In this recent chart published by Einstein Research, user behavior is show in a variety of ways that links back to a search usage case.  Besides the 42% that are looking to learn about new products and services, users are also creating content that in fact makes the search so relevant with over 40%( 41%) contributing to the overall stream.

Strangely, but lots of panic from all the app developers today, when @Ev on the corporate blog announced the acquisition of Tweetie’s owner Atebits.  To me this is clearly an obvious direction and it could only be predicted.  In reality it should not really affect app developers as it is a very similar model to Google and syndication.  Think of all those websites that are powered by Google-Search?  It is like Google having a search engine without all the different types of its own end-user experiences to build and test out their business?  They need to best understand and support the end-user first and foremost.  The Web2.0 world already established the model for syndication, and it would be the kiss of death if either Google or Twitter stopped offering api’s for developers and publishers to syndicate and let the vertical world evolve.

However, the differences between Google and Twitter is that Google is an advertising company and Twitter was just growing larger and larger as a bit-pipe. Google was once in the similar situation and added advertising as the balance to only building out a user-base in the beginning.  In order for Twitter to start to build up its advertising business ( which will probably be the next announcement) required them to have the ability to test and launch it first through their own properties…. hence Tweetie.   It is like Google not having a tool-bar strategy to test cookies, etc…  This is my reasoning why the Tweetie client will be free and just called Twitter.  They needed this kind of product to test and build the best user-experiences to surround their product and build out all the API’s for syndication.  Now especially advertising.

I am bullish on the fact this acquisition took place at this time, and it looks like Twitter is really coming together to potentially be  the next Real-Time Search and Real-time advertising engine that links to mobile.  They now have a platform to test and evolve as a free app…..

So in my mind the Twitter+Tweetie is basically Twoogle.

Since the release of Google Buzz, I have been thinking quite a bit about usage cases of public and private ( even without the mobile usage case as this goes even to a different level).  In our daily lives we touch many different products that serve this kind of public/private usage case and have been an established behavior associated with them.  Our emails have a certain privacy shroud wrapped around them even though we may have conversations with people on many different levels….

Here is my first pass thoughts on why Buzz has opened the debate around Privacy.   It is not that Buzz is any different from the status box on Facebook and twitter, or even the one that Linked-in has added.  I think the real debate is about around the social behavior around privacy and the tools we use to manage our conversations.  Twitter exists on its own with the tools surrounding it as a certain usage case for many-to-many public discussions.  I would not think that I would want to include these types of communications in the inbox of my email, but Twitter has in fact done so with SMS and Text messaging that has been private.

I am still trying to figure out in my mind the ethos of social behavior and the tools we use, but email and twitter seem to be on completely opposite sides of my social communication graph.

With the recent rumours of Facebook launching a mobile advertising platform this year for the 100M mobile uniques and a recent article by Robert Scoble about “Supertweets” as a business model for Twitter in the advertising world, we are finally about to see a real explosion in social media advertising.  In addition with the announcement today of  Ex-Googler Tom Phillips to join Media6Degrees as CEO indicates the massive shift of talent into the space of social media  that is about to begin.

I spent the summer of 2007 working on this business model of influencers in the social graph of communities, and the real value of “WOM” in a digital form is finally taking root via social networks.  The challenges still remain around how to associate a brand in the user-generated content of conversations, but with the right platform and analytics, getting the community to back a brand and support it can be quite powerful.   This is an exciting time for social media platforms and I am looking forward to the next couple months of annoucements and the real indications of media budgets moving to social media platforms.

Robert Scoble with his 85K followers just made a statement that FriendFeed was growing faster then Twitter. I guess when you have that many followers you can create buzz, but as far as Compete.com goes, there is no match yet between the two ( at least from the standpoint of URL comparisons goes…. can not say about the API)

This evening I was out on the town and started to crave the Twitter Search feature that has now become front and center of my Twitter web app page. When Twitter adds this to mobile, it could really change the landscape of  local perspective search.  I can not wait to see the mobile twitter search come along…

Another good article. Even a friend Peter Jenner is quoted on the real value of “FANS”- more valuable then selling music?

Nine Inch Nails iPhone App Release [ Wired Mag Article]

The flavor of the month for a mobile strategy has definitely been to build an  iPhone App, and given Apple’s leadership in the music industry, iPhone is clearly a mobile strategy in North America over other devices that support different content distribution strategies potentially better.  There is a need for a good white paper on  ” My Mobile Strategy, or just build an iPhone App” – that I have started to work on.

With that said, what this App does is exactly what is very important to the industry and the monetization process…. build a relationship with the fans and bring them into the entire dialog withNIN.   Through this can lead to enormous monetization opportunities.  NIN’s Trevor Reznor states….” Now and artist needs to be a Marketer”

I hope this does bring a bit of clarity to the Music industry again that the traditional methods are now dead and building a Social Media Fan strategy with the right ownership of  Analytics is key. Does a strategy with MySpace enable Artists to own thier own Analytics and dialog in its full form?  With that said,   is not a silver-bullet strategy  to go out and develop an iPhone app at a price of $20~50K USD.  I would say the NIN iPhone App is North of $50K with all the Google Earth integration etc….

There is definitely hype here today and with Apps there is always a compatability issue that needs to be resolved. When Apple launches iPhone2, all the costs incurred with the development of App V1, might go out of the window.  The real value is to look at everything it takes to build a  CRM structure and strategy for your artists to embrace the new social media tools and get a strong dialog with the fans.  All of your artists should begin to look at how to best leverage Twitter, but with a clear understanding of how to capture the dialog and analytcis of the fans.

Here is an example of a search on Twitter for “The Trews”.   Just 3 hours ago, there were Fans tweeting about ” the Trews”.  The first thing that is important is for someone at Bumstead on behalf of the band to go and click ” FOLLOW” of each of the individuals tweeting about the Band.  Just think how great a fan will feel when they are being followed by the band themselves.  It is a process of feeling inclusive.

This is an easy way to aggregate Thousands of Fans that a direct dialog can be created every day.  Twitter allows for picture releases, even small clips, etc….. by having all this linked back to the Artists website and even a mobile version of the site can build a major engagment marketing process of having a dialog with Thousands of Fans on a day2day basis.

Just a quick Reference, today NIN has 13,917 Followers.…. Not alot, but after this announcement this will go up clearly and they will have an opportunity for greater dialog.

…. building Brand enagement with Twitter is a first step that will link to a mobile strategy, and a relationship that can lead to unique possibilities in monetization.  The difference is that this can be done for Virtually Zero Cost, where an iPhone App is a bit costly….

Why not build that base and then have the opportunity to share an iPhone/Android/S60/Blackberry App + your Website, Myspace page all linked back you your Mobile View