The Tao of Twitter by @MarkWSchaefer [My Thoughts]

📕 |

August 4, 2011

So I recently bought my very first book from Amazon (yes, I bought a book) entitled The Tao of Twitter by a good buddy of mine, Mark (@MarkWSchaefer) for $8.99.

I’ve been following Mark on Twitter and on his {grow} blog community for a while now and I must say he is in excellent teacher when it comes to anything business using social media. If you’ve been following his blog, you’ll be amazed at what you are about to find in this book – The Tao of Twitter.

What is it all About?

Twitter for both beginners and advanced users. The first page itself captured the essence and the power of Twitter. If you’re one of those that have been skeptical about Twitter, finding it irrelevant or thinking it is just another social ranting zone, this book will change your life.

Mark, very much like myself started Twitter with much skepticism. In the Tao of Twitter, Mark shared his story on how he first got onto Twitter and how that eventually led into a network of networks, opening opportunities that are not only for him, but for his followers.

If you’re new to Twitter, this book is a simple yet powerful guide for you to get started. It contains everything from the language / terms used, the meaning of various symbols (e.g. @ or # or RT) to how you can start building your own followers and make Twitter interesting for you and your business.

If you’re a seasoned / advanced user of Twitter, you’ll be surprised at the amount of ideas you can get – from building targeted followers, maintaining them, the art of listening, how to maximize your tweets, and a whole list of things to use your Twitter lists effectively.

Two Things That Jumped out of The Book for Me

The 20 minute challenge – how to prioritize my time on this highly addictive platform and make the most out of it.

Building influence on Twitter – how to build quality followers through quantity.

My Favorite Quotes

“Nothing says I love you like a retweet now and then.”

“What do I do after inheriting 6000 followers? – Start over.”

“Business Benefits = Targeted Connections + Meaningful Content + Authentic Helpfulness”

My Final Take on The Tao of Twitter

The Tao of Twitter is definitely a great ~~read~~ investment, worth every cent of $8.99 and more! In fact, I paid an additional $9.98 for it to be shipped to me in Malaysia, a total of $18.97 which comes up to about RM60 but it was worth the money. My one and only disappointment with the book that it only has about 90 pages in total and I was expecting to spend more time reading it!

My 1000 Awesome Things: Elevator Opens Immediately When Pushed [2/1000]

📕 |

July 10, 2011

| Jan Wong

In case you’re wondering – this site also reveals part of my happenings in life, injecting a little bit more flavour to the site as a whole; something lighter than the usual information dosage, especially for the weekend :)

Waiting for the elevator is always a pain – especially when you’re rushing for time and running up the stairs to the 20th floor is a test of endurance. Have you walked over to the elevator, pushed the button and it opens immediately? That happened to me twice this week!

Double awesome!

1000 Awesome Things is initiated by Neil Pasricha and I’m simply sharing my own 1000 awesome things to remind myself of how awesome life can be if we pay attention to the small yet awesome things in life.
What is that awesome thing that happened in your life today?

My 1000 Awesome Things: Waking Up Before the Alarm Goes Off [1/1000]

📕 |

July 3, 2011

| Jan Wong

In case you’re wondering – this site also reveals part of my happenings in life, injecting a little bit more flavour to the site as a whole; something lighter than the usual information dosage, especially for the weekend :)

Don’t you hate those times when your alarm goes off at just about the time you were about to get some real rest?

On this day you opened your eyes and you’re refreshed. You took a peek at the clock to find that you’re minutes away before the alarm goes off. You reach out to turn it off and jump out of your bed to embrace another brand new day!

Waking up feeling tired to the alarm? Dreadful.

Waking up refreshed before the alarm goes off? Awesome!

My 100th Post and a 1000 Awesome Things

📕 |

June 26, 2011

| Jan Wong

Thank you for your support!

This blog is about 10 months old now and this is my 100th post! It has been quite a journey I must say as it definitely wasn’t easy keeping it up all these while due to work and project commitments but I’ve never regretted in any way and I’m not saying that because I’m getting tons of readers daily (in which I don’t get many), but for allowing me to meet great people such as yourself that is currently reading this post.

