DRAFTSocial Media:

A Look at Twitter and the Opportunity with Real Time Search

Simon Baptist

December 2008

2Simon Baptist

December 2008

Notes for Consideration• Objectives:

– To provide a quick introduction into the power of Social Media, with a lens on Twitter, the micro-messaging/blogging platform

– Set the Discussion by talking about Real Time Search– Discussion around what the opportunity could look like

• Audience: – This Deck was built for a private summit of Executive to

Senior Management at Publishers, Directories and Telcos• Date:

– This Deck was built in December and so reflects some of the big Twitter moments at that time

3Simon Baptist

December 2008

Social Media DefinedSocial media are primarily Internet- and mobile-based tools for sharing and discussing

information among human beings.

Key Social Media Applications:

Social Media Definition: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_media

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December 2008

First There Was Blogging

http://www.blogpulse.com/

http://www.technorati.com/blogging/state-of-the-blogosphere/

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December 2008

Now There’s Micro-BloggingMicro-blogging is a form of multimedia blogging that allows users to send brief text updates (say, 140 characters or

fewer) or micromedia such as photos or audio clips and publish them, either to be viewed by anyone or by a restricted group which can be chosen by the user.

Micro-blogging Definition: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microblogs

Is considered by many the Poster Child of Micro-blogging.

Evan Williams is the founder of

Evan was also one of the founders of

Evan is also attributed to have defined the term blogger

Let’s Look @Twitter

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December 2008

Twitter 101

You are limited to 140 characters for posts or as they are known Tweets

You follow people

People follow you

There’s lots of info for a deeper dive, e.g.: http://www.slideshare.net/cagedether/twitter-explained-presentation?type=powerpoint

Direct Messages are private

You make your msg public if you include @username

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December 2008

Twitter Web2.01 - API

http://apiwiki.twitter.com/Search+API+Documentation

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December 2008

Twitter 201 – API – Applications

• To the left are 3rd party Applications that are recommended by Twitter

• All of these are distributed away from Twitter.com by utilising the API

http://twitter.com/downloads

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December 2008

Twitter 201 - API = Broad Ecosystem

Multitude of 3rd Party Service• Desktop apps

– Windows– Mac– Linux– Multi Platform– Second Life– Other

• Web apps– Search– Follow Management– Visual– Visualization– Posting and Alerts– Badges and Widgets– Diet and Exercise– Personal Finance– Other

• Mobile apps

Some examples• TweetDeck, a popular desk top

app• URL Tracking

• Trend Analysis

• Ads

• Search

3rd Party Service list: http://twitter.pbwiki.com/Apps Chosen from the extensive list at PR2.0:

http://www.briansolis.com/2008/10/twitter-tools-for-community-and.html

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December 2008

Twitter 301 – Social Command-Line

BotsPaying it’s historical dues to IRC, 3rd Party Services can create Bots for communication with Twitter Users

Examples• liketribe - A personal assistant that

learns your tastes, advises you where to go, gives you directions, weather, and helps find friends

• Remember The Milk - Interact with your Remember The Milk account

• AccuWx Weather - Receive a weather forecast by sending a message to @AccuWx containing a US zip code or city, state or city, country.

• CommuterFeed.com (commuter) - Commuter Feed is a free service that lets you see reports on traffic incidents in your local area using Twitter.

Evan Williams has suggested that Twitter can be considered a command-line

Le Web Talk by Ev Williams: http://vpod.tv/leweb3/392057 Many more Twitter Bots: http://twitter.pbwiki.com/Bots

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December 2008

So What? Twitter has only 5 million UV monthly

• Due to extensive API use (a stat that it’s time to start measuring), actual Twitter use is much higher

• Better though is to look at a short example in #Motrin: Johnson & Johnson Blunder

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December 2008

#Motrin: Johnson & Johnson Blunder• J&J's McNeil Consumer Healthcare had created a campaign to tie Motrin to the pain mothers

have from baby carriers• A video ad was put on to YouTube in late September but full media starts in the runup to

International Baby Wearing Week ( November 12-18, 2008)• The start of the response on Twitter is attributed to Mommy Blogger, Jessica Gottlieb on the

Friday.• A full scale Social Media eruption occurred on Twitter over the weekend. (You can get a flavour

via this this 9min response from Twitterville on YouTube)• Monday morning. The campaign (and brand) was dead in the water and this was response

from the team at Johnson & Johnson:"We have taken immediate action to respond to these concerns and have removed the advertisement from

our Web site... Unfortunately it will take longer for us to remove this advertisement from magazines, as several are currently on newsstands and in distribution.“

• More links:– Chicago Tribune: Company caves to moms’ Motrin ad backlash – Washington Post: Motrin Makers Feel Moms' Pain, Pull Babywearing Ad– Advertising Age: How Twittering Critics Brought Down Motrin Mom Campaign– Wired Blogs: Motrin's Mommy Headache: A Lesson in Social Media Experimentation– Forrester Social Media Analyst Jeremiah Owyang: The Motrin Moms Backlash by the Numbers – Live Search– Twitter Search: #motrinmoms

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December 2008

And then 10 days later: #Mumbai• Twitter responds to the terrorist attack on

Mumbai

e.g.: http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/11/26/first-hand-accounts-of-terrorist-attacks-in-india-on-twitter/

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December 2008

With #Mumbai, Twitter Crosses the Chasm

Mumbai: Twitter's Moment

Twitter turns serious amid India terror

Tweeting the terror: How social media reacted to Mumbai

But how does this relate to Search and Monetisation as an Online Business?

Interesting...

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December 2008

John Battelle Crystallises it Best

December 04, 2008Shifting Search from Static to Real-timeIn what may prove to be a seminal post on the

LookSmart Thought Leadership series, John Battelle takes the time to “Think Out Loud” about his response to using Twitter. Among other things he says:

In short, Google represents a remarkable achievement: the ability to query the static web. But it remains to be

seen if it can shift into a new phase: querying the realtime web.

http://www.typepad.com/t/trackback/1015593/36625626

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December 2008

As a Publisher, it could go from this:

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December 2008

To this?:

Or?

Discussion…

Appendix

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December 2008

TwitRank• I have put some thought into what this would look like and

have currently come to the following high-level:∑= User Influence X User Topic Authority X Update Authority

• The list of variables that can be used to build each of these are:– Followers– Following – Updates – Replies – Favourites – Retweets of other people’s updates – Retweets of this users updates – External links – Direct Messages

• Interesting reading: Twinfluence looks to be doing some good work on User Influence and Dan Zarella is working hard on ReTweets.

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December 2008

How People Move from Status Update to Microblogging

http://rohitbhargava.typepad.com/weblog/2008/12/the-5-stages-of.html

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December 2008

Blogging is the Mainstream• comScore MediaMetrix (August 2008)

– Blogs: 77.7 million unique visitors in the US– Total internet audience 188.9 million

• eMarketer (May 2008) – 94.1 million US blog readers in 2007 (50% of Internet

users)– 22.6 million US bloggers in 2007 (12%)

• Universal McCann (March 2008) – 184 million WW have started a blog | 26.4 US– 346 million WW read blogs | 60.3 US– 77% of active Internet users read blogs

Simon Baptist: Has been building successful web products with a Search and Advertising focus since ’96.

http://www.twitter.com/simon_baptist

http://www.linkedin.com/in/simonbaptist