Other posts about Variable Video?

http://www.jonbishop.org/2008/07/variable-video/
http://www.jonbishop.org/2008/04/interactive-video-how-to-and-examples/
http://www.jonbishop.org/2008/03/personalized-langing-pages-20

Jon Bishop on Plurk

Jon Bishop on Rejaw

Jon Bishop on Twitter

Something I’ve been doing to win some free stuff is monitoring search.twitter for just that… free stuff.

Search Twitter for Free Stuff

A lot of these contests are easy to join….. usually just leaving a comment on their blog. Others are kind of fun, like a best caption contest. But the more you enter, the better your chances are at winning something.

So go and win many iPhones and Wii’s. Tell them Jon sent you. It won’t help at all but it makes me feel good about myself.

Plurk and Twitter have been great fun as have Identi.ca, Kwippy and Pownce. But there’s a new guy on the block, yes another one, with another funny sounding name. Rejaw .

Once again it is too early to tell how successful this new micro-blogging platform will be. It’s up to the community to decide, which is partly why Twitter is still so popular, it has a large community.

But what does Rejaw have the Twitter and Plurk doesn’t. Let’s take a look at some of ReJaw’s features.

Top selling points:

• Real time chat - This is one of it’s top selling points
• Images and movies - Just like in Plurk
  
• Guests - Guests can comment on shouts without having an account
  

Standard functionality

• Permalinks - Just like in Plurk and Twitter
• Shouts and whispers -  Rejaw maxes out at 1000 chars
  
• API
• Follow favorite users
  

Limited functionality

• Find friends - Can only find friends from facebook and gmail
• Desktop app - Currently only available on Mac but is being extended to PC and iPhone

So what makes ReJaw worth your time?

Well Plurk’s revolutionary commenting system increased communication by making it easy to use. Rejaw takes this same idea and allows unregistered guests to comment on your posts. This brings Micro-Blogging to a new level as anonymity comes into play.

The sky’s the limit.

So what do we have here? A Twitter clone with a commenting system and the ability to easily embed Video and Images. Furthermore, the character limit has been increased to 1000 characters.

Despite it’s few shortcomings there is a bright future for this new platform. It’s only a matter of time before the Rejaw API gives birth to intuitive new applications that will challenge Twitter’s prominence.

Follow me on rejaw

Something I’ve noticed across multiple social networking sites is that a majority (not all) affiliate marketers will either lie or stretch the truth to get you to become part of their scheme. Every single one of them claims to be “the next big thing” on the internet and by getting in now you’ll make millions. The problem with that is all these big things are old things with some spit and a quick shine.

The truth is that there are a lot of ways to make money online:

• Legitimate business sales
• Product sales
• Ad revenue
• Paid blogging

The catch is that all these things require a special secret ingredient that MLMs and affiliate marketers seem to forget, originality.

Here is a classic example of what an affiliate marketer will do to make money.

1. Sign up to a site.
2. Create affiliate links to their ‘product’ or ‘ service’
3. Spam their links and propaganda
4. Deny doing any of this

What happens is they get a small percentage of the profit made off of that product or service if you buy it.

*Disclaimer* Affiliate marketing itself is not bad at all and in fact can be a great way to make an extra buck. It’s the ‘marketers’ that give it a bad name through their slimey methods and they’re spoiling the web with it.

Here is another example of an affiliate marketer, basically being stupid.

Inside Affiliate Marketing Says:

Hey nice blog my friend. Affiliate marketing is the fastest growing business in world. However its not that easy as it looks. Obviously you need advanced knowledge about affiliate marketing. If you are dead and broke , you can learn most of the startup tricks via marketing forums.

I’m sorry but I couldn’t have said it better myself. This was a comment on my previous post about affiliate marketing, which if they had actually read they would have seen it was speaking against affiliate marketing.

So here’s my nugget of gold for the day. Breath it in, swirl it around a bit, maybe gargle, and spit back out into a ceramic pot to keep for later usage. Social media is THE tool to meet people of like minds from all over the world and communicate in real time. That is all.

Here are some examples:

• Inspiring Escapes
• Dexter
• Haunted house
• Walts wisdom
• Carmen has a crush on you
• News3Online

There are 4 main effects that can be achieved in a variable video:

• Variable text - example: holding up a card with the persons name
• Variable image - example: holding up a picture of the person
• Variable audio - example: saying the persons name with actors face covered
• Variable video scenes - example: saying the persons name without actors face covered

If you wanted to create a variable video campaign, there are multiple ways to go about it. All of the above effects can be recreated using Adobe Flash. If you only plan on doing variable text and/or imaging in the video you may not need 3rd party software. If you do wish to integrate your variable video campaign with other software, XMPie recently announced video integration capabilities with their system.

Another important aspect of variable video is the story. To properly recreate any of the videos shown in this post you would need actors, sets, equipment, scripts, etc. But, one great thing about variable video is it’s surprise factor. You could get away with crappy quality video as long as the personalization tied in seamlessly.

The most important part of any variable video campaign is it’s final conversion screen. This is where you encourage personalizing the video for someone else. Someone the user believes will find the video entertaining. People love seeing their name in lights and now everyone can be part of the internet video phenomenon.

Contact Magicomm to learn more about variable video.

