Tag Archives: Twitter

Twitter On Oprah, Ashton Kutcher Vs CNN

Some wild and crazy times have fallen upon the Twitterverse, and all the Twits are following to see who will win the race to one million followers — @aplusk or @cnnbrk ?  By the time you read this, the verdict will surely have been determined and Ashton Kuthcer will be on the Oprah show to talk about his Twitter experience along with Twitter CEO Evan Williams.  Together, the two will help Oprah make her first tweet live from the show.  She’s recently created her account @oprah and already has more than 50 thousand followers, and she hasn’t tweeted a peep.  Wow!

The actual interesting part isn’t that these clowns are amassing celebrity-like followings (because, you know — they’re, like, celebrities), but that Twitter is getting a ton of exposure to the, quote-unquote, real world.  More than 5 million new Twitter accounts were created in March alone, so imagine what Oprah will bring.  That’s right, probably a lot of folks you’re not going to be too interested in following.  Which says more about the fact you’re here reading this than it does about the millions of people soon to start tweeting their daily afternoon housecleaning activities.  Oh golly.

No, none of that.  As Twitter grows its user base, so grows the streaming real-time conversation of what’s happening at any given moment in real time.  The value in this is so amazing that I can’t quite get my head around it.  Third party tools are just starting to tap the near infinite resource to maximize all the glory that is…well, I don’t know what it is, but it’s huge.  Trust me.  All these guys – Twitter Search , Twitt(url)y , TwitterFall , (and my favorites) OneRiot , and StockTwits – are quickly having their existences validated and being given greater purpose as they continually refine their algorithms to sift and filter the larger and larger stream of chatter.  Without these groups of programmers, Twitter is a wasteful time sink.

The information is freely out there – on Twitter on the Interweb – find and support the tools that properly exploit it to meet your needs.

Update: Ashton pushed through for the win, check it out .

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Nano Blogging, The New Mirco Blog

When 140 characters is just too much to read or furnish, there’s the new 26-character, nano-blog alternative. Flutter.  Take a peak, leave a Flap:

If Flutter’s too much, take peace of mind in knowing we’re months away from Flutter intern Laura’s new 10-character service Shttr.  All the benefits of Flutter, but without the vowels.  Talk about quick, efficient communication.  No longer will quips be outdated by the time you finish reading them!

All seriousness aside, "share your thoughts – brie"

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Twitter On United States Congress

It’s a lot like wearing a tie in that I don’t know why so many people do it, but I know why I do it, and my reason(s) for doing it don’t seem like they would be good enough for others to be doing it.  See what I’m sayin’?

Tweet Congress is the latest in web twitter tech, and I’m not totally sure what to think about it, but I have started following @tweetcongress , so we’ll see what useful information comes of it.

If you’re curious, TweetCongress.org tracks folks from the Hill that use Twitter.  So give it a look and search for your congressmen.  Let’s get them all to sign up and start sharing with us.  We can chat about all sorts of important things.  Oh yeah!

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More Twitter Please, How Do You Take Yours?

I almost can’t believe how people are starting to jump on the Twitter pipe, but it’s not the individual users that surprises me.  No, not at all.  People do that sort of thing.  It’s that businesses are not only signing up for accounts but that they are also actively Tweeting.  Sure, anyone can use an automated TweetFeed to share new posts with followers, but it takes a real life person to carry on conversations and respond to fellow Tweeters.  (I can only imagine it’s the daily duty of an intern, but still.  Someone is getting paid to Tweet.)

I’m particularly pleased with @News10_CA and their posting.  We’ll see how long it lasts, though.  I’ve found that a lot of these company accounts don’t last long when it comes to updating regularly.  Time will tell.

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Tweeting With The Stars

It isn’t as exciting as it sounds, but @britneyspears and @THE_REAL_SHAQ have made their respective ways to the twitter stream.  Shaq seems to be doing his own tweeting, while Britney occasionally chimes-in between those tweets entered by her PR team.  Which is to say that Shaq seems to be enjoying the Twitterverse , while Team Britney is working a piece of her marketing campaign .  Shaq is more entertaining.

