Nicholas Cifuentes

Twitter.

What if there was a business tool that existed, which could allow companies to listen in on discussions about how people are using their products, analyze what people are saying about them, and could allow that company to respond to that “person” directly.

It’s a tool that effectively hones in on embracing the early product adopters and influencers who are then able to share with their friends, followers and other individuals related to these “key” components.

It’s is Twitter. But more importantly, it’s a Twitter built around building discussion, interest and awareness of your products and overall branding strategy.

Twitter is a micro-blogging platform that allows a user to create short posts, or better known as “tweets” - which others then can follow, reply and respond to as they see fit.

But, you have to realize, this is much more than just telling someone what you had for dinner a last night or that you just finished your laundry. This is a tool that creates a bridge of genuine interaction with people who choose to use your products. If a company properly integrates this process - you can utilize Twitter to capture “conversation” between your company, customers, clients and colleagues.

Proper Conversation.

But you have to remember, Twitter is a conversation tool, and you have to treat it as such. People will STOP following and paying attention to you quickly if you blast them with blatant “marketing.” They don’t want to see your latest press release. Trust me…I and many other have quickly “de-followed” brands which do so. This kind of “tweeting” could leave your brand in a worse position then when it started, and leave your reputation tainted.

Get The Most Out of Twitter.

Who are you trying to reach with Twitter? Is it the key influencers in your field, or might it be the possible users who wish to engage in using your products? Choose one and stick with it.

To do this, it might be best to create an online persona for both - so think one twitter account to get the “news” out, another to harness customer complaints, and maybe a third to take part in the conversation. Just please don’t use one account for all three purposes - this will hurt you severely in the end.

Followers.

To use Twitter in the most effective way - you have to “listen” to the conversations and what others are talking about. As a brand, you do not want to go just follow 2,000 random people and hope that is going to work - think quality, not quantity.

To achieve this goal - utilize the many twitter search tools that exists in the social space. One very useful Twitter search tool is search.twitter.com to find people who are tweeting about you, your brand, competitors, and products you offer. Follow these individuals who you have identified as key constituents for your brand, and then begin to engage them back in conversation.

By following customers, clients, colleagues and leaders in your industry or field, this shows them that you want to “hear” what they have to say. These people will almost always “follow” you back.

Don’t Be Boring. Please.

Always remember to offer something of value to the conversation. It could be advice about your products, news about the company, quality information about what you do, or maybe the occasional joke - Twitter users want to be informed, entertained and kept interested at all times. Don’t constantly push self promotion with no value and consistent ad-rhetoric - this will quickly hurt your Twitter reputation.

Show interests in your users…share with them in their experiences, and ask them questions, engage them! This will quickly show them that you are interested in what they are doing, and will allow them to respond, follow, and possibly use your product.

Beyond Twitter.

Twitter has so much potential for harnessing conversation and interaction. Don’t allow the conversation to stop there. Tie Twitter to your blog and blog posts, link it to your Flickr account, Facebook & MySpace pages, and YouTube Channels…there is so much you can do with this platform and pushing it beyond the Twitter bubble will allow you to further expand your presence in the social media channels.

Utilize Those Twitter Tools.

Twitter can be a bit confusing to the newbie…but there are so many available Twitter tools to take advantage of that allow you to easily perform keyword searches, send direct messages, shorten URL’s and mark tweets as read or unread.

The Twitter website offers the advanced search tool, which allows you to enter keywords and seek out tweets. You can even subscribe to search as an RSS feed.

TweetDeck is a desktop client that allows you to run multiple searches that update in real time. It allows you to see your replies and direct messages in separate columns in the same interface. Twhirl is another client that acts in the same way, but a smaller interface.

Another tool I like to personally use is FriendFeed, a social media website that allows you to consolidate more than 45 different social media and social networking websites, including Digg, Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, Delicious, Flickr, Stumbleupon, MySpace, and more.

