Twitter Wants Your Trust
Social media or networking or whatever it is you want to call it continues to grow at exponential rates of speed. With the “announcement” of Facebook getting its own location based service in place the concerns over privacy and safety of information continue to grow as well. Twitter realizes this concern and is working to make Twitter free from malicious users especially in light of recent phishing attacks that have created some concern in the Twitter world.
In a Twitter blog post entitled “Trust and Safety” the company says that it is concerned and is working to make the world safer for tweeters of shapes and sizes.
Today, we’re launching a new service to protect users that strikes a major blow against phishing and other deceitful attacks. By routing all links submitted to Twitter through this new service, we can detect, intercept, and prevent the spread of bad links across all of Twitter. Even if a bad link is already sent out in an email notification and somebody clicks on it, we’ll be able keep that user safe.
Sounds good and this comes on the tail of a recent Biz Stone post that described what had been going on in Twitter due to successful phishing attacks.
The new feature will not be something that most will notice and Twitter is focusing on one main area of the service that is most susceptible currently to this kind of attack.
Since these attacks occur primarily on Direct Messages and email notifications about Direct Messages, this is where we have focused our initial efforts. For the most part, you will not notice this feature because it works behind the scenes but you may notice links shortened to twt.tl in Direct Messages and email notifications.
So Twitter is framing these efforts in trying to earn your trust and improve your safety on a “proactive” basis. I wonder if they are just trying to look like the antithesis of Facebook who throws down tablets off Mt. Facebook and lets the chips fall where they may regarding privacy and other issues. Whatever the reason, it’s the safer way to go in a world where privacy looks to be less available with each passing day.
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Are You Getting Enough out of Twitter & Facebook?
As marketing professionals, we usually have to justify ourselves to our bosses, our clients and everyone in between—especially in the less-tested, sometimes-hit-or-miss arena of social media. But now Ad Age wants accountability, too, as they ask “if you’re getting enough out of all the volunteer work you do for Biz & Ev and Mark,” or, more specifically, “Are we all just toiling mightily to make a bunch of rich nerds (Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and his employees and investors, Twitter’s Biz Stone and Evan Williams and their employees and investors) richer, while we impoverish ourselves?”
That’s both a literal and a figurative question, since using those social networks is exactly what makes their founders and investors money (well, sort of), and, as the argument goes, we’re essentially a volunteer labor force creating content for these sites—an interesting point. Meanwhile, using social networks (at all, as the argument here seems to go) means sacrificing time (true), actual interactions (possibly true but not always)—and our very souls and identities.
They mean this to be a discussion on a personal level, since a central thrust of the argument is that these social networks have sacrificed so much of our privacy that we’re allowing them to steal (don’t we call that “giving” in English?) “the sole ownership of our own thoughts, emotions, personal expressions, etc.” from us (yes, if I post “I’m sad” on a social network, that means that they also own my emotion…. right….).
Of course, if you’re using Twitter and Facebook as a marketer, you’re there looking for business ROI from publicity—being public. Ad Age (you know, “Advertising” Age? About . . . could it be . . . advertising?) does acknowledge that social networks might work for these purposes, if they’re worth the sacrifice:
If you’re a brand marketer, chances are good that you’re extracting real value from investing time and energy in social media (and you’re happy to have consumers volunteering their time to be your “brand ambassadors” or whatever you want to call them); good for you. (And if you’re a consumer who gets off on connecting with big brands — or just wants to interface with customer service in a forum, like Twitter, where certain marketers seem to be hyper-responsive — well, good for you too.) In general, if you’re soft-selling something — like content or an idea — that can benefit from free publicity, Facebook and Twitter are your friends. Even if, well, they’re the two-faced sort who think nothing of riffling through your handbag or backpack when you get up to go the bathroom — you know, glad-handing “friends” (those are air quotes) who are obviously using you for something, only it’s not always entirely clear what.
Um . . . I hate to bring this up, but aren’t we as marketers just using our social networks as those same kind of “friends” (and possibly even the friends and fans we acquire on those social networks)—we’re just using them as the means to an end?
I do agree, of course, that on a personal level, excessive use of social media can rob us of time and valuable interaction with the people we care about most. It’s good to examine our relationship with the Internet and social media on a personal level and decide whether it’s really worth the time and effort we put into it, or if we might put that time to better use. While that’s the brief summary of the argument at the conclusion of the article, the main thrust is that using social networks is such a great sacrifice of ourselves (even without a time investment) that it’s not worth it.
What do you think? Do you demand ROI from personal social network use? Or are you glad that most people don’t 
?
Twitter’s New Year Resolutions: 1 Billion Searches a Day & an IPO?
