Category Archives: Social Networking

Uptime Not Important Once Popular?

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Twitter LogoMichael Arrington put up an interesting post on TechCrunch recently regarding Twitter’s continued growth in popularity, stating “I realized that in the last two months a subtle shift occurred: I now need Twitter more than Twitter needs me.”

For me Twitter became indispensable in March 2008, when my usage skyrocketed (I started using a desktop client to read and write messages) – see image above. It is now an important part of my work and social life, as I carry on bite-sized conversations with thousands of people around the world throughout the day. It’s a huge marketing tool, and information tool. But it is also a social habit that’s hard to kick.

While I hate to agree with him, it really made me wonder if we become so dependent on services that no others will do. Twitter, like most online applications has many copycat competitors. Jaiku and Pownce quickly come to mind, and while I knew that neither seemed to have the power to attract a wide audience that Twitter has, I had hoped that Pownce would compete well against Twitter due to its advanced features.

I was wrong in thinking this would be the case, as even Pownce and Jaiku supporters jump on board the Twitter bandwagon, some telling themselves that Twitter is just their status update, and Pownce is their communication tool, isn’t that right Kevin Rose?

When I saw Kevin Rowse, one of the people responsible for Pownce, using Twitter more and more, I realized how powerful the brand had become. I think we can safely say that like Coke, Kleenex and others, Twitter has become synonymous with being “the” short update service.

I still think though, that some missteps could ruin Twitter, and I hope that Twitter, and other online services dependent on users adoption keep that in mind as they continue to move their businesses forward. Just remember, even search engine popularity has changed over the decades, so continue to be forward thinking, serve your user base, and take care of your users, or no matter how popular you think you are, they will leave you.

If you want to follow me on Twitter, check out www.twitter.com/davidcubed

Originally posted on April 24, 2008 @ 6:45 pm

Deleted My Facebook Account

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One of the social sites that was taking up a decent bit of my time and mindshare was Facebook, and the worst thing of all: I wasn’t getting anything out of it. Facebook is great for almost creating a high school reunion of sorts. I got re-introduced to people I knew in my childhood on various military bases in Canada, but once you get past all of that, Facebook is nothing more than a time sinkhole.

Was it smart or dumb of me to delete my Facebook account? I am not sure yet, but I know that it will allow me to reclaim the time I was spending on that site to use productively on other sites.

One thing of note about my Facebook account is that it was almost one half business related contacts, or contacts I have made through blogging. While I hate the idea of not being able to connect with them any longer, they were really just a placeholder on my friends list as I communicate with them through my blogs, e-mail and instant messaging software.

Have you thought about deleting your Facebook account? Do you get anything from your time on Facebook? Let me know, I am always interested, as my wife is still using it as her e-mail replacement.

Originally posted on March 18, 2008 @ 5:53 pm

Dropping Alexa and Technorati Ranks

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Despite my ever increasing traffic, my Alexa and Technorati ranks seem to be taking a nosedive. The only real change I have made to this site that can account for that is the decrease in my social media promotion. I find it strange that not promoting my stuff all over the Internet has created such an issue. I didn’t think most social media users also were Alexa users, and I didn’t attribute my inbound links to the posts I promote on social media.

This, to me, reinforces the fact that social media is a key component to a blogs success or failure as I was also getting many more advertisement requests on this site when my rankings were getting better and better, as advertisers no doubt assumed that they would continue to rise and as such they were getting an amazing deal.

I still believe there is great value in this site, its content, its archives, and its audience, but I have to admit that I am going to be gearing up for another social media push in hopes to getting this blog back on track with both Alexa and Technorati so that my rank on 45n5.com/top100 remains fairly high.

Originally posted on March 27, 2008 @ 11:52 am

Facebook Has Become Spambook

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Over on CrowdSpark there is a great post up that asks the question, has Facebook become Spambook? I think the answer is a resounding yes.

I think this paragraph from the article sums it all up nicely:

Facebook now resembles the preverbal high school party to which one invites a few friends and ends up hosting the entire school and then being left with the cleanup the following morning. Gone is the neo modern facade and the clean interface, hijacked instead by a throng of applications which are nothing but glorified billboards waging a battle for eyeballs. Walls now resemble teenage bedrooms plastered with posters and littered with the remnants of countless fast food excursions. Not to mention the painstaking process of weeding through invitations to add all manner of useless applications.

I have continually found myself more and more frustrated with the continuing de-evolution of the Facebook profiles. I actually banned my wife from Facebook a few times, as she got a little obsessed with the site. She even went as far as deactivating her profile, though she only lasted a week before re-activating it. I almost get carpel tunnel just from scrolling down to the wall on her profile, as I pass the fun wall and super wall applications she has added.

It has gone beyond ridiculous. The whole data portability thing only matters to me if someone comes up with a better, more professional, grown up Facebook. That way I can leave that stupid site behind. As a quick side note, and thumbs up to Facebook, it was, at first, nice to interact with my High School friends once again.

Check out CrowdSpark for more high quality, well written articles.

Originally posted on January 8, 2008 @ 10:49 pm

Reddit Users Love AltSciFi

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AtlSciFiI have to admit, the thought of launching another blog wasn’t something I was overly excited about, but I love talking about science fiction, and so AltSciFi was born. I have been writing many opinion pieces on it, and will continue to do so while adding in news reports, short stories and other science fiction related content.

The site, just recently started, and is already doing amazing. That is in part thanks to my marketing efforts, and in a big way thanks to all the great people on Reddit that gave an article submitted on there a thumbs up.

Currently, the site has received more traffic from Reddit than any other traffic source leading up to this day.

Who would have guessed that there were some science fiction geeks on Reddit? I couldn’t be happier, and for me it really continues to prove that different social promotion sites have very different audiences, and as such will promote or bury stories based on those likes and dislikes.

Anyone know of any science fiction related digg-like sites? And don’t forget to check out AltSciFi and let me know what you think.

Originally posted on November 20, 2007 @ 6:50 pm