And then in the mobile space, you have three fantastic Twitter applications for the iPhone, Blackberry and Treo. Twitterific for the iPhone, and TwitterBerry & TinyTwitter for the BlackBerry and MoTwit on the Treo are great applications to utilize - who knows when the next great thought might come to you? It could be when your standing in line for a cup of coffee or in a business meeting that just doesn’t end, or maybe your waiting on the runway for the plane to take off, either way - it’s more than just a fad.

It’s Twitter.

Fin.

PR: wait… I: wait… L: wait… LD: wait… I: wait… wait… C: wait… SD: wait…

Influencers.

Yes, you…the man in the corner of Starbucks sipping your vanilla late. You, the young blonde typing away to the world, using your ‘content’ to help unite others. You, the young man with a camera strapped to your head, broadcasting to the world your every moving moment. You, the brand.

You, I, and the other 10 percent of social media website users are the so called influencers. A new study by Rubicon Consulting reveals that those who dominate social media conversations are most likely to influence their peers. The study confirms that 80 - 90 percent of user-generated content is produced by less than 10 percent of users.

You, the brand.

Now, let’s think about a recent poll Forrester Research conducted that declared social media as now a ‘mainstream’ activity. It said 75 percent of Internet users participate in social media, whereas only 56 percent participated in 2007. Also, 48 percent of the poll-takers said they read a blog at least once a day. And 69 percent of them said that they are ’spectators’ of blogs, that is up from 48 percent the previous year. When it comes to writing product reviews on websites, 37 percent said they take part in this activity, up 25 percent from the previous year. And 19 percent collect content through social bookmarking and RSS feeds, up 12 percent from the previous year. And 21 percent said they publish a personal blog or Web page, a small increase from 18 percent the previous year.

You, the brand.

Online retailers also take advantage of this space, a survey by the Opinion Research Corporation found that 85 percent of social media users believe that companies should interact with them through social media. And Emarketer recently reported that only 7 percent of the public believed that companies should not be in the social media space at all. In that same report, despite the call for companies to ‘go all in’ with social media marketing, many ecommerce websites are fairly new to the social media space.

In the same report, it was said that Facebook garnered 32 percent of companies interest when testing the social media space, with MySpace coming in second @ 27 percent and YouTube @ 26 percent. That then left Flickr with a 5 percent share and another 10 percent scattered about on various other social networking sites.

You, the brand.

OK…so what does this mean? Let’s think about that a second. With the economy falling apart, and not getting up anytime soon - people are turning to social networking for marketing as an escape. An escape from what though?

The old, historic ways of traditional marketing are simply becoming too antique in design. This old model has been turned upside down. This process started with email, but that led to a filtering system that was simply too clogged, and as not effective as when first developed. Now, with a filtering system that has expanded, in large part to social networking sites, technology has allowed the average person to create audio, video and text products that rival the traditional marketing channels of old - such as radio, tv and print medias.

The idea is simple - we must adapt. There is little choice to resist.

And from the points made to begin this article, the transition has already started. Social networking is a tool that clearly has the capacity and outreach to succeed. You consistently listen to people in the marketing sectors and those who believe social media has become overused and the channels have become too convoluted.

But have they really?

You see the numbers above - such small percentage of users even actively ‘influence’ those channels - while the numbers of just basic participants are moderate at best…but hardly overwhelming. Consider the the number of Internet users worldwide, only about 1.5 billion people use the Internet, only about a 1/5 of the worldwide population, according to InternetWorldStats.com. And just a mere (very, very small) percentage of those users take part in social media at the moment.

So, for the naysayers to excuse this new wave of communications as a ‘phase’ is simply foolish. It really is.

Branding Will Work.

If you casually take part in the social media streams, it will be hard to negotiate who is an ‘influencer’ and who is simply a passerby. But the shock factor these major ‘influencers’ trigger is quite impressive. No, they aren’t stats that are going to blow your mind away, nor can they be tracked in an uncomplicated manner. But these influencers that are found on social networks, such as blogs, video, audio and micro-blogging websites have surfaced in the past two years and truly have become growing ‘brands’ themselves.

I know it’s a bit of reach to go out on a limb like this, but the effectiveness of their ‘campaigning’ can be found in in their following. These are not just individuals who garner a number of links to their website based on Alexa rankings, these are people who have the creativity, energy and charisma to capture an audience, keep them involved, and keep them coming back for more. Doesn’t that sound all too familar?

