Is it me or does Twitter just feel like another way of big brands and companies pumping out the crap in their email newsletter?
Even though I don’t follow brands I do send them a lot of ‘@’ messages, whether it’s a question, feedback, or mostly when I’m pissed off at their service/product. What I’ve noticed is that out of 50 big brand messages I’ve had 2 replies, one was a week later by Dell and the other was 2 days later by First Direct (although they ignored my reply after that).
Is it too much to expect such a easy way to communicate with a brand to be rewarding?
What’s your experience?
UPDATE 11.30pm GMT : It has now topped $4 million in 36 hours
Twitter and Facebook proving they can actually be used to save the world.
The American Red Cross have been raising money for the earthquake disaster in Haiti and the tweet above has just been put out by the State Department member Jared Cohen.
The New York Times have just said that Facebook is reporting 1500 status updates PER minute containing the word Haiti.
Have you ever wanted to send a parcel to someone but didn’t know their address? You’d probably be like most people and just ask for it, but what if you only knew their Twitter username or email address? (cue Psycho shower scene music)
SendSocial allows you to send parcels without the recipient disclosing their address. It works by letting the recipient know via Twitter or email that someone wants to send them something. They then have the choice to either accept or decline, if they accept, SendSocial will request their details and address.
The sender is then given a barcode to print out which the courier (fulfilled by MyHermes) scans on pickup to identify where it needs to delivered. This keeps the receipients address hidden. Read More
Orange UK customers can now upload their pictures to their Twitter stream by simply sending them to 86444.
The service is run through a photo site called Snapshot which is run by Orange, and it all works pretty seemlessly too. I tried it out today and you just send your first MMS and get a SMS back which links you to a Twitter authorisation page. Read More
Caught wind of this very cool use of Twitter by Stylish Goods, the online electrical store.
Blogger and Twitter user Phil Hancox had tweeted in the early hours of the morning that he had broken his kettle and was in a bit of distress about no longer being able to make tea. See below:
Upon walking up in the morning Phil had these two replies from Stylish Goods directing him to their store:
Great bit of targeting by Stylish Goods. Not only did they address Phil’s need of a urgent tea fix by mentioning super-fast delivery times but also added incentive with the 5% discount.
It would definitely grab my attention and make me visit the site, even if I didn’t make a purchase, that bit of marketing cost Stylish Goods absolutely nothing. I might even remember to use them the next time I need something electrical. Read More
Twitter is getting a huge amount of coverage at the moment, it’s been touted as the next big thing and apparently we’ll all be tweeting away in the very near future.
Hitwise reported last week that Twitter finally got more visits than Myspace for the very first time. Twitter accounted for 2.21% of websites visited in the UK in August. Facebook however received 47.50% of website visits making it the number one visited site.
The funny thing is that as Myspace is crashing out in a big way and Twitter is on the way up, I can’t help but notice the similarities between how my friends have adopted the two services.
Around 3 to 4 years ago when Myspace was hitting it’s peak in the UK I set up an account. After getting my real life friend list to about 20 it became apparent after 18 months that none of my other friends were getting involved and the ones that did initially hadn’t logged on for a long long time. Eventually I just ended up accepting random friend requests but got bored of engaging with people I didn’t know.
Then Facebook came about and within a year I had all my friends on my account and everyone was interacting on regular basis with status updates, comments, photos and wall posts.
Now fast forward to Twitter and I’m seeing the same thing happen as Myspace, friends joining up to see what the fuss is about and not really getting it, then never going back. Read More
I worked in conjunction with the extremely talented Designer/Illustrator Leigh Pearce to create some Twitter icons that represent the 3 basic types of update you can do i.e From Web, From Mobile Web and From Txt.
Feel free to use them on your blog or web app. Read More
If you spend a bit of time on Twitter you’ve probably noticed some nauseating self-important tweets from people you’re following. Ever wanted to shame them publicly? Well now you can.
Tweeting Too Hard allows you to submit and vote on these shameless, bragging tweets Digg style. The worst of Twitter is there for all to see, and it’s pretty funny too, although I’m slightly worried that these people exist.
Here are some of my favourite picks:
Girl at the gym was checking me out, I could tell she wanted me. A Philly 8, but she had sweaty arm pits. I don’t date girls that sweat.
I love how some dudes hate me for dating their fantasy girl, as if they were going to if I hadn’t.
i think i have honestly decided that i am far too intellectual for most of the people who want to sleep with me. what a disappointment.
It’s Car crash stuff, check it out.
Wow mobile gaming is moving Fast!! webOS to Work with Unreal Engine 3 
