Twitter has launched their new #music service for iOS and web, providing a new way for users to search for music online. As of last week, your Twitter timeline should be inundated with the #nowplaying hashtag. Yep.

So, here’s how to use Twitter #music.

Download Twitter #music. Yes, Twitter Social #music is a Separate App

Twitter #music is a separate app…you know, just in case you thought it was built within the current Twitter app.

It’s not. You have to download Twitter #music it separately.

So…step one of using Twitter #music is to actually download Twitter #music.

I know. I’m being redundant. But I’m being redundant on purpose, so that makes it okay.

How to Use Twitter’s Social #music Service

Now that you’ve downloaded Twitter #music, you can now use Twitter #music to search and listen to music in several ways:

1. The #NowPlaying section lists songs mentioned by musicians as well as people you follow.
2. You can play a song directly from the app (either as an iTunes preview or via your connected Spotify or Rdio account) or discover new music via your own social connections.
3. More importantly, you can also discover new music by navigating to the respective areas for popular, emerging and suggested artists.

Many feel that the close link between music and social is an advantage for all layers of the music industry. Paul Smernicki, director of digital at Universal Music, is a fan. He says, “Twitter #music really captures, in a well executed way, what we all know about music – that it’s incredibly social. When people hear music they love, they want to share it.”

One Twitter App Would Be Better

One Twitter app sure would be easier than having two. Most socially active users have enough apps.

Extending the Twitter app to include a tab for Twitter #music would make life so much easier…for us (probably not the developer).

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Do YOU Vine? Twitter has just updated its popular video-sharing social network Vine app with front-facing camera support and mentions in posts and comments.

What? Just FrontFacing Vine @dhof. twitter.com/jack/status/32…

— Jack Dorsey (@jack) April 30, 2013

Vine App’s New Front-Facing Camera

Version 1.1 of Vine app now features support for front-facing cameras. Bring on the creativity!

The front-facing camera view can be activated by tapping the small button in the bottom left corner of the video recording interface.

Vine now has a front-facing camera and you can mention people! Thanks Dom Hofmann and team. vine.co/v/bx9xuwgAnqF

— Jack Dorsey (@jack) April 30, 2013

Mention Users in Posts and Comments

Having expanded app capability with hashtags earlier in April, Vine app users can now mention other people in both posts and comments. Any mentions will appear in the Activity section as they would on Twitter.

Vine app is currently free and available for iPhone/iPod touch in the App Store.

Although I haven’t really been using Vine, I know a few people who have.

Do YOU Vine?

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Reminder: Posterous will shutdown on April 30th.

Sachin Agarwal, co-founder of the now Twitter-owned service, announced that Posterous will shutdown on April 30, 2013.

Do You Even Remember Posterous?

Launched in 2008, Posterous made blogging as simple as sending an e-mail. When first launched, the only way users could post to Posterous was to send an e-mail to post@posterous.com.

What Was Posterous?

Posterous was to blogging what Twitter was to, well, blogging, so the argument went. Over the years, the product evolved in odd directions, opting for groups appeal over mobile interfaces and apps as simple as its original purpose.

Export Your Posterous Content

Users have until May 31st to Backup their Posterous Space.

Making a backup of your content is a rule of thumb for any type of blogger. With a third-party blogging platform such as Posterous, you can backup your content by “exporting” it.

1. Go to http://posterous.com/#backup
2. Click to request a backup of your Space by clicking “Request Backup” next to your Space name
3. When your backup is available, you’ll receive an email
4. Return to http://posterous.com/#backup to download a zip file

The zip file contains all of your posts in HTML, along with any photos and videos you uploaded to Posterous.

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Social Media Inventors Jack Dorsey and Biz Stone were finally issued a patent for Twitter today, after having officially filed for the patent in 2007.