Reading Biz Stone’s op-ed in the UK’s Sunday Times newspaper almost had me snoozing. Not that Biz is boring–he’s actually quite fascinating–but the article was just a recap of stuff we already knew. Then I saw these closing statements:
..It can be these things but primarily Twitter serves as a real-time information network powered by people around the world discovering what’s happening and sharing the news…In the new year, Twitter will begin supporting a billion search queries a day. We will be delivering several billion tweets per hour to users around the world…
(Emphasis added)
Er, did he just say billion? With a "b"?
Does Google know about this? You don’t need to answer that, I know it knows. But seriously, Twitter’s serving 1 billion search queries a day–and it’s not even a search engine? No wonder Google and Bing rushed to sign partnership deals with the micro-blogging site. No wonder neither of them could find the right price to acquire the company!
According to recent estimates, Google is handling around 300,000 to 500,000 million searches a day–about half of what Biz boasts Twitter is seeing. And, let’s not forget, Google IS a search engine.
I can’t make up my mind the exact reason Biz slipped that into the piece. I’ve narrowed it down to two reasons.
One: Twitter just wanted to fire a warning shot across the bow of traditional search engines. Put them on notice, if you will.
Two: We’ll see a Twitter IPO in the next 12-18 months. Twitter has far more users than Google had when it went public. If it can reveal revenues anywhere close to $100 million a year, then I think investors will be tripping over themselves to buy in.
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Twitter, IPO and Advertising
Biz Stone, Twitter co-founder of Twitter was holding court for reporters in the UK and started to talk about all the things that Twitter followers obsess over including the big one: revenue.
Stone said that an IPO is not OOTQ (out of the question) but it’s also not on the front burner. In fact, he said something that is the truth but comes off a little strange (possibly arrogant?) considering how most of the rest of the planet is struggling. Reuters reports
Twitter, the social internet firm that tracks trends through individuals’ updates of events around them, may eventually go to the stock market for funding if necessary, its co-founder Biz Stone said.
The three-year-old company was already making some revenue and would concentrate on that next year. “2010 is really going to be the revenue year. I don’t know if we’re going to be profitable, but we have plenty of time,” Stone said on Monday.
Wow, the sense of urgency is overwhelming. Stone also stated that there is no interest in selling the company.
So 2010 is the ‘Year of Revenue’ for Twitter. Profits schmofits. How is this revenue going to occur? Advertising apparently. But it won’t be your father’s internet advertising either. Biz tells us so much without actually saying anything.
Stone declined to give detail of how Twitter would introduce advertising next year on its site to its users, but hinted again it would be different from traditional forms of internet advertising, which include display ads and sponsored search.
“Everyone’s going to love it. It’s going to be amazing,” he said when asked about the dangers of its tens of millions of visitors taking exception to the move.
So we have some amazing advertising opportunities to look forward to. Any thoughts on what those might be? Let’s hear it.
Twitter Premium Accounts Coming by Year’s End
Speaking at a Nesta panel this morning in London, Twitter co-founder Biz Stone stated that long-rumored premium corporate accounts for the most popular microblogging service will come by year’s end.
Although business accounts have long been a source of speculation for the site’s monetization plans, it’s not true that all business accounts will be charged for using the service. Instead, the premium accounts will feature additional analytics data and enhanced features.
Back in August, they said they were in the first phases of rolling out these accounts.
Also on the panel, celebritwit Stephen Fry criticized the move. According to Clickz:
He . . . said he didn’t intend to be “anti-commercial,” but that if Twitter becomes “annoying to users” and there was “a sense of being guided by a big corporate brother,” the company risks alienating its user base.
Which, of course, is a good point. Fry also asked about the possibility of display ads (specifically annoying banners), which Stone dismissed: “the plan has always been to create a [revenue] model that would be native to Twitter.”
What do you think? Are you interested in a premium account? Do you think Twitter will ever cave on display ads?
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How Quickly the Rumors Fall
Seems like just yesterday that the Telegraph was reporting that Twitter was considering the introduction of video tweets into its playbook (actually it was just yesterday). Interesting and scary thought all at once (honestly, do you need to actually see some of the folks who pass along their nuggets of 140 character wisdom?). So while it makes for a nice article and creates the some speculation, what was actually given to the folks at Mashable was even more important. High atop Mt. Twitter the story was given ‘the biz’ by The Biz as an official thumbs down was offered to the rumor. Biz speaks, Mashable reports.
We commented a few hours ago on a claim in the Telegraph newspaper that Twitter is considering the addition of video to the service, and expressed skepticism about the report. That skepticism seems well-founded, as Twitter co-founder Biz Stone replied to our inquiries today by email, essentially debunking the article’s premise:
Haven’t read the piece but no video hosting. 140 characters of text including spaces. You know the drill!
