Worried about bumping into your boss on a social media service, then having to explain some indiscreet comment you made in cyberspace? If you work for the world’s biggest companies, you can relax: Your CEO isn’t spending time on the social Web. A survey of the Fortune 100 CEOs finds that almost none of them are using Twitter, Facebook, or even LinkedIn
Twitter notched yet another milestone yesterday when it finally showed up on comScore’s index of Web search milestones. The catch: It barely registered, pulling down a search share of just 0.001 percent. But I’m sure that comScore is missing the majority of Twitter’s searches. So what’s the real number?
Nope, Twitter still hasn’t trotted out a business model yet, and that may or may not be a problem for potential acquirers like Google or Microsoft. But it’s a nonissue for a growing number of start-ups hoping to succeed simply by positioning themselves in Twitter’s general vicinity. Today’s example: StockTwits, a day-trader-meets-Twitter site that just raised $800,000 from venture capital firm True Ventures.
Nielsen caused a stir this week by releasing data that showed that 60 percent of Twitter users stop using the much-hyped service after a month. Under fire for the survey’s methodology, Nielsen has rerun its numbers–and ended up with the same result.
Remember all the way back, a couple weeks ago, when everyone was talking about Twitter and Oprah and Ashton Kutcher and the millions of people who were joining Twitter every week? Turns out the majority of those new Twitterers–three out of every five–won’t be back in May. That’s a problem, says Web measurement service Nielsen.
Finally. Here comes Twitter’s first real foray into advertising, courtesy of Microsoft’s marketing budget. And don’t worry, Twitter users: You won’t be getting come-ons for Vista in your Twitterstream. Not yet, at least. The program that Twitter has rolled out today–something called ExecTweets–is a fairly cautious step into marketing, and that is certainly by design. But it does give a you a good sense of what Twitter thinks it can do with its buzzy, fast-growing and almost revenue-free product.
Yes, you can still get someone to invest in a Web start-up with zero revenue. It helps if you can insert the word “Twitter” into your pitch, though. Meet TweetDeck, a one-man outfit that makes free software that organizes your Twitter stream.
Peter Kafka has been covering media and technology since 1997, when he joined the staff of Forbes magazine. Most recently, he has been the managing editor of the tech and media Web site, Silicon Alley Insider. Read more »
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