10) You ditch your blackberry to an iPhone cause it has better twitter aps

9) You check twitter for mentions just in case twitter did not auto update correctly

You have a car charger just in case you need to tweet and your low on battery

7) You foursquare because people may want to know what you are doing

6) You call your phone provider to ask what the roaming charges are if you travel outside your country

5) You actually add a roaming package when you travel outside your country

4) You twitpic your dinner making process

3) You tweet during meeting – you actually tweet the meeting

2) You tweet at someone in the meeting and they reply (not sure which is worse)

1) Your spouse and co-workers cant get a hold of you on your phone or by email, but know they will find you on twitter. Your staff actually tweets in sick!

Have some signs you want to share? add them to this list…

                          

The Shark rarely invest, most of the time, they moch the fine folks and go, You want $40,000 and your only giving up 30% of your company, are you crazy, this is a loser, your a loser, this will never make money, you crazy.

Since the show is not about investment but an entertainment show, and as investment requires you actually to take risk for reward one day, I thought it would be fun to do a moch interview to prove the point with Twitter as the potential company. Remember again, that true investments especially at an early stage, expect a high return on investment especially since they are taking significant risk.

So her we go

————————————

Keving Oleary: Ok, and what is your name

I am Biz Stone, and I am Evan Williams (call me EV)

KO: Biz and Ev, Ha ha ha, I already think I am out and “EV and Biz” what do you do

Ev: We have a website called Twitter

Robert Herjavec: Ok and what service does Twitter provide

Biz: Twitter lets people update their status online

Barbara” Status? what do you mean

EV: Well you know, if you are watching TV, you can say I am watching TV

Kevin O: HOOOOOOOLD On, Hold on, hold on. Who do I update my status to, to my friends?

Biz: some are your friends, some are strangers.

Daymond: Why would anyone want to know if I am watching TV?

Ev: Well people like to share all kinds of information and one day when millions of people are using it, this would be the main way people are sharing information

Kevin Harrington: Ok guys, enough messing around, I mean we have enough things to do, can you get serious

Biz: We are serious

Kevin O: Ok I had enough of these guys, can we all say no so they can go home. how much do you want anyway

Biz: we are asking for $50,000 for 1% of our company

Kevin O: ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND (everyone laughs)

Ev: No this company one day will be worth at least 500 Million dollars, maybe a billion

Barbara: Ok, lets be reasonable here, how many customers do you have now and how will this Twitter (is that the name) be worth 500 Million one day

Biz, well we are growing all the time and people like using it

Kevin H: What are you going to do with the money? are you going to advertise this twitter

Ev: We dont need to advertise, word of mouth is enough, we are going to upgrade our server so when people tweet, they dont get the fail whale

Robert: Am I the only one confused here? tweets? fail whale?

Ev: Yea sometime the system crashes and we show the fail whale, see its on our tshirts

Robert: Ev, Biz, you guys are crazy, you make no sense and for that reason I am out

Kevin O: Lets just get them out of here so we can move it, these people are losers

Barbara: Ev sweet heart, I like you, I love the whale picture but I dont see how you make money, do you make money

Biz: No we dont

Barbara: Do you know how you will make money?

Biz: we have ideas but nothing solid yet

Barbara: So you want $50,000 for 1% of your company and no idea how to make revenue?

Biz: Yes, but twitter will be a huge hit, everyone, every news company, every company, everyone will want to be part of it

Barbara: You are not advertising, I don’t get it, I dont see revenue I am out.

Kevin H: This is not in my area of expertise so I am out

Daymon: I know fashion, this I dont understand, I am out. Tweet, what the heck is a tweet.

Daymon: Kevin O its up to you

Kevin O: What bothers me that you losers come here with a loser idea, no way of making money, a few customer, a system that crashes all the time, some gimmicky whale and want $50000 of my hard earned money for 1% of your company. You just wasted my time and taken away a spot from someone else who could have had a good idea, how you sleep at night is beyond me. I am out of here – get them out of here

                          

When you tweet, how many people see your tweet? How many people click on the link? How many replies would you expect to get?

I guess it all depends on a few things

1) The number of followers you have: Its obvious, the more followers you have, the higher the likely hood that your tweet will be seen. My guesstimate, a tweet carries a 50/1000 view rate, i.e. for each 1000 followers, 50 will see your tweet.

2) The number of followers your followers follow: A mouth full, but if one of your followers follows say 10 people then odds are they will see your tweet. If your follower follows 2000 people then odds are, your tweet will be missed.

3) The type of tweet: If your tweet starts with @somename, that is an invitation for people to skip your tweet, I almost skip over all these tweets because i find it odd to read or reply to one. If its a #followfriday tweet, that is an instant ignore. If your tweet is a link or twitpic, it has a higher likely hood of being viewed and acted on. I guess that per 1000 you would get 10 people to click a URL. If your tweet is a straight forward tweet, its a clear invitation for people to read it, and the quality of the tweet may solicit interaction.

