While Twitter takes only about 13% of the US market, it’s often a more niche group of followers (minus all the spam of course!). And while “a Tweet has by far a much shorter lifespan than a Facebook update” there’s a better chance to reach someone who really cares about your cause. For example, the American Red Cross has been able to successfully translate Twitter support into donations for disaster relief. While this is an outlying case, without Twitter those funds would have been lost.

Sometimes I personally feel that Facebook “likes” are a way to make your followers think you identify with a brand’s message, even if you don’t. For example, someone might follow the American Cancer Society, because they generally care about their cause, but they won’t really engage with the brand by donating, reposting, or attending an event.

However, Facebook can be used for “timeless news and updates.” I see this as a big win for wanting to convey a steady message, or have a good timeline for events, relevant news and friend interaction. Used often, this could also be a great way to interact with friends by responding with rich feedback to posts. According to an article, Facebook: Is it Worth your Nonprofit’s Time? ”80% of nonprofit staff said that Facebook helped them build better relationships with their existing constituents by helping nonprofits stay in touch and build community around their issue.”

So if I’m a non-profit, do I use Twitter, Facebook or both? I feel if you have a consistence flow of content and time, use both. There will be overlap somewhere, but with Twitter you can post quick and often, ideally more updates and interaction with  specific ”interest.” And then with Facebook, a slower cadence of news and updates with people who “like” your actual organization. But remember that social media needs interaction from both sides! If someone DM (direct messages) you on Twitter, or posts a question on Facebook answer them back, and always thank people for “liking” or “following” you.

Want to read more about non-profit social media tips?

• 9 Things a Nonprofit Organization Should Never Do with Twitter
• 20 Tips for Nonprofits Using Twitter
• Facebook and Twitter for Nonprofits

Director Catherine Hardwicke mentions to the LA Times, ”I was realizing as we were prepping for the movie that I felt sad for the back stories of these characters. I wanted to know more about those people.” So what did she do? She hired first time author Sarah Blakley-Cartwright to fill in the blanks! It’s worked for blockbusters like Harry Potter and Twilight, but those books were written before, and by established authors. I do think it’s slightly genius to realize you can create a dedicated fan base by giving them something else to do than just watch your movie…but…

In January, when the book was released, it hit No 1 on the NYT best seller’s list, but it was missing the ending! If you look at the reviews on Amazon you’ll find a whole bunch of frustrated customers. Including comments like “Rip off!” and “publishing company scams customers with incomplete product,” and “SHAME ON YOU to anyone affiliated with this con,” I’ve yet to see a response to these comments. The e-book will release what publishers call “bonus chapters” a few days after the film releases, but in actuality it’s the missing ending. This might have been a smart marketing tactic IF you told your customers you were selling them an incomplete story.

You can check out the author, director and screenwriter chatting about the novel in these video clips.

According to the article (which is not about cyber stalking or privacy, which the name seems to hint at), a study revealed that “where you’re from actually deals with how microblogging service reflects regional dialects and slang.” Carnegie Mellon University took a look at this in a study of “9,500 users and 380,000 messages.” During this study they found that, like traditional dialect, without knowing the actual location of these microbloggers, the could identify ”regionalisms from spoken speech, such as Southerners’ “y’all” vs. Pittsburghers’ “yinz,” and the regional-based references to soda vs. pop vs. Coke.” And although unlike in real life where we can hear the accent, the study can determine your location within 300 miles because of the way you text, tweet, etc.

But why is this cool? According to the team, “The study shows that people continue to develop new ways of using language, regardless of whether they’re talking over lunch or exchanging messages on Twitter;” and shows that technology is having a direct impact on cultural evolution. The team is presenting their findings at the Linguistic Society of America annual meeting in Pittsburgh, you can get a copy of their work here.

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads This blog is doing awesome!.

Crunchy numbers

A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 6,600 times in 2010. That’s about 16 full 747s.

In 2010, there were 7 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 77 posts.

