Twitter Goes Down For Maintenance

Many Twitterers were shocked to see their beloved Twitter offline today, but since it was an expected outage there was no cause for alarm.

Micro-blogging service Twitter shut down for maintenance on Tuesday after delaying the move for a day because of its use as a communications tool by Iranians following their disputed election.

Twitter went down around 5:00 pm (2100 GMT), replacing its usual home page with a message saying “Twitter is currently down for maintenance. We expect to be back in about an hour. Thanks for your patience.”

The site also displayed a picture of a talking ice cream cone telling a caterpillar to “Hurry up.”

Twitter co-founder Biz Stone said in a blog post that the maintenance scheduled initially for Monday had been delayed because of “the role Twitter is currently playing as an important communication tool in Iran.”

A US State Department official said Tuesday that the department it had asked Twitter to delay the shutdown, but Stone did not mention any government request in explaining the decision to postpone the maintenance.

Protestors in Iran have been using Twitter for battle cries and to spread word about clashes with police and hardline supporters of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

We expect downtime to be limited in the future or at least we hope.  This isn’t the first time Twitter was shut down for maintenance and we do suspect that it will be the last.

Lindsay Lohan Goes Topless on Twitter

Ok Lindsay, we get it, you need attention.  Tabloid mainstay Lindsay Lohan posted a topless photo of herself on Twitter Monday. The image was from backstage at a photo shoot she did with Italian clothing designer Fornarina in January, the New York Daily News reports. “OLD PHOTOS,” she tweeted. “I’m THAT bored.” The photos feature Lohan topless, in jeans, with blonde hair extensions covering most of her breasts.

Lindsay Lohan

What’s next Lindsay, perhaps you will show it all?

Twitter Or Not, Here I Come

Ever since Twitter began there have been marketers trying to harness the power of this micr-blogging system.  Twitter is just one of several social networking tools that has come out in the last few years, but somehow it managed to rise above the rest. 

Leveraging social media is one of the ways you can focus on link building, reputation management, online sales, and more, as part of an SEO strategy.

Remember, each social media venue is different with real people thriving in real, albeit virtual, communities. Some social gatherings tend to take their conversations pretty seriously, so they are naturally protective of their communities. Joining a social media community isn’t a right — you have to earn your voice to be heard. Social media is not a set-it-and-forget it environment. It takes an investment in time, thought, and planning. Spend time getting to know all about the environment. As an example, let’s look at Twitter.

Twitter was originally built to accommodate updates from phones. The origin of the 140-character limit per post mirrors the 160-character limit for short message services (SMS). But Twitter has grown far beyond its original text-based constructs to include thousands of applications that make users more productive and prolific than ever before.

In its simplest form, Twitter is a micro-blogging forum that allows you to connect with people directly on their cell phones or computers in a non-obtrusive way. The nicest thing about being able to connect with people through Twitter is that fans and followers don’t have to give you any private information about themselves. Rather, Twitter allows friends and fans an easy way to follow your tweets because they want to get your updates, alerts, tips, and general messages.

Twitter is all about speed and participating in the conversation. This concept is so important to your success in Twitter that it bears repeating. Twitter is about people, participation, and persuasion. Grasp this one concept and you’ll be able to surpass your online rivals to lead your niche in online marketing, brand buzz, and reputation management.

Businesses can form instant direct relationships with customers simply by signing up and using the service regularly. Under the different business models Twitter is beta testing, businesses should soon be able to advertise to the Twitter community as well.

Twitter isn’t just a cute way for keeping up with friends on mobile phones anymore. It has ramped up quickly to be the search engine of choice for millions seeking its human driven results. Consequently,

Twitter is a new media revolution that should not be ignored, especially if you are seeking one more way to rank in search results.

Since Twitter has universal appeal, consider starting with a tweet or two — after you’ve searched for tweets about your company or your brands, of course. To sign up for Twitter, simply go to Twitter.com and click on “Get Started — Join!” Fill out the information and voila — you have your own Twitter account.

I usually recommend setting up at least two accounts; one for your personal name and one for each branded line or business division in your organization. That’s where some of the planning comes in. It’s also important to grab names for your brands before someone else does, even if you don’t plan on using the account for a while.

There are a few things to consider when signing up, starting with selecting the right user name. It’s perfectly acceptable to use your full name for a personal account, just don’t make your name any longer than it needs to be. Challenges with using your full name arise when it’s too long or too difficult for new friends and followers to spell.

