What Twitter Could Learn From America Online.

Go ahead and break out the rotten tomatoes. It’s near blasphemy to mention the much-maligned America Online in the same breath as today’s newest shooting star, Twitter. But digital anthropologists will remember that once upon a time, AOL was the rock star, replete with magazine covers, explosive growth and millions of addicted fans. The early America Online also had something all-too-few Internet darlings ever managed to achieve: a revenue-generating business model.

As one of AOL’s first Greenhouse Partners, I was there for a few of those shining years, soaking up the smarts from the likes of Ted Leonsis, Steve Case and more Harvard MBA’s than show at a Crimson football game.

What Twitter Could Learn From America Online

Lesson 1: User experience anyone? According to Nielsen, Twitter’s growth has skyrocketed to 10 million in the past couple of celebrity-fueled months. But despite lots of tweeps in the social media sandbox, very few are playing.

Here’s the real shocker from Hubspot:

• 54.9% of users have never tweeted
• 42.12 have only tweeted once.

Wimpy participation rates like this simply wouldn’t last for long in the young AOL. “Lurkers” in the chat rooms were encouraged to join the party by exuberant Chat Room Hosts, whose job it was to welcome newbies, manage flame wars and stimulate ‘repeat business.’ Nowhere were these savvy business practices more in evidence than in the Greenhouse properties, where our site survival was dependent on how long members stuck around. Our hosts were all pros at making chatters feel comfortable: {{{ MidnteLace!}}} @@>—>—–! We understood that everyone starts out as a Lurker. Our mission was to transform those silent on the sidelines into active participants.

Yes, of course it feels truly dippy now. We are all waay too cool for this kind of behavior. And yet? What if Twitter created a group of Tweeter Greeters? What if they used the new Verified Account badges for more than celebrities? What if they developed the 2009 version of Twitter Hosts, empowered to do what their AOL counterparts once did?

How many of the 54.9% who’ve never tweeted might join the conversation if they weren’t concerned about being an Accidental E-Hole? Or if they weren’t worried about inadvertently falling victim to Twitter spam, password scams or viruses? Or if they weren’t simply mystified by the endless stream of disconnected me-me-me broadcast tweets?

What if some of the 42.12% who’ve trepidatiously tweeted just once got an authentic reply from the Twitterverse? Inclusion is a magical thing. In the every-Tweeter-for-himself environment on Twitter, inclusion is the happy fairy dust that leads to high engagement.

Lesson 2:  Okay, we get it — you’re an understaffed, overworked, over-caffeinated start-up scraping by with only 50 employees (and 55 million in funding.)

So why not do what AOL did in those formative years? Tap into your masses of addicted Power Users the way America Online once did with the Community Leaders program. Most sites had CL helping with everything from managing message boards to chat rooms to content development. Community Leaders received free accounts in return — a hugely sought-after prize in those days of $2.95 an hour for AOL access.

Obviously, that model no longer exists — but what’s still in full and fervent swing is the heated desire of tweeps to venture behind the velvet rope. Imagine the avalanche of applicants if Twitter asked for volunteers. Imagine the avalanche of applicants if Twitter ‘paid’ these volunteers in customized Tweets (designated colors, fonts or graphics) or added them to the recommended Follows for new users– or invited them to exclusive volunteer events. How about a SXSW Tweet-up at Gingerman Pub?

I’m ready for those tomatoes now.

Do Not Use Twitter . . .

Trending on Twitter and topping Digg, this photoshopped parody would be completely laughable if tweeps hadn’t already used Twitter during arrests and earthquakes.

Love these:

circa1908: RT @ListenToLeon: Do Not Use Twitter iF yOu TyPe Liek tHiS.

ErinMarieHogan: Do Not Use Twitter is the fastest refreshing trending topic I’ve ever seen.

allonereaction: Do not use twitter to get laid…it’s lame!!

KeLauLi: RT @AwesomeChicken7: Do Not Use Twitter if you think it means you’ll become best friends with Demi Moore

LawlietJourney: Do not use twitter to make yourself seem cool,cuz honestly if ur on here were all noobs XD

Guru’s Note: Do Not Use Twitter for your brand unless it’s part of your holistic branding strategy.

The Number One Reason The Great Facebook Name Grab Rocked.

Why did the Great Facebook Name Grab rock? It’s more than those 3 million new vanity URLS.

