An apology first: I have been way too busy with school and a new job; with any luck, I’ll post more than once per quarter in the future

So twitter’s down this morning. According to an article on PCMag.com:

The popular microblogging site Twitter went down early Thursday morning, with the site’s operators confirming the outage on a status blog as a denial-of-service attack.

Long before pop culture hooked on to Twitter, I made comments on a number of outlets about microblogging as a potential service offering, much like email. In the year that has passed, there are hundreds of thousands of active users, as well as strong representation in media outlets and other organizations. Great.

However, this morning’s apparent DOS attack highlights a vulnerability with a single-site service: when it fails, activity is suspended. The premise behind the Internet was to distribute communication nodes in order to maintain operational viability (in case the country is nuked, we’d still be able to chat about it. Strange, huh?).

I’ll come back to my example of using microblogging as a new service. Distribute the infrastructure and risk… and perhaps give Twitter a new business model. At some point, guys, the VC capital will run out.

In March of 2008, ad agency modernista went siteless, allowing the Web to speak for the company. A review by Allison Mooney on PSFK.com said it well:

What better way to show clients you “get” Web 2.0 than disappearing into it?

A year later, Skittles takes the same approach. The darling of social media – Twitter – is the focus of the siteless brand. David Armano’s review of the effort is noted here. I’m not interested in replicating any reviews completed thus far (let’s be real, Armano’s review is great). What interests me is the sustainability of the effort. I’ve used reports from two analytic resources: compete.com and twist. Here are the results:

The total time spent on a domain as a percentage of the total time spent online by all U.S. Internet users.

Velocity reports the relative change in daily Attention. Velocity is used to determine the relative growth of a domain over a particular timeframe or compared to other sites.

This report, courtesy of Twist (http://twist.flaptor.com/), indicated the jump in traffic on twitter.

The results: Skittles succeeded in causing a buzz in twitter and Web traffic, but this appears to be short lived. Innovation is a powerful tool, but without sustainability and a change in behavior, the energy (and money) invested does not provide the greatest returns.

Even if the phrase escapes some members of the older generation, there’s no mistaking what IT is: Too Much Information. Wikipedia sums it up quite well:

Too much information, an expression indicating that someone has divulged too much personal information and made the listener uncomfortable.

Without adding too many colorful stories to this post (I’ve overheard too much while out and about, oddly enough, in Chipotle), you never want to be that person that shares way too much. With the rise of social media, users are faced with a glut of information. There are times where this level of noise becomes just too much.

Take a look at the following tweet (the name of the offender has been  blurred out to avoid further humiliation):

Let’s setup a few simple rules for social media:

1. Yes, we live in an age of transparency, but please keep certain things under wraps.
2. Adding a TMI Alert to a public comment is like telling people in line the plot of a movie… in a loud voice. Avoid it.
3. Unless you want something rebroadcast, don’t post it on-line.

Follow those simple rules and you can keep your social media use free of embarrassing problems.

Having blogged for a while, I know it’s important to post regularly. My posts have dropped off as time is split between my MBA coursework and my time at the Touchbase blog. This is an intense period of reading, learning and debate. Sure, sleep is limited, but it is great fun.

Back to business! I had a great realization this week – how I can explain the power of social media to non-Web executives. The following was written during my morning commute.

Brands – before social media and “web 2.0″ were like pine cones. Easy to identify, cohesive and (most importantly) subject to control.

Think of social media like a fire: the pine cones loose their integrity and drop seeds. Each of those seeds carry some of the brands “DNA” to the social Web. This may on a company site, one driven by customers or a hybrid of the two.

The key thing to recognize here is this loss of control isn’t a bad thing. This process of defining ACC’s strategy, including defining the rules of engagement, helps to ensure the those “brand” seeds represent our interests and align to our strategic goals.

I started the Brand Index many months ago as preparation for my value analysis. (Note: This project is on-going, but it seems that valuation of intangibles is a pretty difficult matter to work through. I hope to have an update in the next few months).

Since the inception of the Index, there have been a number of other lists covering government, newsppers and media and even Cape Cod!

I am grappling with a number of questions:

1. Do these lists provide any value? I could see twitter improving profile information to make these lists moot.
2. There are many lists but few attempts to validate identity. Does anyone see this important in why they choose to follow?
3. Will 2009 be the Year of the Business Model for Twitter?

Any thoughts? Please, post up!