Twitter limits your username to 14 characters or less. There are several advantages of using a short brand name, versus your full brand name. Short brand names are easier to remember, spell, and type when using a mobile device to communicate with you. The key is to be remembered, so if you have to shorten your name, at least make it memorable.

Next, set up your profile. Remember, your profile will be the meta description adjoined to your profile name as the title tag for your Twitter page, so make the most of the space you have. Include some pertinent information about yourself or your company since the twittosphere actually wants to know these things. You’ll also want to upload a current photo of yourself for your personal Twitter account and upload an image or a logo for your business account.

There are some free Twitter backgrounds you can download for your profile page. You can design your own Twitter skin for better brand identification, but you can do that at a later date after you get started. For now it’s easiest to just stick to the ones that Twitter has given you to choose from. You can also change profiles from the “settings” link located under your picture on your profile page on the right sidebar. Be sure to include a link to your Web site, a landing page within your Web site designed just for Twitter users, your blog, or wherever. It’s a free link that’s naturally part of your profile.

It’s important that you Tweet a few things that leave a lasting impact before you start following people or looking for followers. Have at least five to eight Tweets up on your profile to give new visitors coming across your profile page an idea of what type of Tweets they can expect if they choose to follow you.

What can you Tweet about when you first get started? You could Tweet a few cool things about yourself, perhaps industry tips, quotes, or questions. Or you can put anything you might have in a biography or an “about us” in a series of Tweets. Whatever you do, don’t just talk about sales or marketing initiatives at first. Instead, talk about who you are and why you’re there.

Before long you will become familiar with Twitter and all of its great features to utilize your own social networking.  Trying to keep up with the many companies that offer Twitter related services will be your biggest challenge.

Alarming Twitter Statistics Revealed

Much of Twitter‘s growth appears to be fueled by celebrities and online marketers.  With its relative newness, I think most users just require more time to get acquainted with Twitter before they will take full advantage of it.

• 72.5% of all users have joined since January 2009
• 85.3% of all Twitter users post less than one update per day
• 21% of users have never posted a Tweet
• 93.6% of users have less than 100 followers, while 92.4% follow less than 100 people.
• 5% of Twitter users account for 75% of all activity
• New York has the most Twitters users, followed by Los Angeles, Toronto, San Francisco and Boston; while
• Detroit was the fast-growing city over the first five months of 2009
• More than 50% of all updates are published using tools, mobile and Web-based, other than Twitter.com.
• TweetDeck is the most popular non-Twitter.com tool with 19.7% market share.
• There are more women on Twitter (53%) than men (47%)
• Of the people who identify themselves as marketers, 15% follow more than 2,000 people. This compares with 0.29% of overall Twitter users who follow more than 2,000 people

Interesting facts about Twitter‘s current user base, perhaps it will look much different in 6 months.

Twitter Growth Slows Down in June

Looks like Twitter growth is on a downturn for June, but experts say this lull will be short lived.  As Twitter rolls out new features and improves its uptime, traffic is expected to rebound by the end of the month. 

The “microblogging” site drew 18.2 million users in May, up 6.7 percent from a month earlier, according to New York-based research firm Nielsen Online. Twitter logged 7.04 million users in February, almost doubled that to 13.9 million in March and then gained 23 percent to 17.1 million in April, when Winfrey signed up for the site on the air.

Twitter’s slowdown was expected because the pace it set in March and April was unsustainable, said Andrew Lipsman, a spokesman for Reston, Virginia-based ComScore Inc., another Web audience-ratings service. While ComScore’s final May data isn’t done yet, weekly surveys by the researcher show Twitter’s usage peaking at 6.78 million people in early May and dipping to 5.46 million by the week ending May 31.

“We saw huge growth, and a lot of that had to be trials,” Lipsman said. Some of the audience may have also shifted from visiting the site itself to using Twitter-related software tools. They let people post Twitter messages without showing up in usage statistics for the company’s home page.

In response to the report, Twitter said it’s investing in areas that will fuel growth in the long run.

“We have a lot of work to do,” said Jenna Sampson, a spokeswoman for San Francisco-based Twitter. “We are still a young company and very much focused on growth. We want to mature properly.”