Now, there are many people to mention, but personally, people who I think effectively market not only their own service, and help influence others to take part in social media - but are individuals who have created an effective ‘brand’ of themselves. Now, of course, 99 percent of these people do what I do, Internet marketing & consulting of some kind - but those are the ones who have the most ‘play’ inside the networks and can become the influencers necessary to gather an audience quickly.

Let’s take a look @ a few:

Chris Brogan, a brilliant mind who has been involved in social media for a number of years now - has quickly put himself ahead of the pack when it comes to influencing his field - now that is from a marketing perspective.

Another person who has done a good job at influencing her field is Liz Strauss - an effective online marketer with a large influence in the field - prospect from the marketing field.

Now, that is just two of the many major ‘marketing brands’, but I think some truly effective influencers in the field are not the major marketing professionals, but the personalities that have the opportunity to use many characteristics to brand themselves. And through that process - bring in other influencers and outside attention themselves.

Justine Ezarik.

My first influencer, who is not in anyway a major marketing expert, but more a growing brand is Justine Ezarik. She is young, energetic blonde, that started off lifecasting herself and every moment by one of her many cameras, be it in coffee shops, at work as a designer - video editor, or even through a camera in her car - she started that way and grew herself into an internet phenomena. Now, she is one the growing ‘brands’ and from what I have seen, doing many Internet and TV shows, traveling all over, and all because she wanted to create herself as a brand. She engages an audience, keep them interested, and returning often. And speaks @ many social media events across the States.

Gary Vaynerchuck.

Another major influencer is the one and only Gary Vaynerchuk. His wine knowledge propelled him from a successful Northern New Jersey wine store owner into a internet marvel - all because of his wine knowledge, energy, charisma and passion for influencing others. He has turned a daily wine video blog into appearances on Conan, Ellen, Mad Money, Nightline and more. He speaks often @ social media and Internet marketing conferences across the country - his energy is unmatched; and has put him into a position to market himself as a business consultant, speaker and social media expert based on his personal experiences.

Gary has a massive following, and has influenced many across the world to not only take part in wine, his field of expertise, but social media as a whole. He is a brand that has truly blossomed in the past year - in a very large way! He has even put together his own wine cruise, on massive cruise ship - that is impressive!

Sarah Austin.

Next on my list of great branding entrepreneurs is Miss Pop17 herself, Sarah Austin. This Manhattan-based lifecaster and video journalist graduated from the line of those trying to get into major technology shows, to being invited on a regular basis just a year later. She is based in Manhattan and concentrates on the new cultural phenomenon of online micro-celebrity. She interviews other Internet stars, both established and growing.

Justin.tv & Mogulus.com

Another original that took lifecasting to the forefront, and provided the platform and idea for many of the above influencers to start on are the geniuses @ Justin.tv They have created a platform that allows anyone in mere minutes to begin lifecasting yourself. Why would you do this - you might ask? Well, that seems like another blog entry soon to arrive, but my guess is that everyone wants to be seen in some way, whether its online, in person or through some other manner - most people who go on these lifecasting channels, such as Justin.tv just sit in front of the computer and chat with viewers through instant messaging - pointless…yea, I would say most of them are…but if you do it right - you can market your brand to the fullest.

As in blogging, high quality content is the most effective in driving interest, so when it comes to video, (for you lifecasters) please think that way - be relevant and produce high quality, interesting video - and you will see yourself blossom into success. Sure, there are other factors involved, but content, as in blogging, SEO and beyond - remember, it is the most important. Another notable lifecasting platform that I have to recommend is Mogulus.com - similar to Justin.tv - but Mogulus features the ability to mix multiple live cameras, import video clips, and overlay graphics…so if you are thinking of lifecasting - check them out as well.

Julia Roy.

