Twitterade

The Gay Revolution Will Be Twittered

2009-06-01T14:02:00.002-07:00

Sacramento Bee Online Content Developer Nathaniel Miller says, "I first learned about the Iowa gay marriage Supreme Court ruling from Twitter." He's not alone. On Friday, "Iowa State Supreme Court" was the highest trending topic on the site, highlighting how Twitter has quickly become integrated into our daily lives, or at least the lives of the hyper-wired. For gays and lesbians, the service, which allows users to blast short messages of up to 140 characters each, has become not only a source of news, but a way for communities to connect. We asked the gay Twitter horde (by Twitter, naturally), how they're using it and who they're following. If you're just getting started with Twitter or want the inside scoop on the best of the LGBT Twitterverse, look no further.

How Gays are Using Twitter

Twitter was originally designed to allow people to give short status update, essentially answering the question, "What are you doing now?" But in practice, the service has become much more, especially when it comes to news. The immediacy of Twitter, coupled with its ability to deliver messages to your phone or web-client, means that breaking news is even more, to coin a Colbert-ism, "breakier." All the major news services use Twitter to deliver headlines, but for LGBT folks, gay-specific LGBT twitter news accounts serve as one-stop gay wire news services. Camilo Arenivar of L.A. says Twitter "can be used for news reliably, I like it more for that than anything else, it can be incredibly useful for specialized news." Kevin Cobb of Ft. Lauderdale explains that "I follow @qrty and @tlrd for national news + entertainment; @SteveRothaus for South Florida news."

Twitter's not just for breaking news, however. Unlike traditional one-way media, Twitter allows users to respond to each other, meaning that news becomes a conversation. Consider Same Sex Sunday, an idea hatched by the kids over at the Billerico project. The concept is simple: Tell folks about your favorite gay Twitterers and include the "hash tag" (a way of making similar tweets easily searchable) #samesexsunday. By putting like-minded folks in touch with each other, news carries.

The community aspect of Twitter had special significance for LGBT people the last few months in a way that is both radical and practical. As Prop. 8 protesters marched and rallied for equality, they used the service to organize and keep each other abreast of what was going on as it happened. Bao-Viet Nguyen of California says Twitter is "great to follow during marches and rallies… [I] got updates on March route changes, celeb sightings, police activity, new "chants" going on in other parts of the march, etc…" I have personal experience with this. During the Prop. 8 marches in L.A. I used my Twitter account (that's japhy79, folks) to keep updated with fellow marchers as well as get news about where the police were moving crowds and let those at home get an on-the-ground view of the marches. Prop. 8 protester Mark Oshiro tweeted his arrest after an altercation with a Yes on 8 supporter and the news was up online in minutes. As civil organizing tool, Twitter is an ad-hoc Nextel device on steroids.

10 Gay Twitterers You Need to Follow

So, who should you be following? We asked around and here are the hottest LGBT twitters out there today (as well as some personal favorites):

@qrty: Oh, sure its self-promotion, but Queerty's own Twitter feed was mentioned by nearly every person we asked (and on Twitter, anyone can reply to you, so it wasn't just our friends). You get our latest posts sent to you as soon as they're posted, plus we often live-tweet important events, such as the inauguration and the Prop 8 Supreme Court hearings, giving our Twitter followers a sneak peek at our news stories as they happen.

@tlrd: Andy Towle's twitter account is a rehash of what's on his site, but the man has mad skills at covering New York gay news and gay violence reports. Since we're talking about Towle Road, his last name is pronounced "toll." We only mention it because everyone keeps talking to us about Andy "Towlie." Consider it our good citizen move of the day.

@davidbadash: New York based LGBT activist David Badash is Twitter's gay uncle. In addition to keeping folks updated with news, he can be awfully chatty and enjoys discussing the latest news with people who reply.

@noonprop8: Love or hate em', Equality California's Twitter account is a great source for authoritative news about the LGBT struggle in California.

@gaysdotcom: While we don't have time for the world's "social network" for gays and lesbians, Gays.com's twitter feed is uniformly excellent, pulling up stories that don't get covered elsewhere.

@queersighted: A very gossipy London-based feed, you're as likely to get tips about how to date via iPhone as you are to hear news about UK gay issues.

@qpocc: A good example of an "event-based" Twitter, Queer People of Color is covering the conference by the same name held this weekend at UC Davis. Feeds like this become watering wells for participants before, during and after the event, keeping the discussion going long after you're back home.

@msignorile: Michelangelo Signorile's own feed is an inside look at the work that goes into his radio show (as well as the occasional random discussion about glue traps) and a good example of a "celebrity" twitter done right.

@JoinTheImpact: The official Twitter of the Join the Impact site is a great resource for the latest demonstrations and protests across the country, if you can wade through the middle-school-esque acronyms and overuse of exclamation marks.

@queerunity: A little gem of a Twitter feed, Queer Unity is a San Francisco based feed that wears its activist heart on its sleeve. Worth following just to see the occasional flame wars that erupt between them and social conservatives who provoke them via tweets.

Are you on Twitter? Who are you following? Share with us in the comments.

–Japhy Grant

Lazy Twitter stars call in ghost writers

2009-06-01T14:02:00.001-07:00

Tweets by Kutcher and Moore have left fans feeling cold

John Harlow, Los Angeles

CELEBRITIES are hiring ghost writers to help them twitter in the latest social networking craze as the burden of writing 140-character messages for fans proves too onerous.

“Tweets”, as the messages are called, are supposed to be composed and dispatched live across the internet.

But there are growing suspicions that celebrities’ and politicians’ tweets are written by speechwriters and publicists.

Last week it was disclosed that the rapper 50 Cent had handed over his tweets to a ghost.

Earlier this month the New York star, whose real name is Curtis Jackson, told 215,000 fans: “My ambition leads me through a tunnel that never ends.”

The words were not live but were lifted from an earlier interview by Chris Romero, who runs 50 Cent’s web pages. Last week Romero admitted that his boss did not use Twitter but said “the energy of it is all him”.

The comedian and author Stephen Fry, 51, probably Britain’s most popular twitterer, said it was a joy and a duty to keep posting on the site – “and it keeps boredom at bay at airports”.

Since Twitter emerged from a San Francisco high-tech company in August 2006, its users have developed their own code of conduct: be engaging and personal, do not embarrass anyone else and do it yourself.

America’s most popular sporting twitterer, the basketball star Shaquille O’Neal, last week told an American newspaper: “It’s 140 characters. If you need a ghost writer for that, I feel sorry for you.”

Britney Spears, the 27-year-old singer, advertised for staff to help her compose tweets.

Fans can distinguish between the professional tweets, which promote Spears’s music, and those written by the star herself. Last week she confined herself to bland messages such as Friday’s “had a great dinner with all of the [concert tour] dancers last night”.

But Demi Moore, 46, and her husband Ashton Kutcher, 31, tease one another in an affectionate style that sometimes leaves fans feeling cold.

The number of people twittering is growing fast, with the latest estimate at about 10m regular users worldwide.

The website has some practical uses. The Red Cross says it works well in emergencies: Twitter users broadcast the first accounts of last November’s terrorist attacks on Mumbai, helping rescue services reach victims quickly.

When a US Airways flight ditched in the Hudson River in New York in January, the first news appeared on Twitter within four minutes.

Sceptics, such as the television satirist Jon Stewart, suspect Twitter will prove a short-lived fad. A correspondent on his show said: “There’s no surprise young people love it – according to reports of young people by middle-aged people.”

This weekend Fry, posting from Bali, gave an answer to what to do when he runs out of things to tweet about: “Oh yes. E-mail backlog.”

Why You Should Give a Tweet About Twitter

2009-06-01T14:01:00.000-07:00

Tim Devaney and Tom Stein

Become a Blogger

If you just came back from a year’s vacation in the Crab Nebula, perhaps you haven't heard of Twitter. It’s a social-messaging service that lets you stay hyperconnected by incessantly sending and receiving micro-updates to and from friends, family -- and complete strangers. So if you just had a "yum-e latte!" you can write a text to that effect on your phone and tell everyone on your Twitter list. This vital information will also be posted on your Twitter webpage, where people can read it and bask in the radiant glow of your happy and successful life. Or hate you. Their choice.

But is Twitter useful for anything? Till now we thought not, because...well, we really don’t care if someone we don't know (or do know) just enjoyed a latte. We have better things to do. Like "watchin TV" or "bleachin d shower curtain" or "goin 2 d pub. LOL!" Turns out, though, that there are some serious enterprise uses for Twitter and a growing number of entrepreneurs are using it to promote themselves. Check out the Little Biz blog at Search Engine Watch, which has helpful details on the Twitter tools you can use to tell the world about your business. Or your yum-e latte. Wotev.

Facebook for small biz. It’s not hip like Twitter but the SBA just launched its own social-networking service for small businesses. It goes by the clunky name of Business.gov Community. It’s a place where people share information and experiences related to starting and running a business. The technology is more Steelcase than Aeron Chair but there’s plenty to learn if you spend a little time to connect and converse with others in your field.

A not-so-social networker. SBA press office director Mike Stamler is building a reputation as a less-than-social fellow. Rather than befriend members of the press and encourage them to write good things about the SBA, Stamler monitors the news and berates anyone with negative things to say about the SBA. We’ve been on the receiving end a couple times ourselves. (It's not what you’d call constructive criticism.) Now Stamler is going to court with his arch-enemy Lloyd Chapman, president of the American Small Business League and longtime critic of the SBA’s small-business contracting program. Chapman is suing the SBA for withholding records related to its contracting program and for libel, claiming Stamler has mounted a campaign to smear the ASBL in the media. Exhibit A: Stamler’s expletive-laced e-mail to the Long Island Business Journal, which dared to quote the ASBL in a story. The LIBJ wondered if maybe Stamler had too many lattes that morning. But Stamler says he doesn’t drink coffee. Hmmm. He just doesn’t seem like a chai tea kind of guy.

How to Speak Twitter

2009-06-01T14:00:00.001-07:00

A TWITTER GLOSSARY

At Reply, or "@reply": A direct tweet sent to another Twitter user.

Dweet: Tweet sent while drunk

Hash Tag: The "#" sign. Allows Twitter users to group tweets by topic, making it easier to search particular conversations using Twitter Search.

Link: Including a URL in your tweet.

MisTweet: A tweet one later regrets.

ReTweet: To repost something that's already in the Twitter stream. Usually preceeded by "RT" and "@[username]," to give credit to the original poster.

SnapTweet: A tweet that includes a photo taken with a cell phone, uploaded to Flickr and posted to Twitter via snaptweet.com.

Twittcrastination: Procrastination brought on by Twitter use.

Twadd: To add someone as a friend or follower.

Twaigslist/Twebay: To sell something on Twitter.

Tweeter/Twitterer: Someone who uses Twitter.

TwinkedIn: Inviting friends made on Twitter to connect on LinkedIn.

Twittectomy: To remove someone from the list of people you follow.

Twitterati: The A-list twitterers everyone follows.

Twitterfly: Twitter's version of a social butterfly, marked by the extreme use of @ signs.

Twitterlooing: Twittering from the bathroom.

Twitterpated: Overwhelmed with Twitter messages.

Twittfeinated, Twigged Out, Twired: To be so hyped up on twittering that you cannot sleep.

Data: Twitter Fan Wiki

Simon Cowell criticises fellow celebrities for Twitter obsession

2009-06-01T13:59:00.002-07:00

Talent show producer Simon Cowell has hit out at the Twitter craze in which celebrities have been publishing updates about their day to day activities.

By Alastair Jamieson
Last Updated: 9:16AM BST 02 Apr 2009

Simon Cowell is thought to have lost patience when American Idol co-host Ryan Seacrest used his Twitter page to describe Mr Cowell as looking old Photo: PA

The X Factor guru criticised friends who use the micro-blogging site where users constantly reveal tiny details of their lives.

Mr Cowell, 49, said told American television viewers: "Why would you want to talk to people like that? It's like phoning someone randomly whose number you don't even have and saying: 'Hi, it's Simon, I went out with my family this weekend'."

He is thought to have lost patience when American Idol co-host Ryan Seacrest used his Twitter page to describe Mr Cowell as looking old.

The criticism follows a survey which identified Russell Brand as the most self-obsessed British celebrity based on usage of Twitter.

Celebrity gossip website Holy Moly analysed stars' use of the site and accused them of using it purely to promote themselves.

It found that comedian Brand has 143,548 fans following his regular updates of his antics but is only interested in 14 fellow Twitterers enough to bother following their progress. One of those is Jonathan Ross while another is fellow comic David Baddiel.

The huge gulf between his followers and those he is following sees Brand tops Holy Moly's 'Celebrity Twitter Narcissism Rating' with a score of 99.9902 per cent.

Singer Lily Allen, 23, apparently has almost as big an ego as Brand with a rating of 99.9900 per cent, according to the research. The singer has 101,500 followers but is tracking just 10 people – including fellow pop star Britney Spears, model Alexa Chung and comic Alan Carr.

Third in the showbiz league of shame was outspoken DJ Chris Moyle, who has 106,013 followers but is following just 13 people. His rating is 99.9877 per cent.

Among British celebrities, Twitter addict Stephen Fry has the most followers, with 348,699. Fry, who recently gave fans a running commentary when stuck for an hour in a lift at London's Centre Point building, has somehow found time to track 55,251 fellow Twitterers.

Does the Twitter Whale = Twitter Fail?

2009-06-01T13:59:00.001-07:00

For now, Twitter remains untouched on its journey up the road as a Social Network Superstar.

Twitter’s next big hurdle on its ascent may be its biggest to date: turning a profit. Twitter needs to start making money. Ideas are plentiful, but execution remains to be seen. Everyone knows it; even Twitter’s brass have fallen just short of claiming 2009’s objective will be to make money.

But seemingly unnoticed, the frequent overload of Twitter servers seems to be the ‘elephant’ in the room that may hinder efforts to create and maintain revenue.

As recently as yesterday, Twitter’s faithful got a wakeup call that Twitter’s ‘Fail Whale’ was still circling the parking lot. It began by stalling out on avatars, tweets and DMs and finished by crashing down the service for 45 minutes.

With my own Twitter usage I have experienced some of the site’s flakiness. If Twitter can’t abolish all potential Fail Whales, will it ever be able to capture the market confidence necessary to make the money its popularity seems to promise?

It is important to point out that Twitter has made significant strides to drive the Whale off of its site completely. What at first seemed to be glitches that Twitter could accept as necessary evils have been eliminated. But as the site’s thoughts turn to profits from its users and advertisers the question arises: will any site stall-outs will be accepted?

As long as Twitter remains a free service, occasional glitches are easily overlooked. After all, what do users really have to complain about? Just about the only thing users have to lose is time and, with the affinity out there for Twitter, it seems to be something with which users are willing to part.

An example of this can be seen in a recent quote by Jason Kincaid of TechCrunch. Of the recent 45 minutes of downtime, he said it was, “not too shabby”. I know I have personally thrown fits, canceled accounts and sent scathing e-mails for considerably less.

As soon as money becomes involved, expectations rise dramatically, especially with a site like Twitter. When services go from free to something that users are paying for, they will suddenly have much heightened expectations. The service was always there. Service you can count and rely upon is what users believe they are paying for. No matter how much allegiance users have with Twitter, this will be the case when they start paying their money.

If you were a Twitter users paying for premium value-added services, would you be willing to tolerate glitches such as disappearing tweets, avatars and DMs? Or, if you were an advertiser with Twitter would you be willing to accept that your ads weren’t getting viewed as often as expected due to slow and unreliable services? Certainly not.

As Twitter enters the commercial phase it must be cognizant of the fact that making sure its Whale gets harpooned will not be priority of a technical nature, but rather of a commercial nature. How it handles and prioritizes its commercial aspects will become vital to Twitter’s success.

Field recording, pre-amps, and Twitter

2009-06-01T13:58:00.004-07:00

Reader Craig Messerman is hitting the trail to record the sounds of the world around us. He’d like to use his MacBook in the process, but has hit a snag. He writes:

How can I use an AudioTechnica Pro24 stereo microphone for field recording with my MacBook? It makes beautiful recordings with my Sony DV camcorder (with plug-in power), but I can’t get high enough gain with the MacBook. It has a battery, and I’ve tried plugging it into the computer’s audio input, and into a Griffin iMic (first gen.). It doesn’t matter what I set the iMic switch to, it’s just no good. All I get is pretty good close up recording like we can with our Shure SM57 and 58. Any thoughts?

As much as I love geeking out over microphones and recording setups, I understand that this question has the potential to interest exactly two people—me and Craig. But hang on, there’s a moral here.

Before we get to that moral, the answer is that because your MacBook lacks a FireWire port (so you can't use a FireWire bus-powered audio interface) you need either a battery-powered pre-amp that sits between the microphone and your MacBook (this pre-amp, for those that don’t know, will amplify the mic’s signal) or you do what others in the business do and use a digital field recorder. These things are made by any number of companies including Sony, Marantz, Samson, Korg, Yamaha, Edirol, and Tascam; use removable media (Compact Flash and SD cards); and often include a microphone.

But this is Mac 911, after all, so let’s address the pre-amp-to-MacBook issue, which leads us to the moral.

I did my best to scour the Web for battery-powered pre-amps and came up with a few schematics but no single great suggestion. So, I turned to the power of Twitter (where I appear as @BodyofBreen). I put out a general call for such a pre-amp and follower/AV tech/all-around-helpful-guy Chris Eschweiler (@chrisesch) piped in with the suggestion that I check out Sound Devices’ $350 MM-1 Portable Mic Preamp With Headphone Monitor. It’s powered by AA batteries and offers impressive audio specs.

The moral, of course, is that good as Google can be, it sometimes doesn’t hurt to raise up your head and shout, “Say, anybody here have a recommendation for….”

Twitter: It’s not just about breakfast.

Google Can't Afford Twitter: No Longer a Growth Stock

2009-06-01T13:58:00.003-07:00

Rumors that search giant Google (GOOG) was interested in purchasing the skeletal social networking site Twitter were quickly corrected by both companies, who are now indicating that a partnership is in the works. Much of the commentary surrounding a Google-Twitter partnership focuses on the breathtaking rise of the latter, which has gone from zero to a purported billion dollar plus valuation in under two years.

The bigger question though is why Google is not attempting to buy Twitter outright. Product-wise, Twitter is a perfect fit for the Mountain View, CA behemoths: user friendly, focused at gathering large amounts of data from users, and it has a huge potential targeted-ad platform.

A glace at Google’s income statement may help to explain why there’s no outright offer on the table. Google’s gross profit grew by pretty much the same rate last year as it did in 2007: 50%. That’s impressive for a company with a market cap of around $120 billion. But Google’s net income is a different story. In 2008, Google made $4.2 billion, or 0.5% more than it did the previous year. That growth is tiny compared to the 37% growth in net profits Google showed year-on-year in 2007.

The reason for the huge deceleration in the company’s net earnings growth seems to be that Google has taken on more projects than it can handle in order to sustain its previous growth rate. Coupled with a big recessionary environment (which is tough when you’re trying to flog ads), and that hits operating income hard. Indeed, while growth in operating costs at Google shrunk by around 20% last year, at $5.5 billion growth in operating income was just 10%, compared to 40% in 2007.

When you’re experiencing that kind of pressure on the middle line, every billion counts. In other words, Google can’t afford to buy Twitter without severely impacting its quarterly and annual statements. It’s an age-old public company dilemma: humongous previous growth rates begin to limit current possibilities for expansion, no matter how fiscally responsible you are. The danger with a situation such as the current one is that a competitor with less compatible infrastructure, but with more cashflow mobility, swoops in and buys up the target. Hence Google’s race to reach a content sharing agreement: to nudge out the potential of a Microsoft (MSFT) or Yahoo! (YHOO) acquisition.

If there was ever any question of whether Google had fully hatched out of its “growth stock” status, here’s the proof that it has.

Disclosure: no positions

Twitter went main street yesterday, goes enterprise today

2009-06-01T13:58:00.001-07:00

Last month, micro-blogging site Twitter went mainstream, at least according to my own litmus test: The hosts of my local radio station here in the Bay Area talked about a guy who lost his job offer from Cisco for tweeting how he hated the job. And my hairdresser told me she finally was on Twitter, after saying in February she’d never heard of it. Twitter is everywhere.

And now, in April, Twitter is going one step further: It’s taking over business collaboration software. Today, at the Web 2.0 Expo here in San Francisco, a company called Bantam Networks released a private testing version of its software workspace for small and medium sized businesses, in which Twitter updates by co-workers are included within your online dashboard that also includes a broader stream on online activities and corporate workflow. Bantam offers its service as a paid subscription.

It’s similar to Yammer, which is a private Twitter stream among company co-workers, the difference being that Bantam extends beyond micro-messaging to include other activities.

While Yammer was an early player bringing Twitter-style messaging to companies, we’re now seeing a fire-hose of Wiki and other collaborative software companies scrambling to offer the same Twitter-like functionality.

