MP3, MPG, Horsepower … yes, that is the message that Chevrolet wants to be in your mind when you think about the Chevy Cobalt SS. I was watching the Kansas City Royals game and an advertisement that was essentially a web browser was the entire feature of the ad. In big clear letters the search in the search bar (which didn’t look like Chrome, IE or Firefox) was, “MP3, MPG, Horsepower.”

Chevrolet Cobalt Turbocharged Coupe in Victory Red - MP3, MPG, Horsepower

Being a geek, a SEO guy (search engine optimization) I was tempted enough to pull my laptop over and type in the search keyphrase. Sure enough, “MP3, MPG, Horsepower” pulls up Chevy’s page featuring the Cobalt at #1 which you can find here.

But what has my wheels turning is the safety of allowing your brand to lie in the hands of an organic search on Google. I can assure you that I will most likely now rank for this keyword. If I were Ford Motor Company I could post a webpage with the Mustang which gets 31 MPG. If I were a disgruntled Chevrolet customer who had his car completely fall apart after the warranty was up I could post a blog post and tell everyone about it. I could piggy back on the marketing budget of Chevrolet to spread a negative message about them. Lucky enough for them, I’m not.

I doubt you will see this as a long term trend in marketing. It is just too dangerous and uncontrollable. However, I think it’s creative, cool and fun. Way to go Chevrolet. By the way… would you guys like to provide me a free Chevy Cobalt SS that is Turbocharged? I’d be more than happy to provide videos and how much fun I was having with it right here. <wink wink>

Peace, Love and Chicken Grease,
- webaddict

Incoming search terms for the article:

• how to get hp tq & mpg free
• What are the greatest problems of social media for individuals and society?

Do you really care about the World Cup?

Well, do you? I mean don’t get me wrong, Soccer is fantastic and I’m sure there are TONS of people that love it. But historically I don’t remember so much discussion, chatter and news media in your face coverage about soccer or the World Cup. My analysis below is going to prove to you something is seriously abnormal about the US news coverage of the World Cup.

I did do some research and have to admit, I’m a bit shocked to see the search term “soccer” is about as popular as “baseball”, <GASP>, what has come over you America? Must still be ticked off about the baseball strike, right? Still a Google search for “America’s Past Time” and guess what you get…Uh huh, Baseball!

So really nothing looks out of the ordinary looking at the previous graph from Google Insights. However, when you dig in to the World Cup Google Trends data you will notice two things that seem to pop out at you. One, already the term “World Cup” is trending higher in searches more than it ever has except in 2006 when the Germany World Cup was REALLY interesting for some reason or another.

The big one here though is the absolutely MASSIVE media coverage being given to the World Cup. Yes, yes, I know my Photoshop skills are worse than a 1st grader but I did my best, okay? See my pretty yellow arrow? That arrow is pointing to the secondary Google Trend that shows News / Media outlets pushing out drivel on the World Cup.

Now don’t worry, we aren’t done here yet. Let’s look at another media microscope tool to see the news volume, where it is, where it’s going and what is really going on here. Now we’re going to look at the News / Media outlets actual publication in Google’s News database that include the word “World Cup” from 1930 – 2010. This one is a little more telling as it does show a progressive climb of the media distribution. Instead of the World Cup Google Trends data above which shot up in a crazy way this year, this shows an even stair step build into the progressive trend.

A friend of mine on Twitter had this insightful theory as to why everyone is talking about the World Cup which I have to admit, I agree with.

Okay, I promise this is the last geeky trend graph we are digging into, thanks for sticking with me. What you are looking at below is the two search trends of “World Cup” and “Oil Spill.” Notice that they both spike at the same time. Coincidence? Maybe! This one possibly shows some type of correlation with the media wanting to talk about something else than the oil spill. I know, correlation not causation but you can comment about it and rip me apart, fair enough?

So there you have it. The truth is, I’m still clueless why everyone seems to care about the World Cup this year and the media is talking about it so much that it doesn’t even compare to the Superbowl or World Series. Something is up and it just may be that they need a new cash cow. Talk about the World Cup enough and maybe the ratings will increase?

On a typical day on Twitter I can usually ask a question and get anywhere from 10 – 30 responses. Tonight? The crickets were chirping. But I did have some great buddies and smart people respond. Here are the responses to my original tweet which will be posted first!

Please leave me a comment here and tell me if your fascination with the World Cup has increased and why you think the media is pushing it so hard!

UPDATE: I wanted to add a quick note to let you know that all data and graphs above were obtained under United States data and analysis. Other country data was excluded except on the comparing Google Trend analysis of World Cup & Oil Spill!

Incoming search terms for the article:

• why is the world cup so popular
• world cup media coverage
• world cup 2010 popularity USA
• real time media world cup
• soccer in the us medias
• soccer trends usa
• why is the world cup so popular?
• world cup search terms popularity

What is most tragic about the Gulf of Mexico oil spill is that it could have been taken care of and addressed much sooner. When the tragedy first hit, BP Oil made some deceiving statements to locals. Cade Thomas, a fishing guide in Venice, worried that his livelihood will be destroyed. He said he did not know whether to blame the Coast Guard, the federal government or oil company BP PLC.

“They lied to us. They came out and said it was leaking 1,000 barrels when I think they knew it was more. And they weren’t proactive,” he said. “As soon as it blew up, they should have started wrapping it with booms.”

Government officials said the blown-out well 40 miles offshore is spewing five times as much oil into the water as originally estimated — about 5,000 barrels, or 200,000 gallons, a day. At that rate, the spill could eclipse the worst oil spill in U.S. history — the 11 million gallons that leaked from the grounded tanker Exxon Valdez in Alaska’s Prince William Sound in 1989 — in the three months it could take to drill a relief well and plug the gushing well 5,000 feet underwater on the sea floor.

It’s time to see BP take their revenues and pay for the lives & wildlife they have ruined. If you have wondered how much money they bring in and if they have the resources to take care of this problem look at these numbers: BP is one of the most powerful corporations operating in the United States. Its 2009 revenues of $327 billion are enough to rank BP as the third-largest corporation in the country. It spends aggressively to influence US policy and regulatory oversight.

Get on Twitter and tell @BP_America to take their billions and hold nothing back to fix this problem.

Please help by tweeting this tweet out on Twitter:
Let @BP_America know the #OilSpill is important to you http://bit.ly/BPoilspill

Peace, Love and Chicken Grease,
- webaddict

VIDEO: Obama says oil spill damage potentially ‘unprecedented’
The Oil Spill From Hell – Why Your Shrimp Will Be Ever More Expensive
Helpful interactive map: Tracking the oil spill day by day
Oil spill threatens Gulf region’s ecosystem and fishing, tourism and shipping industries
VIDEO: Dead Sea Turtles Washing Up Along Gulf Coast
Gulf oil spill: 23 dead sea turtles wash ashore in Mississippi
Louisiana oil slick puts wildlife at risk ‘for 30yrs’
World’s Most Endangered Sea Turtle Threatened by BP Oil Slick
Gulf Coast oil spill may take months to contain, officials say
BP reels as spill advances, fallout widens
Gulf oil spill could impact non-coastal songbirds
10 Things You Can Do to Help the Gulf Coast Clean the Oil Spill
Oil Spill Volunteers NEEDED Click For Info
BP Says Crews Make Progress Stemming Oil Leaks
Attention shoppers: Gulf spill could affect you
Infographic: The Size of the Oil Spill
Is Gulf oil rig disaster far worse than we’re being told?

