Twitter

Micro-blogging is a Social Media tool that combines elements of blogging with instant messaging.

The clear leader in the micro-blogging field is Twitter with over 1 million users.

There are other notable micro-blogging players include Pownce and Jaiku, which offer various different features, but for the purposes of this post I’ll focus on the Twitter format.

Twitter has grown into a real-time short messaging service that works over multiple networks and devices.

In countries all around the world, people follow the sources most relevant to them and access information via Twitter as it happens—from breaking world news to updates from friends.

Simplicity has played an important role in Twitter’s success. People are eager to connect with other people and Twitter makes that simple. Twitter asks one question, “What are you doing?” Answers must be under 140 characters in length and can be sent via mobile texting, instant message, or the web.

The result of using Twitter to stay connected with friends, relatives, and coworkers is that you have a sense of what folks are up to but you are not expected to respond to any updates unless you want to. This means you can step in and out of the flow of information as it suits you and it never queues up with increasing demand of your attention.

Additionally, users are very much in control of whose updates they receive, when they receive them, and on what device. For example, Twitter provide settings for scheduling it to automatically turn off at dinnertime and users can switch off Twitter updates at any point.

Simply put, Twitter is what you make of it–receive a lot of information about your friends, or just a tiny bit. It’s up to you.

By JESSICA E. VASCELLARO

Getty Images (4 on the left); Google Wave
Services like Twitter, Facebook and Google Wave create a constant stream of interaction among users—for better or worse.

Email has had a good run as king of communications. But its reign is over.

In its place, a new generation of services is starting to take hold—services like Twitter and Facebook and countless others vying for a piece of the new world. And just as email did more than a decade ago, this shift promises to profoundly rewrite the way we communicate—in ways we can only begin to imagine.

Journal Community

“I’ll stick with e-mail — write when I want, as often (or not ) as I want, to whom I want privately. No interest in letting the world know that I overcooked the spaghetti.”

—–Don Brazier
We all still use email, of course. But email was better suited to the way we used to use the Internet—logging off and on, checking our messages in bursts. Now, we are always connected, whether we are sitting at a desk or on a mobile phone. The always-on connection, in turn, has created a host of new ways to communicate that are much faster than email, and more fun.

Why wait for a response to an email when you get a quicker answer over instant messaging? Thanks to Facebook, some questions can be answered without asking them. You don’t need to ask a friend whether she has left work, if she has updated her public “status” on the site telling the world so. Email, stuck in the era of attachments, seems boring compared to services like Google Wave, currently in test phase, which allows users to share photos by dragging and dropping them from a desktop into a Wave, and to enter comments in near real time.

Digits

•    How Many Emails Did You Send Yesterday?
Little wonder that while email continues to grow, other types of communication services are growing far faster. In August 2009, 276.9 million people used email across the U.S., several European countries, Australia and Brazil, according to Nielsen Co., up 21% from 229.2 million in August 2008. But the number of users on social-networking and other community sites jumped 31% to 301.5 million people.

“The whole idea of this email service isn’t really quite as significant anymore when you can have many, many different types of messages and files and when you have this all on the same type of networks,” says Alex Bochannek, curator at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, Calif.

So, how will these new tools change the way we communicate? Let’s start with the most obvious: They make our interactions that much faster.

Into the River

Years ago, we were frustrated if it took a few days for a letter to arrive. A couple of years ago, we’d complain about a half-hour delay in getting an email. Today, we gripe about it taking an extra few seconds for a text message to go through. In a few months, we may be complaining that our cellphones aren’t automatically able to send messages to friends within a certain distance, letting them know we’re nearby. (A number of services already do this.)

The Journal Report

These new services also make communicating more frequent and informal—more like a blog comment or a throwaway aside, rather than a crafted email sent to one person. No need to spend time writing a long email to your half-dozen closest friends about how your vacation went. Now those friends, if they’re interested, can watch it unfold in real time online. Instead of sending a few emails a week to a handful of friends, you can send dozens of messages a day to hundreds of people who know you, or just barely do.

Consider Twitter. The service allows users to send 140-character messages to people who have subscribed to see them, called followers. So instead of sending an email to friends announcing that you just got a new job, you can just tweet it for all the people who have chosen to “follow” you to see. You can create links to particular users in messages by entering @ followed by their user name or send private “direct messages” through the system by typing d and the user name.

