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Guest Post on Pixability

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Our President Raul Colon was invited to post on the Pixability Corporate Blog.

Over-planning and Doing Nothing

We want to thank Yelena Kadeykina for inviting Raul to post on their blog.

Who Is Pixability?

Founded out of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Pixability brings together talented video experts from the broadcast world. Our craftsmanship and tech wizardry consistently thrills customers. Because our business depends on word of mouth, we work like crazy to exceed your expectations.

If you need help with editing or creating video feel free to contact the @pixability team.

How to Define a Hashtag!

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Twitter Hashtag used to fuel a Party!

Continuing my previous post on the use of Hashtags I will go a bit more into detail into figuring out what a Hashtag is used for and there meanings.
On many ocassions your are browsign thru Twitter and you identify a hashtag which you might not be familiar with. This happens to me on many ocassions. If it comes from a source I trust I normally either ask them to explain wha t hte hashtag is used for or I try to find out for myself. There are various sites which might help you identify the hashtags meaning and provide you more detailed information on the Hashtag.
I have identified the 4 that I know of (if you have identified other Tools or sites which do a better job than the ones I have included feel more than free to include them in the comments area.
This Post is also available in Spanish

What the Trend – Very complete it has the following areas:

  • Leaderboard
  • Definition of Terms
  • Adding a Trend
  • Week in Review
  • Trends segmented by Countries.

Twubs – Very appealing interface. In the front page you can find popular terms, conference hashtags, featured, and various categories.  Other features throughout the site include:

  • Search of hashtags and terms
  • Definition of terms.
  • Adding a Term or Trend
  • You can also send a tweet, shorten url, and also include video.

Hashtags.org – Very simple includes search box which will give you a the term, a list, and a trends graph.

Tagalus – Very simple.

  • Get and set definitions
  • Includes a dictionary
  • Identifies tags in Twitter, Youtube, & Flickr

What hashtags have you found interesting today or this week?

How often do you use hashtags and what for?

Feel free to share your thoughts?

3 Ways To Make Your Keywords Useful On Twitter

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Hashtag Art

The Hashtag is one of the most useful Tools Twitter has given many of us. It is also where many new twitter users have many questions the hashtags use and purpose.

For those of you who are not familiar with the hashtag term on twitter it is a word or united phrase that starts with the # Symbol.

During the next few blog posts I will try to cover #hashtags from my perspective.

I am going to start by sharing the 3 main uses of the hashtag! If I missed a main use of hashtags or any other feel free to add them in the comments area.

Organizing

It is easier to find a topic in a search when the # symbol is attached. Attaching it also increases the probability of having it appear on Twitter Trends. The Hashtag also creates a link to Twitter Search. In general it can allow you to group people talking on a subject via Twiter. A good example is when conducting a chat with various people a chat where I try to join when I have the time is the #hprchat & #Latism chats. You meet great people and they talk about many subjects.

Spreading Information

If you need share information of current or future events like conferences, emergencies, seminars, or a sale a hashtag should help you in creating interest about the same subject. During the Chile Earthquake I was able to convey information from Puerto Rico to various regions of Chile. We made such great progress our blog on Twitter use @twitpuerto was featured by @foxnews as a reliable source.

In the following posts I will go into more detail on how to use hashtags for Business events. I also think that @chrismessina credited with starting hashtags wrote an awesome guide on how to use Twitter hashtags for emergency coordination and disaster relief.

Nagios based Monitoring wall in the NOC

Monitoring

I use hashtags the most for monitoring and keeping up to date on some of the efforts I collaborate in. One of the most use hashtags is the #Followfriday ( I mainly track this hashtag on Fridays since I am part of the Followfriday.com Moderators). It can be a useful hashtag if used right.

I also stay up to date with the hashtag #Latism since it has provided me with great information and a huge community of contacts outside of Puerto Rico with similar interests to mine.

One of the most interesting and fun hashtags I discovered (thanks to my Twitter Friend @karimacatherine) and have used frequently is #USGUYS . If you use #USGUYS at any moment a few individuals like me will probably answer back and little by little people continue to join into the conversation. As a matter of fact use the #USGUYS right now and probability is someone will answer back.

I will cover how I use hashtags for business and personal reasons (which in my case are the same) in the next following posts.

Speak up Share your thoughts in the comments area and thank you for taking the time to read this post!

Did I miss a general use of Hashtags? Feel free to add them along in the comments are?

If you wish to  read or share this article in Spanish we invite you  to visit Twitpuerto:

5 Reasons To Have Your Own Business Email Address

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Photo by _Superbeast_
I have always been against using third party free email account for business purposes.
Not only are there many security concerns ( I will leave the details for another Blog Post) it is really not practical.
On multiple occasions I have seen how a small business owner has been stopped on his tracks just because their gmail (or other 3rd party) email account cannot be accessed.
I usually send friendly reminders to my clients when I see them sending a message via there personal.

Sometimes when I am emailing via my blackberry I have (on more occasions than I would like to admit) sent an email from my gmail account.

When we establish a customer’s online presence either by developing a website or helping them with there social media strategy we make sure to move them into a domain controlled email.

 

 

Once I make a suggestion to quit using third party free email accounts I usually get interrogated.

 

Here are 5 main business reasons why we think you should not be using a third party free email account for your main business email account:

1. Unprofessional – It makes you look unprofessional and not to say cheap. You can buy a domain for no less than $15.00 dollars (one year registration) and even if you don’t build your website most domain registrars will grant you an complimentary email account which you can use.

2. Disconnection from Clients & Rest of the World – If you are account is compromised or blocked by a third party free service provider  it can take hours, days, or weeks for you to  regain access to your account. I know Google has improved greatly and it might take a few hours, but can you afford being disconnected from email and your clients for a few hours.

3. Risk of Impersonators – If your customers or providers are use to seeing a third party email not linked to your domain anyone easily can create an email that is similar to your current email and establish contact with your business stakeholders and close contacts.

4. Missing out on Marketing Opportunity – Every time you hand your business card or share your email you give that person a direct link to your website. Most people will have the curiosity and browse over your website.

5. Limited Control on Your Privacy – Protecting customer information is more important than what most people would think. We would you sacrifice your customer information or much less your own. Using these third party free email apps you are restricted to there use and privacy policy and so is the information you share with your stakeholders.

There are many options when it comes to  creating your own business email accounts without missing out on the all the benefits. If you have any questions feel free to leave a comment below.