Separately today, Socialtext, another company that has been building business collaboration software for years, announced at Web 2.0 it has launched a desktop computer version of its software that also includes Twitter-style microblogging. Called “Socialtext Signals,” the updates are very similar to Bantam’s features. They place Tweet-like updates from employees on a single dashboard next to the other activities they’re engaged in, including things like profile updates or other forms of social networking. The desktop version, based on Adobe AIR, makes Socialtext’s software all the more faster than other collaborative platform companies, most of whom don’t have a desktop version.

Separately, Socialtext’s founder, Ross Mayfield, told me the company has raised another $4.5 million round of capital from existing investors, including Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Omidyar Network and others. He also said the company has laid off six workers, reducing its workforce to about 34.

Incidentally, I was a judge on the “Launchpad” session today at Web 2.0, where four other companies besides Bantam presented:

PhoneGap — This company won the audience favorite vote. It provides a way for web developers to build fast, easy mobile applications with HTML and Javascript and still take advantage of native mobile device capabilities like geo-location, camera, vibration and sound. It runs on the iPhone, Android and Blackberry. Today the company released an emulator that lets developers see what their application will look like on each phone. PhoneGap, which launched last August, is a product of Nitobi, a ten-year-old company.

zeaLog — This company was a close second for the audience award. It lets people track things online such as their weight, sleep patterns, smoking habits and even sexual activity, so they can follow their personal progress. It lets users share their progress with others who are trying to reach similar goals. It also has an API that lets other companies build on the data.

DubMeNow — This company gives you an easy way to exchange business contact information from your mobile phone. You text someone your contact information, and then whenever you change your personal information, it gets updated automatically within the other person’s contact list. It works on any phone, and you can save the information of your contacts either to just your phone, or to your phone *and* the cloud. It’s compatible with Outlook, LinkedIn and CRM apps. (This company placed dead last in the popular vote, but oddly it was my personal favorite of the bunch!)

80legs — This company gives organizations a way to crawl the entire web and analyze it by looking for specific keyword mentions or other data. The company presented an example of how it could look for all images of Barack Obama. It will probably face competition from players like Amazon, but its executives said it will be able to perform its tasks at a lower price. It will allow developers to crawl up to 2 billion pages a day, at $2 per million pages crawled and $0.03 per CPU-hr used for analysis.

While Twitter offers some good ideas and laughs, it's hard to separate wheat from chaff

2009-06-01T13:56:00.004-07:00

BOSTON (MarketWatch) -- I've spent the better part of the past week monitoring Twitter to see if there's anything of value being said about retirement in this electronic Tower of Babel. Though not exhaustive, my search yielded "tweets" that were sometimes sweet, sometimes inane, sometimes funny, and occasionally useful.

Twitter, one of the hottest social networking sites, allows users to get their message across in just 140 characters or less. So, is there anything of value being said? The short answer is no. It takes too long to separate the wheat from the chaff. Yes, there's some good stuff, and once you find someone to "follow," it's sure worthwhile. But finding someone worth following takes some effort.

Tweeting the opening bell

David Meerman Scott, author of the new book "World Wide Rave," uses Twitter to get folks together to ring the Nasdaq's opening bell, as the social-networking technology becomes more mainstream. (March 30)

"I've been trying to figure out the best approach," said Andy Eschtruth, associate director for external relations at the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, who noted that the people who dominate the default page are those who have posted most recently.

Likewise, John Gannon of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority said the organization is reviewing whether and how to use social media sites such as Twitter. Finra, which regulates securities firms, recently launched an investor education page on Facebook for military families, but Gannon views such exercises as experiments rather than programs with a definite return on investment.

Here's what I found in the world of Twitter. In essence, there seem to be three different types of retirement tweets out there: the funny and inane, the serious and useful, and the shameless self-promotion. By the way, when I asked my small number of followers if they ever found anything tweeted of use and value, I didn't get any responses.

The humorous and inane

To be sure, as time wasters go, it's well worth watching the tweets for a much-needed laugh, especially given the feeling of despair often associated with retirement these days. Consider, for instance, some of the tweets I chanced upon:

"Liquidity definition: Liquidity is when you look at your retirement funds and wet your pants."

"Trapped in retirement community in Florida. Please send help and/or liquor."

"Fulfilled retirement dream: Got HD, DVR, 678 channels, On Demand, 50 Sports Channels, and a remote. Why do they even run commercials any more?"

"Looks like pretty soon I should be owing money on my retirement funds. Or do they stop at zero?"

"Stocks are falling again. It looks like my retirement will go the way of radio shows and full-service gas stations."

"Watching Price Is Right. Retirement is so stressing."

"Retirement communities are like college but with less binge drinking, loud music and promiscuity."

"Dow flirting with -300. I am going to burn the passwords to my IRA & 401k so I can't look anymore."

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Physician Groups Join Twitter Fad

2009-06-01T13:56:00.003-07:00

WHEELING, W.Va., April 2 -- In a bid to stay technologically current, physician groups are turning to the social networking service Twitter to communicate with members and the public.

Yesterday, the American Medical Association (AMA) launched a feed on Twitter, using it to announce a new informational site on electronic prescribing.

"As the nation continues to work toward health system reform, the AMA will use Twitter to provide updates on what is needed to better serve patients and to empower physicians to deliver the highest quality care," according to AMA's announcement.

The Twitter service allows users to post short messages, called "tweets," that are automatically distributed to other Twitter users who choose to receive them.

Postings can be no more than 140 characters, including spaces. The original concept assumed tweets would be sent and received on cell phones and handheld computers, although any computer with Internet access will do the job.

Links to Web pages can be included as long as they are very short.

"Followers" of Twitter feeds can have them sent to their own phones as text messages or, more commonly, read them in a Web browser.

The AMA joins a number of other professional societies, including the American Academy of Cardiology (ACC) and the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), in using Twitter to get its messages out.

At the ACC's annual meeting this week, association staff sent out 91 updates alerting followers to upcoming events and pointing to media reports on research presentations.

In May 2008, the AACR was among the first medical societies to latch onto Twitter. Most of its posts point to the group's press releases or articles in its journals.

Someone’s in the kitchen with Twitter: The inescapable Web tool is becoming the next frontier of foodie news

2009-06-01T13:56:00.001-07:00

April 6, 2009 | 12:38 pm | Davida Aronovitch

Twitter, Twitter everywhere

Almost overnight, Twitter is everywhere. Celebrities and CEOs, moms and musicians, politicians and priests are all scrambling to tap into the zeitgeist and answer Twitter’s simple prompt: “What are you doing?” And foodies are no exception. The micro-blogging tool is rapidly becoming a key source of news on the Toronto—and the global—gastronomic scene. Like chatty John Mayer, who famously tweets almost as much on-line as he does onstage, Toronto chefs, restaurateurs and shopkeepers are no slouches on the techno trend. Here, a look at who’s chirping about what.

• If any Toronto chef can find fodder for hourly updates, it’s the industrious Jamie Kennedy. With his chefs de cuisine manning the stoves, Kennedy finds time to tweet daily about the happenings at his four hot spots. [Jamie Kennedy on Twitter]

• Vertical restaurant’s account, sometimes updated by its head chef, Tawfik Shehata, provides dispatches on new menus, the patio status and who ended up on dish duty. With a lonely 10 posts, though, it will have to be the thought that counts. [Vertical on Twitter]

• While the Drake Hotel’s feed is largely taken up by a catalogue of artsy activities, important food news comes through—like the post on April 2 proclaiming the patio open. A little birdie told us that chef Anthony Rose sometimes talks about his latest menu machinations, too. [The Drake on Twitter]

• The Gladstone Hotel also fuels the so-called food Twitterati with details on its daily lunch specials. And in keeping with the place’s community feel, The Gladstone encourages fellow tweeters to introduce themselves. Who says the Web is all about anonymity? [The Gladstone on Twitter]

• Chef Mark Cutrara of Cowbell, a Twitter newcomer, keeps meat lovers up to date on his exploits in and out of the kitchen. When we called Cutrara to ask if he was among the tweeting masses, he told us to stay tuned—now we’re tuned in, and waiting for more news on “raccoon salami.” [Mark Cutrara on Twitter]

• Distillery chocolatier Soma tantalizes the cocoa crazed with snippets about the latest batch of house-made goodies (their tweets can sound like soft-core food porn). The confectioners also give one-liner hints about the ongoing search for Soma 2’s location. [Soma on Twitter]

The Celebrity Twitter Ecosystem

2009-06-01T13:55:00.003-07:00

HONESTLY, does anyone care that Martha Stewart has a blog supposedly written by her French bulldogs, Francesca and Sharkey?

Skip to next paragraph

Multimedia

Graphic

Strange Webfellows?

When Stars Twitter, a Ghost May Be Lurking (March 27, 2009)

Times Topics: Twitter

Snoop Dogg might, perhaps, because Ms. Stewart recently sent him a Twitter message urging him to visit “The Daily Wag.” “Yo Snoop,” she wrote, “check out MY doggies’ new doggie blog.”

Tha Doggfather received this dubious shout-out because Ms. Stewart follows him on Twitter — “following” being Twitterspeak for signing up to get someone’s musings delivered directly to your cellphone or computer. She is also following P. Diddy, Rachel Maddow and Jimmy Fallon and, in turn, is followed by Michael Phelps, Jane Fonda and nearly 200,000 other people; they were all alerted on March 4, for instance, when she had lunch with Ludacris, whom she found “just charming” and who “loved lunch — esp. choc cake.”

That Ms. Stewart recently broke bread with the artist behind “Pimpin’ All Over the World” is just one of the many weird bits of trivia that can be gleaned about famous people on Twitter. There are at least a hundred well-known actors, singers, business magnates, politicians and writers using the service, and their chitchat — most of it authentically written by the stars themselves, according to interviews with them or their publicists — is available for anybody to see. (Not to obsess too much over Martha, but just the other day she welcomed Emeril Lagasse to Twitter, sending him a note that said, “i am still loving the etouffee you made yesterday.” O.K., yes, she did buy up most of his franchise last year, but there you go.)

What is the sound of celebrities tweeting? Well, it might be Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails notifying Dave Navarro, a musical collaborator who now plays for Jane’s Addiction, that he’s “hanging on the bus.” Or maybe it’s Ashton Kutcher and John Mayer comparing notes on being 31 years old (from John to Ashton: “Let’s open a hip new restaurant together. ‘31 club.’ Where it’s always standing room only. It will fail but we will have had fun.”).

Most celebrities let anybody follow them on Twitter, but are pickier about whom they follow themselves. Mr. Kutcher, for instance, in addition to following his wife (Demi Moore) and a stepdaughter (Rumer Willis), follows a mix of boldface names from different walks of life, including Evan Williams (a Twitter founder), Soleil Moon Frye (remember “Punky Brewster”?), Maria Shriver and Ellen DeGeneres. (The latter two are not shown on the already-too-crowded chart below.)

It seems that — just like the rest of us — celebrities enjoy hearing about other celebrities, and Twitter lets them participate in a giant cross-disciplinary mash-up of a conversation.

To the delight of many, some celebrities expose themselves on Twitter in a way you won’t see in Entertainment Weekly. “I love it when they don’t talk with their publicists before posting things,” said Mario Lavandeira, who is better known as the gossipmonger Perez Hilton, “like Solange Knowles talking about how she was taking a lot of Nyquil and then ended up passing out at the airport.” (Erykah Badu and Q-Tip were among 23,000 people who received Ms. Knowles’s increasingly distressed alerts on Feb. 17, which culminated a day later with the tweet: “Woaah ...How’d I end up in the hospital?”)

The accompanying chart shows a small and idiosyncratic sample of the celebrities who follow one another on Twitter. It represents a snapshot taken from March 18, and should be read with the caveat that allegiances can change quickly on Twitter (followers can drop follow-ees with a simple keystroke, and vice versa). Except for a few obvious fakes (Vladimir Putin), these accounts are all authentic, even if they might not seem like it.

Survival of the Twittest

2009-06-01T13:55:00.001-07:00

You know that something is really the wave of the future when old-fashioned people actually start trying it, and then rejecting it as just plain too new-fangled. First Virginia Heffernan confesses that she hates her iPhone and its tarty, cutesy face. Then in The Columbus Dispatch, Joe Bundo says he violated his own baffling rule of technology adoption ("Always wait five years, to see whether it will go away on its own") to sign up for Twitter, which his 18-year-old daughter told him he would hate, and which he did in fact hate.

In what sort of hell would you be subjected to the passing thoughts of not only Martha Stewart and Marc Dann but also car dealerships and a building under construction? That hell would be called Twitter.

I find it kind of amusing that he's just repeating everything everyone else has said about Twitter, except he's repeating it way after everyone else has moved on. It's possible that he hated it because he followed ... Martha Stewart and car dealerships, and not interesting, informative people. It's also possible that he didn't see the use because he never ... tweeted.

The pride in unadaptability is baffling to me, and neanderthalism really is not as cute as Bundo seems to think. Technology never "goes away;" it gets replaced by new, better technology. Which we should then ignore for another five years until it's passe and then embrace, while disparaging whatever replaced it? This makes no sense.

And while Bundo still has his job as a columnist, columnist jobs are disappearing thanks to an inability to understand new technology, anticipate the changes it will make, and adapt accordingly. Industries are actually dying while people wait to see if things will magically revert to the way they were five years ago, and these are industries with rich traditions that will leave gaping cultural holes if they don't adapt. I'm not saying anything new of course, but neither is Bundo. His is just a particularly hubristic example, and that's what's so frustrating.

One last parting jab at Mr. Bundo: I found his column through Twitter. I'm hoping for survival of the Twittest.

Twitter added to federal emergency response network

2009-06-01T13:54:00.001-07:00

Editor's note: The following story is from InfoWorld's 2009 April Fool's spoof-news feature package. It is not true. Enjoy!
In a milestone that marks Twitter's evolution from a tool for self-obsessed 20-somethings into a vital part of our nation's telecommunications infrastructure, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has announced it is adding the microblogging service to the national emergency response network.

Beginning next January, individuals in distress will be able to send @replies or "direct messages" to @t911help. Root servers at Twitter co-location facilities will use IP addresses and geolocation databases to route messages to the first responders closest to the sender's physical address.

[ Keep up to date on all things mobile with InfoWorld's Mobile Pulse blog. ]

"Twitter is not just about what you had for lunch any more," said a FEMA spokesperson. "It's about choking on what you had for lunch and being able to call for help -- even when you can no longer speak."

Saying he was both "honored and humbled" by the FEMA announcement, Twitter co-founder Biz Stone said the company is currently building out its server capacity to meet the increased demand. He vowed to hunt the "fail whale" -- the white cetacean that appears when Twitter is overwhelmed with traffic -- into extinction.

In related news, Democratic members of the House of Representatives have introduced a bill designed to ensure the accuracy of the service following complaints from their constituents about misleading messages posted to the site. The bill, titled the Twitter Integrity and Truth Act (TWITA), would lodge penalties of up to $500 per tweet for users who deliberately post false or libelous information on the service.

"With more politicians using Twitter, and more people relying on it for instant news updates, we wanted to provide incentives for people to use it responsibly," said a spokesperson for Congressman Ed Markey (D-Mass.), co-sponsor of the bill. "We don't need more twits messing with our tweets."

[ April Fool's! Read more of InfoWorld's April Foolery. ]

How and Why to Launch a Business Presence on Twitter

2009-06-01T13:53:00.002-07:00

March 16, 2009, 10:06 AM — CIO.com —

In a down economy, it might seem counterintuitive to try experimental mediums such as Twitter for marketing and customer outreach. After all, the more well-established Facebook has a documented 175 million active users, while estimates place Twitter (which doesn't disclose such figures) at around 5 million users.

But while Twitter's user base might seem small, the return on engagement from Twitter fans is substantial, says Jeremiah Owyang (@jowyang), a senior Forrester analyst who researches social technologies and who writes a blog on Web strategy.

"Most Twitter users are hyper-connected," says Owyang. "They are influencers and really want to share opinions with others. Many of them keep blogs. They are very different than the mainstream Facebook users."

While Twitter's founders have hinted at charging companies in the future for their participation, any business can get started today for free. For most companies, the decision to utilize Twitter will depend on the type of products or services that they offer, as well as the department - or departments - that would benefit from joining the service.

Gathering Twitter wisdom from social media analysts and companies that have enjoyed success via Twitter, we've rounded up the key steps your company must take before it can enjoy a viable Twitter presence. In most cases, companies that started Twittering with clear objectives - or at least listened closely to the Twitter user base after they got started and adapted their strategy accordingly - have reaped the greatest benefits and (more importantly) helped their customers in the process.

Listen and Learn About Twitter

Before you can identify the main objective for your organization's use of Twitter, you first must understand the Twitter community and what they think of your company, says Laura Fitton ( @pistachio), who runs Pistachio Consulting, a firm that helps companies utilize Twitter and other microblogging (also known as microsharing or microstreaming) technologies.

"Get some search tools and start listening to the Twitter community before you do anything else," Fitton says. "Listen to what they're saying about your company and your industry."

Fitton also recommends reading "Twitter 101" stories on the Web. Her firm has compiled a "Twitter for Business" reading list, with articles written by sources that span the Web.

Companies that have enjoyed success on Twitter echo this sentiment. Frank Eliason runs the Twitter handle @comcastcares, which allows the cable company's customers to ask service questions. With more than 11,000 followers to date, most analysts consider the efforts by Eliason, Comcast's Director of Digital Care, to be a brilliant effort to reshape the cable company's poor reputation for customer service.

"We started listening to Twitter back in February, 2008 before we started actively tweeting," Eliason says, who started posting to Twitter in April, 2008.

During this research period, Eliason used

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Is Twitter's breakneck growth causing a backlash?

2009-06-01T13:53:00.001-07:00

David Bill isn't annoyed when Twitter gets so bogged down with traffic that he can't post a message.

Twitter's "fail whale," which appears when the site is overrun, is so popular it's on T-shirts and even tattoos.

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That's because in the moment when frustration would hit, he's greeted on the popular Web site by a cartoonish image he loves: a giant whale being lifted out of an ocean by a small flock of tweeting birds.

The icon -- which Twitter users call it the "fail whale" because the creature appears only when the site has failed to load -- has gained a cult following as the social media site grows at breakneck pace.

The conversational Web site, which lets users post 140-character microblogs, saw a 1,374 percent jump in unique visitors between February 2008 and February this year, up to 7 million from only 475,000, according to Nielsen NetView.

By comparison, Facebook grew 228 percent, to 65.7 million users, during the same period.

With all of those new Twitterers, fail whale sightings and site crashes seem more frequent.

Bill (mr_bill on Twitter) and other fail-whale followers aren't bothered, though.

The 36-year-old San Franciscan has organized parties in honor of the whale. The most recent, held in California in February, was attended by more than 300 people, including Yiying Lu, the artist in Australia who created the image.

Bill says the whale represents a contrarian philosophy.

Don't Miss

"It's sort of an adorable whale but also this thing that represents the Herculean tasks that we sometimes go about from day to day," he said.

"We're all trying to do a lot of things that seem pretty impossible," Bill said. "It's nice to identify something positive with those failures."

Not every Twitterer is sympathetic to the site's troubles, though.

Some users say Twitter has outgrown its core audience and is irrelevant to the technophiles who made it popular in the first place. Others are annoyed by the flood of spammers and profiteers who now use the site's popularity to make a buck.

Celebrities and members of Congress have been jumping onto the site in recent months, adding to the site's mainstream popularity and, some users say, causing glitches in the system.

"I keep getting the fail whale. Twitter got too popular too quickly. I blame Shaq," wrote Jessica Roy, a 21-year-old New York University student who goes by suchamessica on Twitter.

Basketball player Shaquille O'Neal, or THE_REAL_SHAQ, has more than 470,000 followers on the site.

Nova Spivack, a blogger whose article "Can Twitter Survive What is About to Happen to It?" has been passed around the site, said a rift is developing between Twitter's original "in crowd" and its newer, more mainstream users.

Early adopters find many of the new users annoying, he said.

"A lot of people come in, and they take that 'What are you doing?' question literally, and so they put very inane things on Twitter," he said. iReport.com: How do you feel about tweets and status updates?

The site used to feel "insulated" from the mainstream, and now it doesn't, he said.

But for all the complaints, there seem to be just as many people who are almost excited about Twitter's growing pains.

It is inevitable that a Web site seeing Twitter-style growth would face some glitches and a backlash from early adopters, said Laura Fitton, a consultant and co-author of the book "Twitter for Dummies."

"There's going to be all kinds of people using it all kinds of different ways," she said. "The purists can go pound rocks."

Major news such as the Mumbai terrorist attacks and the Hudson River plane landing has broken over Twitter, and that's added to the site's popularity, she said.

Amy Gahran, who writes on social media at contentious.com, said the backlash against Twitter stems from the fact that people are uncomfortable with change. Early users see new people coming to the site, and that creeps them out, but it shouldn't, she said.

"Change is freaking good," she said. "Roll with it."

As the site gets filled with fresh users, people are creating pieces of software to help Twitterers sort through the noise, Gahran said.

She said Twitter is popular because it mimics real-life conversation and because it's easy to use. She also expects Twitter to expand, especially as people in developing countries use cell-phone text messages to communicate through the site.

