3 posts tagged “multisocialmedia”

With all the Apple announcements this week coming from the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, there are bound to be a lot of expectations swirling around the new iPhone 3G S.  The most anticipated feature of the new generation of the iPhone is the support of video sending options and the ability for developers to access the iPhone video capabilities for various applications.

One such application that is taking advantage of the added video support is TwitterFon, which will be integrating with the video-specific Twitter app TwitVid for enabling TwitterFon users to capture videos with their iPhones and subsequently post them via their Twitter stream [via Venturebeat].
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It's an important step for Twitter apps, as much of Twitter's activity is attributed to mobile users such as those that own iPhones.  Having a more direct way to marry Twitter with iPhone videos means a slew of related applications are expected to arise in the coming year, as well as many iPhone-specific video update applications that operate outside of Twitter all together.

The iPhone device as well as its platform has long been setting standards for the mobile marketplace, spurring development across the board for different manufactures and mobile providers alike.  But will the added support also spur Twitter itself to finally delve deeper into media sharing?

Granted, Twitter has done a pretty good job of sticking to its core competency, and that solely revolves around microblogging within the realm of easy mobile access and integration.  But should Twitter go ahead and support various media formats, such as images and videos?  Other microblogging platforms such as Pownce and Tumblr support all media formats, and the added support hasn't necessarily given these other services a leg up in the race for dominating the microblogging space.  And Flickr stuck to its core competency of photo-sharing for years, only recently adding video support, and the upgrade hasn't made a huge dent in Flickr's overall service or standing as far as video-sharing goes.

For Twitter, however, adding more media support wouldn't hurt the web service, though Twitter may wait until more mobile support is available for incorporating multimedia support via its microblogging platform.  In the meantime Twitter remains to rely on third party applications for added value in certain aspects of its microblogging potential.

Note: originally posted on MultisocialMedia.com

What Are Celebrities Doing on Twitter?

So what exactly are all these celebrities doing on Twitter?  Even though celebrities are often later to adopt certain technologies once considered especially geeky, their adoption doesn't seem to fend off the faddish as our parents' adoption does.  In fact, the celebrity use of Twitter is only helping drive more to the popular microblogging platform, as it seemingly justifies the service's popularity and value as a communication tool.  But seriously.  Why are the celebrities here?

For the same reason as everybody else.  Twitter is an easy way to keep in touch with others, share mundane facts about your life that most people probably would never care about, and also build one's brand.  What better way to portray yourself as a down-to-earth and accessible celebrity than to post frequently on your Twitter stream?

Those Trendy Celeb Twitterers...

The latest trend we're seeing on Twitter is actual celebrities taking control of their own Twitter streams, as opposed to letting their marketing or PR managers handle the task, as many celebrities have done with most social networking profiles and overall online engagement. And the celebrities are even talking to each other.
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The New York Times has commented on this current phenomenon, noting the constant back and forth the celebrities are having with each other via Twitter.  It's easy enough to send a message to another Twitter user, whether the message is public or private.  The New York Times has even gone so far as to post a "social graph" of sorts that displays the communication patterns amongst the stars.

The graphing of social interaction is nothing new: several third party applications, developers and Twitter itself has taken the time to map a given user's social reality across the Twitter network.  Services like Mr. Tweet and Twitter Grader take this social interaction into consideration when determining the influence and importance of said Twitter user, calibrating who their messages are being sent to, and from whom they're receiving messages.  Of course, this doesn't take into account any private messages that may be taking place between two Twitter users, celebrity or not.

The Twitter Elite

But it does bring us to another point regarding the public use of Twitter, and I'll reference an article previously written on this blog.  When certain Twitter users allow unlimited followers but have a restricted number of those that they follow, it makes their intentions clearer, and also streamlines the amount of incoming messages from others.  Nevertheless, such restrictions could make a Twitter user appear a bit snobbish, and in many ways it also makes them less accessible, as direct messages are not possible without mutual following settings.  Perhaps that is the very reason why celebrities are so comfortable "being themselves" and interacting with each other on Twitter.

It also begs the question: what's next for Twitter and its rapidly growing flock of celebrity users?  It's important to keep in mind the marketing power of Twitter.  We here at MultiSocialMedia use Twitter for marketing purposes in spreading the word about our Twitter Survival Guide.  Guy Kawasaki has deemed it one of the best online marketing tools around.  And when building a brand of any sort, it doesn't hurt to be on Twitter.  That goes for celebrities, too.  Take into account a public Twitter message sent from Martha Stuart to Snoop Dogg, requesting the rapper to check out her dogs' new pet-themed blog.

