Category Archives: Trends

Twitter released a new Terms of Service today. You probably got an email about it, and they covered it – in brief – over on the Twitter blog.

The basics are just that you own your own tweets, although Twitter can republish them (since that is their purpose), they’ve left the door open for advertising, spam is bad, and there are specific guidelines for use of the API. The summary from their blog is

Advertising—In the Terms, we leave the door open for advertising. We’d like to keep our options open as we’ve said before.

Ownership—Twitter is allowed to “use, copy, reproduce, process, adapt, modify, publish, transmit, display and distribute” your tweets because that’s what we do. However, they are your tweets and they belong to you.

APIs—The apps that have grown around the Twitter platform are flourishing and adding value to the ecosystem. You authorize us to make content available via our APIs. We’re also working on guidelines for use of the API.

SPAM—Abusive behavior and spam is also outlined in these terms according to the rules we’ve been operating under for some time.

The two things that stand out to me are that I have ownership of my tweets, which heads off the whole Facebook TOS Privacy fiasco, and that Twitter is leaving the “door open” for advertising. By doing this, they’re allowing themselves to take their time deciding what advertising/sponsorship option works best for them.

What are your thoughts on the new TOS?

__

Cheers!

Tweet Michelle @writetechnology, send her technology news at michelle[at]writetech[dot]net, visit her wine blog when you’re thirsty, and drop by her day job.

Guest post by Brendan McManus, Follow him on Twitter | Read his blog

Source

You don’t need to be a big brand with a huge marketing budget to run a user-generated contest that spreads like wildfire. Non-profits and small businesses are currently running contests with Wildfire that are generating thousands of submissions and are reaching tens and, in some cases, hundreds of thousands of consumers via newsfeeds, friend invites and sharing. Why are these contests doing so well?

1) Contests that focus on topics that people feel passionate about tend to generate the greatest interest. At Wildfire, we’ve seen highly successful photo and written contests that focus on pets, children, sports (e.g. surfing, skiing, mountain biking), hobbies (e.g. cooking, travel), and affinity groups.

2) Contests that make it easy for entrants to submit their content tend to generate more submissions. Asking entrants to submit photos that they likely already have in their Facebook photo album (e.g. photos of travel, kids, pets, hobbies) or that they can easily snap using their mobile phone will tend to result in more entries. Likewise, if asking for written content its best to keep word limits reasonably low. Video contests require quite a lot of effort on the part of entrants so generally result in a much lower number of entries – but if the content is good, these can be very viral.

In the end, customers are people. They love sharing what they care about most with their friends on social media. Businesses need to cater to their customers’ interest in sharing if they want to engage more people, acquire more leads, and ultimately make more money.

When I heard that Cushing Academy had decided to remove their school library in order to move into the digital age, my heart broke a little bit. The Boston Globe piece shares that what used to be a library on campus will now be a learning center with everything from e-readers and big screens for data viewing to a $12,000 cappuccino machine.

I have never been to Cushing Academy but I am an avid reader who values the feel and weight of a book in my hands. Of course I say this only a few hours after I started to seriously think about purchasing the Amazon Kindle. The problem with being an avid reader is that I have stacks and stacks of books since my bookcases are filled to capacity. The stacks are getting a little overwhelming so I am looking for a solution.

There are so many advantages to the use of an e-reader. Cutting back on printing and shipping are good for the environment and drive down the cost of the text that is transmitted to the device. It’s a great way to cut down on the pain and strain of carrying a heavy book or two in a purse or backpack. I also love the idea of downloading the book instantly instead of going to the bookstore or ordering from an online vendor.

The convenience is also a double-edged sword. As I’ve learned from iTunes, easy access can lead to  impulse purchases (yep, I admit it, you’ll find a little Miley Cyrus in my music collection). There’s also something to be said for the ability to write in your book and make notes and highlight passages you want to come back and read again. I’ve also mentioned how much I love the weight of a book in my hands and after a full day in front of a computer screen, it’s nice to enjoy something that isn’t digital.

That’s my dilemma, am I ready to go that digital. Withe so many enthusiasts on both sides of the debate, I mentioned my interest in purchasing the device on Twitter. Bub.blicio.us contributor, Michelle Lentz, had the best tip on how to enjoy the best of both worlds*:

*Yes, that was an intentional Miley Cyrus reference

By Miiko Mentz (@MiikoMentz on Twitter)

It’s now just a matter of time before newspapers try to start charging for online access to their stories, and it’s got me thinking: what is this going to do to Twitter and blog link love? I’m a huge proponent of using Twitter or blogs to share links and to click on links of interesting stories.

