Twitter Hits 1000 Tweets per Second

1 07 2010

Twitter has been hovering close to milestone of the 1000 tweets a second for several days and in the last couple of days has broken through the barrier several times.  The number of tweets per second stayed above that figure between 2pm and 4pm UTC on Tuesday and passed it again at a similar time yesterday.

Twitter has also broken through another barrier, clocking up over 2 billion tweets in a month for the first time since its inception.  At midnight last night the figure was over 2.3 billion for June.

I verified the score for June using the unique twitter ID number that ever tweet carries.  These numbers are sequential so it makes the calculation straightforward. At midday on the 1st June Lance Armstrong tweeted “Hello June“.  Clearly this was not the first tweet of the day, but it was good enough for an accurate estimate.  The ID figure of 15162027303 for that tweet suggests that the first tweet in June was close to the 15130000000 mark.  Gigatweet had the last tweet in June at around test number at around 17440000000.   Although claims were made that the two billion barrier was passed in May the actual figure for that month was 1.99 billion.

There were suggestions late last year that Twitter had ‘jumped the shark’ but an apparent stalling in the numbers using twitter.com was simply caused by users switching to third-party applications.  Gigatweet also estimates that the 20 billionth tweet will be posted in just a month’s time on the 1st August.


Comments : 2 Comments »

Categories : Twitter

Cameron Meets Facebook’s Zuckerberg at Number 10

21 06 2010

Downing Street If  more proof were needed of the growing power of social networks it came with the news that the new UK prime minister David Cameron met this morning with Facebook head honcho Mark Zuckerberg at 10 Downing Street.

Joining the two fresh-faced power brokers was the Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport, Jeremy Hunt, who used Twitter at 11.28am to announce the meeting had just taken place “Just met Mark Zuckerberg, Founder of Facebook. Really smart guy with some good ideas on improvement digital engagement in policy making.”

According to the BBC’s Rory Cellan Jones “the Cameron/Zuckerberg summit was about how government can use the internet more to engage with the public”.

This is the first time that a British prime minister has met with a social network supremo and he did so before he has had face to face talks with many of the world’s major political leaders.


Comments : 2 Comments »

Categories : Facebook, Social Web

Livevuvuzela – The Twitter World Cup Mash-up

14 06 2010

The VuvuzelaForget Rob Green’s fumble, the real talking point of the World Cup so far is the far from dulcit tones of the Vuvuzela.  The sound of the cup crowd has even made its way from the stadia to social media.  

In one of the most bizarre applications of twitter to date the B# Flat horn has burst on to the microsite in the form of @livevuvuzela which replicates, with disturbing regularity, the incessant drone all within the limits of 140 written characters.  The twitter account has amassed nearly 1000 followers in just a week.  Maybe that’s because it somehow succeeds in capturing the essence of the South African soccer sonic boom tube.  It is incessant, repetitive, irritating and in the case of its twitter incarnation, slightly brilliant.


Comments : Leave a Comment »

Categories : Uncategorized

CIPR Digital Impact Conference – 24 May

17 05 2010

There is a great digital PR conference lined up at the CIPR in London next week which I’m thrilled to be taking part in.   It takes place next Monday 24th May at the CIPR HQ in Russell Square, WC1.

Understanding and using digital channels should be part of what all of in public relations do, every day.  This one-day conference provides an opportunity to discuss ideas, hear the thoughts of some of the industry’s leading practitioners in digital PR and will show practical examples of how companies have successfully embraced social media.

The eminent list of speakers is as follows:

Paul Armstrong – Director of Social Media, Kindred

Drew Benvie – Managing Director, 33 Digital

Daljit Bhurji – Managing Director, Diffusion

Amanda Brown – Head of PR, First Direct

Rob Brown – Managing Director, Staniforth

Steve Earl – Managing Director, Speed Communications

Russell Goldsmith – Digital Media Director, markettiers4dc

Katy Howell – Managing Director, Immediate Future

Marshall Manson – Director of Digital Strategy, Edelman

Kieron Matthews – Director of Marketing, Internet Advertising, Bureau

Julio Romo – Communications and Social Media Consultant, twofourseven

Philip Sheldrake – Chartered Engineer, Founder and Partner of Influence Crowd.

