Last week I ran part 1 of the Social Interview during which I gave away a free copy of SEO Secrets kindly donated by Glenn Murray of Divine Write.
Part 2 of the Social Interview is here now and this time the prize is a free copy of Thesis premium WordPress theme valued at $87 from DIYThemes.
How to win a free copy of Thesis WordPress theme
To be in the running to win the copy of Thesis that is up for grabs all you have to do is write an answer to one of the following community submitted questions. Your answer can be submitted as a comment on this blog post, or as a post on your own blog linking to this post (make sure you leave a comment linking to your post so it isn’t missed).
You don’t need to be the first to answer a particular question to be in the running. The more answers we get for each question the better.
Answer one of these questions to be in the running
These are the questions submitted by the community in part 1 of the Social Interview. You can answer one or more of them to enter in the running to win the prize. Each question you answer counts as an entry.
- Which industries does twitter work best and worst for and why?
- Will Twitter overtake standard texting?
- What do you see as the benefits of Facebook connect and Google Friend Connect to the installing site?
- What is the best way to leverage Twitter and your blog to promote conversation with followers?
- How are companies successfully using Twitter and blogs to promote a conversation with their customers? Examples?
- What are the best ways to manage your time with Twitter and Facebook without letting it take over the day?
- What are the essential tools for Twitter management?
- How do you maximize your effectiveness on Twitter? Do you focus on particular times of day, or tweet throughout your day?
- How much time do you spend gathering information to tweet and what methodology is your preference?
- Do you even bother trying to address controversies or misperceptions when they come up on Twitter?
- What are your top 3 suggestions for getting started/organized on twitter?
- How do you position yourself as an expert in your field on Twitter without appearing like a one-dimensional product pusher?
- Should I chose SEO or Online Marketing as a career?
- How do you choose a WordPress theme for a personal blog?
- Is it safe to change default directory name “wp-content” to some other name when starting a WP blog?
- How do you manage running several blogs at once – I have ideas for a couple of blog projects but don’t seem to have the time to get them get them off the ground.
- What is the best way to find a blogging partner?
What if you don’t know the answer to any of these questions?
Don’t be discouraged if you aren’t sure your answer is correct. By submitting your answers you will help stimulate discussion and you might be surprised just how helpful your answer is to others.
If you don’t want to answer one of the questions you can just write a blog post about this prize giveaway and link back to my post here. Your trackback will count as an entry.
The competition closes in one week so don’t miss out
The closing date for entries into the prize draw is midnight on Tuesday 3rd February AEST (GMT+10:00).
Subscribe to my RSS feed or follow me on Twitter to stay up to date with the competition and find out who wins.
If you found this post useful please leave a comment below. To receive new blog posts automatically subscribe for free to the mailing list or RSS feed.
{ 22 comments… read them below or add one }
“What is the best way to leverage Twitter and your blog to promote conversation with followers?”
These go hand-in-hand! I use Tweetdeck to monitor certain topics of conversation (for instance I see every time the phrase “health insurance,” “life insurance,” “medical insurance,” or “health coverage” is tweeted). That way, I can keep track of common trends and questions popping up in my industry. I’ll answer a few of these questions, start a conversation about them, and before you know it I have the foundation for a great article or blog post!
Then that goes on to build on itself, too. My blog posts can serve as answers to questions other tweeple might have, which starts a new conversation, and might lead to another article idea. The moral is: watch what people are already talking about, insert yourself into these conversations, and become their reference!
Thesis is an awesome theme – great choice for a prize. We just put up a review looking at how powerful Thesis is for web developers so check it out here and then enter the competition.
As for me, I’m not sure if Twitter will replace SMS anytime soon – at least not here in the land down under!
Will Twitter overtake standard texting?
hellll no. Right now twitter is for technically inclined people only. 0% of my school friends use it adn thus i cannot use it to communicate with them via sms like normal. Furthermore, the dm options are limited and bulky. Its too to send a regular tweet when you meant to dm, meaning the personal nature of tet messaging is not possible with twitter.
“What are the best ways to manage your time with Twitter and Facebook without letting it take over the day?”
I resist the urge to feel like I have to read every tweet. I am on twitter for the periods of time that it suits me. Sometimes I skim, sometimes I read more in depth. I also run Tweetdeck on my mac at home and have a group of people I’m most keen to keep a close eye on.
