Each year at Blogworld Expo, Technorati CEO Richard Jalichandra presents The State of the Blogosphere as one of the event’s prestigious keynotes. For those who are unfamiliar with Technorati, it serves as a directory and search engine for the blogosphere as well as a benchmark for the ranking of blogs worldwide.

While there has been much discussion about the relevance and even demise of blogs as the statusphere and micro updates gained traction in addition to earning prominence in the mainstream spotlight, the reality is that blogs are a vital ingredient to the media ecosystem.

Released as a five-part series, Technorati provided a looking glass into the blogosphere and revealed the true shape and promise of this important medium.

Demographics

Analyzing the demographics of bloggers, we learn that they’re not necessarily similar to that of the Social Web. Where in Social Media, women rule, in the blogosphere it appears that men represent the majority of active blog authors.

• Two-thirds are male
• 60% are 18-44
• The majority are more affluent and educated than the general population
• 75% have college degrees
• 40% have graduate degrees
• One in three has an annual household income of $75K+
• One in four has an annual household income of $100K+
• Professional and self-employed bloggers are more affluent: nearly half have an annual household income of $75,000 and one third topped the $100,000 level
• More than half are married
• More than half are parents
• Half are employed full time, however ¾ of professional bloggers are employed full time.

The Technorati survey was distributed in English, however bloggers from over 50 companies responded which equated to almost half of all total responses. The other half of responses were sourced from the United States.

Within the U.S., the states with the highest concentrations of bloggers include:

California: 16%
New York: 9%
Florida: 5%
Texas: 5%
Washington: 5%
Massachusetts: 4%
Virginia: 4%

Experience

When reviewing the span of time respondents claimed to blog, the majority boasted at least 2 – 6 years experience.

Citizen Journalism

Citizen Media or Citizen Journalism is blamed or credited for the erosion of traditional media and its supporting financial support system. However, as Technorati discovered, the blogosphere is populated with new influencers, but also rich with traditional journalists who may or may not blog as part of their profession.

Technorati observed that respondents did not regard the rise of online media and blogging as the death knell for newspapers or other traditional media. Personally, I would simply say that choice and the democratization of media is actively luring the attention of a once devout and loyal media audience. Blogs, for better or for worse, are cutting into the attention share of those seeking information, making traditional news outlets rethink how and where they publish information. However, as you can see below, the consensus is grim for newspapers, but burgeoning for blogs and micro media.

Media Consumption Habits of Bloggers

When they’re not contributing to the world of media, they’re are indeed captivated by other mediums. Across the board, bloggers attested to watching television upwards of 9 hours per week, reading blogs on average of 8 hours weekly, and engaging in Social Media between 7 – 8 hours each week.

Why Do Bloggers Blog?

Self-expression and sharing expertise are among the primary motivations for bloggers. 70% of all respondents claim that personal satisfaction a primary form of measurement in the success of their blog. Pros, however, look to the number of unique visitors as a leading metric of success.

Blog Topics

When reviewing the topics that bloggers most often discuss, politics, business, technology and personal musings ranked supreme.

Why Do Bloggers Blog?

Technorati asked an important question, one that, in my opinion, unlocks a very human aspect associated with blogging. Technorati asked quite simply, “Why do you blog?” Not surprisingly, 71% say they blog in order to speak their minds.  Part-timers, on the other hand, are driven by sharing their expertise (72%) and also supplementing their income (61%). What came as a revelation to Technorati is the repsonse that Pros were less interested in supplementing their income (17%), instead attracting new clients for the businesses they work for (53%) proved pervasive. Entrepreneurs were also most interested in attracting new clients (72%).

Blogging Cultivates Communities and Business

One of the primary reasons 59% bloggers claim to blog more is because they feed off of the greater interaction that results from their commitment to quality of frequency of content. Perhaps more importantly, 74% of self-employed bloggers claim that blogging has proven valuable for promoting business services and capabilities.

Frequency = Authority

There was a time that I could only seem to commit one post per week. Over time, I’ve struggled to post 2-3 times per week. closing out 2009 and heading into 2010, you will notice an increase in activity here, posting as many as 4 -5 posts per week. If I could, I would blog much more often. However, reality is what it is.

Technorati found that authority is tied to investment of time, energy, and activity. The most read and highest ranking blogs publish more posts than the average blogger. 15% of bloggers spend 10 or more hours each week blogging. This number goes up dramatically as we look at those who benefit directly from their posting with 24% of Part-Timers, 25% of Pros and 32% of Self-Employed bloggers spending 10 or more hours blogging.

One in five bloggers report updating their blogs daily. On average, the most common rate of posts ranks ats 2-3 times per week. On the whole, entrepreneurs update more often than other category of bloggers.

The distance between elite bloggers and those who aspire to join them is tied directly to prolificness. Those bloggers who rank among the highest according to Technorati Authority post nearly 300 times more than the lower ranked bloggers. Perhaps a goal for each one of us in 2010 is to blog more.

Did you know…The number of blogs in the average Blogroll is 47, a surprisingly high number. Source: Lijit

Mobile Blogging

20% of all bloggers report updating their blog from a mobile device with 59% reporting that they do so this year over last year.

Driving Traffic

Of course many of those who responded, upwards of 76%, claimed that they list their blog in the Technorati directory to attract a greater audience – those usually seeking new blogs or posts related to keywords.  In addition, many bloggers, 83% of pros for example, add “tags” to their posts, which lends to the social media optimization (SMO) and ultimately the discoverability of each post in the search results at Technorati. Also, bloggers are versed in the art and science of content promotion. On average bloggers engage five separate activities to drive traffic including listings in directors, tagging, commenting on other posts, linking to key blogs, and contributing content to other sites.

The most popular tags include:

• politics
• blogging
• video
• writing and poetry
• technology
• business
• friends
• blog
• romance and relationships
• sports
• family
• travel
• entertainment
• movies
• personal
• internet
• books
• art
• photography
• games

Traffic

Organized and optimized search plays a large role in the views of a blog post, contributing on average, 27% of total views from a horizontal search engine. This insight emanates from analytics, which are instrumental in the traffic analysis of 74% of all bloggers.

The three most popular third party services reported by bloggers are:

Google Analytics: 55
Sitemeter: 15
Statcounter: 14

Revealing the magicians secret to traffic is one thing, but understanding the volume of activity is the truth that ushers perspective and reality. While many of us understand or at least recognize the power and wonder of a-list blogs, most overlook the value of the Magic Middle, the class of bloggers that earn between 1,000 and 50,000 monthly unique visitors. It is the Magic Middle that out numbers the a-list and for that, provide an almost endless array of opportunities in and around news and trends.

Monitezation

Blogging may or may not contribute to a direct correlation between posting and earning revenue. In many cases, it is blogging that indirectly leads to other financial opportunities.

72% of respondents are classified as Hobbyists, meaning that they report no income related to blogging.

Of those who have monetized their blogging to at least some extent:

• 54% are Part-Timers
• 32% are Self-Employed
• 14% are Corporates

Among Pro and Self-Employed bloggers, 17% of the total respondents derive their primary income from blogging.

Note that the majority of revenue is derived from direct revenue such as display ads and search ads as well as affiliate marketing links to the site. Indirect income is also a factor, stemming from opportunities that arise in the form of paid speeches, spokesblogging (paid conversations) and appearance fees.

Technorati asked part-timers and self-employed bloggers how much annual revenue they generate through advertising (roughly 40% of such bloggers). Self-employed reported as much as $120,000 with part timers documenting under $15,000.

51% of corporate bloggers, which equates to about 58%, reported earning a salary for blogging.

The breakdown of direct and indirect revenue tied to blogging breaks down as follows:

However, generating revenue isn’t necessarily the end-goal in blogging. Demonstrating expertise or simply sharing perspective is satisfactory. And, in some cases, the infusion of money only taints the process.

Brand Presence in Blogs

One in five tweets on Twitter is related to a brand. In the blogosphere, 70% of bloggers refer to them. 46% of bloggers post about the brands they love or hate, while and 38% post brand or product reviews. Part-Time and Self-Employed bloggers refer to brands at a much higher rate (80%), with one in three posting reviews at least once a week.

Company Blogs

Last year, Forrester Research documented that only 16% of consumers trusted company blogs. One year later, I would argue that the trust barometer now measures an increase in the establishment of trust and collaboration.

71% of respondents who maintain blogs for a business reported an increase in visibility within their industries as a result of blogging. 56% claim that their blogs helped their company establish as a thought leadership position within the industry.

Blogging also appear to have to experience positive career benefits ranging from industry eminence (58%) to increased internal visibility (15%). This is among the most consequential data to emerge from this report. Effective blogging creates a lift for brand presence and correlating value propositions as well as individual illustriousness.

Micromedia Meets Blogging

When I wrote a post defining how the Statusphere can help save journalism, I could have easily discussed the same principles describing how tools and networks such as Twitter and Facebook improve awareness and increase activity around blogs and blog posts.

According to the Technorati report, bloggers use Twitter much more than the general population. In a poll conducted by Penn, Schoen & Berland Associates in May 2009 for The Wall Street Journal’s All Things D conference, 14% of the general population reportedly use Twitter, but 73% of respondents in Technorati’s survey do, which includes 83% of Corporate and 88% of Self-Employed bloggers). Bloggers cite Twitter as a form of content promotion, business marketing, and information curation as well as a mechanism for tracking trends.

52% of responding bloggers reported that they syndicate their blog posts via their Twitter account and 41% also post tweets that are not associated with their blogs.

Depending on which blogger you speak to, I believe these answers will vary. In a discussion with Jay Rosen of NYU during Blogworld Expo, we recognized that Twitter may well borrow available time previously allocated for blogging. In some cases, the frequency and depth of posts has plummeted in favor of micro updates and responses posted on Twitter and Facebook. On the contrary, I personally and going to make a conscious effort to boost activity on multiple platforms as I believe that they will have positive impacts on many of the business aspects discussed above.

The Future of Blogging

As the study mostly observes, blogging is on an upward trajectory. With the introduction of new, mobile, and streamlined blogging platforms such as Posterous or even proven networks such as Tumblr, blogging will only grow in prominence as the preeminent form of sharing thoughts, opinion, and insights in way that’s impossible in other micro networks. 57% of bloggers predict that their future holds a greater level of blogging (including 74% of 18-24 year olds). Personally I can attest to this stat, 35% overall, with upwards of 43% of part-timers, plan to publish a book. As well, mobile blogging will continue to expand as well, as 20% plan to do so in the future.

Blogging over the years has impacted many industries leading with politics, technology, celebrity, and business.

The future of blogging is expected to affect the same top three industries, politics, technology, and business, however, celebrity/gossip gives way to green/environment.

As Technorati observes, “The Internet in general and blogging in particular have expanded the marketplace of ideas into the global community.”

Blogging continues to deliver a rich, interactive, entertaining and fulfilling experience that transcends traditional print, radio, and TV. It simply provides a sophisticated framework for facilitating the real-time exchange of information and community interaction. And, it is the community response that fuels the evolution of ideas as they spread globally giving rise to a new genre of influence and movement.

Perhaps it’s as simple as Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park observes:

Technorati believes that the next generation of blogs will be more action oriented, not just documenting real time happenings, but driving actual events.

Indeed, action speaks louder than words. But in the blogosphere, it is our words that inspire action.

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This is breaking news at the moment, therefore this post will update as new information trickles in.

Twitter is making good on its recent promise to introduce new features to bring users back to Twitter.com.

Similar to the way that it rolled out Lists, Twitter is incrementally releasing its new Retweet feature initially previewed in August 2009.

As described by @Biz, co-founder of Twitter:

Retweet is a button that makes forwarding a particularly interesting tweet to all your followers very easy. In turn, we hope interesting, newsworthy, or even just plain funny information will spread quickly through the network making its way efficiently to the people who want or need to know.

The plan is to see how it goes first with this small release. If it needs more work, then we’ll know right away. If things look good, we’ll proceed with releasing the feature in stages eventually arriving at 100%.

The new retweet feature is particularly interesting as it organizes your experience directly at Twitter.com much in the same way third-party clients such as Tweetdeck and Seesmic have offered all along. Unlike these desktop applications however, Twitter.com remains as the pervasive interface for engaging on Twitter. For example, your lists, real-time search results, DMs, Twitter stream, and now retweets are key pillars to the personal experience at Twitter.com. For most users, the new retweet functionality, combined with important, cached searches (including your username), the need to stray from Twitter’s online hub begins to dissipate. And, the timing couldn’t be better…

Here’s a screenshot published on Mashable (Thank you Tonya Becker-Haddadeen):

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As more and more brands are moving all of their ad spend online, defining how influence affects their return on investment is necessary and must be done as soon as possible. While some are making inroads to define these calculations many are overlooking the fact that influence affects everything. Without factoring in the real issue of different types of influence you run into a number of problems, for instance focusing on one group of influencers over another or getting broad sweeping numbers instead of knowing exactly how effective your time and money has been spent on the proper target. One thing that usually doesn’t sync up here is that these online influencers with large followings are not the offline influencers.

