Twitter, a micro-blogging service that gives users an opportunity to express their thoughts in 140-character “tweets” has put social media on the map with investors this week by raising 100 million on an apparent valuation of 1 billion.This is remarkable considering that Twitter has no discernable revenue to date.

It appears the phenominal visitor growth (Nielsen; July 2000%), along with the desirability Twitter has had to the Internet giants, Facebook, Google and Microsolft has elevated the company value.

Twitter offers many benefits to consumers and advertisers. It is an efficent way to get information out and to connect and have dialogue with people you haven’t met. Micro-communication is used by businesses to enhance brand awareness, brand knowledge, and customer relationships. As an overall communications strategey Twitter has helped enhance employee engagement, improve customer service and reputation, and boost web traffic.

However despite Twitter’s success there are a group of naysayers saying Twitter’s days are numbered. Hitwise, a web analytics firm reported visits to Twitter have declined since midsummer. And, according to the BBC only 8.7% of tweets can be classified as having value.

So is it time to write an Epitaph for Twitter? Obviously the investment community doesn’t think so. They are seeing Twitter as being the next innovation on the Internet. “This investment is happening because it represents a shift” Mr Borthwick, CEO of Betaworks and an investor, stated in the New York Times. He likens the investment strategy similar to those made in Google and Facebook.

Twitter has not yet commented on how it plans to use the cash or how it will develop its business revenue model. But, it is very true that social media sites like Twitter provide a compelling attraction because they provide real-time collaborative search results. Innovation in this space is in its infancy.

You will soon be able to tap into Twitterers in your city through a new API making location-based information available. Also, Livestream’s streaming video app allows a user to loggin into their Twitter account and access Twitcam. Twitcam automatically detects whether a camera is plugged in, then creates a page and live video player for a broadcast. This can be a useful service for podcasts, live demos, reviews and web seminars.

The largest opportunity for Twitter is in the area of crowd sourcing though. There is a great story about Best Buy posting a job on Twitter for an Emerging Media Manager. They listed qualifications being, one year blogging, graduate degree, 250+ followers on Twitter. This posting raised a lot of attention amongst Twitterers and the conversation that enchewed resulted in the crowd revamping the job description. Twitter could charge brands for access to its community for a variety of needs.

Marketing VOX indicated in its study that 69% of consumers don’t know enough about Twitter so whether adoption as a marketing tool is successful depends on consumer education.

When you want to teach a dog a new trick you need lots of wieners in your pocket. Then, you need to be persistent about following through each and every time with your training routine. When the dog finally shakes a paw and rolls over you must jump up and down in enthusiasm and glee. You are the master after all and a hero as the dog is doing exactly as you wished.

But, an old dog knows your tricks and has had lots of those wieners from your pocket – even the ones that sat in there for a year. This dog is not so easy to motivate, enthuse or excite.

At the Kelsey Group’s 30th Yellow Pages Conference in Orlando industry masters of the Yellow Pages Industry gathered to lick their wounds. Its been a very tough year for a group used to 87% renewals and 65% profit margins. Suddenly the growth of high speed broad-band, Google search, social media and other forms of interactive activities has changed how consumers search and buy. In increasing numbers references to the Yellow Pages have drastically reduced. This has caused the whole group to come back to zero, take inventory, regroup and rethink.

There are some startling statistics. According to one of the studies only 14% of businesses are happy with their Yellow Pages sales reps. My gosh several presenters say this industry biggest asset is its “Feet on the Street”! (Does anyone want to sell some shoes?) And, “Feet on the Street” they go on to say need regular training and regular re-training. Success after all is “All in the Reps Bag”. Apparently understanding what is in the bag is the key to success in multi-product selling.

Now the old dog has learned a lot of tricks in his lifetime. He senses you approaching before he sees you. He knows what you want from him even before you do. And as he watches you from the corner of his eye fumbling to cut up the wieners, he slips off to sleep.

How do you get an old dog to jump in enthusiasm for your wiener? Well, if the Yellow Pages masters can stop acting like crows (chasing the next bit of metal that catches their eye) and take the time to answer this fundamental question then they will have solved the greatest of this industry’s challenges.

It can be done. Many independents are doing it. I agree with Nick Veronis of Veronis Suhler Stevenson, marketshare for small independents will increase.