There are still a few places so if you think you might be interested don’t hesitate and book now.


Comments : 1 Comment »

Categories : Blogs and blogging, Media evolution, PR, SEO, Social Networks, Social Web, User Generated Content

Vince Cable, PR and the Smokefree Rooms

9 05 2010

I’ve posted before about the #invincecable campaign to highlight the superior qualifications to be Chancellor of the Exchequer held by one Vincent Cable Esquire.  The campaign has had various elements including a crowdflutter that almost halved the odds on Vince being the next Chancellor before William Hill suspended betting altogether.  There has been a twitter brainstorm and today is “Blog Vince Day”. Now that there is hung parliament and in a week when the PR on most people’s lips is Proportional Representation, it is vital to remind people that the current economic conditions require the best man for the job, and not the best man to suit other political ambitions and agreements hatched in Smokefree rooms.

Make your voice heard blog, post comments tweet or email your new MPs to demand that Vince Cable be made chancellor.  It is his birthday after all.


Comments : 1 Comment »

Categories : Politics

ManageTwitter is Dead Long Live ManageFlitter

5 05 2010

Last week I posted about the threatened demise of the best application for managing twitter follow lists, the excellent ManageTwitter.  Well after a cease and desist order it has gone…sort of.  A search for Manage Twitter will bring up a remarkably similar site called ManageFlitter, brought to you by the makers of ManageTwitter.  Apparently one of the things that the masters of the microblog didn’t like was the infringement of their trade mark.

A few other things are different too.  There is no longer a tab that allows you to bulk unfollow users whose accounts may be dormant or who don’t follow you back.  This can still be done but you have to select individual check boxes or drag and select multiple icons.   The application isn’t quite as versatile as it used to be but hopefully the changes will have satisfied the head honchos in San Francisco as this is the most useful tool around for managing your account without spending hours checking the activity of individual followers.


Comments : 1 Comment »

Categories : Twitter

Will Manage Twitter Get a Reprieve?

30 04 2010

For the last few weeks I have been using a great application called ‘ManageTwitter’ to do exactly that for my multiple accounts.  Described by TechCrunch as a ”must-use” it is one of the most practical twitter apps available.

ManageTwitter allows you to manage your Twitter followers in a variety of ways. It informs you os all the Twitter users you follow that aren’t following you back, those that have been inactive for over a month and those that are very talkative or very quiet.  You can then unfollow these groups of users individually or in bulk and that is the issue – twitter does not approve of bulk unfollow and as of last Friday a message appeared on the ManageTwitter home page indicating that it was to close in a week because it was breaking the microblogging site’s terms of service.  Today a different message appeared:

Save ManageTwitter Thank you for all your support! We are currently in negotiations with twitter regarding the future of ManageTwitter.  Updates will be posted to our blog.

This is a genuinely useful site that doesn’t encourage or facilitate spamming.  It just might get a reprieve but doubtless with modifications to its current functionality.


Comments : 2 Comments »

Categories : Twitter

Will the Last Newspaper Proprietor to Back a Party in the General Election Please Turn Out the Lights

23 04 2010

I posted a few months ago saying that The Sun can’t win elections any more or even influence them in the same way they once did.

This election is proving that to be the case.  Yesterday after the press rounded on Nick Clegg after his success in the first TV debate and on the cusp of the second TV hustings, the twittering classes hit back.  The hashtag #nickcleggsfault was essentially a crowd sourced piss-take that said we don’t have to take whatever politically motivated guff you throw at us and the choice is ours not yours.

The Murdoch media are however hanging on to the old ideas of influence and boy have they had a concerted go in the last 24 hours pushing a YouGov poll on Sky News that was out of step with all others and that the pollsters have admitted today that they used a flawed process. The Sun has even been accused of suppressing polls that are out of step with their support for the Tories.

However we are now facing the absolute racing certainty of  hung/balanced parliament, so the only party guaranteed to be part of the next administration is the Liberal Democrat party.  When media owners realise that they can’t be certain of backing the winner they will back off from nailing their colours to the mast.   The backlash begins.


Comments : 6 Comments »

Categories : Journalism, Newspapers, Politics, Social Web

Social Media and the CIPR

17 04 2010

The Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) is the professional body for public relations  in the UK.  With over 9,500 members, involved in all aspects of communications, the CIPR is the largest body of its type in Europe. It develops policies, represents its members, and raises standards through education and training.

I am an executive board member and I’d been invited to form a social media panel which was launched this week.  Reassuringly there was a lot of online buzz with over 100 people using the hashtag #CIPRSM, people blogging about the initiative and lots of traffic to the announcement on the web site.   The reaction was overwhelmingly positive and their were even people saying it had prompted them to join the CIPR.

The panel includes people with considerable experience and reputation and we will we will use the tools available to us to facilitate discussions, develop ideas and to make recommendations public so that CIPR members and the profession can comment, suggest and input.  The full line up is as follows:

  • Daljit Bhurji ACIPR – Managing Director, Diffusion (@Daljit_Bhurji)
  • Mark Borkowski – Managing Director, Borkowski (@MarkBorkowski)
  • Rob Brown FCIPR – Managing Director, Staniforth (@robbrown)
  • Stuart Bruce MCIPR – Managing Director, Wolfstar (@stuartbruce)
  • Dominic Burch – Head of Corporate Communications, ASDA (@dom_asdaPR)
  • Simon Collister – Head of Non-Profit & Public Sector, We Are Social (@simoncollister)
  • Gemma Griffiths – Client Director, Racepoint (@GemGriff)
  • Katy Howell – Managing Director, Immediate Future (@katyhowell)
  • Marshall Manson – Director of Digital Strategy, Edelman (@marshallmanson)
  • Beccy McMichael – Head of Corporate & Technology, Ruder Finn (@bmcmichael)
  • Danny Rogers – Editor, PR Week (@dannyrogers2001)
  • Julio Romo MCIPR–PR & Communications Consultant, twofourseven (@twofourseven)
  • Philip Sheldrake – Partner, Influence Crowd LLP (@sheldrake)
  • Stephen Waddington MCIPR – Managing Director, Speed Communications (@wadds)

The panel is not the initiative but rather will facilitate and create initiatives and shape an agenda that will encourage open conversation on developments and initiatives that concern the public relations profession.

Read the CIPR’s announcement.


Comments : Leave a Comment »

Categories : Uncategorized

The Fall of Bebo and The Real Value of Social Networks

7 04 2010

Just two years after being bought for £417 million ($850m), the former social network of choice for the pre-teens, Bebo is to be sold off or closed down.

To put that in context the value of the site in just five years went from zero to not far short of a billion dollars back to zero (if no buyer is found).  The reason is simple.  The pre-teens grew up and went to Facebook and the generation that followed, like the 12 year readers of Just Seventeen magazine desperate to play with the bigger kids, have gone straight to Facebook (even if that means telling a porkie pie about their d.o.b. when they set up to their accounts).  In February Facebook had 462.7 million unique users and Bebo had just 12.8 million.   “AOL is not in a position at this time to further fund and support Bebo in pursuing a turnaround in social networking” a  memo sent by the parent company to Bebo staff this week explained.

Whilst Facebook becomes more entrenched as the No 1 social network what will this mean for MySpace and other legacy networks?    We also need to understand better where the real value lies if the life cycle of a network that once generating 60 million page views a day can be so short.

Bebo was set up in Michael and Xochi Birch in January 2005.  It could close as early as May this year.


Comments : 4 Comments »

Categories : Social Networks

« Previous Entries Next Entries »