If you’re smart and savvy but have not yet been wooed to the world of Twitter, All a Twitter is for you: All a Twitter: A Personal and Professional Guide to Social Networking with Twitter

Author Tee Morris writes this book more to the folks who are not quite wooed by Twitter yet but who are twi-curious. The first half of the book is boring but addresses all of the questions of the what, when, where, and how of Twitter.

The second half of the book is not only interesting but has Tee written all over it and offers up the who and the why with quite a dose of subjective opinion, which I find very attractive since too many of these Twitter books don’t come from a place of the personal testimonial.

While the first half may be boring, it is super-useful, taking you by the hand and showing you through all of the steps required to wade into Twitter fully outfitted, including help with my Android G1 phone (something sorely lacking in Twitter for Dummies and I am pissed).
Another thing you might like about this book is that it spends as much time talking about why Twitter sucks and why you should not jump in as it does, convincingly, talking about the why and how, both from the point of view of someone who wants to become part of the Twittersphere and from the point of view of someone who wants to use Twitter as a business or public relations tool.

The chapters on the tools, gear, services, applications, and applets is exhaustive. There is actually no better review of ways to interact with Twitter that I have found in an offline book. One omission that I did find in Twitter For Dummies is a list of how to use Twitter from the “command line:” “d chrisabraham blah” allows you to send a direct message to me. “f chrisabraham” or “follow chrisabraham” follows me without having to click, click, click. There are others shortcuts if you’re using SMS to engage Twitter. This was omitted and I use these every day, especially when I am at a Tweetup and want to follow the person I am talking to — I will drop a “follow teemonster” to add Tee Morris to the folks I follow.

Aside from this arcane omission, which is probably the result of an edit from QUE (“do we really need to include this? I think it will confuse folks!”), the book is comprehensive.

In fact, Tee Morris doesn’t pull any punches. I mean, he tells it like he feels it. He even sacrifices our beloved-but-on-our-shit-lists Guy Kawasaki in a nationally — possibly internationally — published book about Twitter. I mean, I am not only amazed but snap, he really has an opinion not only on Twitter but on how it can and should be used — and his advice is good.

You should listen to him. Everything he says you can take to the bank — at least until you have some time in the cockpit yourself. If you follow what Teen Morris tells you every page of the book, you’ll be golden. You will thrive in twitterville, twitterverse, twittersphere — whatever you call it. I am going to get my assistant on the line and make her bird-dog Tee down and book lunch, maybe beers if I am lucky. I feel like I know him after the 280 pages of the book and I like him.

And because I like Tee so much after reading the book, I accept the fact that he wants this book to be successful! Yes, it is true that Tee Morris did send me a review copy of his book All a Twitter but who told him he could harass me like he’s been doing via email and twitter — talk about entitled! I mean, there’s no guarantee that you’ll get any sort of response from a blogger if you send him a copy of your book.

Tee must have known that I grew up Irish Catholic and that guilt was just the right away to get me to blog about his book. Well, it might have felt that way to him but I actually wasn’t messing with him — I like him (though we have never met, even though he is surely a local Virginia boy — why haven’t we met yet?). What happened is that I only got through half the book before I received a copy of Twitterville: How Businesses Can Thrive in the New Global Neighborhoods, a book by Shel Israel and I book that mentioned me on page 79, I might add — Shel is one smart cookie.

I am sort of psyched that I waited a while between the first and the last half. When I finished the first half of the book I was super-tired of all of the gear, apps, and tech talk. I was tired of the what, when, where, and how. If I had powered through, I might not have given the real book — the juicy book — the time and attention — and awe — it deserved.

In fact, to be honest, Shel did it right. He wrote the who and why part of the book first and added the techie glyphs at the end; however, that’s neither here nor there because I have been tweeting since early Spring 2007 and have over ten-thousand followers and actually have a PR company that offers Twitter services — of course the remedial and basics stuff would lose me. Don’t let that turn you off.

