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Ed Kohler
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9 months ago
in The Mobile Internet: QR Code Marketing & Life on MARS on Sellsius
QR code seems like a solution in need of a problem. Why not just SHOW the phone number or use tinyurl.com to shorten URLs? It's making things LESS usable.
1 reply
10 months ago
in Do You Need 2-Way Communication on Twitter? on Jacob Morgan on Social Media, Technology, Marketing, and Life
This isn't personal. I could care less how you use Twitter. If I find what you have to say valuable, I'll follow you. If I don't, I won't. But businesses interested in building large groups of loyal followers may find better results and much less churn if they keep on topic and post in moderation.
1 reply
jacobmorgan
ed,
remember that there are a lot of new twitter followers each day, they don't know who to follow so they look toward the big names, they see who everyone else is following and then join the band wagon, it's their way of testing the waters. if you recall robert scoble, loic lemeur, and a few other big name folks were commenting on how friend freed was giving them a much higher rate of followers they said that friend feed was better for interaction. what actually happened is that on the home page of friend feed these big names were actually the default for recommended followers, people were following them because friend feed told them too, not because people had any genuine interest in the people themselves.
that being said the main point that you addressed is
"If I find what you have to say valuable, I'll follow you"
that is exactly correct ed. but again, i try to bring value by dm people and replying to them, by interacting with them and engaging with them, that is one way i try to bring value. everyone is different.
the examples you used though were all big name brands and celebs, that does not apply to most people on twitter.
remember that there are a lot of new twitter followers each day, they don't know who to follow so they look toward the big names, they see who everyone else is following and then join the band wagon, it's their way of testing the waters. if you recall robert scoble, loic lemeur, and a few other big name folks were commenting on how friend freed was giving them a much higher rate of followers they said that friend feed was better for interaction. what actually happened is that on the home page of friend feed these big names were actually the default for recommended followers, people were following them because friend feed told them too, not because people had any genuine interest in the people themselves.
that being said the main point that you addressed is
"If I find what you have to say valuable, I'll follow you"
that is exactly correct ed. but again, i try to bring value by dm people and replying to them, by interacting with them and engaging with them, that is one way i try to bring value. everyone is different.
the examples you used though were all big name brands and celebs, that does not apply to most people on twitter.
10 months ago
in Do You Need 2-Way Communication on Twitter? on Jacob Morgan on Social Media, Technology, Marketing, and Life
Let's say some of the first people who follow you on Twitter just happen to be people who read your blog, love your blog, and are considering doing business with you. Then they start following you on Twitter under the assumption that they'll get nuggets of wisdom from you. But instead, they hear 5% social media & tech discussions with a 95% mix of movie, dining, and @replies.
There are obviously people who like that mix, but they may not be the most valuable people you could have following you. This, of course, assumes that the only goal of your Twitter account is for business.
If you avoid the non-biz talk yet still build an audience, it's really clear why they're there and what they're interested in hearing about.
Basically, I think what we'll see is people splitting their Twittering between different accounts for work, hobbies and personal with little overlap between them.
That, and content can be truly interesting without interaction. For example, TV, Movies, and Music all seem quite popular without 2-way interactions.
There are obviously people who like that mix, but they may not be the most valuable people you could have following you. This, of course, assumes that the only goal of your Twitter account is for business.
If you avoid the non-biz talk yet still build an audience, it's really clear why they're there and what they're interested in hearing about.
Basically, I think what we'll see is people splitting their Twittering between different accounts for work, hobbies and personal with little overlap between them.
That, and content can be truly interesting without interaction. For example, TV, Movies, and Music all seem quite popular without 2-way interactions.
2 replies
Ari Herzog
A secondary school teacher once gave me valuable advice on participation in class: For every student who raises his hand and asks a question, there are nine other students who wanted to ask that question.
The analogy can be brought forward to Twitter or any other networking platform. For every person who says something, there are nine people who are interested in the content being said.
