Policy Announcement and Compliance improves website's Traffic

It might not be too late to wake up to the fact that stage is set where SEO, the term hackneyed enough to mean optimization for traffic through anything on the web, has a lot to do with Policies set by different channels which must be followed to get better exposure.

You can easily break it broadly into Google, Bing, Facebook & twitter. Some may add yandex, yahoo, linkedin and perhaps reddit too. All have different policies with something in common, widely recognized as User Experience, UX.

However, user experience designing on search may be a different ball game compared to what it is on social media, where a lot depends on the context when you release the content. So, its a tricky affair actually. Also, too much meta marking for social media may adversely affect search result.

Hence, to maintain edge you must position yourself better where others are ignorant. Policy compliance is such an area. If your site is up to date in terms of latest policies laid down by different search engines and social media it gives you an edge.

These are:
compliance to

Privacy Policy

internet cookies policy

content ownership & sharing policy

Comment Publishing Policy

Law of the land policy

Social accountability policy

Content Removal Policy

Did some of the policies discussed in the end looked bizarre? Well, you should not take them as such because the era in which we are living google, facebook... are trigger happy blocking the inflammatory content which lacks social accountability and whenever escalations take place their bot filters would be happy to detect and give you green signal. Make the list bigger and announce them emphatically. It works!

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Evolved from Apes with Tail, craves for a Scorpion Sting

Backstabbing and Backbiting are dirty words. Unlike other species, human beings are not designed for any action or reaction that may arise from behind. A flat back with 180 degrees apart eyes focusing only on front, not behind you. We can say our human race throughout its evolution history hasn't needed anything on its back, ever since we lost our tail.

Technology has given us instruments with which we can spy on others, within or out of our premises. We can even record & broadcast a private conversation. All this available at a very low monetary cost. The ubiquitous availability of mobile devices capable of carrying out such an operation, makes it a potential addition to human traits. Something god deprived the Human race of. Man is performing sting on other man. Its a trait which remained into hibernation for thousands of years.

Mobiles, Spycams, hidden surveillance devices have the potential of changing the innate human behavior. If it is checked, it would be the manifestation of the same evolutionary force which shaped humanity in its present form.

Every civilized state on earth guarantees its citizens certain laws to protect their privacy. An informal discussion, an intimate activity, a confidential meeting... all fall within the provisions of privacy. However, technological advancement has made breaching others' privacy such an inconspicuous affair, which tempts too many people, that every passing day makes the list of suspecting growing longer, shredding the society into fragments who are stung or fear it.

Protagonists of this sting cult promises a clean and corruption free society through it. The idea of sting operations as a means to counter corruption is counter intuitive. its a sanctimonious approach which always involves the risk of your three fingers directed to yourself being exposed. Sometimes it raises many questions on the person performing it rather than on whom it is performed. Rampant use would surely drive the society to a state of loss of trust in each other. People who are in the habit of doing such an act would be loathed by others who value trust in any kind of public and private affair.

Historically, spying activities were confined to a thin strata of the society. Common people had little concern with it. Wikileaks started leaking government related papers, it was a kind of alarm. It marked the end of secrecy in public life. Anything that can be carried through a cable can be tracked. Anything that is into ether can also be tracked. It is not just that these devices are lethal, they are combined with the real time dissemination power of internet, which gives them real power. Only a dreamer who was also sure of his dream's impracticability may have envisaged this outcome of internet era. Anything may come out in public, it is no more related to government documents alone. Poachers may catch your private moments and expose in public, no matter how ordinary you are. Whatsapp, youtube, facebook, twitter.. provides opportunities for point, shoot, share & lynch!! The array of events points to a pattern, which looks like an evolutionary landmark. Where human race goes from here?

Image credit:Openclipart.org, creative commons license

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Political Campaigns on Social Media in Elections-2014

Never before, the online Social Media was at the center of Political Campaigning. BJP, to its advantage, used it in gauging the right candidate for PM, core issues, terminology & catch words through it. The Buzzword NaMo, an acronym for Narendra Modi, which resounded all around in streets, was actually coined on Twitter #NaMo.

1. Social Media as a Test-tube

   Population engaging on Twitter & Facebook is a very small fraction of electors, who vote. However, it has proven to be an effective resource for testing and shortlisting the right moves. A judicious analysis of reactions, coming from different sections of the society & speedy amalgamation of ideas on the field campaign, proved highly effective. Narendra Modi, himself engaged on twitter & used successful punchlines & rhetorics, tested on twitter, both to strengthen his own posturing & also to blunt the opposition.

2. Social Media War-Room & Twitter Army

   Weakness of Twitter, was used to the full extent. A large number of Professionals were recruited to tweet for supporting the BJP campaign. Twitter does not take into account how far people are located, before trending the topic. So, a fraction of twitter army also travelled with Modi in what was called the Social Media van, tweeting from where they hacked virtually whole of the real estate in trending.

3. Print & TV wanted to be Socially Correct

   Its a trend now. You hardly read anything through them, which are radically different from dominant view on Twitter. Leave aside, some breaking news story, TV & Print want to be in sync with social media. It is this desire to be Socially Correct, even at the cost of being politically incorrect, these old opinion leaders now resonates what Twitter says. So, if one has proven one's upper hand on social, then print & TV fears the backlash.

4. If You pay, they will do the dirty work

   Paid Publicity, without the tag, might be unethical for many, but they are in vogue. If they can assure you publicity on reputed magazines, high TRP time slots, you may consider buying. All the influential writers are on Twitter who would be convincing and arguing for you, Voluntarily or involuntarily, will turn into your advocate & all the bad publicity you had will get automatically buried, by them!

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Facebook Open Graph Fix- Known Issues Solved !

Facebook Liked Description on Timeline

I had thought of writing on this topic for a long time. However, web is already filled with open graph documentations, so, I would only discuss the troubleshooting part, which you can easily implement, and has not been discussed earlier.

1. Meta Tag inside body

   Remove all the meta tags inside <body>....</body> in your template. Sometimes, you add them to fix some problems as a short cut method. However, this is a very bad practice. Even, Schema.org documentation recommends adding them in some cases, but, you should preferably avoid adding a meta tag which is something like, <meta...../>, outside </head> of your blog or website.

