What is RETWEET in Twitter? Best use of RT explained

Thought of writing this after seeing the pathetic situations in Twitter-sphere where newbies disgrace themselves by doing whats not right.

Here is the explanation...

There are two groups of people for you on Twitter

1. Following
People who you follow

2. Followers
People who follow you

What you see in your timeline are from "following" - The people you follow on Twitter. In Retweeting what you are going to do is to post a tweet from your 1. Following to 2. Followers.

In Facebook language (You cannot compare- But since you are more familiar with Facebook)
It is same like copying one of your friends Facebook status (Some call it stealing) and putting it as your status.

What to Retweet?
You should retweet what you want to tell your friends. Its usually interesting tweets, quotes and announcements.

What not to Retweet?
You shouldnt retweet what you find interesting but will not be suitable for your followers.
For e.g. Your friend says she is sick (Its like LIKING a facebook status of a friend getting sick) - You dont RT that. But if Lady Gaga says she is sick - its ok to RT and tell your followers that Gaga is sick. (its like telling people that you know about your celebrities.)

Common mistakes in RTing
When RTing sometimes space becomes a constraint since RT @originalTweep takes extra space. When trying to clear out space sometimes you remove the space between RT & @Twitterhandle. For e.g.

Wrong - RT@ciminfo: How do you identify who your high performers are in sales and marketing? http://goo.gl/7U33r [PDF] #CIMtoolkit 

Correct - RT @ciminfo: How do you identify who your high performers are in sales and marketing? http://goo.gl/7U33r [PDF] #CIMtoolkit

How to make your content RTed more, and the magic RT number is coming up - Follow the blog to find out!

Please feel free to comment with what you feel about how your followers use RT good and in bad ways....

Girls Facebook Status - I'm going to live in X for Y months

Today morning another lame attempt by girls was decoded by a set of intelligent men (Thanks DimSam) and asked me to post in my blog so the guys will not fall for it and rush to comment (And maybe inbox to say what they wanted to say for a long time - "Good bye" - WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?)

Basically it is

"I'm going to live in (month you were born in [see below]) for (day you were born on) months"

January - Mexico
February - London
March - Miami
April - Dominican Republic
May - France
June - St. Petersburg
July - Austria
August - Germany
September - New York
October - Amsterdam
November - Las Vegas
December - Columbia

This is lame for several reasons
1. It is decoded
This is another lame girl attempt after the "I like it in X" status which was also decoded like in - what? 5 mins? Also implies the girls incapability of keeping a secret for more than an hour ( ♬ ♭♫ Click Five - Just The Girl ♫ ♩ ♬ ♮)

2. It is possible but improbable for a girl like you
Knowing that you haven't been to the shop outside home without your mom - Are we to believe you are actually going to Mexico? Laughing out loud - even at the thought of it.

3. We have already witnessed girls' general knowledge 
You say you are going to St.Petersburg? We know girls common sense and general knowledge is so good that you don't know that some of the above are not countries and you wont have a clue where they are located. So when you say you are going to Austria - We LOL - By the meaning of LOL.

Guys, comment below with more reasons and girls - TRY,i say again "TRY" to defend..try... :-P

෴ට්විටරය හැඳින්නෙමි෴ Twitter explained in Sinhala [Guest Post]

-නදීර අයියාගේ ඉල්ලීම පරිදි උපන් සිංහලෙන් දන්නා පරිදි ට්විටරය ගැන කොටමි-

ට්විටරය, සමාජ ජාලයකි. නෑ, මෙය සිරාම සමාජ ජාලයකි, කොල්ලො, කෙල්ලො, බල්ලො එකට ලැගුම් ගන්නා, කරන කියන හැම මඟුලම ලියා ආදරයෙන් වෙසෙන තැනකි. කොටින්ම, බොරු සෝබන නැත, ඇඩ් නැත, ගේම් නැත, උඩ බලාගෙන බොරු කෙටීමට චැට් නැත... හැමෝම තමන්ගෙ අදහස්, හැඟීම් අකුරු 140කට කැටි කොට අපූරුවට ලියයි.

කියන්නේ දැනගෙනය, ටක්කෙටම සහතිකය. බුකියේද කරක් ගසා නට්ටන් වී සිටි මට ට්විටරය හිතට වැදුනේය. ඉන්නේ ඇත්ත මිනිස්සුය, ඇත්ත අදහස්ය. කැමැති අකැමැති දේ පොදුවේ සාකච්ඡා වේ. හෑශ් ටැගියක්(#) ආධාරයෙන් මාතෘකාව සඳහන් කොට කියන්නට ඇවැසි දෑ බොක්කෙන්ම කියයි. @ සබැඳියක් මගින් ඔබේ යහලුවෙක් ට්වීටයක හඳහන් කල හැකිය.