Whether I have 20 followers or 20,000 followers is irrelevant. As long as people are interested in what I have to say, the value I contribute, and the engagement I return to them, who am I to care about metrics? Who are you to care?
The analogy can be brought forward to Twitter or any other networking platform. For every person who says something, there are nine people who are interested in the content being said.
Whether I have 20 followers or 20,000 followers is irrelevant. As long as people are interested in what I have to say, the value I contribute, and the engagement I return to them, who am I to care about metrics? Who are you to care?
jacobmorgan
hi ed,
personally the most valuable followers are ones that engage with me, i could care less if it's guy kawasaki, robert scoble, or any other twitter follower that most people have never heard of, I value the discussion that comes out of the relationship.
i think the only splitting we may see is between corp and personal twitter accounts and even this is a big "IF." take for example the ceo of zappos, or gary vaynerchuk. they both twitter about personal and corporate.
i dont think we will see such a big split as you predict. of course there is a difference between individuals and corporations. individuals are who they are and creating multiple individual twitter accounts just doesn't seem probable in my opinion, twitter groups? perhaps.
i think it would be interesting to actually gather the data that twitter has and run some statistical tests. there are a lot of things that need to be accounted for such as spam, followers you follow someone and then just forget about them, bots, corporations vs individuals, etc.
if people follow me because they "expect" something from me then that is fine, but i can tell you for a fact that without 2-way communication i would most likely not even be on twitter and i would certainly not have 500+ followers. people use twitter for different things and you need to take that into account as well before you recommend that you don't need 2 -way discussion on twitter to make it successful.
personally the most valuable followers are ones that engage with me, i could care less if it's guy kawasaki, robert scoble, or any other twitter follower that most people have never heard of, I value the discussion that comes out of the relationship.
i think the only splitting we may see is between corp and personal twitter accounts and even this is a big "IF." take for example the ceo of zappos, or gary vaynerchuk. they both twitter about personal and corporate.
i dont think we will see such a big split as you predict. of course there is a difference between individuals and corporations. individuals are who they are and creating multiple individual twitter accounts just doesn't seem probable in my opinion, twitter groups? perhaps.
i think it would be interesting to actually gather the data that twitter has and run some statistical tests. there are a lot of things that need to be accounted for such as spam, followers you follow someone and then just forget about them, bots, corporations vs individuals, etc.
if people follow me because they "expect" something from me then that is fine, but i can tell you for a fact that without 2-way communication i would most likely not even be on twitter and i would certainly not have 500+ followers. people use twitter for different things and you need to take that into account as well before you recommend that you don't need 2 -way discussion on twitter to make it successful.
12 months ago
in The Starbucks Effect on Sellsius
LOL, looks like three of us left essentially the same comment. My guess is this is because comments are shown below the comment form, which gives the impression that no one had left a comment yet.
1 reply
jfsellsius
Good point Ed. I changed the setting to put the comment box at the end of the thread.
1 year ago
in Want to buy a video-sharing site? on Mathew's comments
Revver has benefited from picking up shows from YouTube, but it seems like they'd eventually lose those same shows once they got large enough to do their own ad deals.
1 reply
mathewi
Yes, I think that's part of the problem, Ed. As soon as something got
popular enough on Revver -- like Ask A Ninja or Lonelygirl15 -- they
went off and got their own deals.
popular enough on Revver -- like Ask A Ninja or Lonelygirl15 -- they
went off and got their own deals.
1 year ago
in Dembot - Why Mahalo is Fundamentally Flawed on Dembot
I've found Mahalo valuable from a Wikihow, or HowStuffWorks perspective, but not as a search engine. If you define it as a search product, it's easy to rip apart, but it's turning out to be something different than a Google alternative.
1 reply
Jason
Give it time Ed... we're still in beta an only have 22,000 pages that represent ~200k searches. We're adding 1,000 pages a week so it should get better an better over time.
URL. You just point and shoot.