Its hard to believe that WhosTalkin has been around for over a year. Its been an amazing learning experience that has pushed my boundaries as a developer and an entrepreneur. Its this experience that has taught me more about the web and the realities (both technical and business) of real time data.

When WhosTalkin first launched we received a lot of attention from both corporate and small business about scaling our platform for enterprise level monitoring. As a result about a month after we launched we started to develop a full scale monitoring platform that includes trending data, backlogs, email alerts, and much more. During our private beta test we indexed over 750,000 brand mentions for our 34 private beta testers.

During the beta test two things happened.

1. Everyone under the sun started their own enterprise level social media monitoring platform! Suddenly the market was saturated with monitoring tools. The honest truth is that most of these tools are nothing more than hack jobs with a fresh coat of paint. To truly build a monitoring platform of substantial quality you must have a multifaceted understanding of the world wide web and the complexities of merging diverse forms of data.

2. People kept asking about an API. Several of our beta testers and several outside corporations, including one of the world’s largest media conglomerates, requested access to an API. At first the prospects of having an API seemed interesting. However, our first goal was the development of our platform. Then as market competition grew and the realities of managing a platform set in, we decided to put the development of the API at the forefront.

The API is now in a public beta. You can read more about the API at its documentation. If you would like to start beta testing the API. Please contact us to apply.

Since my last post broached “Twettiquette” and the process for retweeting and the Twitterverse received the content so warmly, this week I’ll address the fine art of linking. Y’know – those underlined words on websites and blog posts that lead to other websites or related content.

There are ways of hyperlinking text that pulls more weight across the interwebz and with the search engine spiders than others. We’ll talk about what they are and the whatzits and whozits behind the search engine madness. If I were you, I’d grab a bloody mary – this is a fun ride, but one best taken well-lubricated!
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“Ya gotta pick yer ditch to die in, kiddo.”

- My grandfather

Snarky comments from an ex- on Facebook, a blogger who makes blind accusations about your content, an argumentative Tweep who wants to pick a fight…Conflict across the social mediasphere crops-up in varied forms. Always abundant yet not always needed or relevant, just how do you deal with the B.S. when it comes knocking on your door?

Like my grandfather said, you’ve gotta pick your ditch to die in.
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The ReTweet – This is an issue that’s come up in my Twitter stream quite often as of late, so I thought it best if we addressed the issue here in the most public of public forums: the blog on social media!

I’ve always felt that good retweeting is akin to being a good journalist: Always cite your sources and don’t be a thief.

Soooooo, for those NOT in the know, a “retweet” is the act of forwarding along someone else’s post on Twitter. As one of the primary means for sharing and disseminating information when you’re limited to 140 characters or less, the retweet is a vital tool on the Twitter platform. Yet is amazes me how many people don’t know how to do it, do it incorrectly or just overdo it altogether.

Often seen as a compliment, being “retweeted” can mean anything from others think your content is compelling, important, timely, funny – the list is truly endless. Here’s something to think about as you begin posting other people’s content in the Twitterverse:

RULE OF RULES: Pretend you’re giving a reporter an interview. Being “misquoted” or even worse, not being quoted at all, will make you frustrated, think ill of the reporter, the reporter’s publication and possibly the entire reporter’s family and the gym he/she belongs to. The family dog isn’t even safe when it comes to misquotes and failure to credit.

Thus, to make the retweeting process one that is clear, concise and friendly to Tweeps everywhere (and their family dogs), here’s a step-by-step process on how to PROPERLY retweet someone on Twitter:

1. OMG! OMG! @RedheadWriting ‘s last tweet was SOOO FUNNY! I want to share that with all my followers, LOL.
2. Copy the entire text of @RedheadWriting’s tweet and place “RT @RedheadWriting” in front of the tweet.
3. If the text now goes over 140 characters, it is acceptable to abbreviate/omit words, but PLEASE do not change the intent or EDIT the post to suit your fancy.