First off, for those of you who have seen my own Twitter Adder, let it be known that I am not a hypocrite. My reasoning is that I believe Twitter is a powerful tool for connecting with like minded individuals. This is why my own Twitter Adders only add friends within the industry of your choice. So far I’ve covered 3 industries and 1 age group (which is private to 20SB members).

My favorite pitch when describing Twitter to social media newbies is that it instantly connects you to individuals of similar industries, trains of thought, and locations. If TwitterAdder becomes their premiere source of obtaining friends I believe they will lose interest in Twitter fast as 6 of their new found friends speak a different language and the other 4 never use their account.

Conclusion

I think TwitterPack and TwitterLocal are the best sources for finding new friends. The future of Twitter adders should specialize in specific demographics. I chose my microblogs like my regular blogs, quality over quantity.

No passwords or usernames are saved during this process however if you’re concerned, I recommend you switch your password now, use the tool, and then switch it back to your old password.

If the tool does not work please notify me or try again later.

(Note: The app takes awhile to add everyone so you may want to let it run until your status bar says done)

You can find a similar tool by seocracy at http://www.seocracy.com/fun

So what is Plaxo?

Here is my spin on Plaxos own definition …

Plaxo is a lot of things. It’s mostly about synchronizing most of the things that you and your connections do all across the web in a single place without you having to worry about any of it. It’s also about staying in touch with friends, colleagues and family on a daily basis. It’s a place on the web where you can look and see what photos that random guy posted on Picasa, while finding out that Tom blogged about how he just found a ‘one of a kind offer for a sweet vacation’, and seeing that your co-worker changed his status again from ‘working’ to ‘eating’. Now with Pulse, Plaxo has become a fun and efficient way to communicate with all of your friends, family and business contacts.

Now let me set the record straight here and now, I <3 Plaxo. I said it, it’s true. It’s the one social network I feel has really nailed down the most effective means of communications that encourage conversation and minimize useless banter.

Plaxo’s Pulse is broken down into 12 types of content of which 6 can be posted right from within Plaxo (the other 6 are updated via RSS and APIs). The most powerful of these types of content are Messages, Links and Polls. Some of my favorite conversations on Plaxo have been through comments on Polls.

Now what sets Plaxo apart from the rest?

It’s community. In a Poll I posted recently I believe Leanne Watson says it best:

it’s good because the topics are about business but include a personal aspect, if that makes sense? I’ve learnt things and I’ve made some connections that seem like friendships as well. The hard part is maintaining a presence when reality gets very busy.

The truth is that this community seems to be a very honest group of people. It’s no secret that we’re all here to network and promote our services, however we are more likely to work with those we trust. Bob Thomason noted:

We enjoy buying from people we know and trust. I know I do. We buy that way with ‘brick and mortar’ businesses, so, why not here.

Isn’t there spam?

Of course there is, however it is controllable. There is a large portion of the community pushing their Affiliate Links on to Pulse but you can always filter out the annoying ones. To be honest, I’ve filtered out so many of them at this point that my Pulse is pretty jam packed with some quality posts about topics I am quite interested in.

Anything Else?

Actually, ya. Everything I’ve described thus far as solely part of Plaxo’s ‘Pulse’ feature. There is also a centralized rolodex system, calendars, ecards and alot more.

So finally, please check it out and drop me a line.

Status Updates

Plurk’s status updates are a little smaller than Twitters and at times a little hard to read. However they do pack a little extra punch with a comment system as well as qualifiers.

Plurk(top) and Twitter(Bottom)

Twitter’s reply button sometimes just does not cut it and the more I’ve been using FriendFeed and Plurk, the more I long for such a feature. The qualifier button is also pretty dam cool. Its kind of like Twistori however it’s built into the system and you can use it to sort friends’ posts based on the qualifier.

Comment System

So now a little bit more about my favorite function of Plurk, its comment system. Its very similar to FriendFeeds comment system in that you can comment on specific status updates.

The number to the right of a post tells you how many comments that post has.

This definitely encourages more conversation as replys tend to get lost in Twitter (especially if your not using a 3rd party app). Plurk also seems very speedy in notifying you of new comments and posts.

Plurk’s Comment System

I guess you could compare it to a mini chat rather than a comment system since everything is happening in real time.

So what do I not like about Plurk?

Well besides the goofy name, I’d have to say that in the end, at least for me, simplicity wins the game. That’s why i chose Google over Yahoo and then Dreamweaver over Frontpage. But complexity aside it might be too early in the game to make an honest call on the matter. Twitter’s API makes up for what it lacks in built in features as the community is constantly pushing its boundaries (and its servers). I also found it very easy to make friends in Twitter where as in Plurk I am still at a loss. The friends I have currently are my friends from Twitter :).

Conclusion

Plurk

• Awesome comment system
• Nifty graphics
• Filtering by qualifiers

Twitter

• Simplistic
• More customization capabilities
• API

I would say that, at least for the moment, I am going to stick with Twitter because of the large amount of 3rd party apps and my cool customized home page. Plus I’d hate to have to start all over again making new friends.

Follow me on Twitter

Follow me on Plurk

Status Updates

Plurk’s status updates are a little smaller than Twitters and at times a little hard to read. However they do pack a little extra punch with a comment system as well as qualifiers.

