Twitter Boosts Search Feature

Currently Twitter’s search functionality offers valuable insight into what users are saying in real-time. However that insight is soon to become even more valuable as Twitter announced this week it is adding additional features to its search tool.

Notably, Twitter will crawl and index the links people add in their posts, not just the text they write. Also it will sort search results by Twitterers’ reputations, not just by chronology. Just how they rank reputation remains to be seen. However these developments certainly increase Twitter’s worth and value to brands and marketers alike.

- Sam

Thought-activated Twitter-ing

More interesting developments in the world of Twitter, as the platform takes on a serious tone.

A US biomedical engineering student has developed a way to post messages on Twitter using electrical impulses generated by thought. By donning an electrode-fitted hat which hooks up to a computer and monitors brain activity, the user can post words by simply focussing on a desired letter. The computer senses which letter has been picked and starts to flash in response.

The implications could be hugely significant for those suffering from paralysis and "locked-in syndrome" – whereby a brain functions normally but the person cannot speak or move.

Twitter’s simplistic format and usage method lends itself to the potential for exploitation in this area.

- Sam

Death no obstacle to micro-blogging

Historic Royal Palaces, the independent UK charity that looks after the Tower of London and Hampton Court Palace, among other royal venues, has set up the Twitter identity IamHenryVIII.

Henry 8th will be tweeting from beyond the grave, giving followers updates from events, such as his coronation, which took place half a century ago.

Henry 8th was apparently a doyen of modernity himself, using the most modern means available to him to bring about change and reform. The campaign is an interesting way of imitating how modern day public figures such as Obama have used micro-blogging in communication to the masses.

- Sam

Cash incentives for micro-blogging

AQA 63336, the text question and answer business, has launched a micro-blogging service that allows users to set up their own free SMS feed and get paid each time updates, news, offers and alerts are sent to their subscribers' mobiles. AQA2U can be used by the casual user or businesses alike for whenever they wish to share information with friends and colleagues, or fans and customers.

Coined “micro-blogging with a business model”, publishers will be incentivised by AQA with the offer of 25p per text, up to a maximum of £3.50 per month. The financial incentive lies in maximising the amount of subscribers each publisher can commit to sign up. For example with 250 subscribers, someone could earn up to £3,000 per year.

Charities are especially incentivised to get on board with the service as they receive the full cut of 12p per text normally pocketed by AQA. The Samaritans, WellChild and Straight Talking are already signed up for the launch.

If users are passionate enough about a particular brand to sacrifice a few pounds per month to keep in touch, then this could well be an effective business model.

- Sam

Twitter Developments

Recent buzz around developments in social media has included a possible buy-out of Twitter by Google, suggesting the microblogging service’s content is valuable to the search giant’s search engine index.

The posting of millions of real-time comments, musings and announcements is clearly an important development in search and social media as a whole, as companies such as Google look at ways of mining data for information otherwise sought in a search engine.

Twitter recently launched www.exectweets.com whereby users can find and follow the insights of top business executives, including Virgin’s Richard Branson. Exectweets.com was launched in partnership with Microsoft, demonstrating how major brands can get involved in sponsoring the service. Given that Twitter hasn’t yet worked out how to generate revenue, despite being hugely popular, this is an interesting venture into third party advertising.

- Sam

Focus on Twitter

There has been much in the press in the last week about Twitter, including how investors have just poured $35million into the two year-old start-up.

Have a read of this opinion piece which sheds some light on just how the micro-blogging platform can offer a direct, real-time view into consumer sentiment, something which is certainly highly valuable for brands and marketers.

http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/02/15/mining-the-thought-stream/

- Sam