Tweeting for multiple accounts? Do yourself a favor…

tweetThis morning, we heard yet another example of a person making a stupid, unthinking comment on a major brand’s Twitter feed that was clearly intended for their own. Without knowing specifically what happened, odds are this person was using an app that allows one to be signed into multiple Twitter accounts for ease of use. So, the ugly comment meant for a personal feed goes onto the major brand feed… and you cannot unring that bell.

So, do you tweet for your brand, company or organization? Do you also say things in your personal feed that would look silly, stupid, or embarassing for that brand, company or organization? Do yourself a favor and split the accounts up between different Twitter apps. It’s a firewall of protection to ensure your hopefully-far-less-problematic-than-this-person’s comment won’t end up costing you your job or your brand.

Or maybe just don’t post stupid things?

Apple: “It’s almost here”

I love the Apple invites and the instant deconstruction of meaning in every bit of them. Check out the shadow of the 12 is a 5… as in “iPhone 5”? I would have put cash money down that the next iPhone would follow the iPad lead and just be “the next iPhone.” Premonition or head fake by Apple? We’ll see on the 12th…

Beware of fake free wifi

wifi phisherOne of my office locations is in a busy area of Washington, DC with the usual dozen or so wifi hotspots available. The other day, I noticed a few new open ones: TWCWiFi, optimumwifi and xfinitywifi. All are ostensibly free wifi from cable companies… here’s the trick though: two of them don’t do business in DC. Turns out these are likely phishing wifi spots trying to lure the noneducated surfer into coughing up some bank passwords. Memo to the wise: beware of public free wifi that you can’t confirm is for real!

a new look

After an internal coding battle with our former website mangement system, we’ve decided to go with WordPress – now you get to see the fruits of the weekend’s labors! Not a huge change, but we’ll be adding more as time goes on. If you’re a Nineball client, your client pages are going to be refreshed as well… let us know if you need anything as we continue with our fall cleaning on the website!

Fair Use: Using copyrighted material legally

American University’s Center for Social Media recently released a tremendously helpful resource that helps to clear some misconceptions about the concept of fair use of copyrighted materials. There are a lot of people out there that think fair use is any use where they aren’t paid… not true! There are a lot of ways a video producer can rely on fair use, and this Code of Best Practices soes a great job of spelling it out. Check it out here.

Best Wifi Hotels

Talk about a great resource for the mobile traveler… I’ve been surprised to find that sometimes nicer hotels have worse amenities in the WiFi space than cheaper hotels. Now my suspicions and anecdotal experiences have been confirmed by the folks over at Hotel Chatter. Take a look at their 2008 Best WiFi Hotels for more…

Easy Podcast Marketing

Great stuff from Chris Penn… an eight step guide to marketing your podcast.

A sidebar regarding the title… it’s funny how some people are staying away from using the term “podcast” while others are doggedly sticking by it. There’s no question the technology will be around well into the future as we get more and more adopters, but what might happen is that the name gets subtly changed because of this (silly, in my opinion) fear that the term podcast connotes an amateurish production.

Ok, sidebar over… check out the audio or e-book version of Penn’s guide.