The only reason I mention it is because the Twitter gurus of the world should not give this book a pass just because they’re Twitter rockstar themselves — the second half of this book is pure gold for everyone, especially we “gurus” (he hates that word) who are constantly navel-gazing. Be sure you get your dirty hands on this book and burn through that Twitter 101 stuff, spend some time with the apps, and then power on to the who and the what and the why of it all.

Really, everyone should be all-a-Twitter.

(Via Socialmedia.biz and Marketing Conversation)

Twitter For Dummies should be called Twitter for Everyone. I may be considered a pretty heavy Twitter user and was #herebeforeoprah but even I really enjoyed getting into the heads of Laura @pistachio Fitton, Michael @gruen Gruen, and Leslie @geechee_girl Poston.

If I were to boil Twitter for Dummies down, I would say that you can’t dumb down Laura, Michael, or Leslie — they’re leaders in Twitterville and you really cannot be disappointed if you grab the book.

For me, the entire book only took me the length of a Hollywood movie to read because I am pretty advanced; however, I must say that I they threw in kitchen sink in this book, extending into lesser-used features such as the Public Timeline and really geeky command-line access to Twitter such as “d chrisabraham” or “follow chrisabraham,” etc.

In fact, there’s a whole chapter on rocking Twitter via SMS text-messaging, something that may be less relevant to the Twitterati but is very important to 75% of all cell phone users (and yes, I did make up that nuber, I think it is closer to 90%) who don’t rock smartphones — just be sure to make sure you get the unlimited texts plan if you plan to go with SMS or you’ll be screwed.

Of course, everything is covered and covered again and you really need to be a moron if you can’t sort yourself out with Twitter by the end of Part III — but this is Twitter for Dummies and not Twitter for Morons (and, publishers, I am super interested in writing that book — also, Twitter for Effen Morons) so there you go — it is what it is. (Strangely enough, however, is that there isn’t one mention of my beloved Android G1 phone! There’s mentions of the iPhone, the Blackberry, and even Javascript phones but where the hell’s my G1! OK, I am done.)

Well, at the start of this review, I said this was all about Laura Fitton, Michael Gruen, and Leslie Poston, and it is, but there’s not a whole lot of them in I-III chapters. Part IV is when all the good stuff comes a-pouring through. Who else but the best of the best would engage issues like “Finding Your Tweet Voice,” “Twitter for Business,” “The Social Side of Twitter,” and “Changing the World, One Tweet at a Time.”

This is the kind of stuff that makes me want to rename this book from “Twitter for Dummies” to “Twitter for Everyone: From Total Newbie to Total Rockstar.”

(Via Socialmedia.biz and Marketing Conversation)

I have started writing for Advertising Age‘s blog, Digital Next, and have also become quite a fan myself. Yesterday, Ken Wheaton wrote an article entitled Twitter Is Not Responsible for Iranian Revolution wherein he posits that “If God came down from the heavens today, Twitterers would find a way to take credit for it.”  While I appreciate the humor, I felt compelled to share my opinion back in the comments and here’s what I said:

I don’t think Ken Wheaton or Jack Shafer truly grok Internet culture. If God herself came down from Heaven, the denizens of the Internet would want “first post” which is what is going on on Twitter about Iran.  We Twitterers don’t take credit for baiting God down from Mount Olympus, but we hunger to be the first person to report it to Twitter.  I did a talk yesterday to the ladies of the Woman’s National Democratic Club here in Washington and I made a similar comment: when the big quake finally gets around to hitting San Francisco, there will be a terrible toll for San Franciscans will, upon sensing the mad tremors, rush to report the earthquake and their guess as to the magnitude it’ll be reported to be on the Richter scale before they seek their own personal safety or the safety of their family.  The same thing is happening worldwide, especially more visibly in the form of #mumbai and #iranelection.