We’re all familiar with the Google philosophy “Don’t be evil.”

After checking @therules for some chuckles, I checked to see who else followed this account. One of the users I found was @bigced, who has a great bio:

If you don’t know, you REALLY need to find out….

I needed to find out and clicked on the listed URL, theindustrycosign.com. I discovered two things — bigced has a Hip-hop news and information community and; Google powered ads offer up something I would consider in poor taste. Take a look:

So… does it make any sense to offer ads for criminal record checks on hip-hop sites? As if we needed any excuse to believe your corporate philosophy has become window dressing for a typical half-baked, profit driven enterprise. Maybe it’s time to adjust the algorithm a bit?

Time to break radio silence! OK, just kidding. I started up school recently and have been adjusting to my new schedule. On to the post… how should brands participate when content, hosted in other Web properties, is age restricted? Check out the following thread:

I followed up with Tonia (@toniahammer), “New media, PR and marketing enthusiast” at Molson (Yes, that Molson) regarding this subject. Her comment is noteworthy:

It’s just like marketing on tv, radio, print… impossible to know exactly who’s watching/listening.

@BobTroia’s motivation was examining corporate activities in the context of compliance and regulation. However, how do you regulate conversations? If I was an exec of Pernod-Ricard, should I be wary of making a statement in public? How about on a sidewalk? Like Tonia wrote, it’s impossible to know who’s watching or listening. That being said, do conversations on Twitter – or any other social property for that matter – fall under the pervue of regulatory requirements? Any thoughts?

What is needed to succeed on Twitter? Let’s cut through the posts concerning tools and case studies and distill the essential elements. First off: Let’s get in the right mindset. Twitter – or any microblogging platform – is a channel for your organization. It’s not about technology, it’s about engagement.

I see four measurable elements in microblog use:

1. Frequency of posts — How active is the account?
2. Level of Interaction — Does the account holder interact with followers?
3. Type of Content — What is the general nature of the account? Promotional, news, et al?
4. Personality — The vibe and tone of the tweets… what would grab a stranger and make them follow?

All of these factors influence people to follow the account and form the basis for long term engagement. One factor that is perhaps the most difficult to describe and measure is personality (I’ve referred to this as the p-factor; yes, I like those types of monikers;-) Microblogging limits you to 140 characters, so you need to connect with the community. Take a look at the following tweet from @MarkDykeman:

Came across a field, from one of our legacy systems, named ISCRAP. Who says IT isn’t transparent?

If you read this Tweet, would you be motivated to click on his username and possibly follow the account? Now look at this version that I rewrote for comparison – talk about a wet blanket:

Came across a field, from one of our legacy systems, named ISCRAP. Need to examine ERD for further detail.

Is personality needed? Yes, for most uses. What are the exceptions? Recognized brands, political leaders and media channels to name a few. Does @BarackObama need to inject personality in tweets? With over 107,000 followers, the answer would be a resounding no. For those of us without an established offline image, personality contributes to the value proposition we offer followers. Is it possible to take personality too far? Look around on Twitter… I won’t start any flame wars by listing them here;-)

Top story in today’s Section 2 from OnlineMediaDaily:

Twitter Eyes Charging Firms As Startup Valuations Drop

Yes, the darling application of the microblogging world comes one step closer to a real (e.g. sustainable) business model. Don’t get me wrong, I love Twitter; it’s been the jumping point for a lot of my recent work, including my posts at the Touchbase blog. However, the dependency on VC dollars is something that wouldn’t last, especially in this economy. In particular:

Twitter, the wildly popular microblogging service with no business model, may be forced to charge companies for access to its users, founder Evan Williams told Bloomberg News. Williams, who recently replaced Jack Dorsey as CEO, said he wanted to start weaning the company off venture capital, especially as the economic climate sours.

Adopting a sustainable model may become a priority for other start-up firms:

According to Michael Patrick, a partner at the law firm Fenwick & West, startup valuations have fallen at least 20% in the past year. Bloomberg noted that the fall in valuations comes at a time when many young Silicon Valley firms need to raise more capital just to survive.

The lessons here:

• Sustainability is more than a good idea, it’s a business necessity.
• Twitter established microblogging, but Yammer and Qikcom are perfecting the model for private networks.

I found this sign in the grocery store this evening:

Whoa… lemons are perfect for orange juice?

What are you telling your customers?