Facebook is part of the trend, too. Users post status updates that show up in their friends’ “streams.” They can also post links to content and comment on it. No in-box required.
Dozens of other companies, from AOL and Yahoo Inc. to start-ups like Yammer Inc., are building products based on the same theme.

David Liu, an executive at AOL, calls it replacing the in-box with “a river that continues to flow as you dip into it.”

But the speed and ease of communication cut both ways. While making communication more frequent, they can also make it less personal and intimate. Communicating is becoming so easy that the recipient knows how little time and thought was required of the sender. Yes, your half-dozen closest friends can read your vacation updates. But so can your 500 other “friends.” And if you know all these people are reading your updates, you might say a lot less than you would otherwise.

Too Much Information

Another obvious downside to the constant stream: It’s a constant stream.

That can make it harder to determine the importance of various messages. When people can more easily fire off all sorts of messages—from updates about their breakfast to questions about the evening’s plans—being able to figure out which messages are truly important, or even which warrant a response, can be difficult. Information overload can lead some people to tune out messages altogether.

Such noise makes us even more dependent on technology to help us communicate. Without software to help filter and organize based on factors we deem relevant, we’d drown in the deluge.

Enter filtering. In email land, consumers can often get by with a few folders, if that. But in the land of the stream, some sort of more sophisticated filtering is a must.

On Facebook, you can choose to see updates only from certain people you add to certain lists. Twitter users have adopted the trend of “tagging” their tweets by topic. So people tweeting about a company may follow their tweet with the # symbol and the company name. A number of software programs filter Tweets by these tags, making it easier to follow a topic.

The combination of more public messages and tagging has cool search and discovery implications. In the old days, people shared photos over email. Now, they post them to Flickr and tag them with their location. That means users can, with little effort, search for an area, down to a street corner, and see photos of the place.

Tagging also is creating the potential for new social movements. Instead of trying to organize people over email, protesters can tweet their messages, tag them with the topic and have them discovered by others interested in the cause. Iranians used that technique to galvanize public opinion during their election protests earlier this year. It was a powerful example of what can happen when messages get unleashed.

Who Are You?

Perhaps the biggest change that these email successors bring is more of a public profile for users. In the email world, you are your name followed by a “dot-com.” That’s it. In the new messaging world, you have a higher profile, packed with data you want to share and possibly some you don’t.

Such a public profile has its pluses and minuses. It can draw the people communicating closer, allowing them to exchange not only text but also all sorts of personal information, even facial cues. You know a lot about the person you are talking to, even before you’ve ever exchanged a single word.

Take, for example, Facebook. Message someone over the site and, depending on your privacy settings, he may be a click away from your photos and your entire profile, including news articles you have shared and pictures of that party you were at last night. The extra details can help you cut to the chase. If you see that I am in London, you don’t need to ask me where I am. They can also make communication feel more personal, restoring some of the intimacy that social-network sites—and email, for that matter—have stripped away. If I have posted to the world that I am in a bad mood, you might try to cheer me up, or at least think twice about bothering me.

Email is trying to compete by helping users roll in more signals about themselves. Yahoo and Google Inc. have launched new profile services that connect to mail accounts. That means just by clicking on a contact, one can see whatever information she has chosen to share through her profile, from her hobbies to her high school.

But a dump of personal data can also turn off the people you are trying to communicate with. If I really just want to know what time the meeting is, I may not care that you have updated your status message to point people to photos of your kids.

Having your identity pegged to communication creates more data to manage and some blurry lines. What’s fine for one sort of recipient to know about you may not be acceptable for another. While our growing digital footprints have made it easier for anyone to find personal information about anyone online if they go search for it, new communications tools are marrying that trail of information with the message, making it easier than ever for the recipient to uncover more details.

A Question of Time

Meanwhile, one more big question remains: Will the new services save time, or eat up even more of it?

Many of the companies pitching the services insist they will free up people.