Plurk(top) and Twitter(Bottom)

Twitter’s reply button sometimes just does not cut it and the more I’ve been using FriendFeed and Plurk, the more I long for such a feature. The qualifier button is also pretty dam cool. Its kind of like Twistori however it’s built into the system and you can use it to sort friends’ posts based on the qualifier.

Comment System

So now a little bit more about my favorite function of Plurk, its comment system. Its very similar to FriendFeeds comment system in that you can comment on specific status updates.

The number to the right of a post tells you how many comments that post has.

This definitely encourages more conversation as replys tend to get lost in Twitter (especially if your not using a 3rd party app). Plurk also seems very speedy in notifying you of new comments and posts.

Plurk’s Comment System

I guess you could compare it to a mini chat rather than a comment system since everything is happening in real time.

So what do I not like about Plurk?

Well besides the goofy name, I’d have to say that in the end, at least for me, simplicity wins the game. That’s why i chose Google over Yahoo and then Dreamweaver over Frontpage. But complexity aside it might be too early in the game to make an honest call on the matter. Twitter’s API makes up for what it lacks in built in features as the community is constantly pushing its boundaries (and its servers). I also found it very easy to make friends in Twitter where as in Plurk I am still at a loss. The friends I have currently are my friends from Twitter :).

Conclusion

Plurk

• Awesome comment system
• Nifty graphics
• Filtering by qualifiers

Twitter

• Simplistic
• More customization capabilities
• API

I would say that, at least for the moment, I am going to stick with Twitter because of the large amount of 3rd party apps and my cool customized home page. Plus I’d hate to have to start all over again making new friends.

Follow me on Twitter

Follow me on Plurk

Blogger

Blogger was a great, easy to set up service.

All of my posts were automatically included in Google’s Blog Search as well as it’s organic results. Adding new templates was very easy to do and the XML templates allow a lot of flexibility. I also received a good amount of traffic from people just browsing the Blogger blogs.

WordPress

WordPress is also pretty great. It does require a few extra steps to get started but everything is very well documented.

My favorite part about WordPress is all of the plugins that are available. There were a few problems I ran into with my Blogger blog that were easily solved with my WordPress blog; like displaying code and filtering spam. Another great thing is the WYSIWYG. Blogger’s WYSIWYG was very glitchy for me and I did not like how it formated everything. WordPress also provides you with a pinging service which, once set up, provides greater indexing capabilities than blogger.

So which one is better?

It depends on your level of experience blogging and your knowledge about web technologies. Blogger is easier to use and setup and if you have a GMail account, your already half way there. You can also personalize the URL and it gives very detailed instructions to do this. However, if you have your own web host and domain name I would go with WordPress. It isn’t to hard too set up and in the long run it has a lot more features to play with.

Blogger

Blogger was a great, easy to set up service.

All of my posts were automatically included in Google’s Blog Search as well as it’s organic results. Adding new templates was very easy to do and the XML templates allow a lot of flexibility. I also received a good amount of traffic from people just browsing the Blogger blogs.

WordPress

WordPress is also pretty great. It does require a few extra steps to get started but everything is very well documented.

My favorite part about WordPress is all of the plugins that are available. There were a few problems I ran into with my Blogger blog that were easily solved with my WordPress blog; like displaying code and filtering spam. Another great thing is the WYSIWYG. Blogger’s WYSIWYG was very glitchy for me and I did not like how it formated everything. WordPress also provides you with a pinging service which, once set up, provides greater indexing capabilities than blogger.

So which one is better?

It depends on your level of experience blogging and your knowledge about web technologies. Blogger is easier to use and setup and if you have a GMail account, your already half way there. You can also personalize the URL and it gives very detailed instructions to do this. However, if you have your own web host and domain name I would go with WordPress. It isn’t to hard too set up and in the long run it has a lot more features to play with.

Why Plaxo users Tweet

(Percents represent the percentage of Plaxo users who do use Twitter)

Why Plaxo users don’t Tweet

(Percents represent the percentage of Plaxo users who do not use Twitter)

The main idea being Twitter is a great resource to network and learn new things.

You can continue this comment stream here as well as post links back to your own Twitter accounts.

Comments

I’m surprised by the lack of Twitter users on Plaxo

http://www.twitter.com/spazcer
Me

I am one: http://twitter.com/godsent247

http://twitter.com/godsent247
Bogdan Wrzesinski

I have to add to my vote (I voted: Yes, to learn new things) - to learn new things about what’s happening with my friends, to learn new things by meeting new people and to find the occassioanl, amazing link.

http://www.twitter.com/chgroup
Sabine Pyrchalla

I’m glad to see the results evened out a little. I agree with you Sabine, i tend to use it less for marketing and more for learning and meeting new people.

http://www.twitter.com/spazcer
Me

Jon,

I think Twitter is one of those sites that you “get” as you use it…if you don’t use it, don’t connect/follow others…you probably don’t see what the big deal is. So only by using will you find the benefits.

