04Jul / 2011

Best 8 Twitter Tools I Use

Here are the best Twitter tools that I use for tweeting and tracking of the multiple accounts I manage.

At one stage I operated eight accounts at once for various TV shows (@SunriseOn7, @MorningshowOn7, @SundayNightOn7,@7NewsSydney,@7Newsroom,@Vote7News), assorted TV personalities* and my own account (as well as one alter-ego!).

I am happy to concede this is too much Twitter for one person to manage – but man, it does force you to get efficient when you’re tweeting.

@Sunriseon7 now has around 50,000 followers and continues to add a few hundred each week. I aim to make it a destination not only promoting what’s on Sunrise but a useful stream of entertaining content, local and international news as well as breaking news.

To keep on top of breaking news that will be retweeted and gain you many new followers who want to read things first, you need to have the best mobile twitter setup available.

So I tested many, many twitter clients and this is what I have wittled it all down to..

I have put them in order of how much I use them. Aren’t I helpful?

1. TWEETBOT
I am such a fan of this relatively new iPhone Twitter app (client). It’s very intuitive, has many hidden features you are surprised by after a week or so, and nothing is smoother when using multiple accounts. I have paid for about ten twitter apps. This was easily the most worthwhile. It’s highly readable, fast and flexible. Plus, it never crashes.

My past favourites for the iPhone are Osfoora, Twitbit and Twitbird Pro.

2. TWEETDECK
Explaining twitter to the uneducated is best done by showing people filtered feeds, i find. But that’s just the start of how Tweetdeck simplifies the twittersphere.

For browsing of tweets including tracking breaking news and running multiple hashtag feeds, nothing beats the multi-column,multi-account interface of Tweetdeck.

If at all possible, get a separate monitor and leave it running. Alerts show you the latest tweets allowing you to spot replies and retweet at a glance. Plus, it’s got scheduling so you can keep the convo going when you are otherwise having a life.

Lately, I do admit, the app is running awfully slow.

3. BIT.LY shortcuts
Stuff the t.co URL shortener Twitter is trying to force us into using, bit.ly offers traffic analysis, real time updates, desktop alerts and browser shortcuts that saves me about an hour a day. Try the sidebar bookmarklet and the Chrome Extension to see what I mean. (I especially like the hover tool that shows how many clicks on a link just by hovering over any bit.ly link anywhere, and the right-click function “copy and save shortened link to clipboard”). Love it.

See also my blog on explaining all my Chrome (browser) extensions

4. SNAPBIRD
Search as far back as you what in anyone’s timeline. Can be a little touchy sometimes but generally I find what I want.

5. BLACKBIRD PIE
Neatest way to embed a tweet on a website.

6. TWITTERSTATS
Get into this to see just how you have been tweeting, who you retweet the most, at what time of day and how your tweeting has changed over time.

Why is this useful? Well, imagine if you could see whose emails you forward the most or that you now send twice as many emails every day than you used to. Tracking your habits can reveal the changing face of how you are marketing your brand but also how that reflects the audience.

I know that for Sunrise, I have found that I get more response from people in the first half of the day and people are less likely to respond or retweet anything between 12 noon and 5 or 6pm. The stats show that after that, people lighten up again, so i now target those hours.

7. TWEETSTATS
A little less useful for brand tweeters but interesting nonetheless. Spits out nice graphs (for free) including your own twitter word cloud. Intriguing.

8. HOOTSUITE
I have trained several people at Channnel 7 in how to use this web app. It runs through the website which pleases the IT team as nothing suspicious need be installed.

Hootsuite’s best feature has always been scheduling, which it achieves better than anyone else. (Tweetdeck’s scheduling remains buggy and often sends my tweets now not later.)

The layout is disconcerting as it has two navigation bars, columns, tabs within columns and layers. But if you can get past that, it is a timesaver with features like saving your frequent searches e,g, #quake or “breaking news”, multiple users, columns and it offers some good features to drill down on users. Rather amazing what they have done with HTML5.

*Why did I tweet for TV personalities? When some TV stars get started, I ease them into Twitter to avoid any major faux pas going public. Some even email me their comments which I then tweet (quaint!). They are all now independent tweeps, which i suppose makes me an empty nester.

