So what does this mean for Twitter as a whole? Who knows, but I can give you my two cents.. if you already haven’t figured it out by now.

Although I don’t think Twitter is losing its popularity.. too much, the idea of Twitter as the service is kind of dwindling. Sure, it made popular the actual act of Tweeting, but that act is now so widespread through other avenues (Facebook, Buzz), Twitter, as in Twitter.com is kind of seeing a loss, or at least a temporary plateau.

Is this information surprising? Yeah, I think so! Although you could say this does not take into account everyone on their phones or other local applications. Which brings me to my next point… everyone is on phones and local applications!

If Twitter plans on creating an ad network for their service, sure we can expect to see ads on the side of our tweets just like in search or whatever else, but what about people who only access Twitter from Hootsuite, or TwitterBerry, or TweetDeck, or whatever else? Do these companies need to reconfigure their applications to support Twitter’s ads.. or should we expect to see ads coming in the way of the tweets themselves? You get what I’m saying here? If we begin to see ads in the tweets themselves, I am guessing you will also see people abandon the service for Facebook or even Google Buzz!.. I know that is kind of ridiculous sounding, but as Twitter user myself, I really can’t imagine Paid Advertisements.. (from Twitter) in my streams. That’s like having Google place their Paid Search ads in and amongst your organic search results.  Because interactivity is such a vital player in both search and tweeting… I feel this plays a much larger burden on people then say sponsor commercials in Hulu or YouTube videos.

Although I use Twitter, I know my tweets to my followers mean very little to them if they really don’t know who I am in the first place, or haven’t become a Twitter celebrity. Although brands have an edge in this arena, the bulk idea of having followers is proving more and more like last year’s popularity contest… which is having less and less relevance to this year’s popularity icons. In Facebook, I know I will be able to get more discussion and more interactive interest, so why shouldn’t I focus my efforts there?

It’ll be interesting to see what Twitter does with their ads, and for their own sake.. I hope it will not be as invasive as I think it could be.

Peace

Although we were originally against it, we decided to take up the social network to essentially make easy work out of what would have been a timely task. So whats the big deal?

When you have friends on Facebook… better yet, a lot of friends, a certain thing happens that Facebook really has helped fuel. The return to old friendships. Although depending on who you ask, this might not be so evident with others. Why? Just look at the sentiment revolving around social networks right now. They aren’t conducive to real physical relationships… they help foster them… but that’s it.

When I joined Facebook.. in December of 2004, there were approximately 1 million active users (www.insidefacebook.com). Let me repeat that statistic for you… 1 million active users! With over 350 million registered users on the network today, it seems like forever ago when you had to have a college email address to even join.. let alone an email address from a college that was in their database.

So what am I getting at?

As more and more people find my profile on Facebook, I am continuously reminded of all the friends I have, have had in the past, or just simply family members I have yet to meet in the future. But although I might not talk to you, I am able to communicate with you. Doesn’t that make you think that high school reunions in the future won’t be as awkward as they were 10 years ago? Maybe not, but it makes a difference when you already know whether or not someone has a baby or even a spouse

On the other side of this story is the growing popularity of the commercial ideal for Facebook. Ask yourself this question… do you have friends on Facebook who you’ve never met in person? If so, about how many? For me, there is 1 person on my Friend List that I have never personally met. If that seems weird to you, then you and I are obviously using Facebook for two different reasons! – Back to my point…

So when I say I’m telling Facebook something, better yet… when you tell Facebook something, who do you think is reading it? Your networks? Your groups? Old friends? Who knows… But just remember… when you do meet that old high school classmate from 10 years ago… know that there’s a good chance they know more about your professional life (and of course, social life) then you may think. I’m constantly watching you… whether you like it or not!

And yes, we are having a boy!

Peace.

P.S. Check out www.insidefacebook.com for more cool info or visit Facebook’s Timeline

Found this NowSourcing.com image off of Google Image search: 'social media war'

So while I admit that I’m relatively new to Twitter, I feel pretty confident in some of my other social media platforms, mainly Facebook. By today’s standards however, if you took a look at my Facebook page, you might say otherwise. Maybe this is because I am one of those early adopters… those old fogies who don’t like change in what’s already a perfect system. Who knows.

When I first logged in, and submitted my first tweet on Twitter, I had already figured out that getting followers is the way to really make it in the twittersphere… (The more people who follow me, the more reach I’ll have when I want to say something really important. Good right? At the same time, I should also care about who I follow. Friends, family, role models, yadda yadda yadda)… For me, there was no agenda, no purpose for me to strive to gain followers fast, so I didn’t. I lived in the Twitter moment, and then at times, came out of the woodworks and sparked a little debate here and there. It was fun! Although I soon began to want more followers.

Although there were a couple weeks where I made hardly any tweets, I’ve tried to push my TPD (Tweets Per Day) averages since then, so that I could slowly become more relevant in the twitter aspect that is… ‘popularity’. The events that followed, however, soon began to modify my outlook of how Twitter is really making online computing communication different then what it used to be, or what we perceived it to be. Twitter is a great way to dumb down every day life. For example…

To follow the life of a new Twitter user, would look something like this:

1. Have a friend tell you how cool Twitter is.
2. Have another friend tell you how cool Twitter is.
3. Reluctantly create a Twitter account.
4. Make first tweet/twit whatever you want to call it.
5. Realize this is a waste of time.
6. Have people nag you and tell you you aren’t doing it right.
7. Realize that I should ‘optimize’ my tweets/twits for optimum searchability.
8. Reference someone in a tweet/twit.
9. Get in an argument with a tweeter/twitter(er).
10. Realize you are better then them.
11. Begin your quest to gain followers, in hopes to one day over take your antagonist in ‘follwers’.
12. Devise your own ‘get followers quick’ scheme.
13. Market it on Twitter.

