Friday, August 13, 2010 at 4:00PM Internet memes come and go so quickly that sometimes they’re old news just as you’re hearing about them (Sad Keanu Reeves I miss you). At any given moment there are several memes floating around. This summer has seen great blending of brands and quirky fads.
Tuesday, August 10, 2010 at 4:00PM ;)
If you’re like me, you use Twitter every day but never go actually go to the Twitter site. In the past week, Twitter has upgraded a feature on their site
Friday, August 6, 2010 at 4:00PM 
It should come as no surprise that Google Wave is being shuttered by the end of the year. It’s another in a long line of failed efforts from the search giant. Sure, Wave was pretty much set up to fail as Google
Tuesday, July 27, 2010 at 4:17PM Tuesday, July 20, 2010 at 4:00PM 
Study finds Twitter triggers a chemical response, and it feels a lot like falling in love
If you remain unconvinced that it’s worth your while as a business to connect with people through Twitter and social media, this piece of news should send you hurtling over the edge.
Friday, July 16, 2010 at 4:00PM 
As reading this blog requires you to be on the internet, it’s a pretty safe bet you’re familiar with the Old Spice campaign that has the entire web talking. And, hard as it is to believe on our jaded internets, the talk is almost universally positive, even the YouTube comments.
Monday, July 12, 2010 at 4:00PM The American Days Photo Contest has found its champion
The polls have now closed on our first American Days Photo Contest and all the votes have been tallied. We asked you to send us your best photos that captured the American spirit and got some fantastic submissions in return. A huge thank you to everyone who participated, whether it was by sending in a photo or taking the time to vote for a winner.
It was hotly contested for a while, but one entry charged ahead of the pack to win by more than a few lengths. Chalking up an impressive 184 votes, the winner of The American Days Photo Contest is…
Fedja Jakupovic
Congratulations, your photo of a gravity defying break dancer has won you an iPad from The Duffy Agency!
Fedja is a project leader for a great local organization called Hela Malmö, which works to get children more involved in sports and other activities. Fedja’s winning photo is below, along with some other exceptional photos from the contest. Again, we’d like to give a great big thanks to all those who got involved.
Photo by Maisa Dabus
Photo by Nicci Clayton
Photo by Johan Jox Carlsson
Photo by Sarah Nilsson
Photo by Mats Tomas Söderberg
Friday, July 9, 2010 at 4:00PM They’re smart. They’re unrelenting. They’re Anonymous.
Love them or hate them, 4chan is without a doubt the most effective crowd sourcing community on the internet, single handedly launching some its most popular memes. The idea behind the site is simple – it’s nothing more than a public imageboard where users can post anonymously. The site, started in 2003 by 15 year-old “Moot” in his bedroom, has burgeoned into a 13 million views a day community. But how did this group go from such an inconspicuous origin to accomplishing so much?
Variety is the spice of crowd sourcing
The group is collectively known as Anonymous. It’s not just the numbers of the community that make it a force to be reckoned with - their members have a wide skill set, including code writing, programming and hacking. It’s this variety and talent of its members that make it so effective and able to make their plans a reality. Plans like putting 4chan’s founder at the top of TIME’s poll of the most influential people in the world.
Make waves - the biggest ones you can
Recently, the community has been gaining a new level of notoriety thanks to high profile projects involving vote rigging in a contest from Oprah Winfrey and attempting to send Justin Bieber to North Korea (which we have to admit is pretty funny). Success in crowd sourcing is largely measured by media attention, so find a juicy hook to get people talking.
New BFFs?
Participation has to be one thing: fun
You have 4chan to thank for many of the internets biggest memes. And they do it essentially by creating viral jokes. Sensations like Rick Rolling and lol cats get people jumping on board simply because doing so is so much fun.
Show them something they’ve never seen before
The 4chan community is also responsible for vaulting certain videos to viral stardom. All it takes is finding something compellingly bizarre, and letting the community run with it from there. The Chocolate Rain video is perhaps the most famous, featuring nothing more than a young man with an exceptionally deep voice. It now has over 53 millions views. Crowds just love quirkiness.