For the record, here are the Twitter iPhone apps I no longer use – but i keep on the phone to watch how they improve with updates.

Have any great tools I haven’t listed?

Please share them below – or tweet me @buckleup

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03Jul / 2011

Caption Contest! KRudd meets Suu Kyi

(credit: Kevin’s Facebook)

Please post your suggested captions below…

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01Jul / 2011

Best and Worst of John Farnham’s Hair

The first ever concert I went to was to see John Farnham at the Sydney Entertainment Centre. I was twelve. It was the Age of Reason Tour and what I learned most from that night was that the more you call your audience "mongrels" the more they love you.

Plus, I learned that my dad was my hero. Sitting through Touch of Paradise, Two Strong Hearts and all those other great songs Johnny didn’t write was the most sacrificial thing my father ever did for me and as my music tastes changed over time I have come to admire his sacrifice more and more.

As Johnny Farnham gears up for yet another tour – this one features a performance of the entire Whispering Jack album – I find myself contemplating my teenage love of Farnsey once again…

Now, if I’m not mistaken, no other part of John Farnham’s appearance has always captured his enthusiasm, his stage persona, and made him so darn likeable, than his hair.

But, as these pictures show, his hair hasn’t always been Playing To Win, if you know what I mean.

The Denis Walter look. So young, Such Agro eyebrows.(1968)

1974 brought Johnny a new optimism, a new tailored look, and the head of a neatly brushed badger.

Farnsey at his best – windswept and wearing what appears to be lippy. Does anyone actually know why Jack was whispering? (1986)

Flamboyant Rock God! He looked as if could have been in Def Leppard, when actually he was singing about flamingoes. (1988)

Ha! What a felon! This hair is akin to a tufty guinea pig – given a quick perm. Ace! (1990)

This is Johnny in Jesus Christ Superstar (1992) I hope he’s playing Jesus because if not, his hair looks stolen from Goldie Hawn.

Business on top, poodle at the sides and who knows what’s happening at the back. (1995)

What’s this? Why sport the hair of an author? Especially an unpublished one. (1998)

In 2003, he reached his follicular peak. THE ASLAN.

Heinous! It’s an albino Gary Who hairstyle in a jacket that looks more like Tinman from Wizard of Oz than the Age of Grease’n (2005).

Let’s be honest. This is the hair of an old bloke on the pokies at your local RSL. (2009)

2011 – Uhoh, Dye job. It’s Barry Gibb meets Donald Trump. Let’s hope the new tour doesn’t sacrifice any more of his self esteem than this photo must have.

John Farnham

So, to see the hair up close.. who’s coming with me and my dad to the next concert!!??

Related links
Tour info – JohnFarnham.com.au | Official website
John Farnham is 62 and not out | Herald Sun
Farnsey Is Back… For The Last Time! | Defamer Australia

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28Jun / 2011

Nine of my favourite Blue Mountains activities

Looks like it’s time for me to write something a little more constructive than my last few blogs…

I had a chat with some tree-changers about my recent rant and while they love their new home in the mountains, they were actually yet to embrace what the area offers.

I grew up in the Blue Mountains – a childhood I loved, once I got over the lack of shopping centres and prevalence of gumnut mugs – and since then I have trashed the Blue Mountains for turning too bogan, and for being left to ruin by a council that is too conservative and small-minded .

So now, I am going to prove my deep adoration for the place where I was raised, and explain what you can do with your days if you do choose to move there, or what to do if you’d like to use it as an escape hatch to relieve inner city tension – as I do.

Everyone knows (and many abhor) the Three Sisters experience, the overpriced Scenic World, and the Leura Mall. For now, I’m leaving them to Sunday drivers and tour groups in buses that have koalas painted on the side.

Here are nine great Blue Mountains activities. They are things I enjoy and that you may not know of. Actually, it’s only eight and I want you to add a ninth in the comments…

1) Garage Sales

Oi. You payin' for that?

The community in the mountains has a few humble features you might never discover without scratching the surface; The art being created, the organic food being produced and the garage sales!

Check the local paper – The BM Gazette – on Friday night and line up the best addresses on your GPS. Be ready to go by 8am – the pro’s start even earlier. I often get around to six or eight ten within a couple of hours and usually within just a few suburbs. Most garage sales are chockas with retro bric-a-brac that city stores charge you much, much more for.

