» Twitter

Okay, so my title is a bit misleading. I don’t condone in anyway the stalking of people on Facebook. However, I’ve been guilty of it on an occasion or two. I think everyone has searched Facebook for an ex that dumped tehm years ago. You want to see if she’s as pretty now as she was your junior year in college. (Although you secretly hope she’s not.)

Twitter's Geolocation feature

The point is Facebook stalking is going on whether we like it or not. It appears that it’s going to get a lot easier on Facebook and Twitter as they both roll out new geolocation features. Twitter’s went live briefly yesterday and is expected to be announced at the SXSW conference on Friday.

Facebook updated their privacy policy last year to cover themselves when the location feature went into effect:

Location Information. When you share your location with others or add a location to something you post, we treat that like any other content you post (for example, it is subject to your privacy settings). If we offer a service that supports this type of location sharing we will present you with an opt-in choice of whether you want to participate.

Some of you may not want your location broadcast across Facebook. You might be somewhere you don’t want people to know about, like a farmer’s market or comic book convention. Be on the lookout for this feature because you know the minute it goes active Facebook will start broadcasting your location. They say it’s opt-in but I’m skeptical. Facebook has a long history of thinking you should opt-out of features rather than opt-in.

Most of you have probably read or at least seen that Google is now including Twitter feeds in search results. Today Bloomberg.com has reported that Twitter has apparently made a few bucks off it. $25 million to be exact.

The money comes from search deals with both Google and Microsoft. Of the $25 million, only about $5 million will be profit because Twitter’s operating costs are estimated to be $20 million annually.

Good for Twitter. The site’s meteoric rise over the past 18 months has left many wondering how it could generate revenue.This seems to be an okay step.

The biggest winners for the deal will likely be the search engines themselves. Considering Twitter’s daily traffic and Twitter’s ability to disseminate real-time information, it seemed only a matter of time before Bing and Google got their hands on what could arguably be the most current searchable data on the web.

Google search can return thousands of sites telling me about Washington, DC but Twitter search will tell me what is happening in DC at the exact moment I’m searching. This is also a smart move considering stats for traffic to search.twitter.com has had amazing growth over the past year as compared to Google Blog search.

So for Google and Bing, who are in the search business, they need to have the latest information because that is what people want.

How do you feel about the new Twitter feed feature in Google search? Is it beneficial or something you could do without?

Everyone is a movie fan. Some people like pretentious arthouse films. Other likes explosions. While some still love a good romantic comedy. And sure most of us don’t listen to the critics; we do however listen to our friends and families.

In the world of Twitter, a 140 character movie review is often enough to help movie lovers decide whether to rush out to the local cineplex or wait until the DVD release.

Twitter was given large credit for the word of mouth success of films like District 9 and Paranormal Activity. It was also given partial credit for the demise of Bruno.

Avatar is the must see film of the holidays and it is dominating Twitter and YouTube. The $300 million film has been out less than two days but it has conquered the web. Advertising age has reported that fans have posted over 42,200 fan videos on YouTube. Just search “avatar movie” and you’ll see the cache of videos. Twitter had more than 30,000 Avatar tweets on Wednesday, a day before it’s release.

The Avatar explosion isn’t a surprise. The film has been on a marketing blitz for months. Part of that blitz is provided by the fans themselves through sites like Twitter. Of the 30,000 tweets on Wednesday, I guarantee several thousand were countdowns until showtime.

Our very own Adam Boalt posted his ticket purchase and excitement for the film, although he has yet to say whether he liked it or not. These countdowns and pre-release word of mouth gave a good little push for the film as well.

Boalt Tweet

Hopefully these 140 character movie reviews with ensure quality from Hollywood from now on. Probably not though.

How much has Twitter influenced your decision on buying a product or going to a movie?

I wrote a post several months ago about a talk Chris Brogan had given at Chapman University. In the speech Brogan spoke about how social media allows companies to be human. Social media can be your voice in the global conversation.

On that note, Twitter has announced a new feature called ‘Contributors.’ It’s currently in beta testing with a limited number of accounts.

Contributors is designed to attach a byline to business tweets. Basically they plan to put a human touch on business tweets. Twitter describes it as engaging in a more authentic conversations with businesses.

Essentially all posts from businesses will include the name of the poster at the end of the tweet, so that customers know who is tweeting them.

The new feature is likely part of a much broader goal of monetizing Twitter. There is a difference between Twitter accounts for the Average Joe and Twitter accounts for businesses. Each will need different features. Contributors is likely the first feature test likely to be added to a much larger set of features that Twitter will charge businesses to provide.

It’s the holiday season. A time when everyone gets to be a kid. A time when most kids look to the big guy in the North Pole to answer their holiday wishes. I remember sitting down and writing my letter to Santa. I gave it to my parents expecting jolly Saint Nick would read it in front of his fireplace but times have changed.

Santa on Facebook

Of course writing a letter to Santa is an important part of every child’s life but nowadays most kids are on Facebook. So what is Santa doing to stay up to date with kids today?

A quick search on Facebook brings up none other than Santa Claus and his 950,751 fans. (Which to me seems a little low for a man that delivers gifts to billions of children a year.)

Santa’s wall in plastered with messages from children from all nationalities. From Spanish, to Russian, to English, to French. It’s all there. A truly global village. Children of all ages have embraced social media to ask Santa for Wiis or to confess their never-faltering belief in him.

Once you’ve posted your wish list on Santa’s Facebook wall, jump over to the NORAD Tracks Santa. North American Aerospace Defense Command has provided Santa tracking information for more than fifty years. Just this year NORAD has expanded their Santa tracking abilities. NORAD is now on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, TroopTube.mil and OnStar.

NORAD tracks Santa on Twitter

Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr once said, “the more things change, the more they stay the same.” It holds so true today. So what if kids are posting there wishes on Facebook. Sure they might not be handwriting a letter but it’s nice to know they still believe wishes will come true.

Best Buy & Twitter

As Twitter grows everyday, more and more businesses are starting to understand the customer service implications of such an active and open community where everything is discussed and very little is off limits.

As a business you will find that your brand just might be part of that conversation. If it’s not, it should be.

Comcast, Dell, Best Buy and several other large corporations have stepped up and made sure that they are active in the conversation about their brand by creating active customer service response teams on Twitter.

Dell has attributed millions of dollars in sales to their Twitter efforts.

So how can you have a successful customer service on Twitter?

• Listen to Your Customers: There are several ways to monitor Twitter: TweetScan, Twitter Search and TweetBeep are just a few. Use them to find out what is being said about your brand.
• Respond: If the talk is bad, then reply and ask what you can do to help. If the response is good, say thank you. Businesses often respond only when they want to correct a problem but a personal reply to a happy customer goes much further.
• Be Active: Just because you’re customer service doesn’t mean you can’t lead the conversation. Pose questions to your followers or to the community. Being on Twitter gives you the opportunity to correct problems as they arise but you can also stop them before they happen by finding out how your product or service is performing. You can conduct impromptu research to get into the minds of your customers.
• Bulk Up All Customer Support: It’s important to never forget that everyone isn’t on Twitter. So while you’re building your Twitter support, don’t forget that the traditional customer service still needs some work also.

If you’re still unsure then check out Best Buy and ComcastCares on Twitter. See how they’re doing it.

What has been your customer service experience on Twitter? Good or bad, we’d love to know.