Well, that year is over. Let’s see how it went.

I talked about the power of the personal brands. If you look at last year, the Personal Brand was in full force. From the Kardashians to Steve Jobs, to Zuckerberg to you. Yes, you. Due to Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and blogs, you are out there as a brand whether you like it or not. Everything you do is being looked at and scrutinized, to a degree, by others. You are, in essence, forming a relationship with the world. Individuals are looked at as much as their companies are. Even with mass movements – individuals and their tweets and status updates stand out. YouTube has given millions the ability to become brands with nothing more than a video camera. And these brands are making money … lots of it. Take Randall and Honey Badger for instance. I happen to know he has an agent and a brand.

Another was the Power of the iPad. OK, so the iPad was an easy guess. But just how much of a game changer is it? Well, it’s now replacing airline flight manuals. It’s used in hospitals, restaurants and offices everywhere. It’s the new children’s book. It’s the new art gallery. It’s the new canvas. It’s every presentation. But more important, it’s what the next generation will grow up on and that is the real game changer. iPad kids will have a whole different perspective on what mobile is and will be in the future.

One of the things that will play this year as well is Real-time Interactive experiences that went past the computer and into the real world. Take a look at these wonderful examples of that. This year, the HYBRID of real and digital will continue to grow.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/18/sunday-review/the-internet-gets-physical.html

Then there was Crowdsourcing. It’s not just for advertising anymore. It is now helping us discover new products and help get them on the market. It’s also helping to publish books. But, best of all, it’s working toward discoveries in health care and science.

http://unbound.co.uk/

http://www.kickstarter.com/

I talked about how digital still wasn’t getting what TV has mastered. And that is still the case in my book.

Digital hasn’t figured out how to showcase its great content. And, in many ways, still isn’t providing great content to showcase. Digital needs to look at TV and learn some things. TV spends the money on content. TV promotes content. TV makes content an event even with TIVO. And TV still has more resources. But most of all, too many digital agencies spend their time talking about usability, wireframes, click-through metrics and half a dozen other digital buzzwords. That’s all well and good, but I am going to spend two minutes on your Web page if you are lucky. Meanwhile, I will spend more than four hours watching TV. Stop bullshitting me and put more on the Web that I need to see as much as I need to see the season finale of Homeland.

We were all wrong about Foursquare. I don’t use Foursquare much anymore and I don’t do a lot of checking in. I have also tired of watching my friends check in from different dive bars. So, from my perspective, I have lost interest in Foursquare discounts and I don’t want to be an imaginary mayor. Plus, my coffee place went to a frequency card.

It looks like Foursquare only figured out consumers and it didn’t even figure them out that well. It left companies to figure out the business portion.

And since the economy is getting better, the companies decided they don’t care about Foursquare as much either.

The consolidation battle between Facebook and Google rages on and on and on. Who will win your soul? Google. No, Facebook. No, Google. It’s hard to decide. Consumers seem locked in to Facebook. However, Google keeps throwing stuff against the wall hoping it will stick. Maybe something that helps individuals stand out more will be the key for Google along with all the customizable friend and privacy settings.

But the best prediction of last year was the Power of the Disenfranchised. The Occupy Wall Street set and whole countries decided they didn’t like the way things were going for them and moved on it. Social media was a conduit for these movements. This has empowered a great many to think they can cause the CHANGE that politicians have been inept at bringing. And if these movements get more organized with stronger leaders and missions, the sky is the limit. This may be the new system in 10 years. It’s pretty obvious the current political party system DOES NOT WORK (see Herman Cain and a host of Republican contenders).

However, the banks will never change. Greed wins over common sense the majority of the time.

All in all, not a bad year. So, what about 2012? Here are some thoughts on what will be more important in the coming year. (Not in any particular order.)

1. The Need for Privacy

Simply put, we don’t have any. Facebook, Google, your iPhone and the nation’s security issues have taken most of it away. With Facebook’s suicide button, you can report a friend who seems too depressed. How far away is that from reporting a person who seems like they might commit a crime? With Facebook’s Timeline, you can look into the history of friends and coworkers. You can look at a relationship status. You can stalk. It’s a window that is always open. With Foursquare, everyone knows you are out while your valuables are home alone. Your iPhone is tracking your movements. Cameras are everywhere. Phones can take a picture and post it to numerous social networks in seconds, tagging you forever. What happens when local cameras are automatically linked to phones? Watch out, terrorists. And what about the social index that can map when large groups are happy, sad, hungry, etc., from their social interactions? Can’t the same be done searching the key words used by individuals? Maybe I want to be sad ALONE.

