twitter | Internet Marketing Blog

Can a social network get too big?

Facebook has over 175m users. MySpace has over 125m. Twitter's traffic has grown at over 1,000%.

All three services are considered to be extremely valuable and their popularity is where the value is at. With their users, they're worth hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars. Without them, they're worth close to nothing.

by Patricio Robles 18 March 2009 09:19am 4 comments

Twitter is about to jump the shark, says expert

Steve Rubel was one of the first people to demo Twitter, back in December 2006, and since then he’s been all over it. But he’s come to the conclusion that it is about to jump the shark.

He provides three reasons why this will happen, though I’m not sure I agree with him. Steve writes: “No community has ever had staying power. Twitter right now is poised to fall victim to the same trend.”

by Chris Lake 17 March 2009 12:55pm 5 comments

SME’s increasingly using Twitter to communicate

Econsultancy has recently been highlighting the many uses of Twitter, which is a customer service solution, a marketing platform, and a brand monitoring tool.

Now, new research from O2 has found that smaller businesses are quickly adopting this online medium.

by Jake Hird 17 March 2009 11:50am 2 comments

Twitter launches ads - for itself

How can Twitter make money? It's the one question everyone has been asking and the one question Twitter hasn't been in a rush to answer.

But as Twitter continues to experience massive growth during a painful recession, revenue is a subject that Twitter probably shouldn't put off for too long.

by Patricio Robles 17 March 2009 09:04am 2 comments

10 Twitter tips from The Dog Whisperer (kind of)

I love watching the mighty Cesar Millan go to work on problematic dogs on his show The Dog Whisperer. He really understands how to get the best out of a dog. I need at least a two hour fix of this show on an average weekend.

I was thrilled to discover that Cesar is using Twitter to communicate with his fans. I mean, he’s too busy being the pack leader for me to really believe he has time to tweet, but I was almost giddy with delight after Cesar sent me a direct message once I started following him. It read: “Thanks for the follow! Stay calm and assertive!”

Anyway, I started wondering whether some of Cesar’s advice could be applied to Twitter (and social media more broadly). So, at the risk of making a bunch of bad analogies, here’s 10 tips for Twitter with a nod towards - and a wag of the tail at - the Dog Whisperer.

by Chris Lake 16 March 2009 18:16pm 5 comments

Q&A: Eric Peterson discusses the Twitalyzer

Quick - name the top five minds in web analytics. If you know the space, no doubt Eric T. Peterson made your list. Analyst, author, blogger, speaker, he's a bona fide guru when it comes to extracting meaning from a mountain of data.

Now, Peterson's burning the midnight oil in his quest to build the Twitalyzer, the first really robust analytics tool for Twitter. Its goal? To measure influence in the white-hot social media channel.

by Rebecca Lieb 16 March 2009 13:36pm 0 comments

29 of your top tips for website optimisation

Crayon Tips by laffy4k on Flickr Last week we invited our Twitter followers to suggest their key marketing and website optimisation tips. Our thanks to all who took part.

Here’s what you recommended, in no particular order…

by Chris Lake 16 March 2009 13:06pm 4 comments

List of US retailers on Twitter

Generally speaking, US retailers seem to have adapted to Twitter more effectively than their UK counterparts, with some great examples of successful engagement with customers on the site.

Dell and Zappos are two firms that have often been given as examples, but there are plenty of others. For example, Threadless has managed to acquire an impressive 90,000 followers on Twitter by running competitions to design T-shirts.

I listed UK retailers on Twitter last week, and it was hard to get a list together, and many of the big names are missing. Creating a US list has been easier, but if I have missed any, let me know...

by Graham Charlton 13 March 2009 12:28pm 4 comments

Hitwise: Twitter looks like a social network

Yesterday I detailed my experience of trying to use Twitter as a search engine. It wasn't a good experience.

A lot of people have been trying to define and categorize Twitter lately with minimal success. That's probably due to the fact that Twitter is being used by lots of different people for lots of different things; it's hard to fit it in a neat little box.

by Patricio Robles 13 March 2009 09:09am 5 comments

Fail whale: Twitter as a search engine

Is Twitter a search engine? It's a question a lot of people are asking, myself included.

I signed up for Twitter at the beginning of the year and even though I'm not a hardcore user and only have a modest 'following' of around 225 people, I do like the service. I've found it to be very useful in staying on top of industry trends and seeing what interesting people are talking about.

by Patricio Robles 12 March 2009 09:07am 9 comments