TweetDeck Users, Third Party Apps: Did a Twitter War Start Today?

I spend lots of time counseling fellow lawyers on how to effectively and efficiently use Twitter - both for personal use and for professional business development.  Once they get going, they usually decide to flip from going directly to their Twitter page (http://www.twitter.com/)  to tweet, opting instead for more user-friendly sites that are not owned by Twitter ("third party apps"). 

The most popular of these is TweetDeck (at least, that's what I'm hearing). TweetDeck is cool.  TweetDeck also lets you do other things besides tweet -- you can connect with LinkedIn and Facebook from TweetDeck, too.  Handy for lots of folk.

However, there is news for all you TweetDeck lovers.  Appears that TweetDeck has been purchased by UberMedia, and Twitter isn't happy with UberMedia.

Twitter Has Thrown Down the Gauntlet Regarding Third Party Applications

Why?  For one thing, Twitter may not like the latest feature offered by TweetDeck: Deck.ly, which lets you post longer tweets.  Deck.ly gets you around that 140 character limit.  Which, some may argue takes away the very raison d'etre of tweeting - but hey.  It's here. 

You can all the details on today's post by Neal Wiser, "The End of the 140 Character Tweet and Its Repercussions." 

Other applications that may be impacted by Twitter's new warning include:  

1. HootSuite
2. Klout
3. Seesmic
4. SocialFlow

For more information on Twitter's relationship with third party apps, because it's not just TweetDeck we're talking about here, check out these recent articles too:

1. Wired Magazine,  "Twitter Clamps Down On Third-Party Clients," by Mark Brown.
2. PC Magazine, Twitter to Devs: No New Third-Party Apps," by Leslie Horn.
3. PC World, "Twitter to Third Party Clients: Drop Dead," by Harry McCracken, Technologizer.

What's Going On Here?

Personally, one big hitch for me in tweeting from my Twitter home page is its inability to allow me to easily shorten urls.  Time waster that Twitter should have solved long ago.  Maybe I wouldn't mind tweeting from Twitter itself if they made it as easy for me as other developers have done with their free apps. 

Apparently, Twitter is waking up to the competition doing a better job, sniffs some money to be made, and is trying to grab those profits.  Fine, let them duke it out. 

I'm not loyal to any third party app.  I will go with whomever provides me the best service -- which translates into FREE and FAST.  I'm not going to dedicate much time from my day to tweeting, and neither are my clients. 

Bottom line, compete.  Go for it.  However, Twitter better not mess with blocking what's already working for us. 

The Bluebook - Proper Federal Citation

The University of Pennsylvania provides the Bluebook online - you must pay for a membership to access.  Tips, however, are provided for free.  They are organized into five (5) areas (below) and with a bit of background knowledge, you may feel comfortable that you've found your answer after perusing the BlueTips archives for a bit:

Cases

Citation Structure

International Materials

Quotations

The Internet, Electronic Media, and Other Nonprint Resources

What about Texas' Greenbook? 

Gotta buy it - it's offered by the Texas Law Review.

10 Tips for Writing Blog Post Titles: Blawg Titles are Important for Both Google and Your Reader

When you are writing your blog post, it's tempting to let all those creative juices flow that must be contained when writing briefs, memos, motions, and the like. Emotional titles. Catchy titles. Puns. What to title your short blawg article - for all the world to see - can be very, very fun to ponder.

You are Writing for Two Readers: Human and Machine

However, you have to remember that you are writing for two readers: (1) the human (whether it is a client, colleague, a perspective client, or the public at large) and (2) the search engine robots or spiders that crawl the web looking for content.  If you don't satisfy the bots, then there's a strong likelihood that many of those humans will never find what you've written.  (For more on these bots, read my earlier post, "How Search Engines Work - Part 1".)

Incorporate Search Engine Optimization in Your Blog Post Titles

Your goal becomes writing a title that interests the human while simultaneously pleasing Google, Yahoo, and Bing. Here are a few tips to help you accomplish this:

1. write the title last - after your post is in its final form;
2. consider the theme of your post and determine the ONE word or phrase that describes what you've written;
3. place that word or phrase at the beginning of your title;
4. use vocabulary in your title that can be seen in your first paragraph (second, if you must);
5. don't make your title too short, have a 5-7 word minimum; 
6. don't make your title too long, keep it under 20 words (some will argue this is too long, but I have found success with a longer title, 20 word limit);
7. avoid the "&" sign in your titles for coding reasons (see how the amp was automatically stuck in here by my blogging platform?);
8. avoid all caps since many veteran social media readers interpret capitalization as YELLING AT THE READER;
9. search Google and Yahoo for the topic of your blog post and see the top results - don't steal their work, but consider their titles and ponder what they've done that has put their post in the top positions; and
10. don't italicize or bold-face your title.