"People talk. That's what we do," she said. "We're social creatures. We're kind of wired for this."

Twitter says it is addressing breakdowns in that wired communication.

"We have made amazing progress from a technical perspective as far as accommodating this rapid growth goes and will continue to improve system and subsystem performance moving forward," Twitter co-founder Biz Stone wrote in a statement to CNN.

Critter Gewlas of Cary, North Carolina, believes so much in the site's ability to overcome adversity that he recently got a tattoo of the fail whale on his leg.

"The site itself has suffered a few scrapes and bumps along the way, but for the most part, I definitely think it's a good thing," said the 36-year-old.

The fail whale's account on Twitter has more than 2,265 followers. A Facebook group dedicated to the whale has more than 4,400 members. The whale has spawned art and merchandise, from coffee mugs to baby clothes. A Current.com parody of the whale has spun around the Internet, too.

Bill, whose fail whale parties have featured an aquamarine martini in honor of the icon's color, said the whale's popularity comes from the idea that failures are worth celebrating and learning from.

Twitter will use that philosophy to continue to grow, he said.

"Twitter is a powerful enough thing that it should succeed in a broad way, and I would like it to succeed in a broad way," he said.

Device allows plants to Twitter

2009-06-01T13:50:00.002-07:00

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Chances are you've never had a conversation with your house plants but if they could talk, what would they say? "Water me."

Researchers at New York University's interactive telecommunications program have come up with a device that allows plants to tell owners when they need water or if they've had too much via the social network blogging service Twitter.

"Obviously plants can't talk or Twitter directly, so we have to help them along with that," said Rob Faludi, co-creator of the device called Botanicalls.

The device is made of soil-moisture sensors that are connected to a circuit board. They measure the level of moisture, and then communicate the information to a microcontroller.

"There are settings in the software that allow you to set what kind of plant you're using and also adjust for characteristics of the soil, different soil has different qualities," said Faludi.

The device determines whether moisture levels are too low, or too high, and then transmits a wireless signal to Twitter, via the Internet, which lets people send short, 140-character text messages to their network of friends.

Botanicalls co-creator Kate Hartman said the language used in the Twitter messages can be personalized to suit the owner, or the type of plant.

"There's always a basic "I'm thirsty, could you please water me" message. But they also accelerate in terms of need, so there's an urgent message: "I'm desperately thirsty, please water me"," Hartman told Reuters.

GROWING TWITTER FOLLOWING

Due to word of mouth, Hartman's plant, 'Pothos,' has more than 2,300 subscribers on Twitter (twitter.com/pothos).

Every day followers receive messages updating them on the plant's soil moisture content, and whether it's being cared for.

"I feel a bit more guilty when I don't water Pothos, because everybody knows," laughed Hartman.

To date, Hartman and Faludi have sold nearly 100 of the Botanicalls kits for $99 each with the device needing to be assembled from basic parts which Faludi said can be challenging but worthwhile in the end.

"Actually receiving a message from a plant is just very engaging, and I think kind of unexpected. There's a magic to it that people really enjoy," said Faludi.

The new technology follows on from an earlier Botanicalls model released in 2007 that enabled plants to make a phone call to their owners when they needed water. Continued...

YouTube Gives Twitter Love

2009-06-01T13:50:00.001-07:00

Google sprinkled a few extra features on YouTube last night, in a spring cleaning effort to catch up with the ever-popular Twitter. Viewers can now post a video they like on Twitter and users got a few tweaks when managing their content.

Everybody is integrating Twitter functionality these days, as the microblogging platform gains more user traction. The most prominent example is Facebook, which redesigned its whole news feed to accommodate the need for real-time updates. And now it's YouTube's turn, but with not so much glory.

The share links on YouTube now offer a Twitter posting option along Facebook and MySpace. Users can expand the box for more sharing options, but those three xare the ones YouTube promotes.

When you click on the Twitter button, a pop-up window will open your Twitter account and fill in automatically with text asking your followers to "check this video out" followed by the video's title and URL. Unfortunately, the video link is not shortened (using services like TinityURL or Bit.ly) but YouTube said it plans to add that "down the road."

Other improvements made their way onto YouTube as well. A new Flash uploader is in service, together with a long-expected upload progress bar. The site also promises an estimated video processing time after the upload in the near future. An official HD USL parameter has been added also, for sharing HD video links.

And when YouTube says "spring cleaning," it really means it: the video-watching pages are also tidied up, with smaller action links and no more tabs for comments, statistics and data (they are now collapsible using a little arrow). It is now easier to log in with Google Account credentials (if you Google and YouTube accounts are associated) with an all-in-one sign-in page.

YouTube also makes an attempt to take on Apple's iTunesU, with the YouTube EDU project, which collects and highlights educational content uploaded by colleges and universities on the site.

Twitter on the front line

2009-06-01T13:49:00.005-07:00

Technology correspondent, BBC News

Many used Twitter to let people know what was happening

There may have been few things that protesters, politicians and activists share, but during the G20 meeting, they were united by their use of Twitter.

The micro-blogging service was heavily used by all those involved with the meeting, be they in the debating chamber, quizzing politicians after briefings, or protesting beyond the police cordon.

Social media was in use prior to the event too. The Metropolitan Police analysed activity on websites such as Facebook, MySpace and many others to see how many were likely to join the call for protests at the G20.

Plans for how many policemen and women should be put on the streets during the G20 were drawn up with regard to this analysis.

Bridging fences

But it was during the two-day event that social media, in particular Twitter, came in to their own. Thousands of messages marked with a #G20 tag passed through Twitter and organisations such as IndyMedia had their own tags that helped to collate information about what happened during the protests.

Did they organise that via Twitter? I'd be surprised - it's a very public place to talk about something you don't want the police to hear.

Rory Cellan-Jones, Technology correspondent, BBC News

Fake Twittering - You're Doing It Wrong

2009-06-01T13:49:00.003-07:00

Unless you're clever or funny, creating a fake Twitter account is sort of a waste of time. Take, for instance, the fake Twitter account of Boston Red Sox shortstop Jed Lowrie.

Lowrie's fake account (as determined by the intrepid Texy of Center Field) has apparently been trying to dupe dimwitted followers into thinking they could win free Red Sox tickets by doing something or going somewhere, ala The_Real_Shaq. Last night, "Lowrie" twittered that there was only one day until the "winner" of the tickets would be announced. One problem: the real Jed Lowrie was in the middle of an exhibition game against the Mets last night at the time the message was posted via computer (as opposed to via cellphone, which he conceivably could have had in the dugout — I guess). Oops. Next time, if you're going to go to such a pointless attempt at fooling people, you might as well actually get the timing down.

PS: You can follow Deadspin on Twitter, too. And you should.

Jed Lowrie Twitters During Red Sox/Mets Exhibition Game [Sox and Dawgs]
Twitter Faux Pas [Center Field]

Is Twitter About to Jump the Shark?

2009-06-01T13:49:00.001-07:00

Speculation is out there about whether or not Twitter is peaking. Is the Social Network darling reaching its saturation point? If so, what will take its place? What is the next the big thing? What could possibly capture our imagination in the same way as Twitter?

As the medium of blogging started to plateau, was it any wonder that our attention-deficit angst would find micro-blogging a suitable alternative? In a world flooded with data overload, 140 characters or less seemed to strike just the right chord for many of us. But nothing lasts forever, as a wise Buddhist once told me (e.g. even the Dalai Lama was recently exiled from Twitterdom… but that’s another story).

So since a few warning signs are blowing in the wind, and a couple of red flags have been raised, it might be worth our while to explore what might be rolling down the social network highway.

Steve Rubel, an elite member of the twitterati with almost 20,000 followers is probably one of Twitter’s most vocal critics. He talks about how the intraweb has attracted celebrities and how this pop culture dynamic can become a double edged sword. As celebrities like Ashton Kutcher, Demi Moore and Britney Spears put their stamp of approval on Twitter, us common folk became blind-faith followers, attracted to the Twitterverse like moths to a flame. In turn, when something goes mainstream it begins to lose its “geek cred,” according to Rubel, and like nomads looking for the next oasis, the digerati will begin to lose interest and seek out greener pastures.

“Jumping the shark” is a pop-culture catch phrase coined by Jon Hein and has been used by TV critics and fans to mark the point when a TV show or series veers off its original plot course into an absurd story line departure. The phrase refers to a scene in a episode of the TV series “Happy Days”, first broadcast on September 20, 1977. In the episode, Fonzie (Henry Winkler), wearing swim trunks and his trademark leather jacket, jumps over a shark while water skiing. This was particularly ironic, in that Fonzie, famous for being a biker, had previously jumped his motorcycle for a publicity stunt—but was severely injured in the process, and very remorseful for his actions.

He then learned a valuable lesson, and delivered a moral message, that taking foolish risks “isn’t cool.” In contrast, Fonzie’s later decision to take an even greater risk on water skis “to prove a point” came across as absurd in many ways (particularly since the “motorcycle jump” episode was a major point in Fonzie’s character development).

So the analogy of “jumping the shark” came to mean reaching a threshold and losing the interest of a fan base. Could Twitter have tipped that delicate balance, and be headed for a downhill descent? Will the Founding Fathers of Twitter abandon ship and mosey on down the Social Network trail?

I don’t think so! I think the rumors of Twitter’s demise are grossly over exaggerated.

I believe the basic premise of Twitter is brevity and access. Twitter, dissimilar Facebook and LinkedIn, requires less active participation on our part. While the group involvement of other social networks has its own appeal, they definitely require a focus that can eat up a lot more time than Twitter. I personally can keep my Twitter home page open all day long, and visit it periodically when I have a quick thought or a need to shake out some cobwebs. I can’t say the same of the others. On Facebook and LinkedIn, I get caught up in answering incoming mail, joining discussion groups, reviewing photos and videos, supervising memberships for groups I organized, and a myriad number of other tasks that can become exhausting at day’s end.

I also feel that the Wild West appeal of Twitter provides it with staying power. As a disorganized, chaotic venue, while it sometimes seems like you have entered the Tower of Babel, it is also comforting to be immersed into a space where multiple conversations are filling the void. In the Twitterverse, we are deluged with insights, perspectives, absurdities and the like, all donated freely in many cases by a motley assortment of strangers. It’s a global cocktail party where you can listen, participate or retreat periodically throughout the day. Its a water-cooler environment that never gets old and is definitely part of Twitter’s charm.

So to think about what might take its place is a daunting task. If you think that Twitter is a replacement for how we receive the news, then perhaps Twitter has taken the place of the newspaper. But if that be the case, US newspapers experienced logevity, having been around since the early 1700s. And yes, everything does move a lot faster in the electronic age, but it will be interesting to see how long social networks in general will last. Rubel and others are proponents of FriendFeed, Jaiku and Pownce as possible substitutes. However, it doesn’t look likely that they can gain the critical mass of support necessary to overtake the micro-blogging front-runner. Pownce has already shut down operations, and the others do not have the ease of access that Twitter possesses.

So, while Jon Stewart can satirically joke about Twitter’s ” faux-social network” competitors like “Grunter” and “Stalker,” I think the Twitterverse is going to continue to evolve with its devoted fan base for quite some time to come. “Jumping the Shark” is a bit premature at this stage of the game!

DealTaker.com Hand Picks Deals for Twitter

2009-06-01T13:48:00.003-07:00

PLANO, Texas, March 30, 2009 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ ----DealTaker.com, known for saving consumers millions of dollars over the past 5 years, is now posting the "best of the best deals" on Twitter, a social networking and micro-blogging site. With almost 2,000 people following DealTaker via Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/DealTaker followers are now receiving deals that are hand- selected from among the hundreds of online deals available on DealTaker.com every day.

"Clearly, consumers are flocking to Twitter to get great deals," explained Kevin Strawbridge, President, DealTaker.com, "and with hundreds of new followers each week, DealTaker is quickly becoming a Twitter authority for 'all things deal'."

How does it work? Official DealTaker bargain hunters do the hard work of finding the very best deals and then post them to the popular Twitter site, which sends the updates or "tweets" to followers. Tweets can be received via the web, instant messaging or mobile texting. From there, deal takers simply click on the offer to buy online and save. It's fun, useful and easy.

To sign up for Twitter, simply go to http://www.twitter.com. To get the best deals on Twitter, go to http://twitter.com/DealTaker and click "follow".

About DealTaker.com

DealTaker.com is the premier destination for consumers looking to spend less and get more. A free coupon site for members to share and take deals, DealTaker.com makes it easy to save on merchandise and services including food, travel, electronics, home furnishings, jewelry and pet supplies, among others. Founded in Plano, Texas in 2004, DealTaker.com works with more than 1,600 merchants and 180,000 deal-sharing members to provide over 7,000 active coupons and deals every day.

SOURCE DealTaker.com

http://www.dealtaker.com

Twitter by Voice … use TweetCall

2009-06-01T13:48:00.001-07:00

I like Twitter and what I like even more are the very cool applications that have come out to make “twittering” even easier. Applications like TweetDeck for your PC and Pocketwit for you devices make it a great experience. But there is another one out there that is very cool just in case your fingers are getting tired typing that 140 character maximum. It’s called TweetCall and it allows you to Twitter by Voice.

It works reasonably well but there is often an error if I speak just a little too fast (I don’t think it quite gets a Boston accent). That said, it is worth checking out and of course, it is FREE!

Speak your Tweets

Update Twitter from anywhere by simply speaking into a telephone. 1-877-TWEETCALL is completely free, start using it today!

How it works

1. Dial 1-877-TWEET-CALL

2. Speak your tweet

3. Your voice is transcribed and posted to Twitter as text!

Before using TweetCall, please log in to associate a PIN number with your account for security purposes.

Check out TweetCall - Twitter by Voice here.

Twitter Offering Commercial Accounts, for a Price

2009-06-01T13:47:00.001-07:00

Twitter is looking to businesses as a way to possibly kick-start an elusive revenue stream by offering paid commercial accounts to users. The news comes a few days after the launch of a Microsoft-sponsored site, ExecTweets, which uses Twitter technology. Twitter, Facebook and other social-networking sites have been looking for ways to generate revenues commensurate with their popularity. At the same time, Gartner is suggesting ways for businesses to take advantage of Twitter and microblogging.

Twitter is planning to introduce commercial accounts with expanded features, for an added fee, which would allow the site to generate revenue, which could help the site grow and compete against other social networking sites such as Facebook.

The news that Twitter was looking to expand its revenue streams started on March 26.

Twitter allows its users to "microblog," or post 140-character "Tweets" to their individual pages. Although primarily a social tool, Twitter has been finding increased traction in the enterprise as businesses discover how to utilize its capabilities in an official context, such as having executives post internal messages.

In addition to Twitter, Facebook and other social-networking sites are also being integrated into enterprise functions – however, questions about their applicability to such use still remain. Social networking sites have also been trying to figure out ways to generate enough revenue to live up, from an investor perspective, to their enormous hype.

No price was announced for these enhanced commercial accounts, which would roll out sometime in 2009. Details on what would constitute "enhanced" weren’t forthcoming, either.

Facebook attempted to purchase Twitter in 2008 but was turned down, despite the $500 million offer on the table. In what could be perceived as a challenge to Google, Twitter also integrated a search feature, which allows users to sift through the site’s conversational traffic after topics, into its main page.

"Despite the fact that Twitter is primarily aimed at individual users in the consumer market, many of those individuals work for companies and 'tweet' about business issues, leading businesses to explore how they could best use it," Jeffrey Mann, an analyst at Gartner, said in a research note. "If organizations have not defined a public Web participation policy, they should do so as quickly as possible."

By 2011, Gartner predicts, some 80 percent of social software platforms will include enterprise microblogging as a standard feature. In addition to Twitter, other microblogging platforms include Plurk and Jaiku.

The research firm suggests that enterprise usage of Twitter falls into four categories:

Direct, or when the company uses Twitter "as a marketing or public-relations channel."

Indirect, in which company employees use “Tweets” raise public awareness of themselves and their organization; the Microsoft-sponsored site ExecTweets, which launched on March 23 and represents one of the first possible models for Twitter revenue-generation, is an example of individuals using Twitter to boost both their own personal brand and that of the companies they run.

Internal, in which employees and executives use the social-networking tool to communicate internally over projects or other issues; Yammer and other solutions also provide a similar functionality with a more corporate mindset.

Inbound Signaling, or searching Twitter for conversation threads about a particular company or product, and then using that information for problem-solving and feedback. The integration of Twitter into Salesforce.com’s Service Cloud is an example of this use.

Using Hootsuite To Manage Corporate Twittering

2009-06-01T13:46:00.001-07:00

I'm continuing to find HootSuite to be a valuable tool for managing multiple Twitter accounts. This morning, I worked with it to keep track of what people are saying about InformationWeek online, and to help my colleagues connect with new contacts on Twitter. If you're in an organization where multiple employees have their own Twitter accounts, and there's also a Twitter account for the brand, you might find some of my experiences useful.

HootSuite is a slick tool for managing multiple Twitter accounts. It came along at a good time for my career on Twitter. The @InformationWeek account on Twitter recently grew up, and I discovered HootSuite at the time when I needed a better tool to manage InformationWeek's' presence on Twitter.

I started the InformationWeek account about two years ago, soon after I started my personal @mitchwagner account. I grabbed InformationWeek's' main RSS feeds, and fed them into Twitter using the free TwitterFeed tool. Starting about six months ago, I began to make a concerted effort to increase the @informationweek account's popularity, promoting it on my personal feed and in a couple of places on InformationWeek.com Recently, that effort paid off; the InformationWeek account surpassed my personal account in popularity; both have more than 2,000 followers.

I've been monitoring Twitter for a long time to find out what people are saying about us. I used search.twitter.com, creating saved searches for "InformationWeek" and all the publication's popular nicknames I could think of "InfoWeek," "iweek," "info week," "information week," even "info weak" (what, you think we didn't know about that one?) I output the searches as RSS feeds, and read them using Google Reader.

HootSuite presents a better interface for monitoring Twitter searches. It displays your searches in a more readable format than Google (NSDQ: GOOG) Reader, and it shows them in a place where you can easily reply or re-tweet.

HootSuite's search interface.

To use HootSuite search, click on the home page for a particular Twitter account, then click the "Search" tab. That will bring up a page with a search box. Enter a search term, and HootSuite will show you the results of your search. And HootSuite automatically saves the searches by default, although you can delete the searches manually. That's a nice touch; if you run a search once, you'll probably want to run it regularly, and you don't have to remember to save the search, HootSuite automatically does that for you.

I've set up searches for "informationweek" and one or two of our brand's nicknames. I also set up searches for tweets from each of my colleagues on InformationWeek. That way I can read their tweets from a location where I can easily retweet them from the InformationWeek account, helping them get better exposure and better connect with readers.

One shortcoming to HootSuite's search: It'll recognize simple "and" or "or" or "not" searches, but it won't permit me to use a single, wicked-long search phrase. I tried entering the phrase, from:awolfe58 OR from:briangillooly OR from:cnucci OR from:infoweek_andrew OR from:iweeknick OR from:jfoley09 OR from:johnksiefert OR from:jrusso7 OR from:michaelgrover OR from:michaelsinger OR from:nataliaw OR from:NetEvolution OR from:nicoleferraro OR from:pahlkadot OR from:paulmcdougall OR from:robpreston OR from:stacyo OR from:stephstahl OR from:syegulalp OR from:tasmith369 OR from:tonyuphoff OR from:victoriaharres, so that I could press a single button and output a search containing all recent tweets from all my colleagues. But HootSuite choked on it. I have to run each search individually.

Top 10 Reasons Your Company Probably Shouldn't Tweet

2009-06-01T13:45:00.002-07:00

Mainstream media has gone ga ga about Twitter, which grew more than 1,200% in the past year, doubled its members in the past few months and attained 14 million members in March, according to Compete.

Everyone and his dog seems to be tweeting, from CEOs, celebrities and not-for-profits to venture capitalists, banks, business services, government and, well, dogs (and cats and the random parakeet, too). Should your business be tweeting? Twitter is not for everyone. Here are the "Top 10 Reasons Not to Tweet."

You think using Twitter is a social-media strategy. It's a tactic, a tool, not a strategy. It works if you already have an online following who'll view your Tweets as a way to interact with your company on a human level.
Every tweet has to be approved by legal. Twitter is a social network where conversation is fast and interconnected. If you have to wait a day, or even a few hours for your 140 character Tweet to gain legal approval, Twitter will be the wrong platform for you.
You plan to use Twitter for nothing but broadcasting headlines or deals. People follow people they find interesting. Followers are earned on Twitter. Be interesting, make only every 10th tweet about you, and you'll gain and keep a following. If all your tweets are a one-way street: Block!
You think a ghost tweeter for the president of your company is OK. Authenticity and transparency are the keys. It's fine if someone besides the CEO tweets for your company, as long as they say that's what they're doing.
You are not going to respond when people direct tweets at you. Twitter is like the new water cooler. If you walked out to the water fountain and talked nonstop to people gathered there, they'd certainly be happy when you left. Ditto for Twitter.
You think Tweeting as XYZ Corp. and using the company logo as your avatar might be a good idea. Identify the person or people tweeting for your company or don't tweet. The days of hiding behind the faceless corporation are over.
You think all that matters on Twitter is getting a lot of people to follow you. Quality trumps quantity.
You want to protect your updates. If people have to ask permission to see what you're posting on Twitter, you're defeating the purpose, which is conversation.
You plan to track Twitter with Google Analytics. Google Analytics won't give you true tracking. You can track the URLs you post with a service like BudURL or bit.ly, but you'll need to use one or more social-media tracking tools to monitor your corporate reputation and influence on Twitter.
You think you can just jump in and start tweeting. Listen first. Monitor what's being said about your brand, your industry, your products. Then join the conversation and become part of the community. Then your occasional marketing messages will be accepted, or at least tolerated because you also add value to the community.