I fI miss something that is big news, I’m sure to catch it some other way.
What are the essential tools for Twitter management?
Tweetdeck is my first tool of choice for Twitter management because it lays out on one screen
If you want to run more than one Twitter account at a time Twhirl gives you that flexibility and in the newest alpha version it integrates Seesmic which is cool.
Finally, Kerplunk which is also in alpha offers all kinds of great functionality but still needs some work is something to keep your eye on.
How are companies successfully using Twitter and blogs to promote a conversation with their customers? Examples?
Mainly via customer support. Everyone knows standard customer support chains are terrible, companies like godaddy make the experience much better through twitter. I’m on there anyway, so why not get my issues settled while socializing. In additon, companies like @SocialScope use it to communicate with their users about planned donwtimes.
What are your top 3 suggestions for getting started/organized on twitter?
1. Getting started on Twitter usually happens because someone you know is there and is sending out twits that you want to know. Great, but remember that Twitter can be like an all-you-can-eat buffet–way too much to put on one plate for one sitting. Be a little picky and add those to follow carefully, as you figure out what you really want. Your plate can get full really quickly and then you’ll lose your appetite.
2. Search for friends and take a look at who they are following. Be skeptical of those who follow over 50, and ignore those who follow over 100. Decide if you are going to follow someone who is uber-popular (has followers numbering in the thousands) is putting out useful info or just filling the twitter cloud with 140 character bursts of “info-flak”.
3. Find your own Twitter-Rhythm. Some seemingly Tweet every time they go to the bathroom. (Particularly true of those selling something) Others go too long between updates and its possible they expired since their last update. Share something big or small, just don’t share everything at all. Consider Twitter as the “personal ticker” of your life. Imagine it as your own version of those words that crawl across the bottom of the screen of every cable news channel.
15: Is it safe to change default directory name “wp-content” to some other name when starting a WP blog?
It most certainly is. Doing this allows you to store media/plugins/themes on a separate server orCDN and has the added benefit of letting you manage your wordpress install without worrying about accidentally deleting all those photos you’ve uploaded over the past, what, 2 or 3 years?
That aside, I think more people (especially developers and anyone in charge of maintenance of one more more WP blogs) should install Wordpress via subversion checkout.
How do you choose a Wordpress theme for a personal blog?
I would consider my purpose and audience when looking at a theme. Is it easy to navigate and does the blog design help me fulfill its purpose? Most audiences want to find information and most bloggers want their site to be found.
How do you choose a Wordpress theme for a personal blog?
There are so many Wordpress themes available i can see how it would be a challenge to pick just one. Let alone the right one. But the beauty of Wordpress, is that you can literally try the themes on for size before you fully commit to one.
I would start with the questions below:
1. What overall impression are you wanting to pass along?
2. Are you wanting something flashy and busy? Or something sleek and minimalistic?
3. What about SEO? Some themes have functions built into it (like Thesis) that help with search engine optimization.
4. Are you technically inclined? Some themes are simple and straight out of the box simple. Others require some HTML tweaking.
You will want to consider the aspects above before deciding on a Wordpress theme for your blog. When you find “the one”, you will know.
I see Green Panda beat me to this question by 19 minutes. I was writing my response while he/she was, as well. Just had to clarify this, as i hate when people don’t show originality.
What are your top 3 suggestions for getting started/organized on twitter?
1) If you want to be an active Twitter user, you most plan your time accordingly. At first, Twitter would take HOURS out of my days, which was extremely beneficial and detrimental at the same time. The wealth of knowledge gained from the awesome people is great, but the time lost from catering my responsibilities was becoming hard to manage, respectively. You must learn that you don’t have to read every Tweet! Using tools like TweetDeck will allow you to manage groups of people to follow casually, and professionally.
2) Plan to be productive, follow the people that inspire you, and don’t post everything you do in your life. Keep it even, and interesting for people.
3) Twitter, as I said, is an amazing source of information. Do your research and acquaint yourself with those that can help you, and help them in return. Tools like TweetDeck allow you to create groups so you can keep track of certain people’s updates if they’re posting a series of Tweets.
Bonus – Other useful Twitter Apps:
Desktop: DestroyTwitter, Twhirl
iPhone: Tweetie, TwitterFon, Twitterrific
See you on Twitter! :)
2.Will Twitter overtake standard texting?