And if you don’t use it….well, you get the picture….

http://www.twitter.com/chgroup
Sabine Pyrchalla

Sabine, that’s exactly what I did. I actually stumbled across this site:http://www.marketingpilgrim.com/2008/01/internet-marketing-experts-twitter.html and began following a few of them. Ultimately I have learned a lot through Twitter and now my following grows pretty regularly as i continue to use it.

http://www.twitter.com/spazcer
Me

Twitter is fun. I especially like twittervision in 3D

www.twitter.com/CosmicHog
Mitch Aase

Jon,

Seriously don’t know that much about it … can you provide some definition of its dynamics.

Vernon Collins

I collected what I thought were some of the best resources across the web concerning Twitter here: Twitter 101

Here is a good article from MarketingProfs

Lastly I would just say that Twitter is a blogging service with many tools to help you access and update easily and because of the restricted number of characters you are allowed to post it is easy to scan and takes very little time.

http://www.twitter.com/spazcer
Me

Twitter is known as a “micro-blogging” service. I have also explained it to others as a “platform independent text message service” — anyone can use that, I’ve not trade marked it yet

That said, i think 90% of the twits on twitter are pointless, useless drivel and nothing but a waste of time.

Twitter makes it easier for no-bodies to feel self-important since they have “followers” and suddenly feel like everyone gives a hoot about what they ate for breakfast and how many emails they answered.

Worse is you never can tell just who will be a waste until you follow them - and then be prepared to be suprised.

Oh, yea, Im on twitter, you can follow me at http://twitter.com/mediamanx

I promise not to bore followers with the mundane and bombard them with the minutae of living.

http://twitter.com/mediamanx
Allan Sabo

Allan,

I believe its all relative to what you want to take out of using Twitter. I personally enjoy the mix of useless drivel and interesting tweets that make up my friends feeds. However I was very careful to only follow people within web development and marketing for a long time. I’ve only just recently begun looking for local Twitterers.

I also think you can tell who is going to be a waste of time by just looking over that persons tweets before you follow them, then, you can always unfollow them later.

That said, I am now following you on Twitter. Please do not bore me.

http://www.twitter.com/spazcer
Me

lol. thanks Jon.

http://twitter.com/mediamanx
Allan Sabo

Jim Turner made me curious about Twitter and so I am very slowly learning about it and what people are doing with it. Thanks for the 101 on it, every little bit of information helps my brain!

It fascinates me how you can twit-twit there and it can turn up at Plaxo….well, my Plaxo thingy doesn’t tell me what everyone else ’s status of what they are too anymore (usually on the right hand column) is anymore…puzzling….have they changed it again?

Marie-Dominique D

Plaxo should show all of your friends tweets that are both on Plaxo and Twitter. If you tweets aren’t showing up in your status, check your Profile Settings to sync it with Twitter. I have noticed tho that sometimes Plaxo will miss a tweet or two when updating my status but always catches it eventually to put in the pulse.

http://www.twitter.com/spazcer
Me

I can see my status thingy even with my tweets but not anyone else’s anymore…. is this what you all are experiencing too?

Marie-Dominique D

Plaxo seems somewhat slow on occassion when it comes to updating Tweets….

http://www.twitter.com/chgroup
Sabine Pyrchalla

Oh ya they changed that…. i kinda liked it the old way, when you could see everyones status on the right.

http://www.twitter.com/spazcer
Me

I am glad I am not the only one whose page has changed! How do we tell them (Plaxo) to change it back to the way it was when you could see everyone’s status?

Marie-Dominique D

Marie,

Hate to say this - but I dont’ think it’ll happen until ‘quite a few’ of us request a change…because until that happens…Plaxo will be convinced that it was a change for the better.

http://www.twitter.com/chgroup
Sabine Pyrchalla

Mini Blogging or Digital stalking - I started using Twitter at SXSW 2007 to connect with new friends to find our where the next party is. And while its a great too for conferences and festivals and finding out whats hot right then. But I am using it more and more to learn about what the latest cutting edge trends in marketing and technology are.

http://twitter.com/marcdole
Marc Dole

I use twitter for story ideas for The Responsible Marketing Blog (http://responsiblemarketing.com). It’s actually now my favorite applications.

http://twitter.com/patrickbyers

Patrick Byers

As much as I LOVE Twitter right now, I cant wait for when its a little more reliable. However at the same time, 98.72% uptime is not bad at all in the grand scheme of things. But all that said, anyone in here use FriendFeed as an alternative when Twitter is down?

http://www.twitter.com/spazcer
Me

Hi Jon….can you explain what is FriendFeed?

Marie-Dominique D

FriendFeed is a social media aggregator that brings all of your social media posts(digg, twitter, blogs, flickr, etc) into one stream. You can also post directly to FriendFeed. So kind of like Plaxo, except it has more sites you can add to your stream.

http://www.twitter.com/spazcer
Me

Thanks for that, Jon.

So it would be like if I posted something on my Plaxo status and it also turned up on Tweeter and anything else anyone happens to have as well?

The simplest way I can visualize it would maybe be FriendFeed is like a cow’s udder, where the milk (post or writing) goes to the teats (this cow has more than four) where one teat is Twitter, another is Plaxo, another is digg, etc?

Marie-Dominique D

I was awarded ‘comment of the day’ on another site for this description…

“Twitter reminds me of deranged broken monologues, typically held in front of a medicine cabinet mirror while fumbling aimlessly for the brain medication.”

