Tweetmeme's Meteoric Rise Reveals Twitter's Search Issue

Techmeme has become one my primary navigational sources for daily reading / news (others include email, Google RSS, Facebook, NYTimes, TechCrunch, etc). Twitter isn't yet there because it is simply too noisy to be efficient.

Techmeme solves a specific need: revealing quality, trending content across a variety of blogs and news sources. That same need exists on Twitter... and it can be argued it is both a harder AND more important task (after all, there is more noise and less context).

Perhaps that is why Tweetmeme is surging: it solves an important need for an immensely popular service. And as Twitter grows, Tweetmeme becomes even more important, sources more content and services a larger community. According to Compete, Tweetmeme now reaches 3.6m monthly uniques - a hefty number by any measurement. Equally impressive though is that Tweetmeme's reach represents nearly 20% of Twitter's monthly uniques (19.7m). Furthermore, as Twitter's growth flattened from April to May, Tweetmeme's more than doubled (1.6m to 3.6m):

Is this to say that Tweetmeme is the perfect service? No.

It is important however because it demonstrates: - a glaring need / opportunity within Twitter (either for third parties or Twitter itself) - the difficulty that finding poses (both algorithmic search and social search)... particularly in Twitter's dynamic world of 140 characters - a clear demand from users (after all, Tweetmeme's monthly uniques are 20% of Twitter's!) - a threat for sites like Digg and Stumbleupon... which Tweetmeme (or Twitter itself) can effectively compete with - an opportunity for Bit.ly - which is sitting on a goldmine of data surrounding referrals and links

Twitter Media Campaign: Followers, Custom Twitter Widget & Promotion

Twitter is a powerful marketing lever for communications, traffic acquisition and user interaction (read more here). But to leverage Twitter, the fact is that you need to build a following... a task that is particularly difficult for fledgling users. In fact, earlier today, TechCrunch reported that 80 Percent Of Accounts Have Fewer Than 10 Followers.

Widgetbox is introducing a new pilot program to help you utilize Twitter as part of your social media / user acquisition strategy. Based on the chosen package, Widgetbox will:

- build you a custom Twitter widget - build your Twitter following (either by 1,000, 5,000 or 10,000 followers) - promote and distribute your widget

Widgetbox can help users and brands either grow their Twitter campaigns OR launch / create their strategies. In either approach, letting Widgetbox grow your Twitter presence will make your marketing efforts more effective and allow you to consistently and more easily grow your following.

The three packages are below. You can contact me directly to get started (rspoon at gmail.com). See more on Widgetbox here.

My Favorite Facebook Friend Recommendation

Unfortunately, as much as I wanted to befriend this anonymous user - Facebook won't let me... It's also unfortunate because I wanted to give him / her this Prius 'Air' Freshner:

Facebook friend 'suggestions' seem to be having trouble today (you will notice them on the right side of your feed page). On a more serious note around yesterday's announcement about Facebook's new "Ads for Pages" units (which allow users to interact and become fans from the ad itself). I have surprisingly not encountered any such units in the wild. Perhaps advertisers haven't had enough time to construct their campaigns. Perhaps it is purely a fluke (and I need to spend more time on Facebook) - but I am surprised that the ads haven't quickly become prevalent.

Facebook Ads for Pages Now Include "Become a Fan" Links

Facebook Pages are powerful ways to communicate with users, customers and fans... but the power is predicated by the size of its audience (a lesson well demonstrated by Twitter). Thus, it's a natural move for Facebook to make their Facebook Ads more interactive and allow users to become fans from the ad itself.

Considering that the most prevalent upsell on Facebook for developers and marketers is to drive traffic to the content you have created (namely pages) - this is a win for:

- advertisers, many of which will see conversions rates rise significantly - viewers, who can interact directly from the feed / profile pages - Facebook, who can extract greater value from marketers... and do so in a cleaner user experience

For brands and developers looking to grow their Facebook Fan-base, craft a small test. At the very least it is a valuable experience is understanding Facebook's ad system and targeting... at best, it's an effective way to amass a sticky, interested community.