Give them a compelling goal
Perhaps the biggest draw of 4chan is its ability to take on behemoths. YouTube and Google have each had their share headaches at the hands of 4chan, as well as many celebrities like the ones already mentioned. They even played a big role in helping to give the people of Iran a voice during last year’s election. Letting regular people be part of something huge is a powerful draw.
We wouldn’t recommend or condone much of what 4chan does, but there’s no denying it’s an extremely effective machine for bringing people together to accomplish a goal. They certainly have a top notch understanding of how the internet works. Gleaning some of that understanding may well help you achieve some goals of your own.
Jason Ross is a copywriter for The Duffy Agency. He loves working on both traditional and social media projects and speculating on the future of the ad industry.
Thursday, June 24, 2010 at 4:00PM
This American Days, The Duffy Agency is giving you the chance to take home Steve Jobs’ new baby – the one and only iPad.
But what on Earth is American Days, you ask? It’s a three day event in Malmö, Sweden over the 4th of July weekend. The event celebrates some of America’s major cultural contributions including country music performances, Lindy Hop and Swing dancing, and classic muscle car exhibitions. But if you can’t make the event, sadly this contest does not apply to you.
If you can, the rules for entering the contest are simple:
1. Take a picture! Capture an image that expresses what you think of America. The photo must be taken at Jägersro Trav & Galoppbana during American Days, beginning July 2nd at 5 PM and ending July 4th at 5 PM. Only one entry per user.
2. Upload it! “Like” The Duffy Agency’s Facebook fan page at www.facebook.com/theduffyagency. Then simply post your photo on the Wall. You have until midnight on Tuesday, July 6th to enter.
3. Get the most “likes”! The photo with the most “likes” will be declared the winner. So make it compelling and get everyone to vote for you before Friday, July 9th at midnight! The winner will be announced the following Monday.
You can learn more about the contest by following the link above to the The Duffy Agency fan page.
Happy photo hunting!
Tuesday, June 15, 2010 at 4:00PM The lowdown on Twitter’s new geolocation service and what it can do for you
Long whispered about, Twitter has unveiled its entry into location based services: Twitter Places. In this new geolocation foray, you will be able to tag tweets with the location you happen to be in (much like check-ins on Foursquare and Gowalla) thus creating a Twitter Place. Users can click on said Place and see all the other recent tweets from that location in one stream.
It's like Birdemic all over again
Places is a great addition to Twitter’s functionality, and was an inevitability given the skyrocketing popularity of location based services. And rightly so, they create lots of fun, useful applications. Here are five new possibilities Places has created for Twitter:1. Follow events in real time from anywhere
Say you’re trying to follow the latest news from some major event, like a conference, festival or the World Cup. What you really want is to get updates from people on the ground, not the worldwide chatter flooding hashtags and search words. Twitter Places will make listening only to the people at the event possible for the first time by following a stream of tweets from only that location, whether it be a stadium, conference hall or street corner. This also adds a new level of engagement for anyone organizing events, as they can promote both remote and on location interaction through Places.
2. Reward programs for “check-ins”
This was already happening with the likes of Foursquare and Gowalla (which are integrated with Places), but now it’s possible through Twitter itself – the much more popular and market saturated mobile service. This means a company or organization can incentivize Twitter users to visit and tweet from their Twitter Place by rewarding them just for participating, or get creative with scavenger hunts and competitions.
3. Get recommendations on the spot
Having trouble deciding what to order off the menu at a new restaurant? Or what shoes to buy at the mall? Or whether you should get a 6 shot iced venti with 2/3 half-caf and 2 1/2 pump sugar-free cinnamon dolce, or a 13 shot venti soy hazelnut vanilla cinnamon white mocha with extra white mocha and caramel? Check out what other visitors to your location have had to say and you might find some golden advice.
4. Twitter apps move into the geolocation dimension
Third party apps have always been a fundamental part of Twitter and its success, so you can expect a wave of new apps utilizing Places in creative ways. This makes the timing of Places’ release interesting from a business standpoint, as Twitter announced just a few weeks ago that they will start taking a cut of the profits from 3rd parties. So if you’re a company looking to cash in on Twitter’s new API, Twitter might come knocking, wanting to cash in on your profits.