Sure, many blogs and online-only sites produce quality content, but let’s face it, many bloggers as well as Twitter users rely heavily on linking to “old” media sites, and I’m no exception. In fact, I’ll do it now. Last week, the Los Angeles Times reported that News Corp. executives have met with other newspaper publishers – believed to include the New York Times Co., Washington Post Co., Hearst Corp. and Tribune Co. – to discuss the creation of a consortium to charge online subscriptions or micropayments for access to stories on people’s computers, smart phones or other mobile devices. With ad revenue dropping and print subscriptions declining dramatically, I don’t blame the publishers for trying to come up with a new revenue-generating model to survive.

It’s questionable whether consumers will subscribe or simply switch to another news provider that will provide stories for free. The LA Times article quotes a former journalist who says it best: “The reality is that unless a lot of people who produce news act in unison to start charging for content, then individually they will fail,” said Alan D. Mutter, a former newspaper columnist and editor and consultant on new media ventures.

That’s a great point. And it also sounds like Twitter link love is going to potentially get less enticing. Say a friend Tweets a story about “Great Examples of How to Use Twitter in Business” – something I’d be interested in — and the friend provides a link via Bit.ly, TinyURL, is.gd or some other URL shortener. Today, I rarely click on a link and see a “need subscription” notice. (I mean, the main Washington Post Web site currently requires a free username and password, but when I view the site on my iPhone, I can see the stories without ever having to log in. And I do a lot of my newspaper reading on my iPhone). But with a consortium in place to charge for online content, I bet I’ll be gunshy about clicking a link when 75 percent of the time, I get a need subscription notice.

Every time I click on a URL shortener, I will wonder: is this free? Will I have to pay and need to subscribe? Worse yet, what if I have a micropayment plan in place and the story sucked and was really, “Rudimentary Examples of How to use Twitter in Business and Unless You’re a Moron, You Won’t Learn Anything New If You Read this.” It may cost me five cents to find out, but still, five cents is five cents and it adds up.

Online subscriptions and micropayments will also affect me when I tweet. If it’s a breaking news story I want to share with my friends and colleagues, and I want to ensure they can see it for free, I’ll have to dig a little harder to find free links. Rather than linking to SFGate for example, I might have to find a small town daily newspaper that links to AP stories for free.

I know I’m throwing out a problem that doesn’t yet exist, but it’s something to start pondering. Perhaps maybe when we tweet a link that requires a subscription, before the link you put (NS) as an identifier that the story needs a subscription. It’s something the Twitter and blogging community at large could find a solution for.

Then again, this newspaper consortium can try to charge for a few months, realize it’s a complete disaster, and revert back to free again.

At the end of July, I went searching for a new smartphone. (I’m still searching, by the way.) I visited every store, but at the Verizon store, I had a prolonged discussion with one of the managers. I wanted wi-fi on my phone (and I didn’t necessarily want Windows Mobile). Not surprisingly, I was attracted to one of the Blackberry phones, but it was without wi-fi. The manager and I went back on forth on why I did/didn’t need it. In fact, he tried very hard to convince me that there was no need for wi-fi when you have the Verizon 3G service.

So my thanks today to Om Malik, who has written an excellent post on exactly why I need wi-fi on my mobile device. Quite frankly, it helps me to be more mobile.

It all comes down to this – whether we’re using an iPod Touch, a netbook, a laptop, or a Blackberry, we’re using portable devices to access the Web no matter where we are. We can be in a park, a coffee shop (as I am right now), our home, or in an airplane. Om got some statistics from his neighborhood wi-fi net provider, Meraki:

First, some stats from the census that compared the devices that accessed Meraki access points in 2008 and 2009:

• The number of Apple devices observed, including laptops, iPhones and iPods grew by an impressive 221 percent.
• Apple now represents 32 percent vs. 14 percent in 2008 of all the devices seen by Meraki networks in North America.
• The number of smartphones (handheld devices) has quadrupled over the past year, with RIM showing a gain of 419 percent.
• The number of people using Intel-based devices declined 11 percent, which tells me that more people are using smartphones vs. laptops.

That last stat is key for me. Intel-based devices declined 11% in a year, which means there are more smartphones accessing this particular net than laptops. That’s fantastic growth, and should be a key indicator for wireless carriers. Their phone must access the Internet with more than just the 3G option.

An AdMob report from Feb 09 shows that smartphone usage increased from 25% to 33% in the previous 6-month period. Even the recession couldn’t stop us from investing in smartphones. According to PC Week, the number of smartphone users in 2007 doubled from the previous year. If that was 2007, can you imagine 2010?

Heading out? Don’t forget that computer in your pocket. And Verizon Manager Guy? Check out the stats and let me know if you still think I don’t need wi-fi on my phone.

Photo Credit (via Creative Commons)

__

Cheers!

Tweet Michelle @writetechnology, send her technology news at michelle[at]writetech[dot]net, visit her wine blog when you’re thirsty, and drop by her day job.