Could it be the 200,000 usernames registered in the first 3 minutes? That’s an amazing 1111 names registered per second, according to the geeks at Mashable, who are much better at math than moi.

Could it be that by 10:01 PM PT, only one frenzied hour after Nerd Night launched, around one million custom URLs had already been nabbed?

Could it be the smooth way it all went down, with nary a bump or crash, despite record traffic?

Or could it be that I got MY vanity URL, beating out legions of pesky Sarah Browne poseurs, porn stars and Prime Minister’s wives?

Nope.  While the above milestones are delightfully droolworthy, the Number One Reason the Great Facebook Name Grab rocked was because we finally had some fun with Social Media again. 

Or haven’t you noticed it’s been stone-cold sober and Provigil-serious in Social Media Land lately? 

But Friday eve, at the appointed witching hour, Geeks galore were gleefully proclaiming their name grabs, tweeting about their victories and it wasn’t all about SEO, boosting Friends/Follows or shameless self-promotion. Yes, there is business benefit in ‘owning’ your Facebook personal URL; so yes, it was smart to spend part of your Friday night clicking, crowing and claiming your name. It also was a blast.

Look no further for proof of this newfound wit and wackiness than this list of Goofy Usernames just nabbed:

• Starting my world domination plans early: http://www.facebook.com/yourlordandmaster
• Cat ran over my keyboard:
  http://www.facebook.com/alksjfalskjfoiwefalsdlasfaslleseouaiwejndlsknjkdfs
• The entire QWERTY keyboard:
  http://www.facebook.com/qwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnm
• Try harder: http://www.facebook.com/aaaaaa
• Fantasyland: http://www.facebook.com/JackBauercouldwhoopChuckNorris
• Someone who actually wantsto be the customer service guy?http://www.facebook.com/techsupport
• Don’t even ask:  http://www.facebook.com/dballs
• My personal favorite: http://www.facebook.com/rickroll

Guru’s Nudge: Small businesses on Facebook — remember June 28. That’s when you can nab your business vanity URL.

Thanks again to Mashable.

The Great Facebook Name Grab Is Hours Away.

If you’ve logged on to your Facebook Profile anytime in the past week, you can’t miss the drumroll-please message. In a matter of hours, starting at 12:01 a.m. EDT on Saturday, June 13, Facebook is (finally) letting users pick their own Facebook profile usernames on a first-come, first-serve basis. Sure, this technology has long been standard at MySpace, Twitter and Linkedin but with Facebook’s exploding growth, personalizing your Facebook URL smartly ups your personal brand presence. Plus, these enhancements mean an end to that Facebook.com/26537215 numerical gobbledygook and the beginning of a faster, easier way for your peeps to be able to find you online. Here’s what the Facebook blog says about the new vanity URLS:

“Your new Facebook URL is like your personal destination, or home, on the Web. People can enter a Facebook username as a search term on Facebook or a popular search engine like Google, for example, which will make it much easier for people to find friends with common names.”

See you tonight on Facebook where I’ll be mightily scrapping with legions of other Sarah Brownes. I got name-jacked on Twitter and if you saw what the current @SarahBrowne was tweeting, you too would be chomping at the bit in this FB Great Name Grab. (Follow me @guruofnew)

Are You A Small Business with a Facebook Page? If So, Good News!
There’s been a lot of confusion about eligibility for usernames for Facebook Pages. Originally, Facebook would only allow Pages created before May 31, 2009 with a minimum of 1,000 fans to be eligible for the vanity URLS. After Admins of Small Business Pages rightfully complained, (me!) even forming a Facebook protest group, the powers-that-be in Palo Alto relented.

So remember this date: Sunday, June 28. On this date, “All Pages created after May 31, 2009 or that had less than 1,000 fans on that day will be eligible to claim usernames on Sunday, June 28.

If you have more than 1,000 fans and the Page was live on Facebook prior to the cut-off date of May 31, 2009, then go for it on June 13 along with your personal Profile.

Guru’s Note: Please check the Facebook blog for Page eligibility updates. Rules and dates keep changing as often as Heidi and Spencer exit the jungle.

New at E3: Future Femme-preneurs, This Ubisoft Game’s For You.

