Social media is a growing industry, and Twitter is often a large part of businesses’ marketing plans. If you’ve ever aspired to a career in social media – whether you’re fresh out of college or an experienced veteran – this article from Mediabistro’s AvantGuild is a must-read for insight, advice, and tips from the experts.
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If we learned one thing from the Oscar telecast Sunday night it might be that a bad, boring awards show can make for some entertaining Twitter content (and that an emerging medium can thrive on the rotting carcass of a dying one). If you checked your Twitter feed at any point during the broadcast (and for some time after), you were likely inundated with reports, many of them more insightful or humorous than the show itself.
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Struggling to gain even 10 new Twitter followers a week? We’ve just learned one of the best secrets to gaining a massive amount of quality Twitter followers in a single weekend. And all it takes are three simple steps… and a dash of humor, a pinch of satire, and a whole lot of celebrity clout.
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Jack Dorsey is using his tech celebrity for good: he’s joined the Board of Directors for BUILD, the largest entrepreneurship-focused college access program.
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In a move that runs counter to the open nature of Twitter, Texas Governor Rick Perry has blocked several members of the Texas media from accessing his Twitter account.
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Well folks The 83rd Annual Academy Awards have come and gone. And Twitter had it covered! Of course, every blog site on earth will tell you that Melissa Leo dropped an F Bomb. Colin Firth won best actor for his role as King George VI – but did not stutter during his acceptance speech. Natalie Portman danced her way to snagging the Best Actress Award. And James Franco seemed, ‘tired’. We took to Twitter to see what the Twittersphere is saying about the ceremony. Read more

New information has been uncovered about JPMorgan Chase’s social media fund, and the importance that it is putting on Twitter. The fund, known as the J.P. Morgan Digital Growth Fund, will value Twitter at $4.5 billion, and is hoping to purchase 10% of the company for $450 million.
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In a word: no.

TweetReach, a reach analysis service that I like and blogged about here, have been tracking tweets about the Academy Awards for the past month, and have crunched that data into a report that shows exactly who the Twitter collective predicts to win.

In that time, 170 thousand people have tweeted more than 313,000 times about the Oscars, reaching 53.5 million unique Twitter accounts and generating more than 720 million impressions.

So, here are our final Academy Award winner predictions, based on the cumulative unique reach of the nominees.

Best Supporting Actress: Hailee Steinfeld (True Grit)
Best Supporting Actor: Geoffrey Rush (The King’s Speech)
Best Actress: Natalie Portman (Black Swan)
Best Actor: Colin Firth (The King’s Speech)
Best Picture: Black Swan The King’s Speech

Sounds good. But here’s the problem: users on Twitter have absolutely zero influence on how the Academy Award winners are picked. This isn’t the People’s Choice Awards. Oscar winners are voted for and determined by the Academy themselves.

So, unless the 5,835 members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) have been tweeting constantly about their exact picks, it doesn’t make any difference what Twitter thinks. It’s like asking 100 random people in the street for the winner of the Kentucky Derby, and betting accordingly. Sure, you might get lucky, but that’s all it will be – luck.

Twitter can be a great predictor of many things, especially where sentiment plays a major role in deciding the outcome of an event that is shaped by the public. For example, the winner of American Idol, or even who is most likely to be the next occupant of the White House.

What Twitter can’t do is predict the outcome of an event in which the people polled have no control or influence over whatsoever.

If Twitter’s collective does get the Oscar winners right it will simply be a coincidence. At best an educated guess. And as much as it might seem that I’m being a nitpicker extraordinaire, by any measure that’s quite a bit different to a prediction.

Be one of many, not many of one.

That checkbox that says ‘send updates to Twitter’? I get it. It’s so tempting. So convenient.

And so unnecessary, and so noisy.

If you’re not part of the signal, you’re part of the noise. And the noise is a LOT bigger, and likely always will be. But it’s a bit like anything else that seems overwhelming and not really your problem – you can make a difference, however small. Because all those teeny, tiny differences add up to a much greater whole. All of a sudden, there’s much less of a problem.

Yes, the perception of noise is entirely relative, but taking that stance is a real easy way to shirk responsibility. Deep down, we each know our contributory value – our ‘internet worth’, if you will. And if you don’t, Twitter will tell you.

Bottom line? If this is your idea of an acceptable journey on Twitter, then you need to think about taking a different route.

Like many in Washington, House Speaker John Boehner is embracing Twitter as a way to connect to American citizens. For the next two days, you can submit your questions to Boehner, and the top voted ones will be asked in an interview on YouTube this Tuesday March 3rd.
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