One last growing brand, my personal darkhorse at the moment - and one that I think can really push herself into the limelight, is my fellow tweeter - Miss Julia Roy. I have only seen a little bit of her in the public eye, but she has been mentioned as one of the top graded twitter-ers, and also has been a guest on the Pop17, as mentioned above. I don’t know what it exactly is…but I believe she can do what the others are doing just as well - she has a new feature coming out called ‘tweet-week’ a video blog that will offer tips, insight, and more to the twitter community and beyond. Keep an eye on her…I am calling it now. (Gotta do it now JR).

Where Are We Going?

In the deep bowels of social media and personal branding, their is a secret to all of this. It is you.

There are many other popular Internet stars and budding personalities - many more than the few I have mentioned above. And they are all branding in some way or another, but most importantly - they are all influencers. They are the ones that are going to capture you, or your friends, your family, brothers, sisters, and so on - the influencers. It is these individuals who will help grow traditional marketing and its antique manners into a growing platform social networking has yet to really establish. Where it is going…it’s truly a waiting game to see how things play out. But just remember, it is we, the influencers, that will keep social media growing into something truly amazing.

fin.

Yammer.

So what is all this Yammer-ing about? After coming across a NY Times article posted Monday that spoke about one of my favorite websites Twitter, and another similar modeled website called Yammer, the question came up - microblogging for business? Yes, I know many people have asked this before, but when combining that question & the topic of non-existent ‘dollar-generating business models’ - what is the outlook?

I cam across Yammer last month when I noticed they won the TechCrunch50, and after reading about them in depth more yesterday - a very interesting point arose - the Twitter for the business world - could it really work?

Yammer, a service that mimics Twitter, but charges from the outset…(applaud). Sort of, Yammer is aimed at the corporate customers, and already has 60,000 users. And they aim to answer the key question, “What are you working on?” Their goal is to make offices more productive through updates on company events and work-related questions that will not clog e-mail boxes with mass mailings.

And how is that money made you ask? Well, TechCrunch, a Web 2.0 technology blog, that gave them the TechCrunch50 prize for start-ups, said they were “Twitter with a business model.” This is no knock @ Twitter though - they have been around since 2006, and have more than 3 million users, but have been criticized by some for their lack of a proper “business model”, as said by several VC’s. More on that shortly….

However, Yammer’s business model is interesting, because it spreads virally in a sense. Anyone with a company email address can sign up and start using Yammer for free. But when a company “officially” joins Yammer, giving an administrator more control over security and how employees use the service - it pays $1 a month for each user. And unlike Twitter, that will limit you to a 140 characters in a message, Yammer let’s you type as much as you need to. In Yammer’s first six weeks, it had 10,000 companies with more than 60,000 users sign up, although only 200 companies with 4,000 users are paying so far.

Now that is certainly not a massive amount of income, but Yammer is similar to what Twitter has been - a decision to grow first and monetize second.

Twitter has raised a reportedly $20 million from venture capitalist, and are similar in belief to the ‘grow first, monetize second’ - but has the economic downturn changed that mindset?

Last week, Twitter pushed aside engineer and creator of Twitter, Jack Dorsey, and gave the job to Evan Williams, Twitter’s chairman and more experienced executive. This leads to that overall question…how does Twitter generate revenue?

Early next year, Twitter has plans to introduce many ways to introduce revenue streams into the current business model. I believe one idea is to charge companies that want to use Twitter as an official channel to talk with their customers and monitor what they are saying.

It seems that many companies grew on the idea of first growing the product and then monetizing thereafter - Google began as a search engine with no revenue before turning a lucrative advertising model that turned it into an internet god. But any company needs to know, chances they will have ‘Google-like’ success - doubtful.

Let’s go back to Yammer though for a minute - obviously chances everyone @ your workplace is on a computer?  Very good. Now, let’s promote in-house conversation how? - emails do get very cluttered and does everyone read them? No.

I admit, I have never read everything that came from the ‘higher-ups’ from places I once worked for, that includes stuff from HR or other departments that just get overcooked in your inbox - you don’t have time, and many the patience to read it all.  So here comes Yammer - ‘a corporate Twitter’ that includes a bevy of security features, include limiting I.P. addresses, requiring passwords, cutting off ex-employees and removing certain messages. Once that company administrator takes over, Yammer charges a $1 per user per month.

Yammer has already recruited companies like Cisco Systems, Xerox and Hewlett-Packard, motion picture companies, and a large casino company.

We have to look @ the obvious for a second though - Yammer is a new way to do a lot of stuff people already do in the workplace. Social enterprise software like SharePoint, Jive Software offer many of these features, as does Twitter and Facebook to communicate with co-workers. But with Yammer, will this more concentrated method of communication change the way businesses communicate?

I suppose all we can do is wait on this one.

With the economy in such a wonderful state of mind these days (wink), it seems their might be some bad news for digital advertisers. According to a PubMatic report released this week, the price advertisers are willing to pay for ad space online is down 27 percent this year.

PubMatic tracked the sale of display ads through ad networks on Websites in more than 20 different topic areas, and saw that ads on social networks fetched the smallest price per thousand eyeballs - 21 cents. This is down 22 percent from the second quarter. Ads on sports sites were the next lowest at 25 cents, followed by ads prices on entertainment sites, which saw the steepest drop, to 33 cents.

Ads on business sites, as well as finance sites saw some high prices, at close to 86 cents, but that seemed down 22 percent from the second quarter. Web sites about technology were the only category that didn’t see ad prices fall - they remained at a static 57 cents per thousand eye balls.

Although the above seems not so promising, ads on small webs sites, those websites that get fewer than 1 million page views per month, sold on ad networks for three times as much space on big sites with more than 100 million page views per month. And get this, the average advertiser paid 61 cents for every thousand pairs of eyeballs that viewed their ads, as compared to 18 cents on large sites.

This focus is because of one my favorite aspects of smaller websites, niche content. Niche Content works brilliantly because advertisers can reach a much more targeted audience. When you don’t go through an ad network, you KNOW who will be viewing your ads, and are much more likely to yield a stronger ROI.

But, GigaOM brought up a great point this week as well, analyzing whether people even bother to look at display ads any longer.

What are your thoughts?

Although this might be slightly old news, it still something worth writing about. A new report from Peter Schilling, the Director of IT @ Amherst College, said that 438 students who enrolled at Amherst this fall, 432 had joined the Amherst College Class of 2012 Facebook Group by the end of August (classes started the first week of September). Schilling also said that 3,225 posts were made in the group by that time.

To think that only six students out of an entire class are not on Facebook is quite an astonishing fact. Over the past four years Facebook has become a second language on college campuses nationwide. Ask almost any student what ‘friending’, ‘poking’ or ‘leaving a message on someone’s wall’ means and they will be able to tell you almost instantly.

Facebook is your identity.

For many teenagers, college students, young adults, and even adults; Facebook is simply irresistible. It honestly is. Just look @ the numbers:

• Just this past June, Facebook became the largest social network by reach at 132 million uniques, a 35% jump from the end of 2007, according to comScore.
• Facebook’s user base grew by nearly 25% to 102 million active users. Facebook nearly added 20 million more members during the third quarter, 80% of which came from outside the U.S.
• 17 countries now have more than 1 million Facebook users: United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Turkey, Chile, France, Australia, Colombia, Venezuela, Italy, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Spain, Mexico, Hong Kong, and Argentina. South Africa and Belgium will be next to cross the mark.
• Facebook’s torrid growth in Europe and South America has continued. 10 of the 15 fastest growing countries in 3Q08 were European; 3 were South American.

Despite the international growth, Zuckerberg (Sir Mark), recently said in a German Newspaper interview that the company is focused on growth first, revenue second.

Sir Mark said:

“What every great internet company has done is to figure out a way to make money that has to match to what they are doing on the site. I don’t think social networks can be monetized in the same way that search did. But on both sites people find information valuable. I’m pretty sure that we will find an analogous business model. But we are experimenting already. One group is very focused on targeting; another part is focused on social recommendation from your friends. In three years from now we have to figure out what the optimum model is. But that is not our primary focus today… Growth is primary, revenue is secondary.”

And when asked about a potential IPO:

“No, we are really not planning to go public. For the next few years we are really focused on user growth.”

Finally, when asked about why the company is allowing employees to sell up to 20% of their vested shares (up to $900K), Zuckerberg answered:

“We are not going public for a while. So we want the people to have enough money to life [sic] for the period of time until we go public. In the early days of Facebook I was able to get $900,000 dollar of liquidity. That made a pretty big deal to me. We want engineers or other people in the company don’t have to worry about simple things.”

Facebook Futures.

Recently, Zuckerberg spoke @ the Future of Web Apps Expo in London - although mostly a controlled PR show for web app companies; Sir Mark hinted at a few things, most interestingly the theme of ‘enabling people to share’.

Some interesting tidbits from the event: (thanks to insidefacebook.com)

• The vision of Facebook Connect is to enable people to do on the rest of the web what they currently do on Facebook.
• There’s no firm launch date for Connect, but it’s expected to be within the next few months.
• As everyone already knows, Facebook does not want to encourage third party applications that are only interested in occupying profile space. The recent redesign has been specifically developed to encourage applications that enable sharing between users. Part of this is the prioritisation of feeds over profile boxes.
• Talk of the payment system was downplayed, and was even referred to as “the rumoured payment system.” (It’s more than a rumour, given the solicitation for developers to sign up for a beta programme last year, but obviously there’s nothing to be announced imminently.)
• Mark talked about his loose theory of a “Moore’s Law” for content sharing: the amount of sharing that goes on is growing exponentially over time.
• Asked about Open Auth, Open ID and other standards initiatives, the view expressed was very much along the lines of not having done it yet as opposed to not wanting to follow open standards at all. Mark’s view of Facebook as it stands was that “It’s more closed than we want it to be.” However, he believes Facebook’s implementation of things such as the Platform APIs and FBML are more developed than their open standard equivalents.
• Asked if he would build Facebook (or any web application) the same today as he did four years ago he said no, especially given advances in cloud computing and the availability of other sites-as-platforms.
• Despite running a multi-billion dollar company, he still goes into the code base and fixes bugs from time-to-time as a way to keep in touch with how the site is being developed and abstracted. (Still doing the dirty work…what a guy!)

To see more about what M. E. Zuckerberg had to say about Facebook, see his BBC interview here & his FOWA interview coming soon here.

Final.

Whether you are a student, e-marketer, or just a normal someone (wink), you know where this is heading - Facebook is growing daily, and your just a small part of that. So go ahead and look @ those pictures from the rager last night…look @ those party invites you have yet to confirm, go write on Steph’s wall about her new dog pictures…go nudge that other someone, go see what the class is saying about the new Physics professor, go watch that video with that kid getting hit in the nuts with the soccer ball, go see how many comments you have that partially naked photo of you that you just ‘had’ to get up on the site as soon as you got back from the party, go add that fun application where you can send growing plants to your friends and let’s go buy fake gift icons for a $1 and send them to everyone too.

I am not making fun…I take part in this revolution daily.  I just always like to step out of the ‘branding’ work I do on a daily basis (sometimes it feels much more often) and realize the actuality of the framework in this platform.

It really is amazing…or scary.  You choose.

Fin.

There is new kid in school, his name is CampusLIVE, and wants to act as every college kid’s 24/7 RA (Resident Assistant) by providing all the information you need to know as a student on campus.

The new social community website aggregates information a college kid needs to know. Besides the usual, like weather, there are customized news feeds (CNN, Boston Globe, Philly.com, Fox News, MSNBC, and even Playboy, and much more), customized search feeds; that include Google, YouTube, Wikipedia, Amazon, Flickr, Technorati and much more. In addition, each school’s page has ‘quick links’ that feature necessary housing and health information, local public transportation schedules, dining services, registrar information, library, academic calendars and more.

They also feature a great Food Finder feature that allows students to find local eateries, their contact information, whether they offer dine-in, delivery and take-out options, and they offer online menus for each in their system, as well as the ability to leave public reviews for each.

CampusLIVE also understands the need for a college kid to know what is on TV at all times - therefore implementing the ability to find TV listings using the TVGuide.com system.