It’s probably a good thing that traffic has slowed for a while, which will give the Twitter team a chance to catch their breath before the next wave of traffic hits.

Are You A Twitter Quitter?

Research suggests that some Twitter users are quitters after only a short while, or maybe qwitters should be the appropriate term.

Twitter is a micro-blogging service that enables people to read each other’s posts (known as ‘tweets’) in the form of 140 character updates. It was created in 2006, and in February 2009 Nielson.com ranked Twitter as the fastest growing site with 1382% growth – a lot of that growth happening towards the end of 2008. Not surprising, given the economic downturn and upsurge in the number of people embracing social media and social networking. 

Despite the sudden growth of Tweeple (people who tweet and are twitters), Nielson.com reports that 60% of Twitter users quit within the first month. Why? My guess is because they never should have been there in the first place. If you are thinking about using Twitter as part of your job search or career management strategy, here is what you need to know:

The object of Twitter is to increase your visibility by acquiring followers (people who read your tweets). People will follow you if you have interesting information to share. This means posting helpful links, facts, quotes, and other data. The onus is on you to give first. Continually updating your status (i.e. is searching for XYZ opportunities, is working on her resume, is going to a networking event, etc) will not net you the results you’re seeking. Save those updates for Facebook and LinkedIn.

Twitter requires a larger investment of time and energy than other social networking sites. You have to research to find relevant and interesting things to share, and be committed to tweeting on a regular and consistent basis. Even on a busy day, you should aim to tweet at least three times (minimum) throughout the day if you want to solidify your reputation as a subject matter expert and increase your follower base. If you are more interested in following than being followed, an investment of time is still required to read tweets posted by others.

Unless you’re famous (or infamous), the chances of someone randomly searching for, finding, and following you are slim-to-nil. You need to create a buzz around yourself and your tweets by letting people know you’re on Twitter and by tweeting about issues and ideas your target audience will find interesting. Pete Cashmore (Mashable) and Dan Schawbel (danschawbel) have done a great job of this.

Twitter is a wonderful tool for keeping you on the cutting edge of the information highway, but it is worth thinking seriously about which lane you want to be in before you merge into traffic.

Dell Making Millions on Twitter

Looks like Dell is making money on Twitter, perhaps Twitter should start charging them per tweet. 

Dell (Dell) says it has surpassed $3 million in sales attributed to Twitter, and the online social network, which has yet to make a profit, is watching closely.

Dell sells refurbished systems through Twitter at @DellOutlet, which the computer maker says has more than 600,000 followers. Since launching @DellOutlet in 2007, the company has taken in more than $2 million in sales directly attributed to Twitter, and another $1 million from people who start at Twitter and then move on to buy a new computer somewhere else on the Dell Web site, Stephanie Nelson, who manages the Twitter account, said in the corporate blog late Thursday night.

While not providing specifics, Nelson told USA Today that Twitter is soliciting feedback from Dell. In addition, the two companies are testing new features.

In making sales through @DellOutlet, Dell sends tweets to subscribers, telling bargain hunters the latest available refurbished systems. The company also messages couponhjs and clearance events.

The strategy has taken @DellOutlet to the top 50 most followed Twitter users, according to Dell. Such standings are tracked on a third-party Twitter monitoring service called TwitterCounter.

Other top 50 Twitter users includes brands like @Zappos, @Woot, @JetBlue and @WholeFoods. As of March, Twitter.com reached 9.3 million visitors, according to ComScore Media Metrix.

Harvard Research Shows Only Small Percent Active On Twitter

In a recent study, researchers from Harvard sampled 300,000 Twitter users in May 2009 to find out how they are using the micro-blogging service.

The findings showed that, despite a tremendous amount of media hype, the typical Twitter users seldom posts and that only a small percentage of users on the site are active. The researchers found that, among Twitter users, the median number of lifetime tweets per user is one. This translates into over half of Twitter users tweeting less than once every 74 days.

At the same time there is a small contingent of users who are very active. Specifically, the top 10% of prolific Twitter users accounted for over 90% of tweets.

In case you don’t know yet, Twitter is a social networking and micro-blogging service, which began in 2006, that enables its users to send and read other users’ updates known as tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length which are displayed on the user’s profile page and delivered to other users who have subscribed to them (known as followers).

Senders can restrict delivery to those in their circle of friends or, by default, allow anybody to access them. Users can send and receive tweets via the Twitter website, Short Message Service (SMS) or external applications.