බ්ලොගියක් ලියන්නෙක්නම් ට්විටරය සිරාම පොට් එකකි. බුකියේ අපි දමන ලින්ක් බලන්නේ අවාරෙට වගේය. නැත්තන් උන් ලින්කුවට ලැයුකුවක් කොටා ශේප් වී යයි. ට්විටරයේ එසේ නැත. බ්ලොගකරුවන් පිරී ඇති මෙහි ඔබේ බ්ලොගයටත් හොඳ තැනක් ලැබේ යැයි මට සහතිකේටම මෙව්වා විය හැක. එමෙන්ම ඔබේ බ්ලොගයට සමාන මාතෘකාවලින් බ්ලොග ලියන්නන් සොයා ගැනීමටත්, එම ක්ශේත්‍රවල පළපුරුදුකම් ඇති වෘතීය මට්ටමේ පුද්ගලයන් සමගද හොඳින් කථා කොට උපදෙස් ලබා ගත හැක.

මේ අතරම මෙහි ඉන්නා උන් සමඟ සෙට්වී ෆුල් මැටි ආතල් ගත හැක. ලියනා ට්වීට කියවීමට ආසය. සිරා යහලුවන් ඇතිකර ගත හැකිය. ඔපේට තැන දෙන බුකියට වඩා ඇත්ත මනුස්පයාට තැනදුන් ට්විටරය බොක්කෙන්ම සිරාය. ඔබේ ජීවිතයට ඇනයකට වඩා නියම විනෝදාස්වාදයක් හා දැනුම රැගෙන එන තැනක්ය.

මෙය කියවන ඔබට ට්විටර ගිණුමක් නැත්තන් අදම සාදා ගන්න. අපිත් එක්ක කදේ දාන්න එකතු වෙන්න.

ලියූ මගේ ට්විටර ගිණුම - @nHiRanZ නිමිල හිරණ්‍ය සමරසිංහ
Follow @nHiRanZ

මගේ බ්ලොගිය - www.sidhdiya.blogspot.com

එහෙනම් මම ගියා. නදීර අයියේ, ඔබට ජය!

Google vs Twitter : What really happened

Writing this after seeing lots of confusion over what all the debate is about and my good friend @chamindraH asking me to explain what's really going on. Making things super simple

What is Google?
Lame - but i personally know people who do not have an idea of whats going on. Google is the world's mostly used search engine (Where people go to find a web site based on a key word). Simply its like a library index catalogue if books in the library were web sites.

What is Twitter?
Is the 2nd largest social network after Facebook - But clearly different from Facebook since Twitter allows only text less than 140 characters per post. I have a full post introducing twitter. Click here

Recently Google announced they will integrate social (Google +) in to search results. And Twitter openly criticized Google for doing this. Here how it all started.

1. Google adds "Real Time" search -  2009 December
This was another Google results option like Images, Videos, News & Discussions. Real Time showed the Tweets talking about what you searched "real time" - then and there.

This was done after signing for a contract with twitter somewhere in 2009 October.

2. Twitter don't update the contract - July 2011 
I think for their ego - Twitter doesn't update the contract. I think the reason was that Twitter wanted users to come to Twitter and search instead of searching in Google.

3. Google takes down real time search results - July 2011 
Obvious - You can't keep something without a contract. So they take it down.

4. Google announces social results (Similar to real time) - Jan 2012
Social results are results shown from shares by your friends (in Google plus). For e.g. If you searched for "learning network analysis" you are shown results which your Google + friends have shared as given below.

5. Twitter slams google - Jan 2012
This week Twitter slammed Google saying they are going to spam search results with shared links.

My Opinion
What Twitter saying may be true. But they are just crying over spilled milk. If Google results are bad it will be an opportunity for Bing and Yahoo. What Twitter should try to do is to reactivate the Real time with Bing or Yahoo.

Whats your opinion? Feel free to comment below...

Brands Boutique in Sri Lanka - Review

Update : 
Address : No.299, Galle Rd, Colombo 03
Directions : In the Galle Road, about 250-300m from the Colpetty Junction in the land side.

Small review on branded clothing shop in Colpetty (Right in the Galle Rd - So easily accessible). I got this voucher from the daily deals site (word Best should come in front of daily deals site, let me do a separate post on that) - www.anything.lk for a H&M Denim and had to go collect it. As the name suggests clearly - its all about big brands. Quite high quality stuff and with the name comes the price.

Brands
Following is courtesy of my brand conscious friend - They have basically 3 denim brands and one casual wear.H&M - Hennes & Mauritz AB (operating as H&M) is a Swedish retail-clothing company, worlds 2nd biggest network of stores with the strongest presence in UK.Wrangler - Is a US based brand owned by VF corporation who also owns LEE. Lee -Is again US based. Mainly into jeans. Then they have this italian brand called black Arrow or something (Can't remember exactly) which i've seen in other retailers as well. And there might be other brands - they didn't mention me.