Plus, you get to go in strangers’ houses! They don’t mind. Many residents see it as a social event and invite the neighbours over. It’s as if selling their junk is just an excuse to meet people. Get involved.

2) Mount Hay lookout

"It's been such an amazing journey" - Every evicted reality TV star

With countless lookouts to choose from, this one is well away from the traffic and tourists but you aren’t at risk of needing a chopper lift you out. The walk out is pretty splendid too so park your car early and repeat the mantra “It’s all about the journey” – this is especially useful if you are underwhelmed by wide vistas of mountains that aren’t really that blue.

3) Shop at Frou Fou.

Obviously if there was a bigger pic i would have inserted that one not this one

In the old location. Some might say, vintage.

The owner of this unique store (now on Raymond Road, Springwood) is Parissa, a friend of mine who used to run it out of a tiny space in Lilyfield. Parissa is so aesthetically minded she always looks like she just left a Parisienne street market in the 1950s. That pretty much explains the store too.

4) Wentworth Falls Lake

taken with a Canon 20D by someone better than me

The lake is better than the falls. but both work much better in daylight.

Many long-time residents of the mountains never visit this lake or the slightly less glorious Glenbrook Lagoon. I’ll never understand why. Each offers a much richer experience than those man-made ponds you find in new estates. Expect ducks, playground equipment, more ducks and barbecues.

5) Lily’s Pad Cafe

The barista here is a cross between Michael Franti and Ghandi

Leura has many good quality cafes but the Mall is busy and full of Mosman mothers on the weekend but luckily most people don’t realise this one has the best coffee, the best outdoor area and the food is, well, it’s all about the coffee and the outdoor seating.

6) Birdwood Gully Glow-Worms

Everything I want in a bushwalk. Brevity.

How many places in Sydney boast a twilight glowworm bushwalk. Oh boy is this a cool walk, ideal for the young, old or infirm. Ok, maybe not the infirm – a wheelchair wouldn’t get beyond the first few metres. But this is a mostly level wander in a gully just a couple of minutes from Springwood’s town centre It lights up with the Aussie equivalent of fireflies at dusk. You’re all done in under forty minutes. Delightful.

7) Sassafras Gully

In Sassafras, no one can hear you ... at all.

Head to the end of Sassafras Gully Road in Springwood to discover the natural water hole made famous by my friend Doug when he initiated ten years worth of camping adventures for me and my friends. It was then made even more famous as the place where Elle Macpherson went skinny-dipping for the film Sirens. It’s about a two-hour round trip. There’s a reasonably steep walk out. Take the whole family or just your backpack – whichever is easiest to get in the car.

8 ) The Carrington

Newspapers circa 1900 cited her as the only rival to Raffles within The Empire. Raffles!

Lay about with a glass of port in the one of the library rooms of Katoomba’s Carrington Hotel. Where else can you wander into a majestic old hotel, pull up a Chesterton lounge and dally for hours, completely unnoticed. The landscaped grounds offer more space to laze about if you get a sunny day. If you want something more high-brow, you could try Lilianfels but I imagine they’d throw you out if you had too much fun.

9) Your turn.

I want to know your secret Blue Mountains experience… PLEASE??!!
Use the comments area below.

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24Jun / 2011

Paying for your Tree-Change

Saw an article yesterday…

Families given $7,000 to leave Sydney

Riiiiight. Except people move to the cities and outer-urban areas for opportunities, not just the lure of good espresso and more schools to choose from.

Then there is the more moderate weather, the better health care resources, the beach…

Read the full story of the government’s latest cash-bonuses-as-social-engineering initiative.

Surely an attitude change would have to come first; like those perceptions that all folks in regional areas are short-sighted, uneducated or filled small-town busybodies and Fossey’s outlets.

However, other generalisations are based in fact.

People in regional areas of Australia tend to have broader accents, have the worn skin of years spent laboring in the sun and they more frequently wear shapeless fleece tracksuits in public.

