Why Facebook Subscriptions Won't Mean Anything for Twitter

On Wednesday Facebook dubbed their new “subcription” based service. A basic summary can easily be said as that this is the equivalent of Twitter’s “follow” functionality. Instead of augmenting someone to your already magnifying Facebook friends list, you can simply add them to your subscriptions and have their posts show up in your feed.

With the new added functionality of being able to add people to your subscription, much recent contemplation of various social media users have come out that we might see a downfall in Twitter usage. My reply simply put is no.

The main added benefit this brings to the Facebook table is the ability to be more closer to people you don’t actually know. Ashon Kutcher, Lady Gaga, and unfortunately Justin Bieber can be apparent examples of people that might see the most substantial outcome of all of this. But the main complication for me is that last time I checked Facebook already allowed for this type of functionality. Popular and heavy users of the platform 97% of the time already have a Facebook “fan” page.

The only convenience I can see here is the fact that the nuisance FarmVille updates will be inherent in this situation. The day of finally having a clean Facebook feed is upon us, but the day that we will see Twitter plumpet to the bottom is not upon us. Twitter is in the same trouble that it has always been in.

For Google+ converts like me that don’t use Facebook anymore, this does not convince at least me to make a the switch back. But granted, I think criticizing might not be the proper thing to do as this very well can be just to keep with high competition.

Heello new social network from TwitPic

Heello.com has just landed, and looks an awful lot like Twitter. In the past few months Google+ is taking on Facebook, Twitter is taking on TwitPic and TwitPic is taking on Twitter with new platform Heello. I was in that registration process lightning fast and got the username @jack, I was expecting it to be gone but when the green tick came up, I've never hit confirm so fast.

At present the site seems to just be a clone of Twitter but the developers are saying that much more is coming, @meltingice has also hinted at the use of SMS as reason for the 140 character limit on Pings (effectively tweets). He has also stated that business features are coming soon. Having been a member for about an hour now, I'm excited as to where this could go. It's a really exciting time to be working in the tech startup world. Although I can't hep but think that products are going in and out of fashion faster than clothing! The Heello blog claims that they are trying to change the way that people comunicate and have a bunch of new products in the pipeline which I'm sure means Apps amongst other things.

Noah Everett founder of TwitPic and Heello told TechCrunch "“Everything we’re working on right now is under wraps for now, but mostly everything we’re building helps people communicate better." With the new Facebook calling app, O2 Social Call app and Google+ meetups, everyone seems to be set out trying to change the way that we all communicate. We'll just have to sit back and see which ones truly take off.

@techByJack

What May 21st Said About Social Media

Saturday, May 21, 2011 was a wedding anniversary, birthday or other momentous occasion for some. For others, May 21, 2011 was the day during which many believed or at the very least feared that the heavily publicized predictions of 89-year-old Christian broadcaster, Harold Camping's "rapture" could have some validity. Whether you were a believer or cynic in regards to Camping's predictions of the "end times", as a generation, we can unanimously agree that this end of the world scare will go down in history as the property of social media.  

Harold Camping gained momentum amongst today's generation after making a startling prediction earlier this year that the world as we know it would end on May 21, 2011 with what many religious believers refer to as "The Rapture". Camping's prediction included intimate details about these end times, including an exact time at which catastrophic earthquakes were said to begin destroying the sinners remaining on Earth after the second coming of Jesus Christ.

As the hours passed and May 21st arrived for many countries overseas, where was it that fearful or even curious followers of this supposed rapture turned to? Twitter. The choice of many to turn to a website in general, let alone a social networking site which runs solely off of user generated content, makes a significant statement about our generation. We truly are living in the era of the internet and social media.

May 21, 2011 was the first prediction of the end of the world that took place during a time of such social transparency. The Y2K scare of 1999 and other similar predictions took place during times of lesser technology that did not connect people across the globe. It is, in fact, arguable if Harold Camping's prediction's hype is a direct result of its viral spread across social sites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. 

May 21st reminds us of two key characteristics of our current state of technology. First of all, we live in a society in which all individuals are informed, including all age groups and all financial classes. The news never ceases to be broadcast and the mediums by which individuals can receive news are multiplying by the second, making breaking stories accessible to any individual. Today's news is instantaneous. As reports came in across the internet that Christmas Island, Kiribati (an otherwise unknown location) was the first of the world to experience and live through 6PM on May 21st without a world ending earthquake, people across the globe celebrated via tweets and Facebook statuses after learning of this information via those same social networking sites. In that moment, all who participated became instaneous broadcasters. 

