Image by jdlasica via FlickrOn Facebook there is symmetry, we have to friend each other. On Twitter there is asymmetry. You could argue there is asymmetry also on Google Plus. So far I have not had to ask for anyone's permission before adding them to a circle.
But where Google Plus is different from Twitter is I can only add a total of 5,000 people to circles. On Twitter I follow and am followed by 45,000 people.
A million people might still add Ashton Kutcher to their circles, but Kutcher can not reciprocate. He can only add 5,000 people to his circles. And so the experience stays intimate for both Ashton Kutcher and his fans. His fans also have that 5,000 limitation. And so there is quality to that circling. Those fans can not add 50,000 people to their circles. That adds value to every time you get added to some circle.
Google Plus is not a threat to Facebook just like Facebook Messages, touted by the media as the Gmail killer, has been no threat to Gmail.
Facebook has its advantages. It has mapped the social graph. Google Plus is not even trying to. Plus has a Google Buzz like awkwardness to it in terms of who all end up in your circles. Apparently you don't need people's permission before you add them to some circle. So it is a little diffuse.
Facebook has a sleek design. One of my very favorite parts of Facebook for years has been that font. How did they do that!
The starting point for Google is search, not social. The starting point with the Facebook experience is social. Just like FourSquare will beat Facebook in the check in space, Facebook will keep the lead in the social space.
But I see me using both services. There is a place for Google Plus.
My Google Plus stream seems to be dominated by the two social media stars Robert Scoble and Anthony De Rosa, the Ashton Kutcher of Tumblr. I like both fine, and I personally know Anthony. But my Facebook stream is different, although there too another social media star - Baratunde Thurston, another person I happen to know - shows up quite often. But Facebook is much more likely to throw up people I know.
I think they were at two million users or less when they got their 100 million valuation. Moving from two to eight million jacks up your valuation by four hundred million dollars, looks like. That is really something.
FourSquare is not mainstream yet, although the tech insiders might not believe that to be the case. It is still early days of Twitter for FourSquare. Eight million is not a lot of people, but the trajectory of moving from two to eight million people is what you have to notice. The movement has happened fast.
Solution: Don't use public wi-fi. Especially when you have half a million followers on Twitter. Use only secure wi-fi. Better still, carry your own. Carry one of those phones.
Ashton Kutcher's Twitter account was similarly hacked at TED. TED! Think about that. Some millionaire hacker must have did that.
GroupOn has this very clear offline component to it. It has hired thousands of sales people. And its customer base is your very average person, the Walmart types. They want to save money. They want to save money on haircuts.
That is why you do not hear GroupOn and South By South West in one sentence. I never have. Because GroupOn's early adopters were not the kind of people who end up at South By South West.
Overall I feel good about South By South West. But I also have a word of caution for the crowd. You don't want to end up in some kind of an echo chamber where you are only hearing each other. It is possible to collect too many business cards. What are you going to do with them? Networking is a good thing overall, but too many business cards can also mean a lack of focus.
Like the Kayak.com CEO likes to say, I don't go to events.
Image via WikipediaI am reading this profile of Jack Dorsey in Vanity Fair, and it has started to feel eery. I guess I have not known some details about the guy I should have known. First let me say I am an admirer. But I also threw a gauntlet his way recently: Jack Dorsey Also Has A FinTech StartUp. It was all in good faith.
I'd compare my work into Nepal's democracy movement of 2006 to Jack Dorsey's work on Twitter. The difference is my work was so cutting edge, I have not officially been given credit yet.
But look at some of these lines:
Urban strolls are one of Dorsey’s favorite activities ......
Get out of town. Someone just described ME! Urban strolls are one of my favorite activities. The article also says the guy's dream job would be to become Mayor of New York City. Wow. First time I am hearing this. I knew he endorsed Reshma 2010, but I did not realize he was all that political. Warms my heart.
Image via WikipediaThis day - Monday - is going to be all about Facebook's email service. It has been touted as the Gmail killer. That is a tall wall to climb. If they deliver, that will create a new wave for them.
I think they will present something that is pretty compelling. This is Facebook, after all. But as to how much of a departure from Gmail it will be, that is anyone's guess.
I personally am very glad that a company the size of Facebook is tackling the inbox. The inbox is so raw. And I hope this step by Facebook will make Google sit up a little. It has been lazy with Gmail.
Those are the three measures being pointed out by this research paper. In my case, (2) and (3) are the same. My first name is my Twitter name. When you retweet me, when you reply to me, you mention my name.
Just when I am getting in a mood to increase my interaction levels on the Twitter platform, this research paper came my way. I am surprised they did not list a fourth metric: (4) How many times have you been listed? A subset of that item might be: (5) How many people are following those lists?
David Rose is a legend on the New Yorktechnology scene. I had known his name for a while. Heck, I got to know him name before I educated myself on Fred Wilson's name (@fredwilson). I had even talked to him over Facebook email once.
Last month I showed up half an hour early and quite liked it. I asked my first question at a NY Tech MeetUp. It was something to do with having spoken to two of the key speakers before they went on stage. So this month I showed up early as well. You go take a seat in the second row in the front, to the right of the stage, and you are in good shape. I did not plan it that way, but when I looked up and around I saw an empty seat between me and David Rose. He was putting some effort into his name tag. He had written his name David in double lines and was furiously coloring between the lines.