So if you are planning on a tree-change to the outer-urban fringe, as several of my friends are, remember this:

1) Once you leave the urban property market, you may never be able to re-enter it.
2) If you’re moving to save money, and you only go an hour or two from the city, I doubt the relatively small savings on your cost of living and/or your mortgage will be worth the trade-off. This goes double if you are planning to commute from your now distant location.
3) The thrill of a move away from the crowded, over-priced, hectic lifestyle will eventually wear off and you may then regret leaving the diversity, opportunities and energy a city usually delivers.
4) People who love you will miss you.

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16Jun / 2011

If you really must swear at your children…

I don’t think there is ever a need to swear at your kids.

And judging by the looks some of my friends give me, I am no soft touch as a parent.

Really, if you’re using the F-word to express yourself to a toddler, you may be too lazy/full of rage to realise it will teach them little more than how to say the F-word.

That said (or not), I would like to condone this classic take on a bit of bedtime reading.

Samuel L. Jackson Reads ‘Go The F**k To Sleep’ [VIDEO]

It’s Tarantino meets Miffy.

You should probably only listen to this once the kids have actually entered R.E.M., unless of course, you’re a soft touch and your kids already know Jackson’s work.

[LANGUAGE WARNING]

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11Jun / 2011

My Top 13 Chrome Extensions for Social Media Managers (and addicts)

Here’s one for the social media professionals, potentially social media addicts and the Google Geeks.

I now cannot work anywhere without my favourite browser Chrome.

Extensions are the little and mostly free add-ons that help streamline repetitive tasks spectacularly as I work daily across social media and web content. For mem they have replaced shortcuts, bookmarks and bookmarklets.

1. Send from Gmail
Awesomeness incorporated. You can select text and mail it. Or just mail the link and a pop-up window does the rest. I use this twenty times a day.

2. Awesome Screenshot
Annotate screenshots, select area, visible or full page, add text, circles, lines, arrows in an instant. then save. Shame you can’t email.

3. Session Manager.

Save all current tabs and reopen them later. SImple. Classy. Perfect if you are like ame and regularly open twelve tabs then need to swap computers or just save some RAM.

4. Evernote.
This is essential for any notetaker. Clips pages,pics, selected text,full pages. And keeps them forever, and they are searchable. Handiest for keeping a record of online transactions.

5. One Password
Inserts your password on any given page, saves all of them securely and generates fancy ones you wil never remember – but hackers can’t guess them. Win-Win! (You won’t find this in the store. Must buy the One Password program first. )

6. Google News

Expandable headlines should be the future. It’s the best thing HTML5 ever brought us. You want to read more, just click the headline & there’s the story! Sure, lists are ugly but have you seen most news sites lately? This works great with customisable news searches, syncs with your google account and updates download constantly.

7. Facebook
This needs work. The quick look at messages and updates is not a good enough replacement for the website because it pretty much is the website but with side navigation be fewer features. It’s also buggy and wasn’t activating when I went to get a screenshot. Keep at it Zuck.

8. Chrome It Later

Clips any page or selection to your Read it Later account, which syncs with my iPhone app to give me lunchtime or railtime reading. (Perfect for reading offline on trains when you lose connectivity.) I used to change the settings pane so I could add tags but now I don’t bother as I read most on the same day.

9. AdBlock

The most popular of all Chrome extensions, they claim. I never need to click this unless I notice this effective ad-blocker has removed some other valuable element by accident. Which is rare because ad-blocking works! I own three!

10. Bit.ly link shortener

Every social media manager needs this. I am regularly involved in five twitter accounts – only one of which is personal, so tweaks for quick tweeting are essential. This is like THE swiss army knife extension for twitter. It allows text clipping, multiple accounts, copies the link to your clipboard, and has a genius right-click menu feature that takes any link, shortens it & copies it to your clipboard. Sharing, tweeting & tracking of links was never supposed to be this easy!! Get it. No questions.

11. Mashable

Could be improved but gives you the latest tech and social media stories at a glance. The real estate is used poorly which makes the whole thing a bit of a let down. Alas, there are two mashable extensions – get the one with expandable lists of headlines.

12. Picasa

Don’t use this, why is it there? How often do you want to browse your own galleries on this underpowered version of flickr? It shows up comments. Has anyone ever commented on your Picasa albums. Did you even know they could?

