Posts tagged as:

microblogging

Pownce Is Shutting Down

Here is an answer to the questions:  “Why are there so many microblogging platforms and why do people copy each other without adding something new to the market?”

Pownce just mailed its members that they are shutting down.  Everyone is urged to export their posts and files by December 15th.

“We are sad to announce that Pownce is shutting down on December 15,
2008. As of today, Pownce will no longer be accepting new users or new
pro accounts.

Pro Pownce users should visit http://www.sixapart.com/pownce/pro.html
for additional information.

To help with your transition to another service, we have built an
export tool so you can save your content. You can find the export tool
at Settings > Export. Please export your content by December 15, 2008,
as the site will not be accessible after this date.

Our thanks go out to everyone who contributed to the Pownce community,

The Pownce Crew”

Now, this wouldn’t have happened if the site was performing to the owners’ expectations.  Profitable sites never shut down on the web.  It appears that the technology behind Pownce might somehow be used by SixApart (the creators of Pownce are now working for SixApart in the engineering department) in the future, but they clearly aren’t going to re-launch Pownce or they’d just keep it up.

The lesson here might be:  If you plan to make a dent in a market, you have to plan to bring something new to it.  Not just 1 or 2 extra features, but something remarkable enough to disrupt the market significantly.  Some are still getting away with “me too” web 2.0 sites, but the market is contracting and consolidating from the wild growth in the last couple of years.

Now we find out who gets to stay and who has to go.  Pownce is pretty darned popular.  Does your web 2.0 site have what it takes to stay in play?

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Hellotxt - One tool to update them all

Have you just about had it with keeping up with all of your social networking sites? Communicating with all of them can really eat up a lot of your time and make it tedious. What if there was a site that provided a service to keep up with all of your sites at once? How cool would that be?

Since 2007, hellotxt.com has helped more than 10,000 users post their status once and make it appear automatically on every network that you subscribe to, which is now up to about 25 different social networks.

This helps you keep all of your friends updated on your status with ease. When your friends use the hellotxt.com service, you can read their updates all at once, too. Its getting even more convenient to use hellotxt.com, with new compatibilities with not only Internet Explorer, but now the Google Chrome browser and Opera, as well.

When you become a registered user, you can enter your login information once and instantly be connected to every network you belong to, including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, FriendFeed, Plurk, and many more. Enhance you status further by adding pics, video, comments, and other features to get even closer to your contacts.

Jack's Hellotxt

Jack's Hellotxt

Because the site is highly encrypted and your data is protected, you won’t have to worry about your privacy when using hellotxt.com. You can update your status using your computer, your mobile phone, and now, even by using your Wii? Unbelievable.

Hellotxt makes easier to stay connected to your friends and contacts with only the click of your mouse. Hellotxt.com is aiming to solve the problem of how to stay connected while the Internet spreads further and further out. Looks like they are well on their way to that solution!

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Using Twitter for Marketing on Autopilot

Here we go again! John Reese was convinced by Ed Dale that Twitter is a cool tool for marketing. Who wants to guess how fast John gets to 5000+ followers on Twitter this week?

Guess How Long It Will Take You To Get 5000 Followers?

Let’s say a lot longer if you simply Twitter the way everyone else does.

There is a solution though. Readers will remember an incredibly important and powerful presentation Howie Schwartz gave our people a few weeks ago on microblogging. So you already know the tactics for getting traffic from Twitter, Pownce, and Tumblr. Many who were on that call or watched the recorded webinar are reporting serious results.

I watch traffic come in daily from my microblogs and, using Howie’s tools, I really don’t mess with them much. Note that on my Twitter account you see what look like forum posts. They are. They are from Authority Site Center members. Note too that there are links on most of them to various sites of mine.

Big Note: I don’t, of course, do all that by hand. Nor do I go looking for “followers.” All that is done with Howie’s microblogging tools. I do add things when I get the urge, but even my feed for Friday Traffic Report gets syndicated to my Twitter account, so I really don’t have that much to post there manually.

Check out how many followers and how many posts I have there. That’s after 2 weeks and I’ve post a grand total of Twice by hand.

Check also that the information is keyed in and relevant to my microblog market. I am only making friends on Twitter on keywords we have in common. Therefore the followers are targeted as is the info. I’d wager it is far more understandable what my Twitter account is about at a glance than most which are done by hand by regular mortals who use the service.

The key to marketing with multiple microblogs is syndicating your content as much as possible with automation.

What everyone else is talking about is simply HAVING a microblog on Twitter OR Tumblr OR Pownce. We have multiple accounts on all of them. So whatever proclamations you hear this week on the value of the traffic from one manually updated Twitter account, multiply what you hear at least 10x and you’ve got an idea of what what we’re doing with microblogs.

It’s hardcore, but as Howie says, “its war!”

Did you come to fight with your fists or a Sherman Tank?

Howie’s Microblogging Automation Tool

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Microblogging Webinar Available: Twitter Traffic!

Howie Schwartz is at it again.  This time his target is “microblogging.”  We just had a webinar two nights ago with Howie showing attendees how to use microblogs to drive traffic and open new channels on the web for people to find your stuff.

If you’ve ever wondered why someone, especially a marketer looking for traffic, would want to mess with Twitter, then you need to watch as Howie shows you exactly why.

It took a mind like Howie’s to figure out that there is real power in microblogs and microblogging platforms.  Where I saw microblogs as a nuisance and utter waste of time, Howie figured out how to pull incredible clicks out of them and fill them with targeted, relevant content on autopilot.

Check out this free webinar recording on Microblogging!

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