It seems nothing is sacred anymore. We recently put a campaign together within Vegas asking people to Protect their What Happens Here, Stays Here moments by tweeting and posting discretely when on vacation here. It’s just the beginning. In the next couple of years, the privacy issue will provide a host of apps and a ton of conversation.

2. Transcending YouTube

YouTube celebrities have been showing up in the mainstream for a long time. Someone gets a ton of hits and you see them on a talk show or they get a TV deal. This year, however, brands will hook on to them like fine cheese at the wine tasting. Because the sheer number of fans is so appetizing. From Randall for Emerald Nuts to DJ Dave for Hyundai, the brands are taking notice of the number of hits on their videos.

As well they should. The tie in to Web videos for the brand should be easier since that is the original home of the celebrities in the first place. And if you think there are only a few of them getting the really big numbers of viewers, think again. For instance, try Nice Peter’s Epic Rap Battles – millions and millions of views. Just one of the many.

3. Putting a Brand Worth on Friends/Followers

What are those 600,000 Facebook friends really worth? What kind of ROI can I put to them? How can I spur them into action? How can I turn then into Brand Ambassadors, Brand Evangelists and, eventually, Brand Instigators? Because, as we all know, the key is not those people, but the people they will eventually influence. As more companies start building these groups, they’ll want to know what they’re really getting for the money. They can look at sales, do surveys or follow an online promotion setup for that very measurement, but this is really a small part of the picture. A lot of this is on the “come” as they say. Your Brand Instigators could have already influenced someone to use your product or service – someone who will never become your brand’s friend or tell you how they were influenced on a survey. That’s the nature of social and why it is so successful. Social still feels like an authentic suggestion from a trusted friend. How often is that happening and converting to sales? It’s a big question that will be on more companies’ minds than ever before.

4. The Online Content vs. Risk Dilemma

As more companies get a digital knowledge base, they will take less risk online. The Web is becoming less new and ambitious and more usability and content-driven. This has been happening for the last few years. That isn’t to say there aren’t wonderful sites to see. There are. They just happen to look and feel like what already works. The new mentality is that we will work on original content instead of originality. This is not a bad thing as long as the content is great. If it isn’t, then you just have another site. What does this mean for next year and beyond? Two things: 1. Content is going to get more and more competitive. 2. True originality will stand out like a sore thumb for better or worse.

The bottom line is that originality moves things forward while content makes what is working watchable and engaging. Originality will take a back seat this year on the digital front.

5. Screen Integration

Putting the TV screen, iPad screen and smartphone screen together will be paramount this year. Apps like Yahoo’s IntoNow listen for the audio signature of the show you are watching on television and provide you a unique second-screen experience to go with it. Well, a somewhat unique experience. In other words, the experience could use more content. Content is the key again here.

First off, the app is 100 percent accurate when it listens to identify what you are watching. Better than Shazam by a mile. And if you like to watch TV in a social manner, nothing will beat this. You can discuss with others who are watching the show, watch tweets connected with the show, get information about the episode and season, even buy the show ION iTunes. It’s all on one screen. If you are watching a sporting event, the stats are right there along with a lot of other great information.

What the app lacks is extra original content from the network. However, this will come in the near future. Think of the extras that can be made available to someone watching a show like LOST.

And that’s just the beginning of shared-screen experience. There’s already an app where you can paint over what you’re seeing on your iPad’s camera screen. It’s called Composite.

Couple that with augmented reality and who knows what will happen when you hold your iPad up to a television someday. Hidden characters? Hidden clues? Where to buy the outfits they’re wearing? Alternate endings? What’s to the right of picture where the screen ends? Games? Think of the possibilities.

6. The End of Talking to Anyone But Siri

Talking is out. It is a lost art. Texting allows you to interrupt at any moment. You don’t have to stop what you’re doing to do it (well, driving, finally – you have to stop driving – or you should stop driving). It allows you to put something out there with less risk of rejection. It’s casual even when it’s serious. It’s immediate. There are no awkward silences. When you text, you can attribute those silences to anything. Maybe they got hit by a bus or their phone went dead or they’re in a meeting on a bus that hit someone. No one ever has to believe that they are the reason for the silence. And, most of all, it’s just easier than talking.

Siri is perfect for the texting age. Siri is also immediate. Now you don’t even have to type. You can teach Siri to text someone. You can teach Siri who your wife is or who your best friend is.