What about the 1000 Awesome Things?

I came across this book called the 1000 Awesome Things and found it very cool and inspiring. Nothing fancy, but it talks about all the positive, little and simple things in life that happens everyday. Reading the book somehow gives this great feeling that makes you realize that life IS filled with awesome things – it’s just that we don’t realize it.

One of my favorites written by the author, Neil Pasricha is how awesome it is to have the elevator doors open the moment you’ve pressed it. Does that somewhat resonate with you?

Having said that, I’ve decided to attempt putting down my own 1000 awesome things on a weekly basis just to keep track of the awesome little things in life and to hopefully remind you (and hear) of the awesome things in yours, too – just a tiny break away from the usual topics I write on.

Let me know what you think :)

How to: Be Successful in Business? Back to Basics

📕 |

May 8, 2011

| Jan Wong

Recently I have been invited to the Startup Weekend Malaysia to experience the program and mingle around with people with great ideas. If you’re wondering, the Startup Weekend is a global initiative to assist aspiring (serious) entrepreneurs in making their first step to realize their business ideas. Each participant is given the opportunity to pitch their ideas to the room in 1-minute and the top 10 ideas (based on votes) will be selected and that’s where the real work begins – from forming teams, brainstorming, market research to prototype development.

The beauty of this program? Everyone leaves with a developed business idea. Cool, huh?

As I was listening to the individual pitches, observing and talking to these entrepreneurs, it made me once again realize the secret ingredient for success – whether it is in business, social media campaigns or even in life – and they really are the basics, nothing fancy or extraordinary.

One of the plenary sessions at the Startup Weekend Malaysia

Here are the 7 basic attributes to be successful:

#1: Dream

Every participant that came to the program had a dream – an idea, a business plan waiting to be fulfilled. They’ve probably been sleeping on it ever since it popped into their heads and they are just waiting for the opportunity to get it started.

What About You?: Do you have a dream? Do not be afraid to dream. Ideas only stop coming because you allowed it to. A rule – don’t set boundaries to your dream. Dream big!

#2: Passion

Even though the participants were only given 1-minute to pitch, their passion and enthusiasm is unmistakable. They are eager to see their business idea come to live and they obviously do not care if the rest thinks it is a silly / inviable idea. It’s theirs and they are proud that they own it.

What About You?: Do you have an idea but am afraid of what others might think? Stop yourself from thinking that way and let your passion take over. Sometimes, a silly idea turns great through passion – simply because you never stopped believing.

#3: Action

Passion is put to test when the participants are required to form teams to actually work on their ideas. This is where the participants had to really do something about it – to make the idea work, beyond just talking and sharing.

What About You?: Maybe it is time for you to take action and put that passion of yours to good use. Sitting on it won’t do any good. Action makes things happen.

Further reading: Passion without Action is dead!

#4: Determination

Let’s take a step back – even before the participants had to form teams, they had to gather votes from everyone present as only 10 ideas with the highest votes will be given the opportunity to form teams to drive the idea further. I particularly remember this participant, Aaron, that came up to me saying “Sir, will you give me an opportunity to share my idea with you?”. His idea wasn’t extraordinary but his passion and determination (and preliminary idea research) won my vote.

What About You?: How determined are you to make your idea a reality? Remember, it is always easier to give up but being successful in most cases, is like running a marathon. It’s a long journey but the reward is great.

#5: Team Work

It is interesting to see how the teams were formed at the Startup Weekend. Almost every team were looking for a developer, marketer and finance person simply because they understood that they cannot do it alone.

What About You?: No man is an island. You’ll definitely need a team to make up for your weaknesses. Get your team together and you’ll find that that’s the best decision you’ve ever made! It also helps you focus on what you need to do – managing and keeping the vision intact.

#6: Focus

From time to time again the participants were reminded to build a MVP – Most Viable Product, forgoing fancy features and functions and focusing on the must-haves, the actual benefits that the consumer wants.

What About You?: It is easy to get caught up with the cool features and add-ons of your plans but if you do not have anything to begin with, your ideas are nothing to begin with. Focus on getting the core benefits right THEN the add-ons. Remember, build a MVP!

Further reading: The 2 Secret Ingredients for a Successful Product

#7: Anticipation

People say that when Apple is building the very first iPhone, they already have the iPhone 4 and the iPad in mind, just waiting for the right time to roll them out. Build with the future in mind! Anticipate opportunities for expansion and problems that may occur.

What About You?: It is all about preparation. A scalable product will definitely have a larger potential and you may just capture the attention of investors are venture capitalists. Always be on your toes – you’ll never know when you’ll need to sprint forward ;)

Do you remember the time when you were just starting out? What drove / motivated you? I would love to hear your experience :)

Introducing the BufferApp – Social Media Done Right

📕 |

April 23, 2011

| Jan Wong

Just about a week ago I talked about the various 3rd party applications I use to enhance my Twitter experience and if you remember, BufferApp is one of them. Despite it’s awesome functionalities (especially after the recent update which I’ll share with you a little further), what makes BufferApp awesome is beyond that. It actually lies in how the founders and creators of BufferApp actually ‘humanize’ the application, and here are 2 simple reasons why I say so:

#1: They LISTEN

Truth be told, I’m even more impressed with the people behind the product than the product itself. Both @LeoWid and @joelg87 are amazing people. They are on a consistent look out for ideas, listening to what each and every user has to say about BufferApp to improve its usability. Crowd sourcing – that is what they are doing. And they are doing it right!

This also reminds me that many projects / products fail because someone tried to pack too much into it at one go – resulting in an overly complicated product or an extended timeline to which sometimes lead to no ending. What they did is to launch a simple and lightweight product that works, THEN rollout updates that caters to the users.

What do they get out of it? They save time, and they can get the functions right.

What do we get out of it? A product that we love!

#2: They ENGAGE

The worst thing that can happen is to drop someone a DM or @mention and you get a reply days after (or never!). As for BufferApp, you can be assured that they will respond to you – whether it is a simple ‘hello’, a complain or a complement, you can expect a reply. Don’t believe me? Put them to the test and experience for yourself!

Simple as it sounds, the above is really the essence of being social and businesses should realize that social networks are not a place to rack up the fan / follower count and blast them with sales pitches.

Now, the BufferApp

You simply tell Buffer your schedule... once!

Okay, enough about the great people behind the product – now the product itself. I started using this nifty tool a few weeks back and what really caught my attention is the ability to automatically schedule tweets periodically but yet have so much control over the tweets. What I really meant is that you do not need to schedule every individual tweet manually anymore, unlike TweetDeck, HootSuite or etc.

What makes Buffer different is that it also comes with optional add-ons (or goodies): a Google Chrome, Safari or Firefox browser extension.

This means that you can even schedule your updates OUTSIDE of BufferApp.com by simply clicking on the Buffer extension on your browser window to reveal…

this!

You can opt to “Tweet Now” where you share the content immediately or “Add to Buffer” where the content will be added to your queue of updates on Buffer. Did I also not mention the “Shorten Links” feature? These 3 are perhaps the most sought after functions when it comes to sharing a Tweet (at least for me).

Buffer did not forget about the mobile users, too! Instead of developing an individual mobile application to suit all existing smart phones, they took a step forward (or backward) to come up with a very simplistic yet smart way of making Buffer happen for a larger population – through email. Yes, all you need to do is to share your content via email on your mobile and send it to: [email protected] where the subject is your tweet, and the body is your link – and it will automatically be added unto your Buffer queue.

Tweet Suggestions - plenty of them!

Now comes my all-time favorite function – “Suggest me a Tweet” where Buffer generates a random tweet for you! I spend quite a bit of time looking through all the tweets at times just to see what will I get. Quotes by the famous, articles by bloggers and even jokes – you can get them all in a click.

That’s not all!

I find it really fascinating to see how Leo and Joel is able to roll out updates almost every single week at such a rapid pace – something many projects (especially startups) aren’t able to do. Their dedication says it all and they are making it happen beyond a great social product – but being social themselves.

My Description of Buffer in 140 Characters

If you’re interested in looking up what are all the other functions of Buffer (analytics, bit.ly integration, button for blogs and more), click here to see a full list of them (and be prepared for more to come)!

Don’t believe what I have to say about Buffer? See what others have to say over here!

important note: this article is not by any chance a paid review, advertorial or request by anyone representing BufferApp and / or its founders and it is solely written on my experience with @LeoWid and @BufferApp itself.

Guest Blogging Contest @BlogEngage

📕 |

April 19, 2011

| Jan Wong

I must begin by saying that Blog Engage is a crazily active blogging community that truly lives up to it’s name – Blog ENGAGE. Founded by @bbrian017, Blog Engage has grown tremendously since I was a member just a couple of months back. I’ve to admit that I was initially a little skeptical on how these blogging communities can work as I’ve been to many in the past that well, became a “link dumpster” where bloggers simply dump their links in there and that’s about it.

What’s unique about Blog Engage is that it has a community of bloggers that not only produce quality content, but bloggers that are readers, supporters, idea sharers and great friends. If this doesn’t interest you yet, Blog Engage also allows you to share your articles and the founder (Brian) himself retweets them to his 2,800+ followers – how awesome is that?

Blog Engage has also recently launched its 2nd guest blogging contest to win up to USD500 and it is open to all Blog Engage members! If you’re interested, it started on April the 16th and will end by 31st May 2011 and if your guest post picks up well, you may even win the 1000 USD for the best guest blogger of 2011 contest. Remember what I said about Blog Engage being crazily active? Brian never stops at creating interaction through various activities and contests are just one of them.

As you may have guessed by now, I’ll be participating in the contest too so do stay updated on my upcoming guest post on Blog Engage! Do let me know if you’re intending to participate too so that I can drop by and support your article :)

Click here to find out more about the contest at Blog Engage!

p.s. you do not want to miss this opportunity to be a part of this blog community!

Oh, by the way, do check out some of the sponsors’ sites for the contest. There are many of them that writes awesome articles from blogging, making money online, social media, marketing, branding and more!

