Archive for the ‘Twitter’ Category

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »

Twitter and Skittles: An Experiment in Open Social Branding

March 2, 2009

In what may be a first from a major brand, Skittles has begun experimenting with integrating community comments and inputs into its online presence via Twitter Search and RSS feed.

The Skittles.com website has become a mashup of the brand and its community’s Tweet stream.

I am not sure what the short term or long term implications will be for the brand, but one thing is for sure this particular mashup approach is innovative by any definition.

Skittles.com

Skittles.com

In exchange for participating in the new Skittles.com website, visitors are asked to simply provide their birthday.

Skittles Audience

Skittles Audience

I suspect by day’s end with this simple request Skittles will have a more clear idea of who their online audience is vis-a-vis their average age.

Seems Skittles should have also asked whether their visitors were male or female – unless of course Skittles assumed the majority of their online visitors were going to be male.

The new Skittles home page still has a navigation box in the upper left hand corner where visitors can reach the brand’s website.

Taste The Rainbow

Taste The Rainbow

After being on the site for a while I received the following dialog box:

Return to Skittles Home Page

Return to Skittles Home Page

Unfortunately, I wasn’t ever able to reach the traditional Skittles.com home page from my Mac with  Safari or Firefox browsers.

I guess I will have to Tweet my experience with the new Skittles.com website on Twitter.

Tags:, , ,
Posted in Brand, Open Social Branding, Twitter, Twitter Search | Leave a Comment »

Finding Jobs on Twitter

February 26, 2009

Today while searching Twitter I discovered what was essentially a classified ad for a specific job.

Researching Twitter further, I found a variety of job offerings posted under generic searches for keywords including – jobs.

I stepped away from my computer for several hours this evening and upon returning I refreshed my browser where I found 1,364 posts had occurred with the keyword “jobs” in the Tweet.

Search Twitter For Jobs

Search Twitter For Jobs

An example of one of types of jobs I found on Twitter tonight was for an “Internship” at the White House.

White House Internship

White House Internship

Will Twitter’s platform one day evolve into an instant job messaging board?

Tags:, , ,
Posted in Jobs, Twitter, Twitter Search | Leave a Comment »

Twittad: Monetize Your Twitter Profile

February 22, 2009

With Twitter continuing to make inroads into the consciousness of both the mobile and web communities, questions persist about how Twitter will make money.

Companies like Twittad.com have already begun trying to monetize Twitter traffic.

Twittad.com

Twittad.com

From Twitaps.com:

Twittad allows users to monetize their Twitter profile by serving a ad on the background of their profile page. With over 54 million page views on Twitter.com, and 50%+ of Tweets coming from the web advertisers are willing to pay for that space. Twittad allows the transaction to occur.

How Twittad works:

Twitter Users

Twitter Users

For Twittad Advertisers:

Twittad Advertisers

Twittad Advertisers

From Twittad.com:

TwittAd is not affiliated with Twitter.com. TwittAd was built using the Twitter open API.

It will be interesting to learn whether Twitter or another company discovers first how to capitalize and then monetize Twitter’s traffic.

Tags:,
Posted in Twitter | Leave a Comment »

How Not To Market on Twitter

February 21, 2009

I received the following email from a Twitterer today which in turn has prompted this post: How Not to Market.

Twitter Follower Notification

Twitter Follower Notification

How Not to Market?

First set up a Twitter account under a sexy sounding girls name and then grab an image of the hottest looking girl you can find (preferrably a stock image you don’t have to pay for) Actually image ownership rights of the girl won’t matter because your site won’t be visited by anyone other than those you follow.

How Not To Market On Twitter

How Not To Market On Twitter

Next, get an affiliate account id for some spammy product that purportedly sells well with possibly your own domain pointing to the spammy affiliate page and then post your new prized domain on your Twitter profile page under your Web address.

Begin search for Tweets about Twitter or other generic non specific terms in Twitter Search.

Compile a list of recent Tweets and their authors to first stalk and then follow in the hopes their Twitter accounts will automatically follow you. If “stalkees” don’t automatically follow you back,  your hot girl picture should at least do the trick to get the followed to at least click through to your web address to learn more about what it is that you do.

This assumes the followed aren’t suspicious about your single update which upon reading sounds like the introductory sales script from a telemarketer’s cold call.

Then – PRAY! – those who you followed actually eyeball your spammy affiliate web site are also in the market for whatever it is your affiliate site is selling.

Twitter Web Address

Twitter Web Address

Increase click-throughs to your site and hedge your bets by making the biggest promise of all –  that your giving away endless quantities of cash – just like the latest Twitter spammer above who followed me did.

The problem with this “social media marketing model” is if anyone of the followed actually visit your website – they will do so only once and then they will probably be mad they were tricked into visiting your website to begin with.

If the new / social media marketer is lucky, they may even get a special  blog post written about just how special their social medai marketing  “user experience” was.

Tags:, , , ,
Posted in Marketing, Social Media, Twitter, User Experience | Leave a Comment »

Top Twitter HotSpots in Google Trends

February 20, 2009

TechCrunch has produced two lists – one of the Top 21 most used Twitter clients according to Twitstat and  the other a list of the Top 20 most visited Twitter web application sites according to Compete.

Either of the TechCrunch lists can provide would-be and existing Twitter users with plenty of tools for launching or improving their Twitter experience.

