Today is Twitter’s fourth birthday, and to celebrate the occasion we asked our Twitter followers: “Let us know how Twitter changed your life – add hashtag #thankstwitter4 so we can find your tweet.”

We got thousands of responses — in fact, #thankstwitter4 has become a trending topic. As promised, we did our best to sift through the tweets and find 140 that represent the Twitter zeitgeist as we enter the social network’s fourth year. Below are our selections, split up into categories or sentiments that we noticed were particularly common.

Consider this Twitter’s birthday picture at age four. Is it cute or is it ugly? You decide!

Continue reading…

It is about that time where college students become graduates. With graduation around the corner, are you ready to put your best foot forward in your next job interview?

I’m getting a lot of personal website requests from students worrying about getting their name out and making a good impression on their potential employers. Do you have a website that displays your best work and your resume? Well lets step back. Do you even have a resume? If not, I compiled a list of steps to keep up with with the latest tactics in landing your first job!

Step 1: Start with the basics. Create your paper resume. Remember that employers get piles and piles of these darn things, so keep it simple, well-written, and to the point. If you don’t have much to put down yet, don’t add fluff.
Great starting points- vault.com, about.com

Step 2: If you want a professional job, act the part. Get your thoughts organized. I posted a video on productivity. There are many resources on the internet about productivity. Also reading up on articles within your industry helps your keep in that mindset and stay focused. The power of Google!

Step 3: Start creating your online presence and networks. There are so many social networking sites. They are all free. By joining these social networks, you can expand your network and also create a web presence. Join these websites and keep your message consistent.

• LinkedIn – Social networking for professionals. Expand your network and also allows you to get recommendations from your fellow professionals! Here is a nice article on how to use it!
• Facebook – Social networking. Stay connected with your friends, family, and people you meet along the way!
• Flickr – Photo sharing website.
• Twitter – Share you thoughts in 140 words or less with others you know or just meet!
• Mashable – Social bookmarking
• Delicious – Social bookmarking
• StumbleUpon – Social bookmarking
• Tumblr – Easy blogging Tumbling!

Look at all the social networks there are!

Step 4: Create a business card. You can create free business cards at vistaprint. I personally would suggest investing in nice business cards once you have a good design in mind. You can also get them done at vistaprint. I’m sure you’ve all seen this video if you have been looking at making a business card.

Step 5: Create a website. Key things to have on your website are: resume, about you, your best work, way of contacting and connecting with you. Be sure to link all the social networks you joined! You can easily make a website yourself using such tools as google sites or weebly.

Step 6: Advertise yourself! Start passing out your business card, start talking up your twitter/social networking sites, start blogging, do whatever you need to do to get your name out there!

Let me know what you think! And be sure to follow my tweets @ryanscottlum

I first noticed this when Ashton Kutcher hit his 1 million follower mark. What are we doing on Twitter? Has it become another social media platform that is meerly an ego boost for those who can gain as many followers as possible? Was Twitter ever what it was meant to be?

A couple weeks ago, @aplusk (ashton kutcher) challenged CNN to see who could hit 1 million followers first. What was the point of this? There was none.

April 16th, 2009 – Ashton Wins the bet with CNN and hits 1 MILLION followers.

Now before I start this article. I want to mention that Ashton used this publicity for the better and started a campaign to save people with malaria.

However, I question the purpose of twitter. With such “programs” as #followfridays (every friday users can suggest to their followers other tweeps who they think their audience should follow as well), twitter seems like a get more friends fast website. I tried the #followfridays and noticed people were suggesting tweeps without even saying why. I had random people RT (retweeting) my account just for the meer reason they wanted to be apart of it.

I started using Analytics to see if more followers = more feedback and connections.

From my results, I found that yes, more followers = CAN mean more people to follow what you have to say and click on your links. However, is quantity better than quality?

I found that if I were to direct message, retweet, and actually connect with my followers, I had a better turnout rate for those actually clicking and viewing what I had to say.
Before you go out following everyone and participating in mass follow programs, I’d like you to think about this.

What brand are you building on twitter?

Below are some interesting tools and twitter resources! Be sure to comment below if you have some suggestions and please share this article if you liked it!

Also add me on twitter! @ryanscottlum

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http://bit.ly/ – Shorten your twitter links to meet the 140 restrictions AND get analytics on WHO clicks YOUR links!
http://twitter.grader.com/ See how you rank among those in your interest!
http://justtweetit.com/ Twitter user directory and some neat tools!
http://friendorfollow.com/ Hate when someone follows you then un-follows? Check here to see who stopped following you!

The views of Ryan Scott Lum does not reflect the views of Infiniden.