I needed to point a domain to a new website I am developing, so I logged in to my GoDaddy account and noticed something very interesting on my domain manager screen.  There was a little blue Twitter button to the right.

Huh? Is GoDaddy an affiliate of Twitter Or is Twitter paying GoDaddy?

I rolled my mouse over the little blue button and a gray box pops up with an advertisement for me to join the conversation on Twitter.  I immediately asked myself, “What is GoDaddy getting out of promoting twitter?”  I thought Twitter was trying to make money and I really didn’t think they needed to spend on advertising.   So what gives?

Then I saw the little blue Twitter button again and again on a few other administration screens in my GoDaddy account, so I paid closer attention to where the twitter buttons were placed and carefully read the small print on the advertisement.

“Holy huge revenue opportunity batman!”

1. Is Twitter going to somehow capitalize on your user name domain name?  Twitter.com/askJayson is important to me.
2. How about adding some Social Media solutions and applications to you Twitter account,  for a small fee of course?
3. Are there Twitter gadgets and widgets in the works?  It would be pretty cool to have more interactivity on my twitter page.
4. Why Not?  Is your Twitter domain going to become your Social Media hub page on the web ?

So what does this all have to do with GoDaddy?  I am not entirely sure, but I do know you can now register your Twitter domain name through GoDaddy.

What are your thoughts about this Godaddy Twitter alliance.  Am I making some huge assumptions?  What do you think its all about?

What is your Twitter domain worth to you?

When I first signed up with Twitter, there were maybe 800,000 users. Today I believe there is approximately 8 million. With the ever increasing popularity of any network building platform, spam is always an issue. It seems that a lot of folks on twitter are obsessed with the number of followers they can attract, as if that was their only goal.

Now having numerous followers is not a bad thing, but they way we go about it may be questionable, especially if a Twitter Bot is your application of choice.

STOP Twitter SPAM

There is a new service to combat follower bots to ensure your followers are real people.  TrueTwit.com has developed an innovative application that sends you a direct message with a validation code that requires you to log in and validate your humaness. Great option for Twitter accounts with a large audience or anyone sick of getting followed by @bigboobedbrenda and her gang.

You may or may not know Joshua Schachter but you definitely know his web 2.o app Delicious that was sold to Yahoo awhile back.  Since Josh has joined the team at Google, he still pursues his creative innovations.  His latest gig is A Tiny Thread.

A Tiny Thread is a (tiny) Twitter application with a simple premise, take tweets and weave them together to form a type of conversation.  You can start a new thread and comment on existing threads, thus creating a continuous conversation based on a specific topic.

The site is sparse without bells and whistles which makes sense considering the purpose of the application.  I think Josh has created a unique way to display threaded comments and can be used for collaborating on ideas.

Example: What if you wanted to know if your followers like black tea or green tea?  Start a thread with the question, black tea or green tea? your question will be posted to your Twitter account as “I started a thread: black or green tea? (link to discussion).  When you comment on a thread, the tiny thread application will send a tweet stating “I joined a thread: black or green tea (link to discussion).

There are still a few bugs crawling, but so far so good.

How do you use A Tiny Thread?

First I think getting one million followers on Twitter is a double edged sword.  Yes it may support the fact that you are very popular and people really want to hear what you have to say.  ON the other hand, how can you really pay attention to a million people, especially if your strategy for twitter is communication WITH and not AT your audience.

Attracting followers is all about you and your content.

Ask yourself; Why do you want people to follow you?  Are you a brand marketing services and products?  Then a large following is beneficial to reach the largest target market possible.  But what if you are like me?  A small independent entrepreneur promoting services to a niche market?  Well then, having a very specific, like minded audience is much more valuable.

One of the most important “must knows” when using Twitter is to have a clearly outlined strategy.  Tweeting is the task, the how. Your strategy is the Why and What For.

Example:

Strategy -
create conversations to solve entrepreneurs issues of web promotion utilizing social media

Tactics -
1) post updates to Twitter Facebook, LinkedIn and chosen forums and groups with links to informative 3rd party content.
2) post videos to YouTube, Vimeo and Viddler with tutorials and entertaining interviews.
3) write blog articles with step by step outline of successful social media marketing programs.
4) link all content to Twitter profile

Keep in mind that all your efforts must be cohesive delivering solution to solve the issue or problem.  Stay on course, be persistent. I continue to coach my clients on specifying one problem to solve.  Establish yourself as an expert within your area of knowledge, then move on to another focus.  Keep things simple.  People love simplicity and instant gratitude.

