Publicity stunt? Yes. Original? Yes. The real story here was that it received lots of exposure.

Speaking of exposure, is a limited commercialization of Twitter such a bad thing for both the folks that make it (Obvious Corp) and the folks that use it (Us)? Don’t we want Biz, Ev, and all the other folks at Obvious to have a sound business venture? Otherwise, we’ll have to start complaining about Twitter going down all the time as its infrastructure struggles to scale with new and existing user adoption, not to mention all the mashups springing up tied into the Twitter API.

The Return of @Gapingvoid

Well said. You knew you couldn’t stay away

Are you Ready for a Challenge?!?

It all started with an innocent little update:

nowsourcing Wondering if I’ll hit 800 followers by end of week. 24 to go! about 19 hours ago from web

Which turned into this:
danzarrella @nowsourcing i’m at 9 to go to 800, wanna race? about 19 hours agofrom web in reply to nowsourcing

So it was on. 24 vs 9 is quite a handicap, and Dan hit 800 first. But then, @MikeonTV came in and pulled an epic maneuver:
MikeonTV @nowsourcing @danzarrella Not so fast! *plays indiana jones music* about 18 hours ago from web in reply to nowsourcing

That’s right. Mike unfollowed Dan to bring @Danzarrella down to 799

Twitter Polling

Polldaddy has created a great way to send polls through Twitter. Ev tried one out this week:

(It was a resounding yes)

Company Twittering

Back to the main point. Twitter as a system needs to make money to stay a viable company. How about brands on Twitter though?

I’ve come across lots of brands: electronics, kosher food, airlines, museums even grocery stores! There has been mixed reception to such concepts, and at the same time I think they make sense. Either for a brand to tweet under their brand name or having key employees tweet under their names can both work. Twitter can most likely get a stream of revenue by placing ads in the public stream or for paid memberships, and the question is – will users stand for it?

Techcrunch did a survey to see if people would support a premium version and/or go for the occasional paid tweet in the timeline. What would you withstand to get your daily Twitter fix?

You know what happened? Jason Calacanis said “follow him.” (I took out my angst on the picture, can you tell?)

I really enjoyed refreshing every 3 seconds to see another dozen or so followers adding Mr. Modine, and some automatic bot adding them back (Twitter couldn’t even keep up, if you’ll note the sole icon down in the bottom).

It happens every day – but that’s how Twitter works.

“Last month Alex Iskold suggested that there are 3 basic types of Twitter users.

There are listeners, who pull in a lot of information but don’t send much out. Talkers, who push information out to a lot of users, but don’t take much in. And there are hubs, people who both follow and are followed.

“Think of Twitter as a large network for information dissemination,” wrote Iskold. “It typically starts with talkers, flows through the hubs and ends up at listeners.” ” – ReadWriteWeb on TwitterMeThis

And it is this flow of Twitter that sent one of my favorite follows packing. Hugh MacLeod writes “I liked Twitter. But I found it too easy” as his lame excuse for leaving all his adoring fans hanging. We’ll miss you!

gapingvoid : No, seriously. I’m leaving Twitter. Cheerio. [Big Kiss]

I guess it’s back to Google, Yahoo, TechCrunch, Flickr, Youtube, Web 2.0, and blogs for the tweeter formerly known as @gapingvoid.

#YIF: Why I Follow

So there’s this thing called hashtags for Twitter, in case you didn’t know about them. Basically people stick them in their tweets and the themes get aggregated by hashtag aggregators, like Hashtags.org.

There’s all kinds of hashtags, like for conferences (#sxsw tracked the live micro-blogging of the South by Southwest Interactive conference) and political debates. #yif is the hashtag for “why I follow,” and you can really do some data mining with the stuff people say.

jljohansen: @chrisbrogan The 3 people I talk with the most on Twitter are @ikepigott @dough and recently @swhitley Always good conversations. #yif

danieljohnsonjr: @scottsigler #yif bcuz w/ his twisted mind, better to know where he’s coming from & going to. Infected: April 1st!

BarbaraKB: @CathleenRitt #yif Admits to “getting nothing done,” shares hair stories, does stand-up comedy while practicing financial wizardy in NYC.

To me, this is revolutionary. What other social tools encourage people to not only publicly state why they like you, but also track those responses for all the world to analyze?

Nowhere else but Twitter do you get an open book test on being popular.

#YUT: Why You Twitter

sonnygill@nowsourcing Never mocked, was just skeptical on its usefulness…boy was I wrong. Able to connect & converse w/industry leaders, how great.18 minutes ago from web in reply to nowsourcing

MarkLaymon @nowsourcing your obsessive talking about it made me follow it more, in doing so I have found it as an easy way to follow the smm industry 23 minutes ago from web in reply to nowsourcing

kdpaine @nowsourcing the iowa caucuses 24 minutes ago from web in reply to nowsourcing

TheNanny612 @nowsourcing The people, the conversation, the humor, great questions with helpful and inspiring answers. It is like IM on speed… love it!26 minutes ago from twhirlin reply to nowsourcing

bdthomas @nowsourcing I started out loving twitter, now I mock it. Regardless, I’m still addicted. 27 minutes ago from twitterrific in reply to nowsourcing

BarbaraKB @nowsourcing never knocked it. been an addict for a year now. may need to delete like @gapingvoid… 28 minutes ago from web in reply to nowsourcing

SilentJay74 @nowsourcing you talking to me? 29 minutes ago from web in reply to nowsourcing

gideonshalwick @mayobrains – gutsy survey, but i love it! @jtunkelo and i have been talking about the virtues of twitter for the last year! http://web20marketinglive.com 1 minute ago from im in reply to mayobrains

melaniephung @mayobrains I still have no earthly idea. There’s something about the constant updates that just sucks me in. half a minute ago from web in reply to mayobrains

hyperlinked @mayobrains Although I didn’t mock, I didn’t see the point. Did it: My friends joined, I met new people, got recent news updates. 3 minutes ago from twitterrific in reply to mayobrains

UtahSEOpro @mayobrains the fact that everyone else uses Twitter too. if it had a lower user-base then i couldn’t communicate as pervasively 2 minutes ago from TwitterFox in reply to mayobrains

What outrageously great things have you seen on Twitter this week?