They know only a wireless, hyper-linked, user generated world where any piece of knowledge is only a few clicks away. Worldly, brand aware, these “digital natives” are sophisticated in marketing and control what content is delivered to them. Media surrounds them and is neither time nor location-based.

Generation Z ers are those born between 1990 to late 2000’s. On average they are highly connected, having had lifelong use of communications and media technologies like the nintendo’s, internet, text messaging, MP3s, and cell phones. They are going to drive media consumption in the future in unique ways. To understand how to sell to them we need to consider their habits:

1. No Newspapers – This generation will not embrace the reading of the newspaper. They will read some magazines but specialty ones, not news ones.

2. On-Demand Television – They will not watch television on someone else’s schedule but on their own. They will use services like TiVo, internet video, and file sharing.

3. Mobile – Everything they do will be on their handheld. They have no use for a landline.

4. Trust – This group trusts its peers and those they meet socially on Face book ahead of experts.

5. Paying for Content – Free downloads has caused them viruses so they are not averse to paying for content they want. ITunes is an example of this.

6. Community – Communicating with friends online in real-time is the centre of their online activity. They are loyal to sites where their friends are.

7. Brands – A study done at USC showed that Generation Zers pay attention to brands more than any other age group.

8. Content in Motion – They live in a multi-platform world and expect to take their content with them wherever they go.

9. Instant Messaging – Email is for old people, they prefer to text. (This could possibly change when they get older).

10. Sharing – They like to share the minutia of their lives and are interested in other’s minutia.

So how do we make sense of these trends? For one thing the mobile phone provides some unique opportunities to engage these consumers. But success in mobile marketing will be tied to the social graph. This group wants to know that the advertiser is committed to them, to the community, and wants to interact with them. They don’t want to be ‘sold’ to. This fundamental change in rules of engagement is what scares many advertisers as it puts them out of the driver seat and opens the door to someone saying something bad about them. Well, these types of conversations are going to happen anyway so its time advertisers experimented in the space to learn how to play. They need to recognize the old advertising model is broken, it is not coming back, and they need to embrace this change.

A smile, a touch, a gentle laugh remembered. My mother is now a voice that softly whispers in the wind. She was only 64 yrs when she left this planet. She was not ready to go. She loved life too much. She loved children, a laugh with family and friends, politics and her job as Citizen Court Judge for Manitoba. She fought with great courage and even in the darkest moments found something to laugh about. Memories keep those we love close to us forever.

We live in an increasingly noisy, over exposed world, drenched in data where information is spread in real-time and our freedom is being compromised. Privacy has become a precious commodity as social structures like Facebook are so pervasive in our lives there appears little hope of a refuge.

 Facebook hit 300 million users this past month and touted profits for the first time. According to Comscore traffic to the main site grew by 14% across all demographics as even Gramma wanted to join in on the conversation. This is the highest growth rate the site has seen all year.

 Social sites on a whole grew in participation as 15% of all internet users now interact on social sites. It is easier to update information, load photos and videos to a social site than it is to communicate the old way – via email.

 However, the need for privacy controls couldn’t be more necessary than it is today. The content we are posting on Facebook is being scrubbed by the likes of Lexicon, Facebook’s data mining software. This software graphs word phrases quantifying the number of times a word or phrase is written on a Facebook “wall” over the year. For marketers and major corporations it helps with ad placement but for privacy officers there is discussion that users should have a choice how their comments and opinions are being used. The EPIC (Electronic Privacy Information Centre) says that social ads which place user data into related ads is illegal.

 Canada’s Privacy Commissioner challenged Facebook on four fronts as Facebook does not compile with Canada’s privacy laws by essentially keeping accounts on file indefinitely after they are deactivated and sharing user info with 3^rd party software developers who create their quiz and game apps. Facebook has agreed to address the  following privacy concerns:

(A)Stricter Rules for Application providers – When you install an app you’re asked by the developer for full access to your profile allowing personal information to be readily available to marketers. Now providers will have to get consent and indicate how personal information is going to be used.

(B)Account Deactivation – There should be an option to have your data permanently erased when you close your account

(C)Making it clearer to non-users how their email addresses for invite –to-Facebook is stored or used by Facebook

(D)Account Owner Dies – Facebook needs to make it clear what happens to the account when the owner dies. 

There is a great opportunity for new social software of the likes of Drop.io This online private sharing service allows you to upload a file, photo, video or whatever and get a special URL you can provide to friends where you can specify the expiry date. If you don’t specify a date the information is erased within one year.