You may recall a while back when Twitter made some noise in the GeoInt social media search space by cutting off access to their firehose of data to Snaptrends (See story from Oct 20), this followed a similar blocking of access to Geofedia, another social media harvesting system frequently used by Police and law enforcement. Well, the story continues as it has been reported now that Twitter is blocking access to all law enforcement and cutting off geospatial data access to all law enforcement and intelligence centers! [Read more…] about Twitter Stops Providing Geospatial Data Firehose of Tweets to Law Enforcement for Surveillance
Unlocking Your Social Media Location History
I’m a big fan of social sharing, however, I’m also a huge fan of having access to my data, in particular, data shared along with location information. Most social sharing services support location tagging, however, they don’t really make it easy for you to access or even download your location history. That doesn’t mean it isn’t possible though! I’ve done a little digging into the popular services and have managed to find a number of hacks and tricks for accessing some of these data. One handy trick is enabled by using the very awesome IFTTT tool.
Cook up an IFTTT recipe to archive your location history from Foursquare! [Read more…] about Unlocking Your Social Media Location History
Twitter Adds Website Cards to drive website clicks
Looking at Twitter for some added exposure and marketing? Consider The new, Twitter website cards – note, you’ll need a Twitter ads account in order to get started. So, what are website cards? To help you connect Twitter’s valuable users with your site, you can use an ad unit called a Website Card with your Tweets.
[Read more…] about Twitter Adds Website Cards to drive website clicks
How to Write a Tweet!
Sounds simple enough right? Jot down 140 characters (max) and hit send, that’s it! Well, indeed that is what most people do, however, it really isn’t that simple, particularly if you expect some engagement. Thanks to the crew at Hootsuite, they’ve reminded us of several important elements that you must consider when crafting a tweet – some good reminders here.
10 Reasons Why You Should Love Twitter!
I gotta admit, I’m really tired of hearing from people that they think Twitter is simply a waste of time, or a stupid social network for boasting about your cat or where you eat or for sharing a selfie etc… Seriously, if you think that’s what Twitter is all about then you are missing out. And if you happen to be a “technology professional” and have that mind-set, I’d seriously also have to question your technology skills and the lack of an open mind that you bring to your work and your personal life. In short… crawl out from under that rock!
There’s many ways to use Twitter. There’s no right or wrong way to use it and the possibilities are seemingly endless. To say that using Twitter is silly and/or a waste of time is very short sighted. Read on for 10 Things you can easily do with Twitter that will make you love it, even if you hate it!
Mapping #JeSuisCharlie Tweets in Real Time
An interesting data visualization reveals the trending #JeSuisCharlie on a World map as the updates light up in real time – great stuff using CartoDB

See the #JesuisCharlie Twitter map HERE
See also real time images and #JesuisCharlie media on the Echosec Social map
Social Tip – Mastering your Twitter Analytics
You Tweet But Are You Aware of your Twitter Analytics? Here’s How — Ok you tweet, but do you have any idea how well your tweeting is doing? Indeed using twitter is subjective and it really is tough to say to anyone that they are doing it right or wrong. However, there are analytics and tools at your disposal that can qualify your tweeting and show you quite clearly what’s working and what isn’t.
Using Twitter’s analytics capabilities you can easily connect your account and deep dive into pretty detailed analytics and reports. Brows your twitter activity by date range and quickly view tweets along with data showing impressions and engagement activity including: likes, replies, retweets, favorites, and link clicks.
Video – The Social Media Guard takes the social out of Media
Here’s Coke’s solution to the “social media problem” – yes indeed, get your head out of the phone! Nice… (Source)
10 Most Popular @GISuser Geotech Tweets of the week
There’s been loads of interesting geotech gems to share this week in the Twitter-sphere. On our @GISuser account we’ve had more than 100 retweets and replies to a number of the items shared. the following are 10 of the most popular Tweets we shared this week… enjoy!
- Don’t Care About Birds? You should… Why Birds Matter {video}
- Smartphone Users don’t Mind Sharing Their Location for Safety Reasons
- Boundless Celebrates Four Years of OpenGeo Suite with version 4.0.2
- Rats in New York – there’s a map {and OpenData} for that
- Learn to Share Cached Imagery in Esri ArcGIS
- Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic (CIPPIC) Open Licensing Project
- Local, state, region, Fed Governments – do you have an OpenGov OpenData portal to share? Add to this directory
- This map can help identify vaccine-preventable diseases in your region
- Time to Code Canada! The Canadian Open Data Experience (CODE) Hackathon
#GCA4 - What is the Cloud? The Cloud, Simplified
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Vizify – Create an animated portrait of your Best Activity on Twitter from 2013
Ok Tweeters, here’s an awesome tool to help you create a fabulous recap of the BEST of your Twitter activity from 2013. Vizify munches and crunches your data producing a nice mashup of tweets, photos, and stats that you can then share with the World as we steamroll into 2014. Happy Tweeting and Happy New Year to all… See our GISuser Vizify HERE and see Vizify at http://www.vizify.com
Tweet – Just made a movie of my #2013memories on Twitter: https://www.vizify.com/gisuser-geotech-news/twitter-video What’s yours look like? #Vizify