What do you think?  Do you think that we Twitterati fancy ourselves the source of these revolutions and revolts? Do we really fancy ourselves the catalysts or do we simply feel that insane rush when we’re the closest to the source of the news, the natural evolution, in the non geek world, of the competitiveness surrounding getting the first comment reply — the first post — on Slashdot.org.

Adam is an insightful fellow. He put into words what I have been thinking: celebrities are not ruining Twitter because nobody is forced to follow celebs — or anyone — on Twitter. Please read Celebrities Are Not Taking Over Twitter for the rest of the below insightful excerpt:

Celebrities like Ashton Kutcher, Shaquille O’Neal and Britney Spears are not taking over Twitter.  A well publicized event like Oprah tweeting on her show won’t help.  Ashton vs. Larry King, in a contest to see which account, @aplusk (“a plus k”) or @cnnbrk can reach a million followers first is a publicity event that had lots of benefits for both in terms of building large networks, but they are not taking over.  Any way you slice it, their efforts are futile. They can’t take over Twitter because of one simple fact: people choose who they follow.

The Twitterati Version 1 are bitter and jealous but they should be ecstatic because they,  the first Twitterati, were, in fact, ground zero for something that has taken the world by storm.

It is the same for Internet Denizens Version 1 complaining as the unwashed AOL members flooded into USENET.

What Adam might be saying and I am surely stating is that this break out is good and that there is still plenty of room in Twitter to hide in plain site.  Additionally, there is little or no use complaining.

We not only must compete with the Ashton Kutchers and Oprahs of the world but we are also dealing with their media machine, their publicists, their networks and their studios as well — in addition to the obvious equity that they’re happy to cash in from their other media platforms to spend of Twelebrity.

I am amazed that after three years and acruing “merely” 6,347 Followers, I have chosen to spend my time well by investing in 140 characters x 16,210 tweets, resulting in around 2,269,400 characters.

So, heaven forbid I had spent all of that energy in Pownce, which has died, instead of the winner, Twitter — now that would be a waste.

Unlike my blog, which is surely my very own intellectual property that I can maintain forever, my Twitter content is dependent on the health of Twitter. So, I feel blessed, amazed, and triumphant that Twitter has become de rigeur in the world of online media outreach, content-sharing, and community outreach.

I have been seeing lots of articles like Steve Rubel‘s Twitter Is Peaking; Get Ready to Follow The Geeks Onward and Larry Green’s response pot, Dear Twitter: Failure is not an option (for branding). Why am I so accepting of all of these Fail Whale “Twitter is over capacity” pages is because nobody could have anticipated the sudden and overwhelming ubiquity of Twitter in the last 90-days.

I don’t know how much Television you watch, but Twitter is everywhere. The last time Twitter had this sort of challenge, they stood up to the challenge — I didn’t experience one Fail Whale during the Inauguration of Barack Obama, for example.

People were blissed and amazed, if they noticed at all (people never notice success, they only note failure).

I know that new users are going to be turned off by Twitter’s current spate of Fail Whales; however, I am sure that the IT ninjas are in high-alert and maxing out every credit card in sight to acquire more servers and a better long-term architecture.  And, those men and women stepped up to the challenge of the presidential election and the presidential inauguration and

I am sure they are trying to step up to the overwhelming assault.

The real story is that all the morning and daytime TV shows have invested in Twitter: Morning Joe, Good Morning America, Martha Stewart, The View, Today Show, Bonnie Hunt, Live with Regis and Kelly, The Ellen Degeneres Show, and many others.  Now, that’s big news!

While all of Steve Rubel’s Geeks and Techies might be ready to jump, the worst that will happen — the very worst — is that Twitter might turn into MySpace, a property that is still very much a powerful platform for hundreds of millions of people to this very day — and still amazingly profitable for both News Corp and it’s advertisers.