My bigger interest with their twitter presence is who they choose to follow.  Is it just fans?  Is there any interest in the tech world?  Are there other folks from their industries jumping on the twitter wagon?  (Managers, Agents, PR Firms, etc.) Are they following and reading my tweets?  Should I let Shaq know I’m a Kings fan and still upset about the 2002 Western Conference Finals?

Currently @britneyspears has a follow/following of 1,555/9,010 and @THE_REAL_SHAQ is showing 270/10,108.  (Should note that Britney appeared about a month and a half earlier, yet she trails in followers.)  And while these are relatively impressive numbers, they are nowhere near the likes of @ijustine 1,562/27,066, @Scobleizer 20,978/39,808, or @JasonCalacanis 48,114/40,983. (I was surprised to see his numbers.  Where did he find an additional 7,000+ people to follow?)  All their numbers are ridiculous when I consider my own 171/182 ratio.  I can barely keep up with reading them, let alone find time to reply.

Perhaps more Hollywood celebrities will pop into the world of Tweeting.  It’ll be interesting to see the potential number of followers they’ll bring with them.  Can TwitterLand survive another growth spurt or are we looking at a bunch more fail whales in 2009 as the service tries to go mainstream?

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Early Adopting, For Geeks Or FanFolks?

Every now and again I show up somewhere and wind out talking about techy things that aren’t necessarily appropriate for public consumption.  Most recently it was a Sunday BBQ at the home of @alum and his lovely wife.  He and I somehow (probably my fault) started prattling on about Twitter when another guest chimed in with, "what’s that?  Is that another Facebook or Myspace?"  Neither of us had a really great way to explain the service to her.  (I didn’t use my sex analogy, but I should have.)  Ultimately, I told her it was only for early adopters, to which she replied, "you mean people like you guys."  Ha!  Yes, precisely.  Although, maybe more like myself than @alum — I don’t want to implicate him in its use.

This got me to wondering who really is using these almost daily new web 2.0 apps and the like.  Part of my explanation to the listening guests involved my admitting that, from a branding standpoint, whenever I find a new service or app, I want to sign up with my desired username before anyone else can.  So it’s more of a fanboy frame of mind from that perspective.  However, there still is the geek set in me that wants to turn and tweak every setting, and scan through the code if it’s available.  So, I don’t know.  It’s fairly middle of the road as I see it, but I’d have to lean toward mostly fanboy since I sign on to any and every service with the same name and photo.  I’m a branding maniac in that sense.

I checked the people I follow on Twitter and they are mostly tech bloggers or local Sacramento dwellers.  I define most of them as fanfolk — the tech bloggers, at least — the type of people who use Apple products simply because they’re not Microsoft products and are much easier to manipulate than Linux-ware.   These people are always ALWAYS using or at least talking about the latest and greatest web 2.0 apps.  Unlike the Geeks, the Slashdot folks, who you’ll find repeatedly complaining about shoddy algorithms and miss named quanta.  Definitely not the same people.  So it goes.  And it’s not just my Twitter stream, you’ll find the fanfolk in my feedreader, too.

The truth of the matter is, the fanfolk are the early adopters.  They’re willing to sign up and beta test whatever app you toss them and they want to be the first to blog and microblog to you whether it’s cool or not.  They are the cool kids of the scene, regardless of whether or not they know what they’re talking about, and they are probably going to determine whether or not an app makes it to mainstream.  Before we get carried away, let’s be honest: would you rather roll out on Friday night with iJustine or CmdrTaco ?  Umm…no contest.  iJustine, drinks and tech talk?  My treat.  Ring me when you’re in town.