Then he moved one seat closer after Dawn Barber motioned for him to move over. Finally after a few presentations had been made on stage, and Nate (@innonate) said say hello to the people sitting next to
I was impressed as it was. He asked me what I thought of the presentations so far.
"Half the companies presenting today are my portfolio companies," he said. Then he mentioned Singularity. I was to hear that word from four different people over the course of the evening.
After the presentations were over, and it was time to mingle with the presenters beneath the stage, I spotted James far away and waved wildly at him. (@sciencehouse) He walked over. Guess who I was sitting next to, I said. Ends up James and David had been on the same panel at the Singularity event only a few days back.
James and Gabi run this wonderful meetup that is the only other MeetUp I am a regular at now besides the NY Tech MeetUp. (@gabidewit)
When I shared with James and Gabi over email a few days back that I was now part of the Twitter Top 100 NYC, James suggested I give a talk on social media at one of his MeetUps. I said I would love to.
"Demi Moore and I signed up on Twitter the same day. She has over a million and a half followers. I once tweeted her as to how that happened. I did not hear from her." (@mrskutcher)
Twitter meets my needs in ways Facebook does not. My problem was not that I had long lost friends; there were a few, but. My desire was that I wanted to meet new people. And Twitter is great for that. But then I hit a point when I realized Twitter is a party, but it is also a broadcast medium. I have a TwitterFeed account that feeds three external sources and my three primary blogs automatically to my Twitter stream.
Having 200 followers was no longer working for me. Now I have over 2,000. I want to hit 20,000. I want to hit 200,000. Heck, I want to hit 2,000,000. You do want a small circle that you watch more closely; for that you have TweetDeck. Otherwise your larger following is great a way to make your stream more representative of the people out there.
I am interested in these people who follow me. Once in a while I will go hang out. I will go to the Twitter pages of tens of people that follow me, and I will read and reply to some of their tweets. Some of those will reply back. We exchange a few tweets. A few of those end up friends. They know who I am. I know who they are. I notice them when they show up in my stream. Many of them link to their blog or website or LinkedIn page from their Twitter page, and when you click on them and read on them, you get a pretty good idea of who they are. These are real people. I have come across some very interesting people this way.
Look at how this seems to work. I cast my net wide. I say hello to many people to end up
with a few friends. That early hello part is like a politician shaking hands along the campaign trail. I am not pretending to be family to these people. I am just saying hello. Where is the smirk in that?
To many still, after all the Twitter buzz, the online thing is not real. The social media thing is not real. Real is offline. Online is not real. I am a huge fan of offline, I am a huge fan of in person. But it is not either or. Some of these great people I have met online I would never have met otherwise. Some people you meet online, you get to know pretty well, and then you meet them in person. Is that great or what? And then you realize, not only is this real, this is the only way. There is no other way.
Twitter as a tool to connect with old friends, and make new friends does not clash with Twitter as a broadcast medium. This tool is so simple and so very powerful. Simplicity is power.
Having a ton of followers is my stated goal. Only a few weeks back 2,000 followers sounded like a lot. Now I have it.
So I went ahead and googled up the question. How do you end up with a ton of followers on Twitter?
One way seems to be to be a celebrity, or become one. Many tech celebrities, and media celebrities and Hollywood celebrities are the top followed on Twitter. But you also have to note Ashton Kutcher is not the top grossing actor in Hollywood. His massive following is based partly on his name recognition, but it is also based on the fact that he is an active member of the Twitter community and his followers feel his presence and his love.
I say stay away from those that are asking to sell you stuff that will increase your number of followers. But I admit to using a few tools. One is TopFollowed. It has a nonprofit feel to it. You sign up, others sign up. The service helps you follow each other at a steady clip. I think that is how I went from 600 to 1,600 and up. And they don't litter your stream with ads about themselves. Another tool is FriendOrFollow. There are about 100 people I follow who don't follow me back. And that's cool with me. But other than that, if you don't follow me, and I follow you, I will go ahead and unfollow you, or that checks my growth. After you follow 2,000 people, you can only follow 10% more than how many follow you. So you need some legroom to follow new people. I think I already have about 300 more people who follow me who I don't follow. So that is plenty of legroom right there.
I know how to go from 200 to 2,000, but I don't know how to go from 2,000 to 20,000 yet. Here is my guess. You manually follow new people. You give them a few days. Then you unfollow that 80% that did not follow you back. Having to follow and unfollow people one person at a time is a tedious process. That is where TwitIn comes in. You follow and unfollow people in batches. It does not always work for me. But I just followed about 50 new people and it worked.
Twitter has built in many checks and balances. You can only send out so many tweets any given hour, for example. I have hit that ceiling twice the past two days.
There are some of your followers, you want to read everything they have to say. There are some you want to read selectively. At the other end are followers, you are happy if they click on one of your links once, that's fine too. Think of social concentric circles. Not all followers are in the same circle.
