Commedy Central will fork over cash to Gulf Restoration if you Tweet ...

Comedy Central is donating $1 to the Colbert Nation's Gulf of America Fund every time someone re-tweets @stephenathome's message "in honor of oil soaked birds tweets are now gurgles."

In order to do this, you must be registered on Twitter, and you must be a follower of @stephenathome. Then go here and re-tweet this message.

Check out Colbert discussing the campaign - hilarious - as always.

Millennials & Twitter

by Laurie Sullivan, Yesterday, 7:45 AM, MediaPost

Millennials -- 18- to-26-year-olds -- don't see value in Twitter, although they spend hours daily texting friends and communicating on social networks in real time, according to a study released Monday from the Participatory Marketing Network (PMN).

The study suggests that only 22% of Millennials use Twitter, the real-time microblogging site that allows posts of up to 140 characters. Of those young people who use Twitter, 85% said they follow friends, 54% follow celebrities, 29% follow family, and 29% follow companies. That's not great news for marketers and companies trying to reach this demographic through the site.

"Twitter has a problem on their hands if they want to become a long-term viable player," says Michael Della Penna, PMN co-founder and executive chairman. "Part of that communication of value must speak to Gen Y and show them the benefit of using Twitter."

Some might suggest that Millennials aren't the only ones who don't see the value in Twitter.

When asked about social networks, nearly all who participated in the survey revealed having an active profile on at least one site. Eighty-nine percent have downloaded an application to their profile page; 89%, photos; 53%, games; 51%, entertainment; 32%, news; and 29%, weather.

Mobile social networking is heating up for Millennials, too. Thirty-eight percent have an iPhone or iPod Touch. More than 50% have downloaded games; 35%, entertainment; 31%, lifestyle; 28% have downloaded free financial applications, and 7% have paid financial applications. More than one-quarter -- 26 percent -- indicated that they have not downloaded any.

PMN conducted the study in May 2009 with its research partner, the Lubin School of Business' Interactive and Direct Marketing (IDM) Lab at Pace University, by questioning 200 PMN panel members and consumers between the ages of 18-24.

Chinese Government Blocks Twitter

Run-up to 20th Anniversary of Tiananmen Square Blamed

Posted by Normandy Madden on 06.02.09 @ 02:55 PM, Advertising Age

HONG KONG (AdAge.com) -- China's government has pulled the plug on yet another Western website, making Twitter unavailable to most users in mainland China since about 5 p.m. local time (5 a.m. in New York.)

It is widely assumed the government wanted to limit Twitter use before an important and controversial event -- the 20th anniversary of the government crackdown on student protests in Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989.

The authorities are also nervous about the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China coming up on Oct. 1, 2009.

Tweets cannot exceed 140 characters, limiting messages in most Western languages to just a few words, but 140 Chinese characters gives Twitter users the ability to post a full-blown news article.

Also, Twitter's format makes it easy to spread messages quickly and easily and potentially mobilize people in public areas within minutes, a scenario that terrifies China's Communist Party.

The government blocked other sites this week, such as Flickr, a photo sharing service owned by Yahoo, and two Microsoft Corp. applications, the e-mail service Hotmail and Bing, a flagship search engine that launched globally only this week. It has also started a four-month crackdown on unapproved internet cafes.

"It's experiencing a boom in popularity," said Oli D. (@djodcouk), a Shanghai-based blogger with one of the largest Twitter followings in China who declined to give his full name for this story.

Minutes after the site was blocked in China, indignant and often angry users tweeted posts with trend topics such as #gfw (which stands for "great firewall of China") and even #fuckgfw.

Censors have blocked other Western sites in China, including YouTube in early March, presumably for videos on the site related to Tibet, another sensitive topic in China. Blogspot, Tumblr, Livejournal, Xanga, Wordpress, Friendfeed and Microsoft's Live.com are also blocked.

Ironically, many posts are still coming from users based in the mainland who are skirting the blocked site today with Twitter applications like Tweetdeck.

Sigh. How Can You Prove ROI for Social Networking?

Two BIG QUESTIONS in Web 2.0 marketing --

How do we measure social media?

Web Analytics vendors are working on ways to capture social bookmarking, widgets, and social application events. Groups within the Web Analytics Association are conducting research, so that they can then draft measurement standards for use by professionals who need to demonstrate return on investment (ROI.)

How do we monetize social media?

Brands are starting to see revenue flow through channels such as Twitter and Social Networks.

source: Holiday Wrap-Up, MediaPost, Jodi McDermott, 12/19/08



In regards to Twitter, there's been a lot of talk about Twitter's lack of a business model.

But it’s becoming more clear that while a business model is of course important, Twitter is perhaps the perfect example of a company that can afford to take its time in finding the one that is perfect for it. That’s because other businesses are building so much on top of the micro-messaging service and using it for their own services. If worst came to worst, and Twitter had to sell, there would probably be a bidding war of a magnitude that would make it seem like this country wasn’t in the midst of a recession.

InternetNews has a good rundown of the Twitter/business phenomenon. Buried in it is this gem:

Less altruistically, some businesses have discovered that Twitter is an effective way of communicating with consumers. Dell (NASDAQ: DELL) says Twitter has produced $1 million in revenue over the past year and a half through sale alerts. People who sign up to follow Dell on Twitter receive messages when discounted products are available the company’s Home Outlet Store. They can click over to purchase the product or forward the information to others.

If Twitter has made Dell $1 million in revenue, imagine how much it’s making for all of the companies it helps promote. While a million dollars may not be much to a company like Dell, for some smaller companies that are also using Twitter as a sales/promotional tool, it is no doubt invaluable.

Twitter is expected to lay out its plan for how to monetize the service in 2009. It may involve creating premium, corporate accounts, which seems like a good idea given the numbers Dell is stating. But while everyone is busy getting in a tizzy over its business model, Twitter continues to gain popularity, including the all-important mainstream variety.

One way or another, Twitter will be fine — even if that still doesn’t make sense to some people.

source: Twitter has made Dell $1 million in revenue, VentureBeat.com, MG Siegler, December 15th, 2008

Go here for more information about "What Keeps Twitter Chirping Along."