People with social media influence are able to spread brand messages and have their audiences actually absorb it. To get things done one thing is for sure: the more influence you have the better. While it is important to be able to have your message spread far and wide to the right people it’s also equally if not more important to influence others offline. Generally people who are extremely influential offline fly under the radar online and are able to get things done this way.

Most of the time these people aren’t even online. Their offline networks are created so that they don’t need to be online. Some industries don’t necessarily need to be networking the way you and I may. When these offline influencers are online their follower numbers tend to be smaller and more concentrated. Why is that?

Online Influencers

What these people know is that while it’s important to have a large network to spread a message as wide as possible it’s even more important to have a smaller more concentrated network to make things happen. It’s the age old axiom of quality versus quantity. My answer to that is that it’s quantity of quality.

The one question you need to ask yourself is this: what is my purpose for connecting? Connecting just to connect is aimless. The reason the offline influencers command more influential ears is that they know their time is valuable so they make sure every connection has a purpose.

Every person in your life you connect to should have a purpose. Look at your 4 closest friends. Where they are will accurately reflect where and who you are. Ask yourself where you want to be successful in and focus on that. Both online and offline influencers know where they are successful because they concentrate on those areas.

Offline Influencers

What’s rarely seen is someone with a large online presence conveying an equal or greater command with influencers offline. Sure it’s been known to happen but not often. What happens with many online influencers is that their online influence starts to transcend these nonphysical boundaries and move into the physical world.

When this happens they may be able to wow the crowd but the savvy businessman will be able to spot a charlatans a mile away. Not to say that all those transcending are charlatans but what tends to happen is that because they can influence a crowd they think they can influence the boardroom. These two types of influence are not the same and take two different sets of skills.

Being able to influence C-level executives is different than getting a consumer to purchase a product. Sure the idea behind it is the same but you have to be able to speak not just two totally different languages. In fact each of those two languages are two different dialects.

The Influential Divide

Therein lies the problem with influence grading programs. While they try to ascertain digital influence this is still only a part of the picture. Even if you don’t factor in offline influence into the equation you still are left with a blanket influence grade. There’s all sorts of different types of online influence as I’ve talked about above, but let’s just only focus on the ‘big numbers’ influence for a moment.

Every influential person with large follower numbers interacting online in social media spaces are not doing so in the same way. Some of them aren’t even influential. But for the ones who are influential even they have different nuances in what they focus on. Programs can’t ever capture tactics, strategies, interactions and general feel of someone’s value. While someone may be 80% mass influencer and 20% executive influencer, grading programs can’t capture the secret conversations (IMs, DMs, emails, Facebooks mail, LinkedInmails etc) that make up the core of someone’s worth.

What often happens is that some of the most important decisions happen behind closed doors, online and offline. Sensitive correspondence tends to need discretion. Regardless of how transparent your interactions are there will always be something that you do that can be the linchpin to connecting.

The Future of Influence

Eventually what will have to happen is that programs like TweetPsych will be combined with social media grading programs like Klout as well as other lists like Ad Age Power150. All of these will factor in with some sort of sentiment analysis Myers-Briggs hybrid program that will tell you how you function. Signal Patterns is the closest there is to this so far.There are already programs analyzing your musical tastes and predicting for you (Pandora) as well as social media article prediction apps (my6sense) so why not a program that accurately pairs you up with people most similar to your interaction style?

YES this may be very self-referential and take out the randomness of life, but sometimes you just want to connect with like minds. Eventually what needs to happen is that a verified analysis program will have to scan all of your private correspondences and grade you on different sets of publicly published benchmarks. For obvious reasons there will need to be discretion in not saying exactly what is being looked as the correspondences are most likely sensitive.

Even Digg is building in influence to their ranking system:

…Digg and WeFollow will now be more closely linked as we experiment with user influence as it applies to the Twitter universe… user influence and the data we collect during this process will play an important role in upcoming versions of Digg.

I see this program not just analyzing the style and feeling of the messages but also the outcomes. Let’s say you have a conversation with someone about connecting them to something and lo and behold a deal comes to fruition with something you suggested. There’s no way anyone would know you had something to do with it unless you were explicitly a part of it. What if you connected the parties behind closed doors? That type of influence is lost on grading programs. (Klout tries to grade your Twitter Network Strength by asking How influential are the people who @ message you? and How influential are the people that retweet you? but how can you accurately do that if you don’t define the type of influence you’re looking to grade?)

There will be a need to use directories of people and correspondences that happen in the offline world akin to CrunchBase. This will be combined with all of the above along with something like a NetPromoter Score for people for a definitive influencer score. Social media is still in it’s infancy and still hashing out issues that other industries have long ago defined.

The next big hurdle for the online world to overcome will be converging interactions with the offline world that are organic, natural and can be quantified. As companies look to online networks to solve a lot of their traditional problems they’re going to want more and more accountability. This is where a converged influencer score will greatly help everyone out in the process in knowing someone’s real value, not just their perceived value.

In media and blogger relations, PR typically wields two powerful tools to help boost the effectiveness of pitching and potential placement of news: the embargo and the exclusive.

In the case of an exclusive, a story is usually packaged prior to official release for one particular writer, fully understanding their style, nuances, and audience. If the story is accepted, it is not pitched to any other media outlets until after the story runs. The benefit for PR is that it can bank on the publishing of a guaranteed, high profile story. The advantage for the reporter is that they maintain a position of authority on that particular event. The con for PR, is that usually, other media properties will forgo participating in the round of coverage because it quickly become old news.

The news business is similar to buying a new car. It’s immediately worth less the moment you drive it off of the lot. Once the press release crosses the wire or a reporter/blogger publishers the story, the news loses its value. Thus, news boasts its greatest leverage prior to public dissemination.

Embargoes on the other hand, are tied to newsworthy stories that are presented to a series of top newsmakers simultaneously before its official release with the intention of negotiating and coordinating an orchestrated release across multiple platforms concurrently. The advantage for PR is that it can architect a successful, expansive, and amplified release – giving more weight to the announcement as it’s distributed. Participating reporters benefit by contributing to a breaking story and creating the perception that each reporter was on top of something buzzworthy. On the other hand, journalists and bloggers can also feel the sting of participating if one writer should publish even one minute early.

This has become an increasingly competitive practice among online reporters trying to scoop each other to give the appearance that they broke the story and that others followed. Also, there can be a sense of animosity generated if the story was pitched profusely to colleagues and competitors based on quantity and not necessarily the quantity of quality. In many cases, the corral of participating influencers can and will become uncontrollable as it increases its circumference. Someone will inevitably break the embargo. Once that happens, chances are, that the rest of the group will kill the post and never run it, harboring bitterness against PR as a result.

Personally, I employ a less is more strategy, one where I work with a select few who represent varying reach, but ultimately impact the right people who are truly looking for relevant news. In my world, everything starts with expectation setting and management, as I no longer find value in casting a wider net, only to eventually shovel excuses to one side or the other of reporters/bloggers or company executives “when” something doesn’t live up to unsaid presumptions.

With embargoes, they are highly effective for all parties when practiced strategically. At the same time however, reporters and PR professionals who regularly abuse them, whether or not its intentional, set the stage for a series of boycotts and debates that continue to unfold in the public spotlight and damage relations between media and PR with every step of the way.

Although, I have yet to hear a backlash against exclusives except from unhappy executives who “always” believe that their news is consequential and disruptive regardless of reality.

But, PR, unfortunately, is perpetually working against a common dilemma; no matter what we achieve, it’s never enough. Nonetheless, PR in many cases, works against itself.

Michael Arrington, publisher of TechCrunch, one of the world’s leading and most influential blogs, has publicly decried embargoes claiming that the editorial team will no longer honor them. As a result, he dedicates a significant share of real estate to explain his position by chastising those who fortify his decision and perception (disclosure: I contribute to TechCrunch).

The Wall Street Journal also recently issued a statement recently that its reporters will only entertain exclusives moving forward and that for all intents and purposes, the embargo is dead to WSJ reporters.

What’s at stake here is a sacred bond between reporter/blogger and PR. The explicit and implicit trust that exists between the two sides will either grow stronger or completely unravel with every embargo and exclusive – depending on its outcome.

In the world of embargoes and exclusives, the risk can be greater than the reward and unfortunately, PR is usually caught holding the smoking gun when orchestration collapses.

The Future of News

While I was traveling in support of the new book, Putting the Public Back in Public Relations, which also addresses issues surround new media relations and embargoes, I missed an important discussion in San Francisco dedicated to the exploration of the embargo’s possible future. The expert panel included Tom Foremski of Silicon Valley Watcher, Dylan Tweney of Wired, Mark Glaser of PBS/Media Shift, Damon Darlin of the New York Times, and was moderated by Sam Whitmore of Media Survey.

Rafe Needleman of CNET/CBS and Paul Boutin of VentureBeat/NY Times participated from the audience.

I would have loved to participate on that panel. Even though it was hosted by global PR firm Waggener Edstrom, it appeared to be a soapbox for a one-sided view of a much larger issue that effects two sides of the news process – media and PR

Wired’s Dylan Tweney perhaps shared the night’s most interesting perspective on embargoes,, and as such, embodies a sentiment that reverberates throughout the media industry, “Embargo is Latin for F you!”

The New York Times Darlin said that embargoes co-opt the media. More importantly, he acknowledged that the Times often accepts embargoes because they ensure reporters don’t miss a story and that an inherent benefit is that they have time to do a thorough job.

Mark Glaser on the other hand, maintains a much bleaker outlook on the embargo, “I think they will become extinct.”

In fact, he believes that all journalists should reject them.

Tom Foremski partially agrees. In a post written prior to the event, he shared that even though the accepts embargoes, he often forgets or loses interest in them over time and as such, he believes, “embargoes don’t seem to work anymore.”

I disagree wholeheartedly. In fact, embargoes are powerful and effective for all parties when coordinated properly and centered on information that is indeed newsworthy.

As David Needle of Internet News reported, Dylan Tweney summed up the sentiment on embargoes in a positive light, “While most embargoes aren’t exclusive, he said the embargo process puts a story on the same continuum. Even if you’re one of 25 others getting the story, that’s worth something.”

Rafe Needleman is no stranger to the topic of PR #Fail. He maintains a separate blog, PR Pro Tips, and even published a recent book dedicated to documenting what doesn’t work, while also providing advice on how to practice PR in a way that actually helps him do his job more effectively.

He discussed the need for obtaining an NDA in advance of sharing news under an assumed embago.

In the process of corralling reporters, many make the mistake of sending the request for an NDA or agreement to the embargo along with the news. This is a mistake that is more common than not and one that hits a little too close to home. Someone on our team discovered this hard way and the pitch was rightfully called out because technically, the news was shared before we received commitment to the NDA – thus an embargo was never established.

Needleman wisely advised in his PR Pro Tips blog, “If you send an unsolicited email with an embargoed press release in it, we consider that fair game to cover immediately. Get your NDAs agreed to before you send them.”

Expectation Chain or Chained by Expectations

At the center of this quandary is the news release and the expectations that govern its pickup and distribution. While many place blame on the resulting tactics associated with pitching and placing news, the true source of the problem is the expectations of those companies and executives responsible for generating the news and ultimately the marketers and communications professionals who report to them. The expectation chain also continues beyond the c-suite as they also report to a board of directors and advisors, stakeholders, and investors. To them, it’s not about less is more, they’re goals are fully rooted in a “more is more” mentality rooted in a prevailing sense of entitlement. PR thus starts off from an almost losing position. The economy doesn’t help either…

Reporters and bloggers are also to blame for the inefficiencies and problems circling the embargo. While some have mistakenly published early, others have done so intentionally. There’s an advantage for doing so, traffic.

The Race to Authority: Content is Still King

At the San Francisco event, Mark Glaser didn’t buy the excuse that being one minute ahead of everyone else is important to page views. But if you are considered the lead in a breaking story by the public, it makes all the difference in the world – namely bragging rights and a much more profound case for selling sponsorships and ads. In the tech world, there’s also a visual element to the lead story. Techmeme, for example, usually rewards the first to publish a story that sparks a news trend, positioning following stories beneath the lead. You can bet that Techmeme sends a greater volume of traffic to the lead versus supporting posts. And, of course there’s Twitter. First to break an interesting story usually benefits from a wave of retweets.