And I guarantee you that the following conversation happened during a board meeting:

Evan Willams and Biz Stone: “We need a quadrillion dollars to buy a bazillion new servers and bandwidth because we’re about to tip into the mainstream, including Morning Joe, Good Morning America, Martha Stewart, The View, Today Show, Bonnie Hunt, Live with Regis and Kelly, and The Ellen Degeneres Show, in the next 90-days.”

The Twitter Board and Investors: “You’ve got to be bloody kidding me! There’s no way that the normal folks at Morning Joe, Good Morning America, Martha Stewart, The View, Today Show, Bonnie Hunt, Live with Regis and Kelly, The Ellen Degeneres Show, and many others would spontaneously decide to join and participate in such a geeky and techie thing such as Twitter.”

Well, guess what? Evan Willams and Biz Stone were right, if they really did make that sincerest of pleas.

David Mullen popped me a Twitter DM (@dmullen) to let me know that he mentioned me as someone he would recommend to a Twitter newbie as part of his Twitter Starter Pack: 50 People You Should Follow:

You know how some things you buy – gaming systems, golf club sets for kids, etc. – come in starter packs that give you the goods you need to get started right out of the box.

Consider this your Starter Pack for great marketing, advertising, PR and social media people to follow on Twitter. Whether you’re just starting out or you’ve been tweeting for a while, I’d highly recommend making sure each of these folks is on your list.

In completely random order…

Amber Naslund (@ambercadabra) Matt Batt (@storyassistant)
Scott Meis (@scottmeis) Arik Hanson (@arikhanson)
Beth Harte (@bethharte) Shannon Paul (@shannonpaul)
Edward Boches (@edwardboches) Narciso Tovar (@narciso17)
Rachel Kay (@rachelakay) Lauren Fernandez (@cubanaLAF)
Jason Falls (@jasonfalls) Geoff Livingston (@geoffliving)
Jack Wojcicki (@prjack) Danny Brown (@dannybrown)
Ari Herzog (@ariherzog) Adam Needles (@abneedles)
Brad Mays (@bradmays) Chuck Hemann (@chuckhemann)
Dave Fleet (@davefleet) Patrick Evans (@patrickrevans)
Rick Liebling (@eyecube) Heather Huhman (@heatherhuhman)
Justin Levy (@justinlevy) Kelley Crane (@kellyecrane)
Sonny Gill (@sonnygill) Kirk Phillips (@kirkphillips)
Todd Defren (@tdefren) Lisa Hoffmann (@lisahoffmann)
Libby Krah (@libbykrah) Lara Kretler (@larak)
Sarah Evans (@prsarahevans) Mack Collier (@mackcollier)
Ann Handley (@marketingprofs) Terry Morawski (@morate)
Richie Escovedo (@vedo) Linda Jacobson (@quepr)
Amybeth Hale (@researchgoddess) Jen Wilbur (@rockstarjen)
Rohit Bhargava (@rohitbhargava) Scott Hepburn (@scotthepburn)
Susan Isk (@susanisk) Kathleen Moriarty (@trendsaddict)
Scott Stratten (@unmarketing) Lauren Vargas (@vargasl)
Olivier Blanchard (@thebrandbuilder) Chris Brogan (@chrisbrogan)
Mandy Vavrinak (@mvavrinak) Lisa Dilg (@pprlisa)
Christine Perkett (@missusP) Chris Abraham (@chrisabraham)

• Shashi Bellamkonda @shashib http://www.shashi.name
• Lisa Throckmorton @lkthrock http://www.speakerboxpr.com/plugged-in
• Kim Oser @putitaway http://www.putitaway.net
• Allison Lee @dallisonlee  http://www.dallisonlee.com
• ThursdayB with Chris @thursdayb  http://www.thursdaybram.com
• Joe Loong @joelogon  http://www.joelogon.com/blog
• Steven Fisher @stevenfisher   http://blog.networksolutions.com
• Jill Foster @jillfoster http://www.womengrowbusiness.com
• Andrew Somyak @asomyak
• Kevin @kasrael  http://kl.yelp.com
• Allyson Kapin @womenwhotech   http://www.womenwhotech.com
• Chantelle Karl  @cckarl Yelp.com’s Communication manager for the East coast (That includes Canada and UK !- figure that out)
• Nakeva @nakeva http://www.meeid.com/nakeva
• Gaurav Sharma @gauravonomics  http://www.gauravonomics.com

Here is Jeremiah Owyang’s definition of a Tweetup

What’s Tweetup? A few years ago, we called them blogger dinners, and it’s where folks got to come together, meet each other face to face (scary huh?) and actually talk in real life. Despite the affection many have for these social tools, there is nothing like seeing people in real life and meeting them.

A few guidelines for social events that I mentioned on twitter: Unlike Fight Club, talk about Tweetups, before, during, and after. Come to meet folks, be social. Don’t “poke” anyone unless you’ve brought protection. The act of “throwing sheep” at anyone other than your spouse is not encouraged. If you’re going to mention people “you’re following them” be sure to give them context whether that’s on Twitter or in real life –hopefully the former.

Kidding aside, just come to network with others, buy someone you’re connected to online a drink, exchange real world information, and most importantly, be merry

Abraham Harrison has been at the forefront of the Twitter phenomenon since its public offering, successfully leveraging the power of micro-blogging for many of its clients. (Via Abraham Harrison LLC)

Services include:

• Twitter Consultation: Abraham & Harrison often works with clients to help them understand what micro-blogging means, the impact it can have within their industry, and the ways in which it can be utilized to implement customer service, improve customer loyalty, promote the brand, and protect a company’s reputation.

• Twitter Profile Creation: Abraham & Harrison has successfully created and populated Twitter profiles for a number of clients. Profile creation includes:
  • Twitter Brainstorming: An initial consultation with the client that outlines the goals, challenges and Twitter strategy prior to profile creation
  • Profile Creation: Abraham & Harrison will create a Twitter profile that mirrors the branding, marketing, and messaging currently utilized by the client. All messaging “tweeted” through Twitter will mimic that of the company’s branding.
  • Constant Population: Once the profile is created, Abraham & Harrison will either train or populate the Twitter profile with valuable information that connects with fellow users on Twitter. Population will include daily “tweets” throughout the work week to boost followers and community engagement.
  • Valuable Team “Retweeting”: Not only will a skilled team member help with the population of the Twitter profile, but the entire Abraham & Harrison team will be behind the client, “retweeting” their content which in turn means an exponentially larger audience seeing the company’s message. For instance, Chris Abraham, Abraham & Harrison’s President and COO, who is known as one of the top Twitterers of Social Media news (having over 2,700 followers) will “retreet” every client messaging. What does this mean? A Twitter veteran will be promoting your company, brand, and message…and people will listen. At least three Abraham & Harrison team members with high profile Twitter profiles will be able to retweet each client “tweet” at a time.
  • Continual Re-Evaluation: Abraham & Harrison will continually connect with each client to ensure the messages disseminated on Twitter stay fresh, valuable, and relevant.
• Abraham & Harrison Twitter Case Study: A fantastic example of Abraham & Harrison’s knowledge of Twitter is illustrated by our work with the client, The Fresh Air Fund, a non-profit agency providing free summer vacations in the country to more than 1.7 million New York City children from disadvantaged communities.
  • Twitterers Who Will Change The World: With Abraham & Harrison’s help, The Fresh Air Fund created a Twitter profile to communicate with other NPOs, current volunteers, potential families interested in The Fresh Air Fund, and donors. In just three months of tweeting, The Fresh Air Fund Twitter profile has over 600 followers and has reached thousands of individuals who they otherwise would never have been in contact with. Not only does Abraham & Harrison help guide The Fresh Air Fund on how to best utilize Twitter in a respectful and value-driven way, Chris Abraham is also eager to help “retweet” The Fresh Air Fund’s Twitter content, meaning that over 3,000 users are seeing this non-profit’s messaging, creating a critical relationship with The Fresh Air Fund that results in support of the NPO. Even more impressive, The Fresh Air Fund was recently nominated to be a part of the “Top Ten List of Twitterers Who Will Change The World” — a fantastic feat for an NPO who has only been a part of the Twittosphere for three months.

(By Lauren Cook) Never has the power of Twitter been more evident than in the last few weeks and months. Once known only by “techies” and early adopters, this micro-blogging site is now slowly infiltrating into the mainstream and more importantly, affecting the way many of us communicate, listen, and learn.

For those not familiar with Twitter, here’s a quick introduction: Twitter is a free social networking service that allows users to send and read each other’s updates (known as “tweets”) that are limited to 140 characters in length (think two sentences at most). At its inception in 2006, Twitter (then known as “Obvious”) was originally created as a tool to be used internally by the podcasting company, Odeo. Two years later, over 3 million individuals worldwide have Twitter accounts and the rate in which news spreads has shortened to, well, 140 characters.

Initially, the goal of Twitter was to allow users to share with their “followers” exactly what they were doing at that moment (ie: “It’s Monday morning and I’m having Cheerios for breakfast”). A common misconception among those who aren’t familiar with Twitter believe this is still the case with the micro-blogging site. In fact, Twitter has grown and expanded and its capabilities have far surpassed solely communicating the mundane details of everyday life.

For instance, take the recent Mumbai attacks in November, 2008. During the three-day battle that left more than 100 dead, social-networking services such as Twitter and Flickr were flooded with news, rumors and pictures of the tragedy by what is now termed as “citizen journalists” — users on Twitter that were tweeting breaking news faster than mainstream media could pick up the same information on the news wires. Many people now describe the situation in Mumbai as “Twitter’s moment.” As a result, major media outlets now uses Twitter to help communicate the real-time public sentiment on various issues, such as Presidential elections, natural disasters, and current events.

Abraham & Harrison has been at the forefront of the Twitter phenomenon since its public offering, sucessfully leveraging the power of micro-blogging for many of its clients. One only has to take a quick look at Abraham & Harrison’s President and COO, Chris Abraham, who is known as one of the top Twitterers of Social Media news, having over 2,700 followers, to understand Abraham & Harrison’s extensive knowledge of cutting edge social media tools.

A fantastic example of Abraham & Harrison’s knowledge of Twitter is illustrated by our work with the client, The Fresh Air Fund, a non-profit agency providing free summer vacations in the country to more than 1.7 million New York City children from disadvantaged communities.

With Abraham & Harrison’s help, The Fresh Air Fund created a Twitter profile to communicate with other NPOs, current volunteers, potential families interested in The Fresh Air Fund, and donors. In just three months of tweeting, The Fresh Air Fund Twitter profile has over 600 followers and has reached thousands of individuals who they otherwise would never have been in contact with. Not only does Abraham & Harrison help guide

The Fresh Air Fund on how to best utilize Twitter in a respectful and value-driven way, Chris Abraham is also eager to help “retweet” The Fresh Air Fund’s Twitter content, meaning that over 3,000 users are seeing this non-profit’s messaging, creating a critical relationship with The Fresh Air Fund that results in support of the NPO. Even more impressive, The Fresh Air Fund was recently nominated to be a part of the “Top Ten List of Twitterers Who Will Change The World” — a fantastic feat for an NPO who has only been a part of the Twittosphere for three months.

Are you thinking about joining Twitter? One word of warning: You can’t become a Twitter sensation overnight. As Chris Abraham says, “Growing a social media profile is like growing a coral reef: after seeding the reef, there are so many things that need to happen before a reef blooms ‘in its own.’” With Twitter, time and commitment are key in order to position yourself as a valuable addition to the community. “You need to be generous — give more than you take — and you need to be committed to the long term,” Chris advises. And it’s not all about your follower numbers.

