Interesting Twitter update - Changes to ToS and Privacy Policy

Just received an interesting update from Twitter - changes to ToS and the privacy policy. It sounds like they're being more open (and I do have a lot of respect for the lengths Twitter will go to to protect their users), but what do you think?  Message follows: Hi Paul Darigan, New things are always happening here at Twitter HQ. We're growing at a rapid pace, and our commitment to simplicity, transparency, and reaching every person on the planet continues. We thought you might be interested in knowing about some of our most recent developments:

A new weekly email that delivers the most interesting news and items you might have missed from the people you're connected to on Twitter. Now Twitter is in more languages than ever. Check for your preferred language and change your setting. Download the latest Twitter mobile apps at twitter.com/download. There's more to Discover on Twitter.com - try out the new Discover tab.

In addition, we've made a number of updates to our Privacy Policy and Terms of Service.

Here are some of the main changes to our Privacy Policy, with links for more information:

We've provided more details about the information we collect and how we use it to deliver our services and to improve Twitter. One example: our new tailored suggestions feature, which is based on your recent visits to websites that integrate Twitter buttons or widgets, is an experiment that we're beginning to roll out to some users in a number of countries. Learn more here. We've noted the many ways you can set your preferences to limit, modify or remove the information we collect. For example, we now support the Do Not Track (DNT) browser setting, which stops the collection of information used for tailored suggestions. We've clarified the limited circumstances in which your information may be shared with others (for example, when you've given us permission to do so, or when the data itself is not private or personal). Importantly, our privacy policy is not intended to limit your rights to object to a third party's request for your information.

In our Terms of Service, we've clarified how your relationship with Twitter works and made a number of small changes and formatting improvements, such as new headings for easy reference and updated descriptions of our services.

Take a moment to read our new Privacy Policy and Terms of Service, and thanks for using Twitter.

The Twitter Team

Twitter Visualisation Tools - In Action

Holding an event? Inviting people to tweet to a hashtag? Want to display those tweets? Great!

I've pulled together a list of different Twitter visualisation tools beneath - Some of them look pretty cool, others are a little bit dull but functional. Anyway, check them out, let me know what you think.

Note: In all examples, I've chosen to display tweets for the #ff hashtag - I don't endorse any tweets that appear, blah blah blah, etc.

1. Visible Tweets

I came across Visible Tweets a few weeks ago and I really like it. You can choose from three different types of animation and all of them are attractive. The one downside is that it is necessarily a little bit slow cycling through tweets, so don't expect it to pick up and display every tweet if you're hosting a popular event.

2. Twitter Search Widget

The Twitter Search Widget might not be quite as attractive as Visual Tweets, but it does allow you a great degree of personalisation. You can edit its dimensions, colour, frequency of updates, and much more.

3. Twitter Fountain

Twitter Fountain is a handy tool, it pulls in hashtagged tweets and mashes them up with images from Flickr. There are lots of different display options that you can fiddle with.
 

There are more Twitter visualisation tools that I either can't embed on the blog or haven't paid for, but that I believe are still worth a look:

• Twitterfall - Basic but functional, although it does scroll a little too quickly for my liking (Free)
• TweetWall Pro - Looks very impressive, lots of different themes (Free trial, paid for thereafter)
• Revisit - Well worth a look, really interesting layout and it 'emphasizes conversational threads' (Free)

That's it from me for the moment. Let me know if you've got any more event-oriented visualisation tools to add to the list above.

Twitter Basics: Counting your click-throughs

Here we go, the first of a series of posts covering some social media basics.

There are lots of great tools for posting and measuring clicks on links in tweets, the free versions of which often provide a good but limited service - I fully recommend checking out Buffer and Hootsuite.

However, if you don't have any budget, but need to record these statistics, Tweetdeck and Bitly work really well together. Here's how you sync them:

1. Create a Tweetdeck account and add your profile/s to it. You can download Tweetdeck to your desktop, use the Tweetdeck web app, or install Tweetdeck for Chrome (my personal favourite).

2. Create a Bitly account.

3. When you've created your Bitly account, click on 'Settings', scroll down the page and find your API key (a long combination of letters and numbers). Copy this and open Tweetdeck.

4. When you're in Tweetdeck, click on 'Settings' and then 'Services':

• Set your 'Link Shortening' service to 'bit.ly'
• Enter your Bitly username
• Paste in your Bitly API key

5. When you've saved those changes, any links that you tweet from Tweetdeck will automatically be shortened using your Bitly account (yay).You can measure the click-throughs on these links by logging in to your Bitly account.

So, what do you think - Is that useful, do you have any other/betters tools, tips or solutions? I've got a feeling that some people will flag-up Google Analytics as a solution, and it certainly is a really strong, free tool - Have you got any Google Analytics tips for measuring the impact of your social media presence?

Channel 4's exclusive Prometheus trailer in numbers

Channel 4's Prometheus trailer, heralded as a world first and broadcast during Homeland on 29th April, generated some interesting figures (The Homeland episode of 29th April had 2.87 million viewers).

3 minute-long trailer

40 seconds of viewers' tweets displayed during the following ad-break

4,000 hashtagged tweets

15,000,000 potential hashtag reach

1 Ofcom investigation

Missed the trailer? Watch it below

@LASAICT's #lasatechtools tweetchat - Making to most of online tools in the third sector

Today's LASA Tech Tools tweetchat (kicking off at 12:30 GMT, 2nd May) sounds promising:

...Lasa will be running a Twitter chat on online tools for charities on 2 May from 12.30-14.30. This programme of events has been funded by Google. 

The tweetchat will share the latest thinking from experts in this area, who will offer tips and advice to help charities make the most of the best online tools for their needs.

LasaICT have lined up an impressive panel including Matt Collins of Beatbullying, Ross McCulloch of Be Good Be Social, Mark Walker of AbilityNet, Sylwia Presley of Barcamp Nonprofits, and Crispin Read of White Fuse Media.

* Note: The tweet chat moved so quickly that I gave up trying to Storify it and concentrated on participating instead. I'll replace the partial Storify beneath with the one created by Lasa as soon as it's available*
Now updated with Lasa's Storify: