Over the course of the year, I have had many great conversations on Twitter. When I come across a Tweet that makes me smile, laugh or think hard, I tend to favorite them and go back and reread them from time to time. The slideshow below contains my top 50 Tweets of 2011.

Hope you enjoy and find something to smile about.

There is no question that Twitter is my favorite social network. It is short hits that cut to the chase and there is no room for crap in 140 characters. I won’t say it was love at first sight, but after about 100 Tweets, I was hooked.

I must also confess that I am a social media junkie, so my love affair and ease of use does not apply to the non-geeky populous who flock to Facebook like it was the last piece of dry land in Waterworld. Twitter is not easy and the interface is bulky, new users like my wife, find it clunky, overwhelming and at times dumb. To prove that those claims are not slander, it has been estimated that out of 200 million registered users on the microblogging site, only 20-40 million are active accounts.

Sure New Twitter and apps like Seesmic Look (remember the sensory overload launch?) aim to make it easy for users to get acclimated, but non-geeks aren’t into 3^rd party apps and want to use it on site. So it is a catch-22 of a hurdle that I didn’t think Twitter could get past, until I saw the email below that my wife received yesterday alerting her that I @ replied to her:

Now while I don’t like these emails for me and haven’t gotten emails from Twitter in months, it gives a call to action to return to the site. If I don’t want to log in every day, I don’t have to and is kind of like LinkedIn’s alerts that draw me back to the site to accept or decline requests – which is the only reason I really ever log onto LinkedIn. I also love this email system because it shows the willingness and want from the folks at Twitter to get away from the tech-nerd community and get the cool kids involved with their service.

What do you think of this? Is it a gimmick that will drive people away from the service, or will it increase the migration to Twitter’s flock?

I have a problem that I need to admit. I read and I mean a lot. I am also a research junkie when it comes to the social space and like checking out reports even if it takes me a few months to clear the foot high stack of them sitting on my work desk. One paper that I recently read was Burson-Marsteller’s The Global Social Media Check-up 2011. Unlike many reports that focus on one network and give some interesting stats, this study takes a look at four major social groups surveying companies across four geographical regions – USA, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Latin America.

There are a ton of useful nuggets in the piece that can boost your case if you are still trying to “sell” a particular network to your boss, CMO, president or just to yourself. Below are the stats that really stood out to me:

• Asian companies saw a 68% growth in corporate Twitter accounts
• The followers of corporate Twitter accounts grew 241% year over year
• 40% of corporate Twitter accounts engage in some kind of customer service
• US companies average 5.3 Facebook fan pages a 179% increase
• The US saw a 63% increase in corporate blogs
• 36% of companies maintain blogs globally

You can view the full research report below:

Do you think that using 100 companies on the Fortune 100 list was too small a sampling? Or do you think it gives us a good overall view?

I used to think Yelp was pretty cool. Kinda like that slightly-older but still-in-high-school boyfriend you had way back when: he knew the best people, the best places to go, but once you graduated, you just knew he wasn’t really your style, so you went your separate ways. Yelp, like that ex of yours, is a great resource for information on local businesses, showing restaurants’ hours and menu offerings, publishing user reviews of everything from beauty salons to churches, and listing great local events around Boston. It’s definitely a resource I’ve used in the past when trying to plan a date, shopping trip with my roommates, night on the town, Saturday afternoon of culture (or coffee), and more. 

While there’s still a place for Yelp in my heart, I’ve found lately that I much prefer using Twitter and Foursquare to find new places and things to do here in Boston. Yelp has become more of a secondary resource to me–a follow-up after I consult the other two platforms to get details (like hours and menu offerings!), and even then it’s usually only a Google search that leads me to visit Yelp. While I give Yelp big props for SEO (it’s almost always a top-five result when I search for a restaurant or other venue), I just don’t really need it anymore. Sorry, Yelp: I’m kinda over you.

Foursquare, on the other hand, offers a ton of relevant information, and the best part is that the recommendations I find there are mostly fueled by my friends–people I actually know, like, and whose opinions I respect. I can see where my friends have recently checked in. Depending on the night, that tells me about a fun new restaurant, whether the Red Sox are home or away, that a particular bar I normally enjoy is way too crowded to wait in line for, etc. And since it’s a mobile app, I can use it to find places near me no matter where I am in the city. Even if I’m not in the mood to meet up with my friends where they’re checked in, I can see what cool venues are around me and read tips from other people who have checked in there–they’re like little mini-reviews that give me a great nugget of information to help me decide whether I want to stop by.

Twitter is also a great recommendation engine, though not necessarily what it was designed for. Still, I have an extensive network of people I follow on Twitter who, through link-sharing, insightful comments, witty @ replies, and other useful information, I have come to regard as a resource for any decision about what to do, where to go, and how to get there. Unlike Yelp, updates from the people I follow on Twitter get pushed out to me in realtime, so I get an immediate update if a venue is closed for a private event (in fact, the restaurant/bar might even tweet it out from their own account!). Realtime feedback=realtime AWESOME.