From my point of view Twitter is good alternative to text messages because it is fast(everything you write down is shown right the way), flexible(there are many possibilities how to “tweet” like different application, web pages etc.) and also it is great “micro-blog”. So it is not only good for communication between 2 people but it is effective way to spread your ideas around the wourld. Actually really lots of people are included in this “tweeting” session.
7. What are the essential tools for Twitter management?
There are really many tools which can you use. The great thing is you can
have one on your PC, one on mobile and also on the web(alternative to originall Twitter site is ex.itweet.net) anytime and anywhere you need it. My hilights are: Twhirl, Twitter Mobile, feedalizr, Twitterrific and also services: twitpic, Twitter Feed, Tweet Scan, Twitter PollDaddy, Twitter Response, Quotably , TwitterReply or twitturly, twuffer(you can easilly find them on the Google and they are worth of it, have a look) and many others.
14. How do you choose a Wordpress theme for a personal blog?
- it must be clean in matter of code (no rubbish “extra” code) and also layout must be pretty clean
- built-in SEO
- good looking but not messy
- lot of options and customizations
- easy implementation of my own features and improvments
- smooth upgrading(ex. you can move your customization files without recoding all the theme)
- community around it and under active development
- not necessarily for free when there is great active support and new versions and addons on the way
- it must fit to the newest WP and use its capabilites
Tweet yourself ;)
“# What are your top 3 suggestions for getting started/organized on twitter?”
1: signup
2: login
3: use it
:-D
How much time do you spend gathering information to tweet and what methodology is your preference?
Google Alerts. I choose the most interesting results from the Alerts, and tweet them.
I asked this question so I will respond to Missy’s response:
How do you choose a Wordpress theme for a personal blog?
There are so many Wordpress themes available I can see how it would be a challenge to pick just one. Let alone the right one. But the beauty of Wordpress, is that you can literally try the themes on for size before you fully commit to one.
I would start with the questions below:
1. What overall impression are you wanting to pass along?
Um, no idea.
2. Are you wanting something flashy and busy? Or something sleek and minimalistic?
Sleek and minimalistic. I already have a colorful banner.
3. What about SEO? Some themes have functions built into it (like Thesis) that help with search engine optimization.
Yes, I would like SEO functions.
4. Are you technically inclined? Some themes are simple and straight out of the box simple. Others require some HTML tweaking.
Not at all. Nor am I design-inclined.
You will want to consider the aspects above before deciding on a Wordpress theme for your blog. When you find “the one”, you will know.
But I won’t know whether it’s missing features I need. For instance, I just learned that it would be hard to place ads if I use flexible-width columns.
Thanks for your thoughts also, Green Panda.
Hi, Mother In Israel:
Each wordpress theme is so unique it is hard to generalize them. But most allow for the inclusion of ads. Ads can be placed a variety of ways, including widgets, tweaking of the htmp code, and plugins.
Some themes have placeholders in where you simply drop the ad code in it. But as i said, each one varies. If ad placement is a concern for you, i would keep this in mind, when scouting out themes.
But most themes allow for this and quite easily. If you need help with placing ads on (whichever wp theme) you choose, shoot me an email. I would be glad to help.
What are the best ways to manage your time with Twitter and Facebook without letting it take over the day?
Use a social network aware application like Flock. With something like that you can glance over at updates for services like Twitter or Facebook and not have to visit directly. Keeps you from wandering off on sites and wasting time you weren’t expecting to.
Are Yes…. The give away catch questions of CraneFactory.
14. How do you choose a Wordpress theme for a personal blog?
A. It must have a crisp and clean look, with tidy graphics. My preferance is that even the font is crisp and the theme is easy to work with.
Answer to #8:
I have found that I cannot simply concentrate on a particular time of day to be effective with Twitter. The people I follow and those who follow me are spread throughout the world, so when it’s morning for me it may very well be evening for some of them and vice versa. If I were to just focus on one time period I would be losing contact with those in my network so I spread my usage throughout the day and try to connect with as many people as I can.
Thanks everyone for your participation, it was a lot of run running this giveaway.
I’m looking for a 980 pixel wide wordpress template with:
Approximately:
200 px left column
480 px center column
300 px right column
Tabbed horizontal Navigation
Widget Friendly
WP 2.7 Friendly
Email me if you have a source; thanks
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