5. A new level of gauging user sentiment
Analyzing Twitter has been unearthing some brilliant insights into people’s attitudes and behavior. Places should allow for even more specific and refined research, which is good news for online savvy businesses, as well as consumers who have yet another way to talk back to companies and give them their two cents.
Those were just some of my initial thoughts. I’d love to hear any ideas you have for using Twitter Places, leave a comment if you have any epiphanies.
Jason Ross is a copywriter for The Duffy Agency. He loves working on both traditional and social media projects and speculating on the future of the ad industry.
Friday, June 11, 2010 at 4:00PM The very best social media tools for getting the most out of the 2010 World Cup
When the World Cup rolled into Germany in 2006, YouTube was in its infancy, the iPhone didn’t exist and no one knew what a Twitter was. Things have changed a bit these past few years.
Starting today, we will witness the crashing together of two behemoths: the world’s grandest sporting event and the world’s vast social networks. Prepare to have your Facebook, Twitter and every other kind of feed experience a noticeable shift in focus for the next three weeks as every football fan gets the chance to become a global sports reporter without leaving their living room.
There are loads of options for following the 64 games in painstaking detail, but we’ve sorted through them all and put together the top tools that deliver everything you need.
Mobile: The ESPN World Cup App
There are lots of great apps dedicated to the World Cup, but ESPN’s is the cream of the crop and the only one you really need. You’ve got the full schedule, you can select which teams you want to follow to stay updated on breaking news, and stats and bios of every player for every team. You can even get a history lesson in the major events of tournaments past and interact with other fans by posting comments from within the app. If you’re willing to dole out $8, you gain access to radio broadcasts of every game, letting you follow matches no matter what you’re pretending to do at work. And to think a few years ago I was happy with cutting tournament brackets out of the newspaper.
Twitter: The official World Cup aggregator
Sure you can try to follow cluttered, hectic hashtags (like #wc2010 or #worldcup), but Twitter has done you a favor and created a World Cup headquarters themselves. They’ve done a great job of it, too. On the homepage, you’ve got a flow of the top tweets, which is superior to hashtags because it doesn’t just pull in the latest World Cup tweets, but uses an algorithm to select the most interesting ones. You can also see what matches are coming up and jump to a page for tweets about each particular game where you can easily follow and join in the banter. On the flip slide, the constant flow of information on Twitter is guaranteed to contain spoilers, so if you’re recording games to watch later, it’s probably best to abandon Twitter for a while.
Facebook: The Visa Match Planner
Visa has put together a great solution for following your favorite teams via Facebook. When you choose to follow teams and matches, you can invite friends to an event page where your customized group shares comments and media. And of course you’ve got the full day-by-day schedule with live updates, as well as a video of the “worldwide goal cheer.” As an expat the event function is particularly appealing, as it’s a great way for me to root for the (former) home team with friends despite the distance.
Fantasy tournament: FIFA World Cup Fantasy
When they aren’t busy filing ridiculous lawsuits, FIFA (sponsored by McDonalds) is running one of the best fantasy tournaments. You’ve got 140 credits in the bank and all the players in the tournament to choose from. Put your squad together and compete for your piece of the glory.
Bonus! The World Cup Trivia Challenge App
Do a little competing of your own with this fun football trivia app. In a creative twist on the regular old trivia contest, with this app you take the role of a team on the road to World Cup glory, advancing as you get questions right. It’s the perfect way to overcome halftime boredom and learn a thing or two about the tournament at the same time.
If you’ve got any other favorites that you’re horrified I missed, give a shout below.
Jason Ross is a copywriter for The Duffy Agency. He loves working on both traditional and social media projects and speculating on the future of the ad industry.
Tuesday, June 8, 2010 at 4:02PM We are emotional creatures. Like it or not, raw emotion affects how we judge things intellectually. Businesses and admen have known and played on this since well before the days of Don Draper. With social media, our emotions are played on in a whole different way when it comes to dealing with corporate image issues. Letting people vent their spleen through channels like Twitter to a large degree defuses people’s anger and bitterness. After all, haven’t you ever been upset and felt better just by talking about the problem? The problem doesn’t go anywhere, but the talking lets off most of the steam.
