I’ll be updating and adding to the collection of icons for your Twitter/Facebook/Other social meda accounts, and hi-res retina iPhone 4 wallpapers in the coming couple of weeks, so check back when you can and share this page with all your fellow Canucks fans using the buttons over there on the right.

GO CANUCKS, GO!

Social Media Icons

International Icons

For those of us out there who want to support the best club hockey team in the world, from afar! A majority of the designs below were completed upon request from fans around the world.

iPhone 4 Wallpapers

So I went exploring across the interwebs this week to see if I could come up with a better way of handling this scenario. And what do you know, I found myself a bit of a gem in the form of Andy Graulund’s self-hosted Twitter archive browsing and search solution called “Tweet Nest”.

The PHP application available for free download from “pongsocket.com” was relatively easy to set up in a sub directory on my blog server and I’d say within about 15 minutes of uploading, setting up a database and installing, I was good to go with what you can now view and explore here:

http://www.masey.com.au/twitter/masey/

It’s a beauty. You can browse back through my Twitter archive based on month, day or even a search keyword which delivers more accurate results than anything I was able to perform using Twitter’s own advanced search option! Each tweet listed in the archive or search pages show thumbnails for included images (when possible), and I have to say, generally the UI has been well-thought out and executed in all respects.

If I had to pick a downside to Tweet Nest, it would be that the total number of archived tweets that are able to be retrieved on initial installation is limited to 3,200. For someone, like me, who has unleashed over 8,000 tweets onto their loyal followers, this isn’t ideal as well over half of my “pearls of wisdom” are already missing from my personal archive. It must be noted that this is a Twitter API imposed limit, however, so I can’t vent in the direction of Tweet Nest in this instance.

That issue aside, however, Tweet Nest is good stuff. Anybody who has a basic knowledge of the setup process involved in setting up a WordPress blog will be able to handle the well documented installation process, as well as the small amount of ongoing database updating and maintenance required.

I look forward to being able to take advantage of its features in the future and I invite you again to browse through my new personal Twitter archive which you can find here.

Here’s what you need to know:

Tickets will be available as of this Friday, 21st January.

Here’s how you can get your hands on tickets:

1. Track me down sometime over the next week in the lead up to Wednesday night. Good luck!
2. Enter your name and the number of tickets you want in the form below. You will be placed on a guest list at the door on Wednesday night and you’ll be required to pay for your tickets ($10 each) then.

Each ticket will inclue your first drink* FREE thanks to the generous guys and gals at REPUBLIC! It’s important that you arrive before 11pm or you will be subjected to Republic’s regular cover charge on top of the ticket price.

* Check with bar staff to see which selection of complimentary drinks are available.

Let all your friends know about the event!

FACEBOOK

Check out the event page I have thrown together on Facebook. This should make it easy for everyone to share the event around amongst your friends. It won’t hurt to hit the “Like” button at the top of this post either *wink, wink*.

PLEASE NOTE: Even if you indicate on this Facebook Event Page that you are attending, you still need to submit a request for tickets in the form above. Very important!

TWITTER

Copy and paste the following tweet! Simple!

Make a donation if you can’t make it on the night

You can wire (using SWIFT) donations directly into an account set up by the Queensland Government for overseas donations. Here’s the details you need:

For more details, visit the Queensland Government Flood Relief Fund information page.

And that’s it! All that’s left then is to come out and have a good time, celebrating all things Australian and contributing to what I hope will be a really successful fundraising event!

Pure genius.

Advertising Agency: Moma, Sao Paulo, Brazil
Creative Director: Rodolfo Sampaio | Art Director: Marco Martins
Copywriter: Adriano Matos | Illustrator: 6B Studio

• Multiple accounts
• Multiple social media accounts (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Foursquare etc)
• Scheduled Tweets
• Built in link shortening
• Customisable interface (easily change column orders)
• Tabbed layout to maximise usable columns
• Analytics & link stats tracking
• Ability to view user info in a neat way
• Message Drafts
• Visual and audible update notifications

It’s a fairly large shopping list, but one that is easily covered by what I now believe to be the “best app on the block” – Hootsuite.

Why Hootsuite as opposed to the various alternatives?

I’ll give you a couple of examples of why I’m sold on using Hootsuite as my primary Twitter application, but first make sure you check out a great blog post titled, “10 Reasons I’m Switching from Tweetdeck to Hootsuite” from the guys over at “Web App Storm”.

For me, two of the best features of the Hootsuite service are the ability to track statistical information regarding your Tweets and the specific links that you post within (using Hootsuite’s default URL shortening service options), and also the user profile information panels that appear (shown below) each time you click on a user name.