2. Website Logo not showing.

   You know facebook requires pictures of high quality, in specified size and formats. However, you can easily avoid all these hassles by simply uploading the Logo as Facebook Fan Page Logo and just right click there, copy the image url and use the URL in open graph, like, <meta content='http://profile.ak.fbcdn.net/hprofile-ak-snc4/276570_154982213146_6949695_q.jpg' property='og:image'/>

3. Author Description is Weird.

   Here too Author Description for Blog should be like: <meta content='Author Description URL' property='article:author'/>. If you use About page of your blog or website. It will show as Author:About, on facebook, and hover card too would look blank and weird. If you create a page with different title, even then, hover card wouldn't show description. To avoid hassles, here too use the Facebook profile page url, like <meta content='http://www.facebook.com/rameshbook' property='article:author'/>, and everything gets fixed!

4. Website name not showing in "liked" or "shared".

   You are missing an app id. create a facebook app, and give it your website's name, add the app id meta tag, like, <meta content='your app id' property='fb:app_id'/>, soon the liked article would show, "Liked on Your App Name", like, "liked on Netargument".

5. Facebook not reading the corrected tags and using the old one.

   It takes time, but you can get it corrected if you want in no time, simply visit this url and put your page url. This will update facebook servers, and your description will start showing according to fresh tags.
   

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Freedom of Speech, Expression on Internet- Who will guarantee?

Freedom of speech is the fundamental right of every individual in any democratic country. People across the globe have fought for it for ages and then only they earned it. People behind the French Revolution of medieval era  believed everybody should have freedom of speech, even if they are against their views. Every state on earth who flaunts democratic values guarantees this, at least in theory.

People living in different corners of the world have believed that freedom of speech have existed in the democratic nation they belong to.

People could talk freely in street, address a meeting and write something in a newspaper and any medium they chose. So, it led them to believe that they are the part of a society that honors this freedom.

In every media of expression that existed before internet there was a period of latency, which allowed the party targeted through this to adjust and reciprocate after a reasonable gap, or in some cases even negotiate before the cat goes out of the bag.

However, on internet this latency period does not exist and things go viral in real time.

Hence, the hypocrisy which was always there in the system of governance has got exposed and their hypocrisy get revealed in the action they take against people.

Palaghat incidence near Mumbai, where two girls were arrested for a facebook update is an important indication.

It is not that it was not into existence before. the hypocrisy was always there. The people who expressed faced it. Only difference is that people who express their views through public channel were few but now they have become too many.

So, what was said on a random meeting in street, now gets posted on a social media channel like, facebook, twitter or Google Plus, and they invite real time action. The absence of latency provokes some people and they are just ready to break the law and this fundamental foundation of democracy.

The moot question is whether common people on earth would be able to enjoy this freedom in future, if it finds resistance from the top.

Common people who are walking in the street did not and should not hesitate in expressing what he or she feels whether in real life or on internet. But, the danger is that a piece of writing on internet may land him into a jail, and later on the authorities may shrug their shoulders blaming misinterpretation by executing personnel. They don’t care the grieved person has got famous in a way they never wanted to be. Some may even face dangerous repercussion afterwards. In some developing countries people may even lose the case just because they could not hire a good lawyer. This might mean people would be scared of expressing themselves on internet. This is not something for which people have fought for in different parts of the world for a very long time.

I don’t know if any insurance company offers a policy which offers indemnity against such a situation, but I think people may create a general fund for such kind of people, who would need it to get justice from their state. Either people themselves or the website should take initiative in this direction. People debate a lot on kind of law to prevent the misuse of law. However, it is rarely the law which is at fault! The fault lies with the people executing it and the very nature of the internet media which exposes the hypocrisy of states which they have actually preserved through ages.

People won’t need law alone to fight against infringement on their fundamental rights, they would also need some kind of financial support to fight the injustice, properly, and feel secure that some powerful person may not be able to show the legal muscle against him. More than the laws securing your freedom, you need to feel free, because only then you can express freely. Suppression of this freedom is dangerous for healthy progress of mankind and all efforts should be made to secure this freedom.

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Social Media Rituals Diluting the Wisdom of Social Media metrics!

Rituals are what they are! 

It is difficult to tell why they are performed and why they even exist.

Historically we know every tribe had their own rituals considered sacrosanct. They were built around the instinctive virtues of people practicing them. With world becoming more advanced and scientific, they remained preserved as the identifying marks of the tribes across the world. They still serve their purpose on virtual platforms like Facebook and Twitter, manifesting into several different forms yet retaining their innate property of being stubborn.

We know that Social media connectivity is driven by pheromones for a fairly long time now. The new observation is, we are developing a cult around our instincts, which allows only some chosen ones to become worthy of our favors. It has nothing to do with what lies beneath what the person says, or what the person writes. An intelligent work may go unnoticed and a vile crap may swing on to the top of your timeline with a lot of people contributing around it. The reason is a kind of ritual through which this "crap" slipped. Knowingly or Unknowingly people practice some sort of social media rituals. They have some identifiable characteristics:

1. People don't want to apply their mind, they simply perform.
2. It is blasphemous to question the performed and the performer.
3. If you are not part of it you are not part of the tribe.
4. People anticipate some favorable reaction from the tribe members, and others feel obligation to react in the anticipated manner, without going into the depth of the context.
5. People behave as herd, though they may act very differently on a different occasion.

So retweeting or following a celebrity is a ritual. Saying something to gain traction for trending is also a ritual. Other occasions are bashing, bitching or showering praise for a person or cause. They have become very amplified and this behavior has taken all over social media, threatening the wisdom of decisions based on these metrices. So, Following, Trending, Unpleasant Reactions and even praises in favor of someone might just be this phenomenon. The interesting part of this is that once it is over, all is over. People just remember X was abused on twitter by a great number of people or Y was praised. If you ask some of them in person, they will say, We did it on Twitter/Facebook, but we didn't mean it.

Gresham's Law for Social Media: Bad Money(Articles) Circulates and Good ones are stopped by Individuals for themselves! #SocialMedia
— Ramesh (@netargument) May 9, 2012

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Social Media Numbers- Are they Social Proof ?

Do numbers represent the true states of affairs on Social Media?

There is an inherent drawback with twitter follower counts, Facebook likes and fan followings. They can be manipulated!