Looking at Twitter usage through Google Trends and Insights for Search shows increasingly higher search interest in Twitter from 2004 through the Present (Twitter was founded March 1, 2006) as well the geographic regions Twitter searches have originated from most often.

Twitter Web Search Volume

Twitter Web Search Volume

The Top 10 Countries with interest in Twitter (2004-Present):

Regional Interest for Twitter

Regional Interest for Twitter

Interestingly, searches for Twitter over the last 12 months show slightly increased interest from Canada, Australia and New Zealand with less search activity coming from Norway.

Regional Twitter Interest Last 12 Months

Regional Twitter Interest Last 12 Months

Sorting search interest over the last 90 days shows yet another level of interest in Twitter by country.

The United Kingdom supplants the United States as the top most interested region in Twitter while Portugal makes its first appearance on the list.

Twitter Regional Interest Last 90 Days

Twitter Regional Interest Last 90 Days

Drilling further down into Google Insights for search within each country produces maps showing interest levels by state and city.

In the United States, Oregon has had the highest level of state interest in Twitter followed by Vermont, Washington, District of Columbia, California, New York, Massachusetts, Hawaii, Kansas and Iowa.

United States Twitter Regional Interest Last 90 Days

United States Twitter Regional Interest Last 90 Days

The U.S. cities with the highest level of search interest in Twitter over the last 90 days are San Francisco, Austin, Portland, New York, Pleasanton, Los Angeles, Seattle, Denver, Washington and Chicago.

United States Twitter Regional City Interest Last 90 Days

United States Twitter Regional City Interest Last 90 Days

Use Google Trends Insights for Search to further explore where Twitter is most searched for in the United Kingdom or in your particular corner of the world.

United Kingdom Twitter Regional Interest Last 90 Days

United Kingdom Twitter Regional Interest Last 90 Days

Tags:, ,
Posted in Google Trends, Insights for Search, Twitter | 1 Comment »

Twitter Spam

February 9, 2009

I have noticed over the past several day lots of new followers with familiar sounding Twitter celebrity like names.

Clicking through to the new followers site instead finds an impersonator of the well known and heavily followed Twitter personality.

Twitter impersonators usually have to employ a slight misspelling or underscore before or after their their more famous host.

Of the Twitter personality impersonator followers I have received in the last week, each have contained the same message and link within their updates:

Friends, “5 Steps to Twitter Success” was just released! Get your copy here.

Friends, if this is any indication of how spammers plan to experiment with methods for monetizing the Twitter community get ready for truckloads of more Twitter Spam.


Tags:,
Posted in Twitter, Twitter Spam | Leave a Comment »

TED: Live Blogging (Tweeting) By Some of The World’s Brightest People

February 4, 2009

Twelve years ago, I read an article about Richard Saul Wurman the co-founder of the TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) Conference and I have been intrigued with TED ever since.

The annual TED conference is happening now in Long Beach, CA.

This year a convergence of the latest technology and new communication habits provides a rare glimpse into conferences like TED.

In this case, attendees at the TED conference who are Twitter users are Tweeting their individual impression of what is being said on stage by TED presenters.

Searching Twitter for TED effectively reverse engineers TED’s Tweeting audience which in turn provides a rich source of innovative thinkers for – those who are interested – to follow on Twitter.

For instance, 297 Tweets related to the TED conference have occurred since I began writing this post.

Ted Tweets

Ted Tweets

Most Tweets pertained to Tim Berners-Lee who just suggested to the audience they share their raw data over the web.

Many TED attendees have since provided the link to Tim Berners-Lee’s TED presentation which is here.

Searching Twitter for TED will provide any searcher with their own list of some of the world’s brightest people.

Tags:, , , ,
Posted in TED, Tweeting, Twitter, Twitter Search | Leave a Comment »

Include Your Twitter Address in YouTube Videos

February 3, 2009

Danny Sullivan tweeted his plans for placing his Twitter address on his business cards.

Great idea.

I too have been considering ways to cross promote some of my content from one platform to another.

His tweet prompted me to follow through with several ideas I have had for extending my Twitter account’s reach.

I have added my Twitter address to my Google Adwords Professional video on YouTube.

YouTube Twitter

YouTube Twitter

To me, it seems only natural for YouTube producers to add their Twitter contact details to their videos.

I am surprised YouTube hasn’t yet added Twitter as one of their sharing options.

Share YouTube with Twitter

Share YouTube with Twitter

Its not an option on YouTube yet…

Surely adding Twitter to YouTube’s share options would help both properties further develop and deepen their respective shares audience attention.

Connecting YouTube’s  and Twitter’s audiences may provide further monetization opportunities as well.

Tags:, , ,
Posted in Google, Google Advertising Professional, Google Adwords Professionals, Tweeting, Tweets, Twitter, YouTube, YouTube Video, YouTube.com | Leave a Comment »

Etrade SuperBowl Commercial Baby Video Outtakes

January 29, 2009

YouTube is running an Etrade SuperBowl Commercial outtake video on their home page today featuring the talking baby.

I guess the baby doesn’t have a name however the baby does have a Twitter account: http://twitter.com/etradebaby

I wonder if Etrade will be embedding the baby’s Twitter address in their Superbowl commercial?

Which is your favorite Etrade Superbowl Commercial outtake?

Tags:,
Posted in Etrade Superbowl Commercial, Twitter | Leave a Comment »

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »