Posts Tagged “microdrivel”

Do you know how many emails you’ve sent? How about how many instant messages? Probably not. I sure have no idea. But I do know that I just sent my 1,000th Twitter update. Or rather, that twitterfeed did on my behalf. People on Twitter observe milestone (millstone?) numbers like their 100th or 1,000th update or follower as if they were birthdays. I’m not one to be terribly orthodox about observing birthdays, so I was reluctant to make a fuss over achieving a kilotwit, but it’s a slow blog day, so here’s what I’ve learned on Twitter:

Use (abuse?) Twitter customer service while you can. Twitter is still small by the standards of the internet, and the smallish number of companies that are staking out a presence there are eager to make a good impression. If a company is on Twitter, you can often get very good customer service or at least a live response faster than you can with regular email, chat or phone. The economics of this situation are transitory, so get it while it’s hot. Try @comcastcares or @wholefoods for two.

When asking the Twitterverse for advice, you get what you pay for. For the reasons cited above, you can sometimes get some really good inside dope from people and companies on Twitter, such as discount codes, beta invites, weather and transport alerts, etc. I’ve asked for and dished out random advice, usually about food and wine, and gotten (and probably given) mixed results. Caveat twittor, and expect the neighborhood to get less neighborly as it grows.

You can do a lot - but not everything - in 140 characters. There are a lot of people who tweet haiku (I’m one of them) and a few who tweet exclusively in haiku. At least one person, @gracepiper, tweets recipes. So far as I know, nobody tweets haiku recipes, but it’s probably only a matter of time. Constraints are the mother of innovation, and the exercise of precision can really help sharpen your message. If you have one. On the other hand, longer discussions of meatier subjects really need to be taken elsewhere.

Maybe in my next thousand tweets I’ll figure out if this thing is really good for anything and maybe the Twitter people will figure out how to make money doing it. Either way, it’ll be an entertaining ride. Follow me @limeduck for the play-by-play.

If you haven’t been following Tangyslice’s inane quest for social media greatness, I don’t know what social media rock you haven’t been living under. I’ve been following along with morbid fascination as an otherwise reasonable guy tries to join 100 social media or social networking sites in just 30 days. At first I rode along as a training buddy, but as the month draws to a close and Tangy looks like he’s just going to make it, I’m happy to take second place and retain just a bit more social media dignity. So here, for the last time, are a baker’s baker’s dozen more social media sites in the limeduck library, bringing the total to sixty-something.

1. All Consuming - Twitter asks, “what are you doing right now?”, All Consuming asks, “what are you consuming right now?” Bonus points for a top-level navigation item called “gestalt.”
2. Beautiful Society - A site where you can tell the world about your favorite stuff. Wow.
3. Blinklist - Sort of social bookmarking. You can make lists. Online. W00t.
4. Book Crossing - Prof. P turned me on to this years ago and I still check it once in a while. You leave your unwanted books around and use this site to alert people to their location. Watch as your books wander the world.
5. Dopplr - Tell people where you’re going and when. So you can meet up with them. So other people can rob your house. At least they use openID for login.
6. Free Government - An experiment in democracy. They want to elect a representative who will vote according to the polls taken on this site. A politician who follows polls, that’s new.
7. Friendster - The original social stalking site.
8. Kirtsy - “the place to find and/or link to anything and everything on the Web that you’d like to share.” See blinklist.
9. Lijit - “What if your readers could search you and everything you’ve created for answers they’d trust?” Maybe they’d use goojle.
10. Lime.com - “Healthy living with a twist.” Maybe I should have joined as just “duck.” I look forward to picking up this domain name at the bankruptcy auction.
11. limewire - I have absolutely no idea what this site is all about. See comment from Cintatdo
12. Ma.gnolia - “Discover, share and discuss the best of the web.” Pretty, but bo.ring.
13. Mashable - If you believe you are more than the sum of your microdrivel, this site could prove you wrong. YAA(wn)
14. Meetup - See also going.com and getafirstlife. Go out and meet some actual people. Could actually be useful if you’re willing to leave the house.
15. Mixx - “your link to the web content that really matters.” Funny, if you just move your hands a bit over on the keyboard, it spells, Digg.
16. Skyrock - “Free people network.” Might be French.
17. Zeer - Since you are what you eat, Zeer tells you what other people on Zeer think you are. Personal message from site hostess is a bonus. A far cry from All Consuming, and not just in the alphabet.

Congratulations to Tangyslice, I concede this winner’s curse.