And Siri is easy to talk to. She basically just does what you say. The only awkward silences are attributed to Siri not working. Which has happened to me a couple of times.

As Siri learns more and more apps learn to work with Siri, the dream of never having to talk to anyone real may become a reality. I look forward to the day when Siri starts to want stuff from me. Then I will know she is really learning.

7. Backstories

For those on the constant search for authenticity, this will be the year of backstories. In the world of art, the backstory is everything. The “provenance,” as it is called, should be able to trace the past of any great painting or sculpture. Companies and their products will start telling these stories more and more to today’s untrusting consumer. You will see the Web filled with videos showing how boots are made by hand; inspiration that led to that craft-brewed beer you like; the history of your jacket, and the individuals behind it all. It’s the year of pulling back the curtain. Even bankers will give it a shot, but who will believe?

8. The Gospel of Jobs and the Spread of Apple Innovation

The Steve Jobs love affair is just beginning. Pretty much everyone has read the Steve Jobs book (not me yet, but I have it on my iPad at the ready). They have seen his rules for innovation. They have felt his world-changing power. Now they all want to be a part of it. They like spreading the gospel of Jobs. They want to be Steve Jobs. For all the people who say there will never be another Steve Jobs, there are millions of inspired people and companies that will be trying to become the next Steve Jobs. And that will lead to Apple innovation and simplicity in a host of new and exciting products that cover a wide spectrum of our lives. Like the one below.

http://www.nest.com/blog/

I think there will be a number of Steve Jobs in our future. If not, at least some products he would be proud of.

9. Newsjacking

http://www.twistimage.com/blog/archives/newsjacking-turns-you-into-the-expert/

It’s not new, but it will become a bigger story this year. With search engines, blogs and the ability to target consumers like never before, the ability to make your brand part of breaking stories is easier than ever. Ad campaigns will follow closer to trends and often be built around them. In a world where “there’s an app for that,” marketers will have to move fast. These days, consumers have a thought and they want it taken care of. They want things that make sense for the times because they live current and interconnected. The river of information is in constant flow. It can’t hurt to jump on one of the big logs so that someone might notice you before the falls.

10. The Clouds

Consumers will discover the cloud this year. If you asked most of them last year, they would say, “What is that?” or “You mean the fluffy thing in the sky?” Most consumers look at the cloud as one, main place. This year, they’ll understand the cloud is Amazon, Dropbox, Facebook, Evernote, iCloud, Google and many more. The cloud is about as fragmented as it can be. As more consumers start to understand the cloud and what it means, they will look for ways to consolidate their information. This is the big hope of Google. Google has a place for all your stuff in the cloud under one account. Right now, it may be the easiest, but Apple is close behind with iCloud. And then there’s the personal cloud where you own the memory and the location of your personal server and access your information from there (R&R client Western Digital plug here).

If you’re using the cloud, get ready. Because the cloud wars are just heating up.

I hope some of this has been interesting to you. I certainly don’t know everything, but I would like to. So if you want to tell me what I’ve missed, argue one of these points or just call me an idiot, feel free. I am @arnied on Twitter.

Have a great 2012.

So with that, we are launching #AskBillyV. The rules are simple, and there are only two. First, you must be a follower of @rrpartnersgov to ask a question. Second, you must use the hashtag #AskBillyV when asking your question. We will accept questions every Monday through the @rrpartnersgov Twitter feed, and post answers every Friday. Keep in mind, Billy knows politics nationwide, so there are no limits.

Happy tweeting!

Solar Fun

Bring home the prehistoric bacon

Interactive Twitter-Based Murals in the U.S. Promote Canada:

Ladies like a guy with facial hair. Or not…Or yes.

Big Bang Big Boom

Creatives doing what creatives do best

Creatives writing books and more books

Everyone (especially ad people) should have digital presence

Book Sculptures

Space Invaders Scavenger Hunt

Vintage Kids Art

Visualize your thinking

And a BIG stunt from Ad Goodness as well:

Fantastic business card

Paint it white

This is stupid. But I love it. 

Web Prank Tries to Send Justin Bieber to North Korea. I wish it wasn’t a prank.

Facebook hasn’t formally announce this yet, but the company has began to send weekly emailed reports on Facebook page metrics to their respective page admins. These reports include only metrics that are currently available to admins, so the weekly reports serve more as reporting summaries than anything else. Read more about this story at MediaPost.

