nov0caine’s posterous

Centralizing your business model around Twitter...?

When you trawl through the myriad number of blogs on the internet, take note of the topic of the post, and how frequently similar topics are being reciprocated by the author over and over again in different formats... Then ask yourself, why are these guys so persistent in blogging about twitter?

I'm going to come right out and say it, yes Twitter can be a highly profitable medium for businesses online and individual blogger alike, but it is severely over-hyped by web 2.0 geeks. Definitely. And the result? People are turned off of Twitter because they're sick to death of hearing about it. Look at the stats... A survey conducted by the participatory marketing network shows that only 22% of generation Y are embracing the social networking site as opposed to a staggering 99% who admit to being regulars on either myspace and facebook... But what about the celebrity hype? Twitter received an exponential growth when it was discovered that A-list celebrities began to use the site as a direct way to engage with fans, and then it all started to backfire as the real-time celebrity twitter streams became the prey of the press. Columns started popping up in newspapers, gossip columns started running hot with twitter news, and they even introduced a 'trending topic' segment into the 2009 VMA's. The result of all of this...? Celebrities are beginning to boycott the website, saying that it's just too invasive - need examples? Look no further than Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails and Miley Cyrus.

So if the most imperative generation is refusing to embrace Twitter, and celebrities are considering mass exodus, is it fair game that Twitter may be reaching the plateau of its seemingly perpetual growth? And if so, does this indicate a potential incline and eventual downfall...? We're witnessing it with MySpace right now as we speak, with the once upon a time largest social media player reported a loss of 5 million users in the past month.

Here lies the question, if you're monetizing a blog or centralizing your business model around Twitter, did you forecast the life span of the social networking site before devoting your livelihood to it? It seems that a lot of internet marketing companies and bloggers alike have their financial umbilical cords fastened to the nutrient twitter trend wave... What's going to happen when the cutting of that lifeline is highly imminent? Your twitter branded empire, complete with your hordes of followers, vanishes in a flash... The traffic trends to your blog move inversely, and all of a sudden you're out on your tail with no revenue stream and no catalyst for your content.

I'd like to here of your post-Twitter contingency, if you have one, and your thoughts on the demise of Twitter (who can tell when the trends will change).

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Yeah, not so relevant to Twitter, but if you do happen to be reading this and are an avid corporate traveller, might I recommend BCD Travel - they're a very good friend of mine, and they're an excellent corporate travel agent should you happen to need one!

 

 

The Social Media Revolution

For those of you who aren't entirely social media savvy, or if you're just a random web trawler and love stumbling across interesting thought-pieces, then you might not know much about a new video presentation that is sweeping the web by storm... Well, the web according to tech-literate people anyway. The video, entitled the “Social Media Revolution” forces you to laugh sardonically in the face of traditionalist communication mediums, as the video aims to shock you with awe at the power and outreach of social media and online communication. The short film portrays the technological shift forward in a reveling context, throwing astronomical figures at you whilst you retreat within the walls of the soundscape of Fatboy Slim’s “Right here, right now” – a perfect song choice if you ask me, because if you’ve ever seen the film clip that shows the evolution of humans from a monkey-fish-frog to man, your mind subconsciously associates the noise with the visual patterns of evolution.

Anyway, this video represents the PERFECT marketing ploy – and it obviously hasn’t taken the creator much leveraging because in essence the video has leveraged itself. Whether or not the statistics quoted in the short film are entirely accurate is debatable, but seemingly enough the video has captivated thousands of online viewers, and has itself been featured in news articles and press releases the world over. Search marketing companies will use this tool as a means of up selling and promoting their own social media services… And rightly enough, people will buy into it – as is the nature of the common man who succumbs to statistical bombardment. Marketing is shifting towards this new online trend away from the traditional paradigms of print communication, which will continue to be lambasted by the power of online communication until it yields to be obsolete.

Social media is still in its BETA stage… Not everyone has embraced it. There are still millions and millions of people world-wide who are oblivious to what’s taking place inside of the virtual realm, but this video is a definite eye-opener, but at the same time completely bogus – I mean, Kutcher and DeGeneres having more Twitter followers than the entire COMBINED population of Ireland, Norway and Panama…? …Whatever.

What were your thoughts on this latest social media flavor of the month?