But I’m still Twittering and love it!

Steve Nimmons

Thats the explanation for people who already know what Twitter is, and enjoy spending hours in front of that medicine cabinet mirror.

http://www.twitter.com/spazcer

Me

I don’t know about every one else but I started using twitter but didn’t know too many friends who used it and i just kind of got bored adding updates that know one else would see. I also find that I just don’t have the time for so many Social Media sites. I use facebook for my social life, Plaxo and Linkedin for business related contacts and groups, I use MSN messenger, Gmail chat, Skype, Myspace sometimes, and then I have to work! I also use delicious and try to read as much as I can online, so I just don’t have time to put updates on twitter - unless I want to be chained to my computer 24/7 and get divorced

Simon Burgess

Simon,

If you did really want to give it a shot, go to http://twitterpacks.pbwiki.com/ and you can find some like minded individuals who would be glad to follow you back.

Then download something like http://www.naan.net/trac/wiki/TwitterFox or http://www.twhirl.org/ to streamline your twitter experience. Using TwitterFox i never really have to stop working as i can scan quickly and reply even faster.

http://www.twitter.com/spazcer
Me

Thanks. I’ll try it out but I think it’s interesting from a marketing perspective in that which social media site or network do you go with to reach your target audience? Do you try to cover them all? Is there going to be a fall out from social media when people just get overloaded with options? I gues that these sites need to keep adding new applications that make using them attractive again - I found that I just stopped using facebook for a good few months until they added the instant messaging system. Now, because I can instant message any of my contacts who have it set up I’m on it all the time. Interestingly (and I am in ad sales so I do try and interact with advertising) I have never ever interacted with any advertising on Facebook. I find it banal and completely untargetted and irrelevant to me. They really need to sort that out because it could be such a money spinner

Simon Burgess

I agree that facebooks ads seem to be untargetted still however I wouldnt rule them out for ads. Facebook is now one of the most used websites in the world … it competes with Google for pageviews daily. I think once they get their act together it would be a great advertising medium (thats not to say it isnt already).

Social media sites are already becoming centralized through services like FriendFeed and even Plaxo, and you’ll continue to see this centralization over the next couple of months. That said, don’t rule out any social media network if it seems to contribute some kind of value.

http://www.twitter.com/spazcer

Me

My website www.solutionsabroad.com is aimed at expats looking at moving to Mexico and having relaunched recently we are in the process of developing a social network in our own small way with a community finder where you can find and link with other like minded expats. I certainly believe that social networking is THE major development since search in terms of what it means for marketers/advertisers. Facebook is an amazing opportunity for advertisers, I just hope that (as a user) they start improving their targetting soon

Simon Burgess

Simon, good question. Thats where being part of a group like twitter or plaxo can help. You can ask people which social nets they have tried to get impressions of quality of audience.

Then, next step, join and lurk / observe. Poke around the groups, look at profiles, in all, investing 1 hour to evaluate is a good start - remember, keep an excel spreadsheet with your notes, user names, paswords etc (I also use roboform to rememebr passwords for me).

Belonging to up to 4 should be enough, more than that becomes difficult to manage without an aggregator - there are some early attempts to create profile aggregators but the jury is still out, but the good news is that soon, someone will get it right and make it possible to join and participate in many more.

But, your social media strategy should not stop there, it should also include other tools and services such as bookmarking, commenting, and articles

www.twitter.com/mediamanx

Allan Sabo

Twitter opened new horizons, make me meet new people, from new friendships and got me my new job. Good enough reasons to be on it I think?

Marloes Lammers

It may appear to be a waste of time, and can certainly become one. However, if/when used properly it can create new connections that lead to profitable relationships. After 1 month, I had created over 200 followers and created a number of valuable connections. Click on the “FOLLOW” beneath my photo on the Twitter link below and see what happens!

www.twitter.com/markgilbert
Mark Gilbert

Why Plaxo users Tweet

(Percents represent the percentage of Plaxo users who do use Twitter)

Why Plaxo users don’t Tweet

(Percents represent the percentage of Plaxo users who do not use Twitter)

The main idea being Twitter is a great resource to network and learn new things.

You can continue this comment stream here as well as post links back to your own Twitter accounts.

Comments

I’m surprised by the lack of Twitter users on Plaxo

http://www.twitter.com/spazcer
Me

I am one: http://twitter.com/godsent247

http://twitter.com/godsent247
Bogdan Wrzesinski

I have to add to my vote (I voted: Yes, to learn new things) - to learn new things about what’s happening with my friends, to learn new things by meeting new people and to find the occassioanl, amazing link.

http://www.twitter.com/chgroup
Sabine Pyrchalla

I’m glad to see the results evened out a little. I agree with you Sabine, i tend to use it less for marketing and more for learning and meeting new people.

http://www.twitter.com/spazcer
Me

Jon,

I think Twitter is one of those sites that you “get” as you use it…if you don’t use it, don’t connect/follow others…you probably don’t see what the big deal is. So only by using will you find the benefits.