We already know of Feedburner  counter on blogs. Feedburner counters could easily be faked, by a number of ways. There were services, where if only you copy and paste your feed links, it used to start showing surge in subscriber counts. People even used to manipulate to show the number of some other popular blogs. Once it fell into the hands of Google, Feedburner counters went under a massive correction to show the real states of affairs. Now, if Google detects that subscriber is actually never interacting with the blog, it won’t count as subscriber. Several people faking counter were permanently terminated from availing the service. Even in those days when people were faking the counter, several bloggers experimented and concluded numbers just doesn’t influence more people to subscribe.

Now with change of time, habits too changed. There are many new services which are preferred over RSS subscription. Facebook and Twitter are the new ways of subscribing to a blog. Old habits die hard. Now, there are paid services which can give you 1500 Twitter followers for cheap. They are both real people like you and dead accounts who just count, depending on the kind of service provider you engage with. Just because so many people want to boost their Follower Count, it has grown into an industry. There are such “Social Media Optimizers” who can give you large number of followings and likes, but all through low level manipulations. Some of them even ensure interactions, by which they mean their own dedicated staff would be communicating with you and people around you entering into one sock after another. What the Fun! A good argument given in favor of these people is that just like people sitting in a restaurant motivates others to visit and are preferred over those which are empty, this strategy attracts real people and they love to join them.

Now we have two conflicting aspects of this story. Faking a RSS counter proved to be a useless exercise. Faking a social media number or inflating it is fruitful! Can you buy this logic? A famous quote – You can make others’ fool more than one time but not every time. So, some people may be tricked to following you but they can always unsubscribe and unfollow or unlike, provided they are Humans. On social media platforms try to look beyond numbers to see what lies beneath it.

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“Rich Media Rocks 2012” by Microsoft in Delhi, India

Rich Media ads or interactive ads, which after the advent of  “Permission Marketing” theories, and Google’s hyper emphasis on unobtrusive advertisement had made it   a bad word for content on internet. A simple, clean and clear-cut presentation became recipe of acceptance for visitors, publishers and advertising platform providers. A good presentation on a page should meet all the three goals: the goal of the visitor , the goal of the publisher and the goal of the advertiser. A publisher should neither provide content solely for Visitors, who are selfish enough to leave the moment their goal is met, nor for the advertisers alone who would benefit mostly from interruption and turn the visitors off. Somebody has aptly described a path between Permission and Interruption as Intermission, which provides a refreshing break which is beneficial for all. So, rich media has actually room in the sphere of Good User experience. Microsoft sponsored conference on March, 1st, 2012 was to spread this sort of awareness among Marketers and Advertisers.

Nivelle Taraporewalla, the opener, claimed he was under-prepared and offered some unquestionable insights. His observation that web has moved beyond desktops to many new devices and applications of which TV too would become a part of it, raised no questions. A country Director of a company like Microsoft seldom offers views which even remotely touches the borderline of debatable topics. Should they drop a hint and people start reading between the lines. So, his presentation was more to do with his position rather than his unpreparedness.

Pushkar Sane, was the next speaker . His view on why you shouldn’t interrupt Facebook friends, with blunt marketing pitches, sounded convincing. He coined “Friends or Facends!” to demonstrate how relationship may sour because of insensivity, which touched the nerve of the audience. He elaborated it with many examples, how taking things for granted, may harm you in the long run. I overheard many people praising him during lunch time. I myself acknowledge such speakers leave everlasting impression on audience.

Trevor Yeats talked about Microsoft products as was expected of him. His presentation was very well prepared and appeared flawless. People asked him many questions and it appeared like the audience had warmed up by then and a momentum was set in. I asked him, why Microsoft sells its Banner ads through direct sales unlike Google which anybody can target through auction bid, from right inside the adwords dashboard. He answered, that it has something to do with Google’s focus on Search and Microsoft’s on Portals, though its a notable point. 

Farshad Family shared his insights on web tracking and how facebook cookies and other related means are used by Neilson’s tracking software to successfully predict the demographics and consumer behavior. He was demonstrating how this software is capable of improving the targeting of ads and how they boost the ROI. It was an interesting session.

After break John Paul Stift and Andrew Young, both from Microsoft presented useful insights, on purchase behavior, attracting through creating experience, converting interest into action and fostering long lasting advocacy. One of them, I don’t remember exactly, claimed a very high level of CTR through rich media engagement.

Oded Lida Greiss shared his own experiences and success with Rich media campaigns. He impressed everyone with his case study on trappers, whose campaign he himself had created. He shared how this campaign turned viral and drove sales and traffic astronomically. A large part of his presentation, the visuals, were non-english. People talked to him about cost of such campaigns and cost effectiveness, because they appeared to be very unique, a kind of their own. He replied, such costs are “redundant” compared to the cost incurred on purchase of the ad slot itself. A diplomatic sort of answer!

After that there was a lucky draw of visiting cards for Xbox 360. I had given them my name written on a piece of paper. When they picked one, it was a Lucky Piece of paper, but it was announced that it had the name of a Microsoft Employee (undisclosed) on it and hence disqualified. They announced another winner. Well, I had given them my name on a piece of paper and it appears the wise people of Microsoft thought, its uniqueness must be diluted by introducing more “piece of papers”. I suspect it must be the mind of Trevor Yeats, who had announced that “People are very enthusiastic about the Lucky Draw”, soon after I gave my “piece of paper” at the reception. Anyway, I just wanted to participate, and am happy I did.

(P.S-----> I have relied upon my own note and memory on what the above mentioned people have said. I checked for videos and other sources, which were not available at the time. Many things may not be accurate or may even have quotation shift error . Fans and followers of them need to take no offence, I would be glad to correct myself. I was the first to publish it, and there are many resources available now on the web. Some of the speakers are publishing it on their own too. )

Also See:
Google Engage Partner Meet Up & Google Adwords Display ...

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Web Comments: Strategy, Etiquettes and Future for Publishers and Contributors.

Comments on a webpage are like a magical mirror, which everybody want to snatch from others to see her own face, but in the end owner snatches it away for herself, by force, and makes a movie out of it.

A fantastic reality of internet is that every page is only as much credible as the owner of the webpage and fortunately vice versa too. So, knowing one helps knowing the other, and you will fail to see otherwise. If you are regularly commenting on different websites, you should be able to shortlist some trustworthy ones. The mirror analogy works everywhere, the only difference is whether the owner is a Dog, Monkey or some other creature like you or me! Since, web is mostly dominated by curators and hoovers, originality is a rare encounter for lucky few. Advent of Social Networking and messaging platform has made everyone a frequent commenter on multiple issues resulting into an unending quest for attention across various platforms. So the viral tide will surely strike you once in a while, tempting for a deep plunge into the sea. So, be prepared for the inevitable because you are going to make or break your reputation.

