As mentioned in the previous  Bird House Rules postings, Que Publishing has once again featured All a Twitter in Barnes & Noble Bookstores everywhere, and in my response to Que’s “Whatever you can do to get the word out…”query, I feature Michele Price, the host of Breakthrough Business. On her BlogTalkRadio show we talk about Twitter, about my job at Intersections Inc (which you will find out more about later on Imagine That! Studios), and about approaches that go against the grain of the marketing books. We talk about how “old school marketing” just doesn’t work with Social Media, and how businesses need to understand that Twitter (and Social Media, on a whole) is about people.

We had a blast on this interview, and I hope you enjoy the listen. Feel free to comment, post, and share!

With the return of Bird House Rules, I am getting back into my groove on this blog. Que Publishing has been instrumental in bringing me back into this groove after contacting me concerning All a Twitter. As mentioned in the previous BHR,  the book is being featured once again in Barnes & Noble Bookstores everywhere, and asked me “Whatever you can do to get the word out…”  I sent out a query to my Twitter and Facebook networks, letting them know that I was available for interviews.

From Twitter I heard from long-time-friend of the Bird House @Odin1eye who featured me in a particularly fun interview on his blog View From Vahalla. This blog features podcast reviews, commentary and rants on Social Media and the world it impacts, and (now) interviews. Odin1eye and I talk about about how Twitter has changed, where it is headed, and what went into the writing of All a Twitter. Here’s a selection from the interview:

From Twitter Status…just moments ago…

(click image to view Full Size)

…and yet, no real reason given as to what happened with the Retweets this morning.

Anyone else thinking this?

It’s all about communication, Twitter. We just want to know what’s happening…

Twitter, as you hear me say in Speak Geek to Me, is being hailed as one of the greatest innovations in modern communications. What does it mean, then, when a tool that revolutionizes how we exchange ideas and share thoughts suddenly decides shut its users out and make a change without notification?

Changing its interface as one would change underwear, Twitter apparently pulled a back-handed “Give the People What They Want” by removing the new Retweet feature. This feature has been in Beta since the Fall of this year and Twitterakians were kept in the loop as early as idea conception. Sure, there was a slight learning curve and not everyone took to it, but third-party clients adopted it into their user interfaces and many like TweetDeck and Twittelator Pro added the functionality with their own flair. I even covered it in the last Bird House with a video addendum.

But this morning I got a tweet from John Merlin (@zard) from the UK:

Just when you thought I was done with TweetDeck v0.32.1…

TEE MORRIS’ TWEETDECK EPISODE
THE VIDEO PODCAST!

The audio is still the same, but now I have MOVING PICTURES to go with it! this is NOT going to be a regular feature at the Bird House, but when the mood strikes me, when the time allows, and when it is something that REALLY NEEDS the visuals, I will offer this kind of video addendum. I hope you all enjoy it!

Imagine That! Studios now presents to you the highlights of TweetDeck v0.32.1…in colour!

Featured movie and TV clips:

• Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl
  
• Iron Man
  
• Monty Python’s “Spanish Inquisition” sketch
  
• Firefly

Featured Resources on Twitter:

• “What’s New on v0.32″ from TweetDeck’s Support Forum
• Camtasia for the Mac
• LinkedIn
• Facebook
• YouTube.com

Album Artwork by Paul Fischer of Dancing Cat Studios

Feel free to syndicate this audio, and provide feedback or topics you’d like to hear discussed on Bird House Rules at 703.791.1701, tmorris (at) imaginethatstudios (dot) com, Twitter, or here at the Bird House Rules Blog!

 

 Episode #8a: Keeping Up with TweetDeck v0.32.1 (video) : Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (599)

Finally….after several attempts…after daring the Fates…after waiting for just the right time…and weathering an unseasonal snowfall in Washington, D.C.

TEE MORRIS’ TWEETDECK EPISODE!

This has been a long time coming, and I have decided to pull out all the stops and not only post a longer-than-usual BHR, but in the feed tomorrow and posting on YouTube as well will be an accompanying video companion to this podcast, filmed and edited on both Camtasia and the Final Cut Suite, bit-cheeezzz!

A labor of love and a lot to take in, here comes the highlights of TweetDeck v0.32.1!

Guest introduction by Coach Ian Scott

Featured movie and TV clips:

• Six Million Dollar Man
• Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl
  
• Iron Man
  
• Monty Python’s “Spanish Inquisition” sketch
  
• Firefly

Featured Resources on Twitter:

• “What’s New on v0.32″ from TweetDeck’s Support Forum
• Camtasia for the Mac
• LinkedIn
• Facebook
• YouTube.com

Album Artwork by Paul Fischer of Dancing Cat Studios

 

 Episode #8: Keeping Up with TweetDeck v0.32.1 [11:04m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (453)

Feel free to syndicate this audio, and provide feedback or topics you’d like to hear discussed on Bird House Rules at 703.791.1701, tmorris (at) imaginethatstudios (dot) com, Twitter, or here at the Bird House Rules Blog!