One thing you might think after reading the above would be ‘another Facebook’, but they aren’t.  Actually, they have gone as far to integrate with Facebook so that students can actually see their live Facebook messages from their homepage.  They also have plans to tie in other social networks that are popular to students such as LinkedIn, MySpace, and I assume Twitter, Digg, and maybe a few others might join the force @ some point.

CampusLIVE started in UMass and has grown to cover 26 universities in nine states. They are doing well - in terms of providing useful information for students, and in a concise and clear manner. However, they need to focus their growth overall, in terms of adding more schools, and integrating more customizable features that will allow students not only have access to useful information, but also build a virtual dorm room. So for each school, they can go beyond just providing a portal for useful information, but access to teachers, other students, virtual blackboards, and so on.

CampusLIVE was started by a group of UMass students, and finished in the top 5 of Business Week’s Top 25 Entrepreneurs Under 25 in America 08′. CampusLIVE employs five full-time people, and interns, and had just over $100,000 in revenue during 2007. The company is currently negotiating a $1.25 million investment deal, according to Business Week. They are also looking to lease office space in Boston, moving themselves into an office and out of the dorms.

Thoughts.

I love their business model and opportunity to strike while the iron is hot, so to speak.  I just hope they do it now, and push aggressively - as you never know what the landscape for a model like this might look like in a year.

They need to build up their school database offering - at the same time, it opens up a huge door for advertising opportunities, which they must take advantage of - especially if they have angel investors now involved. You don’t want to have to carry their weight for too long, and obviously wish to become profitable in the next three years in a major way.

They have a great platform here to also explore partnerships of all kinds; building on all the above - sets themselves up nicely for an aggressive business build - before ’selling’ to a top organization, i.e. Google, Yahoo, etc…in five years or so.

Watch the CEO chat with Mashable here:

Doing my normal everyday thing, that’s what I like to call it, I came across the Obama ’08 iPhone Application – just released today.

I expected this. I think we all did. Just look at how this election has boiled down with only 33 days left until we vote for our next “great” leader.

The application features a “unique” look at the Obama campaign – you can see first your contact list is separated by states and you are able to call them to tell them to vote for Obama, or organize a fun political retreat easier. Like your going to do that!  Just kidding. And it also does the normal things you might expect, such as receiving updates, news, finding local events using the GPS features, watching multimedia clips and Sen. Obama’s view on the all the issues, which you can look up in a very easy manner under the issues tab.

This just expands on the face of social media, and how each candidate has approached this upcoming election. For example, each candidate built a website that is very ‘social media’ friendly, with both taking a Web 2.0 approach.  At the same time, on the Obama website, you can follow him on Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Flickr, Digg, Twitter, Eventful, LinkedIn, BlackPlanet, Faithbase, Eons, Glee, MiGente, MyBatanga, and AsianAve.

McCain’s website has a similar look and feel, but a little too obvious, like there trying too hard to be something there not – if you know what I mean.  He put something together called the McCain Community; you can go and personalize news feeds, a blog, etc…but offers little reach to communities outside of his own – besides his links to a MySpace, Facebook and YouTube channel to follow him on.

And it makes perfect sense – Obama is ‘for change’ (guy says that), and is the choice of many young voters; who through social media, have been involved in this pre-election nonsense that began more than two years ago when candidates were preparing to make their run.

But with candidates taking advantage of Facebook and MySpace, using the all-famous, but not very successful CNN YouTube debates; this all has culminated to an end point where you would expect the voter turnout to be massive – with such a younger population involved.

Will that be the case?

Probably not – I feel like we heard that same message four years ago – but again, these social media applications and tools were not what they are today – so of course it is possible.  But naturally, you have to aim high, and expect low.

To close this wonderfully short posting – the Obama iPhone Application – even if you don’t like him – take a look @ it – another priceless application. I am just curious what McCain will counter with?

Fin.

As Democratic Sen. Joe Biden and Republican Gov. Sarah Palin prepare to square off tonight in the first Vice Presidential debate, I need to step back to a moment last week and talk about something Twitter launched for the election – that has the social media world stirring in its belly.