Pricing
Everything above Rs.3000 - Yap, no extra zeros. Three thousand. With quality, with brands comes the price.

Choice
Very limited choice if you are small made (Im not - Just saying :-P). But for average guys - No problems. And depends on availability also.

Service
Got very good customer service. Even processes and payment options are fine. Accepts all types of cards.

Overall
Pros - Good quality clothing, Good customer service
Cons - High prices, Not much choice in terms of size (If you are small made only)

Feel free to comment below anything related or anything you know about the brands or the store - so anyone searching only will have something credible to make an informed fashion choice. 

Tweet In Sinhala Day - Best days of Twitter in Sri Lanka

It was one of the most memorable days of Twitter in Sri Lanka - where a bunch of people agreed to tweet mostly in Sinhala - Bringing lots of fun & entertainment to the community.

One day morning @kattasambal tweeted the idea and i replied. We told few people but couldn't get it off the ground. One December Pravin&his better half was making love in Twitter in Sinhala - Umesh replied to them in anger which resulted in declaration of Today - 6th Jan 2011 as the #TweetInSinhalaDay hopefully #TweetInSinhalaDay 1.0. Below is the chief organizing whip - Umesh answering @InduNan s question about how it all started -

It's good to see how a bunch of young guys want to carry our unique culture & language forward. Thanks to everyone, specially Umesh,Pravin&his better half and Katta for the good work.

Below are some of the memorable tweets to enjoy & to archive, Otherwise they will be erased automatically. (I'm afraid to mention your names&handles - If you are ok with it, comment below and i will update the post - Also if you want your handle/tweets taken off i will instantly - Just tell me).

#ThatAwkwardMoment =  #එමචාටර්මොහොත 

We finally came up with the Sinhala equivalent for hash tag #ThatAwkwardMoment = #එමචාටර්මොහොත 

E.g.

සෝස් බෝතල් දෙකම කල් ඉකුත් වී ඇති බව දැනගන්නා #එමචාටර්මොහොත 

Here's how we arrived at the hash tag.

Hide conversation

Fulton89: #awkwardmoment එකට මොකක්ද කියන්නේ බන් @Binku @nnulk10:11am, Jan 06 from Web

Binku: @Fulton89 # කැරිසීන්එක#චාටර්මොහොත @nnulk10:12am, Jan 06 from Web

Fulton89

10:17am via Web

@Binku hhahahha #චාටෙර්මොහොත hodaie ne @nnulk

#AluthRuwanWeki
This hashtag is for the modern Sinhala proverbs. Following is something i came up with, after seeing Fulton failing downloading wrong Torrent for like 4 times

• බාන්න පෙර රිවීව් බලනු 
• එක ඇන්ග්රි බර්ඩ්ගෙන් ඌරෝ දෙන්නය්
• ඇන්ග්රි බර්ඩ්ට මල පැන්නා වගේ..

#OddSinhalaTranslation

These is a historical trend we had longtime back - To translate English terms (Literally) to Sinhala. One of the most funniest hash tags in Sri Lanka ever. Check out some of the tweets we got today (Most from @Praveenie)

• ජෛව සටහන = Bio on your twitter profile
• සීමිත සංස්කරණය = Limited Edition,
• තොපෙ අම්මව හදි ගැහිච්චි හැටි = How I met your mother
• රීරි පිසාචයාගේ දිනපොත් = Vampire Diaries

Few other good ones

• Girls වනාහී 70 දශකයේ මෙරටට ගෙනා කලුසුදු TV වැනිය.. කොයි වෙලෙත් සෝ සෝ ගායි..
• මල් ඔතනෝ.. අපි මල් ඔතනෝ.. වට පිට බල බල මල් ඔතනෝ..
• දොඩම් ගෙඩියක් රුපියල් දහයය් නම් දොඩම් ගෙඩි පහක් ගත්තම කීයද..?
• රා.සේ.පි. = රා බොන සේරම පිරිමි

Tweep below is begging Justin Beiber to give a Retweet (Amplify) his tweet so #TweetinSinhalaDay will trend worldwide - Hilarious!

Poorna1989 ♛ Poorna Chathura☜☆☞

RT Plz @justinbieber බීබරයෝ රීටීට්ටුවක් දියන් මයෙ අම්මා...,චූටි කුක්කු පැටියා,උබ සුදු කොල්ලනෙ. #TweetInSinhalaDay

Please feel free to comment below with some other good #TweetInSinhalaDay tweets .

Benefits of joining Twitter in Sri Lanka

This is an article for those not in Twitter & Twitter newbies in the run up to the #TweetInSinhalaDay - A day dedicated to using Twitter mostly(if not only) in Sinhala on 6th Jan 2012.

