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Amazon India introduces #AmazonCart; How to enable it and make purchases using Twitter

Amazon India recently announced the #AmazonCart launch. #AmazonCart is a new feature that allows the users to reply to tweets that contain Amazon India product link with ‘#AmazonCart’ and the product will automatically be added to cart. The user can finish checking out the cart later.

Launching with the slogan ‘Add it now. Buy it later’, this free feature is available for all the Amazon India users. To use this new feature, you will have to link your Twitter and Amazon India account.

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There are two ways to do this. You can either go to the #AmazonCart page and link your Twitter and Amazon India accounts. Or, if you are lazy to type the link in your web browser, reply with ‘#AmazonCart’ to any tweet that has Amazon India product link and Amazon India will send you a reply tweet with a link to connect your accounts.

Getting back to using this feature, when you reply with #AmazonCart to any product link tweet, the product will be added to your cart immediately and you will receive a confirmation reply tweet from Amazon India for the same. Also, Amazon India will attach the cart review link which will take you straight to the Amazon India cart where you can check out.

 

This feature was introduced first in the United States of America and the United Kingdom under the name #AmazonBasket and now, it’s here for Amazon India.

Will it be useful for Indians?

While most Indians are still positive about buying from brick-and-mortar stores, India has its own share of online shoppers. And these online shopaholics are seen mostly active on social media sites like Twitter and Facebook with Twitter users being the majority.

From the consumer point of view, Indians might really find this new feature useful, like the people in the United States – they are active on the social media.

Consider yourself scrolling down your Twitter Timeline. When someone shares an interesting Amazon India product, you will find it easy to reply to that tweet than clicking that link and adding it to the cart manually, right? That’s where this #AmazonCart feature helps. It makes shopping easy and more convenient for the buyers.

Privacy issues; other features needed

While this feature might look interesting and surprisingly easy to use, it comes with its own issues too.

With Twitter being a public platform, most of the tweets are available for public view. So, things you add to your cart will be visible to the public / followers. If you are cautious about your online activities, this feature is probably something you should stay away from.

Also, there isn’t an option to remove products from cart though. There are chances that Amazon India might bring it soon. Another feature that I would like to see is an option to check out without leaving Twitter – this can be achieved by using a pre-paid wallet service like Flipkart Wallet.

Amazon is growing fast in India

It has been one year or so since Amazon India launched, and it is over 1.5 crore products listed on the site already. After introducing many interesting services including quick deliveries, the company is doing its best to offer quality services and options to the customers in India.

And the launch of #AmazonCart will make things only better for Amazon India. This is the first time a e-commerce company has announced this feature in India. Flipkart, Snapdeal, HomeShop18, Jabong and others haven’t implemented any similar social media features.

What do you think about this feature? Do you find it useful for you? Do share your thoughts with us in the comments section.

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Twitter’s new profile looks like Facebook

Twitter is hardly used by regular users from its website. Most regular users probably use something like tweetdeck or other similar desktop apps. But regular users are not really Twitter’s concern. Their big concern are the people who sign up and then simply stop using it because it is too confusing.

So how does Twitter keep these new users interested on its service? One simple way is to be more like a social network rather than a endless stream of tweets and links. With Twitter new profile design, they have shamelessly copied Facebook’s design.

Twitter_New_Profil_Design
Twitter’s new Facebook like design

I would not blame Twitter for copying Facebook. It would give a great deal of familiarity for a first-time user.

That said, I would not enjoy this sort of design on my phone app, which Twitter will probably end up doing because mobile is the future (rather present).

Interesting new feature added is that you can now pin a tweet at the top. This has to be a tweet you posted and not a retweet.

Get the new profile:

Your Twitter account will show up with the new profile design.

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Twitter introduces Photo-tagging: Here is how to turn them off on your account

Today, Twitter announced a new feature that allows users to upload multiple photos on a single tweet. More important feature is the new option that will allow users to tag other users to photos. The new feature will be available to iPhone users first and then later to Android users. Twitter.com will see this feature last.

I own an Android phone, hence I could not check the new feature out for myself. But Twitter has posted this helpful image that illustrates how the new photo-tagging feature will work.

Twitter_photo_tag

This could be an issue as Twitter is a very public platform and just about anyone can tag anyone on Twitter by default to a photo. Thankfully the privacy options does offer control over who gets to tag you in photos.

How to turn of photo-tagging on your Twitter account:

  • Log in to your Twitter account on a desktop computer.
  • Then look up Settings and Security at the following link https://twitter.com/settings/security
Twitter_photo_tag_settings
Twitter >> Settings >> Security

The default option selected is to “Allow anyone to tag me in photos”. Change it to not allow anyone to tag you in photos or limite tagging to only people you follow.