Paul Boutin compared the embargo to a horse race. If we line up horses at the track, it’s in his best interest to break early.

And, Boutin also takes a hard nose position against those who break earlier and beat him to market. Even though many PR pros try to salvage coverage among those who then choose not to write a story because it’s already public, Boutin believes that there isn’t any value to a deeper story or new angle, “there’s no second chance to write a deeper story, speed counts.”

As Dylan Tweney from wired observed and then echoed by Rafe Needleman via Twitter, “The stories that get the most pageviews are almost never embargoed stories.”

But reporters and bloggers aren’t the only force to dictate the future of news and embargoes. PR also has a choice in who they decide to align with on important stories. Even though there is an unnecessarily great emphasis on the volume and mass of coverage (H.I.T.S. as KD Paine defines as How Idiots Track Success). In the immediate future, activity and influence will count for everything as PR becomes accountable for contributing to the bottom line of business, not just publicity. Some more advanced communications teams are already measuring the activity that derives from each post/article and it absolutely determines who is invited to participate in embargoes and stories in the future. Practiced well enough over time, PR fundamentally invests in the authority of chosen individuals and organizations.

The power and allure of a-list blogs and reporters is undeniable, but PR cannot ignore or overlook the value of the Magic Middle, the class of bloggers that earn between 1,000 and 50,000 monthly unique visitors. It is the Magic Middle that out numbers the a-list in reach and volume when compared to the overall blogosphere, and for that, provide an almost endless array of opportunities in and around news and trends.

However, if page views are of concern, then what can be considered timely news on one day could also be packaged as a feature or trend story in the future. I am not in the news business, but I do report on news. However, if I were to publish stories as news is breaking, I would surely lose out in the race for visibility and authority compared to those better at this game than I. Instead, if something is interesting, I will file it away and revisit it at a time when I can perform deeper analysis and thus share interesting and newly timed and relevant perspective. Page views are then incredibly more abundant. Thus I believe that Boutin and Tweney may consider rethinking their stance especially if the story is of particular substance to their audience.

The reality is that embargoes are an important and fundamental part of the news ecosystem. They mustn’t lose their stature. As such, it is the responsibility of PR to use them only when warranted and not relegate them merely as part of a day-to-day tactic in the process of PR pitching.

Current and future relationships with media are defined by our investment in collaboration with every news release, now and over time. This is a long-term play and there is no value or reward for practicing PR through shortsighted and insular campaigns.

In the end, PR earns the trust and relationships that it deserves.

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Please also read:

The State of PR: You are the future

PR Doesn’t Stand for Press Release

The Art and Science of Blogger Relations

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Twitter recently expanded its new Lists service to users network-wide and in doing so, injected a sense of excitement, confusion, and also utility. Lists represent a significant milestone for Twitter as it transcends asynchronous conversations and and broadcast messages into a form of intelligence gathering, education, entertainment, and news.

Twitter Lists are also stirring controversy as many believe that it sets the foundation for a new level of establishing a metric for influence. Whereas prominence was measured by the number of followers as well as the friends-to-follower ratio, now the amount of Lists that include any given entity factors into an equation for establishing authority.  At a minimum, the power of Lists is in the gesture in of itself. The act of including someone is a more significant validation and token of respect and friendship than a simple “follow” and in some cases more symbolic and meaningful than a RT (retweet).  We take cognizance of intellectual, isolated, and emotional substance.

Additionally, Twitter Lists signify an important art form of curation. Individually, we are empowered to create valuable lists, by theme and voice, in order to provide a service to ourselves and those who share the same passions, interests, and beliefs as us.

Twitter rolled out an important new feature that untethers Lists to journey across Websites and blogs as a fully contained, customizable widget, ergo a channeled, live experience. Now curated feeds can channel into the outside Web to share insights with others who may or may not use Twitter, including those who may or may not follow these individuals online or in the real world.

Most notably, List widgets are updated in real time, a capability not yet included in streams viewed on Twitter.com. If a Tweet is worthy of reply or RT, a “reply” button appears as you hover over the Tweet of interest.

Be mindful of these small, but important updates. Essentially, Lists are a new form of information aggregation and syndication. Lists and List Widgets serve as a new genre of a very personal RSS feedreaders. And now, these curated contextual streams are portable and embeddable as well.

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Facebook is much more than a social network. Twitter is much more than an information network or serendipity engine. Each represent a dashboard for your attention, a foundation for conversations and collaboration, and a matrix for your social graph and contextual relationships. In other words, Facebook and Twitter essentially represent the entrée to the future of the social Web as each strive to host, what Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, and others, refer to as our personal social operating system (OS).

What Windows is to PCs and OS X is to Macs, Facebook and Twitter are to our social architecture and enterprise.  Certainly there’s a David and Goliath element here depending on which company you immediately view as Microsoft or Apple. However, Mac and Windows are simply operating systems, not networks per se, and that’s where the metaphor of OS’ break down. Either way, there is the perception that there is a competition between Facebook and Twitter for your attention and your network.

Why? At the very least, Twitter and Facebook combine the elements of productivity and interactivity, combining a social OS, a global network, and a platform for open development.

The fabric of our online activity stems form a sophisticated social framework that facilitates the exchange of information and the sustenance of professional, conversational, and contextual connections. Facebook and Twitter, like Windows and Mac, allow us to interact cross platform, while hosting dedicated applications that support our engagement, productivity, and communication.

As much attention as we pay to this mythical clash between Facebook and Twitter, the truth is that it’s not unprecedented to maintain networks in more than one ecosystem. For example, I use both Mac and Windows-based systems.

According to new data from Hitwise, it appears that the epic battle between the two perceived leaders in Social Media is one-sided – or perhaps better stated, dominated.

As of October 2009, Facebook accounts for 6 percent of all U.S. Internet visits while Twitter represents only .14 percent. In fact, visits to Twitter.com peaked at .20 percent between June and July 2009 and has slowly lost attention in the interim. At the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco recently, co-founder Evan Williams acknowledged the slow down in traffic to Twitter.com in the U.S., for now, but he also stated that they in the process of finalizing new features that will reverse the downward trend. Williams also reminded us Twitter continues to recognize growth in both mobile and abroad.

And, for those who take solace in the hope that traffic is migrating from Twitter.com to mobile clients, there is some truth to the theory. However, new visitors count for everything and Twitter needs to do a better job capturing new users and holding their interests after they register. The company needs to look further than its resident celebrities to attract and sustain traffic.

For the time being, regardless of numbers, Facebook and Twitter serve a purpose, and thus, remain the Mac and PC in the lives of many, including me.  And, until the day that I am forced or compelled to pledge allegiance to one or the other, I will continue to cultivate relationships and value across multiple landscapes and suggest that you do the same.

I am a Mac and I am a PC. I am Twitter and I am Facebook.

What do you think?

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Prior to leaving Forrester to join Altimeter Group, Jeremiah Owyang, along with Josh Bernoff, Cynthia N. Pflaum, and Emily Bowen, published a report that attempted to bring the future of the Social Web into focus. If we viewed the content of his research as a social object, the conversations that would transpire could in fact expedite the development and implementation of the most valuable predictions and observations contained within.

The first part of the report observes the state of the Social Web and summarizes its direction:

Today’s social experience is disjointed because consumers have separate identities in each social network they visit. A simple set of technologies that enable a portable identity will soon empower consumers to bring their identities with them — transforming marketing, eCommerce, CRM, and advertising. IDs are just the beginning of this transformation, in which the Web will evolve step by step from separate social sites into a shared social experience. Consumers will rely on their peers as they make online decisions, whether or not brands choose to participate. Socially connected consumers will strengthen communities and shift power away from brands and CRM systems; eventually this will result in empowered communities defining the next generation of products.

In the report, Forrester documents the evolution and direction of the Social Web in several distinct stages:

1. The era of social relations – Starting with AOL and others in the mid-1990s, this era witnessed the connection of people through simple profiles and friending features that served as the foundation for online conversations through connections.

2. The era of social functionality – Evolving from friending to platforms that supported social interaction through applications and infrastructure, facilitating communities through relationships locked within the confines of a particular network.

As I’ve said before, social networks are jockeying to become our individual online OS – a Social OS essentially. Facebook released its Facebook Connect infrastructure to allow us to traverse the social web with our Facebook identity and relationships in tow, bridging our updates back to the Facebook News Feed to share with our social graph. This is a monumental furtherance as it starts to demonstrate the power of an interconnected activity and profile stream and network that makes the Social Web a much smaller place.

However, what we really need is a “Facebook Connect” within every site, not confined to or benefiting any one network. This will create the segue-way to the era of social colonization as predicted by Forrester.

This need is of particular, perhaps even consequential, interest to brands as they will spend an insurmountable amount of time, resources, and money trying to engage in noteworthy conversions across multiple networks of interest.

3. The era of social colonization – Deemed as the next stage of social evolution, which will emerge as soon as this year, tools such as OpenID and Facebook connect will enable individuals to freely journey from network to network. Forrester believes that we will be able to do so with our social graph in tact, but I believe that the initial phase of social colonization will make a general identity portable between networks. The portability of corresponding data, social objects, and friendships we maintain in each network becomes the Holy Grail.

For consumers, surfing the Web is no longer a lonely experience. Forrester foresees the release of new browsers and frictionless, uncomplicated technologies that allow people to truly surf the Web with friends or see what they’re doing in real-time.

Like we’re already witnessing or hearing (depending on your status on the  invitation list), Google Wave represents the ability to centralize and aggregate user activities and collaboration across the Web and across multiple platforms.

Forrester also observes that this era of colonization will leverage the recommendations of peers within the communities where individuals are active. Brands can capitalize on this behavior by instilling and engendering advocacy through direct engagement, blogger relations in the magic middle, and also via sponsored conversations.

This will serve as the bridge to social context.

4. The era of social context – Starting in 2010, social networks and sites will recognize the preferences of users, but more significantly, they will also recognize personal identities and relationships to customize the experience based on preference and behavior.

While this technology already powers, at varying levels, dedicated networks such as Trusted Opinion and Yelp, this functionality will be inherent to future networks using technology similar to Baynote to leverage the Wisdom of the Crowds as it inspires the personalization of content for each individual. Baynotes believes that the Web, and sites in particular, can learn from collective intelligence to improve the experience based on the behavior of crowds over individuals.

In the near future, much of the content will be automated, but will still rely on the explicit express of individuals to improve the experience. As Forrester notes, “Portable IDs mean you’ll be able to flip a switch to tell Nike you’re a woman who runs 12 miles a week and immediately see the shoes that are best for you — along with input from experiences of your running buddies.”

I believe that the combination of semantic and collective intelligence systems will improve the content and overall interaction within sites and social networks over time.

5. The era of social commerce – In 2011 – 2012, social networks will eclipse corporate Web sites and CRM systems. Forrester believes that communities will become a driving force for innovation and as such, companies will be forced to formally cater to communities, signifying the trading of power towards connected customers.

The Dawn of SRM

While Forrester predicts the era of Social Commerce, the future of the social Web as I see it, starts to embrace a corporate philosophy and supporting infrastructure that migrates away from CRM and even sCRM to one of Social Relationship Management or SRM. This will usher in the fifth era as observed by Forrester. And, SRM is also acutely cognizant of and in harmony with VRM (Vendor Relationship Management). Championed by Doc Searls, Chris Carfi, among others, VRM is the opposite of CRM, capsizing the concept of talking at or marketing to customers and shifting the balance of power in relationships from vendors to consumers. As such, systems are created to empower consumer participation and sentiment and improve products and services with every engagement.

While some believe that relationships aren’t technically manageable, in the world of business and a vibrant and influential social Web, it is not a question. And for all intents and purposes, they’re still personable.

The Social Web is distributing influence beyond the customer landscape, allocating authority amongst stakeholders, prospects, advocates, decision makers, and peers. SRM recognizes that whether someone recommended a product, purchased a product, or simply recognized it publicly, in the end, each makes an impact on behavior at varying levels.

Therefore customers are now merely part of a larger equation that also balances vendors, experts, partners, and other authorities. In the realm of SRM, influence is distributed and it is recognizes wherever and however it takes shape.

SRM is a doctrine aligned with a humanized business strategy and supporting technology infrastructure and platform. SRM recognizes that all people, no matter what system they use, are equal. It represents a wider scope of active listening and participation across the full spectrum of influence mapped to specific department representatives within the organization using various lenses for which to identify individuals where and how they interact.

