I tried earlier this evening to twin up my facebook and twitter accounts, so I could share my twitter tweets with my newly formed NorthSouthMedia page on facebook (perhaps if your interested and want to hook up – you can become a fan here).

Now, I can integrate my facebook updates simply with twitter, however, when I go though the same process on my twitter account…

Which when clicked leads to this page, a 404 error page on facebook.

Just wondering if twitter were aware that facebook removed their app and why?

I’ve searched the web for any info on this and came up with a big blank nothing. Has anyone else seen this recently? Love to hear from you.

Blatant Push For Fans on NSM facebook page coming up ***********

You know if you want to connect with NSM on facebook then just click the following link : www.facebook.com/NorthSouthMedia : it will be an experience that you’ll, probably, remember for the rest of your remaining days

After taken a week and a bit break from blogging, social networking etc.. I thought it was time to jump back on the bandwagon and get things moving again. Before I started getting into the grind, I had a wee peak at Google Webmaster Tools where I noticed a number of links coming from a site called Shownar.

After a little bit of investigating it turns out that Shownar is the BBC’s experimental prototype to track buzz online about its shows.

At the moment, Shownar, is centered around the BBC’s iPlayer, but it is expected that, if it becomes popular enough, it will be the main site for taking the online pulse of shows from other TV networks including American.

Why was NSM featured, well it was this post : Top Sources For Online Related News where I mentioned the BBC’s technology program Click!

How does Shownar Work?
Basically by tracking inbound links to various programme-related pages on the bbc.co.uk. Shownar monitors Yahoo! Search BOSS, Nielson Online’s BlogPulse (which indexes over 100 million blogs), and Twingly (which searches microblogging services like Twitter, Jaiku and Identi.ca for links, even when they are shortened using URL shortening services such as TinyURL and bit.ly).

When you consider those that work and are actively social online, just how much information about ourselves do we really reveal?

Think back to the recent Project Gaydar scandal, where two MIT students constructed a program that could tell, with striking accuracy, if a person was gay by analysing their friends list on Facebook.

Now, we have the Canadian Police using social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook to bait and trap potential criminals and predators. Nought much wrong in that but you’ll hear plenty say that it is further proof of the erosion of privacy online.

The counter reaction to that is anything posted online isn’t safe from prying eyes – from emails to private facebook profiles.

We have created Cyber Bullying, Online Identity Theft, Internet Criminal League Tables, FOAF Profiling etc.. all within a raging digital cloud in a matter of a few years. And still we continue to add fuel to the fire. It is expected that those who have an active online social profile will spend a minumum of 50% of their browsing time on social sites as early as the middle of next year!

Not everyone I know has a Facebook page or uses Twitter, in fact a large percentage of my friends and family just ‘ain’t, that interested’. Perhaps, their the lucky ones!

I tend to ‘wangle my way’ out of Twitter come every Friday, it’s nothing to do with the site in general, just I can’t be bothered posting ‘Follow Friday’ lists or see them appearing in my timeline. Yep, when it comes to a Friday on Twitter, I do the ol’ drop-the-shoulder routine, start speaking out the side of my mouth, saying such things like, ‘How’s Yer Father?’ And blend quietly into the background.

However, I do appreciate my followers, and don’t want them to think of myself as some sorta ignoramus (which I’m not, I’m quite a gentle person that just gets grumpy from time-to-time), so I have devised this post, where instead of participating in the Twitter FollowFriday link orgy, I thought, come each and every Friday, I’d send them here, instead, a list of people/organisations/businesses which I give my glowing recommendation to following on Twitter.

I have broken the peeps that I follow into various categories, I’m sure there is something for everyone. This list is not final, I will be adding to it and posting its updates each and every Friday…

SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) Peeps to Follow on Twitter

Frances offers an amazing wealth of wisdom and likes to help people with good, solid advice.

@FrancesL

Shane offers plenty of insightful SEO tweets mixed with intriguing posts, always up for a conversation, which is highly appealing.

@ShaneJones

Doesn’t post frequently, but when he does it always adds something to the day … if you like knowing how seo stuff works then follow Jeffrey.

@JeffreySmith

Anne is a welcome breeze on a hot summers day, always welcome, always refreshing and always worth following.

@SEOSmarty

This boy is well worth the follow, finds stuff and promotes it likes nobody’s business, keeps me well entertained.

@CreativeSEO

Patrick is part of the uber successful outfit Branded3, his blog ‘Blogstorm’ is a highly rated resource centre and if he retweets a post of yours be prepared for some serious traffic.

@PatrickAltoft

If your into SEO then you seriously need to follow the Godfather of this industry, if you call youself an SEO and you don’t follow Dave then tbh ‘who you kidding?’

