The subject of the debate is  Twitter followers.  Are numbers important? Is more always better? Should you try one of the many automated services that promise to get you thousands of followers in the matter of days or even hours? The answer really lies in your purpose.  Well, first, do you have a purpose?  Just kidding, in a way.  It’s OK to jump on Twitter to figure out what it is.  You will likely fall into one of two camps:  love it and immediately become engaged and even addicted, once you meet the many intriguing and intelligent folks who are using Twitter then visualize where it can take you, your career, your business and/or your personal contacts (now you have your purpose!).  Or, you’ll hate it and see it as a waste of time.  If so, this debate isn’t for you.

I’m approaching Twitter rather methodically and looking for like-minded people who post comments and news stories that help my daily life and career. Thus, I do not refollow everyone who follows me.  I’m not being snobby, just selective. And I will not use an automated follow system.  However; let’s consider a franchise QSR such as El Pollo Loco or Dominos Pizza.  Wouldn’t they want as many followers as possible?  After all, everyone eats, right?

On the surface, that’s my answer but I’d love to hear other opinions and options I may not have thought about.

Not only was his entire Twitter network aware that he was out of town, but his Twitter account also automatically updates his Facebook status, letting that many more people know he wasn’t home.  Obviously no one is blaming Twitter, but are we saying too much on our online forums?  People share everything from products that work great, to a good restaurant, to what they ate for breakfast.  

Facebook and Twitter are great sites to share information and spark conversation but a lot of people go too far.  Many people read your “tweets” and it’s not just the people following you.  While that might be great for letting the world know that you can’t live without a certain type of lawn disease killer, it might not be the best place to confess your love for your significant other or that you’ll be on an island for a long period of time and no one will be home.

Once you’ve posted something it’s out there for the world to see.

The campaign is produced by Goodby, Silverstein & Partners in San Francisco and they stand by the statistics being real.  Which of course makes me appreciate it even more.

What’s even more fun is the new Sprint Web site with more in the “now” facts.  ADWEEK points out that you can actually download a widget offering a selection of data and that we can soon see this campaign in print.

So you know I love it, but looking online it seems as though consumers don’t find it as thrilling as I do.  What do you think?

What I don’t understand is why they are blaming isolation issues on sites such as Facebook and MySpace? 

As one reader suggests, it’s not fair to point fingers at these sites for lack of personal interaction.  My 50-something-year-old mother (who’s going to kill me for that) wanted to go back to school and get a second degree.  Because she has a full-time job, she takes her college classes online.  So what’s the difference between catching up with old friends over the Internet and class assignments in online chat rooms?

Dr. Sigman says these sites are working backwards.  He claims these sites are not bringing people together that they are actually displacing our interaction. 

I’m sorry Doc, but I have to disagree.  Like the other millions of people on Facebook I now stay in touch with friends that I never would have if not for these tools.  Yes, I’m not talking to them face-to-face every day, but if I saw them in person it would not be weird for me to give them a hug after two years of not talking because Facebook updates me on their lives like I am a part of it.

In Sigman’s defense, it is important to have personal interaction.  But let’s not blame networking sites alone.  With video games, smart phones, Internet shopping, online education, you don’t even have to go to the doctors anymore with WebMD, there are many reasons why we are losing touch, literally.

However, on a more serious note, one of the newest social network craves is Twitter. Businesses are using the unique network to share and grow ideas, which is proving to be very valuable. Twitter’s audience is increasing so much its found its way into the operating room. I read an article on CNN.com about a surgeon tweeting in the middle of a kidney operation. This is fascinating, as the surgeon found out a tumor was larger than he thought when he went to remove it; naturally, the doctor was taken by surprise and needed to make a game-time call. Remove the entire kidney, or was there another way?
 
Today people put more about themselves on social network sites than you can imagine. This particular surgeon was able to tweet with another doctor who experienced the same game-time call and in the end the patient was able to keep their kidney – tumor less.

So you are telling me the next time you go to the emergency room and explain your injury, the doctor may, a) attend to you right away or b) sign into twitter and see how other doctors are handling your injury.

Do patients need to agree for doctors to discuss their medical terms over the Internet?

I really do think this is great, but I think they need to make sure all angels are covered; I can smell a law suit right around the corner.

