next Twestival!

Twitter is a fabulous tool.  Case in fact: recently I connected with Andrea Baxter from Bratface Marketing on Twitter.  You might know Andrea from her success as part of the Smart Cookies team that shot to fame following their appearance on Oprah.

Andrea joins us to talk about that meteoric success, how Smart Cookies use social media and about her latest venture Bratface Marketing.  Enjoy!

[audio:http://www.out-smarts.com/podcast30.mp3]

Links to blogs sites mentioned:

Marketing Vox

Duct Tape Marketing.com

Start Up Nation

Podcast: Download

In the last post I talked about how to stay safe on Twitter in the face of the wave of spammy, scammy users out there who are looking to sell, or worse, to harm you online and whilst there does seem to be more people using these technologies for malicious reasons, there is also a growing trend in the opposite direction.  In fact I think more people online want to do good that otherwise.

Today I want to talk about the groundswell of philanthropic people  using social media. Social media, by its very nature facilitates social action because it allows people in distinct communities all over the world to connect, to join forces to do good and to have an impact.

Here are some great examples of new media being used to make the world a better place:

• Kiva – this online systems connects people who want to donate with entreprenuers in the developing world who need a leg up.
• Social media is quickly becoming the go to communication channel in the face of adversity.  Witness the wildfires raging in BC this week and the use of Twitter to communicate updates.
• Another example of Twitter being put to good use was the Twestival earlier this year which used Twitter to bring people from all over the world together to raise money for Charity:Water and to spread awareness of the world water crisis.  Twestival is organising another event on Sept 12th.
• Blogathons – a bloggathon is a fundrasing event where bloggers post regularly (usually every half hour over a 24 hour period) with the goal of raising awareness and donations for a specified cause.  This weekend local blogger Miss604 will be hosting Blogathon Vancouver the local Blogathon contingent along with other prominent local bloggers like Hummingbird604.
• Awareness Hubs – these are sights that spread awareness of causes and allow people to congregrate and share examples include, Treehugger (sustainability), Facebook causes like or own Hippo Roller one and Change.org.
• Join a campaign.  This summer Mashable is organising the Summer of Social Good aimed at using Facebook, Twitter, MySpace etc to raise money for charity.
• Looking to volunteer in your community – then try searching a local sites like Volunteer Canada or All for Good that connect volunteers with opportunities.
• Got too much stuff already?  Get the gift you want and contribute to a good cause simultaneously.  Dreambank lets you do this.

Technology is making it easier for people to connect with those interested in similar causes and together they can have more impact than they would individually.  Thanks to social media doing your good deed a day just got easier.  What good have you done today?  Share your stories here please.

These days I can’t log on to Twitter without another money making schemer following me. Now that the social network has gone mainstream it has become a breeding ground for people trying to sell you stuff you don’t want or even worse malicious crooks out to infect your computer.

Here are 11 Twitter tips to keep you safe:

1. Friends and Followers – be selective about who you follow. If someone is following way more people than they have followers then it may be best to avoid them. They could be “Follow Spammers” more interested in gaining exposure than in finding interesting Tweets.

2. Before you follow someone, check out their recent Tweets to see if they are of interest to you before you add them (or of interest at all). Never auto follow.

3. Keep a limit on the number of Twitterers you follow. If you are following too many people then you’re simply going to suffer from information overload and you won’t be able to find the gems so easily.

4. Don’t click on a link from anyone you don’t know or trust. Many Twitterers use TinyURL or similar to shorten URLs (I do) but this camouflages the true source so you don’t know what your clicking on. These could be disguised links to potentially dangerous sites or viral downloads so be careful and keep your anti virus software up to date.

5. Monitor the Tweetosphere and make sure you are aware of anyone who mentions you so that it comes to your attention and you can be ready to counter any adverse Twittering.

6. Read the Twitter blog for updates and information on malware and spam issues.

7. Secure your Twitter name. Get a Twitter profile in your business name before someone else does.

8. Use your common sense when Twittering and remember that most of these announcements can be seen by anyone and everyone. You don’t really have to announce that you’re away from home.

9. If someone you’re following overloads you with spam then use the Twitter block at the right of the side panel to block them and let Twitter know too.

10. Call on the community. If something adverse does happen then make your community aware of it. You will be amazed at the support, advice and action of the collective.

11. Use the “protect my updates” function in your Twitter settings if you only want people you select to view your Tweets.

12. Don’t spam – goes without saying but just because lots of others are doing it doesn’t mean you should get spammy too. Watch your tweets and always try to add value rather than sell.

For more great tips read Gillian Shaw’s article in this weekend’s Vancouver Sun.

Our regular reasons to be cheerful post is long overdue so without further ado, lets get to it. New media discoveries that make us happy this month include:

When Is Good – A nifty little tool to help you schedule meetings.

BackUpMyTweets - back up your Twitter content and make sure it is always there should you need it.  They also have a BackUpMy Blog version.

SquareSpace - if you are a DIYer you will be interested in this innovative tool that lets you build your own website.

Twitoria - a tool that helps you filter your Twitter following and boot those not following you.

Tubemogul – online video analytics and distribution tool.

Cotweet – a Twitterlike alternative to Yammer for business micro blogging.

Our first blog post about Twitter over 2 years ago now was entitled Twitter ye not and today I rue the day I ever tempted fate with that title. Today the Out-Smarts Twitter feed has been suspended and it would appear we’re not the only ones affected.  High profile Twitterers like @marismith were also silenced.

On Twitter Status a recent announcement:

Earlier today, we accidentally suspended a number of accounts.

We regret the human error that led to these mistaken suspensions and we are working to restore the affected accounts—we expect this to be completed in the next several hours.

One additional note: some the accounts suspended were using the third-party site Tweetlater. However, Tweetlater is not to blame for these suspensions nor is it in violation of our Terms.

Tweetlater‘s blog:

Sunday, July 5th, 2009: A lot of people with legitimate Twitter accounts are currently suffering from having their accounts suspended (late Sunday afternoon).

It is not TweetLater’s doing or fault. So, please do not submit a TweetLater support request about it.

We just heard back from Twitter via email, and they said : “Spamcloud hit. We’re working on restoring accounts.”

We just need to be patient. The suspended accounts will be restored.

Update: We have no idea exactly what a “spam cloud” means. It is probably Twitter staff lingo for a massive spam attack.

Update: We have seen during previous spam attacks that Twitter tends to shoot first and ask questions later and indiscriminately lay down carpet bombing when their system comes under a spam attack. A lot of innocent-bystander accounts get massacred in the process, which they then have to restore afterwards. This is most likely what has happened again.

Update: We have no idea how long it will take Twitter to restore the wrongly suspended accounts. We do not have insight into that information.

Twitter needs to get better. People are using this as a business tool.  Account suspension can tarnish a company’s brand, diminish hours of genuine effort in building a valuable Twitter presence, not to mention severing an important communication channel.  This is just another example in a long line of Twitter issues that hamper its productive use from a business perspective – how many times have you had the over capacity message?

This also serves as a great reminder not to put all of your eggs in one basket from a marketing perspective.  Twitter should not be your only social media marketing tool, nor can it be central component until the system becomes more reliable.

At the time of writing the @outsmarts account is still suspended.  We’re not sure how long this will take to resolve.