The busiest day of the year was July 9th with 54 views. The most popular post that day was Internet Movie Piracy: A tale of illegal file-sharing in the United States.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were facebook.com, bigextracash.com, ask.com, paulgude.wordpress.com, and google.co.in.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for stack of dvds, movie piracy laws, internet movie piracy, stack of movies, and dvds movies.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

Internet Movie Piracy: A tale of illegal file-sharing in the United States June 2009
2 comments

Social Implications of Mobile Technology in Developing Worlds December 2009
17 comments

How real is the technology in Inception? July 2010
3 comments and 1 Like on WordPress.com,

About Me October 2008
3 comments

What Happened to Video Game Addiction? January 2010

TechCrunch gives a good shot at guessing what all the fuss will be about tomorrow:

• iPad: The lack of an official Facebook iPad app has been glaring since the device launched six months ago, and while some third party apps have stepped up to the plate (and done very well financially), a Facebook app is still nowhere to be seen.
• (More) Places: Facebook Places launched in mid-August, and it’s still missing some key features, particularly on the desktop version of the website. Likewise, we could see a much larger campaign urging local businesses to become active on Facebook Places.
• Credits: Facebook Credits are being used in more games (they frequently came up in the gaming event last month). But what about a broader launch that lets anyone use them?
• The Facebook Bar – Facebook has been working on a Meebo Bar clone for ages now — they even announced it at f8. Where is it?
• The Facebook Phone: They denied it existed. Then they said it sort of does. A full launch is the next logical step, obviously.
• Update: As has been pointed out to us about a dozen times now, the invitation also uses the word ‘Event’, which could be a hint pointing to news around Facebook Events. Or maybe Facebook just used that word because it’s, you know, an event.

I think this announcement has something to do with a partnership, rather than an actual item…possibly Google and the mountain of personal data Facebook has been sitting on? I doubt it. I tend to think the buzz has grown too much, and we won’t be rewarded. And, like in the past with privacy adjustments etc, users have not been overly accepting of changes. Tech News World prints, “anything short of the sale of Facebook to Google, or purchase of Twitter by Facebook, will be anticlimactic,” joked Paul Levinson, head of the communications department at Fordham University.

But what about this dream technology that allows us to enter into each other’s subconscious? Warner Brother’s actually created a manual for the dream device used in the movie, aka the “PASIV Device Technical Manual” and shipped it as a marketing tool. But some “research suggests that intentional/lucid dreaming and shared dreaming are possible,” according to this article. While I’m skeptical, it says the researcher uses a device called “NovaDreamer,” a sleep mask that monitors rapid-eye-movements (REM) of dreamers and gives visible and auditory feedback cues which seeks to improve dream recall but also, like the PASIV device used … in the Inception movie, triggers lucid dreams without awakening the dream.”

For right now I think we should just stick with the mobile apps, Kindle books, or the dusty ones in your closet to keep our dreams in check. After all, if we don’t fully understand it, should we really be messing with our subconscious?

1. Is this worldwide or just US?
2. How many total people are “hooked” into the Internet?
3. What percentage are dormant accounts, spam or rarely used accounts?

From a marketing perspective these could be pretty helpful answers.

Thanks to Geek in Disguise for the orginal post.

One thing I thought about when trying to obey the traffic laws is the impact of device juggling. It’s way more distracting than chatting on the phone! Possibly because I was on a road trip and swapping from my Google maps screen, to listen to a song my Ipod just played, or quickly grabbing my Flip to video a dust tornado…but maybe I’m a consumer asking for a solution?… or someone to avoid on the freeway?

Anyways, please read my accounts of my solo trip down to the Grand Canyon through Salt Lake City then back up through Vegas and Portland. But just a quick count of all the devices I used: HTC HD2, my laptop, Flip, Canon 30D, Zune, Ipod Nano, and ALL the connectors to keep them charged over the 3,100 miles I drove!

…and the most adoring piece of technology I used sadly (being a Microsoft-ie) was my Google Maps app on my HD2, I seriously wouldn’t have gotten anywhere without it.

One of Groundspeak’s main goals is to bring “online communities together in physical locations.” What does this mean? Well, it’s exactly like hide-and-seek…someone hides something in a park, in the city etc, then posts the coordinates online for people to go out into the world and find. By logging your geocache find online, you’re sharing your experience with other’s and building a stronger community.

So I’m curious to learn about people’s geocaching experiences; what have you found, where have you gone, what crazy situations did you find yourself in?