From Adoption to Sophistication, No Social Network is an Island

Forrester recognizes that the past five years of Social Media evolution have focused on growth and adoption, but anticipates that the next stage of advancement  is dedicated to improving social functionality. I would also add personalization and portability. The biggest opportunity for the expansion of social networks is to build bridges between these isolated islands to deliver a more fulfilling, meaningful and productive experience. As I see it, we will start to see a the social web not as a collection of distributed islands, but as one greater collective better known as a human network – a contextual and relationship-based network that consists of like-minded individuals no matter where their profile resides.

In the near-term, the future of the Social Web starts with our online identity.

Whereas in Social Media, content is still king, in the business of social networking, data is its currency. I believe that everything starts with empowering the individual with the ability to host one secure profile/identify online that would serve existing and emerging social networks across the Web. OpenID, for example, provides central and protect login credentials for users, connecting identities to other third-part networks including Google, PayPal, AOL, MySpace, among others. Perhaps the future lies with making data mobile while still providing value to the economics of social networks. DataPortability.org is working with some of the most renowned networks to enable users to bring their identity, friends, conversations, files and histories with them, without having to manually add them to each new service. Each of the services we choose to use can draw on this information relevant to the context within each network. As our experiences and connections accumulate and change corresponding data, this information will update on other sites and services if permitted, without having to revisit others to re-enter or re-create it.

The future of the Social Web must begin with data portability to accelerate proliferation throughout Roger’s Diffusion of Innovation adoption system. The lack of it might serve as either the “chasm” that hinders mainstream adoption or the monopolization of user data by a few dominant players.

How do you envision the future of the Social Web?

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As consumers, I think you’ll agree, prior to making any decision purchase, most of the time, our journey begins with a combination of online search and real world conversations with friends, family and peers. As the Web matures, a greater volume of our attention and focus continues to shift from other mediums to the Web for not only purchase considerations but also for content discovery.

It’s how we learn.

It’s how we stay connected.

Nielsen released a new study that documents the extent of this shift and also captures an evolution in our online behavior as we augment traditional search engines with the search boxes within social networks. As such, Google is no longer the only hub for content discovery. The statusphere is introducing new channels that now serve as our attention dashboards and it’s the collection of streams of consciousness from those we choose to follow. Collecta, Twitter Search, Facebook News Feeds, FriendFeed, etc., serve as the gateways to insight and enlightenment.

The Nielsen study fielded in August 2009 consisted of 1,800 participants in which they looked at three main consumer segments using search (Searchers), portals (Portalists) or social media (Socializers) as their primary vehicle for content discovery.

While traditional search engines accounted for 37%, the combination of search and online portals such as Yahoo, MSN, and AOL collectively represented 71% of the sites that serve as the sources for discovery. One of the more interesting results for the purposes of fueling this discussion is that social media sites such as Wikipedia, blogs, and social networks account for 18% of where searches begin, outperforming sites that are dedicated to publishing information specifically to help individuals find deeper analysis and details.

The study found that Socializers tend to trust what their friends have to say and use their online behavior (conversations, links, published experiences) as a form of information filtration. As Neilsen observers, “Social Media is becoming a core product research channel.”

In December 2008, Forrester Research published a report that found company blogs were among the bottom of the list of trusted sources for information. In contrast, consumers stated that they trusted email from contacts, consumer ratings/reviews, search engines respectively.  The social graph ranked sixth.

In 2009 however, Nielsen found that almost 15% of Socializers most trusted information they found on blogs (most likely not corporate) when researching purchases online and 20% most trusted the information they found on message boards. Facebook and/or Twitter on the other hand only represented 8% of trusted tools for seeking direction.

As search functionality and filtering improves in social media, you can expect Twitter, Facebook and other networks to grow more significant in their role for content discovery.

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Over the years, Twitter search was plagued by an unbelievable flaw. Deleted tweets remained in Twitter’s search index and thus, would appear in the search results regardless of the conscious act of manually removing the tweets from your personal stream. Believe it or not, this problem remained constant much to the dismay of many power users. To my pleasant surprise, Twitter has finally rectified this problem and has officially removed deleted tweets from its index.

Now that Google and Bing are channeling Twitter search results, it’s widely suspected that Twitter had no choice but to remedy this enduring problem. Imagine if your deleted tweets ranked among the top results in Google or Bing? Obviously privacy is a primary concern and this is a step in the right direction. However, privacy on the social Web is an oxymoron of sorts. Once a Tweet is published for example, it is indexed by many other third-party services, networks and applications. And, even if you delete a Tweet, it still may reside somewhere else. For example, if you stream your Tweets to Facebook and Tumblr, obviously you’d have to delete the updates across multiple platforms. But, the other challenge is that there are several other services that pull tweets where they may also reside once deleted.

Either way, to officially have deleted tweets removed from search results is a welcome update that is way overdue, but valued nonetheless.

Oh, and make sure to check out Collecta for real-time search results…it not only indexes the live twitter feed, but also the social web to reveal activity around keywords as they appear online. (Note: I’m a tech adviser to the team.)

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As recently as August 2009, blogs and media outlets reported that teens are just not taking to the Twitterverse, instead opting for text messaging, social networks such as Facebook and Myspace, and other communications tools such as IM. The reasons for not using Twitter ranged from privacy concerns to the devices they used to communicate.

Nielsen published a report that surveyed over 250,000 US Internet users to confirm everyone’s suspicions. Teens were among the smallest demographic using Twitter

In October 2009, I published demographic data defining all popular social networks, including Twitter, that only confirmed this finding. In my analysis, I found that more women than men registered for accounts on Twitter and that the 35 – 44 age group accounted for largest majority of users at 29% with  45 – 54 year olds in second with 20% and the 25-34 age group in third with 16%.

Gender
Male: 43%
Female: 57%

Age

0 – 17: 11%
18 – 24: 8%
25 – 34: 16%
35 – 44: 29%
45 – 54: 20%
55 – 64: 11%
65 or more: 3%

Education

Less than HS diploma: 12%
High School: 9%
Some College: 47%
Bachelors Degree: 24%
Graduate Degree: 8%

Every trend requires a spark, an event that serves as a catalyst to galvanize a series of actions that reverberate throughout society.  Twitter has surely experienced its share of incremental touchstones that continually propels the service across deeper oceans of users and followers.

One such instance would ultimately represent the bridge for “crossing the chasm” into the teen demographic. The celebrity adoption of Twitter, en masse, may indeed symbolize the stimulus necessary to reach and recruit the youth onto Twitter. At it’s forefront was a much publicized race between Ashton Kutcher and CNN.

Kutcher, either intentionally or unknowingly, would become was the accidental Pied Piper for attracting America’s youth to Twitter.

When I initially covered the Race to 1,000,000 followers between Ashton Kutcher (@Aplusk) and CNN (@CNNbrk), I too was pre-occupied with the excitement surrounding the idea of a celebrity challenging a traditional media organization for an audience in a new media channel. As the race progressed however, I started to sober  up, documenting the activities of other celebrities such as Will Smith and Britney Spears who also joined in the race. When Spencer Pratt Spencer Pratt challenged Ashton to a new Twitter race where the winner would either clean a house or wash a car, I realized that Twitter as we knew it would forever change, contributing to a complete shift in Twitter demographics and culture.

For Ashton, reaching one million followers represents the potential of socialized media, the future of information discovery and distribution, and the connectedness of contextual human networks. For the others, collecting followers represents the ability to push information to a faceless list of avatars using a new medium. As followers, we’re simply relegated to subscribers and fans, nothing less, nothing more. This is an exchange, however, a lesson that may elude those who focus on numbers, and not people. As “followers,” many of us continue to invest in online relationships because we realize rewards and mutual benefits for doing so. If we’re merely a number, and if we don’t, in the very least, receive a simple but meaningful gesture of a follow-back, then we rely on the shared content to keep us satisfied. Choose your tweets and updates carefully.

The future of Social Media lies with those who can create, cultivate, and empower individuals to produce and share meaningful content and inspire action, foster education, instigate change and build a more media literate society.

The allure of Twitter for many of us is the same essence and power that initially seduced celebrities into the Twitterverse, the ability to publish at will, bypassing traditional intermediaries to build a communications bridge between people who shared common interests. For celebrities, Twitter connected fans directly to them. For fans, Twitter provided them with a stage to potentially reach their favorite personalities in a way never before possible online.

It was just a matter of time until teens flocked to Twitter in the hopes of earning the attention of their idols and more importantly, finding that in the process, their friends were also active in the same network leading to existing and new connections in a new found place. Each time teen-focused personalities created an account on Twitter, their fans would follow suit.

The Jonas Brothers account has over 800,000 followers.

Soulja Boy currently boasts almost 1.7 million followers. Each time he sends a tweet, he usually starts a trending topic.

Prior to closing her account, Miley Cyrus had earned over 2.1 million followers according to Twitterholic.

I suspect that the majority of these followers represent the 18 and younger demographic.

On any given day, we can also peer into the state of Twitter demographics and psychographics by monitoring the current trending topics. The culture shift that was predicted during the race to 1,000,000 is already well underway.

In September 2009, comScore published a report that would change our perspective on teens and Twitter. In its study, comScore found that younger age groups were flooding Twitter and contributing to its mushrooming growth.

Of course other age groups are actively defining Twitter’s rise to pervasiveness, but as you can see in this graph, the most notable positive shifts are evident among the 12-17 and 18-24 year old segments, which are coming at the expense of the over 35 segments.

According to comScore:

We can clearly see how the demographic composition is shifting, but what this graph still doesn’t tell us is whether or not these age segments are visiting Twitter in higher or lower proportion relative to their use of the Internet as a whole. The way to demonstrate these changes is by looking at the composition index over time. The composition index tells us how a group is represented relative to what you would expect given their total Internet composition, with an index of 100 indicating average representation.

It is in this analsyis that comScore recognizes that12-17 and 18-24 year olds had mostly under-indexed during most of the course of the past year. Recently however, these age groups started to over-index. According to the report, it is now the youngest segments that have the highest average representation on Twitter, while the 35-54 and 55+ year olds now under-index where they had previously over-indexed.

The tides are turning and we’re paying attention.

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Over the years, I’ve had the opportunity to work with “Viral Marketing Scientist” Dan Zarrella on special projects related to Twitter. His focus on social science and psychology as it relates to new media and online interaction and behavior is in line with my philosophy and approach to understanding and documenting socialized media.

Zarrella recently debuted TweetPsych, a sophisticated system that uses two linguistic analysis algorithms (RID and LIWC) to build a psychological profile of a person based on the content of their tweets. He also adapted the service to analyze a site URL and the content on that page to create a list of the 50 Twitter users who’s profiles are psychologically aligned with the site you provided. It’s a fascinating service for those actively seeking to expand their contextual networks.

One of the most actively discussed aspects of Twitter is the art and science of retweets.  Retweets, in my opinion, are one of the most sincere forms of recognition and validation, empowering users to pay it forward through the recognition of noteworthy content. According to Dan, retweets also serve as the foundation for assessing the qualities of viral content, “You don’t spread ideas just because they are “good;” you spread them because of some other trigger or set of triggers has been pulled in your brain. We can now compare millions of viral ideas to uncover the building blocks of contagiousness.”

Aside from my very simple advice to leave room in your tweets for people to add RT and their username, “120 is the new 140” and to also tweet something worth retweeting, Zarrella studied the science of retweets over a period of nine months to discern the attributes and characteristics of tweets that spawned memes and those that didn’t. His sampling group was not insignificant either. He analyzed roughly five million tweets and 40 million retweets to discover the art and science of getting retweeted.

He published the results in a 22-page report, which you can download here.

Zarrella’s initial finding estimated that 1.44% of all tweets are ReTweets. From there, he recognized other important common traits for successfully getting retweeted.

Links are the Currency of Twitter

According to Zarrella, links were three times more prevalent in RTs over normal tweets, 19% to 57%.

The study also found that the URL shortener used also had an effect on the potential resonance of tweets. For example, bit.ly, ow.ly, and is.gd, were much likelier to get retweeted than older, longer services, such as TinyURL.

Choosing Words Carefully

Pandering or soliciting for retweets might seem tacky, but asking politely for a retweet actually works according to the research.

The top 20 retweetable words and phrases include:

1. You
2. Twitter
3. Please
4. Retweet
5. Post
6. Blog
7. Social
8. Free
9. Media (note, most likely tied to social media, which demonstrates the interest in related tweets and links)
10. Help
11. Please Retweet (personally i’ve found that adding “please share” or “pls share” to the tweet helps as well)
12. Great
13. Social Media
14. 10 (The blogosphere and Twitterverse share significant interest in anything with a “top 10″ list
15. Follow
16. How to
17. Top
18. Blog post
19. Check out (a call to action indeed inspires action and traffic)
20. New blog post

Chatter isn’t Worth Sharing

As I’ve shared numerous times, literally answering Twitter’s question of “What are you doing” engenders uninteresting tweets. The research found that verbs ending in “ing”were among the least retweetable words. Although, I’ve personally found in my research that “reading,” “reviewing,” and “looking” trigger significant activity. People generally want to know what has your attention at the moment and if they can look at something through your eyes, it helps spark retweets and clickthroughs.

