I spent a day making a module for Drupal.  I simply went through the tutorial on the drupal site. This makes a simple block module that displays articles entered into a drupal installation within the last week.  Even though the example is simple, going through this tutorial is an excellent way to get an idea about how to make a module for Drupal.  I was able to use this tutorial to make a module to get and display messages from Twitter.

Drupal provides an excellent infrastructure for building applications.  Developers can focus on making the application or module work and take advantage of all Drupal’s super structure.

Drupal can control who has access to each module.  All that is necessary to take advantage of this is to create a module function that describes what permissions a module wants to offer.  For example, modules often control access to a module and access to admin for a module.

Download and install the SearchTwit module if you wish.

The form API lets a module present data entry forms.  All the module has to do is create an array describing what fields to offer.  Drupal generates the HTML form elements and all the controls.

Drupal has a storage area for configuration values.  All modules can access this area to read or write information.  Therefore, there is no need to write or maintain configuration files.

I intend to expand my module and add some more features.  I’m not sure why someone would build a web application from the ground up anymore.

This shows the admin for the module. It has three settings.  The search term defines what term the module will search for on Twitter.

The debug setting turns on some debug output.  It will write the number of messages it got from Twitter and it outputs the Atom XML to a file.  While you can use the module on any site, do not turn on the debug.  At least, go into the module and change the location of the file name.

The last setting defines how many messages it will display.

SearchTwit currently outputs its list as an HTML <ul><li> list.

Making this module was very easy.  I’m looking forward to doing more.

Twitter is here and it is growing fast.  Some are still skeptical and others are forging ahead.  The thing about Twitter is that it is a low calorie service.  It takes very little to create an account and post a few messages every day.  If you run an ecommerce store, why not do something with it even if you don’t think it will make any difference.  What do you have to lose?  Not very much.

Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good.

Or, said another way…

A mediocre plan that is implemented is far better than a great plan that is not.

Assuming that you have taken my challenge, what exactly should you do with your Twitter account? Of course you want to create your account.  Try to choose a name that is a good fit but don’t get too hung up on it.  The name of the game is to get followers.  To do that, you must provide information of value.  If all you plan to do is spew out yoru specials of the day, don’t bother.  I recently got followed by a Twitter account called “Jewelry and Watches”.  I took one look at their tweets and blocked them.  It is pure spam I tell you.

Enter a Bio

Statistics show that profiles that have a bio are more likely to get followed.  It’s only 160 characters.  It cannot be that hard.  Make your bio a real commentary about your e-commerce site.  Do not just cram it with buzzwords.

Follow Top Users and Your Followers

The more people you follow, the more followers you will get.  The ratio should be about even.  If you have 50 followers you should be following about 50 people.  The rules are different if you have a strong brand name or an advertising campaign.  Many TV news personalities now are promoting their Twitter accounts.  They don’t have to follow this rule.

Put a Link to Your Store

This is the simplest one of all.  Just do it.  Did I really need to tell you that?

Know Your Customers and Give Them Value

Your customers will be interested in valuable information you bring to them.  Beyond telling them what you have on sale today, give them some information on your industry.  This could just be links to articles.  If you write your own blog then you can tweet links to those articles.

Twitter isn’t the place to list all the widgets you are selling.  You will quickly get ignored for that.

Retweet Others In Your Industry or Your Customers’ Interests

Retweeting is sending a twitter message that came from someone else.  It is the main way that information spreads on Twitter.

Your customers will appreciate getting information from you.  Think about someone who sells cars.  What would his friends think if every time they talked to him he asked if they wanted to buy a car?  I mean every time.  Once in a while he might tell them about some special deal that they had.

Tweet About 20 to 30 Times a Day

You can go overboard with twitter.  Don’t over do it.  At the same time, you must have some activity.

What To Tweet

Keep things conversational. An old uncle of mine always said, “People buy from people they like.”  Someone does not have to know you personally to like you.  If you can give some aspect of personality in your tweets, people will feel more connected.  Try actually responding to people once in a while.  When you are tweeting, you are the individual, not the corporation.  No one ever had a conversation with a corporation.

You might consider doing discounts and specials.  Some ecommerce businesses have been successful with that.  Other brands send out photos or testimonials of real people using their products.

If you sell dive gear, tweet about great places to dive.  You will get more respect that way than talking about 10% off snorkels this month.

A coupon deal of the day has been a big winner for several internet businesses.

Remember, don’t over do it.  Don’t flood your customers with too much sales stuff.

AirTran announced that it will offere WiFi Internet access on flights. What a cool thing. We can tweet while in the air now. All joking aside, it is high time for this. In the age of ultimate productivity, we cannot afford to spend valuable time on planes reading magazines. This is especially true when traveling across the country.
My big question is about the WiFi devices themselves. We have been told for years that we cannot turn on electronic devices because they will somehow cause the plane to be involuntarily redirected to Tahiti even if that wasn’t where you were headed.

Now, I would love nothing more than going to Tahiti.  But that’s just me.  How is it that AirTran can get their planes to the right destination with WiFi signals all over the place?  And let’s not forget the Internet signal itself traveling from the plane to the ground or satelite or whereever it goes.  How does that work?

I find it particularly annoying that we’ve ben told this nonsense about phones and other devices interfering with a plane’s navigation equipment.  It is nonsense.  Mythbusters attempted to test this theory but were unable to truly prove or disprove it because they were not allowed to use devices on planes. They tried using some small planes and were unable to detect any effect.  These small planes are not the same as the commercial jet so it wasn’t a good test.

Now we know the answer.  These devices have no effect.  None.  Probably never have.  The entire plane could have an army of devices in use and the plane would still not get redirected to Tahiti. Darn.

So get on a plane and fire up your laptop, phone, iPods, netbooks, Wii and whatever else you can bring along. Connect them all to the Internet. If we can’t be productive on a flight, at least let’s make it not boring.