There are some good practices, which quite honestly I would tell you only the best people are seen practicing, but others like us must give it a try:

1. Your politeness is the most lethal weapon against all the odds that may come across you, while seeing comments across the web. So, try never to lose it.
2. Add wit and sarcasm but not abuses, even when others are throwing mud on you.
3. Be Original and just say what you feel and agree with, no need to seek support from others. You will find more support in this way, rather than by asking for it. People support you because of attraction and appeal you create there.
4. Don’t try to have the last word. People trying to do so can be easily identified, and they don’t make any real impact, though they always think they are making great impact. You must leave a discussion beyond a point.

These will make you Smart, while commenting:

1. If you comment according to the way discussion is moving forward, always look at the discussion and wait till you can read mood of the crowd and gently change the direction.
2. Bring some authentic source to sound credible. Link to a good video or a reputed authority on the web. People coming back after visiting the link will respect you, if you sounded genuine.
3. Give a personal touch and anecdote in your comment. Address the author, so that he may remember you, next time you visit.
4. Always comment through your public profile. Twitter or Facebook are best, it helps people know you better and also helps in creating better impact. Those who comment through guest profile or a dedicated commenting profile are taken as dishonest and the ones who run away throwing a stone on others.

For publishers the best strategy is one which facilitates a good discussion on the topic. some of the good practices are:

1. Allow for the Popular log in platform. Twitter and facebook login are a sort of norm these days.
2. Install a commenting System which allows simultaneous posting on different Social media platforms. It helps get more people and sharing.
3. Moderation is a dirty word. If you are moderating, announce it categorically, What kind of comments are removed and published. Keep it minimal and open. You should never look like doing something to slant the public view.
4. Selectively publishing comments to favor the author’s version of the story is criminal, and big publishers doing so will surely lose credibility and audience over a period of time. You are not the only place where people can comment, there are several other platforms and if comment on your page is not in sync with that at other place, people can easily sense the scam.

Future of comments on the web:  Some of the websites have stopped accepting comments on their webpages. People comment on twitter, facebook  or other places about them. So, you can’t address their audience, you can only address your own audience about them. It is good for publishers whose subject is highly technical or the audience participation may only increase the noise there. I see noise reduction as the major challenge that need to be addressed through a proper commenting system. People moderate but that takes away the credibility of the web page. Amount of conversation happening on twitter and facebook may completely take away the comments from the webpage. It is highly likely that webpages in future would rather allow you an easy peek into the web reactions as social proof and author or fan may access them and respond to them easily, from anywhere. 

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Online Encyclopedias: Wikipedia Still Rules!

An encyclopedia is must for first hand information on anything we want to learn. We frequently come across various terms and concepts which we are not familiar with and then try to get some information about it.

For over a century people have relied upon Britannica Encyclopedia, which for many is still the Gold standard in this field. However, the ease of search on internet has spoilt our habit and we have sacrificed accuracy of knowledge in favor of what satisfy us fast and easily.

To fulfill this need  of fast and free content on the internet were born several online versions of encyclopedia. First one which I could trace was MSN Encarta, which though was not free, effectively, took the attention off from Britannica Encyclopedia. MSN Encarta closed completely in 2009.

First genuine attempt to create truly free encyclopedia on the web came in the form of Nupedia, which reincarnated as Wikipedia in 2001. This open source, free to read and edit encyclopedia has more or less  established itself as a good resource and despite its inherent limitations it just can’t be ignored.

However, Wikipedia has been criticized for its inaccuracies, bureaucracy , polluting the web with anonymous false facts, providing platform for criminals to publish illegal misinformation, and for what people have termed it –“The Single Most Dangerous Website on the Internet”.

To fix its inaccuracies and inherent problems with wikipedia, its co-founder Larry Sanger, started Citizendium. Citizendium aims for the articles to reach an approved status, accorded by its editorial team. They are also known for verifying the actual credentials of the editors. However, it has been learnt that it is more bureaucratic and reportedly the environment there is more uncivil than wikipedia. Some users have even complained that Sanger himself is the most abusive person there. As a result it could not grow as per expectations and with time number of users have drastically come down. It has also been learnt that it has been into financial crisis too.

If you want a very high standard of reliable content, then Scholarpedia may be the right option for you. This encyclopedia can be edited only by people with proven credentials. You shall have to apply for becoming an editor there and you would be approved to edit the topics which they consider you fit for. Given its structure, its growth is very limited and slow, and doesn’t offer you content on all kind of topics.

The most serious competitor of Wikipedia ever was and possibly is to the present day is, Google’s Knol. Although, it had been perceived as Wikipedia Killer initially, there is no immediate threat to wikipedia from this. Google has done little for this project except for allocating a server and bunch of softwares. The project suffers critically from Google’s indifferent attitude and has been frustrating enough to compel its best contributors to leave the project. Shortly few months before there were rumors about Google going to shut down this program. Despite all speculations Google’s Knol is still there, though they are not paying any attention to enforce the terms of services on users there because of alleged lack of interest and human resources from Google. As a result of which it has become spammers’ paradise.

Google Knol’s structure provided some definite edge over wikipedia and other similar sites. It has no bureaucracy and you can write alone or in team. Some of the knol members had formed Knol Publishing Guild, which promoted a value system among knol writers. To display its badge, one needed to have got approved after writing a bio knol and shown some degree of proficiency on the subject. It is all history now. After Google itself donated to Wikipedia recently, users have taken it as a sign of disinterest from the side of Google. Several knol writers have started feeling that Google is slowly killing this project. So, unless Google shows some major sign of revamping the system, it is taken as- dying a slow death.

Apart from Citizendium and Google Knol, no encyclopedia or anything like that has wikipedia like ambition. Though it is too early to write off either Knol or Citizendium, it looks less likely that they would be competing with Wikipedia in near future.

P.S.----> Google to Shut Down Knol, officially reported on 11/22/2011 01:40:00 PM.

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Baba Ramdev, Anna Hazare, Poonam Pandey… Twitter Trending Hazards!

Twitter Trending Hazards

Twitter trending is an effective way to get more attention by throwing your weight into a trending topic.