If you are a web designer that specializes in WordPress custom themes, then stick to delivering content about web design.  Don’t confuse your readership with information about video production or podcast creation.  You will only dilute your representation of being the great WordPress designer.

What is your strategy on Twitter?

Help others know of your successes and failures.  All questions and comments are welcome.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSPYD6adeC4[/youtube]

How to Twitter Tutorial
Video 2, How to Find People on Twitter

In this video you will learn how to find people on twitter.  People within your profession, people that are conversing about and following a specific topic and people that are in your target market.  I will show you a few twitter applications that make searching and finding people very easy, as well as a few seldom considered techniques to build a quality network.

Video 3, I will go over more technical aspects of using twitter and a few other applications that will make your life a lot easier, especially if your using twitter for business related purposes.  We will talk about @replies, RT’s, inserting and  tracking URLs, plus you will learn which updates attract more followers and which updates lose followers.

I do hope this video helps you find interesting people to follow on twitter. Please let me know your comments or questions, I am always here to help you out.

As some of you may know I am on the web everyday all day, either working on client projects, advising entrepreneurs or writing my own content.  I find it very rewarding to be of value helping folks out by answering questions and pointing them in the right direction.

I believe the best way to learn about something is to experience it.  But Sometimes people just want your opinion.  Sometimes its your opinion that inspires them to pursue the experience.

The Question I am asked on a regular basis “What is Twitter?”

Many people ask me about twitter, “What’s the purpose, How do I use it,  Is it for me, Who is it for?”

Then their next question is, “Will you teach me how to Twitter?”

Most of my friends and colleagues want to use twitter to build a network of professionals and expand their customer base.  They want to know the “Strategy”.  I tell them, ” Ya know, most of the time there is no “Strategy“, just be your self “.

My Best Answer to What is Twitter:

Twitter is one of the most powerful and fun communication tools on the earth today.  You can share everything from what you are eating for breakfast to finding simple answers to complicated questions from people that WANT to help with no strings attached.  Twitter is about joining like minds, discovering new friends and collaborating with people just like you.

With 8 million strong and growing nearly exponentially every month, twitter is a safe environment for personal expression.  Participate, listen and learn what ever you want right here right now.  Millions of people’s “tweets” or status updates are delivered to your desktop in real time.  Its the heartbeat of thoughts and activities occurring in the present moment.  If there is important prime time news happening, you will know before any other major news source.

Twitter is appropriate for any person, any age, any where.  Its about connecting with others, joining a conversation and building a network of like minds who share your interests.

Imagine what it would mean to you if 1 million other people really wanted to know “What you are doing” thinking or saying, right now! The possibilities are endless.

Twitter is a place where everyone can be heard and everyone can listen.

So tell me, What is twitter for you? Maybe you are just trying to figure it out or have some definitive insights you would like to share, either way, I’d like to know what you think.  Also, if you are so inclined,  follow me and I will follow you.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQF5Y2qqPxw[/youtube]

How To Twitter Tutorial
Video 1 : Setup Account

I originally created this video for some colleagues and clients on how to create and setup their twitter account.  Since I received such great feedback about it, I decided to make it the first tutorial in the series, How to Twitter.

In this video you will learn:

• How to create a new twitter account
• How to setup account settings
• Critical information you need to include in your profile

NOTE:

I highly recommend completing your twitter profile BEFORE you follow people.  An incomplete profile is the number one reason why people will not follow you back.  You may have just missed the connection of a lifetime because you didn’t upload a picture, fill in your bio or give them a link to your website.

In the next video I will go over how to use twitter, the basic mechanics of replying,  direct messaging, re-tweeting and including links in your status updates and tracking those links.

The tutorial series will not only teach you the basics of twitter, but will also cover important topics, like finding the right people to follow and how to get thousands of people to follow you, how to drive traffic to your blog and how to promote your business products or services without selling.

There are several benefits of using twitter, and in order to maximize your efforts you need to know your purpose.  Whether its for personal or professional reasons or a combination of both, your goals will determine your twitter methodology.

A Few Questions to Think About:

1. Why do you want to be on twitter?  For personal reasons, professional or both?
2. Are you willing to collaborate, answer questions, teach, share your research and expertise?
3. How much time can you dedicate to twitter? daily, weekly or …
4. Who do you want to follow you? clients, customers, leads, aligned professionals…

I hope you enjoyed the video.  Please leave an comments or questions you may have about twitter.  Also be sure to follow me at http://twitter.com/askjayson in order to receive my updates about new twitter information and videos.

