So it turns out, your giant number of Twitter followers might not be as awesome as you think - as least on a level where you actually connect to people. Interesting…
Kim Kardashian has 2.7 million people following her tweets, and is paid $10,000 for each tweeted product endorsement. But are those companies getting their money’s worth? Anil Dash has been analyzing what it’s like to get his feed featured on Twitter’s suggested user list. So far it’s bumped his number of followers from 18,000 to 300,000. Sounds great, right? But Dash still gets the same number of replies and retweets as he did with fewer fans, and he argues that “inflated” follower numbers are meaningless. Being on the list did nothing for Creative Commons, NBC’s Today show, or Starbucks. Many others privately said they had the same results, but would not comment on the record. “Today’s celebrity reporting often includes a mention of a celeb’s follower count as a matter of course. But I’m hoping to encourage some skepticism,” Dash writes. (Dashes.com)
That’s probably all true, but still, I’m jealous of people with over 1,000 followers. It’s such a gigantic, awesome, impressive number dammit! (You can help me with my insane and now worthless goal of getting there by following me HERE. Huzzah!)
Woah, Twitter actually made money in 2009. Good for them. But now they’re going to include advertisments next year. Bad for them!
Twitter Inc., will finally have a profitable year, Bloomberg reports. In October, Twitter agreed to allow Google and Microsoft’s Bing to make its micro messages searchable for a reported $15 million and $10 million respectively. Until earlier this year, making money wasn’t even a focus for Twitter, which poured almost all of its time into product improvement. Twitter, which started in 2006, is also planning to roll out an advertising program early next year, and will also begin charging for commercial accounts, which will allow businesses to analyze tweet traffic.
I’d only buy a Twitter-Pro account if it could teach me how to now waste my life on sites like Twitter. On a similiar note, you can all follow me on Twitter by clicking right HERE.
I learned long ago, after sending certain key text messages, that drinking and micro-communication does not mix. On a related note, Twitter is going to start making wine.
Microblog service Twitter is making a foray into viticulture with a wine label: Fledgling Wines. A joint project with San Francisco DIY winery Crushpad and nonprofit literacy organization Room to Read, proceeds from Twitter’s two wines—a Pinot Noir and a Chardonnay—will go toward promoting child literacy in the developing world. SF Weekly reports that, “true to the open nature of its own product, Twitter is not creating the wines all on its own: It’s encouraging you to participate in the process” with “virtual” barrel tasting and a possible label-design contest. Crushpad is a company that provides means for amateur oenophiles to make and sell their own wine. Like Twitter, it’s one of the Bay area’s promising young startups, having raised $9 million in funding since 2004, mostly from its customers. (SF Weekly)
Come on Twitter, I already use you to send out every inane, insipid, moronic and, rarely, hilarious parts of my life - the only thing I have going for me is that I can spell all the words correctly. Now, with drinking thrown in, you’re going to rob me of that too. Thanks a lot.
Dear people who want to do illegal things publicly - maybe you should rethink your plan. Like openly talking about killing the President on a social network site? … That’s pretty much a bad idea.
In a creepier-than-usual case of social networking gone awry, a user-created poll on Facebook was recently discovered posing the question “Should Obama be killed?” Blog Political Carnival discovered the poll and alerted the Secret Service to its existence; Facebook has since removed the poll as well as the application that enabled its creation. Political Carnival took a screenshot of the poll before it went down. It featured four answers to the question: Yes, No, Maybe, and “Yes if he cuts my health care.” The Secret Service has said that it is investigating the issue with the help of Facebook. “We take these things seriously,” said a spokesman for the Secret Service. (The Washington Post)
On that note, you should become my friend on Facebook. I promise, I say no to the assassination of world leaders and yes to pictures of me recreating 1970’s superhero shows. Can’t beat that.
For those who keep saying Twitter is a fading fad, you might want to rethink your arguments. It looks like the social network service is going to be around for quite a while…
Can Twitter make this announcement under its 140-character limit? After $100 million in venture-capital funding was provided by investors to social-networking site Twitter, the company’s value may have reached an astounding $1 billion, according to a source familiar with the deal. In addition to giving investors a 10 percent stake in the company, the infusion means that people around the world will continue to have the opportunity to announce each time their dog does something cute. How Twitter, which has been rapidly growing since it began in 2006, will use the new capital to generate revenue has not been announced, but this month, co-founder Biz Stone announced plans to add business services such as an “analytics dashboard” and possibly advertising to the site. (Bloomberg)
Not thrilled with that last sentence, although I guess it was just a matter of time before every tweet about my dog is coupled with an ad for Purina. On that note, follow me on Twitter! Huzzah!
This is interesting. According to Nielson, social media is now the fourth most popular acitivty online. Even more so than Email.
Nielsen reports that the use of social network sites like Facebook, Twitter, Digg, YouTube and others has passed the use of email to become the 4th most popular activity online, growing at double the rate of the other four activities ranking in the top five. (Connect Social Media)
For those curious (like myself), the top three activities are 1) Search engines, 2) General interest portals and communities and 3) Online software. To read the full report, CLICK HERE or to read a nice summary of it, CLICK HERE.
This is also a good time to remind you of the links to the right, where you can follow me on Twitter or be my friend on Facebook. I’m just saying, is all…
