Sometimes 140 characters are more than enough.

This is interesting.  Given my last post about Twitter and the like being the “junk food” of the social media world, a somewhat non-scientific survey done by OkCupid (an online dating site) shows that heavy users of Twitter have shorter relationships than non-Twitter users.  It’s not a statistically insignificant number either. Their sample size was 833,987 OkCupid customers.

OkCupid’s study showed two key things about Twitter users.  One, daily Twitter users tend to have shorter relationships, and two, the relationships get shorter as the person gets older.

Starting at 18 years old, there is approximately a two week shorter relationship to be had by the average daily Twitter user versus the “other people” (9 months vs 9.5 months, respectively).  The gap is somewhat narrower around age 40, and then takes a bigger dive around age 50, where the difference is almost two full months.

The easy analytical mistake would be to confuse correlation with causation, and say that Twitter has a negative impact on relationship length.  Not even close to enough information in that regard to make a conclusion.  Causation aside, if the goal of the average OkCupid user is to find a lifelong mate, than the correlation does indeed seem to be a negative one, which is what major news outlets have had a field day pointing out.

However, I have a subjective observation.  Most heavy Twitter users that I know tend to be very direct with their social media communications.  Sometimes “direct” can be a euphemism for “abrasive”, but it can also mean that those people that I know don’t mess around with how they feel about things.  This is of course a broad generalization and not reflective of any one individual in my social circles.  While I’d love to get my hands on some real data to support this theory, I wonder if those heavy Twitter users wouldn’t say that because of their directness, they are willing to end relationships a little sooner when they see that it’s not going to end well anyway.  When you live your life 140 characters at a time, brevity and directness are pretty important characteristics.  What do you think?

For the record, I am not a Twitter user.  I know that’s sacrilege in my industry.  I see it as a very valuable customer service tool for our clients, and a significant social phenomenon, but generally I prefer depth over frequency in my communications.  Let me know if I’ve got it wrong.

Finally, you can check out OkCupid’s full article if you want some of the more, ahem, salacious details from the rest of the survey.

I have some ideas.

Social Media

Ironic, I know, because blogging is a form of social media.  So social media was supposed to enhance our lives.  I think it has to some degree, but this study shows that the average person spends over seven hours a day on facebook, almost 2 hours more than the previous year’s result.  And while Facebook does give us a forum to share ideas, I believe that most sharing on Twitter, Facebook and the like is superficial and cheap, kind of like the “junk food” of the internet.  I know they are valuable customer service channels, amazing for advertising, and yes, lots of fun (where else can you check up on that weird guy from middle school?), but ultimately they don’t really provide a forum for depth of content.  Blogging does, and I think it’s suffering as a result of Facebook.

Recession-Induced Time Crunch

While the government does its best to daily eek out some positive economic statement, most of our jobs changed dramatically in 2008.  So many lost their jobs entirely, which is no picnic, but for those of us that kept our jobs, things changed.  “Doing more with less” became the mantra across our company and across all of my clients’ organizations as well.  As the work force shrank within individual companies, individual jobs became more inclusive.  Vital employees were terminated, but vital processes still had to continue.  Personally, it was a positive transition for me as I was able to take more responsibility within our organization, but to this day in 2011 I’m a lot more busy than I have ever been.  Since a lot of great blogging comes from people actually working in the fields they are blogging about, the time crunch has squeeze their available time.

iPads and Smart Phones

Anyone that hasn’t been a coma over the past three years knows all about the explosion of web use across smart phones and devices like the iPad.  According to Forrester, 40% of smart phone and ipad users say that they access the internet more on these devices than on a computer or laptop.  This presents a fantastic new marketing opportunity and a further glorious democratization of information.  However, these devices are great for consuming content, but are still pretty useless for producing content of any substance.  Mobile blogging is cool, but ultimately whenever someone really wants to write, they want a full keyboard and display.  The iPad is an awesome device for reading an interactive magazine, but every user I’ve seen that actually produces content has also purchased the wireless keyboard and mouse from Apple.

Is the Age of Blogging Over?

