I received an anonymous series of comments the other day on my post questioning the mainstream media's portrayal of Twitter, part of which included, "I followed you thinking your Twitter account was an offshoot of this blog", which they then stated was not at all the case. I never really considered Twitter an extension of this blog. Although the main topic of conversation I tweet about is marketing and social media, it's definitely far more personal and at times completely random. Some people say I tweet too much, especially about completely irrelevant stuff. And I say, well, you're welcome to unfollow me. That's the kind of stuff I love about Twitter. Some of my favourite peeps on Twitter are a bunch of girls who talk about how stoned their house mate is or informing the world about what ever random adventure they're on instead of writing their thesis. Far more interesting and comedic than mine or any other marketing wanker's ramblings. So to those of you who are expecting insightful and stimulating content from my Twitter account...

For a gay old time check out Jacqui Bunting's article on how Twitter is only for morons. Yet another commentary from the mainstream media bagging this shit out of Twitter. How many times have you read something similar? Or heard similar comments on shows like Good News Week? Blah blah blah, why don't you mention something about someone updating their status with what they ate for lunch again. We've heard it. Unfortunately you don't seem to realise Twitter actually has far more uses than that. Of course you're far too naive to print otherwise. Maybe because concepts like Twitter will see the end of you lot. Either way, whatever John Smith had for lunch is lot more interesting than The Age's very own use of Twitter. And for fuck's sake, the thing you post is called a tweet, not a twitter....

When it comes to Twitter, I suppose I don't really follow the unwritten law of "you should follow anyone who follows you". In fact, I'm really picky about who I follow.If I check out your page and you've posted too many times that day, I won't follow you. If you haven't posted enough, I won't follow you. If I don't like your display picture, I won't follow you. If you have all tweets with no replies, I won't follow you. If you're following too many people, I won't follow you.Too bad if you happen to have a bad day or exhibit some once off behaviour. Chances are I won't check you out a second time.I always judge books by their covers. Does anyone else? And do you ever stop and think about what your profile looks like right now? I know I don't do it enough....

I think this is the first positive thing I have ever said about Melbourne train service provider Connex. I feel like it is such a momentous occasion it deserves to be mentioned in the title of this post. More than a few months ago I registered the Twitter account @ConnexMelbourne. I posted my email address and said if Connex wanted the account all they had to do was contact me. Eventually they did. I handed it over without much reluctance, although I kind of wish I asked for a yearly Metcard or something now. Anyway, it sat unused for quite some time. Just as I was about to get frustrated it finally became active. As Twitter slowly becomes mainstream, users often complain they can't see the use for it because Facebook status updates. But here's a perfect example for you after having a light bulb moment today. Catching a train into the city on my journey home from Uni I was browsing Twitter on my iPhone. I noticed the @ConnexMelbourne account said the train line for my ride out of the city was significantly delayed. This meant as soon as I got into Flinders Street Station I could jump on an alternate train line without wasting time and potentially missing a connection. My one critique, it would be great to establish an account for all of the train lines so I have the option to only subscribe to the ones I want. But still, I'm happy to put up with it for now. Great work Connex....

Here it comes. The tipping point of Twitter.In the past week, two independent friends have told me they are signing up to Twitter. Both of them aren't tech or social media geeks. However, they are both extremely popular, very influential and both have a large following on Facebook.This was before Rove spoke about it on Sunday night.Twitter is about to go mainstream. Although when it does, I think you'll find its design flaw will cripple the social network....

The boys over at Talking Digital raised a really good question in a comment on a recent post of mine. Why does Twitter have such an elite feel to it? And further, why do people have a need to be ranked and judged on their social media platform depth and performance? Yes Twitter full of innovators and early adopters but it very much seems an exclusive group. People talk as though being on Twitter makes them more social media friendly than those who aren't. Would it even be necessary for a social media consultant to be on Twitter? Would you trust someone giving advice if they didn't blog? This blogger wouldn't. Surely you don't need to be on Twitter? Same with Facebook. In fact, one of my favourite bloggers doesn't even have a blog yet. It could help, but certainly not a necessity. Just like not every brand needs a social media presence, do they? Gotta love those posts with more question marks than full stops....

I've been meaning to post about Twitter for a while. It is fundamentally flawed. Both the concept and the design. It is ridiculously hard to read or thread conversations, if you watch more than 50 people it is easy to miss something and the layout is simply atrocious. Yet it continues to gain popularity. I thought newcomer Plurk (much less fundamentally flawed) would overthrow it, but even I turned back to Twitter eventually. I think Twitter some how manages to be successful because it's addictive. Once you've started it's hard to give it up. Although most start by asking, "Isn't it just like updating your Facebook status?", it grows on you. Stan Lee signed up just two weeks ago and I think he's now in need of a patch to control the cravings. His page used to display a badge that said he wasn't on the Twitter bandwagon, but that's changed just a little hasn't it, Stan? It's hard to explain but I think Gavin Heaton summed it up best when he said, "You get out what you put in"....

Bigpond started using Twitter. At first they sucked. But it appears they've listened and turned things around. However during this process some legal implications were raised, specifically the Spam Act 2003. After research of my own, speaking to the Australian Communications and Media Authority and getting in touch with Dr Melissa de Zwart from the Faculty of Law at Monash University, I have summarised the results...

The way I see it, new media is the umbrella that encompasses everything from social media marketing to viral marketing to mobile marketing. Essentially, anything that does not interrupt a consumer with a great focus on consented, engaging and value providing content. So what is social media? A few days of research, thinking and graphics work have lead me to two key strategies that can be undertaken when it comes to social media marketing. The first, which I'll be covering here is Response and the second, which I'll be posting tomorrow, is Broadcast. Above the line is from marketer's point of view. Below it, is from the consumer's. Monitor Before jumping into the pool it is important to test the water. Observe your consumer and community in focus from afar. Before posting a comment on someone's blog, you must first understand what they're talking about. You should be scoping the scene out to see if you can firstly join the conversation and secondly add to the conversation. Identify There are too many blogs, social network profiles, YouTube videos and tweets for you to respond to them all. After monitoring your consumer and community it is important to identify the most influential people within this niche. Using these opinion leaders and those with loyal audiences (not necessarily large), you will be able to more effectively and efficiently target your key customers. Engage After monitoring and identify the influential consumers within a community, you can now engage with them. This relationship might be a short or long but either way it should be a case of providing meaningful and relevant value to consumers and their community. UGC You have now engaged with the consumer and started a relationship which has been built on the mutual exchange of value. Here the marketer gives up control of the message and the community takes over with the creation of user generated content. It could be something small like establishing and spreading buzz online (or offline) through social networks or something much more involved like writing a blog post or publishing a video on YouTube. The Body Shop do this extremely well. Not only do they have a blog (see Broadcast), but actively respond to influential bloggers. As a result, I'm creating content about them right now. This is one of two strategies I have identified that could be used when approaching social media marketing. The other is Broadcast. Please feel free to offer any thoughts or critique. Edit: I have since updated this model here. ...