A lot of people in your timeline talks about it and you too get tempted to throw your weight into it. Getting carried away by this stimulus may bring embarrassment for you, if you fail to understand the sensitivity of the issue.

Impulsive tweets carry heat with them. The heat of negative emotions like jealousy, greed, hatred and anything you always wanted to hide from the public.

Twitter trending and also many other similar situations on twitter may expose your negative side, and you just can’t take it back. Other similar situation is, when you are venting anger on some famous brand or personalities to get more attention. Gone are the days, when journalists reported an anonymous person abused some famous person, while surveying. You are living in a completely transparent world where both side knows Who is Who!

Live Examples

Suhel Seth & Others

Indian Politicians like Sashi Tharoor and Sushma Swaraj have found their own tweets embarrassing after some real life reactions on them. You surely don’t need to bother about it if you are Digvijay Singh, however, if you are @suhelseth, then you should resist the temptation to tweet like this.

I seriously believe if Simi had offered to break Ramdev's fast, he would have done it in two hours without a drip..she is sugary enough....

Suhel Seth while tweeting about Simi in several of his tweets earlier, apparently got carried away by the temptation of shooting a tweet into Trending. Had he substituted Poonam for Simi, who was into trending earlier, for her promise to pose naked in public if India wins the Cricket World Cup, it would have become a scoop. However, it would have been more hazardous for his personality and would have sounded cheaper than what it is in the present state.

Navjot Singh Sidhu

Indian Cricketer  turned Politician, Navjot Singh Sidhu, tweeted on a trending incidence, involving his Political Opponent Sharad Pawar slapped publically by a mentally challenged youth Harvinder Singh, which was trending on several topics, like this:

RT @droople: Only a sardar can walk up like that to a man bigger than him, slap him tight and scare the shit out of him. Salute. #slapgate

While @droople was conscious of his folly, though hesitantly tried to justify it, Sidhu stopped tweeting for a while, and quite wisely stopped discussing the topic at all. Here Sidhu perhaps felt the guilt and prevented himself from being dragged into a controversy. It is pointless to argue, whether Sidhu really feels the way he tweeted, because he offered no explanation about the tweet. Actual point is whether he would have been better without tweeting like that. He revealed an important part of his persona, which was unknown to us, and Sidhu may not feel comfortable when someone would remind him of this. Even his own political party BJP and any other Indian Political Party did not approve of the misdeed of Harvinder Singh, and unanimously postured and condemned the incident. Yet, Sidhu became victim of a trending coup, who otherwise has a rather clean record on twitter.

Also See:

1. Twitter Account Optimization

2. Twitter Social Media Meetup in Delhi - 50th Social Media Breakfast ...

3. Tweetups - Twitter Meet Ups to boost your personal and corporate

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Twitter Social Media Meetup in Delhi - 50th Social Media Breakfast

50th edition of Social Media Meetup Group, Social Media Breakfast was held today(April, 19th, 2011). The meetup group founded 50 weeks ago, is a fortnight short of reaching its annual anniversary. Commendable feat! A without fail, weekly meetup, where people come in to share thoughts on social media, also get excellent breakfast free of cost.

I have been part of most of them. Today's gathering discussed about the future course of this meeting. I and several regular attendees have enjoyed the hospitality of the host Simarpreet Singh, throughout the year, and he has agreed to take it forward in future too.

Simarpreet shared ideas behind the formation of this group and also how he would be adding some other dimensions to it. Roughly, a year ago he had used meetup to promote his new launch twitsnaps.com, inviting famous twitter personalities to share ideas on its usage, as panelists.

This time, however, he declined the possibility of this becoming a similar kind of session in future, at least not on a regular basis citing two reasons, 1) What better they can contribute than what they do on twitter, and 2) He does not want the group to listen to sermons of few people and not interacting among themselves. Both seems to be valid reasons.

I have noted on several occasions, Simarpreet does not like following people, simply because they are celebrities, sometimes he shares why he unfollowed X, some of which I can easily recall are: 1) They were not interactive; 2) They were serving automated tweets; 3) Though X is a famous TV personality, she has communal mindset.

All of us have their own reasons to follow and unfollow, however, if you can share the ideas on which you base your following and unfollowing decisions, you are very likely to refine and improve it, and convert it into principles.

Twitter is not the game of numbers, however, it does impact your thinking, because you react or tend to react to every tweet that goes through your timeline. Simarpreet, may not be a great twitter entertainer, in terms of number of followers, many other boasts of, but he surely is the master of interaction, taking it beyond twitter, which is the very purpose of tweeting.

Although Simarpreet is the owner and sponsor of this meetup group, he surely has not attended all the meetings, I've found him missing on many occasions. I myself haven't attended many of them however, Kaushik, his employee and organizer was visible in all the meetings I have attended, and should get some credit for continuity of this group for such a long time.

Evaluating the success of this group from organizer's and attendees' side, while organizer gets some PR boost at the cost of time and money, attendees have only time to scarifice and gain depends on their level of interaction with other members. Some online corporate twitter groups, like Four Square, have mastered the art of Twitter Best Practices and if you follow one, they will make you familiar with others through their tweets, mentioning them frequently, and follower of one are very likely to become follower of others.

Choosing the right occasion and time of mention is an art and those who want to pursue a career in social media management must master it to the hilt. It must look natural, at least. Simarpreet says, he may not be interested in maintaining a group of larger than twenty in the long run, and may have to rethink the strategy, if the situation arise, for it becomes uneconomical. A gathering of more than 20 is surely not something that can be entertained, if you can't see some kind of return in them.

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Why twitter should focus on Tweetups?

Someone has a very interesting query (via mail) regarding my last post, Why and How to use Meetups for Branding and Selling - Analysis. The gist of which is:

Why Twitter should promote Tweetups, when it is solely designed for conversation, and the term doesn't mean meeting at a venue. Even a group of people having conversation on twitter is called a tweetup. ...... what kind of changes you have in mind that twitter failed to do?