Once again, Twitter proved it’s ability to break and spread news faster than actual news networks themselves. However, this time it all seemed to work in concert. Twitter became the megaphone for the cascading sources to put out confirmed reports of Michael Jackson’s death from Cardiac arrest. Even though Twitter was going over capacity, just proving it is becoming the source of news, it stayed up and running to keep the real-time engine pumping out updated information. Many people were denying the first report that came from TMZ.com. The second report seemed to put a somber reality to the situation when the LA Times reported that Michael Jackson was confirmed dead from LA City and Law Enforcement officials. We will update this story throughout the day as new information, news and classic videos and interviews are released.

More confirmed sources of Michael Jackson’s Death (30 – 40 minutes after the 1st two):

Michael Jackson, 50, legendary ‘King of Pop’ dead in Los Angeles

Singer Michael Jackson dead at 50 (MSNBC)

Michael Jackson dies at 50 (USA Today)

Pop Legend Michael Jackson Dead at 50 (Fox News)

Great collection of stars and legends paying tribute to Michael Jackson through quotes on TV, Interviews and Twitter: The UK Independent

“I am absolutely devastated at this tragic and unexpected news,” said Quincy Jones, a longtime friend of Jackson’s and producer of his “Thriller” album. “For Michael to be taken away from us so suddenly at such a young age, I just don’t have the words. …… I’ve lost my little brother today, and part of my soul has gone with him.” – Quincy Jones

No matter what your personal feelings on Michael Jackson were as a person or about his run-ins with trouble, you cannot deny he was one of the best performers in the world. He redefined dance performance in combination with #1 hits time after time. The moonwalk is a classic. However, Michael Jackson defined and invented a long list of dance moves and made them mainstream. Michael Jackson took dancing to a magician mystery type level that will be emulated for eternity.

Beyond just the magician-like dancing Michael brought to the world, the inner music coming from his beatbox type of body and percussion producing rhythms also took the one-man band to a new level.

This page is in constant update mode. Please comment and let us know the best videos, interviews and stories you like about Michael Jackson and his career and we’ll add them.

Interviews

Young Michael Jackson Interview in 1972: Video Here

Videos

Michael Jackson – Thriller – MJJ Productions Inc: Video Here (watch in High Quality)

Incoming search terms for the article:

• Michael jackson great pics

We have all seen it happen, whether it’s on Twitter, Facebook or MySpace. A celebrity hops onto one of the sites or has someone representing them get on the site and they do what? Well, often times they don’t do much besides broadcast promo’s about their next show, movie, or where they’re going to be at… you get the drill. An interesting post written by Brett Borders titled, “Dear Web ‘Celebrity’ Who Never Follows Anyone Back” takes the issue to the level of calling these celebs snobs.

I don’t think I’ll go as far as calling these celebrities or their managers snobs, they are just misinformed. Maybe they think it makes them seem more famous to not follow anyone. Maybe they are afraid of having an out of control twitterstream? It is very similar to putting on those celebrity shades and withdrawing from the world. If celebrities are worried about their twitterstream (which I’m sure they’re not) they could use a tool like TweetDeck or Seesmic Desktop to solve that problem. What celebrities are telling you when they don’t follow you is that they don’t care what you have to say. Who wants to be a fan of that? Send in your fan letter you worked so hard on and it goes straight to the trashcan?

Oprah Winfrey Follower Numbers / Ashton Kutcher Follower Numbers:

The trend is changing

Now the good news is there are some celebrities that are starting to get it. You should take screen shots of celebrities accounts that don’t follow anyone because soon you will most likely notice a large portion of them following people back. Why? They may not even do it to listen to you, but instead for pure competition and marketing. Let’s take a look at a managed celebrity account that is starting to follow thousands of people and another account that has shown a similar trend. Below you will find @BritneySpears and @JimmyEatWorld following stats from Twitterholic.com.

With the competition brutal due to Twitter going mainstream, celebrities are starting to clamor for more follows to be ranked higher in the overall Twitter follower rankings. When looking at the column data it is from left to right: Date, Followers, Following.

You can see the incremental amounts that were increased from a mere 1,000 people that the Britney Spears account was following to three days later an additional 9,000. The action of following an additional 9,000 people resulted in a follower jump of 23,837. However, the biggest monumental jump was when an additional 58,000 people were followed which increased the people following the Britney Spears account by 581,000 additional followers.

Another example is with the Jimmy Eat World account. You can see the direct relation from the point that when they started following thousands of people their account is directly effected in people following them. Obviously following 0 people the @JimmyEatWorld account wasn’t doing too well! Two months later after following 70k they have gained 106,000 additional followers. Do you see a trend?

As celebrities, corporations, TV shows and brands observe this trend most of them will fall in line and end up following back. If they don’t, they’ll be passed by other celebrities and identities that are willing to follow people back and allow a two way conversation.

Why will celebrities follow people for more followers?

I’m quite certain you can answer this yourself. However, I do know some people that don’t seem to get it. From a marketing perspective, if you were Britney Spears and you were releasing a new album would you like to tell 100,000 people about it every day or 1,000,000? If you are Ashton, it’s movies, if you are Oprah it’s your show, book club, magazine. You get the point, right?

Now obviously this method doesn’t just apply to celebrities. It applies to all Twitter users really. Let’s be honest about that, right? Corporations, Pizza Companies, Hosting Companies, you name it. If there’s a message to be given, this new trend will creep into every corner of Twitter. Essentially they will follow the leader.

One problem remains: Engagement

So one problem has been solved. From the article mentioned above by Brett Borders which has been retweeted nearly 900 times, you can see that the Twitter majority feels celebs should follow back. Problem solved, the trend is moving in that direction and should tend do so in the future. There is still a problem however. Most of these celebrity accounts still don’t get it. They don’t engage, they don’t talk to their fans, they don’t ask them questions, they don’t take polls, they don’t have contests or even acknowledge the existence of a fan. So one problem remains, while they may follow people, they still don’t communicate with them. I think there is a way to change this trend as well.

The solution?

The everyday folks on Twitter should support celebrities, brands, companies and organizations that have open communication with their followers. If people that use Twitter in a favorable way get more attention, responses, retweets and press than the people that shun their fans, eventually the tide will turn.

I have noticed a particular celebrity account on Twitter due to my friend Susan Elaine (@BuzzEdition) bringing it to my attention, that has shocked me more than once. The account is for the band Collective Soul and can be found at @collective_soul. What I find so simply amazing about these guys is that they actually respond to fans. They retweet fans tweets. They read blogs by users on Twitter. They make exclusive videos just for their Twitter fans. I could go on, but let me put it this way. These guys are extremely successful and have went Multi-Platinum 7 times in the U.S., 18 times in Canada with 7 #1 hits and guess what? They still treat every one of their fans as a person. Amazing huh?

Before they were even jumping in the Twitter pool, this band was participating in Social Media. They have a phone line where fans can call in and leave a message. They randomly call back fans and talk to them. Even more interesting and voyeuristic (just like Twitter) you can listen to the fans messages yourself. I have taken a quick recording of a few fans messages. Crazy huh? Social Media with a telephone.

After talking with @BuzzEdition and @Collective_Soul I got the news that they are launching a blog contest that’s giving away crazy prizes! It just proved to me that these guys truly do get Social Media. Allowing the fans, followers and bloggers to be apart of the party is a great interactive way to be real. I’m thinking that to prove to celebrities and big brands on Twitter that have decided to “broadcast” instead of interact they should be given a wake-up call. By participating in this blog contest a knod can be given to the celebrities that are doing things right in Social Media. Here are the details of the blog contest:

Collective Soul Blog Contest

These guys are giving out some awesome prizes for participation!

