6 Ways Twitter Could Be Improved

May 6, 2011 1 Comment

Do you ever use Twitter on your computer and get frustrated when trying to acomplish certain tasks? It’s been happening to me quite a bit recently so I decided to make a list of features that could use some improving:

1. When tweeting finding people you want to tweet @ should be easier

Twitter made it easier to find the people you follow by pre-populating names once @ is typed in the tweet box. This update from the old Twitter works most of the time but it can sometimes be spotty when searching for real names.

Many improvements were made in the new version of Twitter

Finding people becomes more of an issue when trying to tweet at someone that you aren’t following. In this situation, I usually open up a new tab and use the search bar, then hit the “people tab”.

There must be an easier way...

Instead, it would be helpful if Twitter allowed users to search right within the tweet box for everyone and not just the people they follow.

2. Saving tweets so they are viewable later privately (star function)

Sometimes a really interesting tweet with a link comes up but maybe there is no time to read it right away . Wouldn’t it be nice to bookmark it for later viewing? Currently users can start items but this is public to everyone. There should be a way to privately save these tweets to for later reading.  Current alternatives include starring items publicly, emailing the links to yourself, and using a bookmarking sites like Delicious.

3. Searching your own tweets more easily (search box)

A search box for all of your tweets should be available for when you are looking for something specific like a link you shared in the past.

4. Direct Message only if mutually followed

Direct messages are defined by Twitter as “a private message sent via Twitter to one of your followers.” Twitter only allows you to direct message users who are following you.  I’ve been in a situation where someone direct messages me because I am following them but I cannot respond until they follow me back. These questions can be personal and not something someone would want to respond to publicly by tweeting at them. Users should be able to respond to incoming direct messages even if that person isn’t following you. Some of the current alternatives include asking someone to follow you back (which can be awkward) or exchanging email addresses (which I wouldn’t recommend tweeting out to the twittersphere).

Twitter Direct Message

#fail

5. Where did my followers go?

Do you ever notice losing followers? No? Maybe this just happens to me but it would be nice to know who gave me the boot.

That always hurts

6. Retweet button vs. RT @

There may be some confusion between using the retweet button versus the manual RT function. The “RT @” came about organically through Twitter users while the Twitter retweet button was part of the website overhaul last year.  One of the major disadvantages of using the retweet button is not being able to edit the tweet or adding commentary. Twitter should allow users to edit these retweets to make the button more functional. Blueglass.com breaks down additional differences between the two retweet options.

Do you have any solutions to these issues? If so, please feel free to share them. What are some of the other problems people have using Twitter on a computer? I would love to hear your thoughts.

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5 Reasons Why Avenue Empire Could Be the Next Big Thing in Social Media (part 2)

April 26, 2011 82 Comments

In my first post I covered the very basics of the What  Empire Avenue is. Here are 5 reasons why EA could be the next big thing in social media:

1. Engagement and networking – Not only is the potential for a high quantity of interactions but the quality is what really impresses me. Compare the chat room feature versus a tweet. One can randomly tweet at someone but chances are that the tweet will be ignored if they have many followers. If you do happen to get into a conversation on Twitter, it tends to be choppy and a bit difficult to follow. Chats are better than tweets because they allow for a better flowing conversation so you can cultivate a relationship directly from EA rather than having to go through another medium. Not to say that relationships forged on EA don’t spill over to other platforms; I’ve actually been engaging with many “investors” through Twitter and Facebook as well as LinkedIn.

2. As the CEO of EA Dups said in his interview with Robert Scoble the brain processes transactions involving  currency, virtual or not, differently than following someone or asking for their friendship. With limited resources, you really have to think about who you want to invest in. You’ll want to invest in people who you actually want to invest your time into as well. Why invest in someone? They are a potential customers, partners, vendors, investors, friends, or maybe they just produce tons of good content that you want to follow; but you could always use twitter for the latter.  Below is the interview with Robert Scoble:

3. Companies are also traded on EA. The potential for brands to engage with investors is yet to be realized. Many big brands are beginning to join – ATT, Ford, Audi, Intel, Sears, and OREO to name a few. EA will be able to offer brands unique advertising opportunities such as sponsoring a community for a period of time, host chat conversations that would act almost like focus groups, give out EA currency to their followers as a promotion, and offer special deals and coupons. Looking at it from a small business perspective, businesses can find new customers for free, drive traffic to their websites, and handle customer service while trying to drive up their stock price (which would act as a performance indicator of sorts). For a more in depth perspective on brand engagement (along with gaming elements and a nice list of other EA resources), take a look at Jeremiah Owyang’s post.

4. EA has implemented many Game mechanics to make the site addicting. Like Farmville or Cityville, game elements keep users coming back on their quest for x,y, and z.   Badges, moving up the corporate ladder in your “respective field”, and the stock market itself are just part of the gaming elements involved in EA.  This is explained a bit further in this interview with Dups by Esteban.

