Bloggers Blog: Blogging the Blogsphere

Jim Carrey's Twitter Bird

Sat, 7 Nov 2009 15:00:00 EST

Jim Carrey's bizarre new website should win the award for best version of a Twitter bird. The website has a bird with Jim Carrey's head on it that shares his latest tweets. If you click on the bird it goes to Jim Carrey's Twitter account, @jimcarrey. Well played Jim Carrey.

Posted in Twitter

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On Twitter Lists and Twitter Influence

Thu, 5 Nov 2009 10:40:00 EST

We have compiled a list here of the 200+ most listed Twitter accounts. Listorious has launched a list here of the most followed lists on Twitter. Twitterholic has a list here of the most followed Twitter accounts. All three of these help measure how much influence a Twitter account has but none of them alone provide an accurate measure of a Twitterer's reach or influence.

Trying to measure how much reach or influence a given Twitter account has is an increasingly complex issue. You would need to factor in followers as well as the number of lists someone is on. In addition, specific lists will also be important because Listorious's list of the most followed lists shows that being on some lists gives Twitter users more influence than others. Twitter's list widgets allow lists to be embedded on webpages. Twitterers listed on lists that get embedded could get more exposure. There is also the issue of private lists which may not be added to a Twitterer's list total.

The list of the most listed Twitterers has Barack Obama way out in front which seems appropriate since he is the President. The list is heavily dominated by celebrities. There are few news or tech-related accounts on the list. In this way the list of the most listed Twitterers is very similar to the list of the most followed Twitterers. However, the highest ranked celebrities on the most listed list are different than those on the most followed list. Taylor Swift is ranked second on the most listed list but she is not (yet) one of the top 25 most followed accounts. Taylor Swift's high list ranking seems logical given that she was one of the biggest Twitter stories this year because of the Kanye West incident at the VMAs. A couple young Disney stars - Demi Lovato and Selena Gomez - also rank very highly on the most listed list yet they are much farther down on the most followed. This could indicate that many listmakers are very young but it is still way too early with lists to read much into this. The only obvious trend is that those who can be bothered enough to make lists love to put celebrities on them and that celebrities crush everyone else when it comes to getting put on lists. Listmakers also like humor - Shit My Dad Says is ranked fifth and The Onion is 20th.

When it comes to list of the top lists on Listorious what stands out is that very few lists are followed by many people. Only the Twitter Team list has a large follower number of over 37,000. This number is big because Twitter put a link to the list on every single Twitter user's homepage. The number actually seems kind of small considering ever single person on Twitter was given a chance to follow it. The fact that not many lists have very many followers could mean that people prefer to make their own lists. Lists may be more of a personal thing than a social thing. It could also mean that many users are not aware of Listorious or the fact that they can follow other people's lists. It's also possible that they simply could not be bothered. Again, it is too early to tell because lists are only about a week old. It takes time to make lists and many people still haven't had time to try them out.

Posted in Twitter

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Celebrity Twitter Accounts Among Most Listed Twitter Accounts

Mon, 2 Nov 2009 13:05:00 EST

There are some blog posts discussing the most listed Twitter accounts here and here that claim Mashable is the second most listed Twitter account. It hasn't been #2 for several days. Here is the correct ranking of the top most listed accounts.

Barack Obama: 11,007
Taylor Swift: 9,507
CNN Breaking: 8,777
The Ellen Show: 8,057
Shit My Dad Says: 7,954
Lady Gaga: 7,695
Mashable: 7,665
Demi Lovato: 7,477
Ashton Kutcher: 7,176
John Mayer: 7,150
Britney Spears: 7,068
Katy Perry: 6,835
Selena Gomez: 6,573
Google: 6,124
Stephen Fry, 6,118
Oprah: 5,715
Twitter: 5,650
The New York Times: 5,210
The Onion: 5,160
Perez Hilton: 5,049
Shaq: 5,000

Update 11-2-09: You can find a longer list of the Most Listed Twitter Accounts here.

It's good to see Mashable up near the top of the most listed Twitter accounts, but Mashable has been falling. The list of the most listed has been trending more celebrity since lists were turned on for all Twitterers a couple days ago. A week ago Mashable was ranked first and a couple days ago it was ranked fourth. Now it is ranked seventh. The trend that seems to be shaping up here is that celebrities will have to most listed Twitter accounts sort of like what you see on Twitterholic, a site that shows Twitter accounts with the most followers. However, the celebrities with the most listed accounts is a turning out to be a little different then the celebrity accounts with the most followers.

