Twitter: Deliver the message, respect the reader

This week I ditched a guy I was following on Twitter because he stopped respecting the 140-character limit. I suspect he won’t be the last, either. “He managed to get more than 140 characters in?” some may wonder breathlessly. “How’d he do that? Can I do that too?” No, he didn’t, although people are already [...]

Whole Foods – You Complete Me

Spend 5 minutes with me or be within 10 feet of me and I am sure at some point in the conversation you will hear me mention Whole Foods.  I freely admit it – I am a monster sized fan of WF.  For many years I have lived only a few blocks from one of [...]

Deconstructing a Social Revolt: Small Hiccup or Thermonuclear Twit Storm?

On Tuesday, Twitter posted a notice to its blog regarding a “small settings update.” Others have done a fine job of detailing the changes (here’s monkey_bite’s), so I won’t belabor the point here. Suffice it to say, the update resulted in users no longer seeing every post of those they follow. The effect was noticeable. [...]

Twitter Getting Serious About Search

Remember a while back when I was pontificating about search becoming more social? Probably not. But, check this… Twitter’s new VP of Operations, Santosh Jayaram recently told CNET about some interesting changes coming to Twitter Search. Even now, searching on Twitter often provides faster and more relevant results than Google (note Jayaram’s earthquake story at [...]

Twitters are Quitters?

ANALYSIS FAIL! In a weak attempt at being relevant in the social media space, Nielsen is reporting that 60% of Twitter users don’t return the following month. David Martin, Nielsen Online’s vice president for primary research, says: “Twitter has enjoyed a nice ride over the last few months, but it will not be able to [...]

Online Campaigns Going Social

During the past 2 weeks a ton has happen within the social media realm, Ashton reaches 1mm twits, Oprah “Starts tweeting“, the MySpace CEO steps down, Facebook exec replaces him… wow! Michael Stelzner released a study during the Social Media Success Summit 2009, where 88% of marketers in a recent survey say they are now [...]

Oprah Won’t Kill Twitter, But She Will Alter Its DNA

The name that sold a gazillion books is now attaching itself to the world of a gazillion tweets. Yes, Oprah has arrived on Twitter, and she’s making Ashton Kutcher look like a newb — the heck with Twitter.com; she’s launched her own branded Twitter portal. I mean, once you’re following Oprah, why would you want [...]