Graphic designer’s guide to Twitter: How to get Twitter followers, increase traffic, & get clients

2009-06-01T13:45:00.001-07:00

Photo Courtesy of Stephanie Orma / Orma Design (a San Francisco Graphic Design firm)

With 13,297 Twitter followers combined, the following graphic designers know a thing or two about using Twitter to effectively promote their design businesses: Lawrence Anderson (twitter.com/hellolawrence), a San Francisco graphic designer at Designed By Anderson; Jacob Cass (twitter.com/justcreative), an Australian freelance graphic, web, and logo designer at Just Creative Design; and Grace Smith (twitter.com/gracesmith), a United Kingdom freelance web and blog designer at Postscript5. Moderated by San Francisco copywriter and graphic designer Stephanie Orma (twitter.com/stephanieorma) of Orma Design, the three designers share their personal Twitter experience, tips, and advice including how to get Twitter followers and land design jobs.

How long have you been twittering?
Lawrence Anderson: I have been twittering since mid December.

Jacob Cass: Probably around a year now, I signed up for it but didn't really get into it until about 3 months after getting an account but very glad I did!

Grace Smith: I started my Twitter account in late December 2007, so around 1 year and 3 months.

Why do you Twitter?
Lawrence Anderson: I got on Twitter in order to gain more exposure but somewhere along the way it just turned into an interesting way to receive information, send information, and network with my colleagues in a very unobtrusive way.

Jacob Cass: I use Twitter as a marketing device for my blogs and also to connect with my readers while also getting links to other great resources.

Grace Smith: I twitter because as a freelance graphic designer you can miss having that connection to people you would have if you worked in an office. It means you can connect with like-minded people within your industry and those from related industries. I love the conversational nature of Twitter and enjoy interacting with such a wide mix of interesting and insightful people. It is also like a huge RSS Feed, as each day there are hundreds of amazing links tweeted to useful information.

What’s the best way you have found to get Twitter followers?
Lawrence Anderson: I started by adding other designers I knew from the branding and logo design field and then tweeting relevant design articles. I was very sure to thank people for ReTweets and respond to anyone who contacted me. This created a good follower snowball effect. So, I would say start by adding an avatar, telling people who you are in your bio, and then adding a niche group of people you know. Then just tweet out helpful info instead of just "I am doing…"

Jacob Cass: I leave links to my Twitter profile on a lot of blog posts, all my profile pages and am genuine, not spammy and provide great resources while helping others.

Grace Smith: Be yourself, show your personality and instead of following thousands of people to begin with, build up a small network of people you actually interact and converse with. Provide value to those people and your network will grow organically. Twitter at its core is about sharing; sharing links, information, insights and up to the minute trends. This doesn't however mean sharing what you had for lunch!

Have you gotten graphic design jobs using Twitter? If so, how?
Lawrence Anderson: I have in fact gotten clients through twitter. By using my guidelines outlined in the article (TweetDeck's Search Feature) I have gotten the leads. I then followed up with my standard quote process. But, I have gotten a lot more RFPs than signed clients since I tend to be more on the premium service side and I find that the internet tends to attract more of a price-shopper group.

Jacob Cass: Indirectly... every post I write gets sent out via a Twitter and then people click through to read my site and see I am a designer and it goes from there. But I know for sure that I have gotten at least 2 or 3 jobs from Twitter.

Grace Smith: I receive quite a few inquiries into my design services on a consistent basis and have so far worked with several people who directly contacted me from Twitter. It is an organic process, where we have followed each other and conversed, building up a personal connection, which has led to them hiring me for design projects.

Has Twitter helped your graphic design career?
Lawrence Anderson: I think there hasn't been a very direct or pronounced affect on my career, but it has made it easier to stay up to date on the trends of the industry. Which, I think has helped me stay connected to what's going on without getting too distracted from my professional work.

Jacob Cass: Not too sure about that, probably not as a designer but maybe indirectly because of the links that get shared (i.e. links to other articles that teach me things).

Grace Smith: I believe while not directly affecting my career, it has helped build brand 'Grace Smith' and increased the visibility of my freelancing services and portfolio online. I recently launched my first blog at gracesmith.co.uk and this has had an amazing start due in a large way to the Twitter community embracing my writing and insights. So personally while Twitter may not have affected my career path it is helping me create a strong, unique brand both as a person and as freelance web designer.

Do you think all designers should Twitter?
Lawrence Anderson: Honestly, I don't think all designers should twitter. I tweet to network with fellow designers mostly because 1) it's fun to me and 2) I do a lot of sub-contracting, so it's helpful to my business even if I don't get clients from it. If you want to just gain clients you should focus on real-world networking. That's where I have achieved the most success.

Jacob Cass: People use Twitter for different reasons so you should really sum up why you are going to get an account and then go from there.

Grace Smith: It's a completely personal preference. Twitter is a valuable personal branding tool, which can help to grow your network and interact with people you wouldn't have access to otherwise. It's great fun but you have to make sure it isn't replacing your other promotional activities or affecting your actual workload. I personally think all designers can benefit from using Twitter to build their brand and connect with people, however it's an individual choice.

Twitter mistakes to avoid?
Lawrence Anderson: Don't bad mouth clients. Sometimes you don't know who is listening :-)

Jacob Cass: Spamming. I hate it. Not a fan of auto reply messages either.

Grace Smith: Often the biggest mistake people in general make on twitter is to go on there to forcefully sell their product/services. It's perfectly acceptable to link to your own products/services or blog posts but there has to be a balance between self-promotion and the value you add in other ways. People don't want to be given the 'hard sell', they are on there to connect with like-minded people and share ideas and information, you have to think long-term and remember it’s a social tool so be social and join in the conversation.

Best newbie Twitter tips?
Lawrence Anderson: Twitter newbies should try using StumbleUpon to find very new and relevant articles to tweet out to their followers. Also, as I mentioned before, you will want to get a custom avatar and bio up before you start following people because most people won't follow back if that person has no bio or avatar.

Jacob Cass: Be yourself. Help others. Don't spam.

Grace Smith: Firstly, concentrate on your profile: Use your own name, it's a social network and you are there to strengthen your credibility and using your own name makes this much easier. Twitter has also indicated that you are 'more likely to turn up in a Twitter search if you use your real name', thereby increasing your visibility. Craft a good bio with a link to your website or blog and use a real picture of yourself as this helps establish there is a credible person behind your brand. Create a custom background for your profile as this aligns your branding with who you are and creates a subtle yet consistent marketing message. People are extremely unlikely to follow you if they know nothing about you, as just like in real life, first impressions count!

What Twitter is good for: restaurants!

2009-06-01T13:44:00.004-07:00

Few things are better than hot baked goods. Especially hot doughnuts and cookies just out of the oven. But it's hard to know when a bakery has such treats. Krispy Kremes turn on a neon light when their doughnuts are coming out, but even then you have to be driving by to see it. Calling a bakery every 10 minutes is unrealistic, and so is expecting that bakery to update a Web site dozens of times a day.

Enter Twitter.

A baker can't call 200 customers individually to tell them he's closing in 10 minutes and all pastries are half off, but he can Tweet it. As the Kogi Taco Truck in Los Angeles has learned by Tweeting its location for the night, using the technology can draw people who otherwise wouldn't have known where the hell it was.

One man in England has already taken it to the next level by introducing BakerTweet. It's a wireless device set up to an oven. At the same time the timer's buzzing to let you know the croissants are done, it's sending out a Twitter message that hot croissants just came out of the oven.

BakerTweet from POKE on Vimeo.

As BakerTweet shows, the possibilities are endless. I can imagine a computer program for a bar that decides what to have at happy hour by how many @replies it receives asking for an item. Or, instead of a really busy restaurant turning away people without reservations, it sends out a message to all if some tables open up.

To Twitter fanatics, none of this is new but many restaurant owners and diners are just now catching up. Once they get caught up, restaurant dining could be a very new experience.

Twitter business-Small Business ideas through twitter offers unique marketing opportunity

2009-06-01T13:44:00.003-07:00

Twitter is all the rage, its social networking capabilities provide a useful resource to many. A leading twitter firm is providing Twitter business, which is aimed at small businesses looking to market products and services quickly and efficiently. That website is www.twitterfirm.com.

Twitter is a platform that allows anyone to build up a list of followers. However, the downside can be that to build up a twitter list can be time consuming and ultimately unsuccessful due to others trying to do the same thing. What is required is a resource which builds up a responsive list of twitter users in the correct manner and ensures success, that service is now available through www.twitterfirm.com.

This innovative website provides a unique resource for obtaining new customers. It utilises the strength of twitter to provide a platform for obtaining new clients using the twitter business service. Its unique concept, which is winning favour with many businesses, is to offer marketing through twitter. It does this in a cost effective way. Its aim is to help businesses market their Small business ideas in a more cost effective and efficient way, by targeting specific demographic groups. It utilises the power of twitter by building a list of twitter followers who are interested in the products on offer. It saves time and money by using its own system, which is very effective in popularising the products and services of its growing list of small business clients.

The popularity of www.twitterfirm.com is down to a simple premise, a simple service which ultimately provides a viable twitter marketing solution at an affordable price. It is easy to see why this website has gained rave reviews and plaudits from its customer base. Its professional and courteous customer service is second to none, and best of all, the service provides a marketing outlet that is effective solution to increasing sales.

For further information visit www.twitterfirm.com.

Release Date:
04/06/2009
Industries:
CommunityNetwork
Category:
Private Company News
Website:
http://www.twitterfirm.com
Source:
http://www.twitterfirm.com

Jeff Vrabel: How do celebrities find so much time for Twitter?

2009-06-01T13:44:00.001-07:00

I've been on Twitter for a few weeks now, and I'm liking it pretty well except that Rainn Wilson WILL NOT LEAVE ME ALONE.

Rainn Wilson of course plays Dwight on "The Office," and he exists as @rainnwilson in Twitterland and is one of a growing number of celebrity Twitterers, which is a word that you can say a thousand times while still never sounding like a grownup. Twitter, of course, is the Web service on which you post updates of 140 characters or less that has been christened the MOST IMPORTANT WEB SERVICE EVER, so you might as well delete your stupid loser Facebook or Digg or whatever, to say nothing of you consumer-mall juiceboxes still on MySpace, if that's even still on.

The point of Twitter is to celebrate and rejoice in the short attention span, so, hypothetically, if you've been born with relentless ADD tendencies and can't get your mind focused on so much as writing a lousy humor column without your itchy right hand drifting, literally outside your control, over to the IM window, or God forbid the unholy hellbutton that lets you log in to Facebook, it will probably kill you in days.

In the past weeks I've been "following" the following: Shaquille O'Neal, "Weird Al" Yankovic, MC Hammer, Ted Leo and a few others. Sure, it's cool and sort of astonishing, the means by which technology has crumbled the walls that used to exist between the famous and unfamous (and infamous). And occasionally you come across funny stuff on these pages, which is why I do it. Well, that and also like all celebrity followers I subconsciously believe that appearing as one of 259,201 anonymous capitalization-free inside joke-names in their Friend List or whatever will one day secure me a permanent office in their Hollywood cool-kids fraternity.

So it's great that funny celebrities are on Twitter. What's no so great is that they can't shut up.

The celebrity Twitterings to which I am plugged are ASTONISHINGLY REGULAR. Seriously, there was a day in which like 60 percent of my total Tweet quotient came from famous people, which means either famous people are much blabbier than my friends, or I am in desperate need of more friends. It's a little bit of a wonder that some of these famous people have time to help create our valuable entertainment, and yes, I'm sort of talking to you Ted Leo, whom I had to unfollow because YOU WERE ALL UP IN MY FACE LIKE ALL THE TIME. Dude, I am a big, big fan of your music, but when the hell do you have time to make it?

It turns out also that celebrities do what the rest of us snoozebox pinheads do: deliver rapid-fire random inside jokes, promote their friends/colleagues' art shows and improv nights and indulgent musical side projects, make witty obscure pop-culture responses to other Twitterers and most obviously, talk extensively about their kids. It turns out that Rob Corddry can't stop writing about his child, just like all regular unfamous parents, speaking of which, Jake today wrote the following sentence using magnet-words on the fridge: PLAY SOME CHEESE MUSIC. Thought it was the funniest thing he'd seen since I dropped a Polar Express on my foot.

So, to all you funny celebrities, I beg you: YOU DON'T NEED TWITTER. You are already funny. And also you are ALREADY FAMOUS, which is why you have tens of thousands of people hanging on your every Tweet. This flighty temporary fixation is for those of us who are still a few years away from giving up on our dreams. WE NEED THIS. Except you, Al Yankovic. You I'll stick with forever, because you've been awesome since '83. Feel free to re-Tweet that.

@jeffvrabel is a writer who absolutely cannot get enough of polka medleys. He can be reached at jeffvrabel.com or twitter.com/jeffvrabel, of course.

U.K. bakery uses Twitter to announce freshly baked bread

2009-06-01T13:43:00.002-07:00

Related Sections: Internet

U.K. bakery uses Twitter to announce freshly baked bread

Finally, it seems there is a point to Twitter. The Albion Bakery in London is using something called Baker Tweet to announce what's cooking in their kitchen. Custom-built for the Shoreditch, East London, bread seller, Baker Tweet uses an Arduino board and a Linksys Wi-Fi adapter neatly arranged in a flour-, water- and egg-resistant box. When there's a fresh batch of bread out of the oven, it notifies Albion customers.

Digital Creative agency Poke — whose offices are across the road from the Albion — came up with the idea. On the front of the box is a screen and a large selection knob, which flicks through the bread and buns on the menu. Once the baker has chosen the right one, he then presses the "Send" button and London's Tweeting bun-lovers are the first in the know.

The 5 Stages Of Twitter Acceptance. Where are YOU at?

2009-06-01T13:43:00.001-07:00

This is a guest posting by Rohit Bhargava (@rohitbhargava), as part of our ongoing efforts to bring insightful content to users. Rohit wrote the award winning Personality Not Included. He’s a Senior Vice President at Ogilvy, and was a founding member of the pioneering 360 Digital Influence team. See original post here

Update: Thanks to great user comments, we have added one more stage to the original 5. Take a look!

Anyone who works with fast moving technology knows that there is always a new shiny tool that gets all the attention. It tends to change every few months and anytime you start to use a new tool, you do secretly wonder if it will be around all that long.

By any measure, Twitter has passed these boundaries. It has been around for several years. Every day more and more people discover it and it’s usefulness in their personal lives. New stories of the business potential of the tool are also coming out, such as Dell’s report that they have made more than $1 million dollars through their DellOutlet Twitter account. Small business superstars like Gary Vaynerchuck (@garyvee) declare it the #1 most useful promotional tool in their arsenal. Clearly, Twitter isn’t just the new shiny tool on the block anymore.

Yet many of the people who declare themselves "converted" and have opened Twitter accounts aren’t getting the best benefit. Until recently, I was one of them.

I started thinking about this after getting some feedback to my recent blog survey that people were not finding my Twitter feed (@rohitbhargava) very useful or interesting. Until that point, I had been using it as a place to write all the things that I didn’t consider important enough to blog about.

I hadn’t yet accepted it’s true influence. So now I’m trying to revise the way that I use the tool. I retweet other’s posts more often. I share links to things that I didn’t write, but found interesting. I have been experimenting with playful posts like a "word of the day" feature. All this is to try and find a better rhythm so that I am approaching what I would call a Level 5 stage of acceptance with Twitter.

Here’s a graphic I created to describe how I see those stages:

10 Ways Twitter Will Change Blog Design in 2009

2009-06-01T13:39:00.002-07:00

Rachel Cunliffe runs blog design company cre8d design and is co-founder of TV community network Throng.

In 2008, Twitter () really started to hit the mainstream and bloggers began adding widgets to their sidebars to display their latest tweets.

In 2009, Twitter will become much more tightly integrated with the rest of the blog in a variety of ways - watch out for tweetbacks and tweetstats to make their debut, and tweet comments to TwitterRolls to start appearing on blogs. Here are 10 ways Twitter will impact blogs this year.

Have your own predictions? Add them to the comments.

1. Tweetbacks

Bloggers will start to add “Tweetbacks” to their blog posts. The simplest version will show the number of people who have tweeted this post (including all reverse engineered tinyurls). Tweetbacks are not yet available.

Options will include:

Showing what tweeters are saying about the post
Replies to those tweets from others
Showing who is tweeting the post
Showing the tweeters’ avatars
Ordering tweeters by Twitter influence
Mixing tweets in with comments, rather than displaying them separately

2. Tweetstats

In addition to “most read,” “most commented” type sections in blog sidebars, bloggers will add “most tweeted” and “recently tweeted” blog posts sections. These Tweetstats are not yet available.

3. TweetThis

Some bloggers will ditch catch-all social networking plugins AddThis and ShareThis and just use TweetThis, finding this to be the most effective way of sharing new links online. Watch Twitter move up into the first tab of the ShareThis plugin.

4. Tweets move out of the sidebar

More bloggers will mix blog posts and tweets into a single column together a la Tumblr (), rather than keeping them in the sidebar. More new themes will have a built-in style for displaying tweets in an elegant way amongst blog posts. Wordpress () users will find the Twitter tools plugin useful.

5. Tweet comments

Blog visitors will be able to comment on tweets displayed within a blog - whether they are a Twitter user or not. Wordpress users will find the Twitter tools plugin useful.

6. BlogTweet feeds

Blog feeds will have the option of including or excluding tweets - made simple thanks to Yahoo pipes. Follow this video tutorial to see how to do it.

7. Blog comment form changes

Some bloggers will add a form field for people to fill in their Twitter account name when adding comments on blogs. Others will change the common “website” label to “website/Twitter page.” Useful for visitors without their own blog or website but who use Twitter. See the WP-Twitip-ID Plugin Wordpress plugin.

8. New sidebar widgets

Favorites widget - display recent favorite tweets
This day in history widget - display a user’s tweets from a year ago (or longer) Not yet available.

9. TwitterRolls

In addition to blog rolls, bloggers will list their favorite tweeters and optionally a short note on why they’re worth following to help others discover new tweeters.

10. Blog design influenced by Twitter themes

While many bloggers change their Twitter theme to match their blog’s themes as closely as possible, this will also work in reverse. Influenced by Twitter’s design, bloggers will use more background images on their blogs and use the limitations of theming their Twitter page to influence how they design their blog. Expect to see more blog headers rotated ninety degrees anti-clockwise and more blog sidebars on the right hand side.

More Twitter Resources from Mashable

- “HOW TO: Build Community on Twitter”
- “HOW NOT TO: Build Your Twitter Community”
- “HOW TO: Win Friends and Twinfluence People”
- “Tweets to Go: 35+ More Twitter Resources for Your Phone“

Imagery courtesy of iStockphoto, rellas

The Best 10+ Sites To Look For Stunning (and Free) Twitter Backgrounds

2009-06-01T13:39:00.001-07:00

A custom twitter background helps you stand out from the crowd. With a background different from others, your profile will carry a feeling of uniqueness. It makes a good impression and takes your brand one step forward. Why have the same background that several thousands of other people have?

Today we bring together the best places to lookout for great twitter backgrounds. Don’t want to mess with photshop creating backgrounds? These make your task easier than ever.

1. Twitter Patterns

2. TwitterBacks

3. TwitBacks

4. Twitter Gallery

5. Tweet Style

6. Twitter Backgrounds From LimeShot Designs

7. My Tweet Space

8. Twitter Image

9. Twitter Backgrounds from Webdistortion

10. Tile Backgrounds from Colorlovers

Bonus!

11. Create your own check tile background for twitter with TartanMaker

12. Some cool tile backgrounds from BGpatterns!

This finishes off with the post. I hope you were able to find a fabulous background for your twitter profile. If you know about more twitter background sites, share it in the comments and let others know about it!

Frisco Man Saves Woman's Life Thanks To Twitter

2009-06-01T13:38:00.000-07:00

Woman Had Left Message On Actress Demi Moore's Page

Selena Hernandez
FRISCO (CBS 11 News) ―

Click to enlarge: AP

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The popular social networking site Twitter may have help save a life after a California woman posted an apparent suicide note, catching the attention of a Hollywood celebrity and reaction from a North Texas man.

Daniel Morton from Frisco said he happened to see the disturbing "tweet" on Demi Moore's page. "I noticed it looked like a good train of texts, tweets talking about how she wanted to kill herself."

"Demi responded, 'I hope this is not a joke.' At that point I started looking into this woman's site to see if it was a joke or not."

Morton said he wasted no time in trying to help the stranger in distress. He contacted another online Twitter friend, Kim Aiton, In Idaho. Together, the two would combine their resources to help a woman they never met, one who's name they didn't even know.

"When she sent the message, she really didn't think anyone would see it. It was the last thing she expected."

Morton said he spent an hour on the phone with San Jose Police Department, until Aiton found the woman's real name. "She found the woman's true identity - gave it to me, I gave it to the police. They pulled it up on the computer - bam they matched the photo to the driver's license. They knew it was her, so they sent the "lights and sirens" out there to get her."

San Jose Police found the 48 year old woman unharmed, some two hours after her initial posting. The department said it was overwhelmed with calls from all over the country and world - all responding to Moore's tweet.

"With all of that technology and none of us talking on the phone that night - with the exception of me with the police - we were able to get the police to the woman and save her," Morton said.

The woman, who's spoken to Morton, said she's doing well and is grateful for his actions and the caring thoughts of strangers.

Congressional tweets: All a-Twitter on Capitol Hill

2009-06-01T13:37:00.002-07:00

WASHINGTON — This tweet just in: I'm behind on laundry. President speaking to us now. He's good salesman, bad product. Running late. Confess I'm getting cranky.

In the microblogging world of Twitter, this is your Congress at work. In bursts of 140 characters or less, Twittering is now all the rage on Capitol Hill. At last count, 121 members are using mobile devices to send updates, or tweets, like the tidbits of information above (taken from actual congressional tweets).

For many leaders, it's simply a new, one-way communications tool. Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, sends out tweets that read like summaries of press releases. Sure enough, there's a link to a news release on most of them.

But Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., has gained a devoted Twitter following with tweets that are personal and political: "Man, am I tired. Harder than it looks to get the handful of R votes we MUST have and keep the Ds happy."

That's an insightful take on how the $787 billion stimulus bill got through the Senate, where Democrats needed three Republicans.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., once notoriously computer-averse, has blasted examples of "pork" spending in often sarcastic tweets. Making fun of a fish management project, he mused, "How do you manage fish?"

McCain may have lost the presidency, but he is now Capitol Hill's Twitter champion. According to TweetCongress.org, which tracks the use of Twitter, McCain now has 332,508 "followers," people reading his tweets, the most by far in Congress.

When McCain criticized federal spending on San Jose's Japanese-American Museum, that prompted a tweet-vs.-tweet debate between McCain and Rep. Mike Honda, D-Campbell, on the merits of the project.

Twitter's invasion of Capitol Hill has not come without controversy. Some thought it was impolite that a half-dozen lawmakers sent tweets during the president's speech to Congress on Feb. 24. Comedian Stephen Colbert joked that even Barack Obama was doing it: "OMG, totally addressing Congress. LOL Mitch McConnell looks like a turtle."

House Republicans also drew attention for sending tweets during a private meeting with the president on Capitol Hill in January.

And when Rep. Peter Hoekstra, R-Mich., tweeted from Baghdad upon his arrival in the Green Zone, some bloggers took him to task for breaching security. But Hoekstra said he had previously announced the trip to Baghdad. Questions of usage and etiquette — like when it's OK to Twitter — will work themselves out as the medium evolves, said Chris Sacca, a Bay Area financier, political activist and one of the original investors in Twitter.

Some bloggers have mused that Twitter may not be an effective way of communicating with Congress. Ethan Zuckerman, co-founder of Global Voices Online, asked in a recent posting if Twitter had "just become another tool for spamming politicians and decision makers."

One test of whether Twitter is an effective tool is whether it becomes a genuine two-way street between citizens and Congress. One watchdog group, the Sunlight Foundation, is asking members to use Twitter as a lobbying tool.

The goal is to nudge senators to finally adopt electronic filing of campaign reports, something that presidential candidates, House members and political action committees already must do. A couple of GOP senators have held up the bill.

Sen. Barbara Boxer, a California Democrat who just started using Twitter, received several tweets about the bill, including one from Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist. She quickly signed on to this year's bill as a co-sponsor.

"Thanks to all who tweeted me about e-filing of campaign finance reports," she tweeted back.

Twitter is not ideal for lobbying on a complex issue, but its immediacy is useful in reminding senators to sign on to a bill they may already support, said Lisa Rosenberg, a consultant with Sunlight.

"You can't compel someone to make a decision in 140 characters, but you can get their attention on something they may have forgotten about," she added.

And Sacca said Twitter is a form of communication that is rare and valuable in Washington: "It has an economy of words. That's really powerful."

Twitter Tips: How To Search Twitter Smarter

2009-06-01T13:37:00.001-07:00

It's easy to miss little gems of information on Twitter, the social networking service that allows users to exchange short messages. Because we all can't spend hours in front of the service, we miss important messages (or tweets) posted by colleagues, friends and family while we're away. As the list of people you follow on Twitter grows, the problem becomes more acute: hundreds of messages pass by and flow off the page before you've even had a chance to look at them.

Slideshow: Top 12 Twitter tools
12 CIOs who Twitter

Backup and Recovery Options in a Multi-Platform Environment: Download now

Although Twitter applications such as TweetDeck let you filter messages in highly customizable ways, Twitter's own site can help you manage this information overload. Last July, Twitter bought Summize, a New York-based company comprised of five engineers who focused on nothing but building a great search tool for Twitter. Now, Twitter search can be found at the bottom of your Twitter homepage under "Search," or, when logged in to Twitter, go to search.twitter.com.

Twendy twitter spawns new lingo for tweople

2009-06-01T13:36:00.000-07:00

he microblogging service has spawned a vocabulary all its own, with words such as tweople (Twitter-speak for people), twirting (flirting) and tweeps (friends) showing up in tweets (posts, which must be under 140 characters).

There's also twitterhea -- the unstoppable urge to tweet.

The lingo makes Twitter users feel like they're part of a community, says assistant professor Jennifer Clary-Lemon of the University of Winnipeg.

"Only the people in the club are going to care about the secret handshake," says Clary-Lemon, who teaches in university's department of rhetoric, writing and communications.

The invented words really roll off the tongue, thanks to the tw at the start of them, she adds. It's a word-making advantage that Twitter has over two other popular social networks, Facebook and MySpace, Clary-Lemon notes.

U.S. marketing expert Greg Verdino says he believes one of the earliest made-up Twitter words was "tweetup," which refers to meeting someone in the real world.

"I actually met my girlfriend on Twitter," says Verdino, who has been tweeting for the last two years. "We call ourselves tweethearts."

Social commentator Hal Niedzviecki says very few of these Twitter words will last and questions whether the microblogging service itself will be around in 10 years.

"I definitely have the feeling that Twitter is more fad than function," he says from Toronto.

But even if Twitter dies out, the idea of constantly sending out messages won't go away and will remain a form of entertainment, says Niedzviecki, author of the soon-to-be released "The Peep Diaries: How We're Learning to Love Watching Ourselves and Our Neighbors."

Meanwhile, Twitter neophytes in need of linguistic help can go to the online twictionary at http://twictionary.pbwiki.com/.

And at least one Twitter user is tired of the trend and announced he was creating a new word: "Twatting -- the act of obsessively replacing real-life words with make-believe Twitter words."

Survey U Shifts Ditches E-Newsletter in Favor of Twitter

2009-06-01T13:35:00.002-07:00

I just received an interesting update from Dan Coates, announcing that SurveyU is ditching its monthly e-newsletter and switching it's reports to Twitter, at twitter.com/surveyu.

Coates said they were initially skeptical about Twitter's capabilities, but they've been using it for the past month and they're "hooked." Coates and SurveyU will provide weekly slides of survey result slides via Twitter, such as the average college student credit card debt report (you'll be surprised by the results) and their college finance inquiry.

Survey U, a division of GlobalPark USA, recruits thousands of students across the nation. Prior to the transition to Twitter, the valuable statistics were circulated in a monthly publication, known as The NOW Report. Answers are collated and analyzed and the data is forwarded to the public sector, private corporations, foundations, trusts, charities and academic institutions.Survey U rewards student survey participation with points that can be redeemed for gift certificates, such as iTunes, Starbucks and Amazon.

Six Lessons Learned From Celebrity Twitter Scandals

2009-06-01T13:35:00.001-07:00

Twitter has been on the minds, lips, and fingers of everyone lately. And this week we’ve witnessed a couple of Twitter firsts. Courtney Love has the wonderful distinction of being the first person sued for defamation as a result of a tweet. And over the weekend, Mark Cuban was fined $25,000 by the NBA for his criticisms of referees officiating a game between the Dallas Mavericks and the Denver Nuggets. These two scandals most likely caused bad days for Mark and Courtney, but you really can learn something from their and others mishaps.

Don’t tweet while intoxicated. The report stating the claim against Courtney says her “crusade” could have been caused by a “drug-induced psychosis.”

If you’re going to criticize or just talk sh-- about someone, then don’t use their real name. Mark wrote “JR Smith” in his tweet, so it was obvious he was referring to his taunting and calling the refs out for ignoring it.

Blocking someone doesn’t mean they can’t read your tweets. All they have to do is type in your full Twitter URL. But if you block someone it’s kind of like sticking your fingers in your ears and saying, “La la la, I can’t hear you!” You just won’t be able to read their replies. Jake Tapper, ABC News’ senior White House correspondent, blocked the Talking Points Memo after he became tired of its critique.

You can pretend to be anyone. Including Maya Angelou.

But you could get sued. Just like all the folks that set up Twitter accounts with usernames of characters from “Mad Men”!

Don’t tweet about anything involving your job. PR blogger Steve Rubel wrote that he didn’t read the hard copy of PC Magazine, which accepts pitches from his employer Edelman PR firm.

Everyone is Twittering, But Is Anyone Listening?

2009-06-01T13:34:00.004-07:00

Everyone was aflutter with Twitter at Search Engine Strategies New York. This was helped by the conference being kicked off by an energetic keynote speaker and Twitteraholic Guy Kawasaki.

Some in attendance thought Kawasaki may have pushed the line of spamming just a bit. My sense is that he isn't, because if you don't like the way he uses Twitter, you can always un-follow him. Unlike e-mail where anyone can spam you, in Twitter you need to be following someone in order to see their tweets in your stream or receive direct messages from them.

Whether Kawasaki, Britney Spears, or Lance Armstrong has 94,000 or 550,000 followers, they're "A-Listers." People want to hear what they have to say. It's not because of Twitter, it's because these celebrities previously had a fanbase.

Now, there will be a few new "A-Listers" that result simply from Twitter. However, these will be few and far between. Kawasaki is being helped greatly by Twitter because he's being aggressively smart.

But what about the rest of us? If we have 1,500 followers, are any of them really listening? I'd argue that most are not. However, it's still a huge marketing tool, and the nobodies are now the new somebody for the following reason.

Twitter is free. If a local plumber has 1,500 followers, even if it's likely most of them aren't listening at any given moment, as long as at least one person is, that's all that matters. If that one person has a plumbing issue, the plumber now has a shot at new business, especially if the plumber acquired these followers simply by limiting his search.twitter.com query to people within a 25-mile radius. For that plumber, that one listener goes from a nobody to a somebody in a hurry.

The biggest uses of Twitter right now are:

Businesses following what is being said about them or their industry -- Zappos, JetBlue, Comcast, etc.
Celebrity updates -- Lance Armstrong Tweets about his collarbone.
Real-time updates of news events, especially natural disasters.
Niche topics, like #MSU or #UNC during March Madness.
Individuals/companies promoting themselves.

And it's the last point that may eventually cause Twitter to become tiresome. Is Dale Carnegie rolling over in his grave because everyone on Twitter is trying to be heard, when the key to winning friends and influencing people is actually listening? Twitter is popular, in part, because not everyone is on it, giving it effectiveness and a cool factor. When it becomes flooded with marketing messages, it loses both, which will lead many users to abandon Twitter and move on.

Smithsonian Student Travel sent more than 6,000 students to Washington D.C. for the Presidential inauguration. In the past it would have been difficult to get major media outlets attention. However, Twitter made it easy. NPR, MSNBC, and PBS immediately replied to Smithsonian Student Travel's tweet, expressing interest in hearing from middle school students and teachers.

Now, only two months later, I typed in #JetBlue, expressing my concern that the televisions may not work on my flight. This was important to me because I selected JetBlue solely for the purpose of watching March Madness on DirectTV. Instead of hearing tweets, I heard crickets chirping. It's cool when companies and even CEOs respond real time.

In JetBlue's defense, they're somewhat victims of their own success on Twitter (Morgan Johnston does a fantastic job). People expect the best from them because they've been one of the pioneers. As a result, more people tweet and follow them and it's difficult for them to keep pace.

In another example, I tweeted an interesting article about Travelocity along with #travelocity and indicated that Travelocity was in deep trouble. Here's what responses I received:

@Travelocity: How deep of trouble?

@equalman: Pretty deep as it appears Priceline has the lead and only one or two online travel agents will survive. I love the gnome, so good luck!

@Travelocity: We like Gloria Gaynor ;)

It took me a second to get it, but then I was laughing at this witty retort. Gloria Gaynor's famous disco song is "I Will Survive."

As more people join Twitter, this type of one-to-one relationship will be difficult to maintain. Many celebrities already have "ghost tweeters."

In the future, instead of getting a witty and salient reply from a CEO or well-informed employee, you'll most likely get an uninspired reply from a call center (tweet center?) in New Delhi -- if you're lucky to get a response at all. Remember, I received no response to my #JetBlue tweet, where I was surprised and delighted by the Travelocity response.

Now, before I get tons of hate mail, there's a need for micro-blogging tools like Twitter, but it's somewhere in-between "poor man's e-mail" (Google's Eric Schmidt's words) and the greatest thing ever. I still tweet, because the upside is still greater than the downside. And oh, by the way, please follow me via @equalman.

Twitter Is Not a Strategy

2009-06-01T13:34:00.003-07:00

A classic observation from the early days of online marketing: a website is NOT a strategy. In other words, when you ask the client what they’re trying to do online and they reply that they have a website — which is, of course just a tool, and is probably not doing them much good if it’s isolated from an actual plan to put it to use.

The Twitter fixation currently sweeping segments of the news media and the political world (particularly on the Republican side) reminds me of those innocent days of the early web. Not to put Twitter down, because it definitely has valuable uses, but it’s just a tool — and if you don’t know why you’re using it, you’re probably not going to get much out of it.

For you or your organization, is Twitter a journalistic live-coverage tool? A platform for (very short) punditry? A reputation-builder? A way to connect with others in your field? A personal journal, broadcast to the world? An RSS supplement, a way to send out links to your own articles? A collaborative community-builder? A reporting system for distributed events (”someone just stole the ballot box at my polling place!”)? All of these and more are perfectly valid ways to use it, but each requires a different approach if it’s to succeed.

During the extended discussion at the SXSW “Digital Tsunami” panel (in which GM’s Christopher Barger also discussed corporate public relations in a networked age), NPR’s social media guru Andy Carvin mentioned that he didn’t want the network’s reporters to be on Twitter just because “the cool kids” in the journalistic set were doing it — he wanted them to use Twitter if and because it made them better reporters. Exactly! A communications tool should make your life or your job better, not just provide another distraction.

For instance, if you’re a reporter and you’re spending minutes a day tweeting about your morning coffee-and-a-bagel, you’re probably just wasting time — yours and others’ — unless it’s within the context of a cunning plan to humanize you in the eyes of an adoring public. Similarly, some talk shows seem obsessed with taking messages from listeners via Twitter, but let me ask them this question: wouldn’t they usually get more thought-out messages via email or over the phone than through a channel that limits people to 140 characters?

Too often, Twitter is the enemy of complex thought, not its friend — if you’re on Twitter yourself, look at your last few weeks’ posts and see what fraction of your potential mental capability they actually express. Probably not much: that’s not what the tool is good for.

Again, I ain’t hatin’ on Twitter, but professional communicators ought to know why they’re using it and what they’re trying to get out of it. Otherwise, they’re just jumping on a crowded bandwagon without even knowing where it’s headed. And our public discourse is shallow enough as it is.

Colin Delany is founder and chief editor of epolitics.com (where this story was first published), a site that focuses on the tools and tactics of Internet politics and online political advocacy.

I Just Made A Twitter Account

2009-06-01T13:34:00.001-07:00

And it is so simple. There is nothing to it! I always thought Twitter was a website dedicated to nothing but a Facebook-style status update marquee, and I turned out to be right. I also thought it was a dull concept, but this is where I was completely wrong.

Ok, so I’m a little late to this whole Twitter thing. The website has been going for years and is now receiving a lot of attention from the mainstream media (a few nods on hip TV shows and the flocks of reporters wetting themselves over being an early adapter to the new Internet fad). 90% of you reading this probably have had a Twitter account for awhile now and have melded it into your daily lifestyle.

I can already see who the Twitterheads are on my follower/following lists, they’re filling up my tweet pages with one-liners. It’s great that upon creating my account I was able to add in contacts from various other networks. I felt right at home as soon as I was logged in for the first time, welcomed by many familiar faces and a veritable cornucopia of thoughts, ideas, and other random content. Why did I hold out for so long before joining?

This is just another one of those Web 2.0 creations that is changing the way the Internet works. We’re sharing what we find interesting with our tweets. We’re discovering new information and link destinations through the tweets of others. I’ve already found some new music, a few cool websites, and a great place to get a haircut through Twitter. We’re communicating with each other on a completely different level than we were just a few years ago. It’s all more streamlined and somehow more personal.

But let’s get back to the simplicity factor, it’s true…there is almost nothing here. My profile, all profiles are minuscule compared to most any other social network or web forum out there. Other than your tweets, the only aspects of yourself the world gets to see is your name, a tiny picture, and a bio that condenses the entirety of yourself into a single line. The tweets themselves can be no longer than your average post-it note.

All of that simplicity is just a veil though, hiding a social network that is as deep and addictive as any other. Privacy is thrown out the window as people write on twitter to share their lives and promote themselves and the creativity and beauty they find in their everyday lives. Looking at the tweets of my friends, of celebrities, of random people…it’s all a mash up of lives that are expressed in what I can only call art. It’s beautiful in its own deranged, monotonous, and creative way.

Am I getting a little too reflective for you? I see something with Twitter that I don’t with MySpace, Facebook, Digg, Reddit, blogs, etc.. In Twitter’s simplicity and restriction to expression, we are creating something unique and interesting that the world hasn’t seen before. I’ll leave it at that and let you ponder on those thoughts.

I’ve been a Twitter user for under two hours and I think I may already be addicted (between this and StumbleUpon, I don’t know when I’ll get my writing done!). The Twitterverse is still new to me and there may still be some secrets left to explore; I might be compelled to do a followup article.

Online marketing teams take note: Twitter popularity is rising

2009-06-01T13:33:00.004-07:00

Companies using Twitter to aid their internet marketing efforts may be interested in new research which shows that the popularity of the social networking site is growing.

According to Hitwise, UK internet visits to Twitter have increased six-fold since the start of this year, making it the 50th most visited website in the UK last week.

Robin Goad, research director at the traffic monitoring firm, said the numbers would be even higher if they included visits to Twitter via mobile pones and third party applications.

However, the data also shows that 4.7 per cent of Twitter's downstream traffic goes to websites in the shopping and classifieds category, compared to 13.9 per cent of Google's traffic.

Google also sends more traffic to business and finance websites and those in the travel sector, suggesting that firms investing in web advertising may be wise to allocate more of their budgets to search engine marketing and optimisation, depending on the products and services they are offering.

Research carried out recently by The Nielsen Company revealed that 67 per cent of the global web users access social networks and blogs.

News brought to you by ClickThrough - a best practice Internet Marketing Agency.

Twitter, Facebook Can Improve Work Productivity

2009-06-01T13:33:00.003-07:00

Using Twitter and Facebook at work will make you a better employee, says the University of Melbourne.

According to a study by the Australian University, 70 percent of office employees use the internet at work for personal reasons. Of them, nine percent were more productive compared to employees that didn't use the web for fun.

"Workplace internet leisure browsing (WILB) can help sharpen workers' concentration," said Brent Coker, from the University's department of management and marketing. "People need to zone out for a bit to get back their concentration."

Coker defined WLIB activities as browsing the web for information and reviews of products, reading online news sites, playing online games, keeping up-to-date with friends activities on social networking sites and watching videos on YouTube.

"Short and unobtrusive breaks, such as a quick surf of the internet, enables the mind to rest itself, leading to a higher total net concentration for a days' work, and as a result, increased productivity," he added.

"Firms spend millions on software to block their employees from watching videos, using social networking sites or shopping online under the pretence that it costs millions in lost productivity That's not always the case."

Cooker said the study reflected people who browsed the web of 20 percent or less of their working day.

"Those who behave with internet addiction tendencies will have a lower productivity than those without," he added.

Tips for journos (or anyone else) wanting better Twitter

2009-06-01T13:33:00.001-07:00

Last week I was asked by McClatchy Interactive for some tips for other journalists wanting to make this whole Twitter thing less than a complete waste of their time. (As opposed to failing and then making their failure a complete waste of OUR time.)

Despite the fact that I got my print job by first writing on the Internet, I've never considered myself a bleeding-edge tech guy. I just know a useful tool when I see one -- blogging, Google Groups, Brian Cashman, you name it. From the moment I read about it a year ago in Clay Shirky's book Here Comes Everybody (now in paperback!), I knew I wanted to be on Twitter. But it actually took me a few more months to figure out how to make it truly useful, and hopefully these pointers will save you that lag time.

And if your editors are convinced Twitter is just a distraction from your real work and impossible to monetize, (a) what else is new and (b) read on.

Twitter / tvbarn - How to brew a great microblog

1. You know the rules, they got you this far, so stick with them. Be professional, provide sourcing (in the form of links), and above all, when you write, have something to say!

2. Write in plain, readable English. You'll almost always have to rewrite down to 140 characters, but do it with word choices and dropped punctuation (I put TV shows in ALL CAPS instead of quote marks to save two characters). Avoid oddball abbreviations and contractions. Multi-tweeting is usually a cheat, too. If you can't get it down to 140, you should probably be blogging it. Try getting down to 130 characters, which helps with retweeting.

3. Follow at least 200 folks from all walks of life, including your neighborhood. Retweet generously, especially those with links. Use replies sparingly and only when replied to first. (Replies are Twitter's Achilles heel; they're usually too cryptic for public consumption.)

4. You'll be more productive using a full-featured standalone application like TweetDeck or Twitterrific instead of the web site. Load the Twitter application for Facebook for effortless cross-posting. Put a badge on your blog.

5. Make sure it's fun. For me, that means using Twitter as a telegraph to keep up on the news and send out some of my own. I do a daily headcount, but don't keep track of who's following or unfollowing me. I don't set a quota. I don't worry that I don't use hashtags. I don't poll my tweeps or use them for story ideas. Mostly, I just get a kick out of writing a compact, must-read tweet and reading smart, interesting ones others write. Being retweeted is fun, too.

6. Make it pay. I am working on a script to post my tweets once a day to my TypePad blog so they are searchable and we can display ads with them. (If you're on WordPress, there's a plugin that does this.) If media people blog their tweets, they can improve their reach. The founders of Twitter plan to make money off their nifty product -- why can't we?

(Icons courtesy TDS)

No new trial over juror's Twittering

2009-06-01T13:32:00.003-07:00

A juror who send Twitter messages during and after a trial in February did not break any rules, and a new trial is not necessary, a judge ruled Friday.

Defendants who lost a $12.6 million lawsuit filed a motion for a new trial on March 12 claiming that "juror Johnathan" Powell was not a fair and impartial juror because he communicated online about the trial using Twitter and conducted research about being a juror.

Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read other users' updates, also called "tweets," which are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length.

Powell testified in a hearing Friday afternoon before 4th Judicial Circuit Judge Mark Lindsay that he used his cell phone to send tweets to his Twitter account two times during the trial- once to say he'd been picked as a juror and a second time to remark about the french fries he had for lunch.

He made two other tweets about the case after the trial was over - that he "just gave away TWELVE MILLION DOLLARS of someone else's money" and that no one should buy products from Stoam Industries, one of the defendants, "now that their wallet is 12M [dollars] lighter."

Powell did not research the case or the company, but he looked up information about being a juror because he was excited about serving.

"There's nothing wrong about being excited about being a juror. That's probably the exception - not the rule," Lindsay said.

Powell testified that he had his laptop with him during the trial but he never used it. He said he kept his phone, which does not connect to the Internet, turned off while he was in the courtroom.

Russell Wright and Stoam lost the lawsuit and now face judgments of $8.1 million for Mark Deihl and $4.5 million for William Nystrom. Both invested in Wright's company, which makes a product that it claims has the insulation quality of foam with the strength of steel.

Lindsay also ruled that the plaintiffs could not argue that Powell was not an impartial juror because neither Wright nor his attorney appeared for trial to question potential witnesses. Even if they had, there was no evidence that Powell was prejudiced or biased against Wright or Stoam, he said.

Wright's attorney argued Friday that Powell's Twitter posts about plans to "rock the jury" and a comment about "two angry men" showed bias. Both were made before Powell was picked as a juror.

Powell testified that his plans to "rock the jury" meant that he wanted to be a good juror.

"That's just the language of today," Lindsay said. "Someone my age may have said I want to find out how to be a good juror."

The comment about two angry jurors was a reference to the movie "12 Angry Men," which is about a jury's deliberation, Powell said.

Powell said in an interview after the hearing that he felt vindicated. He'd said all along that he followed the judge's instructions. He's been surprised by the media's widespread interest in this case.

"The courts are just going to have to catch up with the technology," Powell said.

Astronaut uses Twitter to detail training

2009-06-01T13:32:00.001-07:00

HOUSTON, April 6 (UPI) -- A U.S. astronaut says he's using Twitter to detail his last weeks of training for the fifth servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope.

Astronaut Michael Massimino -- whose Twitter username is Astro_Mike (@Astro_Mike) -- will fly aboard space shuttle Atlantis during the STS-125 mission, scheduled to be launched May 12. The 11-day flight will include five spacewalks to refurbish and upgrade Hubble with state-of-the-art science instruments designed to extend the telescope's lifetime through at least 2014.

It will be Massimino's second trip into space. He flew on the STS-109 mission to Hubble in 2002, performing two spacewalks. Along with Massimino, the crew of Atlantis includes Commander Scott Altman, Pilot Gregory Johnson and astronauts Andrew Feustel, Michael Good, John Grunsfeld and Megan McArthur.

Massimino's tweets are available at http://twitter.com/Astro_Mike.

Twittering for your business or just... Twittering the Hours Away??

2009-06-01T13:31:00.002-07:00

If you are like me, you are bombarded with social networking information and pressure to ensure that your business is hooked up, linked in and twittering away. However, if you are like me then you may also wonder.. what is the business case for social media like Twitter? Are you twittering for customers, brand recognition, or merely just twittering your precious hours away? If you struggle with the business case for social media then now is your chance to attend an event that will help clarify how you can generate ROI from utilizing these tools. You will learn from experts in the field who can provide real answers to clarify the "networking mystique".

On 4/14 at the Washington Business Journal Headquarters in Arlington, VA Ms. Jennifer Abernathy, social networking guru and others will join together to dicussTwitter and the Business Journal and how these two in tandem can help grow your business. There will be ample time for networking with fellow small business owners and to engage in conversation to share success stories and strategies. Per Jennifer, there will be some special guests and your twitter "Tweet" might even make it into the paper!

Ask an Expert: Should entrepreneurs Twitter? Uh, no

2009-06-01T13:31:00.001-07:00

Q: Should I Twitter? — Zoe

A: To quote my favorite law school teacher, the cranky and brilliant Judge James Adams — "The answer is ... No!"

UPDATE: Twitter ... reconsidered
TMI? Some people just don't want to Twitter

Yes, I know, Twitter is all the rage. Everyone is either tweeting or talking about it or following someone, and so yes, I get that Twitter is the flavor of the month. But know what else I know? Sometimes you don't want or don't need the flavor of the month; sometimes you need chocolate or vanilla. Sometimes newer isn't better.

Here are four reasons why your small business should not Twitter:
FIND MORE STORIES IN: Twitter | Steve Strauss | Postal Service | Small Business Bible | Flemish | Express Mail

1. You are in business: Yours is not a club, or a group, or a sorority, or a party. Yours is a business. And the business of your business is to sell products or offer services that people want at prices they are willing to pay. You have to impress them, offer them value (especially today), and deliver on your promises.

But what you don't have to do is be their friend. Sure, some customers are friends. That's great. But that is not the purpose of your business.

Now, I am not saying Tweeting is wrong for every business. For the right type of business it is probably great. But for many, probably most small businesses, it is a little too much, a little too friendly, in fact

2. It offers just too much information: Do people really want to know what you are doing at 3:47 tomorrow afternoon, what you are thinking, who you are meeting?

Excuse me, but is this not incredibly self-indulgent?

Since when did the rules of business change to dictate that your customers have to be so incredibly engaged in your business?

I recently read that Twitter is great for business because it allows people to keep in close touch with what is really going on with Company X.

Who cares? Do you? I know I don't.

Look, I came too late to the whole blogging thing, thinking it was a passing fad. OK, I missed that one. And no one loves the potential of the online world more than me. But that said, there is a limit, or should be, to how much people should know about your business. Do people really want to follow the minutiae of your business? Do you want to know the trivia of some other small business?

And that leads to another problem, namely

3. It requires too much time: When you tweet, or follow someone's tweets, that means you are not doing something else. If you are on Twitter for fun, great, but if you are on there to drum up business you better be darn sure that it is going to pay off, because it is not a quick indulgence.

• Twitter takes time to learn, and to learn how to make it work

• It takes time to for trial and error to play out

• It takes time to build a following

Most of all, it takes time to tweet and post as you have to do it consistently to make any splash at all.

Of course all of these new e-tools are fantastic, but it is equally true that you need not embrace every new one that comes along. Sometimes, in times like these especially, you need to focus on what is tried and true.

I often tell new entrepreneurs that, while the wild new idea can be great and can make you a category killer, for the vast majority of new small businesses, it is better to follow than to lead. That is, starting a business that has been successfully started before often makes more sense than trying something altogether new. People know what to expect from a florist; they don't know what a Flemish design consultant does. Be safe, not sorry.

The same idea may be true here. Your time and money are precious assets right now. Use them wisely.

And that leads to the final point

4. What can you say in 140 characters? That's the Twitter limit, and that pretty much means any tweet will be personal. A business tweet would necessarily have to be longer than that to be of any use, so what's the use?

Embrace technology sure, but keep your eye on the ball.

Today's tip: Want to save those trips to the post office for stamps, Express Mail, etc.? Then check out Endicia.com, a great site that allows you to load funds and print postage, as well as mailing and shipping labels, for any mail class offered by the Postal Service — all from your own computer and printer.

Ask an Expert appears Mondays. You can e-mail Steve Strauss at: sstrauss@mrallbiz.com.And you can click here to see previous columns. Steven D. Strauss is a lawyer, author and speaker who specializes in small business and entrepreneurship. His latest book is The Small Business Bible. You can sign up for his free newsletter, "Small Business Success Secrets!" at his website —www.mrallbiz.com.

"Tweeting" Loose Park Tree in Kansas City Seeks Friends on Twitter

2009-06-01T13:30:00.000-07:00

A pin oak in Loose Park will help inform residents about the benefits of trees
What’s on a tree’s mind? That question will be answered this month by a pin oak, nicknamed “Penny,” in Kansas City, Mo.’s, Loose Park. Using the popular Web application Twitter, the stately deciduous will befriend residents across the region, making regular status updates to inform followers about the benefits of trees.

People can follow Penny on Twitter by visiting twitter.com/PennyOak. Residents are also invited to take pictures of themselves with Penny. The clearly marked tree is located in the southeast corner of the park. Send photos to treemail@bridgingthegap.org. Some photos will be shared through Twitter.

Penny is one of 135 trees that will be tagged in the second annual Tree Tag campaign. Temporary price tags installed on the trees will show the monetary value of their environmental, economic and social benefits. The 2008 campaign helped the Heartland Tree Alliance (HTA) earn a Gold Leaf Award from the International Society of Arboriculture for Outstanding Arbor Day Activities. Tree tags will be installed in the next week in six counties: Cass, Clay, Jackson and Platte counties in Missouri, and Johnson and Wyandotte counties in Kansas. The benefits of all the tagged trees are valued at more than $2.4 million.

The dollar amount attached to each tree is based on its estimated returns to the community, including reducing stormwater runoff, improving air quality, raising real estate values and more. The estimates are based on the tree’s species and life span. Some of the heftier price tags include bur oaks in several locations, which provide benefits worth nearly $50,000 each. Most of the values range from $10,000 to $30,000 per tree.

Tree tag coordinators include the Mid-America Regional Council, Heartland Tree Alliance, Kansas Forest Service and the Missouri Department of Conservation. For more information or to see a complete list of where the tags will be installed, visit heartlandtreealliance.org.

Related links
www.twitter.com/PennyOak
Heartland Tree Alliance - www.heartlandtreealliance.org

On Twitter, you're nobody unless you're fake

2009-06-01T13:29:00.002-07:00

Real celebrities could learn a lot from the tweets of the pretenders

Hulton Archive / Getty Images

Edgar Allan Poe ( 1809 - 1849 ) is pictured here in life. In death, he recently tweeted, "Emerson called his beloved philosophy Transcendentalism. Sounds like the label one would pin on a nomadic dental hygienist." Oh, snap!

INTERACTIVE

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Move Over Twitter; Make Room For Shitter™!

2009-06-01T13:29:00.001-07:00

Thanks to Twitter, we are no longer sadly unaware of what everyone else is doing, thinking, or feeling at every single moment of every single day. Except for that one time that had traditionally been private: taking a dump. But that empty space in American life will now be filled, thanks to Shitter™, the new social networking site for people taking a crap.

Prior to this innovation, sitting on the toilet was a moment reserved for reading,
reflection, or perhaps even despising your friend who came up with the brilliant late-night idea, in the form of "hey, I just heard about this fabulous new Moroccan restaurant. Let's check it out!" Regardless, thanks to your cell phone or netbook, those heretofore private moments need not remain private anymore.

In what will become known as "sheeting," those who sign up for Shitter™ will be able to communicate their every thought, feeling, and emotion while on the can. What are you thinking? Are you having a good time? Is it going well? Is this a home or away game? And, if away, how are the facilities? Luxurious, marble hotel stall with two-ply rolls and a basket of hand towels? Or urine-soaked public park crapper littered with used condoms and candy wrappers?

"Sheets" will have to be under 50 characters, creating even more of a challenge to be succinct, pithy, and to the point. Whether the pit stop is a respite from one's troubles, or an intrusive, but necessary detour from a pleasurable, exciting, and stimulating day, there will always be time to fire off a quick "sheet" and let the world know how it's going.

Shitter™. Because keeping your thoughts private is just so last century.

Twitter Wouldn’t Sell for $1B—Better Make Sure It’s Worth It!

2009-06-01T13:28:00.000-07:00

It looks like the biggest April Fool’s Joke was on all of us. Despite persistent rumors that Google was in talks to acquire Twitter (the coolest thing since the last coolest thing since sliced bread), no deal is forthcoming. On its blog, Twitter explains that sometimes they ~~tease~~ talk.

While all this may be protesting too much from both parties, sources are now saying that Twitter CEO Evan Williams wouldn’t sell for a billion dollars, four times what Google is rumored to have placed the microblogging service’s value at.

When it comes to Internet businesses, though, Twitter needs to remember that timing is everything. If their endgame is acquisition, there are a few points they might want to keep in mind:

the economy is down
the mainstream (and less mainstream) media hasn’t yet turned on Twitter (as it has with previous darlings, including MySpace and Facebook)
Twitter doesn’t have a (publicly-discussed) business model

Google has, of course, paid top-dollar for big-ticket properties before. But although its biggest purchase, the $1.65B YouTube, continues to dominate its niche, Google is still struggling to monetize the most popular video site in the world. Are they prepared to take a chance on another service that doesn’t have a concrete way to turn a profit?

BoomTown’s Kara Swisher points out that Twitter could well be worth the price tag—with one caveat:

It is clear that it is onto something significant and perhaps even something quite profitable someday.

That is, providing its execs focus on what’s important—building Twitter’s business and audience—and trying as hard as they can to ignore all the noisy and pointless tweeting from and about its many suitors.

If they can’t, though—and it would be a crying shame—they should just start responding to all those pretty swains and sell out to the highest and most attractive bidder.

Personally, I am hoping they pick the former, as Twitter is turning out to be yet another of Silicon Valley’s great stories of possibility and promise.

Personally, I think it’s a bit soon to say that about Twitter (I Tweet, but I haven’t drunk the Kool aid yet—I could take it or leave it). I think the company’s hype is influencing this (ahem, timing). Back in February, she made a bit more evenhanded assessment:

Twitter—while it says it is poised on the verge of announcing its grand plan to make money—is operating in an arena I have seen many other shooting stars in, traversing a very dangerous crevasse of hype and expectation.

Due to that, it has a very big red target on its back, one that a competitor in the status space—such as the spurned Facebook, whose update business is much bigger—will not ignore.

Right now, Twitter could ask for a lot, as one of the only Web 2.0 companies that everyone is uniformly excited about.

That’s one I can agreement. Right now, Twitter could ask for a lot. But I hope they’ve seen examples of other media-sweetheart social companies holding out for top dollar—only to end up losing their valuation momentum.

What do you think? Should Twitter hold out for either a higher price tag or a viable business model (which would probably garner a higher price tag anyway), or should they take what they can get now?

Moldova's Twitter Revolution

2009-06-01T13:27:00.004-07:00

Tue, 04/07/2009 - 10:15am

Cellphones and text messaging are widely believed to have played a crucial role in fostering the Orange Revolution in Ukraine (or at least, making the protests as widespread and successful as they were); the Berkman Center at Harvard published probably the most comprehensive study of the role that social media played in the Orange Revolution (even though I criticized some of its cyber-utopian assumptions in a recent essay for Boston Review).

Could it be that five years after the famous protests in Kiev's Maidan Square another technology - Twitter - will usher in another revolution in neighbouring Moldova? Will we remember the events that are now unfolding in Chisinau not by the color of the flags but by the social-networking technology used?

If you asked me about the prospects of a Twitter-driven revolution in a low-tech country like Moldova a week ago, my answer would probably be a qualified "no". Today, however, I am no longer as certain. If you bothered to check the most popular discussions on Twitter in the last 48 hours, you may have stumbled upon a weird threat of posts marked with a tag "#pman" (it's currently listed in Twitter's "Trending Topics" along with "Apple Store", Eminem, and Easter).

No, "pman" is not short for "pacman"; it stands for "Piata Marii Adunari Nationale", which is Romanian name for the biggest square in Chisinau, Moldova's capital. This is not the first time that a Twitter "tag" has been used to mobilize young people around a particular event; the most famous previous case has been that of "griots" - the tag used to report on the youth riogs in Greece, which later spread to Europe, arguably also with the help of Twitter (check these two pieces I wrote on the subject of "networked protest" - one for The Economist and one for openDemocracy).

Ever since yesterday's announcement that Moldova's communists have won enough votes to form a government in Sunday's elections, Moldova's progressive youth took to the streets in angry protests. As behooves any political protest by young people today, they also turned to Facebook and Twitter to raise awareness about the planned protests and flashmobs. Led by youth NGOs like HydePark and ThinkMoldova, the protests began very peacefully - as a flashmob, where young people were simply supposed to hold lit candles in the vicinity of the square.

However, this morning things got out of hand - and, with or without Twitter's help, the crowd got much larger, reaching as many as 10,000 people, who first picketed Election Commission headquarters, the president’s residence (windows are reported to be broken - and there are also reports that this building has been stormed), and other government buildings before storming the building of the Moldovan Parliament, which happens to be just across the road.

Technology is playing an important role in facilitating these protests. In addition to huge mobilization eforts both on Twitter and Facebook, Moldova's angry youth - especially those who are currently abroad (roughly a quarter of Moldova's population are working abroad due to dire economic conditions back at home) - could follow the events on this livestream provided by a Romanian TV station - directly from the square.

I've just spoken to a Moldovan friend who is himself a big technology fan; according to him, there is little to none cellphone coverage in the square itself (turning off cellphone coverage in protest areas is a trick that was also used by the Belarusian authorities to diffuse 2006 protests in Minsk's central square), so protesters have to leave it to post updates to Twitter via GPRS technology on their mobiles.

The related posts on Twitter are being posted at a record-breaking rate - I've been watching the Twitter stream for the last 20 minutes - and I see almost 200 new Twitter messages marked with "pman" (virtually all of them in Romanian, with only one or two in English). In the last few hours there have also emerged several "smart" aggregators of posts on the subject, like this one - they have to contextualize what exactly is happening -- and this one for YouTube videos. Many blog posts are also being updated in real-time - minute by minute - check this one. There are also a plenty of videos on YouTube and photos, including those uploaded to Facebook.

There are also a few moving English-language Twitter posts like this - "in #pman a grenade thrown by the police has torn apart one of the protester's leg"- that would surely be perused by foreign journalists. It's hard to predict for how long this cornucopia of user-generated media would continue; my Moldovan contacts report that the authorities may have required some Moldovan ISPs to restrict Internet connection with the outside world, so the protesters might soon face difficulties in getting their reports out.

All in all, while it's probably too early to tell whether Moldova's Twitter revolution will be successful, it would certainly be wrong to disregard the role that Twitter and other social media have played in mobilizing (and, even more so, reporting on) the protests. Of course, it helps that young Moldovans are sick and tired of the communist government (for a long time the only one in Europe) and there may be a few reasons to be concerned about voting irregularities but, overall, the Chisinau protests undoubtedly present an interesting case-study that I hope academic institutions like Harvard's Berkman Center and others would take on and examine in detail.