Jeff Teper, vice president of Microsoft Corp.’s SharePoint division, which makes software that businesses use to collaborate, says in the past, employees received an email every time the status changed on a project they were working on, which led to hundreds of unnecessary emails a day. Now, thanks to SharePoint and other software that allows companies to direct those updates to flow through centralized sites that employees can check when they need to, those unnecessary emails are out of users’ in-boxes.

“People were very dependent on email. They overused it,” he says. “Now, people can use the right tool for the right task.”

Perhaps. But there’s another way to think about all this. You can argue that because we have more ways to send more messages, we spend more time doing it. That may make us more productive, but it may not. We get lured into wasting time, telling our bosses we are looking into something, instead of just doing it, for example. And we will no doubt waste time communicating stuff that isn’t meaningful, maybe at the expense of more meaningful communication. Such as, say, talking to somebody in person.

—Ms. Vascellaro is a staff reporter in The Wall Street Journal’s San Francisco bureau. She can be reached at jessica.vascellaro@wsj.com

Do you have your own “brick & mortar” business?

Are you doing MLM / Network marketing?

How about other products & services?

These five techniques WILL help you attract tons of leads into your business.
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Building your Online business can be a frustrating experience if you aren’t experienced or skilled in advertising.  Even if you are used to traditional (off-line) advertising techniques the Internet is a whole other animal. When I got involved in the online marketing profession, I didn’t know how to advertise or market at all, and as a result I struggled to achieve the level of success that I knew was possible online.

After years of trying various things I finally discovered that the proper use of some specific online marketing techniques was the key to that would allow me to accomplish my dreams.
I had a period of time where I was experimenting with different tactics.  Some of them worked, and continue to work today, and some of them I decided to never spend one ounce of energy on, ever again – and neither should you.
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Firstly, learn from my mistakes and let me share with you what you should NOT do.
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Don’t use ANY ‘Blackhat’  advertising tactics, ever.  The term ‘Black Hat’ refers to any attempt on the part of the marketer to ‘trick’ search engines or websites into thinking that you are something you’re not in an attempt to subversively generate traffic for your business.

This is not only irritating for the thousands of people who click on pages that are supposed to have one thing and have another, but it is frustrating as a marketer to constantly be changing your tactics. Search engines absolutely HATE “Blackhat” advertising and Will blacklist your business if you’re caught doing it.   Why do they hate it?  A search engine will only survive as long as it’s able to deliver relevant results on searches people are doing. Blackhat tactics results in search engines delivering irrlevant result. If this happens enough people will stop using the search engine company and it goes out of business. Also as a consumer it’s irritating when you can’t find relevant results to your searches.
A great example of ‘blackhat’ internet advertising is trying to ‘trick’ craigslist into accepting your home business ads in the Jobs section at craigslist.  Because there is so much subversive MLM advertising in the Jobs section at craigslist (MLM is not a job), it is a pain for even a legitimate company to post their ad to the Jobs section.  Plus, blackhat tactics never work for very long.
So what are some online advertising techniques that work?  Here I have listed some ‘White Hat’ SEO friendly online advertising techniques that can immediately help you in your business, listed in order of personal preference:

1.  Article Marketing – My absolute favorite way of marketing online is Article Marketing.  Using Article Marketing as your primary online advertising tactic will pay off big in the long run. The secret is you have to stick with it.

Approximately 25% of the people who read my articles click through to my website, and ALL of that traffic is FREE.  Not only is it free, but once you create traffic with article marketing, the traffic is permanently there.  (This article you’re reading is a great example).

Articles gradually increase natural search engine rankings (organic rankings) and increases the traffic to your website. This increase in ranking over time will get you found on the first page of Google for many of the search terms you’re using.  Try it.  You’ll love it if you love to write.

2.  Video Marketing – It’s hard to get a clear picture on exactly how much online traffic is directed towards video, but current estimates are anywhere around 30%-50% of ALL BANDWITH is video from services like YouTube, Viddler, and others.  People love watching video and it’s much easier for them to get your message via a video than for them to read a manual, brochure etc.

The fastest way to dominate niche keywords online is to use video. Relatively few people are using it at the moment which makes it easy for you to dominate online advertising for your company.

The cool thing?  Video Marketing is free.

