Tweetcloud

Wow - Something new everyday in the world of social media.  OK I do realize this isn't new to some people but to me it is like Christmas morning when I get to open the biggest gift!  Today I am adding a TweetCloud to both of my blogs.  I noticed a tweet by @LCTwitizens saying that he (Oran Parker) was adding it to his blogs so I checked it out.  So cool!!  For those of you who do not know, a "Cloud" is a group of words that are referred to in your online conversations.  They have the appearance of a cloud with certain words being bolder and darker than others.  The more bold or dark a word is, the more you have used it.  Other programs make good use of clouds as well, for example, the social bookmarking site Delicious.

So what significance does this cloud have?  Is it just taking up space on my precious blogs?  It can be a powerful and fun tool for any online user.  Let's say you are interested in quotes or business and you see those words in my cloud.  You can click on the word and up will pop a list of entries I made that include those words.  How cool is that?  Let's take it one step further - let's say you are trying to brand your product online.  Would you agree that FREE advertising (publicity) is the best advertising?  You will see in my cloud at the moment the name Oran Parker, who recently gave a wonderful presentation on the power of Twitter which I tweeted about quite a bit.  In the online world SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is the name of the game.  You want to have your brand appear as high on the search engine listing as possible when people are looking for help in your area of knowledge and the more your name appears on different websites and the more views those websites get, the higher the ranking.  If Oran wants to brand himself or his business it is advantageous to him to have his name appear on Twitter Clouds all over the web. 

“Every cloud has its silver lining but it is sometimes a little difficult to get it to the mint” Don Marquis
"Behind every cloud is another cloud.” Judy Garland