Facebook's Email: "Build Your Facebook Fan Base"

Hi Facebook Pages Admin, Facebook Ads for your Page will now get you even more Fans. You are now able to create ads that will allow users to become a Fan of your Page directly from the ad. Users can also click anywhere on your ad to access your Page, get more information and become further engaged.

Benefits of using Ads for Pages:

1 Without leaving the page they are viewing, users can become a Fan directly from the ad 2 When a user becomes a Fan of your Page from the ad, a story is published in the user's Wall 3 This story is eligible to show in Highlights- creating free distribution in the social graph In addition, users will see friends who have become a Fan of your Page in their version of the ad – increasing the relevancy of your ad.

Click here to get more information.

Bit.ly Adds 'Pass Through' Metrics - Hugely Valuable

I have written before that data around referral traffic could be a business model for both Twitter and Friendfeed. And as Twitter's growth accelerates, I believe this more than when I wrote the article one year ago. In fact, it is the reason that Bit.ly surpassed TinyURL so quickly: data. Bit.ly always provided metrics around clickthroughs - which proves to be a difficult measurement within Google Analytics (battle between referral traffic, direct traffic and the increasing usage of apps like Seesmic).

Tonight I noticed what appears to be a new set of metrics from Bit.ly: direct clicks and total clicks (what I am referring to as "pass throughs"). Retweet is a phenomenon on Twitter - but measurement is difficult because most people retweet with their own encoded URLs... consequently muddying the data and only representing a portion of the traffic. It is still incomplete data because it appears that Bit.ly is aggregating data based on the landing URL and it thus only represents activity for Bit.ly-encoded URLs... nevertheless, it is valuable for marketers in understanding the virality of shared content.

I still believe that richer analytics are valuable enough for marketers (who represent much of Twitter's activity) to represent a real subscription service... just look at how much businesses and marketers spend on sites like LinkedIn. Perhaps that means that Twitter acquires Bit.ly and expands on the analytics offering; or, perhaps it means that Twitter creates a service internally.

Toyota Prius Harmony Commercial is a Winner

I consider myself evironmentally aware (my fiance Anette works at SunRun and I commute in a 100mpg Honda Ruckus)... but I am certainly not an 'environmentalist' (I also drive an eight-seater SUV). Yet it's the environmental angle that Toyota's newest Prius commercial, "Harmony", that is so captivating.

The third generation of the Prius looks slightly different - but obviously far from the road's most attractive car. The appeal of the car has always been its performance and environmental soundness - which the commercial captures perfectly. The surroundings are colorful, represent each of the seasons and elements, and are played by hundreds of smiling people. The music and voice-over deliver that same message: "The Prius. It's harmony between man, nature and machine."

I typically find car commercials obnoxious and ineffective - particularly when I see the same F150 commercial during every timeout of a sporting event. But I'd be glad to have these commercials replace Howie Long's.

From Toyota:

"Toyota presents the 3rd generation Prius http://www.toyota.com/prius . Welcome to Harmony, where Man's wants and Nature's needs agree. Using the wind, sun and advanced hybrid technology, Prius balances our demand for mobility with the natural order of things. It's a hybrid like no other, the first to benefit from three cycles of design evolution. The 2010 Toyota Prius. Moving Forward."

Facebook Vanity URLs = Big SEO Boost for Facebook

Facebook's vanity URL push (covered by TechCrunch) is a big deal for two reasons:- the direct business model opportunity - traffic via natural search

Let's leave the business model alone for the now as it is unclear whether Facebook plans to tie a business model to vanity URLs (whether or not they choose to do so - users would certainly be willing to pay subscriptions for the ability to brand themselves on the web's most popular social hub). Let's also assume that, regardless of whether Facebook implements a direct revenue model, there will be indirect benefits particularly from brands and advertisers who will continue to build their on-Facebook activity (branding, advertising, content, etc).