Video marketing can also be a huge pain in the butt, though, especially if you’re camera shy.  I don’t give enough of my marketing effort to video marketing, and I still get some great leads. One of my short term goals is to increase the amount of video marketing I’m doing.

3.  Social Networking – The HOTTEST online marketing tactics at the moment are all built around Social Marketing, through Social Networking sites like Myspace, Facebook, twitter, and others.  It used to be that people would actually meet each other in person… Not any more – now they unite in cyberspace on sites like Facebook, MySpace and YouTube.

Seriously, Social Networking is the wave of the future and there are plenty of ways to generate 20-50 leads per day just using Social Media for your online marketing.

A word of caution though. Social Networking is all about building relationships with people. You do this by taking part in the conversation happening online. You provide valuable information and show that you’re a leader in your field. People will then start to follow you. The worst thing you can do on Social Media to to blatantly advertise your business or products. Don’t Do It!
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4.  Blogging – Search engines LOVE blogs!  If you don’t have a personal or business blog – start one today.  Search engines love blogs for a good reason -blogs are updated regularly, which indicates to the search engines that it’s a dynamic entity providing new relevant information as opposed to a static website that never gets updated. As a result of this your ranking within the search engines improves.  This allows you to target keyword phrases, dominate market niches, and take your online advertising to a personal, human level.  That being said, however, learn how to do a blog properly.  Study some of the best blogs out there and apply what you see in you’re own business – it will give you great results over time.

5.  PPC – Pay Per Click advertising is the most efficient paid online advertising technique of all time.  It lets you target THE EXACT people that you are looking for, while they are searching for terms that YOU SELECT.  If you’re putting money in newspaper ads, stop it!  Put that money in Google Adwords – it will be MUCH better spent over the long haul.

PPC is the FASTEST strategy to generate leads, but it is also the most expensive. The learning curve is also very steep and if not done properly you can waste a lot of money.  Don’t attempt google adwords without first receiving training on how to do it properly.

Perry Marshall’s book The definitive guide to Google Adwords is THE resource for beginning and experienced Adwords advertisers alike.

I generate a significant amount of leads through google adwords – I just wouldn’t reccomend it to someone new.
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So where should you start?  First, you need a website that is attractive, simple, and branded with your own personal message.  Then, you need to pick ONE marketing strategy and DOMINATE that strategy.  FOCUS 100% of your attention on that strategy and work at it until you are generating 10 or more leads per day.  Then pick another strategy.
Just do one thing per day and before you know it you’ll be generating 10 – 20 leads per day for your business.

As an Internet Marketing Consultant I often get asked ‘What is Social Media?’ and ‘How can I use Social Media in my business’.
I order to answer these questions and to provide a source of information I’ve written ‘How To Use Social Media To Build Your Brand – A Guide For Business Owners And Marketers’.

It’s aimed at owners and marketers of small to medium size businesses who are interested in exploring ways to leverage the power of the Internet to build awareness for their products and services.

Check out the full article “Getting Healthy Online“

Second Life affair ends in divorce

Micro-blogging is a Social Media tool that combines elements of blogging with instant messaging.

The clear leader in the micro-blogging field is Twitter with over 1 million users.

There are other notable micro-blogging players include Pownce and Jaiku, which offer various different features, but for the purposes of this post I’ll focus on the Twitter format.

Twitter has grown into a real-time short messaging service that works over multiple networks and devices.

In countries all around the world, people follow the sources most relevant to them and access information via Twitter as it happens—from breaking world news to updates from friends.

Simplicity has played an important role in Twitter’s success. People are eager to connect with other people and Twitter makes that simple. Twitter asks one question, “What are you doing?” Answers must be under 140 characters in length and can be sent via mobile texting, instant message, or the web.

The result of using Twitter to stay connected with friends, relatives, and coworkers is that you have a sense of what folks are up to but you are not expected to respond to any updates unless you want to. This means you can step in and out of the flow of information as it suits you and it never queues up with increasing demand of your attention.

Additionally, users are very much in control of whose updates they receive, when they receive them, and on what device. For example, Twitter provide settings for scheduling it to automatically turn off at dinnertime and users can switch off Twitter updates at any point.

Simply put, Twitter is what you make of it–receive a lot of information about your friends, or just a tiny bit. It’s up to you.