Ana Hoffman from Internet Marketing Tools
Kimberly Castleberry from WordPress and Facebook Marketing
Justin Germino from justingermino.com
Amogh from The Funky Chunk
Don Power from sproutsocial.com
Kavita from SFIhomebizz.com
Latief from Simple Blogging Tips
Jane Sheeba from Blogging Tips
Sheila Atwood from newbielifeline
Matt Conlon from Matt Conlon.com
Aswani from aksindiblog.com
Kharim from Free Blogging Tips
A. Tatum from maddencorner
Tuan from Technology News
Omer Greenwald from webtechwis
Aybi from social media for business
janwong from janwong.my
Robert Bravery from integralwebsolutions
RowenaBolo from AsianMarketer
Ileane from BasicBlogTips.com
David Leonhardt from SEO consultant
tonyknuckles from 113tidbits
Cosmin Stefan from themilliontwister
Joyce Oladipo from joyceoladipo
Jon from Essex Portal
Jon from jonalford
Mavis Nong from attractionmarketingonline
Dahlia Valentine from That Internet Marketing Thing
Jan Rossi from getyoustartedemarketing
Janet from The Natural Networker
Dennis Edell from Direct Sales Marketing
Vijayraj Reddy from Make Money Online
Alex from Jocuri from jocurile
Tony Hastings from thetop10blog
Neeraj Rawat from expertsgalaxy
Kristi from Blog Marketing
Mani Viswanathan from DailyBlogging
Alex from make money with amazon
Estava Morioka from estavamorioka
Shiva from Webmaster Tips
Robert Dempsey from Internet Marketing Strategies
kbharath from Techntricksonline
Steve from Lifestyle Design
ndreas from Online Advertising
Saket Jajodia from SJbn.Co
Bican Valeriu from smarketools
Wong Chendong aka The Bad Blogger
Nishadha from Make Money Blogging
Dave Grimes II from thesisready
Devesh from Blogging Tips
Matthew from Home Based Internet Businesses
Paul Salmon from Technically Easy
kirapermunian from geekster online
John Paul from Blog Resources
John from Hypertransitory.com
Michael Aulia from CravingTech.com
Daniel Snyder from fireproof safes for data
Deepak from Lead Generation
Nicholas Wind IMer from cashflowduplication
Sarah Lam from writingconsultation
Catarina Alexon from catarinasworld
MtnJimFisher from outsourcing
Peppy from The PeppyWrites Chronicles
Felix Albutra from Blogging Access
Gloson from social media and blogging tips
sajeev kumar menon from sajeevkmenon
Argie Monroy from Live Life More
Andrew Williams from The Billionaire’s Butler
Memoirs of a Single Dad from Memoirs of a Single Dad
Gera from SweetsFoodsBlog
Togrul from Income Streams
Jennifer from emptypockets01
ptaylor98 from ptaylor98.jottit
Doc Sheldon from docsheldon.com
Goran from Black Hat Source
Ninure from Ninure da Hippie’s Blog
Christine from christine.biz
Sarah from templatefaerie
Alison Moore Smith from Affordable Web Design for Small Business
Dave Lucas from dave-lucas.blogspot.com
Sean Supplee from Seansupplee.com
DazzlinDonna from making a living online
Pablo Lara H from pablolarah.cl
Tia Peterson from bizchickblogs.com
Dr. Rus Jeffrey from General Sarge
Sietse from allyouneedislists.com
Blazing Minds from Blazing Minds
Typhoon from make Money Online
Kiesha from WeBlogBetter
Bryan Hollis from News for Bloggers
Harleena Singh from Freelance Writer Blog
Tristan from Blogging tips
Andi from misadventureswithandi.com
Dr. Hansjörg Leichsenring from der-bank-blog.de
Big Cajun Man from canajunfinances.com
Imran from shariffdotorg
Melinda from findingthehumor.com
Martha Giffen from marthagiffen.com
Dani Nir-McGrath from danimcgrath.com
Pit from pureinfotech.com
TS Redmond Mize from Element Content
Raj Agrawal from Upcoming Technology
Ryan Hanley from Albany Insurance
Kev From kevsproreviews.blogspot.com
Dana from Cell Phone Reviews
Michele Welch from new biz blogger
Josh Thompson from Boom Serve
Ryan Biddulph from Home Based Success
Fletcher T. from emailfletcher.blogspot.com
Jimi Jones from Jimi Jones
Dwight from FinanciallyEliteBlog.com

What Twitter Tools Do You Use?

📕 |

April 17, 2011

| Jan Wong

Twitter has grown to be a favorite for many as it allows many to listen, respond and search real time. Statistically, the usage of Twitter among social marketers continues to soar in 2011 and 73% of the companies are looking towards increasing their activities on Twitter in the future.

source: Social Media Examiner

What intrigues me the most is that Twitter is perhaps one of the few social media tools where most users use AWAY from the site itself (Twitter.com), especially prior to the release of #NewTwitter in the recent months. In other words, people are using Twitter via 3^rd party applications such as TweetDeck, Seismic, Echofon, CoTweet and more.

The same goes for me. I never did use Twitter.com but started out with a humble web application on Google Chrome called Chromed Bird. At that time, it served what I needed it to do – to view my timeline, see all the @mentions and DMs I have. It was all that I needed to do, plus the app icon (a bird) changes color (blue to green) when there is an update. I thought that was really cool.

See how the bird changes to green?

As the number of people I follow slowly increased in numbers, I realized that the icon becomes green almost instantly even after looking through the updates seconds ago. Feeds kept coming into my timeline and before I know it, Chromed Bird was always left open. I can’t possibly be looking at the timeline all day. I knew I needed something more powerful than the faithful Chromed Bird.

The exploration begun.

Realizing I can organize my followings into different lists, I found TweetDeck which allows me to view multiple panes at ease – my timeline, @mentions, DMs, lists and even #hashtags at one go! Oh, it also allowed me to schedule my tweet, which is great for me to publish the articles written on this blog periodically…

… until I found TweetDeck failing me very often with repeated errors thus I continued to explore other applications. I jumped back and forth from Seesmic, Hootsuite and Tweetdeck for a couple of weeks and found that I still preferred the desktop version of TweetDeck but I still required a tool that can assist me in schedule at ease.