This brings me to the second statement that May 21st has made regarding our world's current technology. Social media undoubtably is the way of the future. In years prior, only trained professionals or trusted news anchors could deliver us information regarding such serious events as the supposed end of the world. Yet when crisis struck and fear took over, thousands of individuals turned to Twitter as their source of information. And as the clock struck 6PM in Christmas Island and progressively in other countries across the globe, the world rejoiced together. Predictions of Camping's Rapture immediately became a bit less frightening regardless of the fact that people were reading tweets published by strangers.

The atmosphere on the internet was quite warm on the eve of May 21st and the internet's bombastic social media capabilities are to blame. Sites like Twitter reconnect us in a way humans have not been connected in decades. Our world is drastically smaller now that we are in contact with individuals we may not even know in our "real lives" in countless virtual ways. The fear amongst some users was similar to the fear that some experience regarding terrorism on a daily basis. This unique kind of fear brings humanity as a whole together. And in our social networking based world, we now find comfort in the text based, faceless messages of people that are complete strangers when it comes down to it. Now, everyone with an internet connection has a voice. The world is changing. Communication is changing. This rapture belongs to the internet.

YouTube

Twitter Looks to Purchase TweetDeck

Twitter executives are trying their all time best to broaden the appeal of the popular networking site through a number of ways.  According to The Wall Street Journal, Twitter is now looking to purchase TweetDeck, a widely-used cross-platform Twitter client, for a whopping $50 million!

Neither Twitter nor TweetDeck representatives were available to verify the possible purchase.  Although, very familiar sources have said that Twitter is taking another step toward controlling the very popular application.

TweetDeck has approximately fifteen full-time and contracted employees.  Most of these employees are based in the United Kingdom.  If Twitter buys TweetDeck, it won’t be such a huge deal.  Twitter has acquired Tweetie last year, which was just another step forward.  Purchasing TweetDeck will be just another step forward.

The bottom line is this, Twitter is looking to purchase TweetDeck.  What do you believe should happen?  Would you like to see Twitter purchase this “ever so popular” client?  Would you rather see Twitter shift to a model akin to Facebook?  Let me know in the comment section below.  http://techjohnson.com

Turn Your Social Media into Revenue

There is a big topic nowadays about generating extra income from social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Today I have my TOP 3 ways of doing so, all of which I am using right now. These are all free to use services and are quite simple to work with.

The first one is a service called Twtbuck. Twtbuck is a service that couldn y be any more simpler to use. They generate affiliate links for you, all you do is copy and paste them to your social media sites, such as Facebook, Twitter, or even your own website. They also have a referral program that offers 30% commission from all of your referrals. The payments are constant and you can be paid via paypal The steps are as simple as

Grab Ad Links or Widgets
Begin with Tweeting the ad and then share on Facebook and IM
Check out the link and write a small review about the link on your blog and give your ad links in the blog post.
Use ad links in your email signature or forum signature
For every click you get on these links, you get paid. Simple!

This service is by far my favorite out of all of the services I use and I highly recommend it to new beginners looking to add a little extra cash in their pockets. If you are interested in checking out this service go ahead and click here and begin earning today!

MagPie is a twitter only service that allows advertisers to post from your twitter account. Now when I say they can post from your account, no, that does not mean you give them your account information and they have full access to it. It s basically an ad post on your twitter feed that you get revenue from. You can set the ratio of how many tweets advertisers can post in your account settings so they aren t posting ads every time you post a new tweet. For example, I have it set up to where every five tweets I make, advertisers get one tweet. The payout for this service is $50.00 which is a bit high in my opinion. While this service is good, it is my least favorite simply because of the amount you must earned before you can actually be paid.

If you re interested in the MagPie service check it out here and give it a try.

Option number three is called Sponsored Tweets. Sponsored Tweets is a Twitter advertising platform that connects advertisers with tweeters. The site provides robust targeting and detailed analytics.

1. Set your price.

All you need to get started is to set your price, add a category and some keywords then wait for offers to roll in from Advertisers.

2. Choose your offers.

As offers come in you can accept or reject them.

3. Receive Payment.

If you accept an offer, your account will be credited within 24 hours of your tweet. You can cash out once your account reaches $50.

All these services combined can earn you an outstanding amount of extra cash, simply by integrating advertisements into your everyday social media connections.This is another one with a high payout, but in my experience, you earn greater revenue due to the fact that you can set your own prices.If you are thinking of using Sponsored Tweets, get more information here.