The Nonstory

All you tecktonic kids need to know that Bernadette Yao invented this in 1973 on ZOOM.

Adevertising Age just published a list of “The Most Social Brands of 2008″ according to social media marketers Virtue. Among the top 50 are the usual suspects, for example, iPhone, CNN, Apple, Disney, and Xbox top the list as the most-mentioned brands according to Virtue’s survey.

But I was surprised to see Lincoln clocking in at 28, just above NBA and Pepsi. Really? Is that Lincoln the car company or Lincoln, the Abe? Do more people talk about Town Cars than the NBA on social sites?

via The Most Social Brands of 2008 - Advertising Age - DigitalNext.

I’m not a sports guy, never have been, so the fact that yesterday was the Super Bowl had little effect on me, other than my interest in those ads that we hear so much about. Last night, as I was catching up on news as the second and third quarters played out, I watched the tweets come across my screen, people talking about the Cash4Gold commercial or the one for Careerbuilder.com. When the words Baldwin and alien grew to gigantic proportions in the Tweetdeck “Buzzing” cloud, I knew I had to see the ads. However, I though it would be at least a day before they made their way onto the web. Wrong. I received an e-mail from Advertising Age before the game was even over, with a link to their site hosting all the ads. By the way, that link is here.

Also, check out Bob Garfield’s excellent roundup here.

Today, for whatever reason (@tron suggested it was MacWorld) Twitter got unbelievably slow. It didn’t fail, as in days of yore, but it just ceased to update for long stretches, and then only grudgingly. I imagined the tapping on keyboards around the globe as people kept hitting refresh, trying to get some instant gratification, but nothing changed.

I went over to Facebook, which feels like a supermarket now compared to the sparseness of Twitter, and posted a status update. “Wondering what is up with Twitter.” Why? I guess just to connect.

All of which made me wonder, are we too invested in Twitter? When it goes down, do we feel cut off from the world, even though we have e-mail, IM, phones, and at least three computers of varying size within arm’s reach? Is this a good thing?

I have become a great fan of using Twitter as a business tool, and use it much less as a socializing tool. The community I am after in Twitter is specific, occasionally self-referential (i.e., the echo chamber of Social Media), but always highly serendipitous and, hopefully, fruitful. But if that one service goes down, what becomes of our carefully constructed network of follows and followers?

The bright side is that a Twitter downage does not mean lights out on the network. Twitter heightens your availability to become an active node on the network, but once activated, the connections you make carry over into the real world–you know, the one of blogs, wikis, and search marketing! I’m only partly joking. The connections are real, and one can imagine a semblance of the network being reborn of its own will in the event of a permanent Twitter downage, in some other platform or service.

I wonder what other Twitter users think of their dependence (or not) on Twitter and their vulnerability to its notoriously spotty uptime. Are you building out your Twitter connections into non-twitter relationships?

There’s no telling how long this will be possible, so if you’ve been thinking about changing your Twitter username, why not do it in the first week of 2009? There are good reasons for doing this. If you’re like me, your initial impulse was to create an anonymous handle like your old AOL account (e.g., MayorMcCheese), or an abbreviated version of your name ( e.g., mcheese). This helped you get started on Twitter, but it’s now starting to look silly. You’ll notice that many popular Twitter users are using their own names, or a very recognizable version of their names, as their Twitter handle.

The thing is, Twitter is first and foremost a conversation. People just feel better having a conversation with ‘JohnSmith’ as opposed to ‘KlingonRulez,’ plus if you are hoping to use Twitter as a professional or business development tool, you should consider that having a Twitter name that reflects your actual name is part of extending your personal brand.

But you say, ‘I don’t want people to know who I am or what I am saying! What if it comes back to haunt me in the future?’ To that, I can only say that the social web is probably not the place for you. Alias or not, you should only post content you’d be comfortable with your employer or customers reading, and that goes for all media on the internet. Keep it professional and above board, and you will only improve your personal brand.

Now then, down to brass tacks. How do you change your Twitter name? At this time, Twitter doesn’t lock your user name when you set up the account. You can change it right now, but what would happen if someone went looking for your old Twitter page? Your best bet is to create a new account with the old name, but leave one post redirecting people to your new Twitter page. It’s really a shell game, and it goes like this:

1. Create a new account with your new account name. You will need to use a secondary e-mail address. If you are successful, this ensures that your chosen name is available. (E.g., ‘JohnSmith’)
2. Log in to your old Twitter account and go to Settings. Change the Username value to your new chosen name, plus an extra character, like 2. (E.g., ‘JohnSmith2′).
3. Log in to your new Twitter account and change the Username to your old one (E.g., ‘KlingonRulez’). Create a single post that says ‘You can find all my posts at http://twitter.com/[new username].
4. Log in to your old Twitter account and change the Username to your new chosen name by removing the ‘2′ (E.g., ‘JohnSmith’)

That’s it! All your old tweets will be preserved under the new username, and the old one will still be around, pointing people in the right direction.

Either way, Twitter is for real. A bona fide Rule Breaker that’s helping the Web’s wallflowers get social and create network effects on the cheap. And it’ll be made more valuable by a recession that’s forcing firms to spend creatively.

http://www.fool.com/investing/high-growth/2008/11/24/the-recession-could-make-this-company-rich.aspx

Let’s be honest: Is there really a limit to how many news sites, opinion blogs, and business analysis we can cram into our eyeballs during free cycles? With the election frenzy reaching a fever pitch this early in the game and Wall Street suddenly turning into a pumpkin at midnight, I think we may find out the answer soon, but for now there isn’t enough! I must have more! This Fall of our Discontent is brought to you by CNN, HuffPo, CBS, Wonkette, Politico, NYTimes, and TPM, just as much as last year was brought to you by TMZ and 1967 was brought to you by The Beatles. The problem is, Sgt. Pepper had a run-out groove. This news cycle looks like it’s in for the long haul, and will continue long after Bush gets on that helicopter.

We’re in for a major news hangover sometime in ‘09, but for now it’s Woodstock, and Bush just made the announcement about the brown acid going around.

From The LinkedIn Blog

“The past few weeks have seen the release of a slew of features that have helped augment your experience of LinkedIn; features ranging from refined network updates to the ability to add a photo to your profile. Today, we’re glad to announce the next step in that evolution - a completely redesigned homepage as well as further details on LinkedIn’s Intelligent Application Platform. In this post we hope to give you a quick snapshot of what’s new on LinkedIn today.”

Blogged with Flock

All those interested in Social Media–and by that I mean anyone even slightly involved with marketing, advertising, web development, or what their kids are up to–should check in now and then with The Social Times, a blog that is “covering all that’s Social.” Written by AllFacebook.com editor Nick O’Neill, The Social Times seems to be aspiring to cover the day-to-day developments of social networks, social media, and the hilarity that ensues when people, technology, and marketers wake up in bed together. Concise, knowledgable posts break down this phenomenon that is literally sweeping through all levels of our culture. Promising “events, mixers, and conferences” around the country, it looks like O’Neill is planning to take this into the real world for some real-time socializing.

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Tags: socialblog

Oh man. I can’t help myself. I just gotta post!

In October 2003, as controversy grew about the leak of Valerie Plame’s name, McClellan stood at the White House podium and said that Karl Rove, the president’s top political adviser, and I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, Cheney’s chief of staff, had not been involved.”There was one problem. It was not true,” McClellan writes in his new book, “What Happened,” which is to be released in April.

Ex-White House aide: Bush, Cheney involved in misleading media - CNN.com

Thanks for your honesty Scott. Talk about closing the barn door!

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Tags: plamegate