1st Prize: 2 Tickets to any show, 2 backstage passes, AUTOGRAPHED GUITAR and a copy of new album

2nd Prize: 2 Tickets, Autographed Guitar Pick and a Copy of the new Album

3rd Prize: Copy of New Album, Autographed Picture, Autographed Drumsticks & Guitar Pick

The first 10 entrants into the contest will receive an Autographed Picture in the mail!

How to Enter

Write a blog post talking about Collective Soul that includes the following things:

1. Include a link to the Collective Soul Twitter Account
http://www.twitter.com/collective_soul

2. Include a link to the Collective Soul Website / Blog
http://www.collectivesoul.com/blog/
or
http://www.collectivesoul.com/news/

3. Mention new tour starting in 2009
http://www.collectivesoul.com/live/

Once you’ve written your blog post leave a link to your blog post in the comment section below. This will add some traffic and a backlink to your blog. Also TWEET a message to @Collective_Soul on Twitter announcing your new blog post like:

I just entered the @Collective_Soul Blog Contest here: YOURURL

Collective Soul has agreed to Retweet your blog post to all of their fans! (Your 15 minutes of fame!)

How Collective Soul Chooses The Winners

The band will pick the top 10 entries out of the all the submissions. It’s recommended that you be creative and let people know how you feel about Collective Soul, their social media interaction, how their music has effected your life or any other creative way you want to present the band. The only requirements that you need to include in your blog post are listed above.

Once Collective Soul has chosen the top 10 entries the final Top 3 winners will be chosen by you! An online poll will be held on Twitter to allow you to vote for the final winner. The top 3 contestants will win the prizes in the order of their votes!

Terms and Conditions

The contest will end on June 15th at 11:59pm Pacific Standard Time. The Collective Soul band will then choose the winners and the online poll will start within a week.

Blog posts must be for public viewing and not private! (ie. MySpace Blogs can’t be seen by anyone but your friends)

Anyone suspected of rigging the votes in the poll will be removed and disqualified from the contest.

If you have any questions just send @Collective_Soul
a message on Twitter!

In Conclusion

I hope that gives you an idea of the coming trends of celebrities and gives you one way you can fight back. You can accelerate the trend by supporting the celebrities that will actually interact and engage on Twitter. In the end, if most celebrities adopt the trend, Twitter will be a better place to hang your hat.

Peace, Love and Chicken Grease,
- webaddict

If you like this article, Tweet this message to your Twitter stream.

RT @webaddict A celebrity that gets social media? I know shocking… http://bit.ly/twittercelebrity #sm #socialmedia

Incoming search terms for the article:

• what are the greatest problems of social media
• what are the greatest problems of social media for individuals
• what are the greatest problems of social media for individuals and society
• 3 What are the greatest problems of social media for individuals and society?
• greatest problems of social media
• social media celebrities
• the greatest problems of social media
• What are the greatest problems of social media for individuals and society?
• what are the greatest problem of social media
• What are the greatest problems of social media?
• celebrities address
• social media celebrity
• greatest problems of social media for individuals and society
• Will turpin guitar pick
• what are the greatest problems in social media for individuals
• what are the greatest problems for social media
• media and celebrities
• www greatest problem social media
• What are the greatest benefits of social media for individuals and society?
• what are some of the greatest problems of social media
• turning a celebrity into a social media brand
• why follow celebrities on social media
• who is qualified to address social problems?
• whats the greatest problems with social media
• What does the media do to get celebrities
• what are the greatest problems with social media networks
• what are the greatest problems with social media for individuals and society
• what are the greatest problems with social media
• what are the greatest problems of the social media
• what is the greatest problem with social media
• whatare the greatest problems of social media
• What are the greatest problems of social media for individuals?
• what is the greatest problem of social media
• social media marketing celebrity
• celebrity social online world
• celebrity social media increase
• celebrity net worth Yoko Ono
• celebrity in social media
• celebrities social problem
• Celebrities address social problems
• celeb contests
• blogs on sean arenas
• address social problems celebrities
• 3 What are the greatest problems of social media for individuals and society
• collective soul net worth
• collective souls net worth
• greatest problems in social media
• social media greatest problems
• 3 What are the greatest problems of social media ?
• social media and celebrity
• Shocking celebrity doing some
• problems with the media on celebrities
• problems of social media for individuals
• problems of social media
• HOW DOES SOCIAL MEDIA AFFECT SOCIETY
• how do you let the media know about a celebrity
• greatest problems of social media for individuals
• 3 What are the greatest problems of social media for individuals

If you’ve read my blog ever before, you will know that I am sometimes abrasive, direct and blunt. I’m sort of the exposé of the exposé. I’ll call out big companies, big names, famous people or anyone that thinks they are too important. That’s the great thing about blogging, you don’t need to censor because it’s your blog, your home. On one of my previous blog posts titled, “You’re NOT a social media expert, you idiot” I made this statement: “It seems Twitter has fostered an extreme steroid fed bacterial growth of social media experts, social media gurus and super follower magnates.” I’m returning to that sentiment in that I also believe that Twitter has fostered an extreme steroid fed bacterial growth of PLEASE RETWEETS! With that said, let’s get on to the point here…

I said the above paragraph due to some of the responses I received immediately after I sent out a tweet that simply said:

I’m so tired of seeing “Please RT”, “Please Retweet”, “PLZ RT.” PPL we understand U want UR crap RTed. Quit cramming it down our throats.

Well, so how do you think it went? LOL. Yes, I agree it was a little abrasive. I typically am a little abrasive, it’s one of my personality flaws that I have decided to embrace. But the reality is, in this world today, if your statements and opinions don’t stand out from all the lemmings you won’t be listened to and your point will not be delivered in a postage stamped letter.

Some people took my tweet personal and replied as if I sent it to only them. Others requested I take a break from the computer because I’m grumpy. I am not trying to attack anyone and yes, maybe I was a little grumpy, hehe, thanks for the suggestion Grandma. So here are the emotional replies or hey now replies.

LadySascha @webaddict woah. sorry about that. I didn’t realize I was offending =(

waltercolor @webaddict Mmmm.. We’ll not RT it, thus it would have been helpful that you express it in a more pedagogic way. Where is Twitter-etiquette ?

GrandmaGriner @webaddict Hey there!Good afternoon,UR a bit grumpy&may need 2 step away from computer 4 a moment! Just a grandma thought!SmileUgoFurther!

Okay, in order, let me address them. Dear Lady, I was not tweeting this directly at you and you weren’t offending me, just annoying me if you were repeatedly using, “Please retweet.” Don’t take me personal unless I send you a personal @ message and say something nice or rude. *hugs* to you Lady, didn’t mean for you to take it so personal. To you Walter, just “not” RTing the tweet does not solve the issue. I have seen this method spread from a set of core users to thousands of clueless Twitter users. Like I said before, while you don’t like my methods, if I would have been nicer and “cutesy” no one would have listened, thus useless. You ask where is Twitter-etiquette? Welcome to it, it’s here on my blog and I’m educating the masses what is highly annoying. To Grandma, you are probably right in some ways, thanks for the nice reminder.