The most direct benefit of vanity URLs, however, is traffic via natural search. Facebook is the web's largest network and its most active social / content hub. In a people search, Facebook should by all accounts appear as either the first or second result (for most individuals). Yet they typically don't... Google "Ryan Spoon" and you get:

#1. RyanSpoon.com (should be #1) #2. LinkedIn (good content, but static) #3. Twitter (my account ID is berecruited ... so the optimization isn't even there) #4. CrunchBase (wow... that is high) #5. 5Spoons.com (another personal site of mine) #6. Mobile Twitter (fascinating this is so high) #7. Facebook (other than RyanSpoon.com - this is where I contribute most of my content) #8. Techmeme (an article of mine)

An optimized vanity URL should almost immediately move Facebook into the #2 result. As hot as Twitter is, Facebook is more than 10x in size and activity. Currently, Twitter sees about 10% of its visits arrive from Google. With some liberal math:

- 20m monthly visitors (Compete) - ~200m monthly visits (Quantcast) - 10% visits from Google (Compete) - 20m monthly visits from Google

Assume that 50% of those visits are derivatives of Twitter's brand name (generous) and you have 10m monthly visits from Google.

According to Quantcast, Facebook sees about four billion monthly visits - which is about 20x Twitter. This gives you a sense of what improvement in Google's rankings could mean for Facebook - which currently, according to Compete, sees 7.9% of its visits from Google. If Facebook reaches reaches the 10% mark, the above match would mean that Facebook would realize an incremental 84m visits from Google. Of course, it could be argued that Facebook could / should move beyond the 10% mark (particularly if they surpass Twitter and LinkedIn and others in SEO).... and those numbers get very big very quickly (15% would be ~275m incremental visits).

Whether the business model around vanity URLs is direct or indirect - the Facebook model is predicated on users and activity... both of which benefit significantly.

Twitter Best Video Worm Hits - But It's Also a Short URL Effect

There is a worm actively going around Twitter encouraging users to view the "best video" - which is cloaked in a short url (juste.ru/...). Twitter actively and quickly responded with a short, strange message: "No matter how good that “best video” looks, don’t go to any juste.ru domains. We’re aware of the situation and are working on it."

This is as much about Twitter (and their rise to mass-popularity) as it is about the trend of short URLs. With services like Bit.ly and Tiny URL (which I use all of the time on Facebook and Twitter), it is impossible to know what lies on the click through... and that is dangerous because it requires you to trust the person sending the URL. Or, in today's case, trust that it was intentionally sent by the a trusted person.

Phishing is already rampant and difficult enough to detect / avoid with full URL strings (which is really the best way to validate whether the brand and destination match). The growing usage of short URLs makes detection nearly impossible until the click has already happened. Of course, this also means that spammers and phishers benefit and can leverage the popularity of Twitter (and other popular conversational exchanges).

Sony PSP Go Launches... But the Time has Passed

Let me preface by saying that, while I do not consider myself a video game buff, I am the proud owner of a Sony Playstation 3 (used both for Blu Ray and infrequent gaming). It is important to say this because my remarks about the PSP Go - Sony's latest version of their portable gaming device - are neither rooted in a dislike for the hardware nor the for the gaming content.

Simply put, the PSP Go is entering the market at a time dominated by mobile devices. Its two core usages are for gaming (leveraging Sony's content and game developers) and high quality video. But unless Sony's device is staggeringly better than what can be done on the iPhone (and others like the Palm Pre), users will not:

- carry another, heftier device - pay premiums for content and titles - change their viewing habits (how much better would video need to be to turn in your iPhone or iPod Touch for another small viewing screen?)

Perhaps if the Sony Go was introduced two years ago, it could have won market share during a time when consumers did not believe everything (work, phone, gaming and video) could be done in a single device. But today - we know it is possible and we know that the trend will continue:

- devices are getting better - gaming content is dramatically improving (just look at Zynga) - major gaming titles and developers are focusing their attention on mobile (currently the primary reason for gamers to want a PSP Go) - in the near-term economic climate, users appear willing to sacrifice quality for pricing (ie a <$10 game via the App Store vs. a $40 Sony title) - Apple and others are opening up to allow peripheral development / integration... which could significantly enhance gaming quality