I used Hootsuite to schedule, but TweetDeck to stay ‘connected’.

The day came when StumbleUpon released su.pr which I thought it was an awesome (and time saving) tool as it allows me to now schedule AND submit my content to StumbleUpon at the same time! The switch was easy – with a huge drawback – the time zone is fixed in # while I am in a GMT +8.00 zone. I stuck with su.pr regardless because it saved me time so I came up with a posting schedule on an Excel spreadsheet that converts all the timing into my time zone as a personal reference. It was a necessary pain (and I never got to schedule past 2 days because the time conversion becomes confusing).

Fast forward to the present – then came along a new gem – the BufferApp. I must say that the BufferApp is the best tool I’ve used thus far. Not only it automatically schedules my tweets to the time I want, it has a nifty Chrome app that allows me to schedule my external content sharing with just a click! This also means that I can now share contents at ease without worrying that I’m flooding the timeline of my followers. Cool, huh? What makes it better is that the co-founder of BufferApp, @LeoWid has been of utmost help throughout my experience with the app. It is no wonder this app is spreading like wildfire all over the Twitterverse in just 2 months!

What is Buffer? from Joel Gascoigne on Vimeo.

So, what do I use now?

Twitter.com – Just to manually look through my followers one by one

TweetDeck – To listen to my followers, lists and #hashtags

Su.pr – For link shortening and instant submission to StumbleUpon

BufferApp – For scheduling tweets and retweeting other quality content

ReSearch.ly – To identify the current conversations and trending topics

What are your Twitter experiences? What are the tools you use? Do share them below :)

p.s. the above only depicts my personal usage with Twitter and does not include the tools I use when managing client accounts on social networks :)

p.p.s. you may want to give BufferApp a try, too! It makes automation a whole lot more human.

Socks for Japan

📕 |

April 1, 2011

| Jan Wong

In case you’re wondering – this site also reveals part of my happenings in life, injecting a little bit more flavour to the site as a whole; something lighter than the usual information dosage, especially for the weekend :)

The recent earthquake in Japan has caused many to lose their homes and loved ones. Although it was astonishing to see how quickly Japan is able to restore a damaged road in just 6 days, it will definitely take more than that to restore the city’s infrastructure, nuclear reactors and most importantly, the people’s hearts.

Many organizations responded to contribute towards the recovery of Japan and amidst all the monetary contributions, this particular cause caught my attention and both Sarah and I just had to respond to – Socks for Japan.

Yes, you heard that right. Instead of donating cash, this organization will be sending socks to Japan.

Why socks?
Several reasons. Many of the survivors ended up barefoot after fleeing in a hurry. In the disaster zone, feet get wet and then extra cold at night, especially in currently freezing weather. People often forget about socks in favor of more obvious items like blankets and jackets.
Receiving a new, fresh pair of socks provides a moment of comfort. If those socks arrive with a caring note as well, it’s very heartening for survivors. If you’ve ever been stuck in a pair of wet, cold socks or no socks at all, perhaps you remember how soothing it felt to pull on a warm, dry pair. Survivors have already requested socks on TV news.
~ Socks for Japan (http://jasonkelly.com/helpjapan/)

I thought to myself that this is really cool – instead of donating cash in which you do not know how it will be spent / distributed back to the people, sending a pair of socks will directly impact one individual. After all, it didn’t require too much of work so… why not?

my socks for japan | janwong.my All that’s required is to get a pair of new socks, compress and insert them into a zip lock bag along with a personal note and it’s ready to go!

If you’re thinking of doing the same, the dude that is organizing this (Jason) can help in translating your message into Japanese which I did, of course. It will not make sense to put a note that they won’t be able to ~~read~~ decipher.

Behold the socks to be sent to Japan!

My hope is that these socks will be able to touch a life, well, 8 lives in total to show that there are people who care about them when they need it the most.

Category Archives: Personal

My 1000 Awesome Things: Elevator Opens Immediately When Pushed [2/1000]

My 1000 Awesome Things: Waking Up Before the Alarm Goes Off [1/1000]