Twitter Expert

Analysis

The shortening service tr.im is closing down, for want of a business model:

Of the url shortening services:

Tinyurl.com is the big daddy of them all, and generates a large amount of traffic even to its own site, but as far as I am aware even that is a spare time project, which now runs in “maintenance mode”.

Bit.ly has been best of breed for some time by providing a portfolio of statistical services, and other features.

ow.ly is the in house shortening service at Hootsuite, which is established as the leading service for managing multiple Twitter accounts.

I think there is an analogous lesson for another zero monetary cost but time-sink activity - blogging.

As a bolt-on commentary or marketing channel, whether to a consultancy business, a political career, or as a “proof” of ability as a writer, blogs add enormous value; as a standalone platform, they can be a time (and therefore money) pit.

A few days ago I noted that @DowningStreet had seen an amazing growth in Twitter followers, after being added to the “Opt-in” list displayed as part of the Twitter sign-up process.

This morning, Jason Calcanis - an prominent blogger and Internet Entrepreneur, has offered Twitter $250k for a two-year slot on the “suggested” list.

Is it a good thing?

The Downing Street Twitter Feed has gone over 100,000 followers (i.e., readers) some time in the last few days. Here is a graph from Twittercounter.

That’s a lot, and an achievement not to be underestimated. It has been noted by a number of sites. The excellent Simon Dickson at Puffbox suggests that this is active interest in politics:

Even if there’s no future business model, we’re looking at a phenomenal opportunity here, today. The fact it may not be here tomorrow shouldn’t stop us exploiting it while it’s there. 100,000 people have signed up - actively, voluntarily - to hear from the heart of UK government. Now they’re actually listening, what should we be saying to them?

I’m an enthusiast (and a “booster“) for political participation, and I’m with Simon on “let’s use this opportunity”. But unfortunately the interest isn’t quite as “active” as he thinks, since a signup to the 10 Downing Street Twitter Feed is now part of the account creation process on Twitter. And it is even set as an “opt-in” option.

I put out a piece on Saturday looking at Twitter growth rates on Labour List. I’ve had my own mini Twitter “lunge” over the weekend, so I’d better put my own statistics up before anyone else does.

The reason for this lunge is that I am writing an E-Book: How you can make Twitter Fly, and have done some catching up. The jump in growth is due to my following bloggers I recognise on Twitter, and “auto-followbacks” which are used by some UK new services.

Anyway, this E-Book should be coming soon …

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