Personally, I breathed a sigh of relief on this one. Twitter and the rest of the world hasn’t yet figured out the 140 text piece of it with search, revenue and any other business considerations you can come up with. At this point in time introducing something like a video offering might serve as more of a distraction than a value add.
Now having said that we should let you know that Mashable’s Pete Cashmore (great Internet marketing name btw) did offer his thoughts on the “what ifs?” and “woulda, shoulda, coulda’s” of video and Twitter with the following.
That said, Twitter does lose out when it comes to multimedia: adding in-line thumbnails for images and videos (even if that content is hosted on 3rd party sites) would make for a much richer experience that could match Facebook’s news feed for image and video sharing.
Aw, Pete, you had to bring up that pesky Facebook thing didn’t you 
? There will always be the opportunity for each service to be more like the other and it will keep us all busy in between the time we are logged in to Facebook and Twitter.
So would you like to see video and Twitter as one without the third party assist?
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Oh Goody, Senseless Tweets in More Languages Soon!
The Twitter blog informs us that if you are not already lucky enough to get the good, the bad and the truly ugly of Twitter in the English or Japanese language that help is on the way. Founder Biz Stone gives us some more “Bizdom” on the Twitter blog regarding the status of the social media site and how there are more folks out there who will be able to be ensnared in the web that is Twitter.
Twitter is currently available only in English and Japanese. With some help, we will soon be rolling out support for French, Italian, German, and Spanish. These languages are commonly referred to using the acronym FIGS and are often the starting point for services like Twitter when its time for more language support. Later, we hope to offer Twitter in several other languages. No matter how sophisticated technology gets, we’re reminded daily that it’s about people and that’s something we’ve taken to heart regarding translating Twitter.
This is cool in theory and how it is being done is as unique as Twitter is
Starting today, we are offering a simple tool for people with experience in other languages to suggest translations for the Twitter web site. Then, we’ll follow up technically.
Biz then puts out a request for volunteers to help Twitter make this translation thing a reality. He talks about his small team of 5 people working feverishly to make Twitter accessible to the rest of the civilized world. What is Twitter anyway, some kind of charity cause?
I can see this type of request if this was a shoestring operation that was working on cash flow to make this kind of service a reality but Twitter is neither anymore. It’s hard to feel sorry for the poor Twitter employees who are painted as understaffed but dedicated to making the world a better place through translating Twitter “as soon as we can”. Honestly, the rest of the world is running low on ‘twatience’ with the ‘little company that could 140 characters at a time” shtick.
Biz, with a billion dollar valuation and a bank account that is somewhere in the neighborhood of $100 million richer, the rest of the world is not going to buy the poor little Twitter story any more. If this is really going to happen you need to hire the team to get it done and then roll it out to the waiting world. Part of the price of becoming as big and well funded as Twitter is that the slack offered is considerably less. In fact, it has likely moved from being a very generous amount to now being just enough rope to hang yourself.
Sounds harsh I know but life can be that way. Adios!
Revenue?! We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Revenue!
While it isn’t news that Twitter has no revenue model what is interesting to note is near yawn that the prospect of not having can draw from one of the founding fathers of the Twitterverse.
The New York Times reports that Evan Williams, who doesn’t get the pub that a guy with a cool name like Biz Stone does was speaking to a group of journalists in San Francisco today. You know those folks right? They’re the ones that if they are lucky enough to work for the Washington Post can’t even use Twitter without facing 20 lashes.
The following quote from Williams’ talk Online News Association’s annual conference tells us quite a bit.
Mr. Williams founded several companies before Twitter, including the Blogger service that he eventually sold to Google. One lesson he has taken from them all: “Create something that you want to see in the world,” not what some M.B.A. brandishing a business plan suggests.
It’s always easy to say for someone who already has one successful sale under his belt and probably not a lot of need to worry about his personal finances. The rest of the world, however, does get measured by those pesky little numbers known as profits and losses.
Admittedly, that sounds like sour grapes and I guess to some degree it is. What is real though, is people getting tired of listening to people who have a lot of money invested in them not seem too concerned about making it back in this decade. The economy right now is pretty rough and having to suffer through another “We don’t need to make money because we are Twitter” deal is getting old.
He said the company is instead focusing on building value, such as through the new Twitter lists, which will allow anyone to create a custom list of Twitter accounts that can be shared publicly or privately. For example, you could compile your 10 favorite Twitterers on the topic of chocolate into an All About Chocolate List that anyone could browse.
