Twitter Research

Some really great data in here from Harvard about behavior patterns and Twitter.

http://blogs.harvardbusiness.org/cs/2009/06/new_twitter_research_men_follo.html

The Future of Twitter

I thought this was an interesting interview with one of the founders of Twitter on how the company plans to make money going forward. One of the most commonly held beliefs is that Twitter will begin selling ads like other popular social networks have. After reading his statements that sure doesn't seem to be the case here.

The Power of Twitter Continues!

It's always cool to see examples of how companies used a social network, like Twitter, to reach and engage their customers. Check out this USA Today story

Think before you post

This post from Jason Falls highlights one important thing about social media - think before you post! Is the information you are sharing appropriate for a broader audience? Am I OK with this information being available forever? Will it embarrass me or the company I work for?

Guy Kawasaki Uses Ghost Writers

One of the social media legends, Guy Kawasaki, uses ghostwriters for his Twitter account. There were several posts (click on the ghostwriting tag) recently about whether or not ghostwriting in social media made sense. What's most troubling about this, to me anyway, is that Guy never really disclosed that 3-4 people were tweeting from his Twitter account. Then, when Dave Fleet asked him the question about the ethical concerns he just blew it off. Curious...Check it out

The Art of Retweets

I thought this was another cool post from Dave Fleet, countering another blogger's (Mitch Joel) assertion that "tweeting" somebody's blog content is the ultimate blow off. Essentially, Mitch's argument is that the social media elite should be blogging about your content and not using Twitter to push it out. If they really cared about your content they wouldn't be trying to sum it up in 140 characters. Dave's post does a good job of countering those arguments.

Auto-Following on Twitter

An interesting debate on whether you should always follow someone back on Twitter from Dave Fleet.

Twitter and Facebook Integration

If you use TweetDeck, I'd encourage you to check out the new version. It allows for a much more seamless integration with Facebook. in fact, in a much overdue upgrade, you can actually select which Twitter updates you want to have appear on your Facebook page.

Is Twitter Peaking

On his blog Micropersuasion, Steve Rubel asked the question whether or not Twitter is peaking. He thinks it is. My opinion is that there is still tremendous capacity for Twitter to continue growing. Just think about brands you buy products from. Are they on Twitter? wouldn't it make sense for them to engage customers through that network? As long as we can point to capacity, I think it's hard to make the case for it peaking. Thoughts?

CEOs on Facebook and Twitter

One of the challenges of social media is getting the C-Suite to buy into its power. Stories like this from Forbes.com help us "sell" that power. Some great evidence as to why CEOs should Facebook and Twitter

Twitter and IR

Further evidence that social media isn't just applicable to marketing anymore...The applications of social media for IR aren't always obvious, so it's helpful to see stories like this one from eBay. The company held their first analyst day in three years yesterday, and during the event the company's corporate blogger was "live tweeting" the event. Cool eh?

finding your "brand voice" on Twitter

This is a good post from Mashable about the importance of companies finding their "brand voice" on Twitter. As he notes, companies "must consider the right “Brand Voice.” One that is appropriate for what they want to say, and who they want to reach. This is a different sort of voice than the one companies have been familiar with in their traditional print and broadcast media channels, as it’s a more open and authentic form of communication."

Twitter Expert or Advocate?

I liked this post because it shows that you don't have to be a social media (in this case, Twitter) expert to be influential. If you're an advocate, and help people through SM challenges, it's likely going to be returned to you 10x over.

Ghostwriting

there was a spirited debate on Twitter yesterday about whether or not blogs, or for that matter, other social media technologies should be ghostwritten. the cases on both sides are pretty strong, though put me in the camp that says ghostwriting is bad news.

http://bit.ly/MtNEx

The Personal Brand

I thought this interview with Jeremiah Owyang at Forrester by Shel Israel was worth sharing with you. Shel is working on a new book about Twitter, and interviewed Jeremiah in preparation for the chapter on personal brand. If you aren't following Jeremiah, i'd highly recommend it. He's as savvy as Robert Scoble, and talks at a level that all of us can understand.

Pew Internet and Twitter

Pew released a study yesterday that indicated about 11% of online adults have used Twitter, or a service like it. Personally, that number doesn't sound all that impressive, but when you consider the number of online adults it is much bigger. I would've preferred they use the raw number. But anyway, the study itself is interesting. Check it out when you have a chance.

Reporter has a meltdown on Twitter

Absolutely amazing that this reporter thought this was a smart decision. Whoops.

http://www.mediastyle.ca/2009/02/national-post-reporter-has-total-twitter-melt-down/

How to get started on Twitter

This is an essential read for all of you that are not on Twitter already.

You say Twitter, I say Community

Wow. Ironically enough I came across this post through Twitter written by @thebrandbuilder. It really is one of the best explanations of Twitter and its value that I've ever come across. Check it out when you have a second.

Twitter

Lots of good stuff written recently about how to "spread" your Twitter network. Better yet, how to make your posts go "viral." Mack Collier had a good post on his blog a couple of days ago about how to get your tweets retweeted. These are very common sense, but it is much harder if you don't work at developing your network of people you are interested in talking to.