Tumblr and Twitter

Fast Blogging? If you want to share multimedia content and meet like-minded people, try Tumblr. I first got introduced by Tumblr when I went for a visual design graduation show where I see alot of graduates using it. Fast-rising Tumblr is a content-sharing and blogging website. Like Twitter, it encourages users to write succinctly in short posts. However, it does not impose Twitter's 140-character-per-post limit and allows multimedia content - pictures, music, videos, quotes and more to be shared.
Its best attributes: Intuitive, easy to use and a one-stop place to find content shared by others with the same interest.

How to get started?
Sign up for an account with your e-mail address. Pick an URL for your blog - for example, www.example.tumblr.com
Start by uploading your picture to be used as your avatar. Then, follow the steps and install ready-for-use themes. Those who know HTML can customise the themes.

Find and follow others
Blogs with topics ranging from photography to gaming and even typography can be easily browsed on the Directory page.
Follow your favourite blogs by clicking the "+" sign. Posts from the blogs you are following will now appear in real time on your dashboard.

Main features
Posting and sharing content
To post, indicate the type of content by choosing one of the seven options at the top of your dashboard. These options include text, photo, quote, link and audio. You can also "reblog" or "like" posts you come across.

Asking Readers
Planting a question mark at the end of your posts or in their titles will prompt an option to "Let people answer this", You can also choose to "Let people photo reply" to your posts. Replies will appear as threads in the post's Notes

Multiple blogs under one account
Those with a number of interests can create multiple blogs and invite co-bloggers to contribute to each secondary blog.
Protect your privacy
Your primary blog is open for all to view. However, you can restrict access to your secondary blogs using passwords. You can also choose to make private posts.

Power Tips
Invite the community to comment
You can turn on the Ask and Submit functions to invite visitors to ask you a question or send you content. A third-party add-on called Disqus can be added to solicit comments to your posts.
Bump it up with features
Go to the Goodies page to find more features to make Tumblr do more for you. For instance, you can integrate your Tumblr posts with other social networking websites such as Facebook and Twitter.






Twitter
Main features: Tweeting
Ready to send your first tweet? You can write anything, as long as it is within 140 characters. To reply to another user, start your tweet by typing the character "@", followed by the user's name. Your tweet will automatically be sent to the user as well as those who are following both of you.

Another way to interact with another user is through Mention. Type the character "@", followed by the user's name anywhere in your tweet. Your tweet will be published like a regular one in this case.
To increase your tweet's visibility, you can add a hashtag (#) in front of your topic's title. For instance, typing "#food" means your tweets can be searched and will be associated with the keyword "food".

Sharing content and tweets
To share Web or media content with others, you can send them short URLs instead of regular ones. Services from Tinyurl and Bit.ly will help you do this. Simply paste the original URLs into these applications and they will generate the shortened URLs for you to use.

You can also share photos and videos by uploading them to Twitpic and TwitVid. Add tweets you enjoy to your Favourites folder or retweet them to share with your followers.

Powertip
Intergrate Twitter with other social networks:
Use Twitter's application for Facebook to allow tweets to appear as status updates. Add a appear as status updates. Add a Twitter widget on your blog for visitors to read your tweets.

Do more with other Twitter clients
Third-party Twitter clients can help improve your social networking experience. Try TweetDeck for Desktop (www.TweetDeck.com).