UPDATE:

Didn’t get registered before classes started? No worries! You can register late through 1/16. There is a $5 late registration fee and you must use this link to register.

What are your New Years’ resolutions? Is this the year that you are going to start that blog, build that web site or figure what in the heck Twitter is all about? If so, I have a class for you!

• Blogging Basics with WordPress
• Blogging for Fun, Fame and Fortune
• PHP 101 for Web Developers
• Advanced Dreamweaver
• Twitter for Business and Pleasure

Classrooms open this week and the first lessons will be posted on Saturday, January 9. Lessons are posted each week during the six-week course and you work at your own pace, at a time that is convenient for you. Instructor guidance and support is available via the class message boards. Classes are only $30 for students new to LVS Online and they are only $24 for returning students.

Registration deadline is January 6, 2010

Hope to see you in class!

School is starting soon at LVS Online!

I am working hard, revising the blogging classes for a new school year.  I am very excited about some of the new content planned for both the Blogging Basics and the Blogging for Fun, Fame and Fortune classes. The world is all a buzz about Twitter, so there will now be a brief introduction to Twitter in the Blogging Basics course. We will address how Twitter works with blogs to build an audience and contribute content. I have also added some new multimedia information into the Blogging Basics course, as many LVS bloggers are artistically inclined.

Last May, I incorporated some guest instructor content into the Blogging for Fun, Fame and Fortune course. We are taking it a step further this session, as at least one guest instructor will provide not only content but interaction on the class message board. Subscribe to the RSS feed or follow me on Twitter for details about guest instructors this session.

When you only have 140 characters to work with, every single one of them counts. Twitter, an extremely popular micro-blogging platform, has developed a shorthand to make the most of those limited characters. Let’s take a look at some of the Twitter commands and shorthand.

Twitter commands

Twitter shorthand

RT

RT @SandyStepien: Would like to know: Who is your favorite car rental agency?
‘Having a problem with Hertz … ‘hope they can resolve soon.

This is a retweet. The RT signifies that you are passing on information or a question that was initiated by someone else. When you retweet, you give credit to the original source by including @username in your retweet. By including the original username in the retweet, you provide the means for your followers to connect with the originator. Because the @SandyStepien is not at the beginning of the update, this will not show in her Twitter web page reply tab but it will show in some 3rd party applications like Tweetdeck.

Hashtags

Check out @foodimentary for fun and interesting food facts #followfriday

Hashtags designate Twitter topics. Anyone can designate a Twitter topic. A couple of weeks ago, @micah made #followfriday a topic. Basically you recommend others that you think are worth following and why. Include the hashtag #followfriday to make it easy for others to find on the public timeline and via searches. On Fridays, try this search FollowFriday to find great people for you to follow.

One of the most common type of hashtag is for workshop and events. I learned a lot about the Seattle Startup Weekend by paying attention to the #ssw2. When I heard mention of a project that I was interested in and wante more information, I included that hashtag in my question. I not only had my answer in less than 5 minutes, I had the contact person for the project and three new followers!
@swallner has let me know that twitterfox doesn’t use hashtags but most 3rd party apps and the regular Twitter web site does.

@

LindaEaves: Great meeting with @beanfair yesterday. She does this class: http://tinyurl.com/5u5gmf

Earlier in this post, we talked about using @username at the beginning of an update as a reply to a prior update. The @username can be used anywhere in an update. In most 3rd party apps and the Twitter web page, using @username will create a link so your followers can easily check out that person’s profile. Note that because the @beanfair is in the middle of the update, this does not show up as a reply on my Twitter web page but it does show up as a reply on Tweetdeck. You can always do a search on username to see what people are saying about you as well.

These are some of the most common Twitter command and shorthand. Have more to add or a question? Let me know! Check out my  Twitter for Business and Pleasure course

Twitter was the first to break the story of the  US Airways crash into the Hudson river. Just moments after the crash, Janis Krums used his iPhone  and Twitter to post a picture of the partially submerged plane in the Hudson river and announce to the world that he was on his way to help. The news was on Twitter before the news media was aware of the situation. The picture and story were posted before the news vans even turned the keys in the ignition.

Blogging, and now Twitter, have provided us with first person accounts of diasters ranging from Hurricane Katrina to Tsunami to terrorist attacks. Twitter is designed to be used for mobile devices, even more so than the standard laptop and/or desktop computer. Coupled with a camera phone, Twitter can post images and news as they unfold. Microblogging, limits the user to posting their “stories” to 140 characters but it is ideal for updates like “Wow, watching coverage of plane crash in the Hudson River. Amazing that everyone survived. Pilot’s a hero, rescuers are heroes!” Traditional blogs can follow closely behind with more indepth coverage and stories.  It is interesting to note that in North Carolina, they switched the TV sets in the airport from CNN to ESPN to avoid panicking the passengers. Those with Internet or following Twitter on their mobile devices were the ones that first the real news on why their flight to Seattle was “terminated”.