And if you don’t use it….well, you get the picture….

http://www.twitter.com/chgroup
Sabine Pyrchalla

Sabine, that’s exactly what I did. I actually stumbled across this site:http://www.marketingpilgrim.com/2008/01/internet-marketing-experts-twitter.html and began following a few of them. Ultimately I have learned a lot through Twitter and now my following grows pretty regularly as i continue to use it.

http://www.twitter.com/spazcer
Me

Twitter is fun. I especially like twittervision in 3D

www.twitter.com/CosmicHog
Mitch Aase

Jon,

Seriously don’t know that much about it … can you provide some definition of its dynamics.

Vernon Collins

I collected what I thought were some of the best resources across the web concerning Twitter here: Twitter 101

Here is a good article from MarketingProfs

Lastly I would just say that Twitter is a blogging service with many tools to help you access and update easily and because of the restricted number of characters you are allowed to post it is easy to scan and takes very little time.

http://www.twitter.com/spazcer
Me

Twitter is known as a “micro-blogging” service. I have also explained it to others as a “platform independent text message service” — anyone can use that, I’ve not trade marked it yet

That said, i think 90% of the twits on twitter are pointless, useless drivel and nothing but a waste of time.

Twitter makes it easier for no-bodies to feel self-important since they have “followers” and suddenly feel like everyone gives a hoot about what they ate for breakfast and how many emails they answered.

Worse is you never can tell just who will be a waste until you follow them - and then be prepared to be suprised.

Oh, yea, Im on twitter, you can follow me at http://twitter.com/mediamanx

I promise not to bore followers with the mundane and bombard them with the minutae of living.

http://twitter.com/mediamanx
Allan Sabo

Allan,

I believe its all relative to what you want to take out of using Twitter. I personally enjoy the mix of useless drivel and interesting tweets that make up my friends feeds. However I was very careful to only follow people within web development and marketing for a long time. I’ve only just recently begun looking for local Twitterers.

I also think you can tell who is going to be a waste of time by just looking over that persons tweets before you follow them, then, you can always unfollow them later.

That said, I am now following you on Twitter. Please do not bore me.

http://www.twitter.com/spazcer
Me

lol. thanks Jon.

http://twitter.com/mediamanx
Allan Sabo

Jim Turner made me curious about Twitter and so I am very slowly learning about it and what people are doing with it. Thanks for the 101 on it, every little bit of information helps my brain!

It fascinates me how you can twit-twit there and it can turn up at Plaxo….well, my Plaxo thingy doesn’t tell me what everyone else ’s status of what they are too anymore (usually on the right hand column) is anymore…puzzling….have they changed it again?

Marie-Dominique D

Plaxo should show all of your friends tweets that are both on Plaxo and Twitter. If you tweets aren’t showing up in your status, check your Profile Settings to sync it with Twitter. I have noticed tho that sometimes Plaxo will miss a tweet or two when updating my status but always catches it eventually to put in the pulse.

http://www.twitter.com/spazcer
Me

I can see my status thingy even with my tweets but not anyone else’s anymore…. is this what you all are experiencing too?

Marie-Dominique D

Plaxo seems somewhat slow on occassion when it comes to updating Tweets….

http://www.twitter.com/chgroup
Sabine Pyrchalla

Oh ya they changed that…. i kinda liked it the old way, when you could see everyones status on the right.

http://www.twitter.com/spazcer
Me

I am glad I am not the only one whose page has changed! How do we tell them (Plaxo) to change it back to the way it was when you could see everyone’s status?

Marie-Dominique D

Marie,

Hate to say this - but I dont’ think it’ll happen until ‘quite a few’ of us request a change…because until that happens…Plaxo will be convinced that it was a change for the better.

http://www.twitter.com/chgroup
Sabine Pyrchalla

Mini Blogging or Digital stalking - I started using Twitter at SXSW 2007 to connect with new friends to find our where the next party is. And while its a great too for conferences and festivals and finding out whats hot right then. But I am using it more and more to learn about what the latest cutting edge trends in marketing and technology are.

http://twitter.com/marcdole
Marc Dole

I use twitter for story ideas for The Responsible Marketing Blog (http://responsiblemarketing.com). It’s actually now my favorite applications.

http://twitter.com/patrickbyers

Patrick Byers

As much as I LOVE Twitter right now, I cant wait for when its a little more reliable. However at the same time, 98.72% uptime is not bad at all in the grand scheme of things. But all that said, anyone in here use FriendFeed as an alternative when Twitter is down?

http://www.twitter.com/spazcer
Me

Hi Jon….can you explain what is FriendFeed?

Marie-Dominique D

FriendFeed is a social media aggregator that brings all of your social media posts(digg, twitter, blogs, flickr, etc) into one stream. You can also post directly to FriendFeed. So kind of like Plaxo, except it has more sites you can add to your stream.

http://www.twitter.com/spazcer
Me

Thanks for that, Jon.

So it would be like if I posted something on my Plaxo status and it also turned up on Tweeter and anything else anyone happens to have as well?

The simplest way I can visualize it would maybe be FriendFeed is like a cow’s udder, where the milk (post or writing) goes to the teats (this cow has more than four) where one teat is Twitter, another is Plaxo, another is digg, etc?

Marie-Dominique D

I was awarded ‘comment of the day’ on another site for this description…

“Twitter reminds me of deranged broken monologues, typically held in front of a medicine cabinet mirror while fumbling aimlessly for the brain medication.”