These five tweeple got exactly the message I was getting at and described it well in their tweets:

kirstenwright @webaddict I couldn’t agree more. If you want it to get RT’ed, just have quality content!

kenGe @webaddict true, and if it is worthy it will be done. take out the RT saves on chars

iamkhayyam @webaddict I know, right? Every link out there begs for requoting. Ok, here’s one for you… Please create a beautiful day
iamkhayyam @webaddict My thing is this, are you asking or telling me to RT? Either way, IMO it’s treads a fine line of desperation and insecurity…
iamkhayyam @webaddict …do you not have faith in your content? If it’s good or pertinent, then it will get pushed forward regardless of begging

Lizz_A @webaddict I couldn’t have said it better myself.
Lizz_A @webaddict Furthermore, I find posters who constantly end tweets with ‘RT PLZ’ don’t have much interesting to say. Def nothing I want to RT.

BuzzEdition @webaddict I agree the “Please RT” syndrome is out of control, people should RT what they like & what their followers will find value in
BuzzEdition @webaddict And furthermore, if your tweet doesn’t get RTed, it should be a sign that U R not providing the value your followers R looking 4

The first message I got that seemed to sing to me like a Mozart masterpiece was from Kirsten. She really hit the nail on the head with simplicity and much nicer than me. You don’t have to get people to “Please Retweet” because if the content is interesting, good, moving or fantastic people will retweet it. If people don’t retweet it is time for you to reevaluate why your tweeting out junk no one wants to retweet and they only do if you beg for it.

Ken put out a great point that removing all this “Please Retweet” business saves on those precious 140 characters. This is very true and the reality is, when people retweet the “Please RT” tweets they often include all the begging garbage so the character wasting becomes viral.

Liz and Khayyam seem to pretty much share the same viewpoint. Khayyam speaks a lot of truth and has that edgy feel that I often portray in my words. Khayyam makes the point that it almost shows a bit of desperation and insecurity in a tweeter to use, “Please retweet.” After that, the message that Kirsten made was reaffirmed, “If it’s good or pertinent, then it will get pushed forward regardless of begging.” Bravo!

Susan, under the name BuzzEdition classified the “Please RT” game as a syndrome. Pretty funny because that is pretty much what it has turned into. Susan also pinned down the point that if your stuff isn’t getting retweeted there is a breakdown in communication between you and your followers. It’s very true, if your not getting retweets, replies, DMs and comments then you need to start thinking about how to better connect with your followers.

Now I got a couple tweets that came in saying that essentially they liked getting “Please Retweets” for one reason or another, let’s look at those:

SweetLeafApril @webaddict i think it’s a heck of a lot nicer to say “pls Rt” rather than just RT. (my 2 cents)

juliendorra @webaddict Some people tweet good things, and, from time to time, ask to push on a specific issue. I don’t have a problem with that.

Oh sweet April, I see your point, it is nicer for someone to say “PLZ RT” than just saying “RT.” However, in my experience I often don’t see people say just RT because it really resembles the RT used in an actual RT. With that said, I don’t think it’s nice at all. Please is an overused term in most instances. You see when someone is saying “PLZ RT” they aren’t really being polite, it’s just disguising self promotion and kutzpa for people that get all warm and fuzzy with these fake niceties. I just don’t understand how three more letters or an extra word makes a car salesman pitch seem any nicer. Frankly, I don’t buy it. Julie, you’re right, lots of people tweet good things… but here’s the deal, there’s something I’ve noticed. Most people that use “Please Retweet” use it chronically most of the time. I obviously wouldn’t have made such a strong statement if I only saw this method used once a week or so.

I received a message from the twerson making an interesting point that we should bring up. Make sure you comment and let me know what you think about this one!

chrisboutet @webaddict Hear, hear! http://twitter.com/chrisboutet/statuses/1664170144
chrisboutet Does adding “PLZ RT” actually result in more retweets than, say, writing interesting stuff? Think it comes off kinda desperate & sad. PLZ RT

I will shed some insight on this one. I have spoken to some people that are chronic, “Please Retweeters” before and some of them have told me that they do get more RTs than if they leave it off. I’m not so sure how much scientific testing was actually done but I will lend that to the, “Please Retweet” crowd. It would be cool to do a brief study on what got more tweets, a tweet with or without the dreaded promotion. The truth is though, each tweet is invariably different than another tweet, the time of day and the actual day. So for the testing to be as solid as possible a tweet would have to done on a Tuesday at 5:00pm PST and then done the following Tuesday at 5:00pm PST for the data to be comparable.

The rest of the messages I got were mostly in agreement or retweeting what I or some people replying to me actually said. Since I told everyone I’d include them if they @ replied me, I’m keeping my word. Here is everyone else that directly replied to me as of the time of writing this (in the order they were received):

littlebead @webaddict Agreed!!!

trishaj RT @webaddict: I’m so tired of seeing “Please RT”, “Please Retweet”, “PLZ RT.” PPL we understand U wnt UR crap RTed. Quit cramming it dn …

CriticalTodd @webaddict Thank you for that!

suikagirl1 @webaddict amen!

peteravalos @webaddict doesn’t it depend on the tweet? Please RT

trishaj @webaddict So funny and so true I had to RETWEET, lol!!!  ;)

calinazaret RT: @webaddict: I’m so tired of seeing “Please Retweet”, “PLZ RT.” PPL we understand U want UR crap RTed. Quit cramming it down our throats.
calinazaret @webaddict I agree. RT’d! lol

johnnyflower @webaddict hey dude, i, ah, i have this little favour, to ask? hehe…

louiebaur @webaddict Ok so you want me to retweet your comment about retweeting???

johnmcc @webaddict Totally agree. Or the worst of all, ending it just with ‘RT’!

assault @webaddict It’s interesting to me that very rarely does actual “content” get RT,  instead lists or roundups of other peoples content does.

Bubbalou RT: @webaddict: RT @kirstenwright: I couldn’t agree more. If you want it to get RT’ed, just have quality content!

RandyInman RT @webaddict:  I couldn’t agree more. If you want it to get RT’ed, just have quality content! [exactly! that is EXACTLY it.]

jdschultz RT @webaddict …tired of…”Please RT”, “Please Retweet”, “PLZ RT.”…we understand U want UR crap RTed. Quit cramming it down our throats.

achimbrueck Please, please RT RT @webaddict: I’m so tired of seeing “Please RT”, “Please Retweet”, “PLZ RT.” PPL we understand U want UR crap RTed.

derekbaird @webaddict re: RT’s spot on!

johnjambrose RT @webaddict: I’m so tired of seeing “Please RT”, “PLZ RT.” PPL we understand U want UR crap RTed. Quit cramming it down our throats. Irony

BuzzEdition @webaddict Well at least I’m getting my blog now *hugs*

tommytrc RT @BuzzEdition: @webaddict Well at least I’m getting my blog now *hugs*

ecopolitologist RT @BuzzEdition: @webaddict I agree the “Please RT” syndrome is out of control, people should RT what they like…

faithgoddess7 RT @BuzzEdition: @webaddict People should RT what they like & what their followers will find value in ***I Agree***

Paul_Holgorsen RT @faithgoddess7: RT @BuzzEdition: @webaddict People should RT what they like & what their followers will find value in ***I Agree***

creativejo RT @BuzzEdition: @webaddict I agree “Plse RT” syndrome is out of control, ppl shld RT what they like & what their followers find value in

HindsiteHealth @BuzzEdition @webaddict if someone says Please RT, I pretty much don’t. I’m ornery that way. (amber alerts etc, yes. quotes, no)

Well, I hope that inspires some of the chronic “Please Retweeters” to tone it down a little bit. It’s not that there is anything wrong with using “Please RT” every once in awhile, it’s just becoming an old worn out tire, like FollowFriday. If anything, it just seems crazy to say, “Please Retweet” because why wouldn’t you want us to retweet you? Of course you want that. Let’s just make an agreement, we will always KNOW that you want to be RTed and you don’t even have to tell us to! Just remember that if you say something stupid, slutty or horrifying to let us know, “PLZ DON’T RT.” Most things are pretty cool in moderation and silly promotional pushes and begging is ok if it’s a rare breed too.

