Communicating on Twitter

By Rob on May 16, 2013

There seems to still be a lot of confusion on how to properly communicate on Twitter.

I’m not talking about social norms or how to be a Twitter guru/rock star/enlightened individual; this is more specific than that.

Not a day goes by where I don’t see people misunderstand how to tweet directly at someone versus how to publicly reply.

Exhibit A – The Direct Tweet:

In the above example, the only people who can see those tweets are people who follow both me and the person I am tweeting at. Anyone who only follows me will not see that tweet in their public stream. They can click on my profile and see the tweet in my personal stream, but it will not stream publicly.  DO NOT CONFUSE THIS FOR BEING A PRIVATE MESSAGE!!! Many a political career has been ruined by various dick pics being sent via this method thought to be private.

If you’re sending pics of your junk, please send them only via “DM.” But even then, it’s probably best to avoid altogether.

Exhibit B – The Public Tweet:

You might be looking at example B and are thinking… “But Rob, that looks almost identical to exhibit A! What could possibly be different?”

That teeny little “.” before the @username makes all the difference in the world.

This tweet is now visible to anyone that follows me in the public stream. It doesn’t matter what symbol you choose, but the period is most common.

Common uses for this:

  • Giving someone public attention
  • Shaming someone publicly

Recap:

This compliment to @stentontoledo, while always welcome, will not complete it’s intended purpose! Clearly this person wants to direct more people toward my amazing Twitter account, but alas has failed because the only people who will see that are already following both of us.

This tweet will do the trick! Note the small period that allows the tweet to stream to all of your followers who will flock like the salmon of Capistrano to my Twitter account.

Looking for some practice? Feel free to shoot some tweets my way and I will critique them rigorously.

 

 

 

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What Being on Shitbound.org Taught Me About SEO

By Rob on May 8, 2013

Build marriages.

Ingrown marketing.

Fire your consultants.

Put bread on your client’s tables, LITERALLY.

So meta

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The VC’s Prayer

By Rob on May 6, 2013

“Our investor, who art in Frisco,

Hallowed be thy funding.

Thy investment come,

Thy seed be done,

As series A as it is in B.

Give us this day, our valuation

And forgive us our bad hires

As we forgive co-founders who bail out on us,

And lead us not into early exits,

But deliver us from implosion

For thine is the Dropbox,

The Stripe, and the Airbnb,

Forever and ever,

Paul Graham”

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How to Rank #1 on Google, Guaranteed

By Rob on April 4, 2013

UPDATE #2 : It appears a brilliant mind existed well before mine — Sean Revell — tip of the hat, good sir – http://01100111011001010110010101101011.co.uk/2012/01/i-am-the-rank-king/

UPDATE : The proof is in the pudding, people:

———————————————————–

I’m not much of a snake oil salesman, however, I figured out  a way to rank #1 on Google, guaranteed. I’m so sure of my new system that I’m not even going to charge for this excellent advice.

I have no idea who these people are, but they seem legit!

First, you’re going to need a website. Any website will do, but it will need to be yours, as studies have shown it is unlikely your website will rank in the SERPs if, in fact, you do not actually have a site.

Got one set up? Great… keep reading.

Second, you’ll need to create a new page or blog post. Make sure you don’t accidentally noindex it; that will void all the warranties and guarantees that come with this advice.

Third, type seven random words on this page, ideally with proper HTML. The key is they have to be random, no sentences, no long tail search terms, no phrases, nothing but gibberish.

Examples:

  • Banana chalk prototype fighter grainy periwinkle horn
  • Alphabet beta plausibility gorilla cereal telephone tripping
  • Fun ripped quasar yellow nostalgic crisis zipper
  • Documentation forking heater baseball radio government mouse
Point a link from the homepage of your website toward this new page with the exact phrase as the hyperlink text. Once again, double check you’re not noindexing the page, or nofollowing this link.

Lastly, press my Get Links button.

I guarantee that within two weeks you will be ranking for your random phrase in the #1 position of all search engines or I will personally apologize for your misfortune on Twitter.

I’ll never understand why people think this SEO thing is so hard…

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/r/NFL has quickly become the best sports discussion forum on the web

By Rob on February 8, 2013

With another NFL season coming to a close, I have to say, this was one of the best.

No, not because of the Ravens winning; a team that I’m relatively impartial toward.

No, not because the Hawks look like they’ve really formed a complete Superb Owl contending team for at least the next season or two, especially with the reincarnation of Christ as their QB.

courtesy of Grantland

And certainly nothing to do with my fantasy football performance, as I ended up at or near the cellar in every league I was in this year. Thanks a lot to a complete cluster of unpredictable run games.

So what made this season the best?

It was actually mostly due to my joining /r/NFL on reddit at the recommendation of another friend after I had complained how absolutely terrible the comments section was on most major sport sites.

At first glance it looks like your average subreddit, with minimal design and customization. However, if you spend a few minutes poking through comment threads and weekly scheduled posts, you’ll quickly realize that this is one of the best moderated and “fan-owned” forums on the web. With everyone allowed to select their team’s “flair,” it’s easy to see the flow of conversation and understand the reasoning behind what is being said.

I feel that a successful subreddit must meet a few requirements:

  • Good moderation that isn’t overbearing
  • Dedicated membership
  • A self-policing audience

/r/NFL meets all of these things and more.

A few examples:

  • Weekly trash-talk threads allow people to let it all hang out to dry. These threads are dedicated to all the comments one might harbor in a room full of family and friends while watching Sunday’s best. Eventually, they need to be dumped somewhere, and these threads allow for that to happen.
  • Weekly betting threads that are more just for shits and giggles. People bet all sorts of crazy stuff, sometimes resulting in embarrassing photos, donations to charities or renouncing your favorite team for a week. I wouldn’t risk not following through either, as it’s likely you’ll get called out in the following week.
  • Each game has it’s own thread where the conversation is focused to avoid hundreds of threads starting surrounding the same topic.
  • There is relatively little flaming between members. While little squabbles break out from time to time, they’re very rarely the focal point of any major discussions in the forum.

If you’re anywhere near as big of a football fan as me, I highly suggest you subscribe.

So until next year…. here’s a 35 minute highlight reel of the 2012 season:

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