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Twitter is emerging as a top social network aimed and marketed for essentially any computer user that wants to keep their friends, colleagues, and/or fans in “the loop.”

Teens are dominating the social networking market with numbers that are still growing exponentially though they are still primarily using Facebook for social interaction and networking amongst friends and family.

Why haven’t teens adapted to Twitter, currently the third most visited social networking service next to Myspace and Facebook?

While teens demonstrate a firm understanding of technology, the fact is Facebook is a more integrated and, most importantly, a more simple social network.

Think about this: to upload a picture of you and/or your friend on Twitter, it takes approximately five steps.

1 - First, you open your Twitter account,
2 - Go to TwitPic.com (or any other photo uploading service directly marketed for Twitter),
3 - Login to Twitpic using your Twitter credentials
4 - Click upload photo
5 - Tweet (or push) it out.

On the other hand, when using Facebook to upload a picture, it takes three steps.
1 - Click the photo icon in the status update area,
2 - upload a photo,
3 - Share or push it out.

It’s a simple as that.

The teen market is not motivated to use multiple sites and services to share their content, especially when they can use a simpler service (Facebook, in this instance) In fact, all of the services are integrated on Facebook.

Though I am a teen and I am also on Twitter, I am still part of very niche market - teens have have adapted to social ecosystems and the world around them. But the average teen, which is the majority, are looking for a simpler service or social ecosystem which allows them to share the content, collaborate with others, and socialize in one set environment with out using external applications.

The majority of Twitter users are able to easily adapt to it quickly and efficiently. Why? Because the majority of active Twitter users have basic knowledge and the ability to understand the core of the service. Though Twitter may not be a current trend for the present day teen market, it soon will be. With more and more teens adapting and learning more about technology, and the internet as a whole, they are on a driven path to a life gone digital and a life gone social.

Author: Tommy Fishback

Follow @tommyfishback on Twitter

People often ask themselves how often should I tweet. The real question, is what is the topic you mainly tweet about and does that given demographic or group of followers condone you tweeting frequently or tweeting seldom.

Also, take this into perspective, when you frequently tweet is this an annoyance to your readers? If you said “Yes” to this question, the take into consideration to tweet less, because I personally don’t like my iPhone vibrating every 1 minute when a tweet comes in from someone that I am following. The human nature of this, is stop following that person who is tweeting repeatedly.

Why? Because believe me if your tweeting that much, your follower won’t really care who you are, they will just stop following you. You are also pretty much taking up the time line of the person that is following you, thus this may become irritating to your readers. So next time before you tweet, be sure to make sure to tweet appropriately and give ample time before you post your next tweet.

Author: Tommy Fishback

Follow @tommyfishback on Twitter

Nowadays writing an ebook is easier than cutting cheese; I didn’t say writing a “good” ebook, just a ebook in general. Well of course an eBook is easy to write and publish. Why? Because you can use pdf creation programs like Adobe Acrobat or even Microsoft Word. It is becoming easier and easier to write and publish (distribute) eBooks.

From applications on your iPhone to the Amazon Kindle, a variety of devices are now holding market share for the reading of eBooks or as I like the call them “DigiBooks”. So if you would like to create about Windows 7 or how social media has changed the world, then you can write it and publish it easy. But there are still a few steps that you to take properly and carefully to raise the chances of your eBook being a hit and to distribute it properly.

1. To begin, you first need a pdf creation application, because the standard and widely used format for eBooks is .pdf

2. Get a blank piece of paper, or your favorite simple text editor and sketch out the ideas that you want to convey in your book. Be sure to also state what kind of book you are looking to write. (novel-informational)

3. Write your book!

4. After the completion of your book, think about what service you are going to use to publish it or even sell it on your own. Here are some ideas and methods for both.

