Source: Shutterstock With a $1 billion valuation, Twitter is becoming, according to Co-Founder Evan Williams, an information network, a practically priceless exchange for connections, information, and the resulting activity that ensues. Indeed, Twitter appears to have evolved into a human seismograph, a lifeline interweaving people through conversations, reciprocity, and connections inspired by the interests, ideas, passions, causes, and observations that move them. Twitter’s core and most loyal users are at one with the service. Their daily actions hinge on the…
Ning Proves That There’s Life Outside of Facebook and Twitter
Source: Shutterstock I was recently asked in a 2010 planning meeting about my views on Ning and whether or not it was worthy of consideration or attention. It seems that the question is increasingly raised as Social Media becomes pervasive within the halls of marketing, advertising, customer service, and public relations. My answer is this. If your only focus is Facebook, blogs, and Twitter, the grapevine to which you’re connected is only telling you part of the story. Listening to…
Twitter: The Business of Community
Source: Shutterstock Twitter continues to explore and appraise long-term revenue models. For the time being, Twitter’s primary focus is to build and nurture a thriving and indispensable community. Equally critical is the company’s ability to steer engineering and marketing efforts towards developers to empower them to extend, evolve, and enhance the overall Twitter experience for the vast landscape of discerning users as well as those new members who have yet to realize its potential. In July 2009, we were introduced…
Is Facebook Losing its Coveted Demographic?
comScore recently released a report that triggered nothing short of a “sky is falling” media panic. Led by Adweek asking if Facebook is getting uncool for the 18-24 year olds, the media is speculating as to whether or not a mass exodus is underway with much of the blame focusing on parents “ruining the party” for younger demographics. Here’s what we do know… comScore is reporting that time spent on Facebook by 18-24 year olds is waning. In July 2009,…
Socialized Media: The Powerful Effects of Online Brand Interaction
Shutterstock As we’re learning, many updates on Twitter, Facebook and other social networks are actually invitations for answers regarding brands. We’ve also discovered that 44% of users readily share brand-related information with others. And, as action speaks louder than words, 48% of those who came into contact with a brand name on Twitter and 34% on other social networks went on to search for additional information on search engines. Does this information in and of itself serve as an invitation…
On PR, Social Media and the Evolution of the Web with Robert Scoble
I recently visited good friend Robert Scoble, his lovely wife Maryam and their family in Half Moon Bay. It was an overdue trip, one without an agenda. It was a fleeting opportunity to catch up, talk a bit about the latest book, and also an excuse to have a fireside chat, literally, on the grounds of the Ritz Carlton (overlooking the 18th green and the Pacific Ocean.) Before we could walk over to the Ritz however, Scoble sat me down,…
The Twitter Star: Nova or Supernova?
Source: Shutterstock Nova: a star showing a sudden large increase in brightness and then slowly returning to its original state Supernova: a star that suddenly increases greatly in brightness because of a catastrophic explosion that ejects most of its mass I recently wrote about reports on the documented decline of visitors to Twitter.com. A good friend encouraged me to take a deeper look at the reports as a way of discerning hype from reality and to also examine the potential…
On Twitter, What Are You Doing Was Always The Wrong Question
What are you doing? Perhaps, Twitter asked the wrong question all along. In all honestly, who cares…it was really never about “what you were doing” that inspired your network to stay connected nor was it the siren for attracting new followers. We chose to follow you because you moved or encouraged us to do so – with every update. For many of the users on Twitter, the question that engendered a response and also also aroused a cultural movement was,…
On Twitter and Social Networks, Brands Benefit from Conversations
Source: Shutterstock A recent study revealed 20 percent of tweets published are actually invitations for product information, answers or responses from peers or directly by brand representatives. Now we learn that Twitter users are actively paying attention to brands on the popular information network. According to research conducted by Performics and ROI Research, about half of Twitter users who were introduced to a brand on Twitter were compelled to search for additional information. The companies studied the activity of 3,000…
With Klout Comes Influence: How To Find Influencers on Twitter
This is the uncut version of my latest post on TechCrunch… Measuring individual influence in Social Media is as coveted as it is elusive. While many tools claim to calculate authority, it is the definition of influence that requires clarification in order to grasp the relevance and differences of existing tools and services. For the sake keeping this discussion on track, let’s define influence. According to Merriam-Webster, influence is having the power or capacity to cause an effect. San Francisco-based…