Well said! Tweetup does mean conversation on twitter itself. Many people use this term as such. Many don't. Let us not engage in this wrangle. I have used this term for meeting at a venue. Also, if meetup keeps on growing the way it is, tweetup in future might only mean what you have said. Regarding, how twitter might have promoted tweetups into its interface, it is the job of Developers and Thinkers who are behind twitter. They are very much capable, no question about that. Twitter is an Original Concept, I have no question on that too. However, there are many people who find it boring, you should not question this too. This is proven by stats. It is easy to open a twitter account, but after that things become very difficult. People leave in frustration, because they don't know how to connect and engage. Joining a group near you based on your own interest would only make it more interesting. Twitter has recently included promoted tweets. Before that they already had trending topics. It would be great if it also suggest some interesting meetup/tweetup group near you, just the way it suggests people you should follow. It does not require very critical thinking, and it is beneficial for the brand twitter. It gives one more reason to be on twitter interface. Someone, may come on twitter and learn about some meetup/tweetup groups near them, it would only help improve the conversation. It is nothing that requires shift in focus. It is perfectly in line with the business twitter already is into. Yes, you may say people can and do arrange such an event on twitter through conversation even now, and twitter just don't need to include it into its interface. Agree! but it does not make it that much interesting. Also, I find twitter is groping for ideas to make things easier for people who struggles to find the reason why twitter even exists and what they are supposed to do on it. There are many people who thinks it is plain useless and twitter needs to show the benefit of coming to it, which should not be too difficult to find. Twitter has a challenge which if it does not tackle deftly in near future than it may become a bubble of the past. Many sites like digg, stumbleupon, reddit... have great content to share. They missed one single point of fecilitating great conversation around them and twitter stole it. Now, the challenge is, who can escalate the discussion in real life and meetup might steal it. So, the way digg missed something at some point of time, when it was capable of doing it fairly easily, twitter is left at the same point. Finally, twitter need to address the need of a vast audience it has amassed who were nothing but riding a fad, and show them the utility. If it fails these people would find facebook a great place and twitter a useless one. Meeting is the next big thing and it is the natural outcome of the great conversation that twitter promises and boasts of. Finally, yes, you can still do all those things which a proposed change may affect, but that is only for people who knows how to use it. Many people don't even know that search.twitter.com exists. Bringing those features on twitter interface would only increase the usage and make things more interesting.

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Why and How to use Meetups for Branding and Selling - Analysis

Did You say tweetup? Looks old now!

You don't need to be on twitter to meet new people. Twitter doesn't have a dedicated application for organizing tweetups.

Its new interface adds new features, which smells like inspiration from facebook. Twitter doesn't seem to be serious about its greatest selling point, Tweetups. Had it been, the new interface would must  have some applications for it. Does it matter though, when you have cool site like meetup.com, which is all set to steal the concept of tweetup to re-brand it as Meetup?

This change is happening silently and steadily, people no more say they organized a tweetup, rather they organize Meetup.

Meetup does not allow you to make friends like any other networking site, and this is what makes it different . Anyway, it is not like other networking websites. It is about managing meet ups based on interest and locality.

You just need to browse groups and find out what is best suited to your interest, need and accessibility. It helps you engage in real life conversation.

Meetup has many growing communities, who really meet each other. Facebook allows you to add friends, twitter allows you to have conversation with a lot of people, and at both the places, you don't know who they are! Meetup is something you should add to your social media portfolio, it will help you find people who are actually meeting at a place.

The least pondered fact about social networking websites is that they fail to create a real network. The cause of this failure is that everyone connected to you don't have the same purpose and mission. Twitter and Facebook has created mad rush for fans and followers.

People and brands have treated fans and followers as capital, which returns sales revenue. Targeting focused and engaged audience reduces your efforts and increases ROI. Segmenting them according to refined interests and demographics further enhances your ROI.

Meetup reverses this entire exercise by directly engaging people who are already sharing in real life. You create a meetup group, you engage them in real life and also on meetup.com. It is a great branding opportunity! While twitter and facebook is full of brands who are engaged in full time marketing, meetup has yet to see them doing the same on meetup.com. Techcrunch, Mashable and many other websites are promoting this concept by directly allowing users to create meetup groups through their website.You may expect the concept to get more refined in future with meetup developing better ways for connecting people.

The business of making people talk and the business of making people meet are two different things. More Talking leads to less listening and then everyone shouts and nobody listens, which is the case with twitter now. If you posted a question on twitter, half a year ago, you might had got half a dozen response, but now you would seldom get a single response with double the number of followers. Attitude has changed! Everybody is shouting and very few listens. Because of this change of attitude, people need to meet in real life to have real conversation both online and offline.

Here comes the role of meetups and meetup.com. Popular way of searching a meetup group near you is similar to searching it for anything else on google. just type the query, Meetup in delhi, meetups in mumbai, meetups in banagalore.....meetups in kolkata and you would hit upon the corresponding meetup group and similar conversations about meetups happening around you.

Organizing meet ups is an old science. There were religious meet up groups in the past, where people with similar attitude and ideas used to meet over a long time period. Napolean Hill talks about how meeting of same people over a long time period makes them create a powerful mastermind.

More the number, more the challenges. Two of the person can arrange meeting anywhere and any time, three would require a consensus and more would definitely an organized effort, because more the number of people more the chances of people drifting away.

It is highly probable that marketers would target meetup groups for branding and selling in near future. All you need is an idea woven around your product that could instigate people to meet. When you have an idea and you have people, you just need a venue to make it an event. Events are powerful promotional tools, because they leave a long lasting impression on everyone who were part of it and also on those who wanted to be part of it and also those who heard about it but were neither part of it nor had reason to be part of it. In a nutshell, it is manifold expansion of idea. Marketing by meetups need not be an expensive affair. Because you need to do it very often maintaining a frequency which is cost effective and rather profitable. it should be No Frills.

Recommended Reading:

Tweetups - Twitter Meet Ups to boost your personal and corporate branding

Google Engage Partner Meet Up & Google Adwords Display ...

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Facebook Share - Fshare Workaround for Blogger

Facebook share requires you to write, meta content on the page you want it to be installed on. The problem with blogger is that you either shall have to insert different meta tags for different pages, or just leave that for search engines to decide. Many people have stopped writing meta tags because of Google's categorical assertion that they no more look into them, though duplicate meta tag may be the cause of concern for you. Because of the absence of meta tags, facebook share does not work properly. It was the case with this site too. in the description it used to serve some crappy url from the template. To avoid this situation, you can add, a tag different from description on your pages. I added <meta content='Ramesh Kumar' name='author'/>, and it worked. It helps Fshare to pull description from sidebar about me. Definitely it is not the solution for people who want description of the post to be displayed. For that you shall have to manually insert description meta tag for all the posts using <b:if> logic. you certainly won't like to do such a tedious task for hundreds of posts written in the past. Just take care for future posts. Insert meta tags for them. However, it is advisable to let the above trick work for old posts and you may insert meta tags for future or selected old posts. Let me, make things simple how to do it in stepwise manner.