But I’m still Twittering and love it!

Steve Nimmons

Thats the explanation for people who already know what Twitter is, and enjoy spending hours in front of that medicine cabinet mirror.

http://www.twitter.com/spazcer

Me

I don’t know about every one else but I started using twitter but didn’t know too many friends who used it and i just kind of got bored adding updates that know one else would see. I also find that I just don’t have the time for so many Social Media sites. I use facebook for my social life, Plaxo and Linkedin for business related contacts and groups, I use MSN messenger, Gmail chat, Skype, Myspace sometimes, and then I have to work! I also use delicious and try to read as much as I can online, so I just don’t have time to put updates on twitter - unless I want to be chained to my computer 24/7 and get divorced

Simon Burgess

Simon,

If you did really want to give it a shot, go to http://twitterpacks.pbwiki.com/ and you can find some like minded individuals who would be glad to follow you back.

Then download something like http://www.naan.net/trac/wiki/TwitterFox or http://www.twhirl.org/ to streamline your twitter experience. Using TwitterFox i never really have to stop working as i can scan quickly and reply even faster.

http://www.twitter.com/spazcer
Me

Thanks. I’ll try it out but I think it’s interesting from a marketing perspective in that which social media site or network do you go with to reach your target audience? Do you try to cover them all? Is there going to be a fall out from social media when people just get overloaded with options? I gues that these sites need to keep adding new applications that make using them attractive again - I found that I just stopped using facebook for a good few months until they added the instant messaging system. Now, because I can instant message any of my contacts who have it set up I’m on it all the time. Interestingly (and I am in ad sales so I do try and interact with advertising) I have never ever interacted with any advertising on Facebook. I find it banal and completely untargetted and irrelevant to me. They really need to sort that out because it could be such a money spinner

Simon Burgess

I agree that facebooks ads seem to be untargetted still however I wouldnt rule them out for ads. Facebook is now one of the most used websites in the world … it competes with Google for pageviews daily. I think once they get their act together it would be a great advertising medium (thats not to say it isnt already).

Social media sites are already becoming centralized through services like FriendFeed and even Plaxo, and you’ll continue to see this centralization over the next couple of months. That said, don’t rule out any social media network if it seems to contribute some kind of value.

http://www.twitter.com/spazcer

Me

My website www.solutionsabroad.com is aimed at expats looking at moving to Mexico and having relaunched recently we are in the process of developing a social network in our own small way with a community finder where you can find and link with other like minded expats. I certainly believe that social networking is THE major development since search in terms of what it means for marketers/advertisers. Facebook is an amazing opportunity for advertisers, I just hope that (as a user) they start improving their targetting soon

Simon Burgess

Simon, good question. Thats where being part of a group like twitter or plaxo can help. You can ask people which social nets they have tried to get impressions of quality of audience.

Then, next step, join and lurk / observe. Poke around the groups, look at profiles, in all, investing 1 hour to evaluate is a good start - remember, keep an excel spreadsheet with your notes, user names, paswords etc (I also use roboform to rememebr passwords for me).

Belonging to up to 4 should be enough, more than that becomes difficult to manage without an aggregator - there are some early attempts to create profile aggregators but the jury is still out, but the good news is that soon, someone will get it right and make it possible to join and participate in many more.

But, your social media strategy should not stop there, it should also include other tools and services such as bookmarking, commenting, and articles

www.twitter.com/mediamanx

Allan Sabo

Twitter opened new horizons, make me meet new people, from new friendships and got me my new job. Good enough reasons to be on it I think?

Marloes Lammers

It may appear to be a waste of time, and can certainly become one. However, if/when used properly it can create new connections that lead to profitable relationships. After 1 month, I had created over 200 followers and created a number of valuable connections. Click on the “FOLLOW” beneath my photo on the Twitter link below and see what happens!

www.twitter.com/markgilbert
Mark Gilbert

I’m not only excited about this campaign because of the client, but what we did in the campaign itself. It’s basically your standard PURL, kinda like the one we did for Magicomm, however we’ve simplified and viralized the whole microsite. I’ve been talking alot about interactive video in the past couple weeks and the potential it has as a marketing medium. Now I finally get to put my theory to the test as the last page of the PURL features its very own interactive/personalized video.

The PURL will go live in Drupa mid next week and we’ll have it live for the public a couple days after that. Be sure to check back to see how the campaign is doing as well as learn a little more about how effective it actually was.

I’m not only excited about this campaign because of the client, but what we did in the campaign itself. It’s basically your standard PURL, kinda like the one we did for Magicomm, however we’ve simplified and viralized the whole microsite. I’ve been talking alot about interactive video in the past couple weeks and the potential it has as a marketing medium. Now I finally get to put my theory to the test as the last page of the PURL features its very own interactive/personalized video.

The PURL will go live in Drupa mid next week and we’ll have it live for the public a couple days after that. Be sure to check back to see how the campaign is doing as well as learn a little more about how effective it actually was.

What is Twitter?

Twitter is a social networking and micro-blogging service that allows users to send "updates" (or "tweets"; text-based posts, up to 140 characters long) to the Twitter website, via short message service (e.g. on a cell phone), instant messaging, or a third-party application such as Twitterrific or Facebook. - From Wikipedia

Commoncraft also has a pretty good explanation of what twitter is on youtube.

