After making a strong push to its subscribers for casting images through its own net and dubbing it: “1,000,000 Words in 140 Characters“, Twitter now allows direct posting of images through its website.
Twitter Now Allows Direct Image Upload — FasTake
Twitter nevertheless keeps a tight fits on analytics and when you do share an image through Twitter you can say goodbye to the number of times your picture has been seen. Continue Reading…
New move from Twitter today! With its most current valuation closing in on $8 billion, Twitter is currently looking for $400 million in additional funding. With good chances to close the new funding round, an estimated $200 million in revenue and no apparent hurry to go public, it still needs to continue ramping up its revenue stream.
Through its blog (see post below), Twitter announced today that it would be moving tweets from select companies and promoted tweets (currently only appearing in the list of trends) higher up in our timelines. Twitter did make sure to remind its blog readers that either type of these “plugged” tweets — it calls them “Timely Tweets” — could easily be dismissed, since:
“We put our users first and strive to create products that enrich the Twitter experience for every Twitter user. We’re excited about this next step and look forward to your feedback.”
I personally always appreciated Twitter’s efforts to imagine a new business model out of the age old eyeballs advertising model. This move of prioritizing corporate tweets does make sense given the very short lifecycle of a tweet, short of serious engagement and retweeting from followers and the twittosphere. Companies should see more clicks and retweets as a result… or will they?
A few questions come to mind:
With 200 million users “only” Twitter is still far behind Facebook’s 750 million, but with an average 350 billion tweets currently being delivered each day, Twitter is going strong (see infographic below)… and something must water whomever’s mouth is forking up an additional $400 million in funding.
What do you think the benefits or risks of the “Timely Tweets” move are for Twitter?
Twitter Blog: Timely Tweets: Now easier to seeShare and discover what’s happening right now, anywhere in the world.
It is with great fanfare that iOS 5 was unveiled at the WWDC 2011 in San Francisco today. One of the
notable features announced today — among many others like iMessage which rings in more ways then one the end of the widely popular of Blackberry’s BBM — is the take over by Twitter of the email function in iOS 5.
So far, pretty much anywhere on iOS stock apps, a button to share a screen, link or photo via email was never far. Well as this fall, email will no longer be the lone iOS link to the outside world from your idevice… Make some room email, and say hello to my new little friend: Twitter!
If Facebook has conquered the web with its “like” button, Twitter not content at following suit with a mirroring “Tweet” button, is thus also conquering the very tools we all use to access the web. But iOS 5 is not Twitter’s first pass at flirting with and embedding itself in a tool.
Firefox has already said ‘yes’ to Twitter by adding a very neat add-on that allows to, not only simply type a @username in the search bar and get the corresponding Twitter profile automatically, but also allows to type a #hashtag in to automatically get all tweets tagged with that hashtag.
If you use Firefox, you can get Twitter’s official add-on here. Do note in passing, that this Twitter move will add to the long list of casualties it has already caused; take a look at Twitpic, Twitvid and other Firefox tweeting helper while they’re still alive. It not just for kicks that Twitter has taken advantage of the launch of its very own photo and video sharing service (in partnership with photobucket) to push the use of hashtags and going as far as suggesting that a hashtag is worth more words than a picture: 1,000,000 to be exact.
Firefox and Twitter: Just Married
All clear signs that Twitter is, in my mind, going about conquering the web a bit more smartly — some might say insidiously — than Facebook, who has yet to show such ‘physical’ integration with the tools we use to access the web everyday.
What do you think of Twitter’s approach? Why do you think Facebook has not adopted a similar tack?
… Not that it probably won’t soon now.
“I don’t think anybody out there in the media, UN, human rights organisations, has any moral right whatsoever to level any accusations against me or against Rwanda”
This is what Paul Kagame, long time Rwanda president, said during a recent interview with the Financial Times and it is what reportedly sparked the first ever tweet-fight between and a head of state and a journalist.
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Is this an example of rhetoric 2.0 that we’ll be witnessing in the future? Or will this serve as further deterrent to all public figures out there to — despite bowing to social media pressures to ”be public” and engaged — should “stay put” and not engage in confrontations?