The least retweetable words:

1. Game
2. Going
3. Haha
4. lol
5. But
6. Watching
7. Work
8. Home
9. Night
10. Bed
11. Well
12. Sleep
13. Gonna
14. Hey
15. Tomorrow
16. Tired
17. Some
18. Back
19. Bored
20. Listening

Don’t take intelligence for granted

While many suspect that simple language is preferred, retweets contained an average of 1.62 syllables per word with normal tweets boasting an average of 1.58 syllables per word. It may seem insignificant,  but per a Flesch-Kincaid test, comprehending RTs required 6.47 years of education, while normal tweets require just 6.04.

The Novelty of Novelty

One of the most interesting aspects of viral content is its freshness, insinuating that the newness of the content was a significant factor in RTs. For example, Zarrella created a measure of novelty by counting how many times each word in his sample sets occurred.  In random tweets, each word was found an average of 89.19 times, while in the ReTweet sample each word was only found 16.37 other times.

It’s Not Just a Figure of Speech

The analysis of words indicated that nouns and third-person singular present words led to the proliferation of headline style tweets that triggered retweets. The pervasiveness of verbs and proper nouns were also factors. To observe this activity, Zarrella used Part of Speech (POS) tagging, an analysis technique in which an algorithm is used to label each word in a piece of content as a specific part-of-speech–noun, verb, adjective, etc.

The Power of Punctuation

The power of punctuation isn’t necessarily relegated to grammar or sentence structure. The use of punctuation could also represent the difference between a tweet and a retweet.  85.86% of normal tweets contained some form of punctuation  compared to 97.55% in retweets with colons leading the way.

Of the most common punctuation types found in retweets, colons, periods, exlamation points, commas, and hyphens led group with semicolons ranking last. In fact, Zarrella observed that the semicolon appears to be the “only unretweetable punctuation mark.” What’s interesting however, is that the question mark ranked second-to-last. I would have guessed that questions would have been more prominent in RTs, but after further thought, I would imagine the any tweet containing a question would trigger more answers than the RT of the original question.

There is no “I” in ReTweet or Tweet

LIWC measures the cognitive and emotional properties of people based on the words they use. Applying this lexicon to tweets and retweets, LIWC analysis shows that Tweets about work, religion, money and media/celebrities are significantly more retweetable than tweets with negative emotions, sensations,
swear words and self-reference.

The Attention Aperture: Time and Day Count for Everything

I have also studied the time/day significance applied to what I call the attention aperture (the state of attention and its ability to be captured). I believe that the results vary depending on the nature of the content, specific to whether or not the nature of the Tweet was professional or personal in nature.

Among the most usable findings from Zarrella’s study is the analysis of when individuals appear to be more susceptible to retweeting. According to the research, the window for retweets is at its widest between 2 p.m. to 11:59 p.m. (however, I’d like to know if time zone played a factor in RTs). Match the time to the most active days for retweeting, in this case Thursday and Friday, and surely, we have identified the attention aperture for RTs.

In my research, I found that educational, news-focused, or work-related tweets found its greatest traction between 3 a.m. and 9 a.m. Pacific time. I suspect that this range casts a wider net reaching professionals during work hours with the East Coast and Europe prompting RTs that bring it back to the attention of those on the West Coast as individuals prepare or arrive at work. As such, I asked Dan to create a new graphic that visualizes days and times in a way that might be easier to reference.

This study was as fascinating as it was informative.  But I needed a personal touch to close close the chapter and remind us that there are real people behind the data and the tweets that were analyzed. I asked Dan to share what he learned from his research, and he readily obliged, “My favorite takeaway from the data is that while having more followers definitely makes it easier to get more ReTweets, even if you don’t have tens of thousands, the data shows that if your content is contagious enough, it will spread just as far. I think this also has to do with the hyper-connected, seven degrees nature of the Twitter network.”

In the end, as publishers, it is our responsibility to ensure that our Tweets not only speak for themselves, but also represent our purpose, mission, and values.  While this data suggests that the mechanics for posting viral tweets is a matter of formula, I believe that affinity, respect, and stature also play prominent roles in the art and science of retweeting. Concurrently it is also our obligation to also retweet as a form of giving back to the community, recognizing those who actively contribute to a more meaning Twitterverse.

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Recently, I wrote about a study written by virtual worlds consultancy kzero.co.uk, which reported that membership of virtual worlds grew by 39% in the second quarter of 2009 to an estimated 579 million. Today, I received an update from the Linden Lab and it appears that Second Life is experiencing a second life of its own.

This story begins with an impressive milestone: Second Life Residents have transacted the equivalent of more than $1 billion  with each other while spending more than one billion hours in Second Life. These numbers represent significant milestones for not only Second Life, but the virtual worlds industry in general.

The company also shared additional stats that are work noting and sharing:

In total, users around the world have spent more than one billion hours in Second Life.

That’s roughly 115,000 years spent doing everything from meeting and socializing with friends; to attending live concerts; to creating, selling, and shopping for virtual goods; to learning a foreign language; to attending business meetings; and much more. User hours grew 33% year-over-year to an all-time high of 126 million in Q2 2009.

Second Life Residents spend an average of about 100 minutes inworld per visit.

This average session time is significantly greater than those seen with popular social networking websites and reveals the uniquely high level of engagement Residents have with Second Life.

The equivalent of more than USD1 billion has been transacted between Residents in Second Life, who purchase virtual goods and services from one another.

The inworld economy grew 94% year-over-year from Q2 2008 to Q2 2009. Now at nearly USD50 million each month in user-to-user transactions, the Second Life economy is on an annual run rate of more than a half billion US dollars, making Second Life the largest virtual economy in the industry.

Residents create more than 250,000 new virtual goods every day – from clothing to vehicles to buildings to automatic language translators, and more.

There are now more than 270 terabytes of content in Second Life, and this is growing by approximately 100% every year.

More than 18 billion minutes of voice chat have been used in Second Life since voice was introduced in 2007.

Voice minutes grew 44% year-over-year from Q2 2008 to Q2 2009, and more than six billion minutes of voice have been delivered in 2009 alone, making Linden Lab a major VoIP provider.

Approximately 1,250 text-based messages are sent every second in Second Life, and more than 600 million words are typed on an average day.

Roughly 60% of active Second Life Residents based outside of the US, representing more than 200 countries, and the Second Life Viewer available in 10 languages.

The total land area of Second Life is now equivalent to approximately two billion square meters – roughly the size of the state of Rhode Island.

Land in Second Life has grown roughly 18% from Q1 of 2009 and approximately 75% since Q1 of 2008. As the creator and original seller of all virtual land in Second Life, Linden Lab is not only the provider of the worlds largest platform for user-generated virtual goods, but also a leading virtual goods vendor itself.

For a deeper review of the Second Life update and report, please read this post by W. James Au, a trusted and and astute Second Life reporter. As Au observes, “The real second life of Second Life will happen when these stats start reflecting engagement by millions of active users, not hundreds of thousands.”

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I hadn’t heard of the popular t-shirt company Crooked Monkey until I was invited to an exclusive party they recently held. You see, even though they get great press from actors wearing their shirts in movies and magazines talking about their fashion styles, Crooked Monkey is based in Washington, DC not widely known as the fashion capital of the country. And they wanted to do some local brand building.

This wasn’t just any party. Sure, there were attractive guests in a cool setting with great drinks and music all the usual stuff. It was what they did differently that made it the most memorable event Ive been to in a long time.

Lets start with how I even found out about the event a secretive email from someone I didn’t know telling me that my friend recommended me as a guest for the event. This is somewhere in between Facebook and Eyes Wide Shut.  Then, a request for my home address, to which was mailed a package containing an envelope with a paper invitation, and also a sparsely decorated white t-shirt, which I was required to save for the party two months later and bring with me to gain admittance. Finally, a bag of tart banana candies finished the package.

Further inspection revealed that the event was on a Sunday night (no night is safe from parties! ) at a secret location to be given to us later. Keep in mind that I dont know the person behind the party, nor the other guests, and now also not the location. Still later I discovered by email invitation that the event would be in a warehouse in a not-so-savory part of Washington, DC and that we MUST bring our white t-shirts because wed be doing something with them on the night of the event.

When the day of the event came, I really couldn’t stand not knowing anything! I texted the contacts I had for the event to ask questions, but they revealed little. I emailed some socialite friends to try to figure out who else would be there we knew it would be all tastemakers of different sorts, but no one really knew who was going, which was exciting. I used Google Maps to investigate the location of the warehouse. I stressed about what one wears to such events (I think I chose well! ).

Even the party itself was very engaging. An artist created a mural from our white t-shirts that we used for entry right in front of our eyes. An old-fashioned photo booth let us take pictures with each other, and the photo strips had (what else?) a Crooked Monkey logo on them.  Even the name of the event Photoshoot at the Warehouse gave the party an active quality.

Do you detect a pattern here? Crooked Monkey kept busy, elite attendees who get invited to tons of events mentally engaged with their event for weeks. They made us part of telling their story. They got us to talk about their brand before, during, and after the event.  And in the end, the event delivered with a cool venue, outstanding bar, fun atmosphere, and lots of fashion.

Photoshoot at the Warehouse is a great example of putting the public back in public relations and brand engagement. How great? Im writing an entire post about them – and I dont even like wearing t-shirts!

The power to analyze behavior and sentiment on Twitter and translate it into trends and direction is limited only by our powers of observation and imagination. As you may or may not know, I have assumed the role of data analyst at PeopleBrowsr, in addition to the other ventures I’m running or advising. Recently, I published The State of the Airline Industry on Twitter, the first in an ongoing series of Twitter-centric reports. Soon, I will roll out additional reports covering various industries on a monthly basis. If you would like a custom report and analysis generated, please let me know.

The latest in the series captures the essence and vibrancy of celebrity engagement and conversations surrounding celebrities in the month of August 2009. Let’s start by defining “celebrity” as I believe it takes on a new persona and definition on Twitter and Social Media universally. While the majority of the individuals on the list of 60 personalities are representative of real world stars, we are also at the early stages of capturing and recognizing the genre of Internet Famous and micro celebrity. These ambitious personalities have created an online prominence that transcends into the real world fame. Expect the included percentage of the digerati to significantly increase over time, eventually rivaling some of the most visible and renowned household names. If you can think of individuals (either traditional or new celebrity) that we should keep on our radar, please let me know in the comments section.

Overall, we are in the early stages of witnessing what’s possible in Twitter as stars succumb to the seduction of direct fan engagement and the intoxicating allure of real-time response and interaction. Concurrently, fans are enticed and captivated by the prospect of earning the attention of and recognition from the very individuals who inspire them. For them, Twitter represents a direct connection to their idols.

The potential of course is significant as it empowers and strengthens relationships between celebs and followers and ultimately forges bonds in ways not possible prior to the proliferation of socialized media. This rich level of interaction is rekindling and reviving interest in traditional media (movies, music, art, television programming, sports, etc.) as consumers feel a more personal connection with the artist and their work. Perhaps most importantly, we can now connect with the real person behind the celebrity brand.

Social Media is also inspiring innovation in content creation and distribution as it serves as a catalyst for the creation and widespread adoption of new forms of content, consumption, and artistry. In many cases, new media represents a renaissance for stardom, linking individuals who might not have otherwise connected through outside mediums, while also creating new opportunities for everyday people to earn eminence in these new and equally valuable channels.

Influence is equalizing and some artists are able to self-create publicity and promotion simply by publishing Tweets. Direct engagement is also engendering a profound transformation in the professional relationship and arrangement between celebrities and publicists, as many are compelled to engage directly with fans and followers without the help of third-parties. In new media, the days of assistants and publicity agents responding to fan letters and emails are numbered. However, the role of publicity is still required, if not more prominent, as the opportunities for visibility have now multiplied because of new media. Most importantly, what we are witnessing in Twitter is the transformation of fandom into community and perhaps that is, in of itself, a profound phenomenon.

SHARE OF VOICE

Share of voice represents the level of individual presence in the conversations that transpire on Twitter. Much like measuring traditional market share in business landscapes, we are analyzing the volume of mentions, not sales or fan bases, for each celebrity compared to one another. On Twitter popularity and share of voice are directly linked to news and events as well as participatory episodes where conversations are sparked directly by personalities. For example, hip hop artist Soulja Boy often tops the trending topics list each time he hosts a live chat on uStream.tv and invites fans to connect via Twitter.

