19 Twitter Tips for Software Developers
Published August 12, 2011
The first rule of Twitter is that there are no rules. 
There are, however, some guidelines and best practices that you can use to get the most out of using Twitter to help promote your software and connect with your users.
That’s the key thing to remember: connections. Although essentially a “broadcast” platform, success on Twitter (like any form of social media) relies on meaningful engagement with others. If you use Twitter like a megaphone, you’ll miss the opportunity to create worthwhile relationships with your end-users. Here are 19 tips to help you get your “tweet on” successfully.
DO:
- Add a “follow us” button on your website to make it easy for people to follow you; Twitter has a button generator here.
- Keep an eye out for people who have recently followed you and follow back selectively. (Twitter sends email notifications of new followers by default.)
- Retweet followers who post interesting questions or testimonials about your product’s new features. Retweet relevant/interesting things even if it has nothing to do with your software.
- Reward your followers with access to beta programs.
- Remind users about special promotions.
- Leave enough room in your tweets so it’s easy for others to retweet you. Good rule of thumb: Max length of tweet = number of characters in your username + six characters (one character for @ and five for “RT: “) subtracted from 140 (max characters in a tweet). Best case is to leave as much room as possible.
- Pick as short a username as possible (hopefully it’s memorable too). Going along with the tip above, long usernames will make it more difficult to say what you want *and* be easily retweetable.
- Use relevant hashtags (e.g. #freeware when tweeting about your free software) where appropriate to make your content more visible to others.
- Follow select leaders in your area of the software/technology space.
- Use a URL shortener like bitly to save characters and track clicks (bitly also supports using a custom “short” domain that you own instead of bitly).
- Use lists to “follow” people without having their tweets show up in your timeline. You can create public or private lists for a variety of reasons; for example you could use a public list to add end-users who love your software.
- Let people know when new versions of your software are released.
- Inform people where they can go for support-related questions by leaving a note and link in your Twitter bio (i.e. For support -> link).
DON’T:
- Establish Twitter as a customer service platform. Your followers don’t want their feed inundated with your support answers. See the last tip above in “Do” or create a separate Twitter account for support only.
- Promise new releases and then miss the date. You’ll establish a trail of negative tweets from disappointed end-users.
- Use the Twitter account for your products for posting personal tweets. You may alienate or upset your followers. Note, this doesn’t mean not to be *personable*. ;)
- Air grievances on Twitter.
- Announce new features too far in advance. People have limited attention spans and will get tired of waiting for them. Their expectations may become higher than you can deliver.
- Let third-party Twitter apps/services spam your feed with things like “I have 542 followers”. Whenever you authorize an app to access your Twitter account, double-check the details.
That wraps it up for now. There are tons of third-party tools and services to help you do just about anything (get analytics, find people to follow, etc) with your Twitter account. We’ll cover some of our favorites in another post. For now, take a look at oneforty which has a great directory of third-party Twitter apps/tools along with descriptions and user-submitted ratings.
Tweet well and let us know *your* favorite Twitter tips in the comments.
By:
Alastair and Dr. Apps
This post is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
(Material Disclosure: None. Neither Alastair, Dr. Apps, OpenCandy or SweetLabs has received compensation from the makers of any software/services mentioned for the creation or posting of this content.
5 Apps that Make Collaborating & Working at Home More Productive
Published July 28, 2011
There are apps for fun and apps for work. 
And sometimes there’s marvelous apps that help you do work and have fun at the same time. While the majority of the SweetLabs team gets to build and support our awesome products in sunny San Diego, a portion of the team, like me, resides in other places. Us “remoters”, as I like to call teleworkers, rely on a bunch of technology to keep in contact and collaborate with the “home” team.
The beauty of the connected world we live in is the ability for instantaneous, real-time collaboration with anyone, anywhere in a few clicks (presuming there’s decent internet access). From start-ups, micro-ISVs to large companies, the cost of conducting business has dropped steeply over the last ten years, enabling any ad-hoc group to form instantly (especially developers), get in sync, and get things done.
Skype
Not “Skype” as in Facebook’s “awesome” new feature released a couple of weeks ago. The Skype that I’ve been using with my SweetLabs colleagues for the last few years is the one you go to Skype.com and download and install in a few clicks. I use Skype every single day to have both audio and video meetings, chat and more. Skype is fast, works across multiple platforms (desktop and mobile), and the sound quality is often much better than I get over conference call services I’ve tried and definitely better AT&T’s cellular calls (for me anyway). You can subscribe to Skype Premium (I do – special offers here) and enjoy video chats with up to 10 people as well as enjoy unlimited calling to the US & Canada. Skype also has a vibrant (albeit sometimes forgotten) third-party app ecosystem to extends its functionality (like apps for recording video calls which are useful for podcasting). The latest versions of Skype also include Facebook chat capabilities if that’s your cup of tea.
Bonus: When you need to instantly & quickly share a file with someone you’re “Skyping” with; simply drag the file into the chat window and bam! The person can save the file with a click.