Since this is a opt-out feature and not a opt-in feature, I am sure there will be some people who will find strangers tagging them in photos an unwanted headache.

Do drop in your comments.

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Twitter launches a tool to discover anyone’s first ever tweet

In the event of Twitter’s eight birthday, March 21, the micro-blogging website has launched a simple tool to check your first ever tweet.

Aptly named First Tweet, the service allows you to discover the first tweet that you sent when you joined the micro-blogging website.

In addition to checking your first tweet, you can also check the first tweet sent by any Twitter handle. Just enter the username and the tool will show you the first tweet. (No need to authenticate the tool)

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There is also an option to tweet this discovery or share it on other social networks.

Try it out, it’s fun! Do not forget to share with us your first tweet and other amusing first tweets that you come across.

Link: First Tweet

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Twitter now lets users receive DMs even from accounts not followed

Since it’s launch, Twitter has always put a restriction on who can Direct Message (DM) whom (for example, you can DM me only if I follow you) But, starting today, this is about to change. Twitter has brought a new feature, that lets the users to receive DMs from any user, even from accounts that they do not follow.

This is an opt-in feature that you can enable in the Settings page of your Twitter account.

To enable this feature, check the box “Receive direct message from any follow”

It hasn’t been announced officially by Twitter yet. But many Twitter users have already noticed this new feature on their accounts. @JimConnolly was one of the first users to notice this.

Twitter_DMs_Settings
Twitter’s DM settings allow users who do not follow you to send you Direct Messages

This might be useful for brands to get people who post complaints to send them details in a more private manner. But I think that this might lead to a surge of spam messages landing on my inbox from unknown users. But, also, in such a case, I can always go back to the Settings page and disable it. Nevertheless, this option will definitely means more spam but also a lot of advertising.

Since Twitter has filed an IPO and will be under pressure to generate revenues we can expect more such intrusive features to pay for Twitter. Though I expect Twitter have some sort of filter to ensure DMs from people you followed can be looked up exclusively.

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Twitter for Android tablets launched on Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1

The development of a Twitter for Android tablets has been a sad story since a long time. Twitter for Android tablets was basically Twitter for Android mobile’s stretched version till yesterday. Today, Twitter has announced the launch of Twitter for Android tablets on the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1

This tablet-optimized app brings an user interface that packs more details for the users’ advantage. Tweets, conversations, people to follow, trending topics – everything is shown. In the landscape mode, the navigation bar is thrown to the left side. Tapping a tweet brings the tweet’s details along with the multimedia and article previews.

Twitter-Android-tablets

As for now, Twitter for Android tablets is available only for the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1. Twitter announced that this app for other Samsung tablets will be coming “soon” and for the rest of the Android tablets – “by the end of this year”

There are two amazing things about this launch. This app will work in the multi-window feature available on the Samsung devices. Also, you can doodle on pictures with the Samsung S-Pen before tweeting the picture.

Twitter-Android-multi-screen

It is obvious that this Twitter app is exclusive for Samsung Galaxy Note but it is only a matter of time, until someone will pull off the APK file and upload it on the web.

What this means to the Android community?

Since Google’s I/O 2013 event, the Android studio, an Integrated Development Environment for Android, has proved to be useful tool for developers to make mobile and tablet optimized apps with ease. It helps them to preview apps made for various sizes screens and also make stage rollout of apps. Currently Android studio is free and is available as an early access preview.

In the case of Apple App Store, all the apps are classified as ‘for iPhone’ and ‘for iPad’. With Twitter’s launch of this tablet optimized app, I believe that other Android developers will follow suit and launch tablet optimized apps soon.

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Twitter files for an IPO: What it means to its users?

Twitter_new_logo_thumb.pngTwitter has always been secretive about its earnings and revenues. For many years, Twitter was not even attempting to make money but was gaining new users and also its place in the mainstream online culture. Today much of the news around the world is broken first on Twitter.

Twitter has taken the next step in its journey by filing for a ‘secret’ IPO. The public offering will make it a listed company and allow the public at large to buy shares into Twitter.

This is what Twitter’s official account tweeted:


What does that signify for Twitter
Twitter might be secretive about it’s revenues but they are probably still below the billion dollar mark. That is why under US law they can file for a secret IPO (read more about that here). It also means that Twitter is making a lot of money from its sponsored ads feature and is confident of future revenues. It also means Twitter will NOT be bought by a larger company, at the least for many years now.

What should Twitter’s users expect?

