Thanks to a tweet by Jeremiah Owyang (aka @JowYang) I found out about this new “network” that may be pointing out to a new kind of “social”.
The kind that’s closed and limited to the one person of your choice. In this case only two. The name is simply “Pair“, self-described as: “An interactive way for you and your partner to share everything“. With concepts such as “thumbkissing” and “sketch together”, the iPhone app has some interesting features.
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”
How likely would you be to start stalking your Facebook friends if it were to save you time and allow for a more meaningful experience on the social network?
So Facebook is twiterizing… again. Mashable and AllFacebook are both calling it “HUGE”. Although the new feature offers some interesting engagement opportunities, it’s actually not that new. But let’s look at the “HUGEness” first. The scoop resides in a test feature Facebook is currently running and dubbing: “Subscribe”. Note they didn’t call it “follow”, it’s got to look genuine.
Soon you’ll be able to ‘subscribe’ to friends activities on Facebook and be notified about every single move they make. If all goes well, you’ll soon be able to see under the avatar of everyone of your friends this little link:
Facebook Subscribe Feature
With this nifty feature, every time you get on Facebook you’ll have notifications about everything the subscribed to person(s) did and you’ll be able to clamor your attention to the chosen one(s), making them feel good about how “interesting” their post was that it prompted you to comment and show how much attention you pay to them by the same token. Notwithstanding the little thrill you do now get when you comment on a post in the minute following its publication when, by pure chance, you ran into a post about which you had something to say from someone you actually care about .
“Chance” is the key word here, because up until now with your ever growing stream of friends and liked pages filling your timeline with their updates. Only Chance could hook you up with posts you actually cared about. With an ever bloating timeline one wonders how many are loosing interest in even looking at it; expecting it as so many times before, to be filled with the same old posts from that childhood classmate you just cannot come to terms with dropping or hiding.
Facebook Subscribe Notifications (Credit: Mashable)
Not anymore, assuming you are willing to have your notification box filled to the breams, you’ll now be able to create your own “nichework”, to hone in on and cultivate as well as your stalking abilities. Will that equte to less time spent aimlessly scanning your Facebook timeline? Will that mean more and better engagement?
Facebook Subscribe via SMS
The feature is in effect not entirely new since you can already subscribe to, or stalk, friends by clicking this little known link title “subscribe via SMS”. This action gets you an SMS about everything a friend initiates; i.e. will not notify of likes or check-in, as the new feature won’t either as reported by AllFacebook and so far confirmed by a Facebook statement to them:
“This feature is being tested with a small percent of users. It lets people subscribe to friends and pages to receive notifications whenever the person they’ve subscribed to updates their status or posts new content (photos, videos, links, or notes).”
The new feature would be a boon for businesses from an engagement standpoint allowing them to react to their fans activity in a timely fashion, and in particular if users can also subscribe to activities of pages; how often do you, if ever, check your “updates” section on Facebook?
This will certainly modify the flow of communication on Facebook and make it closer in speed, and potentially in volume, to Twitter’s. Isn’t that what Facebook is looking for? It is very similar to creating Twitter lists or saving searches but with the added bonus of notifications allowing for a faster response and maybe better engagement.
This indeed constitues further Twiterization of Facebook since the micro-blogging platform allows notifications about:
Credit: TheOatmeal.com
Could this really mean a better, more meaningful Facebook experience? Or will it mean more people turning into “Rashes” and “sucking at Facebook“?
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What do you think? Will you use this feature?
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