Welcome to Birdhouse Rules, the Official Podcast of All a Twitter and Sams Teach Yourself Twitter in Ten Minutes.

I know on Twitter i have been promising to cover TweetDeck and my bad habit of double-posting (which on writing these show notes I just did…) but then when working through my follow requests, I got hard hit by the avatar you see with this post. Yes, if you see that image (and the variations on it) you will have been hit by a spambot that prefixes all their IDs with “STi_”. These useless accounts will fill your feeds with random links that serve no other purpose other than to annoy the crap out of you.

But what really bakes my birdhouse about the various “STi_” accounts is that they are posing as real people.

Welcome to spam on Twitter.

In this episode I cover the ways to tell if you are being spammed on Twitter. The offending tweets are broken down into three categories, and we also take a look at how some spammers are working into your feeds in order to use you and a delivery mechanism. Take a look at these screen captures from Stephanie Lloyd‘s account…

If you click-and-enlarge the left image, you will note that Stephanie’s tweets are coming from her feed are coming from recognizable applications. The right image, though, is a tweet coming from an API. That is just one (of a few) ways to tell that the spam your getting from friends isn’t their fault.

So tuck in and get ready — it’s a Feast of Spam at the Bird House.

Guest introduction by Indiana Jim

“Spam” from Monty Python’s The Final Rip Off

Album Artwork by Paul Fischer of Dancing Cat Studios

 

 Episode #2: Lovely Spam, Wonderful Spam! [9:57m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (588)

Feel free to syndicate this audio, and provide feedback or topics you’d like to hear discussed on Bird House Rules at 703.791.1701, tmorris (at) imaginethatstudios (dot) com, Twitter, or here at the Bird House Rules Blog!

Welcome to Birdhouse Rules, the Official Podcast of All a Twitter and Sams Teach Yourself Twitter in Ten Minutes.

I promised that the show was going to post on a fortnightly schedule; but in light of recent events, I decided to shuffle the schedule around and make the first episode something timely. I wanted to talk about what happened on Twitter (and elsewhere) all day Thursday, August 6, 2009.

Just in case you missed it, you can hop over to the link I provide here in the show notes, but safe to say, it was a really busy day. It has taken Twitter a few days to recover. From the looks of things and according to the Status blog, there are still a few pieces needing to be picked up but Twitter — on a whole — is running smoothly.

This show was imspired not only by the events of last week but also by a comment left behind by our Guest Voice. Take a look at the blog, have a listen to this episode, and take a moment to send a “thank you” note to Twitter.com. They really managed to hold things together, and we should all be appreciative of their hard work for this free service they provide.

Guest introduction by Fred Castaneda

“All is Well” drop-in’s from National Lampoon’s Animal House.

Album Artwork by Paul Fischer of Dancing Cat Studios

 

 Episode #1: All Is Well — Lessons Learned from a Hack Attack [9:59m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (823)

Feel free to syndicate this audio, and provide feedback or topics you’d like to hear discussed on Bird House Rules at 703.791.1701, tmorris (at) imaginethatstudios (dot) com, Twitter, or here at the Bird House Rules Blog!

What — a — day.

It all started this morning when, from Twitter Status, this nugget of good news arrived, explaining the odd, intermittent service:

We are defending against a denial-of-service attack, and will update status again shortly.

For those of you (like me) who didn’t know what a Denial-of-Service or DoS Attack was at the beginning of the day, you probably know what it is now. The U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team (CERT) defines a DoS Attack as the following:

In a denial-of-service (DoS) attack, an attacker attempts to prevent legitimate users from accessing information or services. By targeting your computer and its network connection, or the computers and network of the sites you are trying to use, an attacker may be able to prevent you from accessing email, web sites, online accounts (banking, etc.), or other services that rely on the affected computer.

The most common and obvious type of DoS attack occurs when an attacker “floods” a network with information. When you type a URL for a particular web site into your browser, you are sending a request to that site’s computer server to view the page. The server can only process a certain number of requests at once, so if an attacker overloads the server with requests, it can’t process your request. This is a “denial of service” because you can’t access that site.

July 27. 2009 was one crazy night! I had PodioRacket on Blog Talk Radio All a Twitter over my upcoming appearance. Host Rhonda Carpenter was all kinds of excited to talk Twitter with me, but you might notice in the first ten (yes, as in one-zero-10) minutes, Rhonda is flying solo…while LIVE on BTR…

Why? Two words: Vonage Fail!

When I finally did get into the mix, the talk turned to All a Twitter and other aspects of the Twitter lifestyle and culture, and the time got by us so fast that we schedule a return visit for Wednesday, August 5, starting at 9pm. With Phil Rossi and Philippa Ballantine rounding out the PodioRacket pandemonium, tune in this week for my return visit! Until then, have a listen to Part One!

 

 PodioRacket is All a Twitter (Part One) [89:41m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (514)

Feel free to syndicate this audio (making sure the link is pointing back to PodioRacket), and provide feedback or topics you’d like to hear discussed on Bird House Rules at 703.791.1701, tmorris (at) imaginethatstudios (dot) com, on Twitter, or here at the Bird House Rules Blog!