Remember when Technorati was THE place to go to find new content? Seems ages ago now, but they have just launched a new site which combines the the Top Blogs and the Top Twitter(ers) called Twittorati. And though it does that same old thing of giving the largest sites even more kudos, it is kind of cool!

Twittorati “tracks the tweets from the highest authority bloggers, starting with the entire Technorati Top 100″. It also shows the twitter profiles of all those involved in the Top 100 Technorati chart.

Twittorati also shows the most popular blogging links and the most popular links to photos. Both of which can be filtered, in fact one of the key things I like on the site is the ability to fine tune searches.

I think that as they widen out the site to include more voices from the twittersphere and blogosphere this could be a great site to find contacts and to also find the specific conversations that you are after….

Bestbuy are looking for a Sr. Manager - Emerging Media Marketing. The first point of note is how businesses are recognising the need to understand social media and how they need to learn how to connect with their consumer base.

However, the amazing part of the Job Description is found under the skills and qualifications that they are looking for

Basic Qualifications:

· Bachelors degree Liberal Arts, Marketing, Interactive Marketing, New Media, Business Administration or related

· 2 plus years of mobile or social media marketing experience at an Agency director level, strategist level, or brand interactive director level

· 4 plus years People or resource leadership experience

· 1 plus years of active blogging experience

Preferred Qualifications:

· Graduate degree
· 250 plus followers on Twitter

Although this is one advert it shows that how your social media connections are becoming a currency in the job world. Businesses recognise the worth of social media activity. Best Buy are recognising that old business techniques are coming into play…namely that a larger community is important…it makes me think is this the new style of business acquisition??

Twitter has come along way since “Dorsey, Stone and Williams co-founded Obvious which then spun off Twitter”

So much so that the Telegraph reports that the word Twitter will enter the dictionary this year. It will be defined as

“a website where people can post short messages about their current activities” and under verb it will read: “to write short messages on the Twitter website”

For a social networking package that it is at the hub of most of my web activities and the definition, though factually correct does not get the emotional side of twitter. Twitter for me is my conversation, it is my coach, my friend, my pr person, my helper…..

I think the most striking fact for me, is how quickly this word has become part of our language when in reality only a small % of the global population uses it or even knows what it is….It shows how the internet is speeding up the way we live, the way we communicate, the time it takes to create a worldwide brand.

Twitter is the social media tool that I use the most on a daily basis. Today I found TweetTabs which has been developed by Tweetmeme which shows the hottest trends on Twitter. What Tweettabs does is to allow you real time search on an array of search terms. I have been using it today and I have to say I like it, especially for latest news.

Recently I haven’t been using Tweetdeck as much as I found that I was so absorbed by the real time updates from my twitter friends, it was starting to affect my productivity and as much as I enjoyed being distracted, it was not great for the bank balance! This means that I have my twitter tab open and go there every now and again to see what is happening. Tweettabs has helped me because it fills that gap which Tweetdeck filled with up to date search results.

Tweettabs describes itself as

“TweetTabs is a way of viewing the latest tweets of upcomming twitter trends or searches.

Use the search box to easily search twitter for tweets, TweetTabs will automatically update each tab with new content when it comes in.”

My first thoughts are

I love it because it is simple

I love it because it is browser based although you can download an application

I love it for news items

See what you think!

1. For creativity. Working alone can be hard and Twitter constantly feeds ideas to me.
2. Support. If I have a question, if I have a problem then I put it out to my virtual friends. Free advice !
3. Meeting new people. I am naturally shy and twitter lets me meet people, get to know them and establish new friends in a non embarrassing way.
4. To get me thinking about different aspects of life, different topics, different cultures. It makes me think globally and stops me being insular.
5. Helps me condense my thinking. I am a natural waffler! Twitter is a training tool which makes me think about the importance of each word.

Twitter is in my top 3 social media tools. Podcasting and blogging will always remain important to me. Podcasting lets me explore areas, blogging then lets me detail my thoughts…..but twitter is my water cooler…what does twitter do you you?

The interaction also gives you a feel for the level of interest in the services you offer which can be measured by the amount of click through’s generated by a link on a particular topic posted or questions you get asked while your on these sites. When i weighed the time required to do this against the benefits i soon found out it was time well spent.

The challenge as always is finding the time to do this.

If you know of anyone using social media in a different way or in an unusual industry then let me know at anna@theengagingbrand.com

Social media is often seen as a tool for the younger generation and yet the research shows that all ages are using the tools.There is a difference in how the generations engage with different social media tools.

Interesting that the Participatory Marketing Network released results of a new study showing that only 22% of Generation Y consumers are using Twitter and yet  99% of this same group has a profile on at least one social networking site.

Other results show the potential for marketing as only 29% of Gen Y Twitter users follow companies, illustrating how companies are failing to connect on an emotive level to the younger users. Maybe companies need to think about how to make their twitter account more interactive rather than conversational to attract Gen Y.

In terms of social networking sites, it is impressive that 99% of people surveyed have a profile on a social networking site and more than that - 89% of those users have downloaded an application. Applications include photos (89 percent), games (53 percent), entertainment (51 percent), news (32 percent) and weather (29 percent)

Lessons from this research for me are

1. To engage Gen Y a company needs to think engagement, needs to think less about conversation and more about personal entertainment.
2. Gen Y is a social demographic. Is Twitter a social tool or a connection tool?
3. The web is an interaction tool to engage - you need to be interactive for Gen Y.