Readers of TechCrunch are complaining that the company writes too much about twitter.

The TechCrunch article entitled ‘Lance Armstrong: Natural Born Twitterer caught my eye.  Not that I am an Armstrong groupie by any means, but I am an avid cyclist with a great amount of respect for any Tour de France competitor especially for a guy that has won the world’s most infamous cycling race, 7 times, but also because I’m an avid technologist and twitter junkie.

This article is clearly about Lance and how he uses technology to build his corporate brand, in this case twitter.  The article is written well with a decent Q & A format.  I enjoyed the content and liked the way Lance answered the questions.  I totally related to Lance’s reply “I’ve been around too long to BS people”

I finished reading the article and moved onto reading the comments.  I love blog post comments. I find people ‘s opinions and thoughts very interesting.  Sometimes I walk away with more satisfaction from reading the comments than the article itself.

I was a bit surprised with what others had to say.

Here are some excerpts from the articles comments:

…enough of twitter, for god’s sake…

…I double that! But more importantly, who gives a shit about this useless article?? Are you gonna write an article about everyone famous on Twitter?…

….It’s my belief that there’s a massive PR campaign to hype up twitter, so it can be acquired by one of the big players ie Google…

…You have always posted about Twitter. But now this is getting insane!! We love Twitter too, but give us a break!!…

…TechCrunch needs to really move away from Twitter related posts and get back to the normal way they update this blog…

…twitter, twitter , twitter …. it seems you get BIG MONEY , i was reading you for more than a year , go write for your boss … i will not read it…

Not every comment had a “get over twitter” tone.  There are quite a few praising the article and the choice from TechCrunch to deliver information about the latest and hottest tech trends.  One reader wrote:

Getting the real story behind the use of twitter is good journalism. A personal brand like Armstrong, how he uses twitter, personal philosophies, and why he does it – very well written.

The conversation brought up a few things to ponder:

What is proper commenting etiquette?

Should of these concerns been addressed with TC directly, submitted to the company and not the ‘Guest Author’?

Will TechCrunch respond with another article written about Twitter?  That would be sort of ironic in this situation.

It will be interesting to see if TechCrunch loses a few readers because they write too much about twitter, but what blog following social media tech trends isn’t writing about twitter? I agree with some the  comments, hearing about twitter 24/7 does become a bit annoying after awhile and there are other companies doing some really cool stuff in the social media realm.  Check out intensedebate.com or lijit.com for example.

I have come away with a few lessons, or should I say ‘reminders’ from this.

1. Listen to your readers, after all you are writing for them.
2. Write about Hot topics but be aware of your frequency.
3. If something catches fire, you quickly need to make a decision, let it burn OR put it out.

I guess we will see what TechCrunch decides to do.

Will Twitter Become the Internet’s Number one News site?

I recently ran a few statistical reports on quantcast.com comparing Twitter to some of the major news reporting websites, including news.google.com, msnbc.com and foxnews.com, a few choices from the top 15 most popular as documented by ebizmba.com.

I find it very interesting that in such a short period of time, Twitter has surpassed msnbc and is quickly gaining ranks over google and even fox.

So what does this tell you about the power of delivering real time news?

Better yet what does this say about where we are willing to get our news?

Do you consider twitter to be a credible news source?  Will all trusted news be delivered in real time from the general public versus corporate media?

Let us know your thoughts.

Ironic as it may seem (you will see why)

I was sending an update on twitter and I came across an interesting tweet.   hmmm, whats this, a new social network app that combines elements of twitter and linkedin with a job list twist?

Staying on top of the new trends and the latest apps in the social media networking world, I had to check it out.

Blellow is pretty cool.  The interface is much like twitter, but I love the threaded updates and groups.

Its easy to see how Blellow could become a major player in social networking, Considering all the rage for real time news and microblogging, but still in private beta, so no telling where it may end up.  Its got the goods and adding such an important element as job listings will most likely give it an edge, especially in today’s economy.

Its worth checking it out!  Here’s their video intro.

PS: I am at http://beta.blellow.com/askjayson/

Love to hear what you have to say.

Twitter knockoff or Good innovation?  Leave your comments and let others know what you think.

- Jayson