No way.  My prediction is that we’ll begin to hit a peak of blogging sometime in the next year or so, if we haven’t hit a peak already.  After that, I think we’ll see a bigger and bigger rift between those that blog for pleasure and those that blog for a business.  Business-minded bloggers and those that receive a substantial percentage of their income from blogging are already pulling out all of the stops to gain as much traffic and loyalty as possible.  But the blog itself will remain a valuable outlet for many who simply enjoy writing, and according to Technorati.com, the percentage of people that trust blog content over brand content (e.g., content pushed by a manufacturer or brand) is continuing to grow steadily.

Have you killed your blog recently, or allowed it to die a slow death?  Or is it simply on life support?  Do the world a favor and write something.  There will always be some of us out there that are listening.

“3 Colombian teens on Facebook hit list killed in past 10 days“

The story goes on to talk about how 3 Colombian teenagers were tragically gunned down recently, and that their names are part of a list of approximately 70 or so individuals that someone posted on Facebook as having 72 hours to leave town or be executed (run-on, I know, but I’m summarizing here!).

Now, since journalism became a for-profit industry in the second half of the last century (and even more so as a part of the “information revolution”), I’m of the opinion that depth, context, and facts are mattering less and less, while shock-value, real-time updates, and popular memes carry the headlines.  I’m not going to pretend I’m a journalism expert – I’m a blogger, obstensibly in a different category than “real” journalists, because what I write is always my opinion and is understood by my readers as such.

Soapbox aside, here’s what concerned me about the article.  Check out this excerpt:

Several of those residents posted their concerns on Twitter, an online messaging site.

“Panic in Puerto Asis, Putumayo, because of threats against young people,” wrote a user who goes by JuanSepulvedah. “Our youth must be protected.”

Someone who posted under the name JulianEco brought up the Facebook connection.

“The situation in Puerto Asis is tenacious, that a social site be used to add fire to the Colombian conflict,” the post said.

Twitter user hugoparragomez likened the situation to the drug-fueled crime waves in other Colombian cities.

“What is happening in Puerto Asis, Putumayo, is grave, the same as in Medellin,” the tweet said. “Authorities should take control of the situation. Who is investigating?”

Still others inflated the death count.

“In Puerto Asis they have killed 20 young people threatened on Facebook and the authorities have not said anything,” wrote jesusmhenriquez “That is Colombia.”

I understand that the reporter is trying to give some sense of context to the story, but really, Twitter posts as the equivalent of a first-person interview?  My purpose in bringing this up is not merely to be critical or “old-school” in any way, but rather to comment on how astonishing it is that a completely anonymous posting by a Twitter user is being used in place of a quote from a true witness or confirmed (e.g., fact-checked), Colombian citizen.  For all that reporter knows those “tweets” could be bogus and/or plants.

I know enough to know that social media played an important role in publicizing the horrific recent political events in Burma, Iran, and Sri Lanka, and Tibet that would have otherwise been completely censored by their respective governments.  Again, my point isn’t to disparage the medium of Twitter.   It’s more to question its apparent acceptance as a viable source for journalistic fact, or even legitimate literary context.   What do you think?

I’m a bit late in posting this, but as many people know, July 16 is the 40th anniversary of the incredible Apollo 11 mission.  America is still the only country on earth to have put a man on the moon, and even 40 years later this is an incredible achievement of engineering and the human spirit.

As a commemoration of the event, the JFK Library commissioned wechoosethemoon.org, an incredibly rich online experience in which a user can follow multiple aspects of the historic mission in real-time as they occurred 40 years ago.  With links for social media sites, non-linear navigation, and so many different ways to experience the event (photos, video, audio recordings, etc.), I think this site is a fitting tribute to the brave men and women of the Apollo programs.

I also believe this site represents the current pinnacle of what an online experience can be – totally connected in every sense of the word.  So enjoy this site from a historical standpoint or from a modern technology standpoint, but be sure to check it out because it’s pretty amazing.

I’ve been writing a lot about social media lately, and I decided to have some Q&A time with a good friend that is actually using it to help power his business.  Patrick Smith is the co-founder of UTOPIAN Coffee Co., and an overall great guy.  He and business partner Brendon Maxwell (insert obligatory cheap coffee aside here) employ no full-time social media guru or consultant, and are bootstrapping most aspects of their business.  Social media presents a key marketing opportunity, and like most small business owners, it’s an avenue that they must navigate on their own.

