Twitter has attempted to pull a fast one by introducing the next level of Twitter in Japan. It’s called Twicco.  

A new and improved version of Twitter, dubbed Twicco, rolled out with the highlight being the group and community feature that allows users to create and follow the tweets of a group rather than an individual account.

Groups are important for many reasons.

Clay Shirkyon states on What businesses need to know about social media… “What do businesses need to know: Businesses need to know that the old simplicities of dealing with their customers are disappearing, because customers are now able to coordinate their actions in groups. The old model of engaging with your customers involved two modes — en masse and personal. Messages were sent out over mass media, in hopes of affecting the behavior of individuals.

Now, thanks to social media, customers are part of active groups, groups that form and dissolve quickly in response to people’s interests or needs — most messages in this media flow within social groups, rather than from businesses to individuals.” 

Twicco fits that space very comfortably. Try it out sometime.

Twitter launches groups in Japan

Can you generate enough traffic to make it worth your while in terms of sales? Look over what Starbucks did with Facebook as reported in The Election, Starbucks and Social Media Marketing by DrakeCooper 

“Starbucks set up a straightforward Facebook event that looks to be created and administrated by someone inside the company. I am betting this is about an hour investment of their time – max. And…they have garnered 423,792 invitations from people on Facebook just forwarding it around to their friends. Also, 164,883 people have said they will attend with most of the rest still awaiting response. There is also 13,187 wall posts and tons of pictures, etc. That is pretty heavy duty work for a social media campaign - driving a ton of traffic to them on FB – which also has other things for people to do, like see the commercial, participate in the “My Starbucks Idea” section and more. I would love to see their web stats today. If you are on Facebook check it out here. ”

You can read the whole article at http://www.drakecooper.com/news/2008/11/electiion-starbucks-and-social-media.html

I had the chance to see the ”doctored” Sarah Palin pics (of her in a bikini holding a hunting rifle.) As far as graphic design goes it was a pretty good job…and I mentioned that in my Twitter post .

There has been talk about how attractive Palin is as a candidate. They also mention how strong of a candidate Obama is and he’s most assured to win the election.

My mind begins to wander just HOW strong is Obama? What if instead he was like Arnold Schwarzenegger strong? So I started digging. It did not take me long but I uncovered the photo the Obama camp does NOT want you to see.

This photo was apparently one of the lost election campaigns & slogans that got nixed due to being too “out there.” Behold The Obamanator.

While I’m sure the image won’t wind up on CNN or it’s sister publication the National Enquirer, it’s bound to make the rounds on the Internet.

Enjoy.

I just wrote an article about Twitter (geared more toward newbies.)

You can read it at http://socialmarketingexpert.typepad.com/my_weblog/2008/09/how-to-use-twit.html

Pull off the horned rim glasses and slide on those sunshades. Let’s look at the site no one has heard of but is quickly becoming the “cool” site used by everyone. The site in question? Twitter.

Type the word in Google and here are a few of the listings that show up.

Aug 12, 2008 … The Gray Lady Is All A-Twitter. The New York Times has been on a Twitter tear lately.

SoCal earthquake has everyone a-Twitter | Technology | Los Angeles …SoCal earthquake has everyone a-Twitter. 1:12 PM, July 29, 2008 … and Wilshire) is fine, no damage to building, and we’re all safe…

Everyone’s all a Twitter - Social Technology Innovation by Alex Vorbau Mar 20, 2007 … The age-defying John Edwards has a Twitter page…

The Toad Stool by Alan Wolk: Mad Men All A-Twitter Aug 25, 2008 … Mad Men All A-Twitter. So the entire cast of Mad Men is on Twitter … with references that play across the board…

So you have the Ole’ Gray Lady - The New York Times, to perfectly coiffed Presidential drop-out John Edwards, to the cast of the wildly popular new hit series Mad Men all banging out 140 characters a time in Twitter. Apparently even when people couldnt get through on their cells in the SoCal earthquake, who did people turned to to get info out quickly? The mighty little Twitter.

Just What is Twitter?
Well according to the Twitter’s own FAQ, “Twitter is for staying in touch and keeping up with friends no matter where you are or what you’re doing.”

Hop over to Wikipedia and it says, “Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that allows its users to send and read other users’ updates (otherwise known as tweets), which are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length.”

Basically Twitter asks the question, “What are you doing?” and allows you to send a short update (your tweets are limited to 140 characters) to your followers whether they are family or friends, colleagues, customers, and/or potential customers.

Twitter allows you to send and receive updates (also called tweets) via your  web browser, email, instant messaging clients and SMS (using your cell phone). Regardless of where you are, you can always tweet.

Remember, when you first join Twitter, it can feel like a lonely place. When you aren’t following anyone and no one is following you, you may find yourself asking “what is the point?” I’ve heard so many people say they just don’t get it. In fact, many come that same conclusion.

The key is to find the Tweets you want to follow so you can keep your finger on the pulse of your niche. The next key is to start building your followers. More on that in a minute.

Can Twitter Help Your Small Business?
Business goes where it’s invited. That business normally would be invited using advertising or publicity of some type. The more contact you have with your potential customer, the more likely you’ll get their current and future business. With Twitter you can stay in their “top of mind” awareness. You lety them know what’s new in your industry, in your company via quick news flashes which is what Twitter can be for your business.

