Twitter: This tweet is personal

Today's social media breakfast offered a vast array of insight into how companies use Twitter to reach their consumers... and spectators. A variety of personalities hovered over opened laptops readily attuned to Twitter (and some were on Facebook and Crackberries). Is anyone out there really listening? They are, and I have to say it's personal.

There is absolutely nothing professional (purely semantics) about Twitter, because when a string of comments is made in response to a company's brand, new product or service-- it's absolutely personal. One attendee quipped about the percentage of value in a forum full of Twitterers tweeting about someone's hot dog being delicious, someone commenting on the Chinese gymnasts' fair-and-square gold medal count, and then back to another matter: "company tweets are spam."

A number of disagreements ensued and one participant in this discussion concluded, "If you don't like what I'm tweeting about, then don't follow me." Sounds pretty selfish in my opinion; others agreed with my sentiment stating that Twitter is, well, selfish.

I thoroughly enjoyed the one attendee who kept bringing up the idea of value in using Twitter, his tone warranting a response from not only the attendees but the presenters too.

Julio Ojeda-Zapata, technology (TechDrive) reporter for the St. Paul Pioneer Press, was the keynote for this event and he talked about his new Twitter book-- which I will be the first one to buy, as it highlights 36 companies whose fates were sealed by legitimate tweets and a strong group of followers. The other speaker, Phil Wilson presented his new Web application, a spin-off of Twitter called Comictwit. A pretty fantastic idea to give online users something to do during whatever break minutes your boss allows, though I could see jokes becoming rather distasteful. Nevertheless, laughter is great medicine so bring on the jokes!

In closing, you're vulnerable online, everything is personal and rather risky if you don't have Comcastcares-like moderators.

Explanation of YouTube comments

If you put a video up on YouTube, you should be prepared to face some hatred in the comments field (most people expect praise, hence why most videos are posted). I'm guessing in about 99.9% of videos with over 500 views, you will find a horribly offensive or inappropriate comment.

"Some of the comments on YouTube make you weep for the future of humanity just for the spelling alone, never mind the obscenity and naked hatred."
- Lev Grossman, Time Magazine 2006

This type of open criticism is worrying to companies that want to go viral; but it shouldn't stop them. There is the option of of blocking comments, but by doing that you would also block positive comments and important feedback.

Mike Wesch gives his formula for obscene comments below.

anonymity
+
physical distance
+
rare & ephemeral dialogue
=
hatred as public performance

Message to companies putting a video on YouTube: don't fear the negative comments. Most importantly don't take it personally and lash out against people, unless of course, you want to unleash The Streisand Effect. But I wouldn't think so.

Get paid to tweet

Twitter users now have a platform that pays them to post links. That platform is Adjix, which is a url shortener, similar to Tinyurl.com. Although, instead of redirecting to your linked website, Adjix places a small banner ad in your redirected link. Thus, monetizing Twitter tweets/links.

Will it catch on?

Truly difficult to say. On the one hand, everyone would love to be making money off tweets, even if it might be a rather insignificant amount. On the other, everyone hates ads and spam, and Adjix might come off as that to Twitter users.

The official beta launch was on Wednesday, so we will be on the lookout to see if Adjix is accepted by the Twitterverse.