For instance, once could argue that Lance Armstrong isn’t a valuable member of the Twitter community given that he has over 23,000 followers, but is only following approximately 40 other Twitterers (an improvement since the last time I checked, when he was following a mere 2 users: his Livestrong organization, and one other member of the Livestrong Executive Team).

Twitter isn’t about just talking about yourself, accepting every follower, and never engaging in actual dialogue. Like every other social networking tool, it’s about forming relationships, providing valuable content, listening and (like Chris said), giving more than taking.

There’s an unspoken code of ethics followed by well-respected Twitterers, and a strategy that can help you reach your customers and supporters on Twitter while not opening yourself up to criticism and in extreme cases, retaliation (ever heard of the Motrin Mommies ?). The power of Twitter is increasing daily — do you know how to harness it? Let Abraham & Harrison show you how. (Via Marketing Conversation)

The answer, of course, is “it takes about ten years of suffering hard work to become an overnight sensation.” In the case of new media and Web2.0, you can so that in a lot less time. Being an early — the earliest — adopter doesn’t hurt, but it isn’t necessary, really. However, any way you slice it, with a few exceptions, becoming an overnight sensation on Twitter, YouTube, Plurk, QIK, Utterli, LinkedIn, Facebook, or MySpace is going to require a lot of your resources (time and/or money) and more time than you probably planned out for your boss or your client — or yourself!

I am pretty interested in seeing how my Twitter profile has gone from nothing to 2,511+ followers. Twitterholic has allowed me to figure that out in an easy-to-read format, which I appreciate. I joined Twitter on January 6th, 2007. By October 30th, I had 441 followers. It took until May 5th, 2008, to break 1,000 followers. It only took until September 11th for me to break 2,000 followers, and now, as of December 7th (a day that lives in infamy), I have 2,511 followers. I find that interesting to study but I don’t know what it means.

I think I will venture to explain its meaning: social media requires investment and time. Growing a social media profile is like growing a coral reef: after seeding the reef, there are so many things that need to happen before a reef blooms “in its own.” There are many things that can aid the reef: safety, cleanliness, warmth, nutrients, oxygenation, etc… however, one of the most important thing is time and commitment.

Social media cultivation makes most PR and marketing professionals cringe at the thought of trying to sell these solutions to their clients. A client generally wants metrics now and right away. Clients oftentimes spend tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars to create a social network platform, a blog, or a spate of social media profiles that are world class and amazingly turned; however, when the six-month mark comes around and the community is not yet bustling, most clients get severe cold feet and oftentimes abandon all of the work-in (and money out) as a failed campaign — right before the reef blooms!

It kills me to see the number of corporate blogs, home-grown social networks, message boards, and social network profiles that are like those bare and barren rocks and wrecks that never in fact ever blossomed into an emergent community manifest in a coral reef. An ecosystem as delicate and hardy as any social media space, from Twitter to Facebook, from MySpace to your corporate blog.

I forgot to also add to the resources plus time equation: commitment, consistency, calmness, dedication, generosity, and compassion. When you invest in online community as much as I do (2,511 on Twitter with 11,200 tweets, 2,734 on Facebook, 1,496 on LinkedIn, and 5,321 posts on my blog, an online presence I have had since 1999, for example) then you need to be generous — give more than you take — and you need to be committed to the long term. You will need to learn what each community will allow, suffer, enjoy, or penalize. You will learn where the borders are and you will learn what works (and draws people in) and what doesn’t (making them flee).

Well, with no further ado, here’s a lot of work, time, creativity, hours, minutes, wit, mistake, missteps, business, play, Washington, Berlin, Slovakia, San Diego, and a hundred other places. If you want to have 2,500 followers and you’re not already famous, you’ll have to put in the work. If you can achieve tens of thousands of followers, you’re probably already somebody; in that case, it wasn’t just overnight: you just put in your licks elsewhere. Otherwise, put on those work-gloves and start working!