But hey, Erika— what if @RedheadWriting’s post was retweeting someone ELSE’S tweet? Those often look like this:

RedheadWriting: RT@theclimbergirl I loved this blog: http://www.rockclimbergirl.com

How the heck do you retweet a retweet? Simple – you credit the original tweeter and it looks like this:

RandomTwitterUser: RT@theclimbergirl I loved this blog: http://www.rockclimbergirl.com

It could also look like this if you’ve got room:

RandomTwitterUser: RT @RedheadWriting @theclimbergirl I loved this blog: http://www.rockclimbergirl.com

But it should NEVER look like this:

RandomTwitterUser: RT @RedheadWriting RT@pbeiser RT@chrisbrogan @theclimbergirl I loved this blog: http://www.rockclimbergirl.com

Just determine who posted the tweet first and remember to credit them. Share credit when you’ve got the room, but there’s no need to overdo it by citing every bloody Tweep who happened to be in the food chain. After all, you never hear a reporter say: “It was heard from Mrs. Jones that Mr. Marks heard that John Doe heard that Mary said she like tofu.”

That’s just silly, now, isn’t it?

By Brian Chappell

Most websites and networks are open to being crawled and pinged by social media monitoring tools. In fact social monitoring tools are the first step, as I explain with the Social Media Monitoring Funnel, in acquiring the conversations taken place around you. However most folks I have found think Google Alerts does a good enough job to call it quits. This is very far from the case in my humble opinion.

Google Alerts is a great place to start, but does not track everything. The following is straight from Google on there explanation of what they are able to find and relay to you via alerts:
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By: Erika Napoletano

Nothing…and I mean nothing frustrates me more than getting someone’s voicemail. On a daily basis, I hang up on voicemail and send that person an email, text or Tweet.

I want to be able to deliver my message to its intended audience on my timeline, their availability be damned.

As part of a culture that used to be happy with a seven-second delay for our evening news and sportscasts, I’m here to tell you those days are gone. Well, they are for me, at least.

These days, I’m frustrated when I’m not awarded the instant gratification that social media’s brought to my life – and I have a feeling I’m not the only one.

Y’see, Twitter is my social network of choice. It’s open so long as I’m on a computer during the day and goes with me on my travels via Twitterberry. I tweeted half way up Mt. Kilimanjaro last fall and shared Twitpics with my followers throughout my journey. I post pics of my activities or links I find interesting to Twitter, which are in turn cross-posted to my Facebook account via FriendFeed.

Got a question? I can DM (direct message) over 1000 followers and then bask in the gratification of a slew of qualified responses.

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Here at WhosTalkin.com we aim to bring you the best in social media search. However, we don’t just want to talk about social media, we want to engage it. We want this blog to be our hub for the social media users that just can’t get enough social media search. Therefore, we want to use this blog as a place to regularly highlight some of the trends and happenings in the world of social media search. The thing is, we can’t do it alone, we need your help! We are now actively looking for bloggers that would like to write guest post here. This is a great opportunity for those that need a little experience and exposure, and for those that just want a new place to write.

Selected guest bloggers will be asked to stay on as permanent writers and help us build our community. If you are interested in writing here, contact us with the following:

• Name
• Email
• URL
• Link to Writing Sample
• Three post ideas that you would like to write.

We are very happy to announce the release of a new browser plugin. The WhosTalkin.com Browser Plugin allows for users to use the WhosTalkin Platform through the browser’s search bar. To install the The WhosTalkin.com Browser Plugin visit our tools section today!

It is my proud pleasure to announce that WhosTalkin.com is now using a robust hosting solution provided by Media Temple. We are very excited to move forward with a company that has a proven record in hosting excellence! This change should also allow us to scale as we continue to develop a new line of exciting tools and services that are sure to blow you away! So with that, give our new home a try and stay tuned for some really great services in the future.