Twitter is the second largest social network in the world only second to Facebook. You cannot compare the two because the purpose is different. While Facebook is like your public diary which can be seen only by friends and family, Twitter is like a public noticeboard.

Twitter is becoming a totally happening place recently (Last month) - jumping from 100+ to 13th most visited site in Sri lanka

Benefits of Being in Twitter in Sri Lanka

• Networking -You can get to know lots of people from diverse backgrounds in Twitter and their opinion. There's no better place to communicate with your favourite brand, politician also. Sometimes the networks built comes really handy.

• Information - you can get to know lots of stuff abt brands and trends thru twitter. Right now im doing a study on banks in Sri Lanka on twitter and super experiences ppl share.

• News - Get to know things first, By news accounts and Twitter trends - indicate a world wide trend - For e.g. Kim Jong Il was trending one monday mng - and we got to know he has died

• Friends - I have lots of friends all parts of Sri Lanka because of Twitter - we even hang out sometimes.

• Communicate & win promos from brands - Many brands use Twitter as a customer service tool, so you can directly ask your mobile service or the favourite eating place all your inquiries & get replies. Wait - Didn't i tell you about Tin Tin tickets from Elephant House, Rs.1000 voucher & T shirt from Perera&Sons? Even the Anythinglk xmas wish laptop I made after getting to know the promo in Twitter. There are so many promos to happen - Don't feel left out...

• Entertainment - Once I blogged about how @Lishanw comes to Twitter only during Cricket matches because of really entertaining Cricket tweets. Also check out the SInhala tweets which has lots of modern literature in it, you can enjoy like reading a book. 

What is Twitter?
Its like public SMS. Say what's happening (Some ppl say everything what they are doing - it kills privacy and sounds junk) But tweet abt brands, tweet abt business, tweet quotes

Watch this Youtube video -


How to start an account?
On web get on www.twitter.com and open an account

How to use twitter?
Twitter is like SMS - 90% time you tweet while on the move, you can use SMS or the Mobile Twitter apps (Android, iPhone or even Blackberry - Many ppl use it) - Go to your app store and install it.

How to get used to it?
Follow abt 100 ppl and (brands you know). For about one month - it will be really boring. But keep reading others tweets, reply ,get in to conversations.

In about 1 month you will be pretty comfortable with people - Then its easy.

How to become a pro?
Keep tweeting regularly, share links, influence others by engaging in conversations.

Good luck - Tell me when you have opened an account. And Tweeps - Please comment below with other benefits and tips.

Web Sites to Buy&Sell online in Sri Lanka

My tech savvy friends must be thinking why go so surface level topics in my posts. Because of idiots like the following who made a Facebook profile for his "TownAce Van for Sale" and educating laymen is part of our responsibility.

Above is very primitive because - Visibility is very low (People wont add you as a friend), wrong medium (Generic Facebook is social - i.e.Anti Sales) and its illegal. I don't know what on earth that guy was thinking - when there are so many other useful tools/web sites in Sri Lanka.

BTW - If you want to buy the van contact me - Only 2% broker charge (Just kidding).

Following are some of the best places to buy and sell online in Sri Lanka from my knowledge (I have brought my P990 phone (In 2007, Which i still use), A camera and a laptop for my brother and the Galaxy tab i use currently - None of them had issues). Mind you - I'm going through only the general classifieds sites (Not specific selling like - Automobiles, Real Estate - That i will go through in a separate post)

Suntel wow classifieds
Owned by Suntel, this used to be one of the most active sites back in the days. For a long times it hasn't been updated to the new technology. And they have added an approval process that delays displaying of an ad during holidays. But i think still up to date this is the most active web site. The future of WOW classifieds is questionable with the Dialog acquisition of Suntel.

Facebook marketplace
Is a simple Facebook app. Have seen lot of activity. And since it has Facebook login and features quite easy to use. Another major plus is that it can filter ads by your friends and by "friends of friends" so it naturally builds trust which is lacking in other buy & sell sites. The only negatives are that you need to add it as an application and since it's secured they are not listed in Google search.

Dialog Tradenet
Is the Dialog run web site. Haven't used it - But looks more modern than Suntel wow. I do not see lots of ads like in WOW - so not a lots of visitors. Cannot compare traffic because Alexa shows for the whole Dialog.lk web site instead of  tradenet.dialog.lk (Graph below - I have compared the 3 sites with Gossip Lanka, Sri Lankas most visited web site).

Other small time web sites
There are so many others such as buyandsell.lk, Sri Lankan ebay.etc which are not very popular.

Well - The above is only from my knowledge. Please comment below with any useful sites for classifieds in Sri Lanka & any good/bad experiences with buying and selling ads online in Sri Lanka.