Dropbox
Yes, it’s impossible to remember life before Dropbox (or one of its many competitors). But here’s what I remember… it was a not-so-fun and definitely less productive era. With Dropbox you can sync (i.e. BACKUP) your folders and files across multiple devices and also selectively share certain folders/files with specific people. You can even share a file via a link to the Dropbox website where someone without Dropbox (for shame!) can download the file. The ease at which Dropbox does what it does (from download to install to use) makes it *feel* unremarkable — and that’s the most beautiful thing true killer apps have going for them. If you have data that must be kept encrypted and you want to use Dropbox, check out SecretSync or BoxCryptor. Be sure to check out the Dropbox forums as they’re a great place to find ways to extend Dropbox’s functionality in all sorts of interesting ways. Dropbox is free up to 2GB, after that they have a Pro 50GB plan for $9.99 a month (which I subscribe to) and a Pro 100GB plan for $19.99 a month.
Bonus: There’s another tasty nugget on the Dropbox forums… regularly released nightly builds. You can try out features that *may* make it into the next release of Dropbox – if enough people like it. For example, the nightly builds had “selective sync” (great way to save space on laptops) before the release version.
Join.me
Sometimes you need to share your screen with someone. Sure, you could use Skype’s screensharing feature to do it, but it doesn’t afford the speed or quality of Join.me. Join.me is the brainchild of LogMeIn (arguably my favorite product of all time), designed to give anyone a painless way to initiate remote screensharing by downloading a tiny app. Best of all, the free version of join.me has just a nice set of features that should serve most people including the ability for 250 people to view your screen (great for impromptu or premeditated mass-screencasts). There’s also a viewer for iPad/iPhone and Android in case you need to tap into a screencast on the go. The pro version adds a slew of features usually reserved for “more traditional” remote conferencing services for only $29 a month.
Bonus: If you and your participant(s) have multiple monitors try using Skype video conferencing on one screen and Join.me to screenshare the other screen. You’ll have a much better experience — great audio/video quality via Skype and faster and smoother screensharing via Join.me versus using Skype by itself.
MindMeister
When 
you need to map anything, an article, a product, a software marketing plan or well, *anything* that requires brainstorming; the web-based MindMeister is a dead-simple way to get some collaborative brain-dumping done. The interface is sleek and not riddled with 40,000 features you’ll never use, instead it just showcases the necessities. The free version of MindMeister allows you to create up to three maps (not many, but it’s free) that you can share with up an unlimited number of collaborators. MindMeister also has mobile access via iPhone and iPad.
Bonus: If you only need to do collaborative mindmapping once in a while, you could stick with the free version of MindMeister and export your MindMeister map and then delete the online version. That way you’ll be able to create another map. I’m not saying to abuse the service by doing this, if you do a lot of mapping and like MindMeister’s service, step up to a paid account.
Google+
There 
I said it: Google+! Google+ is off to a fast start (even though it’s still invite-only) and has a certain feature that is really awesome for remote workers, that killer feature is… HANGOUTS! Google+ Hangouts allow video conferencing with up to ten people. The coolest part of hangouts is that the “focus” (the person who’s shown on your screen) is the person who is currently speaking… And though I haven’t experienced a screaming match firsthand to see what happens, the person who speaks loudest will get the “focus”, much like real life (although you can mute someone’s mic if they annoy you). With Hangouts you can bring together people you work with for business meetings and (especially cool for remoters) you could get to know your colleagues after-hours on a person level.
Bonus: What? Google+ Hangouts isn’t cool enough? Okay, well check out Business Insider’s list of “9 Creative Uses for Google+ Hangouts You Didn’t Think Of”, if you’re not sold yet… you will be.
Next time I head out to San Diego, I’ll post about the tools I use to keep in contact with home base aka The Lab. Until then, let me know what tools and apps you’re using to work remotely with someone else or a whole team. PS, if you still need a Google+ invite, shout it out in the comments as well and I’ll try and get you hooked up! :)
Dr. Apps — Follow me on Twitter!
Software Community Guru for SweetLabs
This post is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
(Material Disclosure: None. Neither Dr. Apps, OpenCandy or SweetLabs has received compensation from the makers of any software mentioned for the creation or posting of this content.
Awesome Apps to Enjoy with Your Kids During Summer Vacation
Published June 25, 2011
This past Sunday was Father’s Day and it got me thinking about apps I’ve enjoyed using with my daughter and which ones I think you’ll enjoy with your kids as well. My daughter’s only two and a half and I’m amazed at how quickly she picked up using gadgets and software. These days kids just seem to have technology know-how baked into their noggins from birth. The type of apps my wife and I let her use are those which we think will help her be creative or learn something, and have some fun at the same time (obviously).
Name: LEGO Digital Designer
Developer: LEGO
Platform: Windows and Mac OS X
Website: http://ldd.lego.com/default.aspx
Ages: ? (I’m guessing 5-6 and up)
Cost: Free
Is there anyone in the world who doesn’t want to custom-design their own LEGO set and have it shipped to their door? I don’t think so (feel free to prove me wrong in the comments) and thankfully, LEGO delivers a great piece of software to do just that. As with everything LEGO, there are an infinite number of things you can build with this program. LEGO has also done a great job providing an online manual and tons of videos to help you have the best experience designing your crazy LEGO creations.