1. Open the HTML editor of your blogger template by going to design and then edit HTML
2. Press ctrl and F key simultaneously and search for <head>
3. Look for this line <b:include data='blog' name='all-head-content'/> & Insert <meta content="yourname" name="author">, just after it, Preview and save.
4. Create a section by the same name in the sidebar like I have with title "author", describing you.
5. Wait for sometime. Yes, it take some time!
6. Check the description Fshare provides in preview, You should be able to see your bio going with every share.
7. Cool down! it is not that Bad. There is no harm people becoming aware about you with every share.

for posts which are important or new ones, you shall have to follow step 1 & 2 above and insert the following code for every post.

<b:if cond='data:blog.url == "http://url of your post"'>

<meta content='keywords for your post' name='keywords'/>

<meta content=' description of your post' name='description'/>

</b:if>

This will be enough for Fshare to read and send the description about your post with every share. If you ask me, I am not interested in doing it for any post, and rather am happy that every share sends my bio with it and also asks people to contact me via email. Wow!

Also, people should know many reputed blogger have stopped using Fshare on their site because of this flaw. You can check labnol

RECOMMENDED READING: Instead of doing the above trick, we have a better solution now.

Facebook Share Showing Wrong Description -Solved

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Applying Dunbar's Number in Social Networking and Communication Management.

 

Dunbar's number is the theoretical cognitive limit to the number of people with whom you can maintain stable social relationship at a given point of time. These are the relationships in which people not only knows each other but also can figure out how another person is related to each other.

 

Dunbar says this limit is directly proportional to the size of neocortex. For Human beings Dunbar's number is approximately 150.

 

Ever since Dunbar has hypothesized this number after observing many primates and past human societies, people have taken this number to be the ideal size of community.

 

You have only one neocortex in your brain and you cannot split it for several communities, i.e., between online and offline world. You can amass thousands of friends on facebook, twitter, linkedin, google… but won't they consume the processing power of your neocortex in your brain and you just can't refresh it on different network, nor can you divide it between online and offline world.

 

Your network of friends on social media and your friends who count among Dunbar's 150 are not the same. You can walk through a crowd of millions of people and also communicate with them, but they are not into your actual network! Here the processing power of your brain limits the actual size of your near and dear ones.

 

People have talked about developing weak ties to beat the limit of Dunbar's number. But, does it actually beat it? Had it been really true, Dunbar's hypothesis would have shown no link with numbers, because differences in likeability, affection and love a person shows for others is a known fact. So, had it been possible, Dunbar’s number would never have existed, because given this possibility, where strength of ties is different for every individual or animals, would have given Dunbar different figures and in that case he would not have hypothesized a limit.

 

So, whether weak or strong, if they are consuming the processing power of your neocortex and tie is worth calling mutual and engaging association, they would count among 150! You cannot decide upon warmth of the relationship that may develop as a result of numerous personality traits, sometimes anatagonistic and sometimes attracting, and, let us not forget, the Dunbar's limit is consistent with observations in many animals and past human societies.

 

Hutch Carpenter has an interesting post where he throws light on what this Dunbar's number actually counts, and how to cultivate more friends through Scooble's number. As he shows in the diagram, "You connect when interests and attentions coincide, Drive by interactions." He has rightly pointed out, you can amass more friends through this, but you cannot violate Dunbar's limit. So, the moment tie becomes closer enough it will come under Dunbar's limit. If you have achieved Dunbar's limit, then your gain might be loss somewhere. So, someone somewhere might be moving out of your network, if you are getting closer to someone.

 

Rather than trying to beat this number, just identify who are your 150. Have you reached this limit? Answer in most cases would be no. Have an action plan to raise your real network to this limit. Reaching this limit would mean you have reached the peak of your networking potential.

 

 People within this limit don't only know you but also who others are known to you, and mutual sharing and caring goes on. If you are on Twitter, make a Dunbar Twitter List, If on Google Plus, dedicate a Circle for Dunbar Limit, to practically do this and see the outcome. Here you would understand the real dynamics of Dunbar Limit and practically see How people are coming in and going out and what you need to do to raise this circle to the maximum possibility.

 

An important point to ponder here is, the number itself is not the hard limit. It is just a projection. Limiting factor is the size of your neocortex brain. So, the number itself may not be accurate. It might be higher or lower than what is quoted, but important point is the existence of this limit, and its relation with size of the neocortex in brain.

 

So, it may not be limited to networking alone but in many other things where neocortex’s processing power is involved. Regarding this number as limit, has led us to see the magic of limited space messaging when it is close to this limit.

 

Is it mere coincidence that twitter allows 140 characters, and adwords ads have 130 character limits! Isn't it because honoring this limit leads to the most possible exciting experience where each character we write sums up to the highest possible and conceivable form of intelligence, that can be experienced at a glance!

 

Also Read:

1. Red Signal to Green on Landing Page

2. User Behavior Anatomy: How You should Write your Ad Copy

3. Can You Become Lance?

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Social Media - Are blogs part of it?

No, Blogs are way too different from what most people call social media. The simple reason why it cannot be called social media is that there is very little what is common between blogs and every other, that goes under this category. When we say traffic from social media, we never mean traffic from blogs. Please don't forget blogs are Publishing Tool, something equivalent of Books & newspapers. Can you say the same thing about Twitter, Facebook, Myspace... This discussion erupts too often both online and offline. Problem with including blogs under this category is that it is not meant to be what every other on the list is. Blogs are not meant for saying Hi, Hello, Good morning, Good evening... In a nutshell, it is not meant for socializing. Are Social media and Social Networking synonyms? Yes, they are almost the same, at least they are used as such in practical day to day life, and people who says Blogs are social media are not bloggers or are not using different platforms. While researching on this topic, I hit upon two posts.

1. Since When Are Blogs Not Social Media?
2. What Isn't Social Media?

Copyblogger has immense clout on internet audience, and so people tend to agree with him at least on the page, but the response from the another poster is more realistic and it is apparent, the author has realised, the need to differentiate. It is useless to argue what the term originally means and what is the history of the term. Do you know the history of the term Spam? Do you still believe Spam is a kind of food and would like to stick with this notion? So, people who claim blogs are part of social media may also educate you what the actual meaning of spam is!

