A quick dive into Twitter and the opportunity that opens up to Publishers with Social Media and Real Time Search

1. DRAFT
Social Media:
A Look at Twitter and the
Opportunity with Real Time Search
Simon Baptist
December 2008

2. Notes for Consideration
• Objectives:
– To provide a quick introduction into the power of Social
Media, with a lens on Twitter, the micro-
messaging/blogging platform
– Set the Discussion by talking about Real Time Search
– Discussion around what the opportunity could look like
• Audience:
– This Deck was built for a private summit of Executive to
Senior Management at Publishers, Directories and Telcos
• Date:
– This Deck was built in December and so reflects some of
the big Twitter moments at that time
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Simon Baptist
December 2008

3. Social Media Defined
Social media are primarily Internet- and mobile-based tools for sharing and discussing
information among human beings.
Key Social Media Applications:
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Social Media Definition: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_media Simon Baptist
December 2008

4. First There Was Blogging
http://www.blogpulse.com/
http://www.technorati.com/blogging/state-of-the-blogosphere/
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Simon Baptist
December 2008

5. Now There’s Micro-Blogging
Micro-blogging is a form of multimedia blogging that allows users to send brief text updates (say, 140 characters or
fewer) or micromedia such as photos or audio clips and publish them, either to be viewed by anyone or by a
restricted group which can be chosen by the user.
Is considered by many the Poster Child of Micro-blogging.
Evan Williams is the founder of
Evan was also one of the founders of
Evan is also attributed to have defined the term blogger
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Micro-blogging Definition: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microblogs Simon Baptist
December 2008

6. Let’s Look @Twitter

7. Twitter 101 You follow people
People follow you
You are limited to 140
characters for posts or as they You make your msg public if you
are known Tweets include @username
Direct Messages are private
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There’s lots of info for a deeper dive, e.g.: http://www.slideshare.net/cagedether/twitter-explained-presentation?type=powerpoint Simon Baptist
December 2008

8. Twitter Web2.01 - API
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http://apiwiki.twitter.com/Search+API+Documentation Simon Baptist
December 2008

9. Twitter 201 – API –
Applications
• To the left are 3rd party
Applications that are
recommended by Twitter
• All of these are distributed
away from Twitter.com by
utilising the API
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http://twitter.com/downloads Simon Baptist
December 2008

10. Twitter 201 - API = Broad Ecosystem
Multitude of 3rd Party Service Some examples
• Desktop apps
– Windows
• TweetDeck, a popular
–
–
Mac
Linux
desk top app
–
–
Multi Platform
Second Life
• URL Tracking
– Other
• Web apps
– Search
– Follow Management • Trend Analysis
– Visual
– Visualization
– Posting and Alerts
–
–
Badges and Widgets
Diet and Exercise
• Ads
– Personal Finance
– Other
Mobile apps
•
• Search
Chosen from the extensive list at PR2.0:
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3rd Party Service list: http://twitter.pbwiki.com/Apps
Simon Baptist
http://www.briansolis.com/2008/10/twitter-tools-for-community-and.html
December 2008

11. Twitter 301 – Social Command-Line
Evan Williams has suggested that Twitter can be considered a command-line
Bots Examples
Paying it’s historical dues to • liketribe - A personal assistant that
learns your tastes, advises you where
IRC, 3rd Party Services can to go, gives you directions, weather,
and helps find friends
create Bots for communication • Remember The Milk - Interact with
with Twitter Users your Remember The Milk account
• AccuWx Weather - Receive a weather
forecast by sending a message to
@AccuWx containing a US zip code or
city, state or city, country.
• CommuterFeed.com (commuter) -
Commuter Feed is a free service that
lets you see reports on traffic incidents
in your local area using Twitter.
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Le Web Talk by Ev Williams: http://vpod.tv/leweb3/392057
Many more Twitter Bots: http://twitter.pbwiki.com/Bots Simon Baptist
December 2008

12. So What? Twitter has only 5 million
UV monthly
• Due to extensive API use (a stat that it’s time
to start measuring), actual Twitter use is much
higher
• Better though is to look at a short example in
#Motrin: Johnson & Johnson Blunder
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Simon Baptist
December 2008