When you’ve finished building your masterpiece simply click the “Check price” button to see how much it’s going to cost you to have to get a set containing the LEGOs you need to build the sucker in real life! My daughter is still a bit too young to start designing her own LEGO sets but she helped me along by saying, “Use that one!” I never did finish our homage to her mother, but maybe I’ll have it done in time for Mother’s Day next year. Anyone who said dreams don’t come true is wrong, LEGO Digital Designer proves it!
Bonus: You also get to custom-design the box your creation comes in and LEGO provides instructions on how to build your set!
Name: Little Voice Commander
Developer: Mouser of Donation Coder
Platform: Windows XP/Vista/7
Website: http://www.donationcoder.com/Software/Mouser/littlevoicecommander/
Ages: Toddler
Cost: Donationware (About donationware)
You know how kids *love* clicking the keys on your keyboard (usually at the most inopportune time)? Now there’s a perfect app to turn those key presses into something useful! Little Voice Commander lets kids type a letter and see (royalty-free) images associated with that letter on screen as well as hear a voiceover of a word that begins with the letter they pressed. Press the letter ‘D’ and see some cute dogs shows up on-screen and hear the word ‘dog’ read aloud. Little Voice Commander also lets you speak into a microphone and it’ll try to recognize the word and show associated images.
My daughter had a blast with this app! She couldn’t stop and laughing and “aww’ing” at the pics (when animals were shown) and saying, “Daddy, that’s so cute!” Thanks to Ryan Smyth of Renegade Minds for introducing me to this sweet app. (Not only did he provide the voiceovers for it — he’s also co-hosting a new weekly podcast (coming soon) with me!)
Bonus: You can add your own photos and speech files making this program a great learning tool you’ll be able to get use out of for a long time.
Name: Tux Paint*
Developer: John Popplewell and Bill Kendrick
Platform: Windows/Mac OS X/Linux
Website: http://www.tuxpaint.org/
Ages: 3 to 12
Cost: Free
Tux Paint is a paint/art program for little kids that’s been around for a long time (2002). I’ve been recommending it to parents for much longer than my daughter has been alive and they’ve always said how much fun their children had using it so I couldn’t wait to try it with my daughter.
Tux Paint features the usual paint program functionality such as lines, shapes, text, eraser and undo and redo buttons but presents them via buttons on the left and right side of the “canvas” instead of with floating toolbars with tiny icons. The buttons in Tux Paint are large enough that they easy enough for those new to mousing around to select. My daughter (and I suspect a lot of younger kids these days) are more familiar with touch-based interfaces like iOS or Android, than keyboard and mouse-based OSes like Windows (at least until Windows 8…), so I had her point to what she wanted and guided her hand along the way. When we mucked around for this mini-review, she created quite a motif of little grey kitties running around an ostrich (see the screenshot above).
Bonus: Don’t forget to download and install the Tux Paint Stamps set too. It adds a ton of different stamps (animals, clothes, food, natural forces, plants, space, sports, vehicles, etc) to Tux Paint.
Name: Peekaboo Barn
Platform: iOS
Developer: Night & Day Studios
Website: http://www.nightanddaystudios.com/app/peekaboo-barn/
Age range: Toddlers
Cost: $1.99 (they also have a free “lite” version I haven’t tried)
This app is simple yet enduring. Its basic premise is to provide a really cute way for kids to learn animals and animal sounds. When the app starts you hear the familiar tune of “Old McDonald” and you’re presented with a little red barn on a meadow. The barn bounces up and down as it plays the sound of an animal. It also plays a “knocking” sound to alert your child to press down on the barn so the doors can open up and show you which animal makes that sound as well as hear the name of the animal spoken aloud. When you’ve finished cycling through all the animals, nighttime comes and the barn opens to show them all nestled together sleeping.
My daughter absolutely loves this app. She’s learned all the animals it features, so now we just say “What animal makes that sound?” before she touches the barn for confirmation of her answer. If your child is anything like my daughter, the $1.99 spent on this app will provide a ton of enjoyment and some educational value as well!
Bonus: You can choose whether you want the name of the animal spoken in English or Spanish by an “adult” or “child”.
I hope you have a great time with your children (or nieces, nephews, etc.) trying out these out! Please share your favorite kid-friendly apps in the comments. :)
Dr. Apps — Follow me on Twitter!
Software Community Guru for OpenCandy
This post is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
(Material Disclosure: None. Neither Dr. Apps nor OpenCandy has received compensation from the makers of any software mentioned for the creation or posting of this content.
* Tux Paint became an OpenCandy Software Network partner on 6/19/2011. OpenCandy (as well as the developers of Tux Paint) make money when a software recommendation is accepted during the installation of Tux Paint’s OpenCandy-enabled Windows installer.)