As the coffee expert so astutely articulates, the very basics of product marketing (start with a genuinely good product) and relationships (be nice to people and they will be nice in return) are the foundations that are propelling UTOPIAN Coffee Co. forward. That and lots of caffeine.

The following is our exchange about social channels, the coffee business, and the ethics of underage coffee consumption.

Tell the readers a bit about your business.  What do you sell?  How are you selling it?
UTOPIAN Coffee Co. is a web-based quality-oriented specialty coffee micro-roaster.  That’s the official answer.  What does that mean to the average Joe/Jane?  We are uber-picky about the green/raw coffees we buy, meticulous in roasting, and we bag and ship straight out of the roaster.  This way the coffee arrives on your doorstep (anywhere in the contiguous 48) within 4 days of roasting.  Crazy fresh.

At a time when McDonald’s is undercutting more expensive coffee brands such as Starbucks, Seattle’s Best, etc., with the McCaffe versions, why do you believe your more upscale, niche product will be successful?
Great question, Andy.  I’ll answer anecdotally then more substantively.

When I was in college, I drank lots of coffee.  Knowing this, a buddy of mine bought me a freshly-roasted pound of Sumatra as a gift.  I noticed immediately that this was far superior to anything I’d ever had.  The curse came when poor, tuition-drained Patrick tried to revert to Chock-Full-o-Nuts.  NO WAY.  I literally skipped meals to ensure that from that point forward I would have good coffee around.

Driving through a coffee shop (or McDonald’s) on your way to work will cost you $2 to $5 each day five days a week.  That’s a monthly habit of $40 – $100 for 20 cups of coffee.  If you were on a myUTOPIA membership receiving 2 pounds a month you would save between $7 – $67, and it would yield 80 cups of coffee!  You’d have more money, more time, better coffee, less stress, heck I bet you’d even live longer!

On the objective end, Google Analytics allows us to simply track the sources of our traffic.  Additionally, any coupon codes we generate are always specific to the outlet through which they are disseminated.  This allows us to carefully track the effectiveness of any such campaign.

People are using social media for everything….obtaining news updates, getting shopping leads, and let’s not leave out socializing.  It leads to a smaller world, but also a smaller attention span.  In order to successfully utilize these channels, we need to remain specific, concise, and relevant.

Any plans to enter the brick and mortar retail market?
Not if I can help it!  The hours are rough, overhead is higher, & managing hourly employees is difficult.

What are the things that social channels can’t help a small business with?
Product quality.  It is one of the pillars of our business.  Social media can help with marketing, and if you’re really clever distribution, but never product quality.

Who should quit their day job and start their own business?
Anyone with a good, somehow original idea, the expertise to make it a reality, a high stress threshold, low sleep requirement, good marriage (or none at all), strong work ethic, optimistic outlook, and billionaire parents.

What advice do you have for closet tea drinkers like myself?
Switch to coffee.  It doesn’t stain your teeth as badly and is more readily accessible stateside.  No, honestly, I don’t know a load about tea.  Give some serious thought to the science of extraction when you’re tooling around with tea. You might have some fun results.  Play with variables like water purity (RO or tap), water temp, contact time, and agitation.

I know you have small children.  How early do you plan on letting them have their first cup of Utopian Coffee?
Been there. Done that. Calvin is almost a year.  He’s not super keen on coffee.

Hudson is 2 and a half.  He loves coffee.  If you ask him his favorite kind, he responds “mytopian.”  He apparently thinks that the first syllable of the word “UTOPIAN” is the pronoun “you” and than “-topian” is a separate word.  Naturally since he is referring to himself and not to you, he calls it “mytopian coffee.”  I have a photo somewhere with Hudson at 2 years old with a crema mustache from having a sip of my espresso.

–

Thanks Patrick, and if you ever get a hold of some high quality imported teas, I’ll be first in line.

You can follow UTOPIAN Coffee Co. on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/UTOPIANcoffee

Disturbing, but not at all surprising.  That’s what I think of the story featured on the Associated Press titled, “Do “I’m on vacation” posts pose security concerns?“.  In it, the author describes an Arizona couple who own two home-based businesses.  As part of their promotional efforts, both individuals Twitter regularly, up to and including their detailed vacation plans where they would be out of town for an extended trip.  The couple Twittered when they left, where they stopped, and most conveniently for the felons who burglarized their Arizona home, how long they would be gone.