5. Maybe most importantly is the extremely supportive and engaged community. This bodes very well for EA as having engaged early adopters will help get more users on the site through blogs, tweets, and other social media platforms. Evangelists are also coaching newcomers through the experience which is key since new users seem to have a lot of questions upon arrival. If you are new, I would suggest getting into chats and begin learning about EA from the community (you’ll make some new connections as well). More recently, I have joined the #socialempire which is a dedicated Facebook community for anything and everything EA. I have met many new people passionate about social media and continue to be impressed with the welcoming nature and willingness to help its members.

There are many reasons to like Empire Avenue but I also have some concerns.  I’m not crazy about the “shop” as part of the monetization strategy…yet (but I understand you have to pay the bills, and I’m sure servers aren’t cheap).  My thoughts are that EA should be focusing on building their user base first and the money will typically follow. Also, the website is so robust (kudos to the impressive EA engineering team) that the learning curve may turn some people off as there is simply so much going on. If the site had fewer features it may be less daunting for newcomers to engage. Additional features could be rolled out over time so there is less to digest at once similar to the way Facebook has introduced new features over the years. Finally, a boom in users may be too much of a burden for evangelists, who have willingly become a much needed support staff. EA does have a “helpline” chat which is very useful and they could always hire more customer service reps as a solution. Simplifying the site a bit would solve many some of these worries.

Despite these concerns, Empire Avenue has the right ingredients to become a major player as a social networking platform. It is addictive to users which makes it attractive to advertisers and companies (they want to be where their customers are) and it is adopting more and more engaged users every day.  The team in place is hard at work and more than willing to interact with users. For example Dups has responded to each one of my tweets and has even read my previous blog post and offered to provide more information. It is that kind of commitment that is evident of the type of place Empire Avenue is.

Some of Empire Avenue's Finest...

Have you used Empire Avenue or heard anything about it? What do you think of this new social media platform? Do you see potential for it to become a major player in social media?  I would love to hear your feedback.

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The Empire Avenue Experience Part 1

April 26, 2011 10 Comments

As a starting note, I had three other blog topics in front of this one but I felt compelled  to move this post up the queue since I signed up for Empire Avenue. Maybe I’m still in the honeymoon faze or whatever you may call it but I believe Empire Avenue (EA) could be the next big thing in social media. I guess you could say I’m in an Empire State of Mind. I originally had this as one post but it was nearing 2000 words so now this is part one which will cover what is Empire Avenue and part two will cover why I think it could be the next bing thing.

If you aren’t familiar with Empire Avenue, you probably aren’t alone. In March of this year site had only 12,415 unique visitors and chances are you weren’t one of them. But it seems like Robert Scoble’s interview with Dups (the CEO of Empire Avenue, Duleepa Wijayawardhana) may have put EA on the map as Mr. Mashable himself, Pete Cashmore has signed up along many recognizable name brands.

So what is Empire Avenue? Many users including myself share the thought that EA is like a crowd sourced version of Klout. One tweet by Jeremiah Owyang offers another explanation – “Empire Avenue explained in 140 characters: It’s Farmville for Social Media”. While there are certainly social media and gaming elements, Empire Avenue is also a stock market for people.  Below is a screenshot of what a profile looks like:

After signing up I was a bit overwhelmed by all the features and different tabs available (more on that in part 2). It took me a few minutes to get my bearings as the learning curve seems to be quite steep for new users but I quickly learned that the community is extremely enthusiastic and willing to help (also more on that in part 2). Below are a few of the areas I focused on:

Your profile - The first step was to setup a profile and connect the various social networks to my EA account. A social network score is based on your interaction level within each social platform  (similar to Klout) which will be displayed on the right hand side of the screen.

This scoring process seems to happen in two phases. The first is quick and provides a guestimate to what a score might be. From what I’ve been told by community members, the second step takes up to five days for the algorithm to work itself out and for the question marks next to the scores to disappear. The fluctuation in network scores will reflect in your share price during this time.

Your share price will clearly be marked at the top of the page. Here is the description provided by EA:

“Your share price is your value on the web! It’s made up of what you do online (your activity), and each of your network scores. Most importantly, it’s influenced by Buying and Selling of your shares. As people buy, your share price will increase.”and there seems to be an initial rise in share value once the calculations are updated from yoursocial network score as long as you are somewhat socially active.”

I have recently learned that social network activity is measured over a two week span. This is done to provide people a long enough time period to socially interact while also taking into account breaks people take from the web.

The news feed tracks social activity (an aggregator of sorts) not only in EA but also on other connected services - Twitter, Facebook (personal and pages), Flickr, and Youtube. EA updates in the feed include newly unlocked badges, recent purchases, new shareholders of your stock, and comments (or shoutouts as they are called) posted in various places around EA. When I signed up, it seemed like a few courtesy investors purchased my stock as an introduction (nothing like an initial ego boost) which showed up in my feed.