13. Huffington Post

HuffPo is an unstoppable news source and aggregator specialising in viral content and political sex scandals. This extension gives handy, quick navigation of top stories in each category – which sure beats using their convoluted website (although NewsGlide makes it feel like you’re on an iPad. Much cooler).

——-

So there they are. I haven’t spent hours searching out the best but of those I have come across and used, these have stayed undeleted longer than most!

Oh, nearly forgot.

Those indictors in the address bar include two last good extensions.

The first one is an instant Google Reader RSS Subscriber that grabs any RSS and with one click adds it to your Google Reader list. You can even select the folder it should enter.

The light bulb is called Turn Off The Lights. Click it while watching video or slideshow and it cleverly dims the rest of the screen for a sexier viewing experience. Like many of these extensions, it’s great but you need to remember it’s there and to use it.

I am still yet to see a great extension for flickr or Tumblr, but I’m sure one is coming.

Next up… I must learn how to sync my extensions across multiple computers.

Which extensions do you rely on? Which obvious ones am I missing? Please share, by using your Send from Gmail extension, of course.

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08Jun / 2011

A Book Review: Sydney by Delia Falconer

cover of Sydney Delia Falconer

When I recently returned home from overseas – a five week stint in Europe and the UK – I felt immensely proud of Sydney and glad to be home.

But I was aware that this feeling was, in part, artificial. I knew what I really liked was the familiarity. Travelling abroad, for me at least, is like the discomfort you feel having to drive someone else’s car or use their pantry. From the first day back I wanted to embrace the inner west, smell Glebe’s dankness, gaze wistfully from the Anzac Bridge and have a brilliant Newtown coffee.

So when I saw this book and read a few paragraphs in Kinokuniya, it suited my state of mind – I wanted to know what made Sydney a shiny world-class city but also to understand how it differed from the other grand metropolises of the world.

Sydney answered my first desire wonderfully. (Just like when you visit Manly and always think these people have it all! It’s like always being on holiday!) And for many good reasons, I’m certain, the book avoided the comparisons of my second desire. (Ten minutes on the corso and you want out.)

Sydney, Delia suggests, is a mass of contradictions, all revolving around a central failing that it wants beauty but more readily embraces ugliness; It’s urge is to play and be playful but it is in fact an angry workaholic, Sydney delights in the finer points of life but also adores debauchery. Delia has a point. She has many and perhaps too many. There are myriad metaphors for Sydney and she writes with a colour that does the metropolitan area proud, but, like Darling Harbour, she just tries a bit too hard.

The author has an intriguing history herself and perhaps because of that, she feels at one with Sydney in many deeply profound ways. She grew up playing with the kids of Brett Whiteley and her parents knew Patrick White. She seems like something of a socialite but thankfully doesn’t get too high-brow on the reader. (She’s the Chatswood of writers.)

Delia has many fascinating sidelines about how our city functions and its people oscillate around our festivals and routines. She exposes our bigotry and our generosity equally. She draws on Kenneth Slessor’s great old poems and splices little known colonial history with recent memories.

Towards the end of the book, it all starts to unravel – like when Anzac Parade reaches La Perouse “Where are we?” I remember thinking. “It’s Mad Max meets Blacktown!” – and the book’s editor’s get sloppy as the author starts navel-gazing.

Maybe it’s all supposed to resemble a walk across the Harbour Bridge. It begins wonderfully, then half way along you realise the fences spoil the view and by the end you think it’d be fabulous if they’d just finished it right.

Other notes
Delia Falconer is the author of two novels, The Service of Clouds and The Lost Thoughts of Soldiers; both were shortlisted for major Australian and international awards, including the Miles Franklin and Commonwealth Prize.

Get Sydney at Boomerang Books

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06Jun / 2011

Pippa Middleton attacked by zombie!

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24May / 2011

Japanese boy. Gold manbag.

I may submit this pic to my favourite (only) fashion iPhone app, ‘Street Snaps’.

Only, I think most people in those pics knew they were being photographed.

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Buckleup's Blog

Caption Contest! KRudd meets Suu Kyi

Best and Worst of John Farnham’s Hair

Nine of my favourite Blue Mountains activities

Paying for your Tree-Change

If you really must swear at your children…

A Book Review: Sydney by Delia Falconer

Pippa Middleton attacked by zombie!

Japanese boy. Gold manbag.

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