So the web was alive with the sound of a million followers for Ashton Kutcher on twitter. A million followers?? It made me think of the impact that may have on twitter

1. There is no doubt that twitter is fast developing mainstream status. That brings with it good and bad news for us mere mortals. Great because the potential reach of our personal brands is wider, bad because you are transitioning from small pond to big pond and it will be harder to gain recognition.
2. What is twitter for? Does the emergence of people with high followers change the game? Has it moved from micro blogging with micro followers to a broadcast to the masses? I think potentially for the big brands both personal and corporate but twitter can be whatever YOU want it to be. Ashton Kutcher needs global popularity to increase his pulling power at the box office, I need loyal followers who are ready to connect with me or my knowledge. Different needs.
3. What does it prove? Does it prove engagement with social media or does it prove that traditional methods of advertising such as billboards and TV requests on Oprah are still the best way to gain mass engagement? Or is it a sign that people will always back the person who stands against the media firm?
4. What are the lessons that we can take from the Kucher effect?

• If you want to develop an online brand, you need to learn how to promote yourself.
• If you want mass connection then combining social with traditional media is still the best policy.
• It is important to decide what you want out of social networking - numbers or engagement?
• It is important to decide are you a broadcaster or a personal connector?
• If all else fails take a picture of a well known person in their underwear and your followers will increase!!

After saying all this I am for celebrities on twitter, I am a supporter of brands using twitter - but would love to know how you feel about it - are you jealous of 1m followers or do you see it as helping you by bringing new people to social media?

Did April Fool’s Day come early and I just wasn’t told? How can this possibly be real? (emphasis mine)

We don’t have a description written for this yet, but the job is to be a “high touch” point of contact at Twitter for the burgeoning number of celebrities on the service. We want to make sure they’re happy, using the product effectively, etc. This person is probably pretty junior (it won’t pay a lot) but hopefully familiar with working with “Hollywood types.” They should be tech savvy enough to answer questions and solve basic problems (though they can fall back on our tech support). And they should definitely present themselves (and the company) well on the phone and in person. They should be proactive but not pushy. It might make sense for them to be in L.A. but to come up to SF often. Obviously this is a very sweet gig for someone. The challenge will be finding someone who is good at the schmoozing but also humble and a fit with our culture. [source]

Image: PRPhotos

So, let me get this straight. The growing empire that is Twitter, the one still living off the VC funds stashed in the bank and that interest (because, come on now, 50M has got to be generating some good income, even in this economy), is looking to hire someone who, for all intents and purposes, is a community manager, yet not one for the “army of passionate users”, but for the Ashton Kutchers, Demi Moores and Britneys using the site?

Does anyone else see what’s wrong with this picture or is it just me?

I can’t help but wonder if this is truly real, or if it’s a bad April Fool’s joke that got leaked by TechCrunch two days early. I can only hope that’s the case - the job “has been placed on hold” according to JobScore - especially considering the fact that Ev Williams and I have spoken several times regarding the company’s need for a community manager , (my desire to fulfill that role, of course) and his continuing reluctance to hire for that role. I’m sure the HR process would be intesely overwhelming when they finally get around to hiring for that role, but I would certainly hope Twitter would consider a real community manager before they hire for this “VIP Concierge”.

Kevin Rose, founder of Digg , has created a powerful little weekend side project called WeFollow.com , a user-powered directory for Twitter.

The tool allows Twitter users to associate themselves with up to three tags which identify their expertise. Twitter will then index

WeFollow.com

the account under the appropriate category on WeFollow.com. It’s all very cool.

Kevin is an investor in Twitter, (which goes to prove the deep ties among all of the Silicon Valley/San Francisco boys go), does what he can to help Twitter according to a Digg spokesperson.

WeFollow.com has searchers index themselves as experts in a specific topic. For example, I’ve tagged myself “Journalist”, “SocialMedia” and “Alcohol”. The directory will help users identify themselves, but will also be able to connect like-minded individuals and provide valuable data for marketers looking to target certain verticals and specific influencers through word of mouth marketing.

MediaPost spoke with Forrester Research Senior Analyst Jeremiah Owyang who makes an extremely valid point - at the moment, there is no way to judge the authority of a self-tagged user because it’s based solely on followers. He suggests that WeFollow needs to rely on historical data that matches the person with specific topics mentioned in tweets, as well as retweets on previous posts. [source ]

There are a few ways that marketers can best use these user powered directories like WeFollow and one launched about three weeks ago, TweeplePages.com. At this point in time, marketers can search for people by interest, sports or whatever their specific product is and reach out to the key influencers in their specific categories. They can list themselves in their appropriate category  as well and label themselves as “MarketingPR” and, for example “alcohol”. They’d then find me listed under “journalist” and “alcohol” and voila - they pitch me (appropriately, I’d hope).  Eventually, the speculation is that WeFollow will create sponsored listings and advertising opportunities for people.

I’m going to be very interested in seeing where this site goes. I do think it’s rather brilliant however.