Note: You can find a list of 400+ celebrities here, a list of Twitter tools and apps here and lots more lists at Listorious.com.

Posted in Twitter

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Barack Obama, Taylor Swift Are Most Listed Twitterers

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 13:20:00 EST

President Barack Obama and Taylor Swift appear to be the most listed people or organizations on Twitter as of this writing. This could easily change as there are still many people who do not yet have Twitter lists enabled. Here is a short list of the most listed Twitterers as of right now, noonish on Thursday, October 29th.

@BarackObama: 3,571
@taylorswift13: 3,178
@cnnbrk: 2,922
@mashable: 2,654
@TheEllenShow: 2,649
@johncmayer: 2,486
@ladygaga: 2,470
@aplusk: 2,441
@ddlovato: 2,246
katyperry: 2,196
@google: 2,143
@stephenfry: 2,128
@twitter: 2,039
@selenagomez: 1,987
@TheOnion: 1,866
@oprah: 1,860

I created this short list manually and it will no doubt be automated by someone using Twitter's API in the days ahead. It's probably not a surprise to see celebrities and news organization leading the pack. Early on the most listed list had more tech people as you can see here but that has changed somewhat. Those who first had Twitter lists was probably dominated by peeps in the tech industry. Who is on the most lists won't really tell the whole story because determining reach on Twitter has become much more complex. There is the issue that people can follow other people's lists which may be hard to calculate. There are also plain old follower counts but even those don't tell you the whole story because a lot of people have followers that have abandoned Twitter.

Lists and followers will be used to measure how much reach a person or organization has on Twitter even if the measure is imperfect. The great thing about lists is not as a way to measure popularity but that they allow people to organize twitter accounts and their incoming tweets. This way they can get a lot more value out of Twitter.

Posted in Twitter

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The Onion Covers Parents Facebook Stalking Their College-Aged Kids

Sat, 24 Oct 2009 15:00:00 EST

The Onion has a pretty hilarious video about how parents can use Facebook and Twitter to keep tabs on their children. The helicopter parent in this video is quite obsessed with monitoring her son's Facebook and Twitter activity. Like any good Onion story there is some truth to it.

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Oh Lord. It's the 5 Billionth Tweet

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 23:24:00 EST

This tweet by Robin Sloan is apparently the 5 billionth tweet on Twitter. The number at the end of the tweet's URL is 5000000000, which likely means it is tweet number 5 billion if Twitter hasn't been skipping around.

The Social blogs that Robin Sloan has nicknamed the tweet, "The Pentagigatweet."

Corrected to show billionth not millionth! Thanks Glen Green

Posted in Twitter

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Twitter Lists Make Twitter More Useful

Sat, 17 Oct 2009 12:30:00 EST

Twitter Lists are great new way to organize information and follow tweets on Twitter. The feature makes Twitter a lot more useful. It works best for categories. For example, you can create a list of your favorite news sources or a list for a specific subject, such as blogging, social media, food, music or tech. Information junkies are going to love this feature. You can also go local and follow your favorite restaurants, hangouts and local news sources.

You can only create 20 lists but that doesn't really matter because you can go and follow cool lists that other people have made. One of the best features of Twitter Lists is that you can add people to your lists that you are not following. You can add someone to one of your lists by using a tab that appears next to their profile. When you hover over the tab your Twitter Lists appear and you can check the box(es) next to the List you want to add them to.

The lists themselves are very useful. They contain all the tweets from the twitterers you have added to the list. The lists appear on the right side of your page underneath the search box. When you click on one of the lists the tweets from the members in the list show up on your homepage. Each list also has its own page.