Will we — with the U.S. 2012 presidential elections — witness unprecedented volumes of conversations and tweet-fights? I am pretty sure that the future promises to be very fun on socio-planet. What’s the craziest Twitter sparing you can imagine, featuring political figures among themselves, with journalists, supporters or constituents?
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Paul Kagame, aka @PaulKagame, FT interview had just been published the day before the tweet-fight occurred. Ian Birrell aka @IanBirrell — ex-deputy editor at The Independent and speechwriter for David Cameron, now
columnist and co-founder of Africa Express — apparently did not like Paul Kagame’s remark as he proceeded to include in his tweet sharing the article the descriptive: “despotic & deluted“.
To which Paul Kagame, or whomever is managing his account, quickly replied:
Not content with a measly 140 characters reply he proceeds to fire 5 more tweets:
Ian Birrell was most likely not at his first not so social tweet at a prominent public figure and, probably surprised at the rather lengthy and public reply from a head of state, seems to take advantage of the opportunity and make the windfall last:
Paul Kagame starts by “pouting”
And proceeds to answer Ian’s request by another question:
Ian Birrell reminds him of the, apparently, not so shiny Rwandan press freedom record
To which Paul Kagame deflects the chat to Ian’s own government handling of press freedom
Than putting his tweets where his mouth is, to exactly what he was engaging in at that moment:
Than goes on to continue exposing his rationale
While Ian Birrell never responded — at least publicly — beyond that last “underlines the point” tweet. Paul Kagame ended by seemingly softening his talk and clarifying his thoughts, maybe not wanting to further poison the relationship with the journalist.
The next tweet in Paul Kagame’s timeline only occurred the next day, in response to a certain Paul Hird aka paulhird9 who apparently “handles multi-million and multi billion dollar transactions worldwide” and “deals mainly with Governments and Royalty” at “Zero interest rates” (!)…
What’s the craziest Twitter sparing you can imagine featuring political figures among themselves, with journalists, supporters or constituents?
Ian Birrell also wrote about what he called “My twitterspat with Paul Kagame‘, his take on it has a more a political slant to it and if you are so inclined, you can read it here: “Returning home from a Saturday afternoon walk with the dog, I did what has become almost a reflex action and checked Twitter. Bizarrely, there was the president of Rwanda having a go at me over disparaging comments I had made about an interview he gave that morning…”
Today, Twitter unveiled its long awaited photo and video sharing, not only leaving the likes of Twitpic, Yfrog and Twitvid in the dust… with a twist: pushing hashtags. Watch Twitter’s new “Top pictures” and “Top Videos” soon becoming the latest buzz word in both social and mainstream media.
In watching the official unveiling video below, Twitter is smartly appealing to users’ love-hate relationship with the ubiquitous 140 characters limit: too limiting to ramble but fantastic to consume and digest.
Twitter does this by upgrading the old age adage: “A picture is worth 1,000 words” by adding to it that “A hashtag is worth a 1,000 pictures”. Something a simple as a # and a word more meaningful than 1,000 pictures? Tall order you think? Maybe not so for those among us who dabbled with the use of hashtags on Twitter.
If you put the #perfectmoment hashtag side by side along with an actual picture of what someone decided it was the representation of a perfect moment; which do you think will be more powerfully meaningful? Your imagination or the visual representation of someone else’s judgment?
From a strict platform business relevance, it seems obvious that Twitter is also taking advantage of the new sharing feature to encourage the use of hashtags.This in effects amounts to hire users in helping it crowdsource and make more searchable, the 50 million tweets it garners every day. This, as illustrated by hashtag linked photos and videos Twitter displays in its video. The more relevant its search results will be the more attractive the platform will become.
Furthermore, and from a strict user experience, this move also helps it pragmatically explain to users, and especially potential new users, what hashtags are. In my experience, the Twitter hashtag concept is always a sticky point for new users to grasp and it is at same time, often a deterrent for would be users, as it makes Twitter look to them rather gibberish to comfortably approach.
Smart move, don’t you think?
By Twitter’s definition, a hashtag, represented by the symbol #, “is used to mark keywords or topics in a Tweet. It was created organically by Twitter users as a way to categorize messages“. But overtime it has become much more than a categorization tool.