I’ve been seeing this happen with British Petroleum (BP) on Twitter. If you’re on Twitter, you’ve probably heard of BPGlobalPR. Nope, that isn’t BP’s official PR presence on Twitter, it’s a satirical account started by one enterprising comedian shortly after the gushing oil pipeline catastrophe struck.
The Tweeter calls himself Terry and has chosen to remain anonymous despite being contacted by major news outlets who want the inside scoop on how this rogue account has chalked up 140,000 followers. Compare that to the just 12,000 of the real BP account, which actually does provide regular informative updates on the crisis. If you add up the retweets and news stories, the scathing tweets by the fake BP representative have reached millions of people eager to point and laugh at the oil giant.
Though secretive about his identity, the LA Times did get a quote from “Terry,” all the while refusing to break character, about why he’s doing this: "Companies screw up and then they hire folks like me to come in to make it look like they're doing something while they figure out how to make money again," the fake public relations representative wrote. "BP is doing everything we can to save our reputation and hopefully salvage some oil out of all this. We're making a ton of shirts and commercials about how we care, and I cleaned an ugly bird yesterday." For more great quotes, check out the interview with “Terry” on ABC News (never mind the scary monster voice).
Yes, it is an inspiring case of how social media lets a regular Joe go toe-to-toe with a mega-corporation. It’s hardly surprising that satire is successful on Twitter, it’s easier to pack a lot of sting into 140 characters than it is genuine dialogue or detailed explanation. But despite it being a fitting way to stick it to the man, BP may be the one benefiting the most from this Twitter parody. Don’t you feel less angry and anxious to do something after having a laugh at the jokes? It is still an infuriating travesty, but the heated malice toward BP is somewhat tempered, they become more bumbling than evil. BP could well have filed a complaint with Twitter, but they must have realized that would only create more negative PR and instead let people blow off steam. It may be the one good call BP has made in all of this.
Regardless of whether it’s disarming us or not (on the plus side, Terry is selling oil spill T-shirts and giving the proceeds to charity), some of the tweets are just great jokes. Here are my 5 favorite tweets from the rogue BP Twitter account so far:
What effect do you see the mock BP Twitter account having? Let us know below.
Jason Ross is a copywriter for The Duffy Agency. He loves working on both traditional and social media projects and speculating on the future of the ad industry.
Friday, May 21, 2010 at 3:44PM Summertime is finally just about here, so it’s time to start planning your big annual getaway. For most of us, this means exploring new lands and leaving the daily grind in our dust. While it can be relaxing to pack up and leave town for a few weeks, it can also be stressful to feel like you’re going to fall out of the loop while you’re gone and like you can’t rely on the internets for all your problem solving needs. Thanks to social media, leaving your home doesn’t mean you can’t stay connected. Just like packing your suitcase with your clothes, toiletries, lotions, swimwear, sandals, etc, you’ll need a social media travel kit keep you connected and allow you get the most out of your vacation.
First, you’ll need a smartphone, iPad or mini-pc/netbook. You’re packing a lot of stuff to take with you, so why take a cumbersome laptop as well? Get a small, light-weight device that will allow you easy access to the internet and will allow you to upload photos. Mini-pc’s are a great way to get online when you’re on the go and quality models can be found for $200-300.
If you’re like me, you have multiple websites you check every day to keep up with news, events, and in the case of vacation planning, recommended locations, restaurants and attractions. Instead of leaving all those bookmarks on your home computer, create a Del.icio.us account and you can check them from any device with internet access.
Keep in touch with your friends and family and let them know what you’re up to through Facebook and Twitter. Since everyone you know is more than likely on Facebook and/or Twitter, it’s easy to arrange meet-ups if they’re in the area, and get recommendations from them on places to stay, eat and visit. This is an excellent way to get local advice on places to eat and sights to see that aren’t in the travel guides.
You often don’t know anyone in the places you’re visiting, so finding a great place to eat can be difficult. Fortunately Urbanspoon.com is a great user review restaurant site. You can find local places to eat through their website or their android or iPhone app, see how people rated the restaurant and how they critiqued it.
