Posts Tagged ‘twitter’
At the sidelines of an entrepreneur conference, TiEcon, yesterday, CNet Webware editor Rafe Needleman reported on Twitter’s ambition to power up its usefulness as a search engine contender. But will this be enough to give Google or one of its competitors a run for it’s money.
On the looks of things, Twitter is doing the right thing like bringing Google’s former manager of search quality operations Santosh Jayaram over to Twitter as its new vice president of operations.
In the works:
- Introducing indexing and crawling capabilities to spider links contained within users tweets
- A reputation ranking system to give weightage/priority according to a Twitter users authority
As an example, Santosh cited examples of the Twitter.com sidebar would containing “trending” hot topics, which already appear in Twitter users web profile pages now.
To be viable as a search engine alternative, not just against the big 3, but also sites like YouTube, Facebook and MySpace which feature their own search engines, Twitter will need to leverage on its immediate nature and use this advantage to provide real-time updates like Twitter API-powered site TwitterFall.
As hot upstart Twitter continues to introduce unique and creative values for its users, we might see the internet users expectations to demand real time updates from search results, with a corresponding change in user behavior.
According to a recent research report, social media users appear to have segmented themselves primarily along demographic criteria. Additionally, as social media channels grow in sophistication, it appears that the sheer amount of information flowing through these channels may be exerting a hefty time and psychological cost on users.
In a recent Pew Internet & American Life Project report, internet users in the 18-53 year old age bracket (as at 2009) represent a higher proportion of internet users, compared to their numerical percentage in the general population.
“Older boomers” aged 54-63, make up 13% of the general population and are on par, constituing 13% of internet users.
The “Silent generation” aged 64-72, who make up 9% of the general population, amount to 7% of internet users.
The “GI generation” aged 73 and older and are 9% of the population, only represent 4% of internet users.
Likewise, when it comes to media consumption, Twitter users (more…)
Twitter could possibly be on the verge of mass acceptance…or bring about the downfall of social media, according to the signs we’ve been seeing.
- Promotion by mass media: So suddenly, mainstream media like newspapers, TV news and talk shows are jumping on the twitter bandwagon, making it sound like the best thing since sliced bread. Just like they did with the internet back in the mid 1990s.
- Overemphasis on the technology: So there’s been an overemphasis about the tech aspects of twitter, how you can build a following of 100,000 in a few days/weeks, how you’re able to mass msg them updates.
- Celebrity buzz factor: Now everyone knows that the_real_shaq is well, the real shaq. And that other celebrities have their publicist, manager scraping old interviews and sending tweets out on their behalf, saying that the content is sent in the “spirit” of the celebrity. Authenticity/credibility fail.
But the bigger danger of social media, especially the new wave of twitter’s brand of new social media is that it could potentially be tethering you to your computer instead of freeing you.
Remember the crackberry, er, blackberry?
When blackberry addicts had it with them 24-7 and felt compelled to answer an email the moment it was received? Till now, I know of a number of affiliate managers who keep their blackberry at their bedside and wake up to answer emails the moment they come in.
Me, I’m in the process of cancelling my cellphone to be less accessible.
But here’s why I think twitter might be self-destructive – the design of the system is such that it’s like a 24-hour chatroom, with topics being constantly discussed and possibly buried in a matter of hours.
That means if you want to:
- tap the buzz
- be part of the flow
- be part of the conversation
It means you need to tether yourself to the medium, you need to essentially be watching the channel during the 8-12 hours that the service is at its peak.
So it’s like watching TV, except (more…)
Social marketing is a double-edged sword because what can greatly help you, can also greatly hurt you if you don’t respect the medium and the unspoken rules of social behavior. Here’s a couple of tips to brand and market yourself and your business more effectively in the Web 2.0 world.
Fact: You are naked on the internet, especially with social media.
The fact that most social networks are open systems and have low barriers to communication and sharing of information means that everything you do within the social matrix is transparent and wholly obvious.
A couple of days ago, I got a Twitter public message from: Jodi Joseph Asaiag with the message:
@andrewwee for IP resources, tools and discussions visit http://www.bpcouncil.com – suggestions welcome at editor@bpcouncil.com
–
Sounds like a pleasant and helpful message.
I took a look at her (more…)
With the amount of publicity in old guard mainstream media (late night talk shows, old line newspapers), you’d think that Twitter was the best thing since sliced bread, which leaves some wondering if the death knell has been sounded for bloggers.
Take a look at the signs of the impending apocalypse, once proud A-Lister bloggerati have taken a hiatus, stopped blogging, or are pummelled over the twitterstream into irrelevance. Is blogging, once the circa 2006 golden boy of mainstream media, now it’s whipping boy?
More importantly, is anyone going to read more than the 140 character limit imposed by micro blogging platforms like Twitter?
Are we destined to become a SMS/text nation?
Gee… (more…)
A Twitter snob is someone who has a large gathering of Twitter followers, but yet is too “uppity” to follow many of them back. So is this going to hurt your brand on the micro blogging platform? Not really, and here’s why…
So in recent weeks, there’s been a spate of discussion about “Twitter Snobs” – twitter users who don’t follow many people back. Maybe following 200 people and have 20,000 follow them.
Todd Friesen AKA Oilman was analysing how he could get into SEOMoz’s Rand Fishkin’s twitter cliche. Rand follows 11 twitter uses and has about 5,200 followers.
Likewise, other bloggers have been (more…)