Now thinking about it, I am sort of a victim of this. When I had my ACL repaired in April of 2006 the doctor discovered that my meniscus was also torn and that I had other tears in my cartilage surrounding my knee ligaments. The doctor had never come a crossed the rare cartilage tears, but knew of a doctor in a nearby town that just got a tool patented to fix cartilage tears – in the olden days doctors used dissolving staples that did not always work in the long run. So, knocked out, knee wide open, my parents told me the doctor was on the phone with another local doctor instructing my doctor on how to use the tool – crazy.

Result –
Perfectly repaired ACL, meniscus, cartilage, in surgery for six hours – quadrillion dollars (parents money, sorry mom and pop, I’ve hung up the shoes don’t you worry), phoning a friend – priceless.

“In recent years, marketers have set aside a portion of their ad budgets to experiment with digital technologies such as Web video, mobile phones, gaming and virtual worlds. But with broader economic turmoil reaching Madison Avenue, these “experimental” budgets are among the first to hit the cutting-room floor.”

It goes on to say that most companies are going to go back to traditional and tried and true advertising.

This is the start of a new trend that won’t change for a couple of years.  As companies cut their spending on advertising in this area, they will look for ways to maintain visibility.

We already know social media works through PR to build awareness, credibility, and communities.  We already have experience using this strategy to reach audiences at a grassroots level.  We can capitalize on this trend and keep companies in the space without their having to advertise…and we can do it a lot more cost-efficiently for them.

Our apologies to our advertising counterparts, but it’s time for PR to take the lion share of the communication budgets.

A recent survey by PRWeek’s Marketing Management, stated 75 percent of companies’ surveyed made it clear they are expanding their budgets for digital and online initiatives and cutting their digital marketing would be the last department cut.

Now, how do we get this message to clients, friends, or yes even our parents! I suddenly just had memories of teaching my parents how to use their first cell phone. The fact is, this is how people are getting their news and information, online and through blogging worlds. If you want to boost your company, clients where about and their success, and even your personal life, a blog is a great place to start. Much like the Chicago Cubs and Kosuke Fukudome, this is the year, of the blog!

Another parallel is emerging with social media. While blogs give everyone a chance to tell stories and voice opinions, cell phones and digital cameras have incited citizen photojournalism, as well.  In fact, Yahoo and Reuters have begun to post pics submitted by amateur photographers.

This trend might strike fear into the hearts of struggling photojournalists everywhere. But if the pros are debating the ethics of doctoring photos, and the bloggers and camera-phoners are simply calling them as they see them, so-to-speak, who has the better handle on the ethics of freedom of speech? — Joanie Hammes

Hardee’s parent company CKE is understandably perturbed at being the *ahem* butt of the joke.

The commercials, however, are pretty funny and rival most ads included in this year’s Super Bowl broadcast.

Advertising is different than PR, and it is the venue where the most direct attacks on competitors take place (Bud vs. Miller; Pepsi vs. Coke).  But still, there must be some sort of ethical threshold, right?  Isn’t there a space for relying on the quality of your product instead of bottoming out (oops) at the lowest common denominator?

CKE has asked Jack In the Box to refrain from airing the ads, but AP writes that a CKE executive “said that the company asked Jack In the Box to drop the ads, but that the chain refused and pointed to a Carl’s Jr. TV spot suggesting Carl’s Jr. milk shakes were superior to those served by competitors.”

Clearly they’re comparing asses to utters. — Alex Parker

If you didn’t watch the Sopranos last week I am sure you at least heard about the controversial series finale, leaving fans and bloggers alike with questions and mixed feelings.

HBO series ended with a blank screen and made viewers, like myself, feel unsatisfied … until I got on my computer only hours later.

Making it on the CNN homepage and hundreds of blogs, the real scoop was announced. 

This is a true test to word-of-mouth and what the power of blogs can do.  Once logged into the blogosphere I learned what the ending truly represented, and a light bulb went on.  “It all made since.”

Was this what the creator, David Chase, wanted to happen?  Did he want us to feel like we needed more information to the point where research for closure was a must?  Did Chase want us to tap into our new social resources to find out what everything meant?

I would like to believe yes.  I think it’s great that the show is now over but the word is still out.  People are still Googling and blogging about what it all means.  This series finale took advantage of the tools of the 21^st century and caused more of an uproar than ever before. 

Between freaking out thinking my cable went out at the exact wrong time, to feelings of relief and satisfaction when my research led me to the bloggers with answers.  This gave me more of a roller-coaster ride with my emotions than my past relationships — I loved it!  -  Molli Megasko