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I spent some time this evening researching my Twitter usage and that of a clients.

TW Influence is a handy tool to see where you and your competitors are in the Twitter world. Using Twitters API, TwInfluence will measure your influence in the Twitter realm. The results are not based on the number of followers you have. Your influence is measured on three levels;  velocity, social capital, and centralization. (Learn more here)

If you have a moment be sure to share your TW Influence results by commenting below.

BrightKit is in beta and for a limited time you can add multiple twitter accounts.

The only features available right now are the ability to manage multiple accounts, schedule tweets for a later time, search, read your dms and @ messages. Personally, I am looking for features that move beyond what Twitter already provides.

There are some great ideas being submitted so hopefully BrightKit will take the time to develop some of their users suggestions.

A heads up, unlike some other Twitter management applications, if you post using BrightKit it will be listed on your Tweets.

The Dashboard is great. Easy to navigate.  I like the search feature, though when I click a user link, I seem to be directed to a 404 error page.

I will keep an eye on BrightKit, but in it’s beta version it simply does not have enough management features for me to consider it as an alternative to the service I am currently using.

Right now I would say BrightKit gets a 3.75/5 , though the thoughtful user interface and the fact that they are seeking user feedback makes me think it will quickly reach a 5/5.

There is a way to do this by adjusting tags and code, however, for those of us who aren’t coders we have located a plugin to help.

We have a page that outlines the general rules of any blog contests here at Her Media which appeared in our Navigation drop down. I needed to only include the link on each of our contest posts and as you can see from the image to the left, not only do we not have an appropriate parent category but the title was also too long.

After uploading the Exclude Page Plug in and activating it, a simple small check box appeared on the lower right of the edit screen in WordPress 2.7.

Simply uncheck the box, save the page and it no longer appears in the Navigation menu.

Get The Exclude Pages Wordpress Plug in Here

There are also many Internet Entrepreneurs and Bloggers out there telling me they simply don’t have enough time to do it all. Here are a few of the common tasks they have said they need help with;

1) Wordpress management (uploading plugins, widgets, wordpress updates, approving comments)

2) Blog promotion ( social bookmarking, carnivals, submitting to directories)

3) Managing Social Media accounts and platforms such as Myspace, Twitter, FaceBook

4) Answering contact emails (gatekeepers)

3) Proofing and publishing blog posts

5) General assistant duties (booking flights, sending mom a mothers day bouquet)

6) Copy writing

7) Managing domain registration and hosting

Managing projects such as  graphic design, writing, and PR

Affordability is an issue, as is finding someone with enough general knowledge to undertake all these tasks.

So here is my solution … HerMedia plans to offer Social Media Virtual Assistant Services, customized to the individual needs and budget of each client. Tell me what you think ….

Contact us for more details

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I would like to learn more about your blog, business, or website, why you started it, how you promote it, and who your online audience is. Your interview will be published within an article featuring a review of your service, blog, or website.

Please complete the following form to be considered.

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2) Help others: People often tweet looking for help, directions, ideas, and feedback on their posts or ideas. My rule of thumb is help more often then you ask for help.Which brings me to the next item.

3) Ask for help: Be careful not to go overboard here or you will quickly loose followers. Need ideas for an article, quotes, product reviews, suggestions tweet out your questions.

4) Retweet: According to AJ Vaynerchuk of Blogging Bits “The art of “retweeting” is best described as taking a twitter message someone else has posted, and rebroadcasting that same message to your followers.”  Learn how to retweet at blogging bits .

3) Post updates from conferences: If you are visiting a conference, let others know whats goign on. Most conferences will use a ‘hashtag’. This will allow others to easily see the tweets from any given event. Find out what Hashtag (usually something like #eventname) your event is using and insert it within each of your tweets.

4) Background Screening: Learn about your potential business partners, contractors, and employees by checking out their tweets. I know a tad controversial. If you are a REAL new business management style employer then you will get social media and understand it is an asset to your business not a hindrance.

5) Locate Blogs and Subscribe: Most tweeters will list their blogs within their twitter profile. My Google Reader contains some excellent blogs written by my followers. Twitter is a great way to find some ‘hidden blog gems’.

6) Locate Speakers: If you are searching for just the right person to speak at your event, interview for an article, or a podcast guest, Tweet it out. Some amazing people hang about on twitter.

7) Gain knowledge: Twitter is an amazing resource to make direct contact with some very qualified experts. My son had a school report, one tweet and he had direct access to a professor to an author to quote in his report.

Respond to your followers: Please note I did not say Spam your twitter followers. Offer a free resource sure, but don’t reply to a new follower asking them to buy something. Thank them for the follow and ask them about their blog, business, or who they are.

9) Locate some good Twitter Tools: Test out some twitter plugins to see which work best for you.

10) Get some help: A few people have asked me to host a twitter how to conference call. Once I have 15 people interested I PROMISE to put one together… so if you need more help contact me and let me know you want to be added to the list.

Today’s Firefox add on is Time Tracker. Although I am sure most of the sites I spend time on are all work

related with the exception of my local ‘city/ community’ forum. I can see how this could benefit users.

According to Time Tracker Firefox add on’s developer they planned to add some additional features which would be really handy. Unfortunately since their post in June they haven’t yet launched these extra options:

Planned features:
- Track time individually for specified sites
- Get back to work alarm
- Statistics

I am finding this add on great for letting me know how long I am spending writing my blog posts.

Another great use; I can use this on my children’s computer to help them see how long they are “online” It’s easier to say you have until the ‘timer” counts up to 15 minutes.

Options/features are currently limited to;
- Tracks browsing time across sessions
- Pauses automatically when you stop browsing
- Reset counter
- Pause toggle per window
- List ‘work’ sites that should not count
- Tooltip showing total time today, since last reset and since installing.

If you could benefit from knowing how much time you are spending online be sure to check out the FireFox Plugin Time Tracker.