Apple began to accept pre-orders for the iPad last Friday, with the promise that the first iPads will be arriving in the first week of April.  Rumor has it that over a hundred thousand  iPads have been pre-ordered, and some are speculating that more iPads will be sold in the first three months than iPhones sold in its debut. With all the attention the iPad is drawing, some are wondering if an iPad Killer is emerging… could it come from Palm? Or from HP?

YouTube and Viacom are in the mists of a copyright lawsuit, which has revealed a few embarrassing details about both companies in recently unsealed court filings.  Among other interesting tid bits, Viacom had tried to buy YouTube just before Google’s acquisition was finalized. Read more of the story here.

Social Media: Strategy

Will B2B Companies Embrace Social Media in 2010? - MediaPost

10 Essential Social Media Tips for B2B Marketers - Mashable

Making Social Media Connections, Budgets and ROI – MediaPost

The Million Follower Fallacy: Audience Size Doesn’t Prove Influence on Twitter - RWW

PCH Unveils Sweepstakes Social Media Service For All – MediaPost

Facebook Starts Weekly Email Reports For Page Administrators – MediaPost

5 Things You Need to Know About Location-Based Social Media - Mashable

Social Media: Consumer Electronics

Palm’s phone sales slump and its stock dives - Associated Press

Smartphones not enough for carriers at CTIA - Reuters

‘iPad Killer’ May be Palm’s Last Hope - PC World

Digital Advertising

iPad subscriptions could boost mag circulation - Associated Press

Google: Dynamic Data And Social Features Can Save Display Ads – MediaPost

Google Maps Test Ads in Australia - Mashable

Internet Trends

WordPress Guns for Web Content Management Duties - PC World

Facebook News Readers More Loyal Than Googlers - News Factor

Nintendo’s Miyamoto wants Wii in schools - TG Daily

Google Bringing The Web To TV? – MediaPost

Foursquare Adds Almost 100,000 Users in 10 Days - Mashable

Internet Law

Viacom, YouTube air dirty laundry in legal battle - Associated Press

The juicy details behind the Viacom-YouTube lawsuit - USA Today

When Your Trademark Becomes the Key to Your Competitor’s Internet Ad – MediaPost

Google May Leave China on April 10 - Mashable

Rachelle Maisner is an Interactive Producer for R&R Partners, and writes about social media at FiveFeetOfDynamite.com.

Sigh. Guess what mega-huge interactive conference is happening right now in Austin? SXSW. Guess who didn’t get to go? Me… a social media blogger that blogs weekly on social media news, and I couldn’t be at the single most important interactive conference of the year. Yeah… It’s ok. At least I can pretend #fakesxsw.

(That’s “South By Southwest” for those of you who do not speak geek.)

Big News from SXSW

Universal Check-in App Confirmed: Brightkite’s Stealth Service - RWW

Big Changes Are Coming to Digg: More Power to Publishers, Less Power to Top Diggers - RWW

Twitter’s New “At Anywhere” Platform Allows For Deeper Integration Into Third Party Sites - TechCrunch

Sneak Peek: Rhapsody’s Upcoming iPhone App - Wired

SXSW: Pandora in the Car Could Kill Sirius - PC World

Foursquare and Rival Geo-Location Games Find Lots of Love at SXSW - DailyFinance

SXSW Feeds

CMS Wire SXSW News and Articles

Wired SXSW News

Mashable SXSWi

Social Media: Strategy

9 Killer Tips for Location-Based Marketing - Mashable

Exploring Why Social Business Will Drive 21st Century Enterprises - Social Computing Journal

4 Ways to Effectively Use Social Media as a Catalyst - Mashable

Why User Competency Matters in Social Design - Mashable

Social Media: Consumer Electronics

More Droids Sold In First 74 Days Than iPhones – Nexus One Sales Very Slow - TechCrunch

PayPal Launches Revamped iPhone App, Teams With Bump For Phone-Tapping Money Transfers - TechCrunch

Digital Advertising

LivingSocial Raises $25 Million to Take On Groupon - Mashable

Hitwise: Facebook Hits No. 1 In U.S. – MediaPost

What Kind of Brand Associates With Chatroulette?: French Connection Offers Shopping Spree to Winner Who Hooks Up Using the Webcam Chat Room - AdAge

Twitter Expected To Take The Wraps Off Its Advertising Platform Today – TechCrunch

Internet Trends

How Twitter and Facebook Make Us More Productive - Wired

A Short (and Personal) History of Social Media: Why It’s Important to Consider the Boring Basics That Keep Things Sustainable - AdAge

Why Wikipedia Should Be Trusted As A Breaking News Source - RWW

5 Ways to Use Google Wave for Business - Mashable

Foursquare Hits 347,000 Checkins in a Day - Mashable

Reuters to Journalists: Don’t Break News on Twitter - Mashable

Rachelle Maisner is an Interactive Producer for R&R Partners, and writes about social media at FiveFeetOfDynamite.com.