In the month of August, Miley Cyrus topped the charts with 256,000 mentions with Donnie Wahlberg of New Kids on the Block following with an impressive 189,000 references. Rapper Soulja Boy checked in at third with roughly 86,000 tweets, 100,000 behind the number two spot. Controversial gossip blogger Perez Hilton also earned a top spot on the list with 72,000 tweets. Kim Kardashian took the fifth spot with just over 68,000 tweets. What’s surprising however is that Ashton Kutcher, The King of Twitter as the media affectionately proclaimed, captured less Twitter attention in August than one might expect. He does, as you’ll see, lead the list for overall followers. But, as discussed earlier, Twitter attention and conversations are usually driven by a series of sparks. In August, Ashton only published 309 tweets compared to others who sent as many as 1,500 tweets that month. Expect interaction and events become a more significant factor as we continue tracking the industry.

Click here for ultra large version

1. @mileycyrus – 255,938
2. @donniewahlberg – 188,778
3. @souljaboytellem – 86,140
4. @perezhilton – 72,562
5. @kimkardashian – 68,547
6. @aplusk – 66,722
7. @theellenshow – 39,128
8. @stephenfry – 38,325
9. @petewentz – 35,478
10. @ashleytisdale – 34,967
11. @therealjordin – 33,799
12. @mitchelmusso – 32,923
13. @paulaabdul – 26,791
14. @lancearmstrong – 25,477
15. @rainnwilson – 23,433
16. @britneyspears – 22,703
17. @mrskutcher – 21,900
18. @ryanseacrest – 21,681
19. @kirstiealley – 21,316
20. @rustyrockets – 19,053
21. @the_real_shaq – 17,885
22. @wilw – 15,257
23. @thatkevinsmith – 15,111
24. @moonfrye – 13,286
25. @heidimontag – 13,213
26. @mariahcarey – 12,118
27. @jimmyfallon – 11,972
28. @oprah – 11,096
29. @sevinnyne6126 – 10,950
30. @questlove – 10,877
31. @michaelianblack – 10,585
32. @alyankovic – 10,001
33. @wossy – 9,417
34. @greggrunberg – 8,906
35. @denise_richards – 8,468
36. @johnlegend – 8,103
37. @tonyrobbins – 7,884
38. @jimjonescapo – 6,789
39. @chelsealately – 6,789
40. @spencerpratt – 6,424
41. @mchammer – 6,132
42. @eonline – 4,891
43. @cassieventura – 4,380
44. @gossipgirl – 4,161
45. @levarburton – 3,942
46. @pennjillette – 3,577
47. @nickswisher – 2,993
48. @ryansheckler – 2,847
49. @thisislilwayne – 2,774
50. @50cent – 2,774
51. @chriscornell – 2,628
52. @johncleese – 2,555
53. @snoopdogg – 2,409
54. @adventuregirl – 2,336
55. @hodgman – 2,117
56. @lennykravitz – 2,044
57. @robcorddry – 1,533
58. @paulfeig – 1,387
59. @justjared – 876
60. @nottinafey – 292

TOTAL FOLLOWERS

In examining the status of celebrities by followers, it comes with no surprise that Mr. Ashton Kutcher ranks at the very top. In many ways, Ashton is responsible for raising the global awareness and adoption of Twitter, as well as  inspiring other celebrities to embrace the vibrant network. Ashton, along with the now legendary race to 1 million followers, has finally tipped the attraction of Twitter beyond the older demographics that originally defined its importance. Teenagers are now flocking to Twitter in the hopes of not only connecting with their heroes, but also experimenting with prospects of flirting with and possibly earning a taste of micro celebrity themselves. I will publish a separate post on this subject shortly…

The top three spots cumulatively represent over 10 million followers, with each earning over 3 million followers each. Ashton, as mentioned above  is number one with almost 3.8 million followers in August. Ellen DeGeneres is in hot pursuit with 3.5 million. And Britney Spears, who was among the original contestants in the race to 1 million, followed closely behind Ellen with 3.48 million followers.

The separation between the top three and those residing in the next several spots was at least one million followers. In fact, in August, the “2 million follower club” only housed nine members (in order of followers), Kim Kardashian, Ryan Seacrest, Shaq, Oprah Winfrey, Demi Moore, Miley Cryus (who’s currently MIA from Twitter), Jimmy Fallon, Lance Armstrong, and Ashley Tisdale. An interesting observation is that the average number of followers for this current grouping of celebrities totals over 1 million at 1,304,518 exactly.

1. @aplusk – 3,778,464
2. @theellenshow – 3,496,041
3. @britneyspears – 3,480,582
4. @kimkardashian – 2,514,112
5. @ryanseacrest – 2,433,803
6. @the_real_shaq – 2,376,782
7. @oprah – 2,333,711
8. @mrskutcher – 2,146,519
9. @mileycyrus – 2,115,282
10. @jimmyfallon – 2,099,368
11. @lancearmstrong – 2,077,717
12. @ashleytisdale – 2,031,465
13. @mariahcarey – 1,783,439
14. @50cent – 1,762,874
15. @souljaboytellem – 1,668,493
16. @eonline – 1,625,453
17. @chelsealately – 1,620,765
18. @petewentz – 1,591,856
19. @mchammer – 1,540,286
20. @perezhilton – 1,524,611
21. @rainnwilson – 1,504,961
22. @tonyrobbins – 1,428,620
23. @thatkevinsmith – 1,390,081
24. @wilw – 1,367,757
25. @pennjillette – 1,355,782
26. @johnlegend – 1,333,071
27. @levarburton – 1,322,238
28. @alyankovic – 1,320,214
29. @michaelianblack – 1,286,746
30. @paulaabdul – 1,267,045
31. @lennykravitz – 1,262,223
32. @adventuregirl – 1,232,757
33. @jimjonescapo – 1,215,956
34. @denise_richards – 1,209,800
35. @moonfrye – 1,183,672
36. @greggrunberg – 1,157,317
37. @chriscornell – 1,149,016
38. @gossipgirl – 1,106,032
39. @ryansheckler – 1,095,415
40. @robcorddry – 1,094,003
41. @questlove – 979,500
42. @nickswisher – 929,752
43. @paulfeig – 903,726
44. @stephenfry – 795,684
45. @heidimontag – 632,138
46. @rustyrockets – 584,832
47. @snoopdogg – 479,882
48. @spencerpratt – 469,747
49. @wossy – 422,144
50. @justjared – 410,589
51. @nottinafey – 390,926
52. @sevinnyne6126 – 359,428
53. @therealjordin – 356,638
54. @mitchelmusso – 324,008
55. @kirstiealley – 287,064
56. @johncleese – 252,519
57. @cassieventura – 214,717
58. @donniewahlberg – 96,616
59. @hodgman – 94,233
60. @thisislilwayne – 2,610

TOTAL TWEETS

When compared to followers, total tweets painted a very different picture. Of course celebrities are “in-demand,” often too busy to tweet regularly. In August, the top two spots for total tweets are actually not actually published by celebrities per se, but by the personalities and vehicles that document the industry and the activities of the celebrities on and off this list. The “queen” of media, Perez Hilton took the top spot with almost 1,500 tweets followed by E! Online with 946. Averaging the number of tweets across the board, we see that our celebrities aren’t too quiet, but not overly communicative either, coming in at just under 9 tweets per day or 255 for the month.

1. @perezhilton – 1,488
2. @eonline – 946
3. @questlove – 865
4. @souljaboytellem – 850
5. @kirstiealley – 819
6. @justjared – 735
7. @donniewahlberg – 608
8. @adventuregirl – 597
9. @petewentz – 506
10. @wossy – 474
11. @mchammer – 443
12. @kimkardashian – 432
13. @therealjordin – 396
14. @mrskutcher – 366
15. @aplusk – 309
16. @mitchelmusso – 308
17. @lancearmstrong – 289
18. @mileycyrus – 287
19. @rainnwilson – 264
20. @stephenfry – 263
21. @denise_richards – 259
22. @spencerpratt – 248
23. @heidimontag – 230
24. @jimjonescapo – 229
25. @moonfrye – 213
26. @greggrunberg – 211
27. @michaelianblack – 202
28. @wilw – 194
29. @johnlegend – 193
30. @cassieventura – 190
31. @ryanseacrest – 180
32. @thatkevinsmith – 167
33. @sevinnyne6126 – 162
34. @paulaabdul – 161
35. @tonyrobbins – 112
36. @hodgman – 95
37. @chelsealately – 83
38. @jimmyfallon – 83
39. @theellenshow – 80
40. @ashleytisdale – 79
41. @chriscornell – 77
42. @alyankovic – 71
43. @robcorddry – 71
44. @paulfeig – 56
45. @gossipgirl – 50
46. @the_real_shaq – 48
47. @rustyrockets – 45
48. @britneyspears – 38
49. @snoopdogg – 38
50. @pennjillette – 37
51. @johncleese – 34
52. @levarburton – 20
53. @50cent – 17
54. @mariahcarey – 16
55. @lennykravitz – 14
56. @nickswisher – 14
57. @ryansheckler – 12
58. @thisislilwayne – 10
59. @oprah – 3
60. @nottinafey – 1

TOTAL FOLLOWING

In Social Media, the act of the “follow back” is a form of reciprocity and recognition. While it is not a required act, it is dearly appreciated. In August 2009, Britney Spears stood above the rest following over 430,000 people, which is 378,000 more than the second spot, held by Stephen Fry who followed almost 55,000 people and 401,000 more than the number three spot held by MC Hammer with 31,317. The delta between the top three and the rest of the group is significant. The majority follow 500 or less with almost half following fewer than 100. This number surprised me however. Averaging the number of people that each celebrity followed, we uncovered an impressive aggregate of 8,903.

1. @britneyspears – 432,814
2. @stephenfry – 54,492
3. @mchammer – 31,317
4. @wossy – 3,966
5. @lennykravitz – 1,863
6. @adventuregirl – 1,246
7. @questlove – 1,135
8. @greggrunbeg – 605
9. @the_real_shaq – 567
10. @spencerpratt – 522
11. @perezhilton – 369
12. @chriscornell – 309
13. @donniewahlberg – 289
14. @tonyrobbins – 279
15. @hodgman – 276
16. @aplusk – 231
17. @souljaboytellem – 229
18. @robcorddry – 218
19. @heidimontag – 191
20. @snoopdogg – 180
21. @therealjordin – 158
22. @jimjonescapo – 153
23. @cassieventura – 145
24. @jimmyfallon – 142
25. @rainnwilson – 138
26. @johncleese – 136
27. @wilw – 125
28. @ryanseacrest – 124
29. @alyankovic – 115
30. @lancearmstrong – 115
31. @moonfrye – 112
32. @mrskutcher – 109
33. @sevinnyne6126 – 105
34. @levarburton – 97
35. @petewentz – 91
36. @johnlegend – 87
37. @thisislilwayne – 87
38. @kirstiealley – 82
39. @michaelianblack – 81
40. @ashleytisdale – 76
41. @justjared – 71
42. @thatkevinsmith – 69
43. @mileycyrus – 68
44. @paulfeig – 67
45. @kimkardashian – 64
46. @ryansheckler – 64
47. @nottinafey – 54
48. @mitchelmusso – 49
49. @eonline – 48
50. @denise_richards – 38
51. @rustyrockets – 32
52. @paulaabdul – 29
53. @theellenshow – 26
54. @mariahcarey – 23
55. @50cent – 17
56. @oprah – 17
57. @chelsealately – 16
58. @gossipgirl – 11
59. @nickswisher – 6
60. @pennjillette – 5

SENTIMENT BEFORE AND AFTER HUMAN SORTING

Similar to the Airline Industry report we published recently, it’s important to note that sentiment, as documented and categorized solely by software algorithms, often misleads the reader. When we apply a human filter to each instance, the results can be profoundly different and is often the case between a truly positive and negative state. In conversations regarding personalities, we observed a profound concentration of positive tweets after human sorting, which is truly distinctive to the celebrity segment and significantly higher than any other industry we’re tracking.

A personal brand, over a product for example, is naturally tied to the psychology of human interaction. When you tweet @ someone, you are, of course, recognizing or hoping to earn the attention of the person directly. In most cases, we’re observing that the positive recognition is linked to the prospect of reciprocity or support.

The sentiment captured and organized using a machine dictionary proves highly inaccurate. The unique machine and human-powered system we’ve built at PeopleBrowsr proves that in the business of perception management and influence, analyzing inaccurate data can prove ineffective, insular, and often futile. Manually analyzing activity provides us with a human perspective as well as empathy.