Style Lab Jewelry Designer : Just making jewelry is soo Beadcraft Ladybug Kit 101. Now, thanks to Ubisoft, Tween Girl Gamers can nurture their passions from creativity to fashionista to playing entrepreneur. As one of Style Lab’s jewelry boutique owners, tweens virtually design jewelry, upload their prize designs to an online gallery and even order real versions of them at ‘parent friendly’ prices of less than $20.

All this new gaming glory is courtesy of a new Ubisoft collection of Nintendo DSi games for tween girls. Working hard to keep its girl gaming edge, Ubisoft also adds a Style Lab Makeover game, which lets girls take their picture via Nintendo DSi and then apply virtual make-up. (Now if only some Revitalash came with it)

Your Latte’s Lukewarm? Lost Your Keys? Blame Drew’s Cancer!

#Blame Drew’s Cancer has been trending on Twitter all day.

I’m sooo blaming Drew’s Cancer for forcing me to ditch my Name Generation project so I could investigate. Here’s the scoop:

On May 20th, 2009, Drew Olanoff was diagnosed with cancer: Hodgkins Lymphoma.

Ever since that day, Drew has blamed everything on his cancer. Losing his keys, misplacing his wallet, Twitter being slow, the Phillies losing, etc.

Why? Because you have to beat up on Cancer to win… and you can help out. The site explains how:

Blame Drew’s Cancer for anything and everything you want. Tweet with the hashtag #BlameDrewsCancer and it’ll come here. We’ll keep a tally and hopefully when all is said and done and Drew beats Cancer, some nice company or companies will donate a dollar for every unique person who Blames Drew’s Cancer to the American Cancer Society and the Make a Wish Foundation.

Some of the things Drew’s Cancer is soo responsible for:

• Today I gave myself a paper cut for the first time in forever. I suspect Drew’s cancer. #blamedrewscancer
• I #BlameDrewsCancer for all bugs in my code
• Went to see Terminator: Salvation and it sucked. I should blame McG but I’m going to #blamedrewscancer
• I #BlameDrewsCancer for having to bear witness to Joe Jonas in a male leotard and heels while gyrating to Single Ladies
• Do you ever just start throwing things in a pot to make your dinner? I #BlameDrewsCancer for not knowing what to…

If you want to read about Drew’s journey, click here for his honest and well-written blog. May we all handle our own diagnoses with Drew’s grace, guts and creativity.

Guru’s Note:  This works very much like the controversial Skittle Twitter campaign a few months ago. I blame Drew’s Cancer for the #Epic Fail some say that effort was. (I don’t agree — I hadn’t thought about Skittles in an eon and now they’re back on my radar.)

What’s Tweetworthy in Your Town? Find Out What’s Happening from Happn.

I realized this weekend at #TWTRCON why Twitter is my favorite addiction:  it’s all new, all the time –a perpetual work-in-progress.  New tools and trends bubble up constantly. If you’re a new junkie like I am, Twitter is the uber-ultimate in shiny new toys. So of course you’re going to love this hot new trend-tracking site that tracks emerging trends in 52 different metro areas around the world.  Happn.in collects and aggregates popular phrases used on Twitter, showing you what people are twittering about in your city.  The five most popular phrases each hour are posted to the site — and then they’re tweeted three times a day to the happn.in Twitter account for each city. Right now, there are about 79,678 people following happn.in in 52 cities.

And here’s a special twist that the Monetizer in me loves:  Happn lets you sponsor tweets. It actually has a business model with a mini-revenue stream. Yowzaa!  I paid a Suze Ormand-pleasing $2 per sponsored tweet. So when tweeps read what’s hot in LA, SFBay, Seattle, London, Boston and New York over the next couple of days, they’ll also see <GURU OF NEW> with a link to my site.  If I popped $100 for a heavy-up campaign, it’s possible these sponsorships could actually generate some Guru brand awareness.  But in the meantime, it’s really a blast to watch as trends zip around the world — and practically droolworthy to see what’s hot in one city and decidedly not in another. 

Guru’s Note:  I begged Jay to add the Monterey Peninsula to its list of cool trend-setting cities. But unfortunately, not enough tweeps in our eco-paradise are tweeting. (At last count, there were probably 8 of us and that includes the new seahorse @MontereyAQ and Zen Otter @EmbassyMonterey.

But good news: Things may change soon with our upcoming Social Media Monterey Mini Camp. Stay tuned for details.