But if you are wary of a shallow followership and shallow online friendships, make the effort. Take time to say hello to new people, read their tweets. Take time to reply to people who reach out to you. Engage in conversations. Click over to their blogs. Read their blog posts. Get to know them. That takes effort and time. But I thought you wanted deeper friendships than mass follow and unfollow. The two don't run counter to each other.
If you are constantly hungry to meet new people, Twitter is one great, big party.
I have a suspicion Google indexes webpages all night while we are asleep. And the word Google rhymes with the word owl. So if Google were to get a bird symbol like Twitter does, I think it would have to get an owl. That is kind of unflattering because it should get something that denotes speed, like eagle, now that is another bird word that rhymes with Google.
Google should not try and become Twitter, it can not become Twitter. But then it is not true Twitter does real time search better. Twitter trending topics is not my idea of real time search. Me personally I have little interest in real time search. I seem to be more interested in the Twitter archives. And there the Twitter search engine is outright dysfunctional. I thought I was bookmarking stuff, and then I do a search on my name and the topic and nothing shows. That has happened to me half a dozen times just these past two days. I have had to go dig into a friend's Facebook wall to search for a tweet that I knew I had posted on his wall weeks ago to go fetch it. That was when I missed Google.
Maybe Google should let Twitter have the Twitter trending topics, and make use of the already available Twitter API, or whatever else you need, to become the choice search engine for the vast Twitter archives. How many different ways can you let me explore the Twitter archives? That's what I am asking.
What would be the 2.0 version of thinking on your feet? Thinking on your feet is having something to say. But it is not like your friends on the other end can tell. Ah, you looked at my status update for 50 seconds before you could press that Like button. That does not count.
The first thing that would count is being in the loop. You might have been my college roomie, but are you on Facebook? Sure we met at that party two months ago, but do you have my Gmail address? If you are not on Twitter, I am not going to hold that against you, but you are no friend on the bleeding edge, are you?
My enthusiasm for the various social networking sites comes from reading about stuff in the news. LinkedIn showed up, and I signed up, although I have never used it the way it is meant to be used. Friendster showed up and I signed up. I got my invite to Gmail from Google itself when Gmail came out. There was at least one smart relative I could not convince to switch to Gmail back then. Hotmail gives me more space than I need, he kept saying. It is more than extra space, it is different, I said. Not listening.
My own enthusiasm for the various social services has had its ups and downs. For example, right now I am kind of lukewarm on Twitter use. I still "get" it, don't get me wrong. But these past few weeks I have been more into blogging. I blog and then I send the blog post links down the Twitter stream. Because my blog posts automatically show up in my Facebook stream, I find myself logging into Facebook after a new blog post. Is it there yet? Is it there yet? I guess it is not real time. The delay can be anywhere between a half hour to several hours.
Recently I have found a whole new use for my blog posts. I put out a blog post. And wait until it shows up in my Facebook stream as a note, and then I tag a whole bunch of people to any particular note. I think 30 are allowed. You show up in all of their Facebook streams. Cheesy. Yes, I have been thinking about you.
I decided to tag all my black/African friends from college days to that note, or at least those that are on Facebook with me. Let's have a little reunion here. Yesterday I created a few different groups.
I like the idea that when one of the tagged individuals will click on the note, they will meet a whole bunch of other people that they know. Happy Reunion!
I was going to say Content Is King, but then figured it might come across as sexist. It is like my Facebook/Twitter intro blurb has the word BossManPerson. I could not just say boss. That would be boring. Then I was inspired by my memory of comedian Negin's use of the word bosslady to describe herself. So I opted for Bossman. That stayed for a few weeks. A few days back I changed that to BossManPerson. I hope it is both informative and interesting.
Product/content alone will not cut it. Marketing efforts are necessary. And there are times when marketing rules and product/content is secondary. But at the end of the day, it is product that is queen.
Great blogging is primarily about putting out great blog content. Do you have something to say? Can you have something to say? Can you say it well? The second question is something to do with the fact that that niche that you might be most passionate about might not be the most lucrative.
And in many cases content creation happened before blogging came along, before Twitter came along. Some of the people with the biggest Twitter followings just so happen to be celebrities, tech and otherwise. You could argue you create better tweets than Ashton Kutcher, but that dude created his content elsewhere, on that big screen, and he established connections with people there. (My Relationship With Ashton Kutcher)
Blogging and Tweeting is no substitute for your work, whatever line you might be in, and for that matter Facebooking. If you are a student, spend more time with your textbooks than with your Facebook page. Spend more time with friends in person than with them on Facebook. Social skills are necessary, for work and for pleasure.
So content creation is not just about creating great blog posts, and great tweets, and having smart aleck things to say on other people's Facebook walls. Content creation is about doing the best you can do in your workspace, it is about living the best life you can live. It is about your emotional investments in your family, relationships, friends. Because if you do all that, you will have something to say. Content does not come out of life vacuum. Live. Work. Love. Rejoice. Enjoy.
Image by jdlasica via FlickrOn Facebook there is symmetry, we have to friend each other. On Twitter there is asymmetry. You could argue there is asymmetry also on Google Plus. So far I have not had to ask for anyone's permission before adding them to a circle. 
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