TechSlip.net

I remember a few years back when all of my friends and family were using MySpace. Everywhere you went, you heard about MySpace and people just couldn’t get enough of it. It was the place to reconnect with old friends, talk to distant relatives, meet new people, and socialize.

Now that time has gone by and more and more teens/pre-teens are using the once awesome website, it seems that it is different now. By different I mean it is now “Here is a pic of my sexy booty! Think I’m hot? Add me as a friend!” or status update “OMG! I just went to the mall and like it was so like cool!”. Where did the fun and actual reconnecting go?! Are there any users left on MySpace who actually use it to talk to friends (who are actually friends) or family?

Maybe it has all went downhill and MySpace is in the deep fiery pits of “Social Hell”. I am not complaining about it (Ok maybe a little) but I just don’t see the point of having a MySpace profile these days. It might come in good use if I am looking to start a gossip and drama chat, or wanting to create a Hot Celebz Group but I don’t think that I am quite ready to die just yet.

But now with FaceBook here to save the day, I can finally reconnect with friends/family and have normal conversations again! Well until Farm Frenzy came out……and then Mobsters…..and some Aquarium game……

Although I may not be the King of Twitter-land, I have just begun spreading my chaos worldwide. I have researched Twitter and the top “Tweeters”, and decided to create a short but useful list for new Twitter users on how to improve their follower numbers. Let’s get started with 6 basic tips!

1. As they say “content is king”, and for Twitter this applies as well. Even though you are limited to a few words, try to keep your tweets catchy and original so that it attracts users. By just tweeting “I am going to sleep” or “Hey I am on Twitter!” you won’t get much attention because well….it is boring. Provide your followers with information they can use, helpful tips, catchy sayings, or interesting facts. Try to seem excited so that your followers will feel the same.

2. Share your personality with your followers. Whether you are funny or cocky, you want to share that personality with others so that it gives you a distinct presence. You want others to get a feel of what you are really like. By doing this, your followers will feel more of a connection with you and not just feel like they are reading a news article. Also be sure to fill in your bio information on your profile. Keep it short and informative so that others know who you are.

3. Retweet! This is a great way to catch some new followers. Encourage others to retweet your links or articles so that it spreads around quickly. You can also retweet popular posts from other members, but try to keep them relevant to your profile. Keep in mind that retweeting constantly and not providing followers with your own material, will lose you those fans. Why follow someone who just retweets everything I have already read from the original source? Don’t try to copy another member by reposting their Tweets as your own. Be sure to give them credit.

4. Use hashtags. These are great for getting your tweets into the search results on the website. It provides members to find your tweets based on keywords you provide. Example, lets say I post “I just finished playing #Mario on my #NintendoWii“. #Mario and #NintendoWii would be considered my “hashtags”. So if someone searched #Mario or #NintendoWii, my tweet would be in the search results. Great exposure if you use hashtags that are hot at the moment. Just add a # symbol before the word you want as a hashtag. Easy to do and effective. To find the hottest hashtags updated live, visit HashTags.org

5. Follow other members. If you are just looking to increase the number of followers and do not really care if they all listen to you, this is a good way to do it. If you search and browse through members, follow as many as possible. At least half will follow you back. This may not apply to celebrities and big name companies since it seems they do not follow many people.

6. Share your Twitter profile around the world! Be sure to include links to your Twitter profile in forum signatures, comments on other websites, Digg, FaceBook, and every other social place you visit on the web. This will help spread your Twitter profile while providing information to others.

There are millions of websites on the web (probably an understatement) but only a select amount become a daily task for people. Some become addictive and a catchy new trend for the new generation of internet users. MySpace was a huge hit when it came out and there are still a ton of users on it. Then FaceBook came out and overpowered that website and became a huge thing for teens and almost everyone of every age around the world. It is a new way of communicating with your friends, sharing photos, marketing businesses, and so much more. Twitter came around and is catching on very fast, providing people a new way to share news and information in real time.

So after all of my rambling above (hopefully you read it), I thought to myself “What will be the next cool trend for a website?”. Will it be a new and better way to communicate with others? It seems like we are getting close to physical interaction on websites and have hit so many levels. So how much better can it get? What could make these popular sites better? Perhaps the next hottest thing will not be a social networking website, but it seems like those are the most important.

It was just a thought I had and was trying to get other opinions on the subject. So what do you think will be the next “cool” website? Comment below!