Sending Better Tweets

Twitter is one of the best tools available to lensmasters, not only for promoting their lenses, but for staying connected with Squidoo friends, finding ideas and learning new things. There’s a space for your Twitter page in your Squidoo profile, a Twitter feed module, TwttrStrm, and of course you can Tweet your latest lens update using OpenID.

Many lensmasters use the “Tweet Your Update” button that appears in the workshop after publishing a lens. It’s handy if you want to get your lens out there without logging in to Twitter, but is it the best way?

When you tweet your update, the message that appears in your Twitter profile is generic: “I’ve just updated my Squidoo page…” It tells your followers what you’re doing, but it doesn’t give much incentive to visit your lens.

To really advertise your work, sending a customized Tweet is essential. You can copy your lens URL, or use the Twitter button when viewing your lens, and write a blurb about your updates to invite your friends and followers to see what you’ve added.

“I’ve just updated my lens” can become “I’ve just added a new Design Direction Duel” or “Add your gardening lens to the new plexo!” or perhaps “Don’t miss my Mother’s Day gift ideas!”

Using keywords in your Tweets is a good idea, because it will allow your lens Tweets to show up in searches and Tweetfeeds.

"Red Face, Blue Bird"

Not Another Facebook Scandal

By now, nearly everyone has heard of the most recent Facebook scandal that has many people questioning the intentions of the popular social website. The offending terms of service agreement has been discussed all over the blog world, and in some places even made the evening news.

It seems that the online community is made up of two groups: those that are content to use Facebook, and those that love nothing more than discussing reasons to hate Facebook. The company’s new ToS was a very juicy topic for the anti-Facebook crowd, and even had many of the happy users wondering about the merit of the website they like so much.

What’s interesting is how utterly scandalized so many people seem to be over what is essentially a very basic and not uncommon user agreement clause. Although it is possible, it is highly unlikely that a large and profitable company intends to copy pictures of your last birthday party and sell them.

Facebook is not like a one-man business being run out of someone’s basement or van. They have over 175 million active users. They aren’t going to trick anyone into giving up their retirement fund and then scurry off to Mexico in the middle of the night.

Though they may choose to use members’ uploaded content for advertising, it’s not likely that they would paste your picture all over the internet without your permission. Knowing now how important customer satisfaction is, they have little to gain by abusing the trust of their users.

These types of broad, seemingly invasive user agreements are not meant to give websites total domination over your personal information (insert maniacal laugh here). They are meant to protect the company in charge from various lawsuits. If a misguided teenager uploads nude photos of herself to Facebook, and they end up on TotallyNakedChicks dot com, Facebook isn’t interested in paying for it.

Asking users to sign an agreement that gives Facebook ownership of all content you upload is necessary in a society where no one is responsible for their own actions, and common sense is not a requirement for survival.

Having one’s legal team work up a creepy-sounding contract is much the same as making sure all coffee cups say “Caution HOT!”. The only difference is the size of the print.

Search Engine Calendar

Submitting lenses to search engines is often one of the first things we Squids do once we’ve successfully published a great new lens. Those experts that recommend this practice also say that it’s a good idea to re-submit every 4-6 weeks, or any time your lens has a major update such as new information, links or a fresh layout.

This may seem like an easy task when you only have a few lenses under your belt, but the job of keeping your lenses up to date with Google and Yahoo can become overwhelming when your list of lenses continues to grow. How do you remember when you last submitted your lens on humming birds, and did you forget to submit your latest lens on diaper bags?

My solution to this problem is a simple text file that sits quietly on my dashboard. Whenever I make a new lens I open up my “URL Submissions” folder and paste the complete url for my latest masterpiece. Then I type in the date, and head on over to the
Big 3 and beg for a crawl.

After doing major updates, I will open up the file and check to see when my last submission was. If it’s been more than a month, I will copy the url of the lens I want to refresh and re-submit it to Google, Yahoo and MSN. By typing in the date, I’ll have a record of my activity for next time.

As a bonus, this handy little file contains urls for all of my lenses, so I don’t have to remember them all. I can usually recall the addresses for each of my lenses if I think about it, but to date I’m only at 27. Remembering what I called my latest page on beads might be more difficult when I’m working with 50 lenses or more. Being able to quickly link to your lenses on other sites is key to promoting your work on Squidoo.

Of course, you may be one who believes you should not submit your lens to search engines. It's probably true that backlinks are better for promotion than hand submission. I like to use both!

Facebook Ideas for Squids

Like many lensmasters, I didn’t create a Facebook account until after joining Squidoo. I had hoped that by posting my creations for all of my ‘friends’ to see, I would get a little extra traffic, maybe some comments or even a little praise.

What I actually got were a lot of requests to join groups, sign petitions, and add apps like “top friends” and poker games. You know the ones. My inbox is full of requests that I just don’t have the heart to ignore, but have no intention of responding to. The only apps I have added are feeds to my Del.icio.us and Digg activities. Facebook is like a second Twitter to me. And with the new Facbook Connect tool on Squidoo, it’s even better.

Recently many of my friends and family members started passing around a chain-letter type message on Facebook called “25 Random Things About Me”. At first, I groaned. Between Squidoo, my own website, and my two blogs, I don’t exactly have time to play Facebook tag for kicks.

But then I had an idea. What if I threw a little HTML into my response, and directed readers to my lenses?

Suddenly, the chain letter didn’t seem like a waste of time. I was able to work 7 or 8 lenses into my 25 responses without feeling like I was taking advantage. Just as I had hoped, my lens stats are showing a few visits from Facebook daily. Not much, but every visit counts.

Some other tips for using Facebook to promote your Squidiness:

1. Turn comments on in your updates, so that friends will see any comments you make on notes, posted items and photos. Whenever you post a link to one of your lenses, comment on it, and more people will be able to see it when they log in.

2. Comment on your own activities and include links to your lenses or blogs where appropriate. For example, if you RSVP to an event, comment on the update and include a link to your lens that’s related to the theme.

3. Do you use videos on your lenses? Whenever you add a new YouTube video to a lens, post the same video to Facebook, and let your friends know that you’ve chosen it for your lens. Post a link!

4. When you add a new Duel or Prediction module to a lens, invite your Facebook friends to join in the discussion. The same goes for TwttrStrm lenses, too.

5. Be nice! Have fun, all that good stuff.