VADIM DENISOV/AFP/Getty Images

UPDATE: please also check these two posts (#1, #2) on the topic that I have written since

Perkiomen Valley schools go on Twitter

2009-06-01T13:27:00.003-07:00

No, Perkiomen Valley School District Superintendent Clifford Rogers won't be posting "tweets" telling residents what he ate for lunch today.

But the school district has started using Twitter.com, the social-networking service that asks "What are you doing?" on its home page. And the district indeed plans to let people know what it is doing - everything from school board meetings and school plays to evening community-education programs. Perkiomen Valley's Twitter site is www.twitter.com/PV_Schools.

The district already has an e-mail notification system for which parents can sign up. It wanted, however, to "target tech-savvy parents who are already twittering" - that is, using Twitter - by posting messages there as well, said Michelle Brown, the district's school and community-relations coordinator.

"This is a way for people to get behind the front page of our Web site to information they might not otherwise hear about," Brown said. "And with the links to cell phones, you don't have to be at a computer to access this."

The Jenkintown School District's guidance department started twittering about a month ago, said high school counselor Chrissy Kafkalas. The site is www.twitter.com/JtownGuidance.

Only a few students have signed up to receive automatic updates, Kafkalas said, and she says she plans to expand its use in the coming year.

"Sometimes, I get tired of the kids saying, 'I didn't know about that,' even after I've sent out notices," she said. "This is the digital age; now, I can reach them online. The messages are short and easy. I think they will pay attention."

The Tredyffrin/Easttown district is conducting a resident survey to see if using Twitter would be helpful, spokeswoman Chris Connolly Bakker said. The Haverford Township and Unionville-Chadds Ford districts also are looking into Twitter.

The Perkiomen and Jenkintown districts are catching a wave of popularity enjoyed by Twitter, a communications network that people can access on the Internet, by portable devices such as Internet-enabled cell phones, and via text messages. Messages are limited in length to 140 characters but can include Web links that contain more information.

Last month, Nielsen Online, which measures and analyzes online audiences, reported that Twitter had grown dramatically in membership, from 475,000 in February 2008 to 7.04 million in February 2009. It has become the second-biggest "member community," after Facebook, Nielsen said.

A large chunk of Twitter's membership - 41.7 percent - is adults ages 35 to 49, a prime demographic for school districts.

At Perkiomen Valley, Brown said, the district is publicizing its Twitter posts on its Web site. The district started using the service Wednesday. By yesterday afternoon, 27 people had signed up.

"Now, parents will know where to go to get the information they need," said one of the followers, Mary Ellen Polaski, mother of a 10th grader. "You don't have the time to go all over the [district] Web site, finding out what's going on. This is one-stop shopping."

Twitter makes its commercial debut thanks to Sprint

2009-06-01T13:27:00.001-07:00

Twitter continues to expand into the mainstream. It’s already being used by a number of celebrities, it’s all over news channels, and its founders have even started making the rounds on various television shows like The Colbert Report. Now, Sprint has released a commercial, running across the country, that features the service — and also pokes a little fun at it.

“233,000 people just Twittered on Twitter,” Sprint says before continuing, “26 percent of you viewing this have no idea what that means.” You can probably expect that 26-percent number to shrink as the commercial continues to air and people Google Twitter.

Speaking of “Googling,” with this commercial, the word “Twitter” just took another step towards becoming a full-fledged verb as well. Of course, “Twittered on Twitter” sounds a bit odd, and perhaps Sprint meant to say “tweeted on Twitter,” but let’s be honest: Both sound ridiculous.

Also making an appearance in the commercial is the little blue bird that has become a sort of mascot for the service. Twitter co-founder Biz Stone is particularly pleased with this, as he and a long-time collaborator of his (someone named Phil), apparently drew it originally.

Find the commercial embedded below. The Twitter part starts about 34 seconds in.

You can find me on Twitter here along with fellow VentureBeatniks Eric Eldon, Dean Takahashi, Anthony Ha, Camille Ricketts, Dan Kaplan and Matt Marshall. We have a VentureBeat account (for our posts) as well.

Call Your Tweets Into Twitter With Tweetcall

2009-06-01T13:26:00.000-07:00

Try saying that ten times in a row — such a mouth full! There are already so many tools and tricks to enhance your micro-blogging experience with Twitter, well now it's possible to send your tweets by calling a number. This voice-to-text service called TweetCall is not an April Fools' joke as I originally thought.

I actually set myself up with the service — all you have to do is fill out a quick profile with your info and create a pin — and then I dialed 1-877-TWEET-CALL to take TweetCall for a test drive. I can't say I left a detailed 140 character message, but it did work as my message showed up on Twitter a few minutes after calling TweetCall. Keep in mind that it will say "from TweetCall" under your tweet.

'Tweeting' Between Students, Faculty Gains Popularity at Princeton

2009-06-01T13:25:00.002-07:00

At 2:46 a.m. on April 3, Princeton politics professor Melissa Harris-Lacewell tweeted to Kyle Carone ’09, “omg! Go to sleep already!” after he wrote on his twitter.com profile that the 165-page thesis he had just finished would make for great reading on her plane ride to Cape Town, South Africa.

The microblogging format of Twitter—which has become increasingly popular on campus—may bring administrators and faculty members like Harris-Lacewell closer to students, as they divulge personal details of their lives in an informal setting.

With an estimated 5 million users, Twitter is the third largest online social network, after facebook.com and myspace.com. On the website, founded in 2006, users can post messages of up to 140 characters that are listed on the site’s public timeline. Users can also choose to “follow” the posts, or “tweets” of other Twitterers.

Lacewell, a regular commentator on MSNBC, sometimes directs tweets at Rachel Maddow or informs followers of her television appearances.

“I disagreed with Paul Krugman on CNN this morning. What was I thinking? I’d had no coffee. Was delirious. I apologize. The man has Nobel!” she tweeted on March 24.

Wilson School professor and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman also has a Twitter account with roughly 5,000 followers.

Last month, the Office of Communications took over the Princeton University Twitter account. It has acquired 191 followers, paling in comparison to the accounts run by Stanford, Cornell, Harvard and other elite universities, which boast up to two or three times that number of followers.

Communications director Lauren Robinson-Brown ’85 said Twitter posts from the communications office are less formal than updates on the university homepage, adding that the university only “follows” other university offices and departments.

“These platforms by nature are social and therefore much more casual than the official news that we manage,” she said. “We intend to adopt a casual style so that the intended audiences will find the information we post relevant.”

Guidelines for individual department Twitter accounts are currently being developed by the university, Robinson-Brown said, noting that the university does not monitor employee Twitter accounts.

“Professors should be constrained as little as possible,” Center for Information Technology Policy associate director David Robinson ’04 said.

“Obviously, if professors want to use Twitter or blogging or Morse code, the university should be totally fine with that,” he said. “Even the staff who speak for the university as a whole should have room to experiment.”

“Eventually, norms will emerge, but for now, it has evolved naturally, and we don’t need a policy.”

Famous Twitterers

Many politicians, including President Obama, have accumulated hundreds of thousands of followers on Twitter and use the tool to let their fans know when and where events are being held.

Meg Whitman ’77, who announced her bid for the California governorship two months ago, has used her Twitter profile, “Whitman2010” to link to articles written about her and provide updates about her life—both on and off the campaign.

“No campaign activities today. My son arriving with 30 members of his rugby team—8 staying with us. Lots of games this week. Should be fun!” Whitman posted on her profile last month from her Blackberry.

Sean “Diddy” Combs, an American rapper, is ranked among the top 20 Twitterers, with more than 400,000 followers. Other profiles in the top 20 include CNN, the Times, Britney Spears, Barack Obama, former vice president Al Gore and Coldplay.

Combs, who has the username of “iamdiddy”, regularly posts about his day-to-day life, parties and other famous artists.

On April 4, Combs wrote, “Happy saturday people! Eating corn flakes and watching some PORN! Hey its saturday and I’m a scorpio! What can I say? Lol.”

News outlets and institutions like Princeton, however, have found more serious applications for Twitter.

During the 2008 Mumbai attacks, the Times reported that posts about Mumbai were being published at a rate faster than one message per second. Many of the tweets were being posted from cell phones of journalists and citizens at the scene of the attacks.

Robinson said he uses Twitter as a professional tool, adding that he considered it to be a sort of “meta-application.”

“If I didn’t study technology, I probably wouldn’t be a [Twitter] member,” Robinson said. “The irony of the technology is that a very high fraction of users are people who study or work in technology. A lot of the content on Twitter is about Twitter, which does not bode well for Twitter.”

Robinson added that he uses Facebook, which he considers to be more versatile, to communicate with friends and mainly uses Twitter to share links to interesting articles.

Dean of the Faculty David Dobkin recently had a meal of scotch and lasagna and prefers tequila to the number “pi,” according to his Twitter feed.

Dobkin said he joined the site a few months ago to understand how tools like Twitter affect social interaction.

“I have been a member of Facebook for the past four years and have watched it grow and change over time,” he explained. “I hope to be able to do the same with Twitter as it will inform some of the discussion I lead in WWS 451 [The Internet and Public Policy] that I co-teach.”

Dobkin noted that that it initially took some time for him to feel like an “active member” of Facebook because most of the other users belonged to a different generation.

“Recently, that has changed as the membership of Facebook has broadened,” he explained. “Twitter is still in the place where few of my peers are active, so my use of it has been limited. I expect that will change, but I’m not sure when.”

Student users

Robinson said it was difficult to estimate how many Princetonians use Twitter but noted that between one quarter and one third of his friends use the site.

Schuyler Softy ’11 said she thought most Princetonians who used the site were seniors, adding that roughly 20 of her friends have Twitter profiles.

She noted that it took time for her to adjust to the site. Though she initially used it to receive news updates or find out about online trends, she now uses it once or twice per day to update friends on what she is doing or thinking, she said.

“The concept was weird at first, since it seemed like it was just a collection of Facebook status updates,” Softy said. “Now I’ve connected it to my Facebook profile and blog, and I use it to connect with friends and follow my favorite bands and bloggers.”

Susan Lyon ’09 estimated that there are between 300 and 500 Princeton Twitterers and that the number was “growing quickly.” She explained that she joined Twitter recently as a procrastination tool during midterms.

Robinson said he thought Twitter served primarily as a distraction for most of the site’s users.

“In the long run, the real thing that’s scarce on the internet is attention,” he explained. “We can’t generate more time and attention, and I think that Twitter can be an interruption and distraction.”

Robinson added that he thought human psychology would probably play a large role in the site’s continued success.

“Clearly, there’s some pattern of people wanting to confess and display and reveal their inner thoughts,” he said. “I think it’s an interesting and deeply human phenomenon.”

This story was filed by UWIRE, which offers reporting from more than 800 colleges and universities worldwide. Read more at www.uwire.com."

Phoenix Suns Jump On Twitter Bandwagon With 'Tw@ckle' Site

2009-06-01T13:25:00.001-07:00

Pheonix Suns star Shaquille O'Neal is one of the most popular (and entertaining) celebrity Twitter users. His hobby has now spread into the team's front office.

The Suns have a new site called "Tw@ckle," which tracks conversations about the team across Twitter. Neat.

But is this being filtered? Or will the team have to take it down -- like Skittles did with a similar site -- after pranksters vandalize it with bad language or links?

Update: The site is actually powered by a sports marketing company called Octagon Digital, whose "Twackle" product is running the Suns' page. Octagon Digital VP Jim DeLorenzo says the tweets are filtered before they show up on the page, which could minimize bad language on the site.

Demi Moore uses her Twitter to help stop woman's suicide attempt Read more: "Demi Moore uses her Twitter to help stop woman's suicide attempt"

2009-06-01T13:24:00.002-07:00

Friday, April 3rd 2009, 8:33 PM

Rentz/Getty

Actress Demi Moore attends the "Happy Tears" premiere.

Actress Demi Moore and her league of Twitter followers Friday helped thwart a possible suicide attempt by a distraught California woman.

"Getting a knife, a big one that is sharp. Going to cut my arm down the whole arm so it doesn't waste time," said the message sent to Moore by a user of the social networking site.

"Hope you are joking," wrote back Moore.

"Gbye...gonna kill myself now," the woman responded.

A San Jose police spokesman said the department had received a number of calls from Twitter users about the suicide threat and sent officers to the 48-year-old woman's home.

Moore's husband, Ashton Kutcher, Twitted his congratulations.

"Wifey reported a suicide attempt based on a...tweet she got and saved someones life. The woman is in the hospital now."

About 383,500 people follow Moore's Tweets.

Read more: "Demi Moore uses her Twitter to help stop woman's suicide attempt" - http://www.nydailynews.com/gossip/2009/04/04/2009-04-04_demi_moore_uses_her_twitter_to_help_stop.html#ixzz0HDDHnuBh&A

How to be a better tweeter

2009-06-01T13:24:00.001-07:00

Realizing my last round of Twitter research left my Twitter followers wondering what was wrong with me, I thought it would be a good time to perform research that they actually valued. It wasn't easy. My desire to add more followers, at all costs, consumes me.

But this time, I think I succeeded. Instead of trying to find ways to add more followers through dodgy practices, I've researched ways to add more value to Twitter and become a better tweeter.

The Sweet Retweet
Although it's a relatively new practice, retweeting is an outstanding way to improve your standing on Twitter.

Has one of your followers updated their Twitter stream with an interesting article they found somewhere on the Web? If so, don't just read the story and go about your day, retweet it! I've found that when I do so, most of my followers will do the same and in the process, some add my username to their own update, exposing me to their entire list of followers.

Not all articles are created equal, though, so you need to make sure that the message you're retweeting is something your followers actually care about. I learned the hard way: it turns out my followers really don't care about horseback riding in Moscow.

To retweet, the accepted practice is to copy the original text into your own Twitter post and prefix it with "RT" or "Retweet" and the originator's name. For example: "RT @donreisinger: I resubscribed to the NY Post last week. Delivery was supposed to begin on Jan. 31. I have YET to receive a paper."

Sorry, but no one cares about your dinner
There's a common complaint, made especially by those who don't like Twitter, that too many people use the service to tell the world about things no one cares about. Usually, I think that's ridiculous. But sometimes, I find a few updates like that and realize that maybe those folks aren't so far off.

Look, it's nothing personal and believe it or not, I really care what you say, but I couldn't care less about what you had for dinner last night or how delicious your chicken salad sandwich is. I'd much rather see it filled with retweets and other interesting tidbits of information that the vast majority of users actually care about.

You're probably wondering how I know that it doesn't make you a better Tweeter. Unfortunately, I learned my lesson not long ago. The hard way.

Reply. A lot.
I like to talk. I'll even admit that I like to hear myself talk. As a Twitter user, that's sort of a problem.

Believe it or not, followers actually want to believe that you're listening to them. I know, I know, it's not all that easy and sometimes it's hard not to laugh at the dumb tweets, but you need to exercise restraint and realize that Twitter is a community where people want to have a conversation.

I had some trouble with that. And if you look at my recent updates, it seems I still do. But I'm getting better. I now realize that people on Twitter don't want to just hear what others have to say, they want to be heard. And the best way to satisfy that desire is to reply to their interesting tweets.

Find interesting stuff and post
You know when I told you that you should retweet interesting updates you see in your stream? That's lazy. You really need to be a proactive user. Go out and find neat articles and post them in your Twitter stream for others to enjoy. Maybe they'll retweet your update and you will be exposed to a slew of new people who want to know all about you.

I did it on a few occasions and it worked beautifully. It turns out many of my followers really enjoy tech talk and discussions on sports. Whenever I find a good article on those topics, I post it on Twitter and more often than not, my followers retweet my update.

It's OK to say nothing
Just because there's a big box beneath a "What are you doing?" message in Twitter, it doesn't mean that you need to say anything.

I'm not quite sure why we all get the urge to update as often as possible, but we need to realize that updates from scripts are a waste of everyone's time.

Look, I'm really happy to hear about your life and what's going on, but I don't need to be inundated with items you're adding to Google Reader or songs currently playing on your computer. Maybe someone cares, but when I see my stream being overrun with automatic updates, it annoys me. Don't do it. Please.

Use hashtags
Have something interesting to say on a topic that's hot on Twitter right now? Make sure you use hashtags -- keywords preceded by the hash sign, "#". Over the past few months, hashtags have become a great way for other users to find content quickly.

Hashtags basically create groupings on Twitter that combine content of the same topic. It sounds simple, but whenever you have something really interesting to say about a topic that's hot on Twitter or Twitter Search, it doesn't hurt to place a hashtag after your tweet. It helps others find your update that aren't following you and exposes you to new people who might like what you have to say.

It's more than text
Have you ever taken pictures and uploaded them to a service like Twitpic so you could post it in your Twitter stream? If you haven't, your followers are missing out.

Sending pictures is a great way to add more value to Twitter and make you a better Tweeter. Let's face it: who really wants to look at text all day? Your followers might actually like pictures better than your regular updates.

That's why I've uploaded pictures from my wedding. It turns out my followers would rather see pictures of my wife than hear what I have to say.

And now, you're a better Tweeter. You don't have to thank me. Just follow me. Why not? You know what you're getting: a user that retweets your interesting articles, won't talk about his dinner, listens to you, finds interesting stuff for you, doesn't spam you, uses hashtags, and uploads pictures.

C Level Tweeters

2009-06-01T13:23:00.000-07:00

The following is a list of confirmed C Level Executives that are using Twitter.

If you have names that should be added to this list, please post them using the comments feature at the bottom of this post and I’ll get it included ASAP - please send me - full name, title, agency/firm, and Twitter URL.

With the help of Chris Herbert of the MarketingthatMatters blog - we now have feeds you can subscribe to for each category ...

To listen to what CEOs are Tweeting use this feed - CEO Twitter Feed
To listen to what CMOs are Tweeting use this feed - CMO Twitter Feed
To listen to what CTOs/CIOs are Tweeting use this feed - CTO/CIO Twitter Feed

CEOs

Richard Branson - CEO - Virgin
http://twitter.com/richardbranson

Tony Hsieh - CEO - Zappos
http://twitter.com/zappos

Brian Halligan - CEO - Hubspot
http://twitter.com/bhalligan

Dan Neely - CEO - Networked Insights
http://twitter.com/dneely40

Penelope Trunk - CEO - Brazen Careerist
http://twitter.com/penelopetrunk

Bernie Borges - CEO - Find and Convert
http://twitter.com/berniebay

Rob Howard - CEO - Telligent
http://twitter.com/robhoward

Lewis Green - CEO - LG Business Solutions
http://twitter.com/LewisG

Drew Neisser - CEO - Renegade
http://twitter.com/dneisser

Mukund Mohan - CEO - BuzzGain
http://twitter.com/mukund

Sam Flemming - CEO - CIC
http://twitter.com/samflemming

Marcel LeBrun - CEO - Radian6
http://twitter.com/lebrun

Arron Newman - CEO - Techrigy
http://twitter.com/aaronnewman

Jeff Dachis - CEO in Residence at Austin Ventures
http://twitter.com/jeffdachis

George Colony - CEO - Forrester Research
http://twitter.com/gcolony

Scot Wingo - CEO - ChannelAdvisor
http://twitter.com/scotwingo

Simon McDermott - CEO - Attentio
http://twitter.com/simonmc

Nilofer Merchant - CEO - Rubicon Consulting
http://twitter.com/nilofer

Robert Dempsey - CEO - ADS
http://twitter.com/rdempsey

Michael Hyatt - CEO – Thomas Nelson Publishers
http://twitter.com/michaelhyatt

Jonathan Schwartz - CEO - Sun Microsystems
http://twitter.com/SunCEOblog

Barry Libert - CEO - Mzinga
http://twitter.com/blibert

Eugene Lee - CEO - Socialtext
http://twitter.com/eugenelee

Evan Williams - CEO - Twitter
http://twitter.com/ev

Biz Stone - Co-Founder - Twitter
http://twitter.com/biz

Debbie Levitt - CEO - As Was
http://twitter.com/aswas

Steve Case, co-founder and Ex-CEO of AOL, now Chairman and CEO of Revolution
http://twitter.com/SteveCase

Rajiv Parikh - CEO - Position2
http://twitter.com/rajivparikh

Deva Hazarika - CEO - ClearContext
http://twitter.com/devahaz

Jason Calacanis - CEO - Mahalo
http://twitter.com/JasonCalacanis

Scott Rafer - CEO - Lookery
http://twitter.com/rafer

Tony Wright - CEO - RescueTime
http://twitter.com/webwright

Jeff Bonforte - CEO - Xobni
http://twitter.com/bonforte

T.A. McCann - CEO - Gist
http://twitter.com/tamccann

Tim Young - CEO - SocialCast
http://twitter.com/timyoung

Chris Alden - CEO - SixApart
http://twitter.com/calden

Paul Levy - CEO - Beth Israel Medical Center Boston
http://www.twitter.com/paulflevy

Thom Rainer - CEO - LifeWay
http://twitter.com/ThomRainer

Park Howell - CEO - Park&Co
http://twitter.com/parkhowell

Clate Mask - CEO - Infusionsoft
http://twitter.com/ClateMask

Steve Goldstein - CEO - Alacra
http://twitter.com/alacra1

Tim O'Reilly - CEO - O'Reilly Media
http://twitter.com/timoreilly

Tom Hood - CEO - MACPA & Business Learning Institute
http://twitter.com/tomhood

Shaun Daki - CEO - Citizens for Civil Discourse
http://twitter.com/EndTheRoboCalls