  • Expect a lot more ads than there were before on Twitter. Currently sponsored posts on Twitter are few but effective but with not shareholders to answer to, they might get aggressive with those sponsored tweets.
  • If you are a Twitter user like me who does not have a verified sign, expect second class treatment. Twitter is going to introduce the best and the newest features to its verified celebrities. We can already see signs of it in with a new @mention filter Twitter introduced exclusively for verified users only.
  • Love your 3rd party app for Twitter? Do not expect that it will be around for too long. Twitter has already harmed the 3rd party ecosystem around its platform with new API rules that set strict limits. I think by next year Twitter will work very hard to kill of any 3rd party app that works on a mobile platform.
  • Finally, expect Twitter to re-design stuff. Expect more filters and more coherence to sometimes a mindless stream of tweets that can overwhelm users. Twitter will now have a lot of money to hire and buy the best.

What do you think about Twitter’s future as a publicly listed company? Do drop in your comments.

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Create and Share Video of Your Twitter Activity with Vizify

Vizify is a cool online tool that helps you analyse your social media data and create interesting graphs, charts and videos. In the early days Vizify provided a tool called Tweetsheet that collects your Twitter data and puts them as graphs. Tweetsheet is shut down now. Vizify #FollowMe is a new service that collects your Twitter data and puts them as a video.

Getting Started with Vizify #FollowMe

  • Go to Vizify #FollowMe page (Link at the bottom of this post)
  • Click the Make Mine button and you’ll be asked to type your email ID and authorize with your Twitter account.
  • Once done, Vizify will do the rest of the job. It’ll start collecting your Twitter details and put them together.

vizify-when-you-tweet

  • You can preview the video when it’s done. Make sure that your speakers are ON to hear the music.

vizify-twitter-video

In addition to all these magic, you can also edit and rearrange the scenes in your video whenever you want to. You can change the photos, content and even the music. Everything’s up to you.

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You can now share your new Twitter video with all your friends on social networks. Vizify #Follow automatically shows you two pre-defined tweets at the end of the process. One to publish this brand new video, and the other to thank your most conversation makers. Here’s my Vizify #FollowMe video.

Link : Vizify #FollowMe

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Robird – Holo Styled Twitter Client for Android

Google Play has a huge collection of third party Twitter clients. There are both free and paid apps. Robird is a new, emerging Twitter client that is based on Holo sytled theme. The app looks beautiful and is amazingly fast. The app loads your tweets within seconds and scrolling between the tabs is smooth.

Robird Features

  1. Robird gives us auto refresh option with a time period.
  2. Live streaming for the timeline and the mentions tab so that you will never have to refresh. The new tweets and mentions will automatically display from time to time.
  3. Support for TweetLonger and TweetMarker sync.
  4. TweetLonger links automatically expand right inside your timeline. You can read the full 140+ characters tweet right in your timeline.

robirdImage Credit : Robird on Google Play

Is Robird Available for Free?

No, this is a paid app and is priced at $2, the equivalent Indian price is 120 INR. Well, I’d say that the app is really worth this price in my opinion. The app is currently in it’s development stages and there are numerous other features that will be coming to Robird soon. And as per the reports on Google Play, the next update will feature multi-account support and a tablet UI.

Before you Purchase the App

If you haven’t known, there is an issue when it comes to using third party Twitter clients. Twitter provides only 100,100 tokens to the third party Twitter clients. This means that only 100,000 users can be using the app at a particular time. This is one of the most common issues faced with Falcon Pro which has around 1 million users.

Considering Robird, this is a new Twitter client. It won’t have a huge number of users right now and hence seems to work pretty flawlessly.

Link: Robird on Google Play

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Get Official Twitter Analytics Data on Your Tweets

Twiter Analytics

Twitter has opened up analytic data to all users. This data was previously only available to advertisers. The analytic dashboard will show up stats on retweets, replies, favorites for every tweet you publish. The analytics dashboard also displays how many people are unfollwing your account.

Twiter Analytics

How to use Twitter Analytics!

  • Visit the URL ads.twitter.com and sign-in with your Twitter credentials. The first page will show you the option to advertise. At the top left corner on the page, we can see an option to look up “Analytics”.
  • The analytics data is very basic and the graph shows a 6 hour increment. You might want to check some interesting details like at what time of the day your tweets get maximum engagement or what kind of tweets have a maximum impact.
  • I saw there is also a “Follower” option on the analytics dashboard. But when I used it on my account, it showed there was not enough data to display. I guess this could be because I do not have like thousands of followers. But the follower analytics displayed is supposed to be based on location, gender and interests.

The basic idea behind all this is for Twitter to make it lucrative for users to spend more on advertising on Twitter. The data by no means is all the data that is made available to advertisers but it is good enough to spend some time over and get ideas for maximizing your impact on Twitter.

Link: Twitter Analytics

Related: Find the best time to schedule a tweet.