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Privacy on Twitter, Facebook and other Social Networks

People are furious. They are concerned about their privacy. Facebook has been figured out as the guilty number one. One of the Charges are, it allows status updates to be visible outside your friends circle. Well, facebook was meant to be a closed door meeting of friends. Then spread the twitter epidemic, which changed every definition of networking. It is not just closed door meeting of friends, it should spread too. one advantage twitter has over facebook is that you don't need the consent of the person for following him. Anybody can participate. Facebook, perhaps is aware of this inherent shortcoming and hence it launched Community Pages, which also has relevant status updates in public. Users didn't take this kindly and many considers it as breach of faith. A major challenge before facebook is to devise something which may help information spread from one close group to other. It is apparent, they want to achieve it by any means. They are doing it stealthily, but it is highly likely that facebook status update would very much become like twitter tweets which is easily accessible and also indexable by topics, in near future. It requires a lot of creativity on the part of Facebook team to facilitate this transition in trustworthy manner. In the worst case, they may completely copy follower following concept of twitter. From the user point of view, private conversations on social media are useless. More the number of people following the discussion, better and enjoyable it becomes. If you don't agree just check your Direct Message folder in twitter. This is one to one conversation, which feels like Spam folder in your mailbox. I have attached the screenshot of DMs in twitter, I receive. Just compare it with Public tweets. These same guys would never say the things in public what they say in private! Sorry guys, if I violated your privacy here, but this is to tell you when i checked your DMs, I had some other expectations. Whose faith has got breached?

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Twitter Account Optimization

Optimizing your twitter account means optimizing it with respect to marketing effectiveness. let us start with registering your username. If you were not an early starter with twitter your favourite user name may not be available now. so, you would need to create something innovative. Here, what should not be done is more important than what should be done. Your twitter handle should not be:

1. Containing a number, - or any other special character. Like @dolly21, @dolly_21..
2. Too long. Like, @dollythesweetdoll
3. Look like impersonator of some other personality or brand. like @dell,
4. Giving a hater x message. like @Xkiller, @ihateX, ....
5. Too far too away from your personality.
6. contain an adjective, unless they invoke humour. like @best
7. Focus on a specific trait/feature.
8. Displaying your greed.
9. Disparaging yourself, like @idiotintown

After that comes the page theme and bio. You may use from an array of themes available in your account or just upload a custom theme. The theme should be reflective of your true self. Professional users should avoid clutters as much as possible. Care should be taken to make it engaging. write few details there,about you which is compelling enough to make visitors come to your user page as often as possible. Drop a few comment, details, testimonials etc., in your theme or even write some mind blowing link/details there. Make good use of the entire real estate.

Bio should be honest but add few words of humour too. A good piece of humour, honestly written makes you an interesting guy. on Internet it spreads like fire. Don't leave anything and you should not fill anything which you genuinely are not. People on Internet gets detected very easily when they behave dishonestly!

After completing these steps comes to tweeting and following. It is advisable not to start following aggressively till you have 10-15 quality tweets in your account. Add some of your friends but try to follow some reputed twitterers of your field. Re tweet them comment about them and after that follow people who are mentioned in their tweets.

Since, you have no control over who follows you, you should only manage who you should follow. Following your own followers alone is a bad strategy and you actually grow stronger by following good tweeterers, does not matter whether they follow you or not.

Managing following list is a never ending process and you must follow informative and interesting twitterer. According to the Media Guru Robert Scoble, real secret of twitter lies in following!

Twitter is all about tweeting and following. Before, you have started tweeting, make a policy of what to tweet? and when to tweet? Don't start spewing anything that comes to your mind. It is better to have a strategy on frequency and kind of tweets. Tweeting too much causes dissent among your followers, who has certain expectations from you. Try a mix of tweeting about yourself and tweeting on the subject you have chosen.

Be generous in recommending your followers and someone you admire in #followfriday, #followreader or similar twitter events. Some, of the bad tweeting strategies which you should not be following are:

1. Copying others tweets and behaving as if it were your own.
2. Repeated rants on same thing again and again.
3. Tweeting at a very high frequency, about the same thing just to grab the attention of your followers.
4. Ignoring questions/queries/concerns marked @yourusername.
5. Repeatedly sending messages to someone, who does not want to hear from you.
6. Sending tweets which are actually ads.
7. Tweeting about an article which you yourself haven't read.
8. Tweeting about office culture, your boss or organization, which you are not supposed to do.

Also See:

1. Tweetups - Twitter Meet Ups to boost your personal and corporate ...
2. Twitter Social Media Meetup in Delhi - 50th Social Media Breakfast ...
3. Baba Ramdev, Anna Hazare, Poonam Pandey… Twitter Trending Hazards!

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Ads on Twitter - Would Twitter Always Serve Third Party Ad Tweets?

Twitter till now have no revenue model. However, there are third party applications available, which are promising, advertisements on twitter platform. There are three kind of models available for marketers to advertise on twitter.

• 
  
  CPM model of advertisement, through Be A Magpie. In this auction only the highest bidders ad gets triggered at the rate decided by the second highest bidder, for the same category. So, if you are bidding through this model, you need to bid very high for your ad tweets to appear. You have to prepay and there is no guarantee your ads would show up till you continuously try to bid more and more. Once you pay for it, keep checking the bids.
  
  
  
• 
  
  New CPC model of advertisement offered through twivert, cashfortweet and perhaps many others. In this case you pay per click, and there is fairly higher chance of your tweet ads being displayed. You need to sign up through twitter ID and they have O auth too!
  
  
  
• 
  
  Directly contact few Highly influential twitter account holders and ask them to tweet about your product. Recently Jeremy Shoemaker of shoemoney fame reported having been approached by an advertiser. Best for marketers if they can do it, however, twitter account holders, Beware, your reputation might be at stake if followers detect it.
  
  
  

Twitter's TOS prohibits automated tweeting which are intended to spam the system, and perhaps the first two are in violation of it. Third one is a difficult one and if you can do it, you are plain lucky. Great Twitterers, have great followings because of their integrity and if they start serving deceptive ad tweets, followers may not take it kindly. Advocacy may be an option, the silent the better.

All the models above compromises the quality of tweets. Won't it be better, for twitter and twitterers that twitter opens up the system for advertising, may be even through Google adsense's link units in tweets to end all these Not so Ethical looking practices.

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