For the presidential debate last week, Twitter launched a niche application site called Twitter E08 that focused directly on the presidential election campaign in the United States. The website worked by simply filtering twitter messages (tweets) from all users by certain keywords and aggregating these messages into one page.

In addition, a user can go directly to the section on the website and send a message directly, and it is seen in the twitter timeline immediately. I love the idea of this, as does the community – if you head to the election page – you see it is constantly updating – the interaction is priceless, or useless…depending who you ask.

By promoting the election – Twitter has finally begun to think about ‘micro’ sites within Twitter that will not only aggregate conversations, but build out ‘channels’ per-say of different topics, sports, fashion, marketing, schools, and dare I say ‘business’?

Let’s walk into one of those channels, oh, look, a big transition ad for the NFL.  Oh look, now were in the football channel – with 543 other people talking about football. You see my point. I am not against this at all.  I am actually 100% for it.  I am sure Twitter is tired of hearing criticism surrounding their business model and how they generate money.  I think this election is the starting point for something ‘big’ twitter is considering doing.  Twitter is run by a group of 20 people, that’s it!  I am sure their partner channels and VC funds are well stocked, but naturally you think ‘bigger’ and growth.

I know we would hear endless people complain about a new layout, if the site were to take on niche groups and starts with ads galore; but I think only the current twitter use would complain. Look at the people who now wish to ban the new Facebook layout – because they are too lazy to see their precious applications are on the bottom toolbar – in static mode. Facebook was tired of seeing user pages that would just go down for miles with comments, applications, etc…this opened the door to keep everything within the “user’s level” – instead of having to scroll down 30 seconds to see what someone said about somebody else (you know you care about that!)

Either way, this election and what Twitter is ‘experimenting’ with is just the beginning of a new style Twitter will be undergoing. You know it. I know it.  We all know it.

Go Twitter!

Blogs. 

As an Internet strategist - my life daily is consumed with social media feeds, blog alerts, feedburner stats, google alert updates, monitoring, strategizing, execution - all of these overused terms and time consuming tactics certainly take a toll on you.  

But one thing I do often, as I do for all my clients, is research - taking notice of the growing digital space around me - thinking of ideas to implement innovative strategies among the community and with my clients.  

One of those key strategies that are a must in today’s Internet spectrum is a blog.  A blog is key in driving not only traffic, but interest to your brand, product, or company.  Blogs help you appear authoritative in your industry - allowing you to give views on the latest events in your trade, offer reviews, insights, and so on.  

This expands into relationship building tools, as you are able to speak more freely and in a more informal and personable style, as compared to how you direct the voice on your main website.  Through the blog channel, they are more likely to trust you, and then all the more likely to visit your main website and then click your links and possibly purchase your product.   

It also offers insight for your customers, and allows them to leave comments and ’speak’ to you on a key level. In addition, blogs are extremely search engine friendly - through thousands of possible keywords and fresh, updated content on a regular basis - blogs are simply great facets to have on your website today.  Your simply misguided if you think otherwise.

*Read More for a detailed blog breakdown of the popular clothing line Free People.

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Porn. It is and always will be a key element of the Internet – with it accounting for almost 10 percent of all Web searches, according to Hitwise.  

But at one point many, many years ago (exactly 10) – a massive 20 percent of all Internet Web searches accounted for porn. However, thanks to sites like Facebook, MySpace and other social networking sites, porn on the Internet is not as popular as it used to be – simply put.  

Hitwise researchers said that surfing for porn had dropped to about 10 percent of searches from 20 percent a decade ago – the sites that grab all the searches now are the social networking sites.  

The research said that visits to porn sites have decreased, and social networking traffic as increased. 

Now, I don’t entirely believe this – to think people are so busy with MySpace that they don’t have time to look at porn.  I believe that web growth ‘overall’ has lended mostly to this result, and other changes in the way people utitlize the Internet - that is the true difference.

Point is, the Internet is bigger then ever, and much more people are using it than ever before.  And more kids then ever are involved online – so it makes sense that fewer users are looking at porn.

Another point – you can look at Facebook at work, more than you can look at porn. And if your working – chances are your using the web at work, more than you were 10 years ago – before social media websites existed.

Enough said.