By the way, now that you’ve reached the end of the post, can you PLEASE RETWEET this?

Peace, Love and Chicken Grease,
- webaddict

Incoming search terms for the article:

• Please RT
• plz rt
• RT plz
• please retweet
• rt please
• celebs that retweet
• twitter please rt
• plz please
• que significa cramming
• RT me twitter
• plz R/T
• RT or r on twitter
• plz rt retweet
• rt please rt
• What is plz RT?
• what does RTing mean? on twitter
• what does rted me on twitter?
• what does RT stand for blogs
• twitter rt please
• twitter how to say please retweet
• thank you for liking my post but can you retweet it please
• rt please?
• who unfollower me
• Plz - Please
• best way to send auto retweets
• celebrities that will retweet
• dont retweet compliments
• how do i make my retweet just rt
• how do i stop the retweets
• how do u rt someone who isnt following you
• how to ask for retweet
• how to celebs retweet
• how to take not see peoples rt\s
• I dont beg celeb to follow me
• if you retweet someone that isnt following you what happens
• is it okay to say please RT in tweets
• o que é Please RT?
• o que significa I wanna ask you something but it might sound a little weird lol
• o que significa Please RT?
• plase rt
• please rt me
• ask for a RT on twitter

We know you’re probably very upset. Please leave your condolences in the comments section for this well loved star. Rest in peace Kermit. Dang you, Miss Piggy!

Incoming search terms for the article:

• first celebrity swine flu
• celibrity swine flu fatality
• first celebrity dies of swine flu kermit
• first celebrity swine flu death
• kermit
• kermit the frog flu
• miss piggy and kermit the frog swine flu
• miss piggy kermit

I was going about my daily routine of going through my various social media websites and was voting and commenting on Mixx.com. I saw an article in the upcoming section of Mixx that was on the verge of going popular, so I contributed my vote and sent it to the frontpage. Inside of this submission I was shocked to find some names I really respect supporting and agreeing with the content of a blog post written by Dave Winer.

If you don’t know who Dave Winer is, you should. For a detailed explanation of who he is you can check out this Wikipedia entry or just hop on over to his blog homepage to get his bio. Two big accolades of Mr. Winer’s are pioneering the development of weblogs and syndication (RSS). With that said, you can also jump on over and read Mr. Winer’s blog post on why he feels the, “Retweet is stupid.”

Quoting Mr. Winer from the meat of his post he says:

A retweet is the same as voting up something on Digg or Reddit. It’s a piece of metadata about the tweet, and should be stored and displayed with the tweet. When you retweet something, none of the 140 characters should be used in saying that it’s a retweet and who it came from.

Now it’s very possible that Mr. Winer was not devaluing the power of the resyndication of information but was just saying that retweet information is wasting space in the confined 140 characters provided in Twitter. That is pretty much what the above quote says. However, there are some problems with what is said above and the comments this post spawned revealed that many people embraced the idea and feels that the retweet is pointless, spam and is inferior to social votes from sites like Mixx.com, Digg.com, StumbleUpon.com and many more.

From this Mixx comment thread there were these two comments that started my feeling for the need of a retort:

FROM MIXX ID: justiuli
Retweeting is pointless. It’s completely ridiculous. You only have to fill up 140 characters, and you don’t have the creativity to even come up with that. So, you fire up TweetDeck and hit the retweet button all day long. Uncreative and utterly pointless for anyone who’s not a pointless social media retard.

If I see a Twitter profile and it’s got nothing but retweets, I hit the magic “block” button. These people are pointless leeches, and usually have nothing of any interest to say: it’s all “OMG social media is so transgressive! I love Web 2.0 so much!” etc. Pointless crap.

FROM MIXX ID: cmcgill (Mixx Founder)
hate the retweet- but I suppose it is a way to “pass it on”

Now before I start to discuss my objections let me state that I have the utmost respect and admiration for Chris McGill, the founder of Mixx. He created a social news site that I have loved from day one and always look to for innovation in that niche of the social web. In regards to Dave Winer, who can’t admire him? He’s like a co-father of the Internet’s Web 2.0. Okay, credit given so here’s my take!

My comment on Mixx was this:

I’m disappointed in the views of my fellow Mixxers in their feeling that the “Retweet” is stupid. What it tells me is that most don’t understand it’s implication or point. While it certainly is the same as a Mixx Upvote, a Digg or a Stumble it’s so much more. The reason I think most of you think it’s stupid or pointless is because you are categorizing and compartmentalizing it in the same category as the voting system.

While a retweet is a vote, it’s also the syndication of information within seconds. If someone has a lot of followers on Twitter, they are respected to have a keen eye for good content, breaking information or a tight niche categorical focus on content. Instead of simply just voting, that content is then displayed to hundreds or thousands of eyes, minds and feeds within seconds.

So if you want my true opinion, I think a vote is more pointless or stupid than a retweet. It’s effect is much less substantial. It’s power limited. It’s butterfly effect small. Wake up and smell the revolution.

With all of that said, I absolutely love Mixx, which is why you see me here, voting away and commenting.

Mixx on buddies!

P.S. This comment thread and Mixx submission just may spawn a blog post from me. I think people need to be educated as to the real point of a retweet and what it really means instead of the explanation of “Firing up Tweetdeck and mindlessly spamming links along.” Keep your eyes open for my post and vote accordingly.

Update: I had pretty much finished this blog post and noticed a response from Chris McGill on Mixx where he makes an excellent point. I will put his quote below and see if I can address it.

Is a retweet just a vote like a Digg, Upvote or a Stumble?

Part of the answer is a definite yes. A retweet is simply a vote for an idea, piece of content, picture or blog post. These votes are aggregated by a growing number of sites like Tweetmeme.com, Popurls.com and Twitturls.com. So the representation of top content rising in a voting system is built out by these 3rd party websites and replicates most of the features of sites like Digg and Mixx.

With that said, besides just the voting system each retweet lends more power, syndication and traffic than a simple vote on a social news site. When you vote on a site like Digg and Mixx you have the potential to lend more traffic and exposure to that site if your vote helps it rise to top pages or the frontpage. If your vote doesn’t have that effect it was simply a nod of agreement and that’s about it. With Twitter, a retweet instantly offers hundreds if not thousands of people the chance to see the content as soon as it is retweeted. The power is multiplied by much more and then you have the chance of a retweet of a retweet which then build the viral syndication model even larger.

Is a retweet just mindless spamming of links?

This idea really gets me. I don’t see any relation to spam or mindless activity or laziness with this. Essentially when you retweet you are placing your authority, brand and credibility behind someones tweet, blog post, image or idea. The credibility factor is HUGE. There are many times when I will take a double-take and a closer look at an article because of WHO retweeted it. So the idea that it’s a waste to see “who” retweeted is way off too.

Niche / Trust / Categorization

Beyond just the idea of credibility, trust and authority there is the focus of niche content. There are many Twitter users that stay extremely true to the type of content they retweet. A good example of this is @mayhemstudios as about 80% of his tweeting and retweeting is focused on web design and graphic design. This compartmentalization of information is powerful in many ways and is slowly replacing or competing with RSS feeds. I have already heard from at least a hundred people that they have quit using RSS feeds and just use Twitter to aggregate their niche information they’re looking for by scanning their groups in Tweetdeck or their 3rd party client of choice.