Setting up Hootsuite as a Mac Twitter desktop application

You’re probably wondering how you can make a web-based service into a desktop application without some kind of installer or application environment like Adobe AIR (used by applications like Tweetdeck)? Well it’s actually quite simple using a neat, free program for the Mac called “Fluid”. The following is a quick step-by-step look at how you can be up and running with Hootsuite as your primary Mac desktop accessed by a neat customised dock icon, in no time.

Step 1 – Find a suitable dock icon for your application

It’s hard to go past a more suitable icon than that adorable little Hootsuite Owl we see all around the place these days.

Finding suitable dock icons for all the applications I have set up in the past using Fluid has been a cinch when using “Deviantart” as my search engine. Simply navigate to the “Dock Icons” category section of the site and search for the web application in question – in this case “Hootsuite”. The icon I found for this project you can download from here.

Unzip the icon resource file and place it somewhere where Fluid will be able to find it every time you open your new “Hootsuite” application.

Step 2 – Download and install Fluid for Mac

As long as you are running OSX 10.5 or greater, jump over to http://fluidapp.com/ and download the free Fluid installer.

Note: A similar program called Mozilla Prism is available for those of you on a Windows PC or Linux that will help you achieve a similar result.

Install the application on your Mac and crank it up.

Step 3 – Create your application

Once Fluid starts up, you’ll be presented with a window prompting you to “Create a Site Specific Browser”. Simply fill out the requested details as shown below. When it comes to the “Icon” field, select “Other…” (as shown) and navigate to wherever you ended up placing your Hootsuite Owl icon.

Once you have your icon selected, hit the create button to create your new Hootsuite desktop application.

Step 4 – Add the new Hootsuite application to the dock

You will now be presented with a success message and a few options for progressing. We want to add the new application to the dock, so select the “Reveal in Finder” option.

Find the Hootsuite application you just created by looking for the distinctive Owl icon, and drag the icon to your dock. Drop it in the appropriate spot on your dock and click the icon to open Hootsuite!

If you are asked to log in to your Hootsuite account the first time you start up the application, and when you do you get kicked out to your default browser (Firefox etc):

1. Close the Hootsuite application
2. Open Safari
3. Log into Hootsuite selecting the “Remember Me” option
4. Close Safari
5. Open your Hootsuite application from your dock once again.

This time you should be taken directly into your Hootsuite account screen.

From there it’s just a matter of setting up your accounts and columns the way you want them and exploring the Hootsuite service to find all the amazing features and options that you have for managing your Twitter account(s).

Good luck!

Dubbed “Twestival” (Twitter Festival), the whole idea of the day/evening is to, on a large scale, use social media for social good with 100% of the proceeds from events, raffles, silent auctions and more going directly to “Concern Worldwide”, a charitable organisation whose, “education programs target the poorest people in the poorest countries in the world, with particular emphasis on reaching out-of-school children such as girls, orphans, street children, working children, children affected by conflict, children affected by HIV and AIDS, and children with disabilities.”

This year’s Vancouver Twestival is set to take place at a really cool location, CBC Canada’s The Audience Lounge at Georgia & Hamilton, at 6pm on Thursday evening. Tickets are only $20 and can be purchased online right now.

For your 20 bucks you get the following:

• Admission (donation to Concern Worldwide)
• 1 Wine ticket (more available for purchase)
• 1 Raffle ticket (more available for purchase)
• Food (sushi & canapes)
• Official souvenir YVRTwestival button
• Entertainment (Rob Cottingham, live DJ, Mojave)
• Socializing and networking with Twitter friends & contacts.

For further details, check out the official Vancouver Twestival website: http://vancouver.twestival.com/

There’s set to be a silent auction on the night to which I have personally donated one of my more popular framed, limited edition photographic prints called “Calm Outlook”. Shot on the edge of British Columbia’s Harrison Lake a couple of years ago, the print is bound to provide a tranquil influence in anyone’s home and I’m really hoping that a bidding war breaks out on it! Haha!

The HeARTS for Haiti event a couple of weeks ago was a tonne of fun and a big success, so there’s no reason why this little shin-dig can’t be exactly the same! So grab your ticket online now (hurry cause they are selling fast), come on down to Vancouver Twestival this Thursday and dig deep for this worthy cause!

I’ll be down there (@masey), so make sure you find me and come say hello if I haven’t met you face-to-face already!

Obviously it helps if the people I choose to follow are tweeting about topics that I care and am passionate about. Web, design, Macs, photography and the great outdoors… if you delve into any of these treasure trove topics then I am generally putty in your hands. That’s probably the reason why the following 5 tweeters are at the top of my interest list.

