Techcrunch has an interesting post up right now about user Twitter Johng77536. Notice his stats here on the right, see anything strange? For one the account is only a few hours old (or at least just started posting) and he already has over 7000 followers. He is also not following anyone in return. So this is different than your classic Twitter Spam were a user follows thousands in the hopes of a few return followers. So how did he do it? Here are two scenarios to think about.
Just like the Sammy MySpace worm he simply may have some rogue code/script floating around out there. Getting a page to go viral with the Twitter community isn’t the most difficult thing. Perhaps this page has been invoked by all these followers and created the follow in the background, unannounced to the victim.
Scenario number two is more likely. Did you know some Twitter power users (your Jcals, Scobles, Loics etc) are given the option to auto follow anyone who follows them? Test it out, create a new Twitter account and follow Jason and Loic. You’ll notice they instantly return the follow. They may of figured out how to create this behavior for other users as well. All they would need to do is initiate the follow, get the return follow and then unfollow for the final step. They may even be able to trigger this action by bypassing the initial follow all together. In a sense creating followers without a paper trail (email notifications).
What are your thoughts?
Update:
Found a blog dedicated to Twitter Spam out there, check it out.
“Yea, we were basically going to outsource it to them.
And it was a big internet company…”
Evan Williams, Twitter Co Founder
Watch the above interview from TechCrunch with Twitter co founder Evan Williams. Is it pretty safe to say they were originally courted by Google for their search? Notice the reflection in his voice, then go read this post from Silicon Alley Insider. Seems like Google would have made a “perfect match” too, after all who better to monetize Twitter search then the big G themselves.
The tubes are still a flutter with the ongoing FriendFeed vs Twitter debate. As only an industry as egotistical as ours could do, the focus has now shifted to the amount of followers and subscriptions. Comparing the two services, some power users have noticed their FriendFeed network is building out much faster than it did on Twitter. Allen has a nice video up, it breaks down why they are seeing such high conversion of followers.
Let’s also not forget that when people like Calacanis or Scoble simply use the site they gain followers. All it takes is one of their many followers to “Like” or comment one of their postings. In some cases when they do this FriendFeed will broadcast their entry out to their friends as well. You see this in the form of “_____ (a friend of _____) posted…”. This feature alone drives tons of new subscriptions in a very viral fashion.
Myself, I’m at 863 followers on Twitter and 198 subscriptions on FriendFeed. About 1/4 of the network, what type of ratios are you seeing?
Oh and enjoy the new Deep Twit above, this one is titled “Fail Bird”.
Update: Just found Scoble’s post on participation, check out the stats he provided.
Some nights you just come up with some strange ideas, the above for example. I guess I just figured Fail Whale should finally get a voice. That voice of course should be monotone, and with just the right amount of twisted snark. Based on the work of Jack Handey, I give you Deep Twits by Fail Whale
Enjoy!
Credits:
The Fail Whale illustration was created by Yiying Lu, the Biz & Ev photo from Mai Le. The voice and crude video editing is yours truly.
If you guys like this let me know, I have a few other Deep Twits already in mind.
Oh just jump over the cliff already, before I could even write up my “FriendFeed, The Best Thing Online Since Porn” blog post, along comes yet another service. Once again we all lurch forward, sign up, rinse, friend request and repeat. Duncan has a nice wrap up with quotes from various folks today. Once again, someone registered Robert Scoble’s handle before he could. Finally, I was of course once again, too late to get that coveted first name only handle. :: shakes fist ::
There are however a few cool things about this Twitter of the week. Identi.ca for one is open source, that’s news good enough to make even Dave Winer happy. Like him, I’m also first hearing about the OpenMicroblogging concept today. Their website is so 94′ it makes me think of simpler times online.
Really these are all great things, perhaps the next step?
Twitter is dead, long live TwitterFriendFeed. That seems to sum up the general sentiment floating around this weekend. After months of troubled operation, many Twitter users are jumping over to FriendFeed. We’ve seen the social media mass exodus before, I imagine will see it a few more times still. FriendFeed does have one distinct advantage, why switch to yet another service when you can simply import it into FriendFeed?
I keep saying that aggregation is the future of social media, or at least the next step. While attempting to look forward, lets look back as well. For that I give you the evolution of social networks, or at least from experience.
Disconnected Me
The lonely days, the dial-up days, the disconnected days. Sure we had things like BBS (Bulletin Board Systems) and Usenet but connections were difficult to forge. BBSs went multi-node and services like AOL increased social connections to some degree. E-mail and on the fly chat rooms provided the best avenues for communication. This eventually grew to include message boards and various types of profile based websites.
Friendship Redesigned
Taking a few steps ahead of the very first social networks (classmates.com was one of them) we find our selves at Friendster. I’ll never forget how simply out right confused I was by the whole concept. It was my first experience where you *HAD* to build friendship connections to really use the site. As you built your social network you could further peel back its layers, look at friends of your friends and so forth. It was this onion like setup that made the services so interesting, and of course a massive time suck.