@50cent
Before Human Sorting Positive: 14% Negative: 2%
After Human Sorting Positive: 82% Negative: 5%

@adventuregirl
Before Human Sorting Positive: 22% Negative: 0%
After Human Sorting Positive: 73% Negative: 0

@alyankovic
Before Human Sorting Positive: 20% Negative: 1%
After Human Sorting Positive: 78% Negative: 4%

@aplusk
Before Human Sorting Positive: 21% Negative: 1%
After Human Sorting Positive: 78% Negative: 2%

@ashleytisdale
Before Human Sorting Positive: 36% Negative: 0%
After Human Sorting Positive: 91% Negative: 1%

@britneyspears
Before Human Sorting Positive: 26% Negative: 1%
After Human Sorting Positive: 89% Negative: 1%

@cassieventura
Before Human Sorting Positive: 19% Negative: 0%
After Human Sorting Positive: 90% Negative: 2%

@chelsealately
Before Human Sorting Positive: 22% Negative: 4%
After Human Sorting Positive: 88% Negative: 1%

@chriscornell
Before Human Sorting Positive: 22% Negative: 5%
After Human Sorting Positive: 84% Negative: 3%

@denise_richards
Before Human Sorting Positive: 25% Negative: 0%
After Human Sorting Positive: 79% Negative: 1%

@donniewahlberg
Before Human Sorting Positive: 28% Negative: 1%
After Human Sorting Positive: 92% Negative: 1%

@eonline
Before Human Sorting Positive: 14% Negative: 3%
After Human Sorting Positive: 87% Negative: 3%

@gossipgirl
Before Human Sorting Positive: 11% Negative: 0%
After Human Sorting Positive: 93% Negative: 0%

@greggrunberg
Before Human Sorting Positive: 17% Negative: 2%
After Human Sorting Positive: 80% Negative: 1%

@heidimontag
Before Human Sorting Positive: 27% Negative: 3%
After Human Sorting Positive: 85% Negative: 7%

@hodgman
Before Human Sorting Positive: 19% Negative: 0%
After Human Sorting Positive: 83% Negative: 3%

@jimjonescapo
Before Human Sorting Positive: 14% Negative: 4%
After Human Sorting Positive: 81% Negative: 4%

@jimmyfallon
Before Human Sorting Positive: 20% Negative: 1%
After Human Sorting Positive: 87% Negative: 1%

@johncleese
Before Human Sorting Positive: 13% Negative: 5%
After Human Sorting Positive: 89% Negative: 0%

@johnlegend
Before Human Sorting Positive: 23% Negative: 2%
After Human Sorting Positive: 92% Negative: 0%

@justjared
Before Human Sorting Positive: 14% Negative: 0%
After Human Sorting Positive: 67% Negative: 0%

@kimkardashian
Before Human Sorting Positive: 27% Negative: 1%
After Human Sorting Positive: 87% Negative: 2%

@kirstiealley
Before Human Sorting Positive: 21% Negative: 1%
After Human Sorting Positive: 87% Negative: 2%

@lancearmstrong
Before Human Sorting Positive: 22% Negative: 1%
After Human Sorting Positive: 91% Negative: 1%

@lennykravitz
Before Human Sorting Positive: 34% Negative: 0%
After Human Sorting Positive: 93% Negative: 0%

@levarburton
Before Human Sorting Positive: 17% Negative: 0%
After Human Sorting Positive: 91% Negative: 0%

@mariahcarey
Before Human Sorting Positive: 32% Negative: 1%
After Human Sorting Positive: 89% Negative: 4%

@mchammer
Before Human Sorting Positive: 20% Negative: 0%
After Human Sorting Positive: 86% Negative: 1%

@michaelianblack
Before Human Sorting Positive: 14% Negative: 3%
After Human Sorting Positive: 88% Negative: 3%

@mileycyrus
Before Human Sorting Positive: 31% Negative: 1%
After Human Sorting Positive: 89% Negative: 2%

@mitchelmusso
Before Human Sorting Positive: 27% Negative: 0%
After Human Sorting Positive: 90% Negative: 1%

@moonfrye
Before Human Sorting Positive: 18%
Negative: 2% After Human Sorting Positive: 85% Negative: 2%

@mrskutcher
Before Human Sorting Positive: 26% Negative: 1%
After Human Sorting Positive: 90% Negative: 2%

@nickswisher
Before Human Sorting Positive: 32% Negative: 5%
After Human Sorting Positive: 95% Negative: 0%

@nottinafey
Before Human Sorting Positive: 0% Negative: 0%
After Human Sorting Positive: 50% Negative: 25%

@oprah
Before Human Sorting Positive: 21% Negative: 1%
After Human Sorting Positive: 88% Negative: 4%

@paulaabdul
Before Human Sorting Positive: 39% Negative: 1%
After Human Sorting Positive: 93% Negative: 2%

@paulfeig
Before Human Sorting Positive: 20% Negative: 0%
After Human Sorting Positive: 95% Negative: 0%

@pennjillette
Before Human Sorting Positive: 14% Negative: 0%
After Human Sorting Positive: 94% Negative: 0%

@perezhilton
Before Human Sorting Positive: 19% Negative: 3%
After Human Sorting Positive: 84% Negative: 6%

@petewentz
Before Human Sorting Positive: 20% Negative: 2%
After Human Sorting Positive: 85% Negative: 2%

@questlove
Before Human Sorting Positive: 16% Negative: 3%
After Human Sorting Positive: 89% Negative: 1%

@rainnwilson
Before Human Sorting Positive: 17% Negative: 2%
After Human Sorting Positive: 84% Negative: 2%

@robcorddry
Before Human Sorting Positive: 18% Negative: 0%
After Human Sorting Positive: 95% Negative: 0%

@rustyrockets
Before Human Sorting Positive: 19% Negative: 1%
After Human Sorting Positive: 87% Negative: 1%

@ryanseacrest
Before Human Sorting Positive: 24% Negative: 1%
After Human Sorting Positive: 89% Negative: 2%

@ryansheckler
Before Human Sorting Positive: 20% Negative: 0%
After Human Sorting Positive: 87% Negative: 3%

@sevinnyne6126
Before Human Sorting Positive: 28% Negative: 1%
After Human Sorting Positive: 90% Negative: 1%

@snoopdogg
Before Human Sorting Positive: 28% Negative: 0 %
After Human Sorting Positive: 85% Negative: 0%

@souljaboytellem
Before Human Sorting Positive: 13% Negative: 5%
After Human Sorting Positive: 87% Negative: 2%

@spencerpratt
Before Human Sorting Positive: 18% Negative: 2%
After Human Sorting Positive: 90% Negative: 5%

@stephenfry
Before Human Sorting Positive: 18% Negative: 1%
After Human Sorting Positive: 89% Negative: 2%

@thatkevinsmith
Before Human Sorting Positive: 18% Negative: 2%
After Human Sorting Positive: 88% Negative: 2%

@the_real_shaq
Before Human Sorting Positive: 17% Negative: 2%
After Human Sorting Positive: 86% Negative: 2%

@theellenshow
Before Human Sorting Positive: 31% Negative: 0%
After Human Sorting Positive: 90% Negative: 1%

@therealjordin
Before Human Sorting Positive: 30% Negative: 1%
After Human Sorting Positive: 92% Negative: 1%

@thisislilwayne
Before Human Sorting Positive: 20% Negative: 5%
After Human Sorting Positive: 89% Negative: 5%

@tonyrobbins
Before Human Sorting Positive: 23% Negative: 2%
After Human Sorting Positive: 88% Negative: 1%

@wilw
Before Human Sorting Positive: 17% Negative: 2%
After Human Sorting Positive: 84% Negative: 3%

@wossy
Before Human Sorting Positive: 21% Negative: 1%
After Human Sorting Positive: 89% Negative: 3%

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Last week, while attending Blogworld Expo, I logged into Twitter to catch up on a few DMs. Upon login, I noticed that something was just a bit different. My home page featured a sizable banner that announced the “beta” release of lists.  While I knew the release of Twitter lists was imminent, I didn’t expect it so quickly.

Essentially, waves of people are receiving access to lists, offering an effective form of contextual curation to follow and stay connected to groups of individuals who align with or inspire your personal and professional interests. It links to you to those you respect and admire and those you inspire.

You’ll notice that the link to your “tweets” has been replaced with “listed” – a link that takes you to the lists created by other individuals where your feed is currently streamed.

As I’ve been on the road, I haven’t had a significant opportunity to create the lists that I need and require to ensure that twitter engagement remains rewarding and productive. To date, I’ve maintained separate accounts to accomplish similar tasks. However, clicking on the “listed” link will allow you to see the groups in which your feed contributes.

Perhaps one of the most compelling new features is that you can join any public list to receive the same feed and insight, whether or not you follow the included individuals. Maintaining lists enables Twitter to scale, offering a meta form of intelligent, yet manual, filtering to ensure that you can increase or decrease the volume of information vs. noise on any given subject of interest.

Creating a list is exceptionally simple. Either click on the list of people that you already follow or jump to a particular profile of interest and click the “list” icon to either create a new list or add the desired individuals to an existing list. Lists can be made public or private. As mentioned earlier, public lists are open to following by others. Some of the most interesting lists, in any industry and covering any topic, will exist and its those list generators who will earn the appreciation and respect of the Twitterverse.

Once you start to create and maintain lists, they’re stationed on the right-hand side of the home page for easy viewing.

For more on the subject, please read Robert Scoble’s review of Twitter lists.

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Source: Shutterstock

This post is a reflection of my personal experiences working in the enterprise and does not reflect the point of view of previous or current employer.

Reality #1: Consumers already get it; brands are still trying to figure it out

Consumers use the social web to talk about everything including products. Sometimes they are praiseworthy, sometimes not. There are no strategic meetings or secret gatherings where consumers discuss which products to talk about and when. They just happen, and happen organically. And at times – at the demise of some brands — these conversations can reach the mainstream media as it did with Motrin.

Brands want to be involved. They want to influence and change behavior. Some listen to the above conversations and some don’t. The smart ones not only listen but act on the collective feedback from the community. Unfortunately, some organizations aren’t structured internally to effectively manage social media externally. This makes it extremely difficult for brand marketers to take action. Brands are still learning; and are beginning to change internal processes in order to keep up with external market conditions, in this case the social web. The brands that are proactive like Starbucks and Dell are one step ahead of the brands that take a more reactive approach.

Reality #2: Brands should focus on the people first, tools last

Over the last 6 – 12 months, many brands have created Twitter accounts to engage with their constituency. While this isn’t a bad thing, I believe that brands should be trying to figure out which tool(s) their consumers will be using tomorrow. The reality is that social media tools and technologies change everyday. People change and the way people use these tools change everyday. Not everyone uses Twitter other than early adopters, influencers and celebrity stalkers. Brands today can now bypass influencers and engage directly with consumers, especially if they pay close attention to where they spend their time online.

I wonder how many brands are engaged in conversations in relevant blogs, forums and discussion boards. I believe that the conversations here may be even more valuable than the ones in Twitter, since they are probably closer down the purchase funnel. The Best Buy forums are a great example of where a multitude of conversations are taking place about various products.

Reality #3: There is no such thing as a social media expert quite yet

Yup, I said it and I believe it. First and foremost, social media is about humanity. It gives brands the opportunity to step from behind the corporate shadow and engage in real life dialogue with others. With that said, being an expert in human behavior is not something one can accomplish just from blogging, tweeting or speaking at conferences.

One form of an expert is a sociologist; and they spend many years researching human behavior, creating surveys, acquiring and analyzing data and then using the information to base logical predictions, conclusions and hypothesis. And, they usually have patients too. Not followers or subscribers, but real life patients. A two-minute video on how to increase your twitter followers and use Bit.ly links is probably not a viable comparison to an expert.

Additionally, branding one’s self with social media is much different than helping a brand connect with people online. Every organization has a different culture, business processes, policies & procedures, web infrastructure, perspectives on customers & marketing, human capital, etc. Not to mention that they have different products and services; and let’s not forget that the regulated industries too. Unless you have ever worked behind the firewall of an enterprise, you can only imagine the chaos that can ensue when trying to find the right opportunity to begin using social media and then doing it the right way. It’s a learning process and yes, there are times when you fail. I’ve been there.

A true “expert” in mind is someone who is always learning how consumers behave and interact within the social web; and then figuring out how a brand can leverage that moment in a meaningful way to create a memorable brand experience. And even then, they are still probably not an expert.

If you want to get to know me a little better, you can find me hanging out on Twitter for most of the day or writing in my social media blog.