TripIt allows you to plan out your entire vacation. You can add your flight, lodging and car rental information, plus add all the details of where you’ll be and how to get there, complete with maps and driving times. Even if you choose not to share the information through Facebook or Twitter, this is a great way to keep track of reservation numbers, costs and trip notes.
Finally, Skype is the best free way to call people and even includes video calls. You can stay in touch with the people you left back home and make them jealous of the wonderful time you are having - without having to pay long distance or roaming fees.
This summer, leaving home for a vacation doesn’t mean you can’t stay informed or in touch with the people you care about or want to meet. Thanks to wifi networks and mobile devices, you can maximize your trip, stay in touch and best of all, get rid of those stupid maps.
Stefan Halley is the Digital Project Leader for The Duffy Agency. He loves to talk about social media.
Thursday, May 20, 2010 at 6:39PM New network alliance creates a viable option to global advertising conglomerate – minus the baggage
One advertising agency by itself, even if it’s filled with some of the best and brightest in the industry, can’t give you global reach. That’s why so many companies turn to global network agencies (think Ogilvy, JWT, BBDO) despite the hefty price, inflexibility and bureaucracy that are often part of the package. But today many clients are discovering that when independent agencies around the globe work together in harmony, that independent creative shop around the corner turns into your brand’s gateway to brilliant global marketing, without all the baggage.
This new independent solution provides more options to clients with global brands. Instead of having to choose between one global network agency or hand-picking individual agencies in every market, you can now go to an independent network to get centralized leadership with local expertise in one package. This strategy is becoming an increasingly popular one.
Our goal has always been to be a lithe independent agency that can take on challenging international projects. That’s why we’re a member of the ad agency network TAAN. It allows us to partner with other top class independent agencies in markets around the world to take on multi-national campaigns. Since each agency is carefully selected and immersed in only its local market, with all of the unique nuances that entails, TAAN has been a godsend in making many of our projects successes for us and our clients.
TAAN’s reach recently made a huge leap forward thanks to an alliance with the San Jose Network – the world’s premier Latin ad agency network serving global clients across North, Central and South America. The new alliance creates a network of independent ad agencies with combined coverage of 65 countries, 87 markets and 3.5 billion people. TAAN president Peter Gerristen said of the new partnership, “This alliance is truly a game-changer for today’s brands and will provide expertise, local knowledge and insight into economically important regions and cultures.”
Since it’s vital to meet face to face with our network partners to see what skills we can each add to projects, we bit the bullet and made the trip from perpetually overcast Sweden to the sunny shores of Miami. The meeting was the first gathering of the combined networks to establish relationships and get the ball rolling on some exciting new collaborations.
San Jose Network founder George L. San Jose with Sean Duffy (TAAN EU President, founder The Duffy Agency), Rich Wahl (Managing Partner of The Duffy Agency Boston) and Peter Gerristen (TAAN Global President) at the conference in Miami
The biggest impact the new alliance has for us is the added depth in Latin American markets. We can’t wait to dive into new projects that will take advantage of this expertise.
With combined annual billings of $1.5 billion USD, this new independent constellation would easily rank in the world’s top 10 of Ad Agency Networks (combined billings were revised up from 1.1 billon since the alliance was announced in February, 2010). “No matter how you look at it, that is a business entity to be reckoned with,” said Sean Duffy who, together with John Reisky, serves as president of TAAN Europe.
Despite their combined size, networks of independents retain a level of agility and adaptability that is valued by clients large and small, yet has proven difficult for the the WPP and Interpublic Groups of the world to copy. The failure of the global ad agency conglomerates to keep pace with the changes that have taken place in the market over the past decade is making networks like TAAN a more attractive option than traditional global agency network chains. We believe this trend will continue.
Do you see the rise of independent networks shaping the future of the ad biz, or will the industry continue to be dominated by Sir Martin Sorrell and Michael Roth?
Read more about the TAAN and San Jose Network alliance.
Friday, April 30, 2010 at 4:24PM Mother’s Day is almost here (May 9th if you’re in America). If you’re like me, it always sneaks up on you and you’re left scrambling at the last second. Since I live in Sweden and my mother lives in the US, buying a present at the last minute is not possible. Sure, there is always the traditional flowers, but these days they feel so impersonal. Thanks to the world wide web, you’re no longer limited to cards, overpriced flowers and chocolate. Today you can choose from customized photo books, DIY gift baskets or the Bacon of the Month Club.
