Who would have known that this new form of communication would become such major force in changing how the world shares information.

Happy Anniversary Twitter and Thanks

JB

I have shoes older than Twitter, yet I seldom wear those shoes.  I use Twitter every day since I got my first Twitter account almost 4 years ago.  I didn’t understand it at first but my good friend @brentleary kept telling me that sending Tweets will be the next BIG thing. I resisted the urge to Tweet for almost a year then I got my first taste of how powerful Twitter really is in the world of communication.

This whole Twitter thing really hit me when the Twitter account of our current President of the United States, Barack Obama @BarackObama started to follow me.  Back then he was only the Senator of Illinois running for President but it meant a lot to me that he decided to follow me.  It was not until later on that I found out that he followed everyone who followed him at the time.

The point is I was so impressed that he thought to follow me, I started following others who in turn followed me. This time it was someone who actually knew me personally and wanted to follow the links I was sharing. We have been following each other ever since then and of course now I am hooked on Twitter.

So Happy Birthday Twitter!!! And thank you Brent for pushing me to Tweet for the first time.

All the best

JB

This post was inspired by a post I read at Blackweb20.com The blog article titled  “Twitter’s Popularity Doesn’t Translate into Profitability” talks about how popular Twitter has become but can that popularity turn in a profit.

I think Twitter should take a chapter out of what we already know as Domain Names renewal.  Having a Twitter handle or username has almost become as popular as getting the right domain name.

Some of us are still old enough to remember that domain names were once free to obtain. So if we are so use to paying anywhere from $7.99-35.00 for the average .com .net or.org per year, so why can’t Twitter charge us a yearly registration fee to keep our Twitter username.  Paying for your Twitter username would also cut down on the amount of Twitter spam one gets everyday.

If I were  Twitter I would also charge a premium price to corporations/business for their company branded username. I will also charge celebrities and sports figures a premium for verifying their name.

I don’t think Fortune 500 corporations like Walmart, Bank of America or Ford would mind paying a little extra to use Twitter or to keep their Twitter handle.

With the last count of about 50+ million users and growing on Twitter, most of us who have had our Twitter handle for 3 years would not mind paying anywhere from $10-20 dollars per year just to keep on Tweeting. That could be an annual income of 500m – 1 billion for Twitter and that ain’t shabby.

So what are your thoughts on this matter. Would you pay a yearly fee to keep your Twitter username? Please answer in the comments below.

All the best

JB

Twitter announced its new redesign of their Twitter site on Tuesday of this week and said that after their announcement they would roll out the new Twitter design to us all. Have you been updated to the new design yet? As of today I sure have not. So, when will we all be able to experience this most eagerly awaited new look and feel? Who Knows.

I have been very happy with web based clients like @hootsuite and @seesmic I am not sure what is taking Twitter so long to roll this new design out to everyone but I guess it has something to do with how many people who are actually using Twitter. Even though, I look forward to seeing the new Twitter design I don’t think it will make me want to give up my @hootsuite or @seesmic Twitter client. Oh well, If you have not seen what the new design looks like take a look at the two video below.  Big Thanks to Robert Scoble @Scobleizer for providing the Ustream coverage on the day of the Twitter announcement.  If you have been upgraded please let us know what the experience is like in your comments below.

All the best

JB

If you have not added your Twitter account to your Linkedin profile now is the time.
Linkedin and Twitter have official partnered and it is about to make a big dent in the Social Networking space.

Not only can you now have multiple Twitter accounts added to your Linkedin profile but all hashtags are now recognized. So please use #twarketing if you post this article to your Twitter feed. The only thing I suggest is that you don’t post all of your Tweets to your Linkedin account. When setting up your Twitter account on Linkedin use the selection that allows you to only post the tweets with “Share only tweets that contain #in” hashtag. Take a look at what Reid and Biz below have to say and let me know your thoughts.

Click here to learn more about Twarketing on Linkedin