13. #Motrin: Johnson & Johnson Blunder
• J&J's McNeil Consumer Healthcare had created a campaign to tie Motrin to the pain mothers
have from baby carriers
• A video ad was put on to YouTube in late September but full media starts in the runup to
International Baby Wearing Week ( November 12-18, 2008)
• The start of the response on Twitter is attributed to Mommy Blogger, Jessica Gottlieb on the
Friday.
• A full scale Social Media eruption occurred on Twitter over the weekend. (You can get a
flavour via this this 9min response from Twitterville on YouTube)
• Monday morning. The campaign (and brand) was dead in the water and this was response
from the team at Johnson & Johnson:
"We have taken immediate action to respond to these concerns and have removed the advertisement from
our Web site... Unfortunately it will take longer for us to remove this advertisement from magazines,
as several are currently on newsstands and in distribution.“
• More links:
– Chicago Tribune: Company caves to moms’ Motrin ad backlash
– Washington Post: Motrin Makers Feel Moms' Pain, Pull Babywearing Ad
– Advertising Age: How Twittering Critics Brought Down Motrin Mom Campaign
– Wired Blogs: Motrin's Mommy Headache: A Lesson in Social Media Experimentation
– Forrester Social Media Analyst Jeremiah Owyang: The Motrin Moms Backlash by the Numbers
– Live Search
– Twitter Search: #motrinmoms 13
Simon Baptist
December 2008

14. And then 10 days later: #Mumbai
• Twitter responds to the terrorist attack on
Mumbai
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Simon Baptist
e.g.: http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/11/26/first-hand-accounts-of-terrorist-attacks-in-india-on-twitter/
December 2008

15. With #Mumbai, Twitter Crosses the
Chasm
Mumbai: Twitter's Moment
Twitter turns serious amid India terror
Tweeting the terror: How social media reacted to Mumbai
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Simon Baptist
December 2008

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

17. John Battelle Crystallises it Best
December 04, 2008
Shifting Search from Static to Real-time
In what may prove to be a seminal post on the
LookSmart Thought Leadership series, John Battelle
takes the time to “Think Out Loud” about his
response to using Twitter. Among other things he
says:
In short, Google represents a remarkable achievement:
the ability to query the static web. But it remains to be
seen if it can shift into a new phase: querying the
realtime web.
http://www.typepad.com/t/trackback/1015593/36625626
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Simon Baptist
December 2008

18. As a Publisher, it could go from this:
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Simon Baptist
December 2008

19. To this?:
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Simon Baptist
December 2008

20. Or?
Discussion…

21. Appendix

22. TwitRank
• I have put some thought into what this would look like and
have currently come to the following high-level:
∑= User Influence X User Topic Authority X Update Authority
• The list of variables that can be used to build each of these are:
– Followers
– Following
– Updates
– Replies
– Favourites
– Retweets of other people’s updates
– Retweets of this users updates
– External links
– Direct Messages
• Interesting reading: Twinfluence looks to be doing some good work on User Influence and
Dan Zarella is working hard on ReTweets.
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Simon Baptist
December 2008

23. How People Move from Status Update to Microblogging
http://rohitbhargava.typepad.com/weblog/2008/12/the-5-stages-of.html
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Simon Baptist
December 2008

24. Blogging is the Mainstream
• comScore MediaMetrix (August 2008)
– Blogs: 77.7 million unique visitors in the US
– Total internet audience 188.9 million
• eMarketer (May 2008)
– 94.1 million US blog readers in 2007 (50% of Internet
users)
– 22.6 million US bloggers in 2007 (12%)
• Universal McCann (March 2008)
– 184 million WW have started a blog | 26.4 US
– 346 million WW read blogs | 60.3 US
– 77% of active Internet users read blogs
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Simon Baptist
December 2008

25. Simon Baptist:
Has been building successful web
products with a Search and Advertising
focus since ’96.
http://www.twitter.com/simon_baptist
http://www.linkedin.com/in/simonbaptist