Waste of 140 characters?

Where I will say that I do agree is that possibly the RT @username and the sometimes long list of this information can take away from the sparse amount of characters we already have to use in Twitter. It could be effective to have this information of who retweeted in a different way so that the 140 characters can be utilized for extra information such as a short opinion and hashtags.

Chris McGill’s reply to my comment on Mixx – he makes a great point!

@webaddict First of all- this is a great response and I completely appreciate where you are coming from. The downside for me is that it just fills my twitter stream with the same thing over and over again. A vote on the other hand just simply readjusts what I should be lookin at.

Clearly I am biased… and I am not a twitter power user. I’ll look for your blog post and seriously appreciate the perspective.

Twitter Stream same thing over and over?

In Mr. McGill’s reply comment he really does touch on a great point. There IS a problem with retweets when on Twitter. If something is hot or for some reason everyone decides to retweet it a lot one can find their Twitter Stream littered with the same tweet over and over as it’s retweeted by other users. The only solution I see to this is using a 3rd party client like Seesmic Desktop or TweetDeck. With these 3rd party apps you can setup Groups and filter in specific users you are monitoring. In my own groups I try to not add people that simply retweet people every time they tweet. I do find that if I see an article retweeted multiple times and I haven’t read it yet that I might be missing something and I better take a peak. With that said, the voting mechanism of social news sites certainly does solve this problem. Thanks for the reply Chris.

I hope this helps some who don’t see the value of the retweet as to why some people find it simply amazing. While I can vote for things, like them or comment on them in other social media spaces, I cannot present it to thousands of people and help drive traffic to amazing ideas and information like I can with retweeting on Twitter.

Please let me know what you agree and disagree with on this post. What do you like and dislike about retweets? Do you think they’re worthless too? Do you find yourself reading things because a certain person retweeted them?

Peace, Love and Chicken Grease,
- webaddict

Incoming search terms for the article:

• pointless social media
• blocking retweets
• is retweeting stupid
• political implication ReTweet twitter 2010
• political implication RT twitter
• reTweet it shut down?
• twitter block retweets
• what is retweet to me
• what\s the point of a retweet

It’s been hours since I caught wind of the release of the Seesmic Desktop client built on Adobe Air and I have just decided that today, I will fire TweetDeck. Yes indeed, I did watch Celebrity Apprentice on Sunday, thanks Mr. Trump! Now before I go on, let me cover some disclaimers. First of all, how can anyone truly fire a company that puts blood, sweet and tears into building an amazing application that improves on a service with a reported 14 million users for free? You can’t, I’m just being dramatic.

TweetDeck has made Twitter possible for me so that I could take Twitter to the next level. I could not handle so much data steaming at me 100 miles an hour, without a powerful application to sift and organize that data in a useful way. TweetDeck innovated when no one else was there to do it and made using Twitter on a power user level possible. Kudos to the TweetDeck Development Team for this amazing accomplishment and being the first ones to make Professional Tweeting, (if there is a such a thing) possible. With that said, here comes the next part of this blog post that readers of this blog have probably come to expect…

I fired TweetDeck today because I have been begging for 1- 1/2 months, for one single feature to be added or fixed on TweetDeck. For anyone that follows over 5,000 people on Twitter, TweetDeck has been useless in terms of adding people to the group categories. This is due to the fact that TweetDeck was loading every single user that you follow and would hang and then crash when this action was performed.

Do you want to know the truth though? Of course you do! TweetDeck will come back within a week offering an update of their client allowing a search function to add people to Groups. Once that addition is made, I still won’t start using TweetDeck again. Why? Well let’s look at this thing a little bit closer and examine the key ingredient of any successful company, customer satisfaction.

On March 16th 2009, TweetDeck announced at SXSW they were releasing a major new improvement, a Beta that would offer an amazing new feature to TweetDeck. If you follow a lot of people on Twitter you were probably holding your breath like me as you clicked the link. Is it true, have they finally reduced the system resources load and fixed the group problems? Guess again, instead of improving on the current build of TweetDeck and improving user experience, TweetDeck was battling head to head with Seesmic to add Facebook integration to TweetDeck. While I certainly give props to TweetDeck for competing with their competition, I learned what matter most to the TweetDeck Development Team and it wasn’t me.

Of course it’s smart to meet major SXSW buzz with a one-two punch. But honestly? I look at it like this. If we’re talking cars, which I certainly don’t know a dang thing about, it would sound like this:

Ford steals the automobile market by producing an electric car that goes 500 miles on a charge. Customers are thrilled with the new efficiency in their driving experience except about 20% of drivers, which are having troubles with the battery cables catching on fire when they hit 70 MPH. During the Detroit Auto Show, Toyota announces the release of a car called the Petunia that is not only electric, but it emits carbon killing substances in the atmosphere every time you brake. Ford has been studying this technology and rushes to release it before the end of the Detroit Auto Show.

What exactly does that hair-brained example mean? Ford may have added the technology of carbon killing substances to it’s break-through electric car, but when people go 70 MPH the damn battery cables STILL catch fire. Need I say more? If every company operated on the adage that they add appendages and features before their core product was working effectively, they would fail.

I suspect since Twitter 3rd party clients are not actually based on an actual profit model yet, it may not be a priority to fix all issues or deal with customer satisfaction. Instead, right now it’s about expanding market penetration, generating as much buzz as possible and getting as many sets of 10 fingers to use your client as possible. Facebook is no doubt a gorilla that needs conquering. However, TweetDeck had conquered the chimpanzee of social media, Twitter. I believe they missed the boat by not making sure it was functional to the most influential users on Twitter.

One thing I’d like to explain real quick is that I do have a degree in programming and while I don’t actively use my degree coding, I still understand the architecture of programs and how changes can be made. My degree is just a Bachelor of Science, not a Master’s but I will say this: All TweetDeck needed to do to fix their issue was change their group function to a search / add function as Seesmic Desktop did and the TweetDeck Group Issue would have been fixed. It wouldn’t have taken months but days to complete the change, test and release.

Seesmic Desktop Steals The Show

Seesmic has taken their ability to make things from Twhirl which were all fuzzy, fun and pretty and bring them to a high end client that is ready to be a workhorse for Twitter. In all honesty, Seesmic has copied all of the bells and whistles from TweetDeck and made them available while changing the name from Twhirl to Seesmic Desktop. Now obviously you KNOW what I was looking for in this flashy new version of Seemic’s Twitter Client. I was looking for the ability to properly add groups even if I follow 1,000,000 people on Twitter.

Good news! It works but alas, I was not quick enough to figure it all out on my own. I asked a buddy of mine named Mark Frost if he had any clue how to add people to Groups in Seesmic Desktop. My issue was when I created a group and clicked on the word “users” it didn’t do anything. Stupid me, as quoted from Mark, you have to do this:

Click on your name under accounts, then the 4th tab, search for them, click the gear, and add to list

I know, I should have figured this out on my own but I wanted to know quick. If you want a picture of exactly how to do it to make it even simpler, click here. It’s simple, quick and best of all, it works. Now I can add hundreds of friends to my Twitter Desktop Client with no issues.