• When publishing by yourself it can be much simpler and you will be able to have oversight of your funds, and have complete control. You can use a PayPal download script and receive funds through PayPal.
• When using other services be sure to “fully” understand the guidelines and rules of the service provider. A personal favorite of mine is eJunkie

Now you should be on the right track for writing and distributing your eBook, if have any questions regarding this topic you can ask me on Twitter @tommyfishback or email me – blog@tommyf.com

(Image via Scott Beal)

Daniel Brusilovsky (TechCrunch, and Teens in Tech)
spoke about Marketing methods and strategies to teens. He mentioned
that young teens do not like twitter because it is overly crowded and
it is not “clean” or “personal”. Facebook is a more productive,
effective, and targetted tool to market and engage with the teen
market. He also mentioned that print is NOT dead, especially in
schools (school publications and newspapers). He mentioned that the
next frontier is mobile, and that young teens are become more and more
focus and attracted to mobile applications, smart phones, and using
social networking on mobile.

Kevin Rose, Tim Ferris,  Porter Gale (VP
marketing for Virgin america) and host Edith Yeung.

The session was called “Twittering with the Stars” and the discussed personal stories,
experiences, and strategies to using twitter. They all mentioned how
it is effective way to engage with the audience, respond quickly to
problems and user dissatisfaction. They all mentioned that twitter
should ultimately be “fun”, “not work”, “genuine” and not too time
consuming. Tim Ferris’s opinion is that if you do not have a clear
“measurable output” for Twitter, and it is not fun, then don’t use it.

(Post by Alan Masarsky)

Though many of us read on a daily basis, and only a slim amount actually enjoy reading. I personally only read informational books, and try to stay away from novels and especially Twilight at all costs. Nevertheless, Here are 3 tips on how to make reading fun and to concentrate while reading.

1. Make a reading schedule, even though this sounds very elementary, it is a good method to read on a daily basis. For example, you could tell yourself to read 5 pages a day, or maybe a chapter a day. Whatever, suits your personal needs can suffice.

2. Tweet about what you read that day, this will not only remind you to read, but your followers can also remind you to stay on task with your task. For example use the hashtag #whatireadtoday (By the way, I came up with this idea, so if you are reading this, your my witness)

3. The main way to enjoy reading, is to choose books according to your interests. To begin, the book industry is broken into two parts, informational books, and novels. From there, there are sub-areas. For example, Informational–>How to–>Internet–>Use Twitter for business. Though you may not take time to read novels, they can sometimes, and by sometimes I usually mean Never, provide some sort of personal entertainment.

So go to your local bookstore, and pick up a book or two. Here is a coupon code to 10% on one item at Barnes and Noble: K7B7B9P

1. Know the room. Be familiar with the place in which you will speak. Arrive early, walk around the speaking area and practice using the microphone and any visual aids.

2. Know the audience. Greet some of the audience as they arrive. It’s easier to speak to a group of friends than to a group of strangers.

3. Know what your talking about. If you’re not familiar with your material or are uncomfortable with it, your nervousness will increase. Practice your speech and revise it if necessary. If you have speech writers and they write you the best speech in the world, and you don’t understand the topic of which you are speaking of, then you will have a hard time getting the point across to your audience.

4. Be funny.  When speaking be sure to incorporate a few jokes and personal stories that pertain to your topic.

5. Visualize yourself giving your speech. Imagine yourself speaking, your voice loud, clear, and assured. When you visualize yourself as successful, you will be successful.

6. Realize that people want you to succeed. Audiences want you to be interesting, stimulating, informative, and entertaining. They don’t want you to fail.

7. Never apologize. If you make a mistake, then just take a pregnant pause for a couple seconds to gather your thoughts back into order, and begin again.

8. Gain experience. Experience builds confidence, which is the key to effective speaking.

9. Maintain eye contact. A major part of good public speaking is to keep stable eye contact with your audience members. Focus on a specific person, then a few a seconds later switch your focus.

10. Be yourself. Simple as that.

Author: Tommy Fishback