Here are some Twinterviews about what people love about twitter.

Who do I follow?

First thing you can do is invite all of your friends through Twitters Find & Follow page. Once that is done you can move on to websites like Who Should I Follow, Twittersearch and Twubble. (More Twitter Search Engines)

There are also lists you can scan through at TwitterPack and Twitterholic as well as some Internet Marketing Gurus on Twitter.

It is probably a good idea to view a users Twitter page before you follow them to be sure they aren't spam.

How do i update?

There are A LOT of ways to update your twitter status. The most obvious (and sometimes most reliable) is the Twitter site itself.

There is also an array of third-party apps to help feed your twitter hunger:

• TwitterFox
• Twhirl
• Twitterrific
• Snitter
• Twitkit

Where else can i put my twitter feed?

You can view your feed in any feed aggregator (Google Reader, FriendFeed, Outlook, etc). Your feed can be accessed at

• http://twitter.com/statuses/user_timeline/username.rss - Your Feed
• http://twitter.com/statuses/friends_timeline/username.rss - Your Friends Feed

as well as by clicking the RSS button at the bottom of your Twitter page.

Another popular thing to do is add your Twitter feed to facebook. Twitter has its own Facebok App or you can just sync your facebook satus with Twitter. I personally chose to use FriendFeed because it was the least intrusive.

What are some cool apps I can use?

Check out the Twitter Fan Wiki Apps Page.

What is Twitter?

Twitter is a social networking and micro-blogging service that allows users to send “updates” (or “tweets”; text-based posts, up to 140 characters long) to the Twitter website, via short message service (e.g. on a cell phone), instant messaging, or a third-party application such as Twitterrific or Facebook. - From Wikipedia

Commoncraft also has a pretty good explanation of what twitter is on youtube.

Here are some Twinterviews about what people love about twitter.

Who do I follow?

First thing you can do is invite all of your friends through Twitters Find & Follow page. Once that is done you can move on to websites like Who Should I Follow, Twittersearch and Twubble. (More Twitter Search Engines)

There are also lists you can scan through at TwitterPack and Twitterholic as well as some Internet Marketing Gurus on Twitter.

It is probably a good idea to view a users Twitter page before you follow them to be sure they aren’t spam.

How do i update?

There are A LOT of ways to update your twitter status. The most obvious (and sometimes most reliable) is the Twitter site itself.

There is also an array of third-party apps to help feed your twitter hunger:

• TwitterFox
• Twhirl
• Twitterrific
• Snitter
• Twitkit

Or you can automate the process with TwitterFeed.

Where else can i put my twitter feed?

You can view your feed in any feed aggregator (Google Reader, FriendFeed, Outlook, etc). Your feed can be accessed at

• http://twitter.com/statuses/user_timeline/username.rss - Your Feed
• http://twitter.com/statuses/friends_timeline/username.rss - Your Friends Feed

as well as by clicking the RSS button at the bottom of your Twitter page.

Another popular thing to do is add your Twitter feed to facebook. Twitter has its own Facebok App or you can just sync your facebook satus with Twitter. I personally chose to use FriendFeed because it was the least intrusive.

What are some cool apps I can use?

Check out the Twitter Fan Wiki Apps Page.

I hope someone found this informative. Please feel free to follow me: @spazcer

What is Twitter?

Twitter is a social networking and micro-blogging service that allows users to send “updates” (or “tweets”; text-based posts, up to 140 characters long) to the Twitter website, via short message service (e.g. on a cell phone), instant messaging, or a third-party application such as Twitterrific or Facebook. - From Wikipedia

Commoncraft also has a pretty good explanation of what twitter is on youtube.

Here are some Twinterviews about what people love about twitter.

Who do I follow?

First thing you can do is invite all of your friends through Twitters Find & Follow page. Once that is done you can move on to websites like Who Should I Follow, Twittersearch and Twubble. (More Twitter Search Engines)

There are also lists you can scan through at TwitterPack and Twitterholic as well as some Internet Marketing Gurus on Twitter.

It is probably a good idea to view a users Twitter page before you follow them to be sure they aren’t spam.

How do i update?

There are A LOT of ways to update your twitter status. The most obvious (and sometimes most reliable) is the Twitter site itself.

There is also an array of third-party apps to help feed your twitter hunger:

• TwitterFox
• Twhirl
• Twitterrific
• Snitter
• Twitkit

Or you can automate the process with TwitterFeed.

Where else can i put my twitter feed?

You can view your feed in any feed aggregator (Google Reader, FriendFeed, Outlook, etc). Your feed can be accessed at

• http://twitter.com/statuses/user_timeline/username.rss - Your Feed
• http://twitter.com/statuses/friends_timeline/username.rss - Your Friends Feed

as well as by clicking the RSS button at the bottom of your Twitter page.

Another popular thing to do is add your Twitter feed to facebook. Twitter has its own Facebok App or you can just sync your facebook satus with Twitter. I personally chose to use FriendFeed because it was the least intrusive.

What are some cool apps I can use?

Check out the Twitter Fan Wiki Apps Page.

I hope someone found this informative. Please feel free to follow me: @spazcer