Have you ever seen those icons on Twitter? You know the ones, a plane, heart, star sign etc. Well there are several ways of adding these to your tweets when your on Twitter, but there is a great Chrome Extension which will give you a brilliant way of adding these Twitter Symbols when you are Tweeting.

Twitter Symbols will add an extra button next to the Tweet button on the Twitter website and will open an on-screen box allowing you to click on a Twitter Symbol to add to your tweet.

So all you have to do is click on the button and the selection box will open up, then you can simply add what you want to make your tweet a little different.

One thing I have noticed when using these Twitter Symbols though, is not all of them will be displayed on Tweetdeck, even with the option for International font/Twitterkey selected in Tweetdecks setting, but they do seem to work on Twitter itself

So by using the Twitter Symbols you can tweet a custom tweet like I have below:

If you are looking for a way of using these Twitter Symbols and you are using Chrome then this is certainly a useful extension to use and ideal for any Twitter user

Tags: Chrome Extensions, free twitter tools, Google Chrome, Twitter Keys, Twitter Symbols, twitter websites

I count myself very lucky that when it comes to bands, either by themselves or by their management sending me CDs to review, I’ve had some mighty awesome CDs dropping through the post box, it just goes to show that people do enjoy my music reviews.

Now the other day I received an album from Hampshire band In Darklight, I wasn’t really sure what to expect, so I popped the CD into my computer and uploaded it onto my iPod, it’s easier that way for me to listen to new material on the move

In Darklight were formed in late 2004, although the four band members – brothers Ben and Louis Sellers, Ross Archer and David Green – had been working actively as a band under various names since 2000.

This début album from the four piece band is one that you don’t need to play over and over to get used to it, it’s an album that you’ll play over and over again because it’s acoustically brilliant. Everything fits in together perfectly, guitars, drums, vocals the album is just a joy to listen to.

I can hear you asking what genre the band are, well when you check it out on iTunes, it says “Alternative”, but personally I would add pop/rock on to the alternative, the album is so strong on drums and guitar riffs that it up there with the big boys in my opinion, this is one of those albums that with have any air-guitar or air-drummer giving it some

But saying that, when the album hist the track “Leave Me Here” it slows down, to a wonderful acoustic guitar and some gorgeous dreamy vocals, then onto the short “[Always in my Way]” which nicely flows into “Surface”, boy these guys are truly talented.

As with the tracks I’ve just mentioned it’s not all power tracks, the track “In The Red” is one of those tracks that has no drums, and is one that would sound amazing live with just the piano and vocals of a melting ballad.

Finishing the album off with “Missiles” brings back those key sounds of In Darklight which make this album one that is a must for any music fans collection.

For once I’d like to get an album I could complain about!

I can’t really fault this debut album from In Darklight, even the CD packaging is well designed, Ok I can see you’re waiting for the overall rating of the album, so for sound quality, production and the pure talent of In Darklight I’m giving the album 4.5 out of 5

Check out In Darklight on their MySpace page and their album is now Available Amazon, iTunes and even as a physical Digipak CD.

Tags: Dying To Confess, In Darklight

Recently I’ve posted several methods of marketing yourself and/or your band with the aid of Twitter, now I’m bringing you another method which involves a very handy Twitter Tool called Tweetons.

Once you log in to Tweetons via Twitter OAuth you will be able to set up your campaigns which once done are all automated, you can then just sit back and wait for the word to be spread about your business.

There are two type of campaigns available sweepstakes and instant.

Sweepstakes

These are ideal if you are running a competition via Twitter and would like to spread the word out, with this option when your chosen tweet is found by Tweetons the Tweeters goes into the running for the prize, you have several options to configure such as end date of the sweepstakes as well as some optional settings such as only a follower can win the competition.

This is an ideal way of getting the word out, you could use a HashTag in the tweet to promote you business via the competition.

Instant Reward

This is a handy option for getting the word out about your business to loads more tweeters, such as when someone ReTweets one of your tweets, you can thank them with a reply on Twitter, add your HashTag or web address and this will help promote you out to more possible followers and visitors to your website.

Again there are settings as with the Sweepstakes, my recommendation would be not to tweet everyone that ReTweets you, edit the optional settings so that you only RT those with over a set amount of followers of your choice, maybe 3,000 upwards, that way you’re not going to be spamming everyone on Twitter

Reaching Out

I’ve experimented with Tweetons and from the small stats that I have tested it on it have been quite interesting as you can see from them below

So handy at reaching out to other Tweeters and the possibility of spreading the word, ok they aren’t all going to falling over themselves to follower or visit, but every little helps in promoting your business out to the masses of Twitter users.

If you are thinking of running a Twitter competition to promote your business or just want to promote yourself via some friendly thanks to fellow Tweeters, then consider this handy Twitter Tool

Tags: advertising on twitter, free twitter tools, twitter tips, twitter websites

You may of read a post I wrote about branding the Blazing Minds name and how I have used Twitter @ Anywhere to add the Blazing Minds name on Twitter.

I have added the code to my blog for Twitter @ Anywhere by hand and though it is rather easy to do, sometimes there comes a time when you may want a little more, so along comes Twitter @ Anywhere Plus.

This handy WordPress Plugin allows me to not only add the hover boxes, but also a Tweet Box (standard and custom), auto link of Twitter names, custom follow button and a tasty Twitter ReTweet button that opens up an on-screen overlayed Tweet Box for the ReTweet text, which can be customised as well.

And all this can be set up from your WordPress Admin panel, no coding required, you will have to get yourself a Twitter @ Anywhere API key, which is thankfully free.

So now if you want to add a little extra marketing to your blog, then by using Twitter @ Anywhere Plus you can by having your name mentioned in tweets in the “via..” link in Twitter.

If you are not to sure about editing your themes files and want an easy way to add Twitter @ Anywhere to your blog, then is certainly the WordPress Plugin to go for, simple easy and quick, what else could you ask for

Tags: advertising on twitter, free twitter tools, twitter anywhere platform, twitter marketing tools, twitter tips

According to Dreamworks this Shrek movie is going to be the last in the series, whether or not this actually turns out to be true it remains to be seen as I am sure if they make enough money out of it, eventually another movie will be made. After all, this is what most companies tend to do if they are making money from a franchise right?

The Film

Overall I felt the film was the best Shrek movie since the original and for me I have to say that Rumpelstiltskin stole the show and he really was an fantastic character. His strange duck pet was a bit weird and the relationship they shared was certainly a strange one. His one liners were easily the best in the movie.

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Tags: Shrek, Shrek Forever After

You may have noticed that this is part two of my review of the North Face Hedgehog trainers that I kindly received from FitnessFootWear, if you haven’t read part one yet, then just click Review: North Face Hedgehog (Part 1 Introduction).

I did originally hope to get this second part out a bit sooner, but thanks to the typical and somewhat unpredictable British summer weather, I’ve been kept back the constant rain that has hit us lately

Anyway, let’s get on with the review of these North Face Hedgehog lightweight women’s speed hiking shoes.

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Tags: FuelMyBlog, Hedgehog GTX, hiking shoe, speed hiking, The North Face

Many years ago I did dabble in the fantasy world of online gaming, but since those days I haven’t been to far of places with sword in hand and battled against many wondrous characters.

But recently I was told about Algadon, which is a free online, which is a real benefit as it’s not going to cost you anything, web browser-based, fantasy game based in the medieval and mystical land of Algadon.

So what better opportunity to stop by and check it out and bring my readers a review of the site, so with that it mind, here we go.

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Tags: free role playing games, online role playing, role-playing, RPG