Within the last few month, Twitter has introduced two new elements to their micro-blogging empire. Half of those elements are doomed to fail.

First, Twitter introduced ‘Promoted Tweets’, a paid tweet located at the top of any twitter search results. The promoted tweet is graphically designated as a paid promotion and is given prime placement. A twitter search of ‘starbucks’ reveals a prime example.

Much like Google Ads, Twitter’s promoted tweet idea is based upon content relevance. It isn’t completely abrasive, but I fear it will not be well-received by the Tweeple. I say this because Twitter has always been (albeit a short life) an ad vacuum. It has been free of advertising elements.

Most recently, Twitter introduced a competitor to the wildly popular Woot (who was recently purchased by Amazon.com). The new competitor…@earlybird. A simple, Twitter-based ‘deal-of-the-minute’ platform. After only a few short days, @earlybird already has 26,000+ followers. Not too shabby.

It is my humble prediction that one of these revenue-producing elements has a significant upper hand over the other. Why do I say this? Permission-based marketing. For years, advertising was based upon interruption. The promoted tweet is a hybrid of this (it interrupts with relevance). However, our culture is rapidly moving in a new direction.

We are becoming an increasingly permission-based marketing society. We protect our exposure to ads. We are skilled at it. But the ads we let in – opt in – we receive with open arms. If Apple releases a new product, we hardly see a commercial about it (commercials are interruptions). However, when we receive an email from the Apple newsletter we have volunteered to receive, we can’t wait to dive into Steve Jobs’ digital advertisement.

Such is the @earlybird. Our interest is peaked each day as we await our limited-time offer. We follow the Tweets, both figuratively and literally. We have opted-in to this advertisement – this point of purchase display. For this reason, I am certain that @earlybird will be far more successful than its predecessor – promoted tweets.

Here are a few ridiculous facts about the impact of Facebook:

• 1. 400 Million Global Users, and Counting
• 2. 100 Million U.S. Users
• 3. Average Facebook User Spends 55 Minutes Per Day
• 4. Nearly 80,000 sites using Facebook Connect
• 5. Facebook Fan Box Becoming Pervasive
• 6. Average Facebook User Has 130 Friends
• 7. Average Facebook User Fans 4 Pages per Month
• 8. Only 4% of Pages Have 10,000 or More Fans

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A recently study published some interesting facts about Twitter:

• African Americans account for 25% of the Twitter population, which is double the percentage of African Americans living in the U.S.
• Twitter users are more likely to live in higher income households.
• Four in 10 Twitter users (39%) own three or more computers.
• Twitter users are three times more likely to follow brands on Twitter than on other social networking sites.
• Less than half of regular Twitter users post updates (47%), although 70% of these same Twitter users do post status updates to other social networking services like Facebook.

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For decades, consumers have been helpless in the fight against large businesses. If consumers were mistreated or wronged, they could only reasonably complain to the business and close friends. They did not have a platform in which to complain to the masses or ban together with others who experienced the same frustration. Certainly their complaints could not counterbalance the marketing efforts of the misbehaving company.

Then came Facebook. With the emergence of this social networking site came the very platform needed for consumers to ban together and form a powerful voice. [i.e. the nearly 5,000 people who hate Comcast]

Currently, Facebook is under fire by the very monster that they created. The social media masses are throwing Facebook under the bus for the risky changes they have made to their privacy policy.

If Facebook were a country, it would be the 4th largest in the world. It was on pace to become #3 until recent concerns arose. Now, once second rate social sites are experiencing a growth explosion as a result of Facebook’s questionable behavior.

“Right now is the perfect time for us,” said Leo Shimizu, co-founder of a company called Pip.io

“The market opportunity is one of a kind, and it’s up to us to capitalize on it,” he said.

“Facebook is pushing to the edge of users’ comfort zone,” he said. “It has certainly planted a seed in some users’ minds to look for an exit door.”

Now, more than ever before, American businesses have accountability for their actions – both good & bad. The fly-by-night business finally has a reputation that precedes them. And there is profit in operating honorably. Transparency isn’t just a presidential catch-phrase, but a way of doing business.

article | Social Networks Capitalize on Facebook Privacy Fears.

It is hard to grasp the rate at which the internet & social media are exploding. In this video by Jess3 (right), we pass along remarkable stats and graphs, examining the phenomenon we are currently experiencing. The numbers are astounding.

The power of social media made itself known again Saturday night. The Facebook masses spoke and they wanted 88 year old Betty White to host SNL. The SNL staff succumbed to the viral request and a few weeks later it was, “Live from New York”…it’s Betty White!