It was, as far as I know, a pretty isolated incident.  But I’m not sure why.  How do celebrities such as Ashton Kutcher, Twitter’s #1 user with over 2 million followers, feel safe with that many people being able to know so much about their whereabouts?  Last month, Kutcher, Oprah, and several others’ Twitter accounts were hacked precisely because they were high profile users with massive followings.

Even in the tamer blogosphere , where authors generally consider their posts more carefully than a 140 character Twitter post, there was the high profile stalking of Kathy Sierra in 2007.   The author of the popular (top 50) marketing blog Creating Passionate Users felt compelled to leave the blogosphere and lecture circuit after some bad people posted her name, home address, disturbing images of her, and death threats online.

Maybe it’s just simple math.  Most people are good, but a certain percentage will always be bad.  And in America, it is generally accepted that the price of fame is a lack of personal privacy.  The more followers you have, or visitors to your blog, or Facebook friends, the more likely it is that someone you don’t know so well (or at all) could be using your full disclosure to their advantage.  And if you don’t believe me that there is full disclosure going on in social media, check out some high school kid’s myspace page.  Any of them.  You’ll see what I mean.

The last thing I want to do is to throw a wet blanket on the social media movement.  After all, I blog (putting my name as the URL!), Facebook, etc., and see the tools as very powerful to me personally and professionally.  Some of our clients are experimenting quite successfully in social media, and I think the best is yet to come.  But I also keep my family blog, with pictures of my kids and the details of our comings and goings, private and only open to people who have registered on the site.

What do you think?  I’m really curious here.  Does increased visibility always mean increased risk?  Should I unplug my computer from the wall at night just to be safe (I know someone who actually does this)?  Should I stop worrying so much and make all of my profiles totally open and broadcast my every move?  Let me know in the comments.

Thanks Meeker for the tip.

[EDIT] – I just found out that Kathy Sierra is on Twitter.  Interesting.

Let me start out by saying that I love being a “vendor” working for a “client” 99% of the time (a good vendor is usually called a “partner”).  If you are a good match for your client, you get to do great work, shake things up a bit, and everyone, vendor included, will see valuable returns on their investments.

But being on the agency side, you also get exposed to the occasional bad apple, the type that wants you to itemize every dollar spent on an inexpensive  project and then spend a half-day meeting nitpicking every detail to see if any individual item could be “done cheaper” (and yes, that was a very painful, personal experience).

Selling services is always a tough gig, because no matter what your industry you’re always selling ideas and time, rather than widgets.  At an interactive agency, the great ideas and time produce a deliverable, but if you are in the business of selling “websites” rather than creative, engaging experiences, your product is very easy to commoditize.

But I digress.  What I love about this video is that it pokes fun at what the bad (or let’s just say inexperienced?) client is prone to do – try to get something for nothing, or try to devalue the service after it’s rendered.  True negotiation, on the other hand, is an everyday part of doing business.

Combine a rapidly growing trend of social media adoption with an economy that has forced hundreds of thousands of workers to reinvent themselves as entrepreneurs, and you’ve got the perfect recipe for consultant overload.  Since nobody seems to know what the hell’s going on with Twitter anyway, nearly anyone can pass themselves off as an expert on the subject. So suddenly all those poseurs who might otherwise have bilked the hapless with offers of life coaching services or Feng Shui consulting have jumped on the social networking bandwagon. You can hardly swing a stick on the sidewalk nowadays without smacking one of these guys in the head.

While I haven’t personally been in a position to hire a social media consultant, I am ocassionally annoyed by the risible amount of self-promotion through social media channels these folks seem to require to keep their businesses going.  And I’m sure that if my livlihood depended on teaching businesses how to Twitter, I’d be pretty miffed about Mr. Strohmeyer’s article.  But then again, the term “consultant” has always been a loaded one, and I’m sure that most consultants have already come to grips with that in their own businesses.

The truth is, even at our agency, which is filled with a lot of very smart and creative people, social media has yet to be proven the panacea and/or the gold mine that a lot of marketers want you to believe.  It’s an important component to consider for some businesses and certainly valuable for individuals who want to take control of what the Internet is saying about them, but the metrics just aren’t there to support some of the radical positions I’ve heard at conferences and in the blogosphere.