Twitter and YouTube are also rolling out new features. On Twitter, the new “Be Found On Twitter” feature allows users to opt-in to share their email address and/or phone number, making it easier for contacts to find them. For YouTube, it’s a massive redesign that will improve the user experience by adding a video queue feature and improved playlist design. The redesign also includes the release of an AutoPlay feature, which will allow YouTube to be consumed more like TV, allowing the user to sit back and just watch one video after another in a push model rather than the current pull model. Find out more about these releases under the New Features heading below.

“Have you heard of Chatroulette?”  The latest fad of social media, Chatroulette is a video chat service which will randomly pair you to another video conferencing user. It’s a bare bones interface with minimalistic functionality- basically just two web cam windows and a chat room. The site connects users to complete strangers, there is no way to control who will pop up on the other side. Some believe that Chatroulette will become as popular as Twitter, though it’s not the first interactive video conferencing site, and probably won’t be the last.  I don’t think Chatroulette will be able to go mainstream without significant investment and added functionality. If the interest continues to increase, there’s a good chance that established social networking platforms like Facebook will adopt video conferencing as a new feature, which may kill Chatroulette before it has a chance to get out of the gate.

Want to know how your brand compares to your competitor in social media? Try uberVu Compare. A freemium social media comparison tool, Compare is a new product from uberVu that performs a side-by-side comparison of two brands based on their social media performance. It could be considered overly simplistic for veteran social media analysts, but this a great tool for a quick snapshot of social media presence.

“Crowdsourcing” is a still a hip buzzword. Grogger is a new platform that allows you to crowdsource your blog content. Mash together the words “group” and “blog”, what do you get? A “Grog”! For people that believe two heads are better than one, Grogger is an appealing tool that allows a community of users to write, edit, and vote on blog content. For more details, read the TechCrunch review.

New Features

Be Found on Twitter: Connecting Our Dots in the Social Graph - RWW

Twitter Comes To Yahoo – PC World

YouTube Redesign Keeps You Watching - RWW

Facebook to Say Goodbye to App Notifications on March 1st - Mashable

Chatroulette

Did Chatroulette Just Launch the Interactive Video Conferencing Boom? - AdAge

Chatroulette, by the Numbers - WSJ Digits

Social Media: Strategy

Most Super Bowl Ads Don’t Go Viral - AdAge

Vitrue Adds Facebook ‘Wall Apps’ To Social Platform – MediaPost

Compare Social Media Performance Head-to-Head with uberVu - Mashable

Oh Yeah, Well I’m Going To Twitter You! – MediaPost

Social Media: Consumer Electronics

Scribd Makes Push Into Mobile - MediaPost

Consumers Are Pushing Up Sales of Smartphones - Yahoo! News

Digital Advertising

Measure the Web Like TV and Brand Advertising Will Follow - AdAge

Sources: Twitter Ad Platform Quite Google-Like – MediaPost

Display Ads Stimulate Search, Confirms Eyeblaster Study – MediaPost

Internet Trends

Social Networking In Matters Of Life And Death – MediaPost

Grogger: A New Platform That Lets You Crowdsource Your Blog’s Content - TechCrunch

E-Cards Are Dead… Except on Mother’s Day - RWW

Time Spent on Social Networks up 82% Around the World - BrianSolis

How Twitter in the Classroom is Boosting Student Engagement - Mashable

Facebook to Take 30% Cut of Developers’ Facebook Credits Revenues - Mashable

Rachelle Maisner is an Interactive Producer for R&R Partners, and writes about social media at FiveFeetOfDynamite.com.

In the social media sphere, change happens in a blink of an eye. While I was on break from blogging a lot of big things happened in this space, most notably the release of Google Buzz. The buzz about Buzz is that it’s Google’s latest life-streaming social media portal. Like Twitter and Facebook, Buzz allows users to keep in touch with friends and by sharing status updates, links, photos, and more.