Given the 140 characters limit of a tweet — limit which in many ways turned out a blessing — , many Twitter and social networks users in general, use it to express an emotion, give context or clarification to a tweet. Imagine what this tweet would mean without the #scarcasm hashtag? And how many characters would it take to explain its true meaning?
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In the second tweet below and without ‘#sarcasm’, quickly grasping the intent of @Carcharius, may prove difficult, given other conversations @mrtuckbox and @helenzille may be in, without searching for the replied to tweet (shown in smaller font in the screenshot below). For added reference, the tweet author may also have also added: #SeaPoint or #Tickets or #Police.
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Many will also tell you that hashtags may soon become the new official URL to display… all the way to ornamenting business cards.
Do you use hashtags on Twitter? How about other places? What’s been your experience with it?
With Twitter already turned five and passing the 200 million open accounts bar, you probably have heard from heavy twitterers, the press and maybe some gurus how easy, convenient and awesome Twitter is to use. No matter, of all the persons I’ve seen trying to pick up the tool for business, many fail to grasp both the necessary process and mindset. Why? By simply failing to listen and care.
Fanajeen
Aassmaa A., a person I advise on social media utilization, returned home to Casablanca, Morocco after a decade lived in San Diego, CA with the idea to transplant the cozy and convenient concept of Californian coffee shops, but with a vintage Arab flair to it. She called it ‘Fanajeen’, the way teacups were called in ancient Arab times. To round up the experience, she chose for her first two locations, the 753,500 square feet (70,000 m2) Morocco Mall in Casablanca. In September 2011, it will be the first mega mall to open in Morocco.
What’s most notable in the way Aassmaa, aka @Fanajeen, picked up on the Twitter and social media essence, is her lightning fast realization after just 10 weeks that the business messages she needed to push out, became magically relevant to her nascent community only when she started really hearing and demonstrating genuine interest and care. This, without needing to feel awkward, clunky or to try and wrap business messages inside hollow sounding and futile niceties, to make them attractive, relevant and impactful. With the comfortable result of being asked to communicate about her business, rather than having to impose it.
Listen and watch Aassmaa, as she candidly tells the story of her love affair with Twitter. For those of you who ‘know the drill’ you might find some interesting nuggets. For those who are still keeping Twitter at bay, viewing it a complex and cumbersome platform, or just simply not seeing a purpose to it; listen and you might discover, as Aassma did, a whole new and unsuspected world to tap into… right in your own backyard!
Most of you reading this most likely have a Facebook account — with its 500+ million users, it is certainly not to be overlooked in any business context — but remember this: if Facebook was TV, Twitter would be a book. Remember your parents and teachers nagging you with some version of: “Read a book! It will make your mind work and imagination better”.
I believe Aassmaa has well earned her ‘@’ sign and I personally believe she did a great job. If you agree, do feel free to let her know at @Fanajeen. [UPDATE: Attaining a 55 Klout score in just 12 weeks is quite an achievement]
Enjoy!
Indonesians, who were the victims of earthquakes, a tsunami, and volcanic eruptions last month, are finding help from an unlikely source: Twitter.
Indonesia is a country composed of 17,000 islands, and organizing aid relief efforts has proved a challenge, particularly in regions where infrastructure was destroyed, reports Reuters. So enterprising and tech-savvy citizens are taking measures into their own hands, coordinating relief through Twitter. Twitter is extremely popular among Internet-using Indonesians, 21% of whom use the site (compare that to 12% for the U.S.)… read more…
Any story culminating in a group hug is always great. The path to Twitter ‘addiction’ is one of those stories. 
Addiction to Twitter does actually often arrive at a group hug instead of getting caught at customs in a Bangkok airport with a stashed kilo of heroine. Yes, a hug as close to reality as a virtual group hug can get. That’s where Twitter can lead you.
The very talented Roba Al-Assi | @RobaAssi put together an excellent description of each stage leading up to a full on Twitter addiction. You can find the details on Roba’s blog cleverly titled “and far away“.
After watching one of these group hug stories, after the high is gone, do you ever wonder: Nice… Now what?
To be sure, group hugs sessions are fantastic but for a businesses looking to leverage Twitter, those alone will not keep the lights on.
But for those of you, wannabe social businesses, still hesitating to jump on the Twitter bandwagon, you might not be stuck at Roba’s Stage I, but you might be unsure as to what good might these emotional effusions do for your bottom line.