Betty jokingly acknowledged the social support in her monologue:

“I really have to thank Facebook … I didn’t know what Facebook was, and now that I do know what it is, I have to say, it sounds like a huge waste of time. I would never say the people on it are losers, but that’s only because I’m polite.”

Although Facebook is viewed as a waste of time by many, the mere fact that Ms. White was onstage taking shots at Facebook testifies to its significance. This situation gives us 3 quick lessons we can learn about social media:

1. Social Media allows us to listen to our customers: The people spoke and SNL wisely listened. If your business participates in the social realm, you too should be listening. As business owners, we must always remember – no one knows what our customers want more than our customers.
2. A Band of Brothers: Facebook provided the platform for millions of people to temporarily join together for a cause. Much like the Team Coco images we saw a few weeks ago, supporting Conan O’Brian, there is a significance behind this surge. How can this type of connection be used to support your case? Your cause?
3. The Pressure from Peers: I have not yet seen ratings for last night’s broadcast, but I would assume they are well above average. The reason? I might suggest peer recommendations. The same army of Facebook folks that digitally lifted Ms. White to SNL stardom, most certain discussed the upcoming episode in their digital content, shared among their friends. Having a respected friend describe their excitement of the upcoming event is certainly more likely to invoke your attention, than any traditional ad might. I know this occurrence took place in our house, and I would assume many others also.

Batten down the smart phones, because here comes social media!

In case you missed it, last week an Apple software engineer, Gray Powell, lost his iPhone. Of course, that alone is hardly news worthy. I suspect the sheer number of iPhones accidentally dropped in the toilet on any given day would be more news worthy. However, Gray was not toting a run-of-the-mill iPhone. He was beta testing Apple’s top secret, new model iPhone. This new model was encased in a cleaver 3GS disguise, but the cover was quickly blown removed. Pictures leaked. The new hardware was analyzed. Letterman did a Top 10 List. Lufthansa even offered the poor guy a free trip out of town.

Young guy, goes out to the bar to celebrate his 27th birthday, has a few beers, loses his iPhone, and creates a digital firestorm. Classic.

Most believe that this new iPhone was set to be the main story line at Apple’s WWDC event in late June. Historically, Apple’s marketing plan is chalked full of new product anticipation. Typically the anticipation and its subsequent social marketing buzz, drives an exorbitant amount of demand for a new product before anyone even knows what they are so excited about. But now their cover is blown. How will Apple recover? Time will tell. It should be interesting.

In case you missed it, last week Google announced a slight modification to its search engine magic. Moving forward, Google will now factors in site speed in your ranking:

Speeding up websites is important — not just to site owners, but to all Internet users. Faster sites create happy users and we’ve seen in our internal studies that when a site responds slowly, visitors spend less time there.

But don’t be too worried. It seems that only a small percentage of sites are negatively affected:

While site speed is a new signal, it doesn’t carry as much weight as the relevance of a page. Currently, fewer than 1% of search queries are affected by the site speed signal in our implementation…

But if you are concerned, here are plenty of great (…free…) tools online to help you measure and diagnose your lazy site.

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You can make a strong argument that Twitter (& other social media) isn’t very useful. But I love it. I have #tweetarrhea. But the fact is, Twitter teaches something – well it teaches lots of things, but one thing that is actually useful. Twitter teaches us ‘Branding’.

Branding is ‘the act of defining as a name, term, sign, symbol or design, or a combination of them intended for identification & recognition’.

If you think about it, by twittering, you are branding yourself. You already know that. You subconsciously act based on this belief. But you may not have yet identified this truth. But it is there.

For example, do you ever tweet, “I’m going to the bathroom”? What about, “I’m sitting at home alone on a Saturday night”? Or, “I really enjoy Britney Spears music”? Of course not. You don’t want people to know those things about you. That would make you look lame. Really lame.

Instead you tweet “Going to the [insert awesome band here] concert tonight!” and “Out at the pub with great friends!” Those things convey a message. Those things make you look awesome.

That being said, the message conveyed is not so much a message of who you are, as much as a message of who you want to be. You could sit at home 9 out of 10 weekends and not tweet about it. But the one weekend you do something substantial, that activity gets tweeted. Do you see what I mean? You are 90% boring and 10% cool. But it is the 10% that is presented to your friends to represent you. It’s all branding.

Today’s young may be crashing their cars all over town as they text & tweet. But they are developing a deeper understanding of ‘branding’.

Buckle up.