I wouldn’t give watch this video if it weren’t for the story behind it… but here’s why I’m posting it.

Best Buy suspended an employee for making a video about cell phone (without mentioning anything about him or his relationship with that company).

Now Paramount Pictures is looking at his work.

As you watch, think about what this means to the future of media.

• Should we be encouraging employees to share their views at home, or even at work?
• Will tomorrow’s stars be Twitter stars first?
• How can you set a social media policy in this fast changing world?

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Coach Deb Talks Twitter

In the video below, Coach Deb Micek (@CoachDeb) is interviewed by copywriter and social media master Michael Stelzner (@mike_stelzner) about how you can attract followers who are truly interested in you and what you have to offer.  Take a peek…..

Did you enjoy that video? Please feel free to comment below!  We want to hear from you!

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I’m hard pressed to think of a situation where a business is better off not having an account. I know for sure that ignoring Twitter is just not good policy.

Maybe @CoxCable jumped onto Twitter before they were ready. I’m just guessing that this account is from someone inside Cox Cable. Twitter hasn’t verified the account, and you can see from the activity that they aren’t interacting much

Had the not signed up, we’d not see this.. but would that be an excuse?

Not according to the stream I found when I search for Cox Cable.  The sentiment is decidedly negative. Twitter users are not so much asking for help… mostly complaints or “Cox Sucks” tweets.

Meanwhile, @ComcastCares is perhaps the most oft used example of a big company that benefits from listening on Twitter. And blog post herald great response from other cable companies.

What do you think? Will companies who ignore channels like Twitter survive?

FULL DISCOUSURE: I’m a former happy Cox customer who felt ignored and moved on. When I moved to a new place recently, the customer service encounter was so bad that I looked on Twitter for help. I fully admit that I’d change my views if someone from Cox responded here or on Twitter. (you don’t even have to give me free service)

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Reading tweets and stories that @Biz reported that Twitter search is up 33% in a month (and it’s a month old data). So I started exploring related posts.

SearchEngineLand does a great job of analyzing it (using the month older data)

Twitter does 18 billion searches a month, working off the 600 million per day figure? Williams said the monthly figure is closer to 19 billion.

How’s that compare against the major search engines? Working off comScore figures from December 2009 for worldwide search queries, we have:

• Google: 88 billion per month
• Twitter: 19 billion per month
• Yahoo: 9.4 billion per month
• Bing: 4.1 billion per month

Where do you search?

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What is the Difference Between Followers, Friends, and Fans?

I travel to many seminars and conferences. At this one, a question came up about friending on Twitter.  What is the difference between a follower, a friend, and a fan?

Find the answer in the video below.

I love interacting with my students! Please voice your questions and comments below.

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We’ve learned that social media is not just a new medium to push messages through.. and that “buy now” links are not just ignored, but hated by users… so how do you make money? What is a profit when you are engaging in social media?

Our guest tonight is @TreyPennington Trey is not only one of the smartest, well connected social media speakers I know, he’s also a master at marketing.  If you want to be more successful in everything you do, listen to Trey tell his story and the methods he uses to get messages like yours out to millions

Be sure to log in to the BlogTalkRadio site (free registration) so you can ask question, network with other smart social media users and have some fun!

Do You Want MEGA Success?

Also on this week’s show, we’ll talk about how our network of givers is demonstrating social media results later this month.

On July 21st, millions of readers will get an email about a book that can change their life forever.

We’ll ask them to order a copy from Amazon.com.. and maybe send another as a gift to a friend.

Ordering a book is easy, inexpensive and can bring a tremendous value on its own, but we know how busy people get.. so we want to make sure they have a reason to buy the book on this day and have assembled more life changing audio downloads, eBooks, courses and SUCCESS information we can from dozens of partners who have their own great content.

The result will be a best seller rank, allow author Barbara Hofmeister to publicize here work at a new level.. and thousands will get the opportunity to connect with new ideas from Barbara and our many partners.

The book is called To Be or Not To Be – The Choice is YOURS! .. More than a motivational book, it can be an action plan that will help you roadmap your life.

Mark your calendar for July 21st. It’s MEGA SUCCESS DAY.. better yet. Go to the MegaSuccessDay Facebook Page now and click the LIKE button to see more exclusive content there.

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For the first time in many months, I’m seeing limits on how often I can get an app to update.

Twitter knows this.. as reported on Wired:

Twitter announced in June that it was halving the number of API calls for third-party applications from 350 to 175 an hour, and on Tuesday, third-party software makers like TweetDeck reported that the limit had fallen even further — to 75. That means that anyone following lots of people online, or who subscribes to someone as prolific as Roger Ebert (oddly, a Twitter master) can’t reload the stream of messages.

It’s all for the good of the overtaxed service, according to Twitter’s Carolyn Penner.

The reality is that we are facing record traffic, and changes like this make us better equipped to handle it and increase stability and reliability. By controlling the rate of traffic, we’re limiting the number of requests per client for all clients, including Twitter for iPhone and m.twitter.com. What is being limited are read requests — for example, requests for profiles or user timelines. We are not limiting the number of Tweets sent. So, Tweets still go through. Read More

I tweet as often and stay connected to Twitter with multiple devices all day long.. and so far, the only issue I’ve seen is phone apps not behaving quite right under heavy use… but here’s what I have done when up against API limits before:

1. Use web based apps.. Many of the big apps now take the “fire hose” (all tweets) and then let you access from multiple machines or whatever you need on their terms.
2. Limit how many lists you have open. Every search can use up API calls. Shutting down a few till you need them will help.
3. Don’t run apps on more than one machine at a time. Sorry, your phone counts as a machine

When all else fails, go to the web site.. it’s going to be up, fast and complete most of the time and does not use API calls. My preference is to check in a few times a day on Twitter. I can’t tell you how many times this has got me information that an app can’t, and it’s always faster (at least for what it does)

What’s your experience? Have you noticed any of the half-speed problems. Share your experiences, comments and suggestions for faster Twitter here.

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Once you have more than a few dozens friends to follow, you can’t read everything that they tweet.

Twitter Lists lets you capture any number of users and put them on a list. If they are public, you can share what you find with everyone. (a good way to find more people for your network)

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Twitter is the 11th most popular web site.

Here’s the facts on #2
[Source: Online PhD Programs for MashableMashable.com]

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Once again, the numbers show fast growth, but show that we are just getting started in this Twitter revolution.

While the majority of people in the US know about Twitter, there is room for enormous growth both in the adotpi0n of Twitter, and actual use.

Watch “Twitter Usage in America 2010” video from Edison Research:

Highlights of the study include:

• Awareness of Twitter has exploded from 5% of Americans 12+ in 2008 to 87% in 2010 (by comparison, Facebook’s awareness is 88%)
• Despite equal awareness, Twitter trails Facebook significantly in usage: 7% of Americans (17 million persons) actively use Twitter, while 41% maintain a profile page on Facebook.
• Nearly two-thirds of active Twitter users access social networking sites using a mobile phone
• 51% of active Twitter users follow companies, brands or products on social networks

The best idea from this came at the end of the video.. a bit of a rant from @webby2001  on how the focus of Twitter apps and training have been on using Twitter and getting a message out… and that the future would be revealed as to how Twitter can improve our lives.

The study did conclude that most Twitter users are not tweeting… just lurking. I think there’s a flaw there.

What do you think?

Will Twitter be used as much as Facebook?

Can Twitter make your life better?

I’ll be watching for your comments here.

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