Is Buzz a formidable threat to Twitter and Facebook? Maybe, but probably not. Buzz is integrated with Google’s email platform Gmail, and I’m guessing Google thought that would be a good way to gain immediate adoption en masse. But for many internet users, email use is in decline as social media use continues to rise. If Google had released Buzz two or three years ago it could have gained real traction, but unfortunately many would-be early adopters have already abandoned their Gmail accounts in favor of Facebook messaging (which is moving towards a full webmail service, code named Project Titan).

Also while I was off the grid, I missed a couple of birthdays. Flickr and Facebook both turned six years old this month.  That’s a pretty long time in Internet years; do you think they’ll make it another six?

Google Buzz

If Google Wave Is The Future, Google Buzz Is The Present - TechCrunch

Google Buzz: What It Means for Twitter and Facebook - Mashable

Google Will Ask Buzz’s Early Adopters to Confirm Privacy Choices - Wired

Google Buzz May Help Its Rivals More Than Itself - MediaPost

Facebook

PayPal and Facebook Credits Will Play Nice After All - Mashable

The Fun of Facebook Measurement - Gilligan on Data

Facebook Moves Towards World — Not Just Social Networking – Domination -MediaPost

Social Media: Strategy

5 Ways Airlines and Hotels Can Drive Revenue with Social Media - Mashable

HOW TO: Deal With Negative Feedback in Social Media - Mashable

How Much Blog Would a Blogger Blog If a Blog Chucked Its Comments? - MediaPost

Social Media: Consumer Electronics

Official Twitter App for BlackBerry Looks Really Good – Mashable

Fashion Show Goers Purchased Clothes Straight From the Runway Using a BlackBerry App - Gizmodo

Motorola Backflip Will Be the First Android Phone on AT&T - Wired

Digital Advertising

Online Video Gets an Ad Exchange - AdAge

Live TV’s Alive as Ever, Boosted by Social Media - AdAge

Pre-Roll Video Ads Still Hated, Here to Stay – AdAge

Beyond the Badge: Big Media Brands Strike Foursquare Deals - AdAge

Internet Trends

How Social Media Is Changing the Super Bowl – Mashable

Walmart Buys Vudu, Jumping Into Online Movie Rentals – Wired

School District Halts Webcam Surveillance – Wired

It’s Official: Google Can Sell Power Like a Utility – Wired

Checking In, Checking Out [a great article summing up the latest location-based mobile/social apps] - MediaPost

Rachelle Maisner is an Interactive Producer for R&R Partners, and  writes about social media at FiveFeetOfDynamite.com.

Gotta love freebies. Thursday, I started off my first day at the Consumer Electronics Show by attending a free session called “The Twitter Revolution: How The Real-Time Web is Changing the CE Landscape.” Steve Broback, founder of a social media agency called the Parnassus Group, was one of the speakers and shared some of his favorite freebie Twitter tools during the session. Here’s a recap of his recommendations:

search.twitter.com

This is square one. If you’ve never tried any listening tools, start with Twitter Search. Twitter Search can help reveal the current topics around your product, brand, industry, competitors, etc. It can also give you an initial look into consumer sentiment. Dave Taylor, who was another speaker on the panel, suggested combinations of queries that included, “I hate” or “I love”. There’s wealth of consumer research just at your finger tips with the humble Twitter Search.

TweetBeep.com

This is the Google Alerts of Twitter. TweetBeep allows you to get email alerts of keyword mentions on Twitter, every hour. TweetBeep also offers a premium version which allows you to get alerts every 15 minutes.

Trendistic.com

Trending Topics on Twitter.com are the top ten most mentioned words/phrases on Twitter in real-time. Trendistic is cool because it provides more information on the current Trending Topics, and it also allows you to search terms and view trend graphs for those terms, up to 180 days if you register.

PeopleBrowsr.com

This is a new one to me. It appears to be a Twitter management tool, like Hootsuite and Seesmic and Tweetdeck, but on a whole new level. I’ll have to play with this for a bit before I can really say much about it- but on the surface is looks very robust. If you’re a PeopleBrowsr user, leave a comment and tell me what you think.

Cloud.li

Broback called this “the cool Twitter tool that nobody knows about.” It’s a simple website that will create Twitter word clouds around your search terms, and will allow you to click on those terms to dive deeper. This is a good site for discovery.

BackTweets.com

All of the tools mentioned so far, Broback explained, have something in common. They are based on keywords. This last Twitter tool is different. BackTweets will allow you to enter in a web address and find Tweets that link to that address. This is really cool. It will show you the most recent tweets that have tweeted a given URL, and it even counts the short links like bit.ly and tinyurl.