Visit Chris Abraham’s Twitter Page
Visit Chris Abraham’s Webpage

• Chris Abraham was the 608,473rd person to sign up for twitter!
• Chris Abraham is ranked 843rd on twitterholic! (by followers)
• Chris Abraham is ranked 1st in their location on twitterholic!

Bio: Web strategist and new media guru and president of Abraham Harrison LLC, http://chrisabraham.com
Joined Twitter on 2007-01-06 14:51:39

Cool new news from the gang over at WOMMA, A Twitter Shakeup (Via Marketing Conversation):

Jack Dorsey and Evan Williams, the co-founders of Twitter, have decided to switch company roles. Dorsey, the current CEO of Twitter, will become the Chairman. Williams, the current Chairman, slides into place as the new CEO. Said Fred Wilson from the Twitter Board of Directors, ” ‘We all think Ev is a better fit to lead the company from a product perspective, an operations perspective, and a business standpoint.’ ” The news was greeted somewhat quizzically by the New York Times’ Bits Blog, which pointed out that Twitter has become somewhat of a stable enterprise, especially after its highly successful weeks of presidential debate coverage. Bits suggests that perhaps this shakeup is a way to start Twitter on a path to generating revenue.

Check out minute 1:22 in this video embed taken from a CBS News San Franciso/Bay Area segment on Twitter:

I love my Twitter friends.  I had a clue what twitter hashtags were based on context, but I wasn’t sure how formalized it is.  Well, I just asked my followers on Twitter and I got replies almost immediately from @afhill, @troyturner, @AnnOhio (Ann hates them). Actually, in addition to the useful content over at Hashtags.org and the Twitter Wiki, my new best friend Andrea Hill actually hooked me up with her blog post about Hash Tags: what’s the deal with… #hashtags on twitter?:

In an effort to make the service more powerful, some conventions are being established. Most people recognize “@username” to be a reference to a specific user on twitter (and their name will be linked to their account). Something else users may see are hashes (#) before words. My first exposure to this lead me to hashtags.org (another similar service is twemes). Hashtags.org is an opt-in service. A twitterer can follow @hashtags, and then may use hashtags.org to track realtime tweets that reference that specific hashtags. I’ve seen people throw hashes in front of half of the words in their tweets, to try to leverage this tracking.

I am still on the fence.  Here’s some advice: if you know that your event or group already has a Twitter account, then use the @ sign, @podcampohio, for example. However, if you’re doing your self-organization spontaneously and via Twitter only — let’s say I decided to append all of my Tweets with #amtrak while I am on the train to NY this morning, for example — then you should probably use a Hashtag.

Finally, if you want your Hashtags to be tracked real-time by the gang at Hashtags.org, you must follow @hashtags for the service to index your tweets. An, if you don’t know what Twitter is, you need to read this Twitter Primer. Oh, and if you should decide to become a Twitterati, then please follow me at @chrisabraham!

Not only do I want to harpoon the Twitter Whale but I also want to take out the Twitter Bird with a Red Ryder BB Gun!

I love Twitter, I do, but I have been suffering through this blurb and this graphic for hours now — the hated and reviled Twitter Whale-with-Birds!:

Twitter is over capacity.

Too many tweets! Please wait a moment and try again.

I guarantee that this will freak your shit out!

I am a Twitter Addict, I have to admit, and it is for many reasons! Why?  Well, because Twitter is an important and immediate connection I have to both my friends and colleagues, from anywhere and any time. And, Twitter is also an oracle to me! When I have a question or need advice or a recommendation, I just “ask Twitter,” tapping my 1,304 followers for their experience, hope, and joy. Well, another reason I love Twitter is because of their “promiscuous” API, which drives innovation. One such innovation is the Twittering Teddy, which is the brain “child” of the gang over at The Advance Guard, Steve Coulson and C.C. Chapman, et al, on behalf of the gang over at My Home 2.0.