Here are just some of the power of Twitter:
- It reminds people that you’re still here
- It shows people you still have something to say
- It shows them that you’re real (human that it)
- It announces new offers, sales and breaking news immediately
- It’s realtionship marketing at it’s best - develop more casual relationships
- You can use Twitter to promote your other social bookmarking submissions or latest web post on your site
- You can ask for referrals, suggestions, feedback and help, and surprise surprise…people will respond.

How Do You Start Finding Followers?
Start by reaching out to your friends, family, or business mailing list etc. It’d be smart to add your Twitter link to your email signature line. Add your Twitter (and other social media marketing links)  to your website and Blog sidebar or footer. Do you still have a newsletter? Then mention your Twitter account in your newsletter.

One rule of thumb is cardinal rule if you use Twitter purely as a sales tool, you will lose followers quickly. As with all forms of social media, it is about creating a conversation with the community versus shoving your sales message down their throats.

Presently you can not incorporate HTML into Twitter with the exception of hyperlinks, but Twitter automatically uses the TinyURL service to shorten links so a super long URL doesn’t take up all your alloted characters.

How Often Do You Tweet?
Depends…don’t tweet too much, or too little. There is no magic number and it varies according to your target audience. Some people say don’t update more than once per hour, whereas others say not more than once or twice a day. For me it’s once, or or maybe even twice a day. If there is breaking news and some days you just have to update more often then it’s OK. If your tweets are valuable information people will be more tolerant of frequent updates. Face it, if they’re interested in your site and your message, then anything you say will be appreciated or tolerated.

On the other hand if you are too quiet and don’t post to Twitter too often, then people have nothing to follow. Business goes where it’s invited, remember? So make sure you find that balance and tweet just enough to keep people informed but not annoying.

Don’t forget that your profile shows a history of all your tweets, so if a new person comes along and sees that you don’t have many tweets they may decide you aren’t worthy of following. Also if your past tweets aren’t informative or interesting, you’re not worth their time to follow.

Trust and Twitter Are Worthy Goals
With so much hype in marketing, people are really looking for a company that can trust. We all like to do business with people we feel we know, we like, and we trust.

You can build some of that trust with prospects by allowing them to get to know you, and by providing them with information using a tool like Twitter.

Let me suggest that you go look at your own Tweet history and ask yourself, ” is the information presented here valuable, does it build trust? Would I want to follow this Twitterer?” (A person who uses Twitter)

The answer may be very revealing. Change starts here and you’ll find your success using Twitter is feedback you can learn to trust yourself.

G. Wayne Clayton is the Chief Visionary Officer of SocialMarketingExpert.org. You can follow his Tweets at http://Twitter.com/SocialMtgExpert

…Uhh, start with a big one?

So, it’s been a week or so and I’ve genuinely tried to immerse myself into the Twitter ecosystem (note to self: stop talking like Zuckerberg) and I guess I’ll have to moderate my position from, “What a totally useless timesuck” to something like “Ok, this is kind of fun, but I have to get back to making money now.”

While I mostly agree with SEOBlackhat, Twitter is not completely useless.  There are plenty of business models that should engage the service and it definitely plugs into the broader Internet audience strategies of most businesses (yes, I said most businesses).  But it’s like Instant Messaging and nobody “got into the IM game” to make money directly.

Actually, that’s not true.  I had one friend mass-link-drop his Amazon storefront to his Buddy List back in ‘00.  $7 later, he felt like Mark Cuban (MC was actually cool back then) and I had to acknowlege that he indeed could make a buck…or seven…off of IM spamming.

Here’s what I have learned so far:

1. There are no direct monetization models that merit spending the time to build a Twitter “power account”.  There are, however, some very valid indirect audience and monetization benefits to acknowledging the Twitter userbase.
2. I think it was Mike Arrington who mentioned this previously, but things now break on Twitter before they break on the blogs.  If you have a brand, you need to be monitoring and/or engaging Twitter.  You may be able to put out a public relations fire or better retain your most vocal customers.
3. In terms of pushing your content or product, Twitter is basically an inbox or RSS aggregator for a lot of people now.  You should treat it as an audience medium/channel as the “open rates” are pretty high and there are downstream links.
4. A lot of Twitter users have blogs.  Bloggers link.  So, get to know more linkers.
5. Jason Calacanis is taking his personal branding whorishness to a whole new level.  Dude dropped a link on Twitter that was a live cell phone video feed of his dogs running around the pool.  That is both amazing and hopefully illegal after Congress passes the Nobody Should Have to Read, Hear, or View Everything You Do on the Internets Act of 2012.
6. I have met a dozen or so people who knew me from this blog.  So, about half my readers use Twitter.
7. I don’t know if this has been done yet, but I’m pretty sure if someone bulit the “Followback Girl” Twitter app, roughly 26 million college kids would use it between the hours of 12am and 3am.  This thing was built for booty calls.
8. I now know what sports teams the other SEO’s follow and who the degenerate gamblers are.
9. As soon as they figure out some sort of revenue model…and it doesn’t even have to generate more than $.50 RPM’s…Twitter is going to sell for a big number.   Twitter is big enough that they have enough audience momentum to have marginalized any of the other players who tried to take advantage of the very simple concept.  Twitter for the microblogging win.

With that said, I’m going to take my Tweets private.  As much as I’ll appreciate another way to interact with some friends and maybe make some new ones, I…unlike Calacanis…am not trying to put on a peep show.  Or is that a tweet show?