Joanna Pineda - CEO - Matrix Group International
http://www.twitter.com/jmpineda

Keith Parnell - CEO - JASE Group
http://twitter.com/parnellk63

Nick Gaskins - CEO/Founder - Bing Design
http://twitter.com/bingkahuna

Michael Ferrari - CEO - SmartyPig
http://twitter.com/mferrari

Wes Wilson - CEO - IncSpring
http://twitter.com/incspring

Russ Fradin - CEO - Adify
http://twitter.com/rfradin

Todd Vernon - CEO - Lijit Networks
http://twitter.com/toddvernon

Bill Pollak - CEO - North America, Incisive Media
http://twitter.com/wpollak

Ray O'Brien - CEO - Financial Instutution in Australia
http://twitter.com/razorCEO

D. Drazic - CEO - Securus Global
http://twitter.com/DDrazic

Larry Meador - CEO - evok
http://twitter.com/evoklarry

Jose del Moral - CEO - Alianzo
http://twitter.com/jamoral

Rob Lane - CEO - Overlay.TV
http://twitter.com/RobLane

Jeff Slobotski - CEO - Silicon Prairie News
http://twitter.com/jjsnyc

Axel Schultze - CEO - Xeequa Corp
http://twitter.com/AxelS

Jordan Ayan - CEO - SubscriberMail
http://twitter.com/jordanayan

Edmund Scanlan - CEO - Total Attorneys
http://twitter.com/edscanlan

Jill Adams - President/CEO - SuiteCommute, LLC
http://twitter.com/JillAdamsSC

Caroline Allison - President/CEO - Viscape
http://twitter.com/VacationHmQueen

Suni Munshani - CEO - Novitaz
http://twitter.com/sunimunshani

Bruce Turkel - CEO - Turkel
http://twitter.com/tootallturkel

Tony Uphoff - CEO - TechWeb
http://twitter.com/TonyUphoff

Rajesh Setty - CEO - Suggestica
http://twitter.com/UpbeatNow

Dieter Pauwels - CEO - CEC DPI Inc.
http://twitter.com/coachdieter

April Zangl - CEO - April Rain Skin Science
http://twitter.com/AprilRainSkin

Richard Daddi - CEO - New Planet Project
http://twitter.com/NPP_Rich

Anthony Power - CEO - Recipe 31
http://twitter.com/apowerpoint

CJ Romberger - CEO - Wildwood Interactive
http://twitter.com/cjromb

Chris Kauza - CEO - Soltus Group
http://twitter.com/ChrisKauza

Joseph Thornley - CEO - Thornley Fallis
http://twitter.com/thornley

Jeffrey Davis - President & COO - AGY
http://twitter.com/JeffreyJDavis

Diane Hessan - CEO - Communispace
http://twitter.com/CommunispaceCEO

Paul Allen - Chairman - Allen & Gerritsen
http://twitter.com/PaulSAllen

John Battelle - Chairman and CEO - Federated Media
http://twitter.com/johnbattelle

Francois Gossieaux - President - Corante
http://twitter.com/fgossieaux

Bob Chua - CEO - Pulse Group
http://twitter.com/BOBCHUA

David Marcus - CEO - Zong
http://twitter.com/davidmarcus

Loic le Meur - CEO - Seesmic
http://twitter.com/loiclemeur

Noah Glass - CEO - GoMobo
http://twitter.com/nnglass

Amol Sarva - CEO - Peek
http://twitter.com/amolsarva

Alex Iskold - CEO - AdaptiveBlue
http://twitter.com/alexiskold

Martin Tobias - CEO - Kashless
http://twitter.com/MinisterOfOrder

Jon Guttenberg - CEO - SymposiaGroup
http://twitter.com/jguttenberg

Charlie O'Donnell - CEO - Path101
http://twitter.com/ceonyc

Kim Patrick Kobza - CEO - Neighborhood America
http://twitter.com/kpkfusion

Sean Wood - CEO - Freeworld Media
http://twitter.com/seanwood

David Wolf - CEO - Wolf Group Asia
http://twitter.com/wolfgroupasia

Marc van der Chijs - CEO - Spil Games Asia
http://twitter.com/marcvanderchijs

Chris Noble - CEO - Kompolt
http://twitter.com/cfnoble

Diego Bartolome - CEO - Ta with you
http://twitter.com/diegobartolome

Sharlyn Ayotte - CEO - Blind Ambition
http://twitter.com/blindambition

Doug Ulman - CEO - Lance Armstrong Foundation
http://twitter.com/LIVESTRONGCEO

Dave Malby - President/CEO - TPS Products and Services
http://twitter.com/Dave_Malby

Frank Kenny - President/CEO - N. Mason Chamber of Commerce
http://twitter.com/frankkenny

Avi Savar - Founder & CCO - Big Fuel
http://twitter.com/bigfuel

Chaitanya Sagar - CEO - P2W2.com
http://twitter.com/Chaitanya

Colin Shaw - Founder & CEO - Beyond Philosophy
http://twitter.com/colinshawcustx

Jeff Booth - CEO - BuildDirect
http://twitter.com/jeffbooth

Chip Cummings - CEO - Northwind International Corp
http://twitter.com/chipcummings

Scott Sanders - Co-Owner - Bosco Chocolate Syrup
http://twitter.com/scott_so

Sue Marks - CEO - Pinstripe
http://twitter.com/SueMarks

Wendy Piersall - CEO - Sparkplugging
http://twitter.com/emom

Steve Cunningham - CEO - Polar Unlimited
http://twitter.com/stevecunningham

Oliver Noeltner - CEO - Medual GmbH
http://twitter.com/netzwahn

Melanie Notkin - CEO - Savvy Auntie
http://twitter.com/savvyauntie

Matthew Presley - CEO - Socially Digital Agency
http://twitter.com/mattypee

David Szetela - CEO - Clix Marketing
http://twitter.com/Szetela

Mark Connell - CEO - nuBound
http://twitter.com/nuBound

Jason Tryfon - President - Vital Insight Group
http://twitter.com/jasontryfon

Chris Proulx - CEO - eCornell
http://twitter.com/chrisproulx

Amos Winbush III - CEO - CyberSynchs, LLC
http://twitter.com/techceo

Simon Coles - CEO - Amphora Research Systems
http://twitter.com/simoncoles

Mark John - CEO - Loyalty 360
http://twitter.com/loyalty360

Urs E. Gattiker - founder - ComMetrics
http://twitter.com/ComMetrics

Urs E. Gattiker - founder - WEFdavos
http://twitter.com/WEFdavos

Dennis Ladd - Chairman & CEO - StreamServe
http://twitter.com/DennisLadd

Col Needham - CEO - IMDbm
http://twitter.com/colneedham

Samir Arora - CEO - Glam Media
http://twitter.com/samirarora

Scott Heiferman - CEO - Meetup
http://twitter.com/heif

Beth Lewis, President & CEO, Augsburg Fortress Publishers
http://twitter.com/bethalewis

Oded Sharon - CEO - Corbomite Games
http://twitter.com/soundguy

Richard Rosenblatt- CEO - Demand Media
http://twitter.com/demandrichard

Vijay Anand - Founder - Proto.in
http://twitter.com/vijayanands

Eugene Gregorio - Founder & CEO - MPLOYR
http://twitter.com/mployr

Saurabh Bhatia - CEO - Safew Labs
http://twitter.com/rootuser

Shayan Zadeh, co-CEO - Zoosk
http://twitter.com/shayang

Craig Schwartz - CEO - toonlet
http://twitter.com/toonlet

Jennifer L. Wojcik - Founder & CEO - YouGuru
http://twitter.com/JenWojcik

Laura Scott - President & co-founder - pingVision
http://twitter.com/lauras

Alex Doman - CEO & Founder - Advanced Brain Technologies
http://twitter.com/alexdoman

Brett Owens - CEO - Chrometa
http://twitter.com/brettowens

Dave Davis - CEO - RedFly
http://twitter.com/daveredfly

Karl Lingenfelder - CEO - viewr.com
http://twitter.com/viewrcorp

Vassil Mladjov - Founder and CEO - Blogtronix
http://twitter.com/vassko

Daniel Pasco - CEO - Black Pixel Luminance
http://twitter.com/dlpasco

Bryan Thatcher - CEO - Fusebox, CEO - Empressr
http://twitter.com/bryanthatcher

Mick Hagen - Founder - Zinch.com
http://twitter.com/mickhagen

Sachin Agarwal - CEO - Dawdle.com
http://twitter.com/sachinag

Aaron Roe Fulkerson - CEO - MindTouch
http://twitter.com/roebot

Jessica Faye Carter - CEO - Nette Media
http://twitter.com/womensuite

Jamie Gallo - CEO - RentWiki.com
http://twitter.com/jamiegallo

Jim Curtin - CEO - Virtual Bridges
http://twitter.com/jcurtin1960

Toffer Grant - CEO - PEX Visa Prepaid Cards
http://twitter.com/tgrantpexcard

Paul Walsh - CEO - Segala
http://twitter.com/paulwalsh

Felix Velarde - CEO - Underwired
http://twitter.com/felixvelarde

Aloke Bajpai - CEO - iXiGO.com
http://twitter.com/ixigoindia

Stephan Noller - CEO - nugg.ad
http://twitter.com/holadiho

Mark Cunningham - Founder & CEO - Indicee.com
http://twitter.com/markcunningham

Daniel Gergès - CEO - Weem.com
http://twitter.com/danielito

Jason Jones - CEO - Swarmforce
http://twitter.com/swarmforce

Stephen Terlizzi - CEO - WeArePhotographers.com
http://twitter.com/sterlizzi

Gil Friend - President & CEO - Natural Logic
http://twitter.com/gfriend

Will Tran - CEO - Leaf Medium
http://twitter.com/the_vinci

Nikhil Velpanur - CEO - letshead.to
http://twitter.com/nikhilv

Deepak Ravindran - CEO - Innoz Technologies
http://twitter.com/deepakravindrane

Steven Cox - CEO - TakeLessons.com
http://twitter.com/steven_cox

Christine Krzyzanowski - CEO - CK Strategies
http://twitter.com/ckstrategies

Wade Tinney - CEO - Large Animal Games
http://twitter.com/largeanimal

Mike Lanese - CEO - ClearSaleing
http://twitter.com/MikeLanese

Michael Lebowitz - Founder & CEO - Big Spaceship
http://twitter.com/bigspaceship

Michael Meehan - CEO - Carbonetworks Corporation
http://twitter.com/michaelmeehan

Simon Kelly - COO - Story Worldwide
http://twitter.com/kellbags

Ari Burton - CEO - Corporate Headquarters
http://twitter.com/AriBurton

Andreas Lorenz - Founder and CEO - dctrl
http://twitter.com/dctrl

Tom Duncan - CEO - Positec USA
http://twitter.com/positec

Jack Griffin - CEO - Bacula Systems
http://twitter.com/jjg72

James Eliason - Founder and CEO - Twittad.com
http://twitter.com/jameseliason

Ian Balina - CEO - Leximo
http://twitter.com/leximo

Sally Strebel - CEO - BestPartyEver.com
http://twitter.com/bizgirl

Kristie Wells - Founder - Social Media Club
http://twitter.com/kristiewells

Joshua Strebel - President - Obu Web Technologies
http://twitter.com/strebel

Margie Albert - President - Focus on Customer Success
http://twitter.com/maalbert

John Pepper - CEO & Co-Founder - Boloco
http://twitter.com/boloco

Guy Battle - CEO - Planet Positive
http://twitter.com/guybattle

Will Royall - Founder and CEO - Royall Media
http://twitter.com/RMI_AdAgency

Tim Laubacher - CEO - Laubacher Multimedia
http://twitter.com/MyWebDept_com

Patricia Seybold - CEO - Patricia Seybold Group
http://twitter.com/pattyinboothbay

Michael Diamant - CEO - Skip Hop
http://twitter.com/mdiamant

Chicken Shit - CEO - ChickenShitCEO
http://twitter.com/chickenshitceo

David Kiddler - CEO - ClickAble
http://twitter.com/davidkidder

Thomas Greanias - CEO - @lantisTV
http://twitter.com/thomasgreanias

Guy Kawasaki - CEO - Alltop
http://twitter.com/guykawasaki

Patrick Byers - CEO - Outsource Marketing
http://twitter.com/patrickbyers

Patrick Koppula - CEO - ffwd
http://twitter.com/patrick_koppula

Shaa Wasmund - CEO - Smarta.com
http://twitter.com/shaawasmund

Keith Richman - CEO - Break Media
http://twitter.com/keithrichman

Margaret Wallace - CEO - Rebel Monkey
http://twitter.com/RebelMonkeyCEO

Christopher Hytry Derrington - CEO - Rural America Onshore Sourcing
http://twitter.com/chrisruralamer

Anne P. Mitchell - CEO - Institute for Social Internet Public Policy
http://twitter.com/AnnePMitchell

Tamour Khan - CEO - Androidster.com
http://twitter.com/Androidster

Umberto Milletti, CEO InsideView
http://twitter.com/umbertom

Matt McDougall - Group CEO and Executive Chairman - SinoTech Group,
http://twitter.com/sinotechian

Robyn Feldberg - Founder - The Abundant Success Coach
http://twitter.com/RobynFeldberg

Glen Persson - Owner - Viral Clix
http://twitter.com/viralclix

Marco Loguercio - Founder & CEO - SEMS.it
http://twitter.com/marcologuercio

Ken Kelsey - Founder - CornPlasticStore.com
http://twitter.com/KelseyPromo

MF Chapman - CEO - Cubes&Crayons
http://twitter.com/cubesandcrayons

Steve Tingiris - CEO - enthusem.com
http://twitter.com/enthusem

John Foley, Jr. - President/CEO - interlinkONE
http://twitter.com/johnfoleyjr

David Anderson - CEO - MyWay Interactive
http://twitter.com/deanderson

Glenn Gow - CEO - Crimson Consulting Group
http://twitter.com/CrimsonCEO

Tim Eades - CEO - Everyone.net
http://twitter.com/eades50

Rob Ryan - CEO - Pupify.com
http://twitter.com/pupify

Richard Jalichandra - CEO - Technorati
http://twitter.com/jalichandra

Jon Gauder - President/CEO - Phoynx Corp.
http://twitter.com/jgauder

Liz Atherton - President - The Atherton Group
http://twitter.com/TAGTalent

Kim Shand - CEO - Vega Consulting Solutions
http://twitter.com/kimshand

Venkatarangan TNC - CEO - Vishwak Solutions
http://twitter.com/venkatarangan

Ian McKee - CEO - Vocanic
http://twitter.com/ian_mckee

Rex A. Pontius - CEO & Founder - Direct Connect
http://twitter.com/RexandCarolyn

Chris Parsons - CEO - Eden Development
http://twitter.com/chrismdp

Elie Auvray - CEO - Jahia
http://twitter.com/elieauvray

Gris Materia - CEO - Brainiac Beats
http://twitter.com/brainiacbeats

Rob Meadows - CEO - Thrive (Fashion) and Originate Labs (Venture)
http://twitter.com/robthrive

Sailesh Shah - CEO - News Technology
http://twitter.com/saileshshah

Daniel Kam - CEO - Wet Ink Printing
http://twitter.com/wetinkprinting

Mark Oakes - CEO Concentric Security
http://twitter.com/MarkOOakes

Manuel Delgado - CEO - Agua
http://twitter.com/delgadoman

Charlotte Capan CEO Conti USA
http://twitter.com/tuscanyflavors

Thomas Huckabee - CEO - TexLa Software.
http://twitter.com/thuckabee

Jonathan Stanley - CEO - AudioConexus
http://twitter.com/audioconexus

Jeremy Brandt - CEO - 1-800-CashOffer
http://twitter.com/JeremyBrandt

Gian Fulgoni - Chairman - comScore
http://twitter.com/gfulgoni

Ashli Norton - CEO - SimpleLeap Software
http://twitter.com/simpleleap

Tierra Filhiol - CEO - ImageLift Marketing Communications
http://twitter.com/TierraFilhiol

John Assalian - CEO - Viewstream
http://twitter.com/john_assalian

Witold Stawarz - CEO - OpenTravel.com
http://twitter.com/worldisopen

CMOs

Jeff Hayzlett - CMO - Kodak
http://twitter.com/JeffreyHayzlett

João Ciaco - CMO - Fiat Brazil
http://twitter.com/jciaco

Jarvis Cromwell - CMO - StormExchange
http://twitter.com/JarvisCromwell

Tom O'Brien - CMO - MotiveQuest
http://twitter.com/tomob

Barry Judge - CMO - BestBuy
http://twitter.com/BestBuyCMO

David Harkleroad - CMO - Hay Group
http://twitter.com/davidharkleroad

Patrick Moran - CMO - Mzinga
http://twitter.com/patrickmoran

Aaron Strout - CMO - Powered
http://twitter.com/astrout

Alex Romanovich - CMO - XpertUniverse
http://twitter.com/corpcross

Jon Gaskell - CMO - SmartyPig
http://twitter.com/SmartyPig

Jay Gaines - CMO - Environmental Data Resources
http://twitter.com/izjay

Mike Sheridan- CMO - Aspect
http://twitter.com/thetravelingCMO

Sam Decker - CMO - Bazaarvoice
http://twitter.com/samdecker

John Rueter - CMO - StreamServe
http://twitter.com/jrueter

Sam Lawrence - CMO - Jive Software
http://twitter.com/samlawrence

Brandon Geiger - CMO - Swarmforce
http://twitter.com/brandongeiger

Nigel Dessau - CMO - AMD
http://twitter.com/nigeldessau

Stephanie Fierman - CMO - Revolution Money
http://twitter.com/stephfierman

Rod W. Brooks - VP & CMO - PEMCO Insurance
http://twitter.com/NW_MKTG_GUY

Kent Huffman - CMO - BearCom Wireless
http://twitter.com/kenthuffman

Jane Rodmyre Payfer - CMO - Ergotron
http://twitter.com/pay4this

CTOs/CIOs

Padmasree Warrior - CTO - Cisco
http://twitter.com/padmasree

Leo Reiter - CTO - Virtual Bridges, Inc.
http://www.twitter.com/VirtualLeo

Jason Howard - CTO - Telligent
http://www.twitter.com/jasona

David Fletcher - CTO - UT-State of Utah
http://twitter.com/dfletcher

Steve Newman - CTO - Gist
http://twitter.com/stevepnewman

John Newton - CTO - Alfresco Software
http://twitter.com/johnnewton

Jack Repenning - CTO - CollabNet
http://twitter.com/jrep

H.B. Siegel - CTO - IMDb
http://twitter.com/twhb

Werner Vogels - CTO - Amazon
http://twitter.com/werner

Court Simas - CTO - Swarmforce, Inc.
http://twitter.com/courtsimas

Kapil Karekar - CTO - letshead.to
http://twitter.com/kapilk

Bjorg - CTO - MindTouch
http://twitter.com/bjorg

Serge Huber - CTO - Jahia
http://twitter.com/bhillou

Wayne Bogan - CTO - Spirit Telecom
http://twitter.com/wbogan

Steven Woods - CTO - Eloqua
http://twitter.com/stevewoods

Ryan Mannion - CTO - Politico
http://twitter.com/rpmannion

Ronn Reeger - CFO/CTO - Promising Projects
http://twitter.com/promising

Chris Latko - CTO - PropertyMaps.com
http://twitter.com/clatko

Charlie Catlett - CIO - Argonne National Laboratory
http://twitter.com/CeC

John D. McMillen - CIO - KY - Graves County Public School District
http://twitter.com/ujdmc

Janet Claggett - CIO - SC- City of Richland
http://twitter.com/cio007

Bill Schrier - CIO - WA - City of Seattle
http://twitter.com/billschrier

Cam Forbes - CIO - Channell
http://twitter.com/cam_forbes

Linda Cureton - CIO - NASA/Goddard Space Center
http://twitter.com/curetonl

Bruce Maas - CIO - University of Wisconsin, Madison
http://twitter.com/bmaas71

Dr. Phil Windley - CIO - Kynetx
http://twitter.com/windley

Dmitry Shapiro - CIO and Founder - Veoh.com
http://twitter.com/dmitry

Labels: Twitter

Top 250 Twitter Users who will follow you back

2009-05-23T13:54:00.000-07:00

Top 237 Twitter Users Who Will Follow You Back

As Twitter hits its stride and emerges as a juggernaut in social media, the top users on the site are distancing themselves from the pack. The race to 1,000,000 followers will be achieved in a few months by some accounts. With such strong followings, many new or inactive Twitter users may not think that there are top accounts that will follow them back.

On the contrary, there are many. In fact, many users with tens of thousands of followers will follow just about everyone back. Some use tools to automatically follow anyone who follows them. Others actually go through and manually add their new followers. Regardless of the method, these 250 accounts will most likely follow you back, even if you’re a Twitter newbie.

(image source: ProBlogger’s excellent article about growing your Twitter presence)

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