Hope some of these can be useful to you. There’s so much you can learn about your customers by just spending a little time online and digging through Twitter. Happy hunting, I’m off to another great day at CES!

Don’t get me wrong; I love each and every one of my current followers. Of course, if some of them were to show up at my home I would probably have to go all Samuel Jackson on them. Of course I would be going all @samueljackson on them since I am not verified and neither is he. But I digress.

I decided to ask the one guy on Twitter who could immediately diagnose my problem, @guykawasaki. He is always sitting there staring at me with that wonderful smile, ready to help those in need.

@GuyKawasaki, I have been at just below 1,600 followers for more than a year. What is wrong with me? Be honest. I can take it.

No answer from Guy. I should have addressed him as Oh Great Twitter Lord Kawasaki since he has over 203,000 followers. I must have sounded like a tiny squeal from a microorganism riding a rodent to the Great Kawasaki. Or the Great Kawasakis, since I have heard he isn’t the only one writing his pieces. He is verified by the way.

What can I learn from Lord Kawasaki? Well, he tweets a lot, 39,779 and counting. He is the firehouse that answers the question, What’s Interesting? That’s straight from his Twitter page. This is not a lie by the way. A little mind could bloat from the large supply of knowledge launched from the giant beak of Kawasaki and Alltop. If Guy did answer, he would probably say – @guykawasaki, the answer you seek is in the tweets, my son.

I don’t need 200,000 followers. That’s when it gets really scary. I wouldn’t be surprised if some of them are outside Guy’s house right now with high-powered binoculars in a nondescript van. But I should have more than 1,570. It’s getting embarrassing.

So what do I have to offer? Well, I often tweet some pretty interesting stuff. I think I have a pretty good sense of humor. I’m an executive creative director at a successful advertising firm. I’m told that is a good job. I’m an early adopter. I think I have my finger on the pulse of the new and exciting. So what’s wrong with me? Maybe it’s the number of tweets.

Using a highly complicated mathematical formula called “division,” I was able to deduct that the number of tweets really shouldn’t matter since Guy has over 200,000 followers and only 39,779 tweets. Still, it couldn’t hurt to tweet more.

Maybe it’s my profile. Guy is the authority on what’s interesting. My profile says, “I left the iron on.” And there is a picture of a man standing in front of a burning house as my background. I tend to tweet on great pop culture stuff I find: art, advertising, etc. However, my bio and background picture would never alert you to that fact.

Also, I’ve never used any of the services that claim to find you followers. That always seemed like cheating. Plus, they probably wouldn’t be the “right” followers. And who wants a bunch of unqualified followers? Not me. Blocking the twitter hookers is hard enough.

It could be that what I find interesting, only slightly less than 1,600 other Twitter folk find interesting. No, I can’t accept that. I won’t. That’s failure talking.

Another little birdie told me she didn’t like my picture. Guy is looking down from the heavens at his brethren. I am on a boat (not my boat) looking away, detached, nonplussed, unconnected. Guy is saying, “Hey, wonderful little humanites out there, I am thinking for you. Don’t worry, I have you covered.” I am saying, “Hey, I’m on a boat. You are not on a boat.” She also told me that there isn’t enough of you in your voice, people don’t know what to expect from you, use your position and become the authority you are. Wow, I have a hard enough time doing that at work.

The bottom line is that Twitter is a strange bird. And way more goes into it than meets the eye. It isn’t enough to just be interesting. You need a voice, a purpose, a personality, a strong profile, a meaningful picture, the ability to interact with others and a ton of energy to gain more followers. And even then there are no guarantees.

I don’t know if I will ever get past the 1,600 mark. I’d have to change my picture, tweet way more, be more interesting, interact more, be more me, and just plain be more special. And I think I might have reached my “special” ceiling. But I won’t quit Twitter. I like being a part of the collective whole – the giant twitter brain. And every once in a while, when I get a nice retweet or a #followfriday, it makes me feel like I am just that much closer to – GUY.

All Twitterpated for Twitter

Rob Santwer, a digital marketing consultant at R&R, cited the rise of Twitter as his noteworthy event. Rob likes getting his news and information quickly, and Twitter makes him happy because it’s another example of how America’s ingenuity can bring about change in the world (reference the medium’s impact on the political process in Iran). He’s not alone. According to eMarketer, 12.1 million people use Twitter and that number is expected to climb to 18 million in 2010. I found a great Twitter blog that details the top new events, hashtags, sports events, people, etc., on Twitter in 2009. It’s cool. Check it out.