The attention dashboard is rapidly emerging as the online hub for sharing and discovering information, connecting us to people, content, and events in real-time. According to research, we’re already spending more time in social networks than we are in email. New studies are only fortifying these findings, documenting an increase time spent specifically in Social Media and blogs.

In fact, the Nielsen Company reports reports that time spent on social networks and blogs accounted for 17 percent of total time spent on the Internet in August 2009. Most notably, but not surprising, however, is that this discovery represents nearly triple the percentage of time spent using Social Media just one year ago.

As a result of our online interaction, advertisers are following our activities attempting to capture our attention where it is focused. The same report also found that online display advertising in top social networks has more than doubled year-over-year, increasing 119 percent. The jump represents an increase in spending from approximately $49 million in August 2008 to roughly $108 million in August 2009. Also of note, the share of estimated spend in social networks as also increased, expanding from seven percent in August 2008 to 15 percent in August 2009.

Unfortunately what’s missing from Nielsen’s report is data related to user interaction with ads. Although, we know that on Twitter for instance, users are twice as likely to click on ads, review products and visit brand profiles online according to a recent study by Interpret. The company surveyed over 9,000 Internet users in August 2009 and found that 24 percent of respondents that use Twitter reviewed or rated products online while only 12 percent of people who use other social networks, not Twitter, did so. Along those lines, 20 percent of Twitter users were also more likely to visit company profiles while non-Twitter users accounted for only 11 percent.  In advertising, the numbers were also interesting. 20 percent of Twitter users over nine percent of non-users reported that they would click on ads or sponsored links.

Source: MarketingCharts.com

Nielsen captured the industries leading the way for spending in social networks with entertainment, travel, business-to-business, automotive, and health representing the top five respectively.

Chart 1: Year-over-Year Percent Change in Online Advertising Spend by Industry (U.S., August 2009)

Source: Nielsen AdRelevance

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Using social media isn’t just important, it’s life changing

Do you realize that we are the reason you “make” a living?

Your passion, your ideas, your marketing skills…that’s all just a bonus at the end of the day. Your services solve our problems. We are the reasons for your success. Your fans, your tribes, your family. However, you have to listen in order to discover how we can make you successful. Trust me, we have no problem telling you how to make your product or services a success. Everything else you can do just adds fuel to the fire.

So what does this have to do with social media? Well, for starters you shouldn’t just elicit conversations, you should RESPOND to them. Social media is where we’re telling you how to be more successful, lucrative, or whatever it is you hope your services will allow you to be. We do it everyday, without pay, without schwag, and without any incentives because we genuinely want to help you. Social media is where the conversations for success are happening. This is where the news is happening. THIS IS WHERE YOUR SUCCESS CAN HAPPEN.

WE are your next big idea because in this space, WE control the content. WE decide what’s popular. And WE run this town!

—-

What do you think?

Would love your feedback on what you think might be missing…

As I was writing the report on Facebook and Twitter traffic growth, I had noticed that the engagement time at Twitter.com had dropped by 31 percent year-over-year.

September 2009: 18:07

September 2008: 26:12

Engagement Difference = -31%

I suspected that the shift in numbers stemed from the migration of those who previously interacted on Twitter.com and now engage via third-party clients such as TweetDeck, Seesmic, CoTweet, HootSuite, et al. As such, I thought it would be productive to review the numbers to get a closer look at what’s truly transpiring at the engagement level.

I asked my good friend Dan Zarrella, author of The Social Media Marketing Book, if he could help me run the numbers to see exactly what the world of usage looks like at Twitter.com compared to the mobile and desktop clients that are becoming increasingly pervasive.

Using the HubSpot platform, he measured the publishing source of over 500,000 tweets in September 2009.

As such, I’ve complied the results into a list that ranks the top Twitter clients as well as Twitter applications that publish from one service to Twitter as part of a syndication model.

The Top 100 Twitter Publishing Tools and Services

Twitter Client Market Share

1. Web,40.945%
2. API,11.6418% (custom applications, scripts or bots)
3. TweetDeck,6.635%
4. UberTwitter,4.288%
5. twitterfeed,3.9538%
6. txt,3.9254%
7. mobile web,3.567%
8. TwitterFon,2.4622%
9. Tweetie,2.1434%
10. TwitterFox,1.3588%
11. Echofon,1.3356%
12. Twitterrific,1.2322%
13. twidroid,0.886%
14. twhirl,0.8756%
15. movatwitter,0.8398%
16. TwitterBerry,0.835%
17. TwitPic,0.7806%
18. Seesmic,0.5524%
19. Tween,0.5414%
20. HootSuite,0.5258%
21. Power Twitter,0.3556%
22. Twit,0.3358%
23. gmedtwitpost,0.3188%
24. Snaptu,0.3018%
25. Twittelator,0.3%
26. POLLpigeon,0.2868%
27. FriendFeed,0.275%
28. P3:PeraPeraPrv,0.229%
29. DestroyTwitter,0.2188%
30. Perl Net::Twitter,0.2154%
31. Ping.fm,0.2128%
32. LOL quiz,0.1792%
33. TwitterGadget,0.1758%
34. Facebook,0.1722%
35. Twitter Tools,0.1558%
36. Tumblr,0.144%
37. RSS2Twitter,0.1412%
38. Sidekick,0.1386%
39. twitRobot,0.1338%
40. Google,0.1326%
41. dabr,0.1304%
42. CoTweet,0.129%
43. Blip.fm,0.1276%
44. Fun140,0.1274%
45. Gravity,0.1264%
46. SocialScope,0.1116%
47. Tweed,0.1074%
48. YoruFukurou,0.1064%
49. Mobile Tweete,0.106%
50. BlogTalkRadio,0.106%
51. WP to Twitter,0.1058%
52. bit.ly,0.0962%
53. iTweet,0.0914%
54. PockeTwit,0.091%
55. Tweetbots,0.0902%
56. PhotoShare,0.0862%
57. TwitterRide,0.0854%
58. NatsuLiphone,0.0794%
59. Mobster World,0.0784%
60. SimplyTweet,0.0672%
61. TinyTwitter,0.0664%
62. Digsby,0.0642%
63. Twitter4J,0.0614%
64. Reuters.com,0.0608%
65. Ustream,0.0606%
66. Tweets60,0.0584%
67. Movatter,0.0572%
68. MySpace,0.0568%
69. twibble,0.0562%
70. TwitZap,0.0526%
71. Twitter4R,0.0518%
72. Twaitter,0.0484%
73. Twitterizer,0.048%
74. Nambu,0.0464%
75. TwitterBar,0.0426%
76. Twikini,0.0412%
77. Epic Pet Wars,0.0386%
78. Twitme for WordPress,0.0368%
79. Photomemo,0.0356%
80. Mixero,0.0356%
81. yoono,0.0332%
82. Netvibes,0.0328%
83. TwitBin,0.0326%
84. Flock,0.0316%
85. Twidget,0.0312%
86. Spaz,0.031%
87. WordTwit,0.0308%
88. Twitterena,0.0304%
89. Post to Twitter,0.0298%
90. 140 Mafia,0.0298%
91. TweetSG,0.0292%
92. Fantasy Sports,0.0292%
93. Gwibber,0.0276%
94. TwiXtreme,0.0276%
95. Posterous,0.0274%
96. m.slandr.net,0.0272%
97. TwitKit,0.0264%
98. Twitter Opera widget,0.0264%
99. Tweet-U-Later,0.0264%
100. Twibbon,0.026%
101. Splitweet,0.026%
102. schuelerVZ,0.026%
103. ShareThis.com,0.0258%
104. TwitterMail,0.0256%
105. twittai,0.0252%
106. Identica,0.0236%
107. Adium,0.0228%
108. Brightkite,0.0224%
109. モバツイッター,0.0224%
110. Stickam,0.0218%
111. HTC Peep,0.0218%
112. BeTwittered,0.021%
113. TweetLeads,0.021%
114. Adjix,0.0208%
115. Twitstat Mobile,0.02%
116. TwitterIrcGateway,0.0198%
117. Viigo,0.0188%
118. EventBox,0.0186%
119. TweetGenius,0.0184%
120. twitthat,0.0184%
121. blu,0.017%
122. TwInbox,0.0168%
123. Matt,0.0166%
124. TweetPhoto,0.0166%
125. buzztap,0.0166%
126. TweetGrid,0.016%
127. Bird Feeder,0.0158%
128. JTwitter,0.0158%
129. LiveTweeter,0.0156%
130. TwitThis,0.0152%
131. TypePad,0.0152%
132. Spymaster,0.0152%
133. Flickr,0.0152%

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Recently, Facebook announced that it had surpassed the 300 million user mark. According to Experian HitWise, Facebook accounted for 58.59 percent of all U.S. visits among a custom category of 155 social networking Web sites in September 2009. This is an interesting stat and I would love for Experian HitWise to send the full list over, so that I can also analyze the playing field for new, emerging, and declining players across the board.

The report noted that Facebook’s growth was the highest among all social networks, with U.S. visits increasing 194 percent between September 2008 and September 2009.

Market Share of U.S. Internet Visits to Top Five Social Networking Web Sites

But then, there’s our “social” darling…Twitter. Twitter had the largest percentage gain in market share of visits among the top five visited Web sites, increasing 1,170 percent compared to the previous year. In fact, 2009 is “The Year of Twitter” as documented by the traffic and reach of Twitter.com at Alexa and Compete.

According to the report, U.S. visits to all social networks was up by 62 percent from September 2008 to 2009. Except of course, at Myspace and myYearbook. From 2008 to 2009 each experienced a significant erosion in visits by -55 percent and -40 percent respectively. The good news for MySpace however, is that the network topped the charts for average time spent in the network. And, as engagement is a key metric for social media, this data is critical to the future of MySpace engineering, innovation, and the ecosystem it creates moving forward.  But, that engagement level is slipping, as it reflects a 12 percent loss of attention year-over-year.

As you’ll see in a report I will soon publish, Twitter is starting to appeal to the youth who have powered MySpace in the past and still do today. Fusion and integration are key at the once dominant social network.

Average U.S. Time Spent Among Top Five Social Networking Web Sites (in minutes and seconds)

Looking at the data, you’ll notice that Twitter also experienced a loss in engagement time among visitors. From September 2008 – 2009, Twitter actually lost a whopping 31 percent of visitor attention span. I believe that many will say that the shift in numbers stems from the migration of those who previously interacted on Twitter.com and now engage via third-party clients such as TweetDeck, Seesmic, CoTweet, HootSuite, et al. I will have these numbers available for you shortly…

Nielsen also released interesting numbers that corroborated with my recent findings that emanated from my research into the demographics behind the most popular social networks. As a result, CNN postulated as to whether or not your social class determined your online social network.

Breeanna Hare of CNN asked if a class divide exists online.

Research suggests yes.

Nielsen Claritas conducted an online panel of more than 200,000 social media users in the United States in August. The study found that people in more affluent demographics are 25 percent more likely use Facebook, while the less affluent, 37 percent, are more likely to connect on MySpace.

Users with household income above $75,000
Facebook — 41.74 percent
MySpace — 32.38 percent
LinkedIn — 58.35 percent
Twitter — 43.34 percent

Users with household income under $50,000
Facebook — 28.42 percent
MySpace — 37.13 percent
LinkedIn — 17.34 percent
Twitter — 28.36 percent

Female users
Facebook — 56.33 percent
MySpace — 56.69 percent
LinkedIn — 48.11percent
Twitter — 53.59 percent

Users aged 18 to 24
Facebook — 10.27 percent
MySpace — 15.46 percent
LinkedIn — 3.99 percent
Twitter — 9.51percent

Users aged 35 to 49
Facebook — 31.54 percent
MySpace — 29.09 percent
LinkedIn — 43.64 percent
Twitter — 34.02 percent

According to Mike Mancini, vice president of data product management for Nielsen, “MySpace, users tend to be in middle-class, blue-collar neighborhoods. They’re on their way up, or perhaps not college educated. Facebook goes off the charts in the upscale suburbs.”

Nielsen also found a strong overlap between those who use Facebook and those who use LinkedIn.

Honestly, categorizing human behavior and activities in social networks by financial status appears incomplete and almost insular. If we are learning anything in the study of and participation in social networks, it’s that individuals are forming networks that traverse across multiple social networks – and, they will continue to do so, forming one larger, expansive human network in the process. We’re bound by context and interests and it’s why psychographic data overcomes demographics when assessing how to best reach, engage, and galvanize the people who define our communities online.

This is why, in social media, digital anthropology, sociology, ethnography, and psychology prevail…

Please also read the psychology of Twitter with Dr. Drew and in Social Media, Women Rule

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