Findgift.com is THE site to find creative gifts. Stumped on what to get? Click on Mother’s Day Gift ideas and find items like family character magnets, a mosaic humming bird feeder, a pyramid planter or over 1300 different gift ideas. I’m torn between the potato chip of the month subscription or a 10 motor massage cushion with heat.
If you’re looking for something more personal, Shutterfly might be the place for you. Upload your photos to the site and create your own photo book, cards or a custom photo or video website. Instead of creating a labor intensive scrapbook, add your photos and create a hard or soft cover book in more than 20 different styles. This is a wonderful way to save your photos instead of printing them out for a photo album or scrapbook.
Design it yourself allows anyone to create their own gift basket. Your mom a big gardener or a golfer or a coffee lover? They have gift baskets for all of those. Plus they give you the ability to create over 9 different types of gift baskets. There are loads of great options.
Finally, if you don’t have a lot of money to spend but want to send something personalized, Bluemountain.com allows you to create, print or send your own cards. What mother wouldn’t appreciate an animated card from their son or daughter? You can also record your own message to be included in the card.
Mother’s Day may be fast approaching, but now you have no reason to miss the chance show her just how much you appreciate her and all the things she does.
Stefan Halley is the Digital Project Leader for The Duffy Agency. He loves to talk about social media.
Tuesday, April 27, 2010 at 4:00PM
The change for Twitter makes connecting to third party applications more secure and should reduce the occurrence of people having their accounts hacked. This is a very smart move for Twitter since, if they want to grow and offer more services, they have to deal with their security issues. There will still be basic authorization for streaming API for apps that need realtime access to Twitter, as these will take longer to switch over to the new system.
The Facebook change is being made to create a larger sphere of influence and to track users’ web habits when they aren’t on Facebook so they can offer new content for them to enjoy. Websites can add a “like” button which, when clicked by a visitor, sends a link back to their Facebook page. This is a big deal for websites as it lets their visitors share content on a more personal level and will boost their traffic. The new system looks to ultimately become a mixture of Delicious, StumbleUpon and Reddit all at once. Basically, a mix of the best of social media sharing sites.
These changes should be great for both Twitter and Facebook, giving them more control of the user experience and allowing for a higher degree of customization. Privacy experts are, of course, up in arms. Both companies can now track your online activity and sell that data to marketers and businesses. The new face of the Internet is user data-mining and Twitter and Facebook are only doing what Google has been doing for years. As we rush to share our common experiences online, we give up some of our privacy. That’s the trade off, if you want your friends and family to know what you’re doing, you have to be willing to give up a piece of yourself.
These changes aren’t as Orwellian as critics would have you believe. It’s another service that these mega sites believe will provide a more customized and unique experience. Is this a step in the right direction or are we headed to a day when our every move online will be tracked and sold to the highest bidder?
Stefan Halley is the Digital Project Leader for The Duffy Agency. He loves to talk about social media.
Friday, April 16, 2010 at 4:00PM 
Skype is the best way to communicate from long distance over the web, from daily instant messaging to making international calls to video conferencing. It also allows you to transfer files, which makes it even easier to have one-on-one meetings. The service allows you to send an SMS from Skype and has voicemail and call forwarding. It’s a must have for any business these days.
Gotomeeting.com allows you to conduct a webinar, conduct training seminars or have a simple business meeting. People can call in from a landline through the Go to Meeting software. It allows you to record the meeting, share applications and get feedback afterwards. Attendees can edit documents on screen, chat, and even view meetings through an iPad. It’s a great service that allows you to demo for 30-days or purchase a monthly or yearly subscription. I’ve attended several meetings through Gotomeeting.com and it works great.
Prezi.com is a new site that allows you to create presentations online. If don’t have Keynote or PowerPoint, Prezi is your solution. The site is easy to use and the presentation navigation helps you move beyond a typical PowerPoint slideshow. The site isn’t for everyone, but people tired of the traditional slideshow style presentations will enjoy this unique site.