K9 Cop Meets R&R Employee

We had an overzealous R&R employee come to work at 5 a.m. recently. He showed up before sunrise to prepare for a presentation. Sounds like a job in advertising, doesn’t it? The only problem: The building alarm had gone off before he got here. He walked in through the back door, sat down at his desk and started working. Little did he know the police were searching the building with canines. You know … big, mean dogs with really keen noses and razor-sharp teeth. Our employee heard voices and popped up from his cube to say hello. A very large canine cop came running down the hall and lunged at the R&R employee. A human officer, who was just as stunned to see the R&R employee as the employee was to see to the cops, reached out and grabbed the dog’s collar just as his hot kibble breath reached our employee’s nose. Pat Carrigan, our director of Production Services, was thankful for the officer who saved our employee from the mouth of the police doggy.

Gaga for Gaga

Robin Milgrim, an art director in our Las Vegas office, is clearly gaga for Gaga. I can’t say I blame her. After years of pop stars badly regurgitating someone else’s lyrics to dance moves someone else invented, 2009 brought us Lady Gaga. Robin says it best when she writes:

“I’ve never been a fan of pop music, but I think the rise of Lady Gaga stands out this year. As an art director, I am wooed by her attention to theater and fashion. Whatever you think of her, or her music, Lady G stands out as a true artist – aware and in control of every aspect of her image. I say again, in control. Her actions are considerate and calculated. In a celebrity-driven world where so many are just vying to get airtime at any cost, Gaga makes a focused effort to entertain us on every level. She’s not entirely innovative, and could not have existed without artists like Madonna, Cher, Bowie, Elton and MJ laying the pavement, but she has taken everything her predecessors have done and rolled it all into one solid package, giving it just enough of a twist to make her stand out and feel fresh. As someone who generally gives credit to the world of alt/punk for breaking new ground, she gains my props for not being afraid to be controversial and for successfully mixing weird and sexy. Hence the bloody climax at the VMA’s… She makes me want to dress up like I did in the ’80s and dance my ass off in a gay club. As advertisers, I think we can learn a lot from her.”

Tiger, Tiger, Woods, Y’all!

OK, 2009 sucked big time for Tiger Woods, if not more for his poor wife and children. There is so much to say about Tiger Woods – where do you start? Jason Bailey, R&R’s research manager, found it just too ironic that Golf Digest ran a cover pre-TigerGate issue dated January 2010 – which, as you know, is like 10 mistresses later. The cover reads, “10 Tips Obama Can Take from Tiger.” As Jason says, “The unintentional comedy is a hole in one … ba-dah-dum!”

Anonymous Giving

Up north in Salt Lake City, our creative director, Kyle Curtis, lives next door to a nice family who lost their 16-year-old in a car crash. Anonymous donors reacted to the tragedy by paying for the 16-year-old’s funeral and bought the family a new car. Not that it can ever replace the loss of a child, but as Kyle says, “+1 for humanity.”

Cronkite Signs Off As We Sign on

Tara LaBouff, our public relations account supervisor in Phoenix, wrote this regarding the passing of Walter Cronkite and what it means to news in America:

“The news model is changing frantically as traditional outlets accept that they must compete with citizen journalists and digital delivery formats. When Walter passed away, it truly felt like the last page of an epic novel. Journalism as we knew it for the past century is now being practiced so differently from before. There is rampant speculation rather than presentation of facts, chronic interviewing of reporters by other reporters (rather than true subject matter experts), and few outlets employ fact checkers. The up side? Citizens have more ability than ever before to participate in the news discussion and digitally broadcast their side of the story. Going forward, whether journalism experiences another Walter Cronkite is still unwritten. For the moment, who America turns to as the “most trusted voice” appears to be the person most like you with a screen name and profile pic.”

So as we wave goodbye to 2009 and say hello to 2010, I want to wish you a happy and healthy new year. Remember, even when things seem to suck, you can always find something to smile about. I learned from this little exercise that good people still exist, Twitter is both good and maybe a little evil, Tiger should not give Obama advice, Gaga is good for pop music, and to not come to work early. But most of all, I learned people will always persevere and that human nature compels us to move forward. And, moving forward is positive enough for me.

Until 2010 … this is R&R’s resident Web geek saying “stay classy” blogosphere.