Here's a short summary of some of the features:

You can make up to 20 lists.
Each list can have up to 500 twitterers.
Lists can be private or public.
You can add people to lists even if you don't follow them.
You can follow lists made by other people.
You can change the title of a list at any time.
The url path for lists is twitter.com/username/nameoflist
Twitter shows you who is following each list.
Twitter shows you how many lists you are listed on (next to your followers/following count)

I have made a bunch of lists already including one for Twitter apps and tools as well as lists for blogging, celebrities, tech, tv and movies, etc. I'm also following some lists others have made including a Metaverse list, iPhone list, nonprofits list and Australia list. I'm also following some company group lists, such as the Twitter list, TechCrunch list, Mashable list, ReadWriteWeb list - these lists contain Twitterers that all blog/work for the same company. You can see my lists and the lists I am following here.

Note: You can't see any of the lists if Twitter has not yet activitated Twitter Lists for your account. Hopefully, they will do this soon.

For those who have Twitter List Blindness here's an example of a Twitter list called "Tech"

Posted in Twitter

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Big Mouth Billy Bass Connected To Twitter

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 14:50:00 EST

Neatorama reports that Dan Ros hacked his Big Mouth Billy Bass so that it quotes Homer Simpson, Bill Clinton, George Bush and characters from Monty Python's The Holy Grail. The hacked Big Mouth Billy Bass will also speak whatever is tweeted at him. The Bass's brain was swapped with an mbed Microcontroller. Take a look:

What a great idea. It's important that we get as many Big Mouth Billy Bass units connected to Twitter as possible.

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YouTube Now Serving One Billion Video Views Daily

Sat, 10 Oct 2009 15:00:00 EST

YouTube announced this week that they are now serving one billion video views each day. They mention basic principles they implemented that have since become fundamental tenets in the world of online video.

Speed matters: Videos should load and play back quickly.
Clip culture is here to stay: Short clips are voraciously consumed and perfect for watching a wide variety of content.
Open platforms open up possibility: Content creation isn't our business; it's yours. We wanted to create a place where anyone with a video camera, a computer, and an Internet connection could share their life, art, and voice with the world, and in many cases make a living from doing so.

They missed one: embedding. Embedding has been extremely important in helping YouTube grow quickly and the embed code has been adapted by many other video websites as a tool to get content widely distributed.

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Drew Carey Promises $1 Million Charity Donation For 1 Million Twitter Followers

Wed, 7 Oct 2009 11:00:00 EST

In an exclusive interview with CBSNews.com's Shira Lazar, The Price Is Right host Drew Carey says he will donate $1 million to charity if he gets a million twitter followers by 2010. Drew Carey is on Twitter at @DrewFromTV. He has about 50,000 subscribers so he probably is not on Twitter's SUL. Drew Carey says the charity is Livestrong. Take a look:

Posted in Celebrity

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Robo.to Offers Micro Video Blogging

Tue, 6 Oct 2009 22:00:00 EST

We have microblogging, so why not microvideoblogging. That's the idea behind Robo.to, a website that lets you publish micro videos - or visual status updates - that are no longer than 4 seconds in length. The videos can be distributed on Twitter, Facebook and other social media websites.

Bits reports that the idea is also meant to serve as a digital calling card for users.

The idea behind the platform is simple: In addition to the microvideos, which can be uploaded from a webcam or a mobile phone camera and pushed out via Facebook and Twitter with a few short lines of text, Robo.to is meant to be a digital calling card online or a hub that houses information about an individual's identity on the Web. That's what helps separate the service from other microvideo services like 12seconds.

Bits says Robo.to already has 100,000 plus users, thanks in part to Justin Timberlake regularly posting the tiny videos on his Twitter account, @jtimberlake.

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Dood Will Scream Your Tweets From Rocky Cliff

Sat, 3 Oct 2009 18:00:00 EST

A dood named Sam Wilson at illScreamYourTweets.com will scream your tweets for you. He won't just retweet them using all caps but he will literally yell your tweets from a rocky cliff overlooking the ocean. You can send him your tweets at @ScreamUrTweets. Once a week he climbs up a mountain to scream some of the tweets he is sent as loud as he can. Take a look:

(via Comedy Central Insider)

Posted in Twitter

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Twitter to Launch Twitter Lists

Thu, 1 Oct 2009 09:35:00 EST

Twitter blogged yesterday that it will soon add a feature called Lists. The lists could be a game changer and help end the comfy ride those on Twitter's Suggested Users List (SUL) have enjoyed for far too long. There will probably be attempts to game it and lots of "please add me to your list" tweets. There is some risk with this feature because if people can follow everyone on a list all at once then they are more likely to follow a list that includes a malware spammer. Twitter could also create a public database showing Twitter accounts that are included in the most lists. Twitter's API will probably allow developers to do something like this.