@mashable

Unless you’ve had your head buried in the sand or you’re not remotely interested in what’s hot on the Internet on any given day of the week, then you most certainly would have heard of www.mashable.com.

The Mashable twitter account, maintained by the Scottish CEO of Mashable, Pete Cashmore, is a constant stream of alerts covering the latest happenings in the world of Google, Twitter, Facebook, Microsoft and other top players on the web. +1.6 million followers can’t be wrong!

@mostlylisa

As listed on her website, Lisa Bettany (aka ‘Mostly Lisa’) is “a Canadian television and podcasting personality, professional photographer, media producer, and blogger” – a quintuple threat if ever there’s been one.

In addition to her excellent blog posts on aspects of photography, Lisa manages to entertain with her often quirky accounts of life in general, and also through her posting of some really great photography related links.

@karlwoll

Karl Woll, author of the truly awesome ‘Outdoor Vancouver‘ blog, is easily one of my favourite tweeters. Following Karl, I have no excuse whatsoever for not knowing what is going on in the outdoors in BC’s Lower Mainland.

Be it hiking, biking, kayaking or just sharing links to amazing outdoor flavoured videos, Karl has it covered and I love every minute of it!

@amazingpics

For a long time I thought to myself, wouldn’t it be great if there was a tweeter who would seek out and share the best photographic images that appear on the web daily. I recently stumbled across @amazingpics who more than adequately fills this need.

Drawing from a number of well known amateur photography sites, @amazingpics hand picks the tweeted images which keep me inspired day after day…

@breakingnews

Finally, it’s rare that I can find the time to pour over news websites in order to keep up with what’s going on in the world, especially for breaking news that almost calls for ongoing monitoring.

Promoted as the fastest Twitter-based news service since 2007, these guys certainly live up to their hype by supplying up-to-the-minute informative tweets covering the biggest breaking news stories from around the globe. A definite “must follow” in my books.

You know, Tweets like “Just woke up”. We’ve all let out a collective groan while thinking to ourselves, “who really cares???”.

While I like to think (fingers crossed) I’ve never been guilty of such dreary and banal Twitter dribble myself, I certainly have been on the receiving end of many a Tweet that has left me yawning and/or shaking my head.

The clever and entertaining folk at SuperNews! and current.com have put together a very funny short animation (see below) titled ‘Twouble with Twitter’, which pretty much highlights all that is wrong with the Twitter experience and sections of it’s user base. In a way, however, the video serves as a great little etiquette guide – just avoid becoming guilty of all of the points poked at in the 4:30 minute flick.

All I can say is watch it, laugh at it and more importantly – learn from it!

PS. If you enjoy this animation, make sure you check out more SuperNews! offerings such as the following:

• Obama Hits the AIG Spot
• Becks strikes the USA (Skeletor McBoobs – hahahaha!)
• The Hills

Chances are you’ve heard a little about Twitter here and there and, like me (at first anyway), you can’t imagine Twitter being useful to anyone other than the hard core geeks and web nuts out there. A closer examination under the surface, however, reveals an ultra handy service that can save you an immense amount of time in your endless pursuit of entertainment and enlightenment online, or a savvy business tool that can help you unleash viral promotional messages to a devoted fan base.

It’s real easy to get started on Twitter. All you have to do is follow these few easy steps.

1. Go to www.twitter.com and click on the “Get Started Now” button.
2. Sign up making sure you come up with a username that is applicable to you.
3. Click on the “Settings” link in the menu at the top right of the page and make your way through each tab of options. If nothing else, be sure to click on the “Picture” tab and upload an image to represent yourself with.
4. Read through the following tute and arm yourself with all you need to know to…
5. …START TWEETING!

So what is Twitter?

Well the easiest way to think of Twitter is as a micro-blogging, messaging, alert system that allows you to send and receive text-based posts up to 140 characters in length. If you’re thinking that Facebook already provides you with the same thing with its “Status Update” feature, then you’re quite right. The difference is in the fact that Twitter cuts out all the surrounding fluff and provides a platform from which you can extract so much more than it’s FB cousin.

How do I use Twitter?

Twitter can be used in any number of ways depending on the needs and desires of its users. You can use it to post deep philosophical gems that you dream up, post links to weird and wonderful content you find on the web, or simply use it as a quick and easy way to send short succinct messages to particular contacts. It’s totally up to you!

Who am I in the Twittersphere?

You would have been asked for a username when you signed up. In the world of Twitter, your identity is governed by this username along with a little “@” symbol placed at the front. For example, my Twitter identity is “@masey“. If you want to post something to me publicly, or mention me in a Tweet for whatever reason, all you need to do is include @masey in your post. But I’ll touch on this a little more in a minute or two.