So while there’s nothing wrong with Yelp, and I still fondly remember it from time-to-time, it’s not really my speed these days. What can I say? I’ve grown up in a world where instant is a requirement: I want what I say I want when I say I want it. Call me spoiled, but with the array of venues at my fingertips with Twitter and Foursquare around, I just don’t need Yelp anymore. Like that high school boyfriend, I’ve outgrown it. I’ve moved up, moved on.

About Elisabeth Michaud

Elisabeth recently joined Communispace Corporation in Watertown, MA after a stint as a PR and Social Media pro. By night, she is a social media addict, grammar nerd, Red Sox fan and adamant Gen Y advocate. You can find her on Twitter @emichaud or blogging over at social-logical.

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Earlier today, Twitter turned the ripe old age of five. Now I have been using the network for three years now and it almost seems like yesterday that I jumped on the service.

Many people ask me why I do it and to be honest I am addicted to the real-time engagement. Whether it’s manning the corporate account or hopping in chats, Twitter allows me to constantly connect with people and learn without having to be in a classroom.

When asked to describe in 140 characters, I responded with:

@PRCog Connection platform that cuts to the chase, meat & potatoes. If you can't say in 140 characters, GFY

March 21, 2011 12:13 pm via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite

@jeffespo

Jeff Esposito

Why do you Tweet?

Over the past few weeks, we saw unprecedented news coverage of a revolution in Egypt. Despite a lack in initial traditional media outlets and internet sources due to government intervention, the people were able to be heard via social networks.

These networks were not the underlying reason for social change, but rather served as an avenue to provide the world with an unfiltered account of what was going on.  The revolutionaries got THEIR message out about the CHANGE that THEY wanted.

We are living in a day and age where real change is being made around the world and playing out in front of our eyes on the social web. Here are some interesting numbers that were passed along to me from my friend Dennis who works at the The American University in Cairo:

• Egypt gained 632,120 new Facebook users from January-February, 2011 an increase of 12.16%
• On February 1 (the day the Internet was turned back on) Egypt gained 100,000 new Facebook users
• Globally there were 1,317,233 Egyptian related Tweets between January 24-30
• Egypt leads African nations with ~5.2M Facebook users, despite having only 6.46% of the country’s Internet population on Facebook.
• Egyptian Twitter adoption grew 10X in January

To see the full presentation and graphs from the folks at .digitalrepublic|, click here.

While the numbers are spectacular, the pale in comparison to what the Egyptian people were able to do. Times are changing in both how politics and the news are being played out. Do you see this as something that will grow in the future?  I think we’ll see it more, but hey, who knows, I could be wrong and would love to hear your take.

A collective look at the social media landscape offers varying use types. They range from an open-sourced virtual cocktail party to folks reliving the glory days and cliques of high school and businesses looking to become more human. The beauty of it is that no matter how you use the medium, there is no “doing IT wrong.”

With that said, there are three common threads that often emerge in individuals’ use of social media: self-absorption; voyeurism; and a need to be connected. They are beautifully displayed in this social media Venn diagram from the folks at Despair.com under the headings narcissism, stalking and ADHD (their words, not mine).

Image - Despair.com

It’s a pretty graphic that calls out some of the ugliness that lies behind the social nature of these sites. Don’t believe me? Ponder on this:

Narcissism- In the past year, personal branding has been a constant trending topic and buzz word across the social space. The thought is that while doing your job, you also have to look out for number one. Everything from Tweeting and blogging to networking events is all about you and finding the next big break for you.

I see it as kind of backwards, but if you think about it, most blogs that you read (including this one) fall under the author’s name. You also see many folks on Twitter and Facebook sharing their latest posts over and over as it’s a way to bring more people to seeing what they are doing.  One downside to oversharing is that communities like Twitter seem to self police themselves. Over-sharing blowhards of the “I” and “Me” varieties tend to put folks off and lose followers.

Stalking – In general, the term stalking typically comes along with a negative connotation. Well, that was until folks added Facebook to it. How many of you have said that you were going to Facebook stalk someone? Don’t be modest, everyone knows you do it. The question really is does it make it right?

Sure much of the information is public, but when does it become an invasion of privacy? I am no judge, lawyer or purveyor of online privacy, but also think that somewhere down the line we’ll see something come up about this in the legislature.

We should never take stalking lightly, even if we make it easier for folks to do it with geo-location sites like foursquare, SCVNGR and Facebook places. My friend Michael Dolan penned a great piece a while back on perhaps the first instance of foursquare stalking (take a read if you haven’t heard the story). It is definitely scary. In theory its cool to see where your friends are (would have been key in high school pre-cell phone years), but it also can let burglars and creeps know where you are and aren’t.