Look Ma, I’m officially an inventor (my dream as a kid)! mobile.theverge.com/2013/3/19/4124…

— Biz Stone (@biz) March 19, 2013

Biz Stone confirmed that the patent was issued earlier today, and provided the following statement:

“Like many companies, we apply for patents on a bunch of our inventions. We also think a lot about how those patents may be used in the future, which is why we introduced the Innovator’s Patent Agreement to keep control of those patents in the hands of engineers and designers.”

We’ll see how the social media industry reacts to such a broad patent combined with such a unique and equally broad promise to avoid litigation. Twitter has very publicly promised to only use patents defensively. Twitter’s patent holds claims on virtually any service that allows messages to be sent to a large group of un-addressed recipients who follow the sender.

Recently promoted to CTO, Adam Messinger introduced the Innovators Patent Agreement (IPA)¹, a scheme to give more power to engineers who create patents filed by the company. Under the agreement, a company may invoke a patent only for “defense purposes,” not for litigation, unless it has the permission of the original inventor.

1. Read More about Twitter’s IPA on Github {↩}

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Incredimail for iPad was released to the app store yesterday, March 7th, 2013.

Simply put: Incredimail for iPad is a Social Media-Like Email Interface for all of your email inboxes. And we think moms and bloggers will love it.

I’ve included a few snippets from the formal press release below.

Incredimail Recreates the Email Experience

Beginning with the iPad, Incredimail gives you your inbox with a better view.

TEL AVIV, Israel & SEATTLE–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Perion Network Ltd. (NASDAQ: PERI), developer of the leading email client Incredimail, today debuted its latest version of Incredimail, forever changing the email experience for iPad owners. Incredimail for the iPad is the first email application truly adapted for the touch-screen, and is the first major redesign of email in over 20 years. It redesigns the inbox, unifies multiple email accounts, creates a photo inbox from your friends and family Facebook photos, and elevates messages so their contents can easily be seen by users at a glance, in an intuitive "magazine-by-touch" format.

"The team has been focused on the vision of bringing a new look to email and we’re proud to deliver some exciting new tweaks to the best of traditional email."

"We love email and believe it is, and will remain, a vital form of communication for years to come. But the new Incredimail is more than that. It is both a unified messaging application, including a photo inbox, as well as a bold new step in recreating the experience as needed for a multi-screen world, especially for newer mobile formats that have seen explosive growth," said Josef Mandelbaum, CEO of Perion. "We think users, especially our users, are going to love Incredimail for the iPad. It changes the entire email experience, tailored just for devices like the iPad. We look forward to extending this quality experience to the iPhone, Android and other devices later this year and eventually even bring this exciting new email to the desktop."

*Incredimail is available for free download in the App Store. *

Incredimail for iPad Highlights

A Unified Inbox: Add as many email accounts as you want and view them in a unified inbox, or view each account separately. Incredimail currently supports Gmail, Yahoo!, AOL, and any other IMAP account. POP3 is not supported in the current release, but should be in future updates.

Pinterest Style Peeks: Just like Pinterest, you get a quick preview of emails directly from the inbox, without having to open them.

Facebook Photo Inbox: In addition to the regular email inbox, enjoy a photo inbox that features photos from friends and family, keeping you fully up to date with the people that matter most (starting with Facebook photos, others will be added soon).

Link Previews (a.k.a. Snippets): All links sent to you including photos, videos and articles, are presented as a preview within the email for a pleasant and uninterrupted email experience. Links you send are also viewed as previews by the email recipient.

Social Media Integration & Sharing Is Coming

POP3 email support, other social platforms like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, and more photo integration with Picasa Web, Flickr and Instagram.

Incredimail Highlight Release Reel Targets Mommies and Bloggers

Incredimail thinks mommies, bloggers, and users of both demographics will find Incredimail to be incredibly easy to use, and I agree. Check out the highlight release reel below!

http://player.vimeo.com/video/61252743

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A few days after blocking Twitter’s Vine, Facebook’s response to Twitter’s Vine App is an update of their *own* iOS app – which includes….video.

Ha!