The following aspect is interesting but the real value in the lists is not so much in following but in allowing Twitter users to segment their Twitter followers, and allow them to track tweets by self-chosen categories such as news, business, family, friends, etc. The lists are public by default but there will likely be lots of private lists. Hopefully, Twitter never has an error that lets people see someone's private "Frenemies" list.

The lists should increase following on Twitter, which is one of the reasons Twitter created the SUL in the first place. Most Twitter users don't follow very many other people and these lists should help. If the Twitter Lists make it easy for people to track by groups or categories that help them then it may also increase the amount of time people spend on Twitter.

Posted in Twitter

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The Bump Launches Mommy Blog Awards

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 15:00:00 EST

TheBump.com, a blog for first-time parents from TheKnot.com, is running a Mommy blog contest. The Bump Mommy Blog Awards program invites mommy and daddy bloggers and their fans to nominate their favorite sites. The contest has 15 different categories. The nomination period ends on Tuesday, October 9.

"Real parent bloggers are one of the most useful resources for pregnancy and parenting information," says Carley Roney, editor in chief of TheBump.com. "The Bump Mommy Blog Awards is the perfect medium to bring recognition to all these mommy and daddy bloggers for their hard work."

On Tuesday, October 13, TheBump.com will showcase up to 10 finalists for each of the 15 blog categories. Visitors can then review the top entries and vote for their favorite blogs until Monday, October 19. On October 20, the winners of each blog category will be announced and will automatically be entered in the running for the title of Best Overall Blog. The grand prize winner will receive a stimulus package of $1,000 from The Bump. Each of the 15 blog category winners will receive a gift card for $100 from a specialty baby retailer.

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Bit.ly Now Providing J.mp URLs

Fri, 4 Sep 2009 13:30:00 EST

Business Insider reports that Bit.ly is now offering urls from the j.mp domain, which is two characters shorter than Bit.ly. .mp is the Internet country code top-level domain for Northern Mariana Islands.

We just popped open our bit.ly sidebar to send a tweet and got this new URL tool instead. By knocking out two characters from the URL, that means your tweet content can potentially be 1.4% longer.

You can get a j.mp shortened url at the j.mp website. The site is powered by Bit.ly, which became Twitter's default URL shortener in May.

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Music Blogging Network Called MOG Gets More Funding

Wed, 2 Sep 2009 18:00:00 EST

Venture Beat reports that a music blog network or social network named MOG has raised $5 million. Venture Beat says the site has 8 million uniques and has signed up large advertisers including Nike, Procter & Gamble and LG. The targeted niche content and demographics must be appealing to advertisers.

MOG has an advertising network called MOG Music Network (MMN). The faq here explains how bloggers can sign-up and how they get paid.

(via Blog Herald)

Posted in Music

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YouTube to Monetize Viral Videos

Tue, 25 Aug 2009 22:00:00 EST

YouTube has a post today that says Google is opening up the YouTube Partnership Program to include "individual popular videos." Basically, if a video goes viral YouTube wants to give the creator of the video the opportunity to monetize it. The program being used is Google's Adsense program.

We decided it was time to spread the wealth. Today we're excited to announce that we're extending the YouTube Partnership Program to include individual popular videos on our site. Now, when you upload a video to YouTube that accumulates lots of views, we may invite you to monetize that video and start earning revenue from it. To determine whether a particular video is eligible for monetization, we look at factors like the number of views, the video's virality and compliance with the YouTube Terms of Service. If your video is eligible for monetization, you will receive an email and see an "Enable Revenue Sharing" message next to your video on the watch page, as well as in other places in your account:

If a video uploaded to YouTube accumulates enough views and meets YouTube's terms of service than a "Enable Revenue Sharing" message will appear.

ReadWriteWeb has posted some rules of thumb that people looking to monetize "one-hit wonders" should keep in mind.

It's interesting YouTube did this. It's possible they have some users with some fairly popular videos that have not considered joining the partnership program or are not even aware it exists. By putting the button on the Youtubers page they may get more signups and therefore more ad views and ad revenues.

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