But here’s my favorite part of the article:

The truth is that there are almost no rules in social networking that don’t already apply in just about any other social environment. A great many smart people have already written worthy perspectives on how to be a good citizen on Facebook and Twitter, and I hardly need to reiterate here what amounts to general common sense. Just as in life, the only rule that really matters is the Golden Rule. All the rest is either derivative, or flat-out nonsense, and you really shouldn’t be paying big bucks for either. [emphasis mine]

This is true.  Think about it.  Let’s say you went to a party where 10% of the people you knew intimately, 20% were best friends, colleagues, etc., and the remaining 70% were acquaintances, important people from another time in your life that you didn’t keep up with that often, and some people that you admire from afar as potential business connections.  I’d say that probably approximates the Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn profiles of many.  During that party, which let’s just say lasts an entire day, you update everyone you can about the fact that you’re speaking at a conference.  That’s normal, and good, right?  But here’s the thing – you probably wouldn’t tell everyone things like, “I just woke up,” or, “THESE ARE MY FIVE FAVORITE THINGS”, or “according to a survey I took, I am most like the Sex in the City character Gandalf the Orange” multiple times.

And you certainly wouldn’t want one of the people at that party to be a smooth-talking salesman for a company who’s product you might use but you don’t care much about, like soap, or paper, or maybe even an interactive agency or social media consultant!  If they had something valuable to say that was directly beneficial to you or interesting, that’s one thing, but you’d never invite a broadcaster of unwanted content to your party, at least not on purpose.  Your time is limited, and you don’t appreciate it being wasted.

Facebook recently included a “Hide” feature for removing status updates from those people that you want to stay “friends” with but are sick of hearing from.  I don’t know about you, but I welcomed the opportunity to shut out some of the noise so that I could spend my time keeping up with people who were interested in having an actual conversation.

A social media strategy for a company, or for an individual, requires the thoughtful guidance of someone who is skilled at building relationships.  And I like Robert Strohmeyer’s advice – the first rule to think about is the Golden one.

Sandisk recently launched a new campaign to boost its mini, micro, and standard size SD card sales for cell phones. And while I’d love to wax poetically about the viral nature of the flash-based site and the obviously well-researched and finely targeted campaign, I’m too busy playing around with the super cool ringtone generator.

Boasting an interface similar to that of a high-end audio editing application, but designed with stylized and easy-to-use controls for the average millenial, the ringtone generator is a lot of fun to play around with. The generator has over 30 high quality music samples that a user can mix and match on a 5 track timeline.

I’m sure that Sandisk spent a lot of money on the generator, which is a part of the site S.L.O.T – Serious Load of Thrills – site that anyone could at first glance mistake as a microsite built by MTV. The site, and the generator, are authentic and relevant enough to capture the attention of the millennial crowd. Most importantly, the site and generator offer legitimate entertainment and informational value to a generation with a lot of purchasing power and very sensitive BS detectors.

Bravo, Sandisk.

It’s usually a lot of fun for me when a new client website launches. There is so much that goes into it, from the initial sales effort, to ongoing consulting, creative work, development, quality testing, etc., etc., that when it finally goes live one gets an incredible feeling of accomplishment (and sometimes a healthy amount of relief). For the past several months, I’ve had the pleasure of working on changehappensindegrees.org – a funky site that is the beginning of a campaign focused on saving energy and money for a lot of people. The site is targeted at homeowners, who can reduce the amount of money spent on annually on energy bills by up to $500 simply by using their ceiling fans and thermostats correctly.

Hunter Fan recently commissioned several independent studies that confirmed with facts what many assumed to be the case – you can raise your thermostat in the summer, and lower it in the winter, if you’re properly using a ceiling fan to keep yourself comfortable. This saves energy and money while you feel basically the same level of comfort in your home. These studies caught the attention of celebrity environmentalist and successful actor Ed Begley, Jr., who agreed several months ago to endorse the campaign and who has begun a media tour in support of Look Up. What Ed, and everyone else involved in this project, is excited about is that unlike installing expensive solar panels, or reinsulating your home, using a ceiling fan and thermostat is something that most people can do with little trouble. It’s a small step that most can take to positively impact the planet and to save themselves some money.

We will be adding several interactive modules, including a region-specific home energy savings calculator, throughout the year, so I’ll keep everyone posted.