The service is free to use over the Internet, but using SMS may incur phone service provider fees.

Twitter To Implement Verification System For Celebrities

To combat celebrity user authentication, Twitter will implement a verification system.  Stung by several incidents of impostors posing as celebrities on the popular social networking site, Twitter is implementing a verification system to authenticate the identities of famous people.  The “Verified Accounts” plan was outlined by Twitter co-founder Biz Stone in a blog posted Saturday. Under the initiative, Twitter will begin verifying the accounts of “public officials, public agencies, famous artists, athletes and other well-known individuals at risk of impersonation” and provide those accounts with a special seal, Stone said.

The blog said Twitter will be “experimenting with a beta preview” of the plan this summer but didn’t otherwise provide specific dates for the effort. “We hope to verify more accounts in the future, but due to the resources required, verification will begin only with a small set” of famous Twitterers, the blog said.

Last month St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa sued Twitter in San Francisco Superior Court after an impostor created an account in his name. That account was deleted, but in his blog Stone denied reports that Twitter had settled the lawsuit and paid legal fees in the case.

“With due respect to the man and his notable work, Mr. La Russa’s lawsuit was an unnecessary waste of judicial resources bordering on frivolous. Twitter‘s terms of service are fair and we believe will be upheld in a court that will ultimately dismiss Mr. La Russa’s lawsuit,” Stone wrote.

Last month Twitter was the target of an expletive-laced blog rant by rapper Kanye West after an impostor created a Twitter account in his name. Twitter suspended that account, as it has other fake celebrity accounts, including one for the Dalai Lama.

Stone said that at least initially the verification system would not be tested with businesses, although he hinted that idea could provide Twitter with an “opportunity” in the future.

We will wait and see where Twitter goes with this one.

Twitter Is Hijacked by Cybercriminals

Twitter is being hijacked by cybercriminals since last week and have infiltrated a large part of the Twitter user network.  An ongoing malware serving campaign across Twitter, is continuing to abuse the momentum offered by Twitter’s trending topics in order to trick users into visiting bogus exclusive video sites and infect them with malware.

What are we going to do with these pesky hackers?

The campaign, spreading since last week, is relying on a growing number of automatically registered bogus Twitter accounts, which combine trending topics and hashtags with custom messages and pre-defined Tinyurl links, all leading to identical fake codec which is droping three different malware samples.

Let’s dissect their activities, and find a common pattern of exploitation.

This very latest campaign once again demonstrates that malicious parties do not maintain a static list of potentially dangerous keywords, in fact, thanks to the dynamic nature of today’s Web, they serve malware in real-time by automatically syndicating the Web’s buzz and mixing it with malicious content hosted on legitimate services whose high pageranks ensure the lowest possible time frame for having their content crawled by public search engines.

What has changed since last week is the intensity of the campaign, which now includes many new topics, which the bogus accounts advertise with over 150 tweets on average during a period of 24 hours.

The tweets are generated by using popular hashtag or Trending topics combined with their campaign message and a relatively static Tinyurl link.

Here are some of the topics currently used in the campaign:

Shocking video today, Headline news video, Shocking news theme, Airplance crashes theme, for instance, Jumbo Jet 747 on fire, 280 deaths, Little Cessna crash in Vancouver, Airbus A330-200 Crash Video, Young childred killed in car crash, Terrible car crash in Fresno, CA, 15 deaths, online video, Airbus A330-200 Crash Video, AA AIRBUS A340 CRASH in Auburn, 189 fatalities, Celebrities in front of shopping mall theme, Rape theme – Raped Tonight by 20 skinheads – HEADLINE News Video, Pedophile raped over 580 children, Rihanna Raped Tonight by 20 skinheads in Maryland State. VIDEO

Upon following any of the links, the users are redirected to a Mal/FakeAV-AY (streamviewer.40030.exe) serving site attempting to trick the visitors with a common social engineering theme, the lack of required codec in order to view the video.

Cybercriminals adapt pretty fast, for instance, last week’s campaign was using the bit.ly URL-shortening service which does cross-check submitted URLs for possible maliciousness using community-driven databases.

The effectiveness of this common sense technique is best described with the “Warning – this site has been flagged by SURBL and may contain unsolicited content.” message served for the very same domain that the malicious parties are now freely redirecting to through TinyURL.

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