Alright, so maybe that isn’t the way it works, but it might be close.. to some people.

In essence though, this could totally be a reason why Twitter is catching on so fast. Sure friends like to use it to communicate with each other(@noexample because they are my friends), companies and brands like to use it for PR and branding purposes (@starbucks, @zappos), or even news agencies will use it to broadcast each and every damn story they produce down to the minute (@nytimes, @cnn). What about everyone else? Maybe everyone else is just a Social Media Evangelist. “How can I show you the POWER of Twitter? Look at how many followers I have. I must be a professional at this SM stuff. I will show people that you just need to push garbage out of your Tweetdeck and sooner or later, people will think you’re cool and will want to follow you.

The idea I’m trying to convey is that a lot of what is happening on Twitter, is talk about Twitter. I’m not opposed to this! Don’t get me wrong. I just think that in order for this NOT to become the next big Pyramid Scheme… we should look at our actions on Twitter carefully. Hey, yeah I know I’m adding fuel to the fire, but look at the rest of my blog. I’m not a social media evangelist by any means. Although I do think everyone is an expert at it.

Peace.

That being said, why is Facebook and Twitter so faulty these past few days? Especially Twitter. Are there just more people on the system that they can’t upgrade and fix issues faster then people are signing on? If that’s the case, then well I guess that’s good for growth. Bad for user experience. And who is this Google fellow coming in and possibly buying Twitter? Is this a good thing? Maybe.

For one, Twitter needs to get her act in the game and figure out a way to monetize. Wasn’t it last fall when they were going to release their plan? Well maybe their plan was to get bought. If thats the case, then congratulations you’re in the running to becoming America’s Next Top Buy Out. If not, then where’s your plan? How about this…

People are seeing and using Twitter more and more as a real-time search engine. Why do you think Google likes you? Why don’t you create two sides to Twitter? Search and the 140 character thingy. Search is where you can monetize. People do that already. Just spend some good quality father son time with your Search, and maybe you can come up with something cool and new! Not just a link at the bottom of people’s feeds. All said and done, please try and keep your system online and running. Your a big boi now and it only looks bad when you’re not running correctly. It’s cute when you’re new, not anymore.

Speaking of which.. this is a great video:

Peace – Nuh Ugh to Your Ugh Huh.

Any ways, Arrington published a post at www.TechCrunch.com yesterday reviewing HubSpot’s latest online grading application, Facebook.Grader.com What does it do? It “Measures the Power of a Profile” says the website. Alright this is all well and good… I’ve seen Twitter.Grader.com as well as PressRelease.Grader.com, and they all pretty much do the same thing. Gives you a score depending on numbers of followers, following, groups, and whatever else they want to look at. The tools are cool, and I’m sure are widely used, but why is Arrington coming out and blasting the FB Grader? He says that  “…it’s beyond useless” Is it?

Maybe, but to start off, I think it is important to take a step  back and really define where SOCIAL really comes from. People have started doing this lately, and some people haven’t. Although there are mixed ideas about what IT really is, there are a few terms you should NOT overlook.

SOCIAL: (One source says:) relating to human society and its members; “social institutions”; “societal evolution”; “societal forces”; “social legislation”

CAPITAL: (One source says:) assets available for use in the production of further assets

Now hold on a minute. If I’m trying to measure the “power of a profile” does that entail that every profile is not equal? Does that mean that if my profile is more powerful then yours, I should be regarded as having more capital than the average producer… universally? Is there a form of universal capital at all in Social Media? Does that even make sense? If that’s the case, you’re sort of limiting yourself on who you are trying to relate to. A common good is always nice, but nobody can tell one person or another what or who they think they should be listening to/preaching at.

While HubSpot has it’s grading tools, and pretty cool grading tools at that, use of these tools should be understood that depending on where you are looking/who you’re looking at/who you want to hear you/and so on, you shouldn’t put all your eggs in one basket. Thinking smart about your own personal social efforts is the best way to be, in essence, SOCIAL. Sure there are leaders in the world, but sooner or later, the underlings rise up and elect new leaders. Change happens. But everyone knows that right? (Congrats Obama)

Peace

P.S. Don’t abuse your position. It’s about the people, whether they like you or not.

P.P.S. Theres some good link juice in here guys, so don’t blast me.

But in an effort to be more sociable, (like yes man!) I’m beginning to think if it’s time to revamp my Facebook profile and get a little more involved. Myspace is another story, and I don’t think I’ve got enough time in the world to really worry about that one, but Facebook.. perhaps.

And while I might not agree with, find interesting, care about, or wish to look at some of the things Facebook has to offer, I suppose there are the few that I do care about.

One thing I do realize I need more help on, is that in order to be sociable on Facebook, I kinda need to be more sociable in real life. And while thats not really my cup of tea, Andrea and I both think that it’s about time we really took it upon ourselves to go out of our box and socialize. Friends, family, co-workers.. I’m due for a conscience effort, and I apologize for these past 5 or 6 years. But although none of the people of whom I’m talking about are probably reading this, whats the use in my apology. Maybe over time, my efforts will be seen. Until then…

So, look for a new and upgraded Facebook profile sometime soon. Look for it to integrate with RyanJin.me as well as Twitter.com/RyanJin

I’m not as anti-social as you may think I am!