What’s a follower?

This is a pretty easy concept to grasp once you think of Followers in the right manner. Followers are not the same thing as friends. “Followers” may indeed be people you know on or off the web, but in a broader sense, followers are individuals who sign up to be notified when you post a Tweet. Why? Because for whatever reason they find your musings entertaining, helpful or otherwise. Likewise, the list of people you choose to follow can be found when you click on the “Following” link in your profile.

A QUICK TIP:
Although there are Twits out there who suggest that it’s good etiquette to always follow those who choose to follow you, DO NOT! It’s this kind of culture that will generate a healthy community of spammers who have nothing better to do than to bombard you with absolute crap. Only follow those who you find interesting, entertaining and helpful, those who provide you with some value in your Twitter schedule each day. Simple.

Who or what should I follow?

Here’s some examples of who you should follow:

• Close friends. Twitter can provide you with a neat alternative to emailing and even text messaging, especially when one of the many mobile Twitter applications available out there are used.
• Bloggers you follow. As an alternative and/or supplement to your RSS reader, you can use Twitter to track the release of Blog posts released by your favourite Bloggers. The Bloggers in question must be signed up to Twitter, of course, but this is a pretty common practice these days.
• News services. There’s no quicker way to receive breaking news than by following the Tweets of news services like @news_com_au or @cnnbrk.
• Latest celebrity news. Many celebrities, bands and solo artists out there are finding that Twitter is the ideal way to deliver tour and other news items to their fans. check out www.celebritytweet.com for a realtime list of Tweets being released by celebrities from all over the world.
• Product updates and releases. There’s plenty of web services and software applications out there that have their own Twitter accounts to communicate updates, bugs etc to their users.

With all that being said, here’s a few of my favourite Tweeters to follow:

• http://twitter.com/macappstorm
• http://twitter.com/oliviamunn
• http://twitter.com/news_com_au
• http://twitter.com/jordanbehan
• http://twitter.com/cnnbrk
• http://twitter.com/lancearmstrong
• http://twitter.com/mostlylisa

How do I post correctly on Twitter?

Once you have the few options available to you locked away in your cranium, you’ll be Twittering up a storm. Here’s what you need to know.

1. You have 140 characters to communicate your message. DO NOT, if you can help it, resort to that moronic text messaging shorthand crap. “LOL – 2morro will b 2 gd!” There’s a time and place for that kind of thing, so use sparingly.
2. If you wish to publicly reply to someone’s Tweet or post a Tweet that includes someone you follow, simply type in their username preceded by the “@” symbol. eg. @masey I agree with you totally, I can’t wait to see that movie next month as well!
3. If you wish to send a private, or direct message to another Twit, simply place a “D” at the start of your Tweet. eg. D masey, can you meet me at the cinema at 7pm on Saturday?
4. If you wish to forward on a great Tweet that you received, onto to your own list of followers, it’s good practice to reference the original Tweeter by simply placing the letters “RT” at the start of their Tweet. eg. RT @masey: Woot! Canucks score to go ahead 5-2 against the Flames at GM Place!
5. There’s going to be multiple occasions when you’ll want to Tweet a link from the web. As you know, some URL’s are rather lengthy and will swallow up your character count if you don’t use a URL shortening service like http://bit.ly or http://is.gd. Those two are very popular and will easily do the job for you. eg. http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,25042176-1243,00.html can be shortened to http://is.gd/jfgx.

What’s an example Twitter conversation look like?

To illustrate some of the points I have made so far, here’s a quick example of how a typical “conversation” may go:

• masey posts a tweet to cuda33:
  @cuda33 Check out this fantastic 360 panoramic of the Blackcomb Glacier – http://is.gd/ki5S
• cuda33 posts a tweet replying to masey:
  @masey That’s awesome. Do you know the people in the pic? I’m going to forward this on.
• cuda reTweets (forwards to her followers) masey’s original tweet:
  RT @masey: @cuda33 Check out this fantastic 360 panoramic of the Blackcomb Glacier – http://is.gd/ki5S
• masey sends a private message to cuda33:
  D cuda33 I promise to take you up there next time we get up to Whistler! xx

How do I easily post music, video, and images to Twitter?

• Video is pretty easy. Find the video you like on YouTube, get the URL, shorten it using http://is.gd and post.
• Music is dead easy too using the http://twt.fm/ or Twisten.fm services.
• Like music, there’s a quick and simple service available for images too. Simply go to http://www.twitpic.com, login using your Twitter login, upload your pic and share away!

Twitter bird icons by Gopal Raju.