I’m not going to go down the endless list of benefits a well managed Twitter presence can do for businesses here and now, but here’s a hint to munch on: How much probability would a sales call or meeting have to succeed if it had been preceded by a hug?
Now although virtual, I’m not talking about a fake hug. I’m talking about a genuine connection built overtime, based on mutual knowledge of each party and a reach beyond strict business chatting. That’s the opportunity that Twitter is affording us all, regardless of distances, connections or time zones, the ability to virtually invite folks you want to do business with, to sit down and have the equivalent of a nice cup of hot tea, shoot the breeze and break the ice before talking business.
If you had all the time and money in the world, how good of an idea do you think it would be, to invite all your customers and prospects for a one on one chat over a cup of tea? … Now you can and much more.
Question? Post a comment below
Are there characters on Twitter, other than the most active, homogeneous group with the same interests that seems to be shouting at each other? Is this group making Twitter the opposite of what it should be: an open and inviting platform where everyone is welcome to voice their thoughts in whatever manner they wish. More voices are rising everyday against this matter of fact.
These question came about while reading a reply to an article I shared on Twitter this week: “Who are You Blogging for? Your peers or Your Customers?
The article examined who should a blogger’s content address. When blogging or tweeting — Twitter is a micro-blog — 
is used for marketing purposes but only pursues peer approval, than what’s the point? Will only peers buy your products? It won’t work for most.
Another reply to the same tweet, supports Mario’s assumption: “I blog for my peers“. Let’s hope for him that his peers, are his customers. But for the vast majority of businesses eying Twitter as promotional tool, should they really be banking on Twitter to market their products and services? Are their customers really on Twitter?
Mario is partly correct in that, of the current 105 million twitter accounts, only 20% are reportedly posting a tweet at least once a month. The rest is either just reading, bowing to a wrongly held belief that they “have nothing to say”, or is flat out of it; having opened an account, now on life support, either in the heat of the 2009 explosion of Twitter or were whirlwind by a convert’s “pitch”, that Twitter was the next Eldorado of riches and fame, only to quickly forget about it.
In my experience and despite its incredible power in channeling information and connecting people, Twitter is for novices one of the most difficult social networks to approach. You can almost bet on the possible reaction following the explanation of the benefits of Twitter: instant addiction or flat rejection. Facebook, beyond it’s sheer mastodon size, is ‘pretty’: plenty of picture, avatars, movies and all around pleasant experience to anyone looking to idly be taken from a link to another without much effort, it’s like watching TV. In comparison, Twitter is like reading a book, it takes effort but, so they say, is more beneficial to one’s brain. Most people will always choose the easy way. 
Many of the 20%, are “tweeps” — as the twitter lingo calls them — hailing from SEO, web design, social media or some other form of online marketing profession. Each one more often than not touting to the next… the next best thing.
Twitter initially took hold with techies and is still to a large extent the case. Anyone trying to get into twitter today, no matter how non techie they might be, must quickly absorb and use a new lingo to hope getting the most out of twitter. #Hashtags, for example, are now bleeding into the mainstream communication of the 20%, but to the lay person are a concept that usually takes a few analogies to grasp and much longer to adopt.
These matter of facts should certainly not discourage businesses from using Twitter. The 20% are only the tip of the iceberg, driving and feeding the rest: readers and listener. They are out there and more of them are arriving in droves every moment: 
The key is to find and engage them.
The “talkative” 20%er just needs to get their heads out of their bubble — It can be #intimidating y’all! — look around and work to make Twitter a more approachable environment for newbies and non-peers; so they can feel less threatened to participate and make the social network even more mainstream. Making is as such will benefit us all in making Twitter grow in a more relevant manner.
To all the others — minus the bots and spam accounts — don’t be frazzled by anyone telling you what to do or how to do it. You have more to say than you think and… you’re certainly not alone, read from other people battling for y’all:
Feel free to reach out to them or myself @FasTake, for any question or help in navigating the fantastic Twitter ocean.
As a non professional, how do you currently use Twitter? What would make it better for you?
And if you’re so inclined check out why, also in social media if you “Sow Well Today and You Will Reap Tomorrow”
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