How’s **that** for motivation?
#dead

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I’m actually a fan of sending and receiving Holiday Cards through snail mail.

Snail Mail Holiday Cards add a personal touch to a Holiday that is now filled with online shopping!

Here are some words of Social Media Advice on Sending Holiday Cards from Baratunde Thurston, former digital director at The Onion and author of the book “How to Be Black,” and Deanna Zandt, the author of “Share This: How You Will Change the World with Social Networking.”¹

ZANDT: …I’m just not a fan of eCards because it’s so easy to send an eCard that it just doesn’t mean anything.

THURSTON: And it’s so hard to receive mail…

(LAUGHTER)

THURSTON: …that it means too much to me.

ZANDT: Yeah. (Singing) You say tomato and I say…

THURSTON: And I say banana.

Read and Listen to the entire conversation here: Social Media Advice: Sending Holiday Cards

As funny as it is, this interview offers two perspectives of sending Holiday Cards.

How do you feel about sending Holiday Cards? Do you prefer eCards? Or do you prefer snail mail Holiday Cards?

1. http://nhpr.org/post/social-media-advice-sending-holiday-cards {↩}

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I love looking at great social media icon design inspirations. I know; I’m a geek.

But there’s something about a beautifully designed icon that gets me all excited. Sometimes, iOS app developers will hold app icon design challenges to get designers and others talking about their app, and to get a cool looking icon for their app in return.

And some designers will see a social media icon and think, “I can make this better”, so they will remix the icon for fun and to show off their skills. And this is why there are so many social media ions floating around.

It’s hard not to spend all day on dribbble. But it’s a site full of awesome designers who like to showcase their work.

Dribbble is show and tell for designers, who share shots — small screenshots of the designs and applications they’re working on.

So I’ve put together a list of 5 great social media icon design inspirations that I’ve seen this week. Enjoy!

Google+ iOS Icon
By: Alvin Thong

Birdies
By: Mark Jardine

Dribbble App Icon
By: Ramotion

Path & Facebook Icons
By: Jackie Tran

My Favorite Social Media Icon Design Inspiration

the back of the Instagram icon.
By: Cole Rise

This is by far one of my favorite social media icon design inspirations because it gives you an idea of what the back of an icon would look like, as opposed to a different view of the front.

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Use Jetpack 2.0 Plugin for WordPress for automatic sharing to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Tumblr.

Jetpack 2.0 for WordPress was updated and jam packed with new features for WordPress users.

The plugin now includes Auto-Publishing to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Tumblr. When you publish your blog post, you can automatically submit a title and link to your post, directly to your followers – in your social networks.

Prior to the Jetpack 2.0 update, you had to install additional plugins to

How to activate Auto-Publishing in Jetpack 2.0

1. Install or update the Jetpack 2.0plugin
   • Note: If you’re using WordPress.com, Jetpack is already enabled for you!
2. Go to the main Jetpack page in your admin panel.

1. Click “Activate” on the “Publicize” module.
   • Note: This may already be active.
2. Go to Settings –>; Sharing in your admin navigation.
3. “Publicize” should appear at the top of your “Sharing” page.
4. Select the social networks you would like to auto-publish to.

Alternatives to Jetpack 2.0 Auto-Publishing

Part of the reason Jetpack 2.0 is so great is because it allows you to connect to and auto publish to your networks without having to create developer keys, or apps to connect to APIs. But if you prefer to jump through the extra hoops, or if you’d rather not install Jetpack 2.0, here are a few alternatives for adding auto-publishing of your self-hosted WordPress blog to Facebook and Twitter.

• WP to Twitter
• Facebook Page Publish

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It’s Election Day in America, and the voting is well underway.

Many people across America are using Social Media to follow along with the Election Day updates. Those who are at work are using Twitter and Foursquare to watch their friends check-in at the polling locations across America.

Find out how to follow Election Day on Twitter here.

How are YOU following Election Day 2012 Updates?

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