Twitter is the New Celebrity Publicity Stunt

Doesn't this just scream publicity stunt?  Whether the message was genuine or planted, the effect remains the same.  Celebrities communicating with each other in such a manner boils down to recommendations that can be applied to us all.  If we see Martha Stuart talking about her "doggie" blog, we're likely to check it out anyway.  If we see her asking Snoop Dogg to check it out, we're even more likely to take a look.  We're also going to be on the lookout for more celebrity-to-celebrity tweets.  It's another form of people-watching, except tweets between two celebrities can amount to some decent gossip every so often.

And there are a number of initiatives from other blogging platforms, online magazine outlets and entertainment portals that have been trying to incorporate more genuine content from A- and B-level celebrities for years now.  Tapping into celebrities' Twitter streams may be the perfect way in which to finally achieve these long-sought goals for building out their own content offerings.  Any interest in this particular use of Twitter will also drive the type of features offered in the third-party applications using Twitter's API.

As a result, we may see more traditional media sectors looking to take over various aspects of Twitter, which also doesn't have the same negative connotation that it once did a few years back (remember MySpace?).  Nevertheless, the future of celebrity branding and social networking has vastly changed thanks to tools like Twitter.

If you've gained traction with one Twitter account, you should think about leveraging that traction to promote another Twitter profile.  It's along the same lines of driving traffic across the web, just slightly more internal given both sites are within the Twitter microblogging platform.  One reason for doing this would be to build out your brand or the brand of a company you work for, offering a broader scope on the services you provide.

Most of you out there have more than one project you're working on.  Perhaps you blog for multiple sites, or perhaps you've got a professional blog and a personal blog.  Both are important to you, and both can use all the traffic they can get.  Now if you've spent the time to build up one Twitter profile, it's time to use your influence to drive traffic to the other.

You may be thinking--aren't we already supposed to be using Twitter to drive traffic to respective websites we find important across the web?  Absolutely.  But the specific act of using an influential Twitter profile towards building up another is a more direct utilization of your power.  Since you've got a good following, a slew of regulars that frequently read your tweets and respond with @replies or direct messages, you know that people will pay attention to what you're tweeting.  And if you gain additional followers because of the traction you've built up with one Twitter profile, you can take advantage of this initial Twitter introduction in order to point others in the direction of your newest Twitter account.

Use the credibility you've created with one Twitter account to encourage others to follow your other Twitter profiles.  Instead of merely following others via your secondary Twitter account in hopes of gaining new followers, let others know that this is yet another channel where they can follow YOU.  Send a direct message to new and existing followers of your primary Twitter account so they know about the latest Twitter channel you've set up.  Now, your secondary Twitter profile is no longer random to outsiders, but an extension of your established web presence.

Aside from direct messaging new and existing followers, there are a couple other ways in which to direct traffic to your secondary Twitter profile.

1. Put it in your bio.  There's only room for one hyperlink here but if your secondary Twitter profile is important enough, put it here anyway.
2. Create a Twitter background that includes your secondary Twitter profile URL.  Even though you can't add an active hyperlink to your Twitter background, it is one of the first things visitors see when they land on your profile and it's great for branding purposes.
3. Tweet yourself.  Link back and forth between your Twitter profiles with shared information, hyperlinks ore @replies.  This works best if at least one of your Twitter profiles isn't for personal purposes--you don't want people thinking you're talking to yourself.
4. Only follow your secondary Twitter profile.  This is a bit extreme and works best for highly influential Twitter profiles, but it's a very blatant way in which to show visitors that you only think a chosen few are worthy to follow, as these few are the only profiles that will appear on your primary Twitter profile.  We discuss this at length in our analysis entitled "When Twitter Users Are Too Special To Follow Anyone Else."

If you're wondering if leveraging one Twitter profile to build up another actually works, we're here to tell you that it does.  We practice what we preach here at MultiSocialMedia, and both Bob and I have taken advantage of our personal Twitter profiles and followers to help build up the Twitter account we designed specifically for The Twitter Survival Guide and MultiSocialMedia.com.

What we'd love to see in the future is a way to administer multiple Twitter profiles from a single Twitter account, similar to the way in which Wordpress allows you to create, access and administer multiple blogs from a single Wordpress account.  Seeing as Twitter is a blogging platform at it's core, this feature doesn't seem too far-fetched, especially when you consider how many Twitter users out there have more than one account.

Kristen Nicole is the co-author of the “Twitter Survival Guide.” With Bob Walsh, this ebook covers the history and social importance of Twitter as a web and mobile tool, and is the perfect resource for getting your Twitter account set up and ready for personal or professional use.