New 140-Character Platform, identi.ca

The latest and maybe-not-so greatest (yet) micro-blogging tool identi.ca is up and running, and wants you to answer the question, “What’s Up?”.  It feels very new, which it is, and I’ll have to experiment with it a bit more before I can fully conclude as to whether or not I’ll make the leap away from Twitter.  Twitter, by the way, is slowly driving me crazy with all its whale fail screens and seemingly random removal of features.  (A whale fail screen is what you see when Twitter is not functioning correctly.  Not quite as bad as the infamous BSOD, but definitely up there.)

Really quick:

What I do like:

  • Laconica, OpenMicroBlogging  (HUGE)
  • OpenID support, which I use
  • Layout similar to Twitter’s (unlike Plurk, which is difficult to read)

What I don’t like:

  • Early stage software, missing features
  • No Search, how to find Twitter followers
  • Getting auto-logged out

What identi.ca needs right away:

  • SMS support
  • Desktop Client (maybe Twhirl will add it)

Check identi.ca out for yourself, if you’re into that sort of thing.  If not, keep on keepin’ on with your current 140-character service.

SMS Tax? Not 3jam!

How strange, that on the same day I come across an article in the local Sacramento newspaper indicating local government is considering a tax on text messaging, I also find myself knee deep in the latest SMS tech?  It’s called 3jam.  (Thanks Techcrunch.)  The whole thing is oddly curious.  But curiously odd?  It’s not.

I’ll be the first to admit I’m not a huge fan of the text message, be it SMS or MMS.  My biggest qualm being a general degradation of the English language form.  Which, if you’re keeping up, should seem kind of ridiculous —  I Twitter and Plurk.  Both services limiting input to 140 characters.  (What is it with that number?)

To be fair, the tax doesn’t really bother me.  The article claims there would be a reduction to my tax on the land line I keep.  Yea!  Some balance.  But the real reason is, I don’t do a ton of texting (verb?).  I typically distribute my GrandCentral phone number and it doesn’t allow for SMS or MMS.  (I’m saved.)

So far as I can tell, this tax is limited to the Sacramento area, so if you’re local, you might want to get involved in the November fourth election.

But even if you’re going to get taxed, the great feature of 3jam is that it only registers one text message regardless of how many folks you send the same message to.   (I can send a message to all two of my friends and only be charged for the price of one message.  Then, if either recipient replies to said message, it will go to every person on the original message list and only result in the cost of one message being sent for the sender.  It probably makes more sense if you have more than two friends.)

Good luck.

Lisa Nova is a Twitter Whore

Who isn’t, right? Becoming a Twitter Whore.  I mean, if you’re doing it right, then of course you are and you have to be.  Who wouldn’t want to share with the world every little thing that’s happening as it happens?  I know I can’t help myself.  OMG! And on the off chance you’re a little confused as to how it actually works, Ms. Nova was kind enough to provide some instructional video. It’s kind of what she does, in case you didn’t know.  (You should know who Lisa Nova is.)

Part I

Part II

Genius, my man — pure genius.  WTF!

My Life, On The Line — Plurk

It’s just like Twitter, but it’s the new kid on the block.  Oh my.  Here we go again, and it’s called Plurk.com.  Now you can write everything you’re doing every minute and, if you have friends, they can comment back.  Sweet.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m a fan of time-wasting social communities like this.  It just cracks me up that there’s always something newer.  But is it better?  Maybe.

The real problem is getting all your friends and followers from twitter to follow you to Plurk.  Otherwise you’re just writing to yourself.  (I guess that’s not so bad.)  Once you have some friends and such, then you can get to plurking, whatever that means exactly.  I do enjoy having  another place to collect tiny faces.  I get a kick out of that.

The layout is more appealing, and you can earn karma, which is like pretend money used for buying enhancements to your profile page.  (Collecting things is great way to hook people with an addictive personality.)  So far there doesn’t seem to be a stand alone client (like twhirl for twitter,) so you have to keep a browser page open.  And they’ve yet to implement support for my mobile browser.

Anyhow, I don’t know the load to their system, but maybe the service will have a better uptime and fewer hassles than that other service.  In the meanwhile, we’ll probably continue to use plurk as intermittently as the others.