I have only used the Seesmic Desktop Client for a couple hours and I do miss the feel and look of TweetDeck. A person I follow closely on Twitter, Fantomsurfer said, “Seesmic Desktop seems to be faster than TweetDeck but too much screen space is wasted.” I have to admit, I agree with this. Seesmic Desktop does seem more frilly, bubbly and less efficient with utilizing space. TweetDeck is built off of a framework that is square, clean and maximizes space. Then again, it’s only been hours and maybe I’ll get used to it, right?

One more thing that I think is pretty interesting was mentioned by another buddy of mine on Twitter. Mark Murnahan had a great point that it seems like Seesmic Desktop is using less than half of the system resources than TweetDeck. Mark tweeted this:

Seesmic Desktop is using below HALF of the system resource of TweetDeck! WOW

While I certainly agree with Mark after testing, I am guessing that once I add all of my groups, people to the groups and specific searches, that Seesmic Desktop may start to run similar in the system resources level as TweetDeck. If not though, that’s just one more reason to use Seesmic Desktop over TweetDeck.

With all of that said, go try it out. Are you going to fire TweetDeck?

Peace, Love and Chicken Grease,
- webaddict

If you like this article, Tweet this message to your Twitter stream.

RT @webaddict I hired Seesmic Desktop today. TweetDeck? You’re Fired! http://cli.gs/yourefired #seesmic #tweetdeck

Incoming search terms for the article:

• seesmic vs tweetdeck
• seesmic vs tweetdeck 2010
• tweetdeck unfollow
• tweetdeck takes a long time to load
• tweetdeck hang
• tweetdeck facebook add pages
• tweetdeck wont load
• tweetdeck facebook pages
• tweetdeck hangs
• tweetdeck is not working on my desktop
• tweetdeck problems another application twitter and facebook
• tweetdeck problem
• tweetdeck isnt working
• tweetdeck problems
• tweetdeck mark as read
• tweetdeck not loading facebook
• tweetdeck unfollow updates still show
• tweetdeck uses data and battery
• when does tweetdeck mark posts read
• unfollows tweetdeck
• twitter system resources
• tweetdecks hangs
• tweetdeck won\t load
• tweetdeck won\t let me unfollow
• tweetdeck wont load facebook
• tweetdeck wont let me add facebook page
• tweetdeck wont add facebook pages
• tweetdeck will not post buzz
• tweetdeck will not open on this architecture mac
• Tweetdeck vs Seesmic Desktop 2010
• tweetdeck vs seesmic 2010 desktop
• tweetdeck vs seesmic 2010
• wont load tweetdeck
• tweetdeck groups not working
• my tweetdeck won\t show my columns
• load facebook page into tweetdeck
• how to automatically add people to tweetdeck
• how do i add another twitter account on seesmic
• facebook tweetdeck problems
• facebook problems with tweetdeck
• facebook problems today
• facebook not loading in tweetdeck
• does seesmic let you categorize people you follow on twitter?
• cli gs tweetdeck
• can i tweetdeck add facebook page column
• can i post to my facebook group through tweetdeck
• people mentioned on twitter don´t show in tweetdeck
• problem tweetdeck twitter
• tweetdeck facebook problems
• tweetdeck facebook page group
• tweetdeck facebook page column
• tweetdeck facebook page
• tweetdeck facebook friend list group
• tweetdeck desktop add column
• Seesmic vs
• seesmic post on my facebook page
• seesmic groups
• seesmic facebook page problem
• seesmic desktop groups
• seesmic desktop download vista x64
• add unfollow column to tweetdeck

Are you tired of hearing it yet? I sure am. It seems Twitter has fostered an extreme steroid fed bacterial growth of social media experts, social media gurus and super follower magnates. Unfortunately there isn’t much of an antibiotic floating around to separate the experts from the idiots. If you weren’t aware already, most of these experts are just idiots that have found a stool to stand on and shout their garbled rehashed crap they read from TwiTips.com and rewrote it on their own “pretty” blog.

I believe there are five different types of what is perceived to be social media experts. Please note: I’m excluding the idiots above because they’re not experts and they don’t need to be discussed, just ignored.

Type One: Authoritative Expert

This first type of expert has the lucky ability of transferring their authoritative status in their field over into the social media world. Basically, they are a high profile executive, someone famous, someone with a TV show, radio show, have written books and had them published or they were found dancing to some stupid song on YouTube. This is an authoritative expert because they are an expert and master in something else. People flock to them in social media because they are comfortable with the brand, the person or know of their accomplishments. Examples: @joelcomm, @guykawasaki, @jimmyfallon, @aplusk (Ashton Kutcher) or the Numa Numa Guy (he really could have done something with this mainstream popularity)

If you’re into search engine optimization or Internet Marketing you can liken this type to what is called PageRank. PageRank is essetinally a ranking number based on how many links a website has, making it an authority on the subject. Once again, these sites can just crap out content and have it rank well because the rest of their site already has a power authority that can not be obtained overnight.

Type Two: The Power User Expert

This second type of expert has successfully climbed the social mountain of one social media institution and can generally transfer this power over to other social networks. Once one mountain is conquered it’s invariably easier to conquer the next. You will often find these power users have established a network of die hards, fans or people that just think they are the next best thing since sliced bread. Sometimes the fascination relates to a sort of fame but just a more “geeky” type of fame. Most of the time these power users follow an extensive list of RSS feeds or favorite publications (sometimes ones they’re getting a payment from) and faithfully submit stuff that catches their eye or fills their wallet. Now hold up, don’t get all pissy with me, I’m not saying all these guys are paid, that is certainly not the case, some of the top ones aren’t paid a dime and I’m certain of it.

Now this second bit of explanation is going to hurt a little more, so bear with me. A lot of these types of experts claim they know something others do not, they have voodoo sauce or they are just that good. I say that’s just horse shit. What these users have done is played the numbers game. Remember that they conquered a mountain before many? They were early adopters and were able to amass insurmountable numbers that are hard to fathom outside of the Internet. With this following they also are adept at using cutting edge content finding tools, errr RSS readers and aggregators / insider contacts, and definitely do have a feel for content their minions will clamor over.

A large percent of these users don’t create much content, they just scour top headlines and feed the masses with what is already popular or what looks like it will be popular, good content eye-ballers.

Examples: @zaibatsu, @mrbabyman/Digg:MrBabyMan, @msaleem/Digg:msaleem (Muhammad does create his own content too), BadWithComputer, @LouieBaur/Digg:LouieBaur, @stejules

The last sentence above is the most important to me in defining the third type of social media expert.

Type Three: Content Creation Social Media Experts

The third type of social media expert is a studier of people, a voyeurist of social interactions, a trend follower and someone who knows how to work with stats, analytic programs and finding the correct timing and mechanisms to create and launch content tailored to the social world’s desires. This group of users are not famous and they are generally not power users but they still find a way to craft their content and get it recognized in the social media world. These users have either gained a respect extremely strong due to crafty social skills or have found a way to create effective content with mass appeal. An interesting example of someone who fits the crafty social skills model is a budding social media expert on Twitter. His name is Mark Murnahan @murnahan. What is interesting about Mark is that he’s not a power user but he still seems to harness the power of the retweet on Twitter. He is often ranked as one of the top retweeted people on Twitter but he maintains a fairly low follower count. This hints at a social media expert intelligence that is far deeper than controlling the masses but instead, effectively managing a tight nit group of users in a powerful way.

I have proven time and time again that I’m adept at creating content with mass appeal. For more stats please read my comment confession below. Sorry for the shameless self mention!

This type of social media expert can be a hybrid and obviously uses RSS feeds, top news headlines and great posts they have found to spread to the masses also. However, one of the unique parts of this type of social media user is that they do create content and aren’t just living off of everyone else’s content.