It’s a potentially powerful tool that could empower a new class of Twitter curators that will guide others to the best content on Twitter, and Mr. Williams encouraged journalists — already in the business of curating and editing content — to jump into the fray.
One thing this does is actually put a more positive light on the folks at Facebook. They are further along in this game than Twitter and they seem to be pretty focused on creating value AND making money as evidenced by aggressive revenue goals and a glimpse at cash flow positive status recently.
But back to the fantasyland that is Twitter. Williams addressed the one area that most are the most interested in, Twitter’s search capabilities, and admitted that they need some work. As a result, they are working on it.
In an interview after his keynote presentation, he acknowledged that the current Twitter search engine is too basic and the company has a “significant search team” working on improving it.
The next goal, he said, is to eliminate the duplicates and other “noise” that come up in most search queries.
Considering the company has somewhere north of 100 employees and a recent round of $100 million invested in it that significant team should be churning out something pretty quickly. Maybe not though. If there is no pressure being felt at the top then why should there be through the ranks?
Your thoughts?
Twitter to Go Commercial with Commercial Accounts
Since Twitter is getting itself back in the industry news with trademark travesties, DDoS attacks and some sideways competitive compliments it makes sense that the conversation turn to the R word: revenue.
No matter how much news Twitter generates the focus always returns to, and rightly so, how they plan to make money with the service. One of the options that are being discussed over at Digital Beat in an interview with none other than Biz Stone is the introduction of commercial level accounts that companies would – hold on to your seat here – pay for.
Co-founder Biz Stone said the company is in the first phase of rolling out commercial accounts that will entice business users to pay for premium services like detailed analytics. After that, the company might move into building business-oriented application programming interfaces, creating a “commercial layer” over the social network.
This is good news for both Twitter and those who really want to use Twitter for business reasons. Right now, you can talk to 10 experts and get 20 different theories or techniques to use Twitter for commercial purposes. Part of the problem is that there are just third party applications that help provide some deeper insight into the Twitterverse.
For those who are comfortable with the service and the space that it plays in there is little trouble with this model. What is happening though is that as more mainstream business folks become aware of Twitter they want to get information from Twitter directly. Why? Let’s face it, most traditional business people barely understand what Twitter is and what its potential help to their business could be. As a result, when these people hear that they may need to rely on even smaller players that may not be making any money either, they get unnerved about putting resources behind something that might just ‘go away’. Whether that view is warranted or not is irrelevant. It exists so it has to be addressed. The more Twitter offers businesses directly the better off they all will be.
Another part of the interview revealed that Twitter had some discussions with FriendFeed before Facebook made the acquisition recently. As a result, Twitter could be looking for targets. Maybe they’ll buy a revenue stream?
“We’re at a point where even though we’re only two years old, acquisitions are definitely possible,” Stone said.
Let’s do some informal market research for the folks at Twitter. What commercial services could they offer that would make you or your company open up a slot in your budget? Is there something that you would add to your Twitter wish list that would help utilize Twitter more effectively for business purposes?
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Twitter Works to Improve Location ID Service
According to a post on the Twitter blog there is some new activity around location capabilities of the service. At this point, the location information offered within the Twitter tool itself and the data that is supplied through an API, is spotty at best. Anytime you leave the data generation duties to the end user you have to expect that there may be some ‘inconsistencies’ and just plain bad data. While this does not happen across the board the risk does exist for a real GIGO (garbage in, garbage out) scenario.
Never fear, though, Biz is here! If you have any angst or concerns about Twitter not moving forward or living up to its hype, co-founder Biz Stone will fill you in on the Twitter blog. When Biz speaks, tweeters listen. Here’s some of what he had to say about new efforts underway to make the location options of Twitter better.
We’re gearing up to launch a new feature which makes Twitter truly location-aware. A new API will allow developers to add latitude and longitude to any tweet. Folks will need to activate this new feature by choice because it will be off by default and the exact location data won’t be stored for an extended period of time. However, if people do opt-in to sharing location on a tweet-by-tweet basis, compelling context will be added to each burst of information.
Stone goes on to give examples of being able to see tweets of those you don’t follow at events (i.e. concerts and other live events). He then goes to the other extreme of an earthquake but I suppose that’s the Bay area centric side of how Biz views the world.
The early versions of this service will not be seen on the Twitter site. Developers are being given the access to the data first so they can continue to build the tools that is helping Twitter spread via mobile apps etc.
I guess it depends on how you feel about being tracked by having your location pinpointed with the Internet’s version of cross-hairs: the crossing of lines of latitude and longitude. Smart move, by the way, to emphasize the opt in nature of this new option. The last thing any business needs these days is the appearance that they are tracking your every move. We’ll leave that to the government and Google.