Investing in other people (or companies) is another major component to the website. My first instinct was to look for my friends, twitter followers, and big names to see who’s on EA and what their stock prices were at as a barometer (turns out I’m not worth a whole lot at the moment). I bought a few stocks just to see what would happen and I then realized I had a limited currency. Not to worry though, there are many different ways to earn more Eaves as they are called. Unlocking badges, staying active on EA, and dividends on purchased stocks will earn you more EA moola. You can find people to invest in by using the search tab and looking for topics of interest or as I recently learned, looking at the leaders tab will allow you to sort through a variety of categories to find hot stocks.

As I was poking around the site, I noticed four or five chats popping up at the bottom of my screen (they reminded me of old school AOL chats a bit , A/S/L anyone?). I started talking to a few folks in a chat called “Noobies” or something of the like and ended up schmoozing two investors to buy some shares in me from a pure organic conversation…great! Now I did notice in some other chats people were pulling the old “i’ll buy shares in you if you buy shares in me”. At first I saw this as a cheap method to inflate share prices but this seemed to generate conversations and helped create new connections. It will be interesting to see how this dynamic plays out as the site gains in popularity.

I’m sure I’ve missed some features such as joining different communities based on location or interests and the shop where you can use real money to purchase Eaves among other things. There are a few other blogs I’ve discovered from active members in the community. Check out Caleb Storkey’s blog for a great perspective on EA and its stickyness (I’m not sure he’s been getting much sleep recently). He also mentioned that he was working on a post covering the many features on EA so I will be on the lookout for that. Another good blog I came across is Domino Oracle who’s written a few posts with his observations (ask him about  and ). Both Caleb and Domino Oracle are very involved on the website and are always willing to give a helping hand. Please check back for part 2 soon as I will be exploring why this matters to the social media landscape.

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5 Stats That Prove Social Media is Here to Stay

February 28, 2011 1 Comment

It’s 2011 and by now most of us know that social media isn’t a fad. LinkedIn changed the way we network professionally since it launched nearly eight years ago and now has over 90 million users worldwide. Facebook of course, changed the way people interact with friends, starting with college kids in 2004 and recently expanding to over 500 million users in over 200 countries. Twitter has been around for five years and has over 45 million users tweeting 110 million times per day on a wide range of topics including current events (check out all the Academy Awards chatter right now).  Countless other social media sites have sprung up since then to try and capture a piece of the social media pie.

There are many skeptics who believe that social media is merely a phase and that in the next five or ten years, it will die out and give way to the next big thing. For those who are in denial about social media, take a look at the following stats:

1. For every hour we spend online, we spend the most amount of time on social networks, almost 15 minutes of every hour.

According to comScore, the average American spends roughly 34 hours on the internet per month. The chart below from Nielson shows that 22.7% of peoples’ time spent online is on social networking sites, an increase from 15.8% from the year before.

I personally spend more time in a day online versus offline. Working 8-10 hours a day and using the internet almost the entire time; 1-2 hours commuting with a smartphone (although I have spotty service at best riding the subway in Boston), and at least a 1-4 more hours when I get home, the time I spend online equates to 10-16 hours per day and over 300 hours per month…a bit scary to think about.

Extrapolating the 15 minute statistic from above to heavy internet users, time spent on social media per day can range from 2-4 hours; perhaps more than the time spent listening to radio, watching TV, and reading books and magazines combined.

2. Nearly half of all Americans are now members of at least one social network, double the proportion of just two years ago.

“While social network use is highest among the young, it’s not exclusively their club: 66% of 25-34 year olds and 50% of 35-44 also now have personal profile pages. Also 30% of social media users access a social media site several times a day, up from 18% in 2009″ (fromsocialimplications.com).

How much impact has social media made on Generation Y? Nearly 81% of millennials uses Facebook at least once a day.

3. People spend over 700 billion minutes per month on Facebook. That means the average Facebook user spends more than 55 minutes per day on Facebook alone.

Almost one hour per day is pretty substantial. It will be interesting to see in the coming years how much that number will increase as the Facebook generation grows older.

4. From 2008 to 2012, the percentage of US companies who use social media for marketing purposes is projected to more than double (from 42% to 88%).

Also from a Mashable article – “Among the world’s 100 largest companies, two-thirds are using Twitter, 54% have a Facebook page, 50% manage at least one corporate YouTube channel and 33% have created company blogs. Overall, 79% of Fortune 100 companies are using at least one social media channel.”

The adoption of social media by corporate America has gone a long way in legitimizing social media turning it into a multi-billion dollar industry.

5. It took radio 38 years to reach 50 million users, television 13 years, the internet 4 years, the iPod 3 years, while Facebook added over 200 million users in under 1 year. 

Yes one innovation led to another as there would be no Facebook without the internet but reaching 200 million users alone is impressive, nevermind in just one year. That is social media in a nutshell – The sheer power of digital word-of-mouth.

Check out the video below for a more in depth (and more entertaining) view on social media’s increased role in our world.

These stats and trends certainly support the idea of social media’s presence in today’s society. There is still room for growth but when will it level out and what will be the cause of it? What do you think? Are we still going to be tweeting and facebooking in 10 years at the same rate? Please leave your thoughts and comments.

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