Social Network Fatigue
Evolving further, social networking web sites are everywhere. Two major players emerge in the form of MySpace and Facebook. Today they are now even part of popular culture. We begin to see tons of services launch with social networking features. Some of us run to each new service, play around for a bit and then quickly abandon it. Many social networks begin to look like ghost towns, littered with millions of long forgotten profiles. Most “normal” users find one particular network that appeals to them, making it their online home. These types of users don’t even want to think about joining other social networks, they just don’t have the time, energy or interest.
Aggregated Me
Now here we are today, our online impressions spread well across the internets. Services like FriendFeed are making it much easier follow your friends. In fact, following is becoming a preferred mechanism to friending someone. Data (activity) is starting to move around more freely thanks in part to things like RSS, Dataportibility and APIs. Lifecasting in whatever medium has never been easier. Twitter becomes a joke on The Daily Show as these services trickle down into mainstream usage.
Whats Next
I can’t tell you the next step in social network evolution, but I can tell you what I’d like to see. I’d much rather that central hub be something I control. A type of service or technology I can deploy and manage from my own domain. A decentralized me where people could follow and interact. As wonderful as FriendFeed is, I can’t help but feel I’m jumping to yet another online rental property. Personally, I’d rather own the home myself.
For my recent job switch it took me 1 week to speak with 3 companies, sign a deal with one and double my salary in the process. Oh, and I did it all with social media…
You might be saying, “But Sean, I thought social media was simply a device for telling your friends what you ate for lunch“.
Well of course that is true, however you can also use these services to land that next great gig. For those curious, or perhaps looking for a social media job, here is how its done.
LinkedIn: Take your paper resume and throw it away. In the tech space LinkedIn is the new resume. Build out a nice large network by tracking down any former/current colleagues. Get them to leave you a recommendation whenever possible. SEO the shit out of your profile, include every major keyword from your industry. This is ultimately how Docstoc.com came across me, via a recruiter who found me through a LinkedIn search. Big thanks to Dan and Jason at Neohire who setup the whole deal for me. Add me to your LinkedIn network to get started.
Twitter: Oddly enough I had an interview with another company because of Twitter. Stranger still, it was with a start up I was razzing in a recent tweet. They used tracking services to follow their company’s name and it started a dialogue between us. While this case is probably unique, a good Twitter presence is vital to getting any social media job today. At Mahalo we managed to get a nice amount of traffic from the service. Due it part to Jason’s large following and the vertical based Twitter accounts I setup. You have an MBA? Good for you, but who cares if no one is following/listening to you today. You can follow me on Twitter here.
Meatspace Marketing: I was able get a few potential jobs lined up through through this medium. The meatspace is that strange place away from the web. Its where real people exist and occasionally interact in a none virtual fashion. Become part of your local tech community and get to know the players. Contribute so they can all see how great you are. Read Chris Brogan’s post on how to be sexier in person.
I always keep an eye on what C.C. Chapman is up to, in the new media space his campaigns tend to offer innovative forms of user engagement. The latest, a Twittering Teddy is part of a campaign for Verizon FIOS. The teddy speaks recent tweets from it’s followers, all the while broadcasting to a Ustream channel. The above video takes us through the process surgery of creating this little guy.
The team plans to sell the bear on eBay with proceeds going to the Homeless Children’s Education Fund. I couldn’t resist asking how it would handle a fail whale. They assured me they have already worked out that potential issue. Personally, I’m hoping it involves the bear covering its face and shaking it’s head in shame.
Plurk seems to be getting a lot of attention today. The site is a microblogging service similar to Twitter however all updates are shown in time line like format. I actually thought about something similar to this last year so I’m glad to see someone giving it a shot.
Its getting the usual twitterati fan faire. Will interest in the site stick with the droves of new users it received today?
Add my Plurk here and I guess we can all find out together.
First impression include a slick interface and pretty cool looking mascots. Friend adding is a bit cumbersome however, why the separation between friend, follower, and fan?
Update:
After playing around with service a little more I’m finding some interesting features:
Built in Flickr/YouTube Support, select “share” as the action and just post in the URL.
Lots of “light boxing” on the site, these pop ups display without refreshing the page make for a nice experience.
Someone is already squatting on Scoble’s default username of Scobleizer.
Doesn’t seem to be a way to direct link to individual plurks. Wrong, there is and here is an example.
You can setup “cliques” or groups of your friends, this one of feature that is very nice on Pownce.
With activity the service is rather addicting, conversations around a plurk work VERY well.
Sunday night is by far the best time for website to experience a “tipping point” moment.
Techcrunch has an interesting post up right now about user Twitter Johng77536. Notice his stats here on the right, see anything strange? For one the account is only a few hours old (or at least just started posting) and he already has over 7000 followers. He is also not following anyone in return. So this is different than your classic Twitter Spam were a user follows thousands in the hopes of a few return followers. So how did he do it? Here are two scenarios to think about.