ADHD – I have never been formally diagnosed with ADHD, but I can sure multi-task like no other. Surely some of you are the same way.

No matter how good you are at juggling, social can be a true time suck if you try to see everything at once. You can’t do it, so don’t try. For some reason, if you think you can, may I suggest the following to help paint a picture:

• RockMelt – this browser was created for people with a short attention span as it ties in RSS feeds, Twitter and Facebook within one browser. It has more pop-ups than VH1’s Pop-Up Video. I still have some invites so ping me if you want one to give it a go.
• LiveFyre – I blame Danny Brown for putting me onto this comment system. I have fallen in love with it and it offers more fluid commenting on many blogs and links to people’s SM accounts so you can easily follow a commenter or socially share. Depending on your settings, you can receive instant updates to bring the conversation from Twitter to your blog.
• Facebook groups – If you are in an active group, you probably see Facebook (1) cookied into your browser. These groups are very beneficial, but can also be easily derail your productivity if you join the cult.

When you have tried all three of these for a week and stayed on top of them religiously take a look at your “To Do” list and see how many things are crossed off. Chances are that it’s not as good as you thought.

At the end of the day, this diagram should show that we all need to take ourselves less seriously. We all will fall somewhere in between one of the three buckets, I know where I am, do you?

People I interact with often ask me what the benefits of social media are.  They range from ROI and measurement to “why bother” and “is it worth it?”

Many of these people are not familiar with the space and question metrics that they cannot understand. It’s often hard to satisfy their question as to how do you know you are doing things the right way.

Instead of having to search for an answer, Marie Wise of Kalama, Washington said it for us beautifully in this Tweet:

@jeffespo you are doing a great job on @Vistaprint PR, Im a customer because of it!

December 14, 2010 10:08 pm via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@artsylady

Marie Wise, APR

Marie on behalf of the entire Public Relations team (Jason Keith and Nick Gosselin) at Vistaprint, I’d like to say thank you for the Tweet. We’re very happy that you’ve chosen our company for your marketing materials and the Tweet made our week.

You’ve helped us see that the work we’ve been doing in the social realm for the past two plus year are resonating with the community at large.

Over the past few days, we have heard some interesting things about Twitter. First was that Twitter is not a social network, but a news platform and the second was that a new Twitter was rolling down the pipeline. Since it is not live for me, or many of you, we were stuck looking at this pretty cool video:

Now while it looks cool, there was some chatter that the new Twitter would do away with our beloved desktop apps. I would hate it if that happened, because even though the new Twitter looks cool, it works fine the way it is. I am not a new user for them to acquire so I don’t need the in-website features, but can see how it can appeal to some. Kind of like New Coke back in the day.

What do you think?

Last week, I talked to John Moore about Vistaprint’s social media strategy and some of the things that we have done in the past. He turned the conversation into a case study that was pretty cool and figured I would share.

Vistaprint: Earning Revenue Through Social Media

Exact Target and CoTweet put out this report (click here if you are having trouble viewing) a few weeks ago and got the chance to chat with the team behind the report. There are some excellent nuggets for people looking for new findings on the Twitter demographic. Perhaps the most interesting is how engaged the Twitter user is compared to the rest of consumers (page 15). I would suggest printing this out and giving it a good look.

Twitter X-Factors – AG2010 (ExactTarget)

I saw this video kicking around Twitterville and needed to share. Whether it is real or not, it is a very cool concept by the crew over at Wheat Thins, one of the Esposito household’s favorite crackers.

Don’t let the title fool you, I am not a fan of soccer or the World Cup. However I can’t deny that it has become the largest trending topic across the globe and probably will be until it’s over. It has also showed us a few things about Twitter.

On the bright side, with the placement of the soccer ball and World Cup definition, Twitter may be showing us how their sponsorship will work. When clicking on the logo, you are brought to a live feed of Tweets pertaining to the match or your favorite country.

This live feed is sleek and sexy and could help keep some of the people who lose interest a week or month after they open an account. It can also be a huge asset to brands looking to tie into trending topics or events like the World Cup or awards shows.

Now while I would love to say that everything was rosy for my 140-character addiction, I can’t. Anyone active on the site knows that while the World Cup has served as a real-time update reel of the matches, the added traffic has also run havoc on the servers in Twitter headquarters. This havoc brought back the fail whale and really shoddy APIs that killed productivity and inspired slews of expletives.

Sure the sudden rapid-fire Tweeting is something that will zap bandwidth it is something that Twitter needs to fix. The constant downtime and error messages are a recurring black eye for the company and point of frustration for the users.

Over the next few months the Twitter team can figure out to keep the fail whale on ice and bring in a revenue stream to continue growth and give the guys at Facebook something to pay attention to.