Thebox.net is your solution for file sharing from a distance. For $9.95 a month, the site gives you 10 GB of space and a 1 GB file size limit. This is a great way to save huge files you want to access while you’re traveling. If you need to send a group a large file, you can just save it to thebox.net. You can give multiple people permission to access files, which makes group projects with people from all over the world simple without having to set up a hosting server and FTP clients.
The next time a natural disaster strikes, or life in general gets in the way, don’t worry. Just use these online tools and you’ll be able to continue your work without missing a beat.
Stefan Halley is the Digital Project Leader for The Duffy Agency. He loves to talk about social media.
Tuesday, April 13, 2010 at 4:00PM
I’ve put together a list of what news I expect to hear from Chirp.
Monetization strategy - How will Twitter make money? They’ve been keeping analysts guessing for months and now we’ll finally get an idea of how the company will sustain itself. I’m predicting a paid keyword search, ads on profiles and premium accounts.
New features added - Location, tiny urls and video and photo sharing are standard features on most Twitter apps like Tweetdeck and Seesmic. It only makes sense that Twitter adds more features like this. Sure it will upset a few business models but if Twitter wants to grow, they’ll have to add some features that conflict with already established apps. Their purchase of Tweetie shows they are already moving in that direction.
How @anywhere will work - We can already use OAuth and many sites allow you to use your Twitter account as a log in to their site, so what makes @anywhere any different? We’ll a better idea of why this is a better solution.
Redesign - After redesigning their front page, what other changes are in store for users. If they announce new features, hopefully, we’ll get a peak at how they’ll be integrated into the site.
New partnerships - With the addition of Tweetie as the “official” iPhone app, can other apps be far off? Will Foursquare be the official location app? Will Seesmic become the official desktop application? It makes sense for Twitter to endorse different apps. It ensures a level of quality and makes sure their is a line of products that adhere to a common standard.
I’m curious to hear what features people would like to see added to Twitter and what announcements you expect to hear. Leave your thoughts below.
Stefan Halley is the Digital Project Leader for The Duffy Agency. He loves to talk about social media.
Friday, April 9, 2010 at 3:41PM Bebo is the latest network to fail as the titans continue to increase their dominance around the world
The social media landscape is littered with the skeletal remains of failed sites. Fear not, social media isn’t dying. But instead of being the wild west of the internet, the landscape is being tamed and defined in clearer terms. The new wild frontier is smartphone apps and we’re already seeing tough competition between Foursquare and Gowalla. It’s only a matter of time before we’re stepping over one of their corpse on our way to the next big thing.
Right now, the three big social networks are Facebook, MySpace and Twitter. If we look at the past year, Facebook has added 54 million users, MySpace has lost 8 million and Twitter has added 13 million according to Compete.com.
The three main social media sites received a collected 194 million visitors in February. That’s roughly 3% of the world's population visiting just three websites. While Twitter and Facebook are secure, MySpace, the little site that everyone wants to go away, is still going strong as it's found a niche catering to music and film fans.
In comparison, Bebo received 1.6m unique visitors for February. It is a far cry from the big three, but what about Friendster and Orkut? Each of these sites are doing poorly and it’s surprising that Bebo is the first to go considering that Friendster only had 881k visitors in February and Orkut had 761k visitors.
How long before these sites are also shuttered? Google is notorious for purchasing companies, neglecting them until they lose all their audience and then dumping them (e.g. Jaiku). Friendster shot out of the gate, but soon fell by the wayside as MySpace took over. In 2009, there was a shake down of micro-blogging sites as Pownce and ReJaw joined Jaiku on the trash heap.
As Bebo circles the drain, can Orkut be far behind?
Stefan Halley is the Digital Project Leader for The Duffy Agency. He loves to talk about social media.
Tuesday, April 6, 2010 at 4:00PM In the latest edition of The International Duffy Tribune, we’re spilling our guts about all of our failures.
You’ll also discover how we helped one of France’s biggest companies use social media to get their target buzzing and how to make captivating sales presentations by ditching PowerPoint and getting creative.
Enjoy the read and if you have any ideas/inspiration/outrage, let it out in the comments section.