@DaveNaylor

Hardcore SEO geek, Ralph is one of those cuddly, scary guys that you just can’t stop staring at …

@fantomaster

There are few people within the UK whom I read as bible, Kevin is one of them, his posts and endurance in replying is a testament to this seo rockstar in-the-making.

@kevgibbo

Shaun is just up the road from myself, and an absolute A1 guy, he speaks multiple levels of sense when it comes to SEO, so pull yer britches up and seriously start following Hobo web!

@Hobo_Web

As far as I’m concerned Edward is the ‘shiznit’ when it comes to twittering about SEO and all its hanger-ons, undoubtedly a man of his time.

@PageOneResults

My one time prodigy, and now his own man, highly talented and creative person whom I have the most deepest of respect for, part of the talented Polr team.

@CalumMacleod

If I haven’t added you just yet, don’t worry, my seo list is long and frayed and I will be adding to this each week…

Social Media

I really haven’t had much interaction with Adam, but he does offer some really rich and interesting tweets that I find it really hard to keep off my list.

@AppleMacBookPro

Andrew is one of those guys that I have been championing since we first met online and it ain’t going to stop now, this guy has a massive future ahead of him in social media and beyond.

@theEmecks

Lyndon is a unique person, a rarity almost, his tweets are always interesting, insightful and never, never, dull!

@Lyndoman

Networking

A young man with a very bright future, if there were someone whom I were to say who has a finger on the pulse of the online community, then it is Graham.

@gCharlton

The site that offers it all to anyone serious about being found online, nuff said!

@eConsultancy

Dom or ‘Hodge’ is one part of the brains behind so many networking meet-ups here in the UK, alongside Tim Nash amongst a few others, follow Dom for tons of blogging, seo, social media chat.

@TheHodge

Affiliate Marketing

Al is an awesome person and affiliate marketer, his tweets are protected so if you fit into Al’s world you might, just might, fit into his timeline as well.

@AlCarlton

I think I have read everything Kieron has posted about twice, as I progress further into affiliate marketing, I actually met him for about 5 minutes in Leeds without knowing it, as he made his way home from Think Viz I.

@KieronDonoghue

Anybody who travels half the world away to watch rugby is well worth a follow in my book, very clever marketer and resounding individual also Scottish which just adds to his persona.

@ChrisClarkson

Please if I do follow you on Twitter and we do interact don’t be despondent if I haven’t featured you yet, It takes time to build these lists and I will feature YOU in the up-and-coming weeks.

In the past couple of weeks I have started to invest a little bit more of my online time in the social media site Facebook. The reason, for my recent affection towards Facebook, was not one of sudden aduration but more to do with news items of which I had read. I’m going to list 3 reasons why I believe that Facebook is taking itself more seriously and why my attention has moved up the gears into believing that Facebook is about to take on the disposition that normally is only meted out to a thoroughbred racehorse.

Facebook announce Vanity URL’s
What was annoying about Facebook previously was the way they displayed a users profile url. It was querystring mode, which basically means it was a variable equal to a number id in their vast database. Someone, must have had a word in the right ear at Facebook because they now have search friendly url’s in place, where a user can stipulate what they want as their own unique url.

Example : My former profile was something like : http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=5544332211 which can now be accessed as http://www.facebook.com/paulsteven70 you can grab your own unique username by signing into Facebook and going to this page : http://www.facebook.com/username/

Facebook Going Public With User Updates
This one has caused quite a stir, because many Facebook users are stating that the reason they signed onto Facebook was its strict privacy settings in only allowing certain people to see their status updates. Well this is still the case you can set who gets to see your updates pretty simply. Another thing I’ll add is that if you don’t want people reading your updates then don’t post them online. That’s what email and messenger services are there for!

Having being online and posting my thoughts (see rants) for nearly a decade and a massive fan of Twitter into the bargain, then I can conclude I have made a few slip-ups along the way, but such is life, and if your way too paranoid about posting your thoughts then perhaps you better try buying a diary and placing them in there. Quite frankly, I’m glad Facebook have allowed for this feature, it sets them apart from that teenage angst site Bebo (which I detest to the max).

Facebook’s Advertising Has Tripled in the Last Year
If there is any indication as to the success of a website it is their ad revenue. When you read that Facebook have tripled their ad sales in less than a year, that’s an impressive claim, especially in the financial turmoil The World has been suffering in for nigh on a year now. ( source ).

According to Facebook’s director of product marketing, Tim Kendall, it’s all about diversity … when your tripling your ad revenue, when all around, including Google Inc, is experiencing declining online ad growth, you must be doing something – very, very right. Also consider this, a Russian company paid $200million last month for a less than 2 percent share of Facebook, instantly valuing the company at around $10 billion. Not bad, huh?

How Facebook is battering all and nearest rivals inc. Google, according to Google Trends…

My advice to anyone, individual, group, organisation or business brand is to crank up your Facebook activity, because this is one social media platform that looks like the ultimate pedigree.