Examples: @murnahan, @webaddict, @mayhemstudios, @jessenewhart, @szetela, @fantomaster

Type Four: Natural Social Media Experts

This fourth type of social media expert is in a way becoming a new breed of social media expert due to Twitter and Facebook. This user isn’t really focused on finding specific content and directing people towards news, articles or content driven sites but basically exude the defined properties of a social butterfly. They are generally fuzzy, loveable, nice, supportive and helpful and nurturing. Now that probably sounds a little over the top and surely every item doesn’t fit them all but I hope you get the point. These people are like that little Tony Robbins sitting on your shoulder. They provide that feeling of ghusto when you need it or they give you a positive vibe when you’re on emtpy. These users have risen to the top because they have great personalities and are excellent people persons.

Examples: @AlohaArleen, @BuzzEdition, @MariSmith

Type Five: Social Media Salesman

This fifth type of social media expert doesn’t really care about participating socially and you can usually see that from their discussions. They’re often touting their next guru launch, recession eliminating product or some wonderful new voodoo product that will make you rich. These are pretty much just straight Internet Marketers. I am not saying they don’t create products of value, but not all of them do and it seems most of them feed off of each other. You’ll find them all talking about each other and stroking each others follower lists, email lists and they all speak about each other like Gods. It really gets quite old eventually. You can typically find these guys singing songs, pushing you towards squeeze pages or promising big convention parties that cost thousands of dollars. With that said, I’m not saying once again that they don’t sometimes put out valuable stuff, it’s just that this is their type of social media expertness. Just list building and hawking goods to be honest.

Examples: @masscontrolkern, @mikefilsaime, @ed_dale

This post was actually inspired by a blog post from Jay Fowler @silentjay74, a good Mixx buddy of mine. You can read his blog post titled – What makes you the “expert”. I can’t seem to reproduce the passion that this post sparked in me but what it really sparked was a social media confession. I’ll provide a quote of my comment in response to Jay’s blog post here:

Hey Jay, this is a really good post touching on a growing issue. Why this is a growing issue, I have no clue. It’s sort of like bullies in High School, if they’re ignored they die off, if they are talked about and lauded by others, they seem to grow into cult status.

A social media expert in my opinion is completely different than what everyone thinks one is and I would be slaughtered for all the rules everyone says you must follow to be an expert.

One constant drivel of information about “good social media” people is that they can NOT only submit their own content. I personally think this is just bullshit.

A true expert in my opinion would be someone who creates all their own content, whether it’s for a client or not and submit it into the social media world and gets top rankings and wide exposure every single time. This to me would prove a strong knowledge of what people want, what people like and what WORKS in social media.

On Digg I had 44 front pages and the big secret is, they were ALL my own content and blogs.

Same with Mixx, almost all of my populars / front pages were my own content. Now on Mixx I operate a little differently and will gladly submit content from friends I respect.

My original purpose was strictly for historical and analytical reasons. When I had a percentage rating of successful front pages on Digg that was a very PERSONAL number. When removing my early Digg experience my successful frontpage percentage of my own content was around 90% FP. I know of not one social media “expert” that can say the same.

I know I’ll be hated for revealing this “secret” but everyone is an idiot if they can’t look at my submission histories and see the reality on their own.

So this brings me to being a social media expert when you’re slinging around content from frontpage publications, major news media outlets and mainstream media productions… does that really make you an expert? I believe it does not. How hard is it to look at RSS feeds and headlines all day long and submit them and get a front page or mass syndication? Pretty damn easy if you ask me and any gerbil with a clicking finger can do it.

What makes a social media expert? Results. Period. That’s it.

Joel Mackey
- webaddict

P.S. I operate on Twitter completely differently, I think it’s a very different animal and I use my credibility to RT posts and in effect I am putting my name behind those as well. It seems more purposeful to me to participate in the 2 way submission process.

Some will look at me in disgust and say how does your method equate to social? My method equates to social because I support good content, I constantly monitor the networks and vote or RT or Stumble content I feel is valuable. This does NOT mean you have to personally submit it. I feel bad because so many people will hate me and my view, but really, it doesn’t matter because they don’t have a clue what an expert is anyway.

Yes, you read that right, according to everyone’s Social Media Rules they often state, I just committed social media suicide. I revealed that all of my Front pages on Digg, Mixx and other sites were ALL content written by me and put on blog properties that I run. However, as I mentioned in the comment above, it’s just horse shit to say that you can’t be successful doing so. I also don’t believe this eliminates the social part of social media. What I really believe is that it shows an even more refined expertise that is not just slinging around mainstream media links or popular blog posts and submitting for a popular. Instead it takes a fine skill to study the trends and produce content that people want to vote for and pass around. Most social media experts you’ll find will state you can’t be successful if you self submit. Obviously that isn’t true so I’d really like to see this myth go to the dogs!

I personally believe that someone that can research a trend, create the content, syndicate that idea and generate successful exposure and reaction from the social media community has more skill than someone submitting twenty things a day they didn’t even write. One is like gambling, the other is a steady precision game that is focused on a particular goal. What do you think?

Well, there it is, practically a blog post all in itself. So let’s sum up all this information to a simple idea. If you find yourself being told by a social media expert how great they are and listening to their long winded theories, ask them or yourself this: Do you have results? Do you have proof of something going viral? Do you have frontpage data? Do you have traffic numbers or analytics proving the spread of your ideas and information? With the incredible growth of these “experts” most of them won’t have much. Their number of followers doesn’t mean a dang thing. If anything, you can guage their engagement values on Twitter by using a site like: www.twitalyzer.com Now if you’re looking at a user like Muhammad Saleem (msaleem) or Reg Saddler (zaibatsu) their value is undisputable and you don’t need to question whether you’re dealing with an expert. But some of these people are so far from experts it’s getting just silly to see their over inflated titles.

BOTTOM LINE: What is a social media expert? Proven results. See above for a more detailed explanation!

Let me know if you have any question by either leaving a comment here on the blog or dropping me a DM or @ message on Twitter over @webaddict.

Peace, Love and Chicken Grease,
- webaddict

If you like this article, Tweet this message to your Twitter stream.

RT @webaddict You’re NOT a Social Media Expert, You Idiot! http://cli.gs/AjhjvL #sm #socialmedia

Incoming search terms for the article:

• social media expert
• social media experts
• social media idiots
• problem with social media in the society
• social media expertise
• social community experts
• social media is for idiots
• top social media expert twitter list
• top social media experts
• traducir esta frase al espanol hey i was looking at who´s online and i stumbled on you and you seemed woth talking to
• what the fuck is social media already said that
• twitter karma hurst rank
• what is the greatest problems of social media for society
• what makes someone have an expert opinion
• what are the greatest problems of social media
• what are the greatest problems of social media for individuals
• What are the greatest problems of social media for individuals and society
• What are the greatest problems of social media for society?
• What are the problems what social media for individuals
• what is a social media expert
• what is social media expert
• types of social medias
• social media expoerts
• define social media expert
• Does the beauty standards set by the media experts define you as a person?
• explaining social media to an idiot
• FORMS PEOPLES AND PLACES (PERO TRADUSIDO AL ESPAÑOL)
• funny definition of a social media pro
• greatest problems of social media
• greatest problems with social media
• growth of social media experts
• is this sentence correct?you an idiot
• krystynchong aplusk
• looking for social media expert
• qué es un social media expert
• social media expert job idiots
• Social Media Expert mocking
• social media expertise definition
• being social when youre not
• why is everyone at the top an idiot?