I am a long time listener to the Adam Carolla Podcast (@adamcarolla) and back when it first started I heard a comedian on the show named Mike Birbiglia. Mike impressed me by being very funny and seemed like an up-and-comer who hadn’t really broke MAIN-STREAM yet. I checked his Twitter page and found that he was not@MikeBirbiglia, so I registered it myself as a place holder if he ever wanted it.
About 6 months went by and sure enough, one night I get a call from Mike’s agent asking if I would be interested in giving him the name… I said, “Sure!”. I was not looking for money or any payment for the pseudo-domain-name (it’s against Twitter’s TOS anyway!), I just wanted to grab it before someone malicious could. I sent him the login credentials and a few weeks later got some sweet swag in the mail!
A CD, a DVD and an personalized autographed 8×10. I was stoked! Big thanks to Mike for creating such a fantastic personal connection with me and for being so generous, I will definitely be telling all of my friends NOTE: He is also @birbigs
“this tweet is (17 characters): For Brian – u da man, Mike Birbiglia”
Rapper Kid Cudi (@KiDCuDiOnline) struggles with the same challenges we all face on popular social media sites.
In the song, “Simple As…” (track 3 off Cudi’s breakthrough album, “Man on the Moon”) he raps,
I can’t be a loser could’ve figured that
I can’t be a lame I’m cooler than that
I feel I love, the fame then I hate it back
thinking now what I should be Twitterin‘?
Cudi is obviously struggling with the dilemma which many before him have faced; how do you express yourself in 140 characters? For many high-profile artists and celebrities there’s a lot of pressure to be creative, witty and entertaining on your Twitter page.
Consequently in the song, “My World” (track 6 off the same album) Cudi mentions his Facebook page:
Instead of all the ladies cause they talk down
I was too artsy known to be a clown
Now my Facebook poppin’
cause I told the same girls I would be the hot s**t….
To the best of my knowledge Kid Cudi is the first mainstream rapper to mention Facebook and Twitter in the same album. Cudi respectfully mentions these social media sites with a tone of severity, in the same breathe as he describes other major life experiences. Before “Man on the Moon” other social media sites may have been mentioned in rap songs, but only farcically or as a pop-culture reference. With these 2 simple name-drops Cudi captures the real-life essence of how social media affects his daily life.
Only 18% of all Twitter users have more than 100 followers. A total of 81% of all users are currently also following less than 100 people.
Do you have over 100 followers? That means you are in the top 18% right? Well, not exactly. I would argue that the data is probably wrong. We would need to do some mining but I bet the accounts they included in this total are both active & inactive accounts. I’m sure a lot of users on Twitter saw the site on CNN, heard @Oprah ‘twittered’, registered for an account and then left it for dead.
Twitter User Growth
What we really need to look at is who has over x number of tweets per month. Out of these ‘active’ users, how many people do they follow and how many people follow them. I’m sure this percentage is much higher.
But let’s not go pat each other on the back just yet. It’s pretty easy to amass 100 followers if that is what you are trying to do. If you follow 1,000 people chances are pretty good that at least 10% of them will follow you back. The key is too look at the follower/followee ratio. Once the number of people who follow you is greater than the number you follow (spammers not included) that is when you have something special.
I got one of Richie Kihlken’s songs featured on Mashable.com. After the release of his first album “Process Paradox” I tracked down Barb Dybwad who was doing a #MusicMonday column. She must have liked what she heard because she put Richie’s hit song “Mr. Mystery” #5 on the Music Monday top ten list.
Richie Kihlken on Mashable.com
Richie Kihlken on Mashable.com
[Click here for the write-up, click here for the original post]
There are many different options for how to explore the Twitter-verse and whether you use an iPhone app, a web-based client or Tweetdeck, it’s all just a matter of personal preference! But in case you’re wondering, here’s my 2 cents:
Brizzly Birdie
I used TwitIQ for about 6 months and really liked it. I have tried many different Twitter clients, but the best one I have found is Brizzly. This cuddly blue bear makes it easy to manage different Twitter accounts while maintaining all the primary functionality of the original site.
NOTE: He is also @birbigs