So what can one do to increase the life of a tweet.

Trick 1: Learned it from the best (Chirs Brogan) once said that its ok to tweet something 3 times at a different time of day, it will get more views, and those who had seen it wont mind. I tried this great piece of advice and it does work. you will bet that I will tweet this post 3 times.

Trick 2: If you are replying and want the reply to appeal to every one, include the @ at the end of the tweet or in the middle.

Example instead of @abc I think Starbucks is the best coffee ever. write: I think Starbucks is the best coffee ever @abc

Trick 3: If the tweet is important to you and want people to see it, its ok to ask for a RT, but you cant do this with every tweet, you have to be selective

Trick 4: The same way a title impacts the open rate of an email, a tweets content will impact replies, ReTweets, Clicks, etc… make sure your tweet is good, maybe even ask a question.

Trick 5: If your tweet is related to a topic, find the #tag, make sure you include that, so you can join the global conversation

Trick 6: Tweet it during the day, late night tweets will go unread

Trick 7: If your tweet includes a link, make sure the tweet is clear on what is behind the URL

Trick 8: In some cases a referral tweet can yield good results. A referral tweet is when you connect two people in your network based on a topic, This allows you to have a conversation and exposure in both peoples networks. For example: I know someone who knows a lot about shrimp, @abc, meet @def.

Trick 9: Use a quick identifier , for example start the tweet with “New Study:” or ” Breaking News”, etc… this clearly labels the tweet and directs people to it.

Trick 10: Include a Twitter expert, celebrity or a source if appropriate. Example you say I disagree with @chrisbrogan… Ask their opinion. Point to a source, for example, checkout @twiter_tips for… Even if they dont reply it may grab the attention of your followers.

@sforzley

                          

It did work on my daughter i admit, and on many of you. Twitter is a buzz with #earthhour this, and #earthhour that. People sat in the dark, can you believe that. For one hour, many gave up the privilege of electricity and joined many 3rd world countries who dont have it. I grew up in one of them, there was no earth hour, there was earthmonth, no power, no heat, nothing.

Now, lets take Ottawa, Canada’s capital city, last year for earth hour, a great success story. All in, we saved 4% of our consumption, the equivilant of, are you ready….. 1 house off the grid for 4 years. A lot of brew ha ha over nothing, more power was wasted on printing my daughters earth hour ads than what was saved. The amount of energy spent making this happen was more than what was saved, worse yet, in ottawa, over 2000 homes where built this year, we need to sit in the dark for a month to make up the difference.

So, if you participated in earth hour, I really hope you feal awesome, now we can all go back to our wasteful ways.

Congrats

                          

Problem is, people are too excited and have taken this too far, Friday now is a sea of blue @a @b @c …. #followfriday. I  am starting to get annoyed. #FollowFriday and twitter feels like a flee market, with people screaming Hey there, look over here, i got such a great deal for you. Hey Hey, check this out, so and so is #followfriday worthy. As if twitter needs more noise.

So Twitter, can you please create some referral/rating system, its badly needed.

Twitter users, lets make a deal. Please only follow people who truly are follow worthy. If you do that, we dont need a #followfriday. This way I will know that all the people you are following are good. If you dont think someone is worthy of your followfriday tweet, then drop them and that includes me. Lets just end this madness.

So there you go, your guilt free pass to unfollow me, clean up twitter, and make Friday a #tweetfriendlyfriday

@sforzley

                          

Because every self respecting blog needs a top 10 list about something, here is my Top 10 annoying things people do on twitter

10) DM you after you add them and say: Thanks for following me, join me on (facebook, myspace, URL of some sort)

- It just bugs me, if i wanted to follow people on a different network i would.

9) Add you, remove you, add you again

- What a sad way at getting followers

Tweet:  Good morning

- I dont know why this bugs me, but it does

7) #followfriday @personA @personB

- This was a good idea at first, but now, its just too much, twitter on Friday is a waste land of follow this and follow that, there should be a rule, you can only recommend  up to 5 people on followfriday

6) Please get me X more followers before I hit X

- What is the deal with getting these followers, as if this is the end goal of Twitter.

5) welcome new followers @persona @personb

- I dont get it,  I cringe when i see my name in that list of welcomes.

4)Tweet: ” I have no idea how this works” or “tweet” or” trying to figure out twitter”

3) No pic – no image – empty profile

- come on man, your on a social network for bananas sake, tell us your name at least

2) following thousands – 0 tweets

- Happens with newbies who all they care for is followers, for those, i have a special block button

1) Following 0 – followed by many

This bugs me the most. And the person that bugs me the most is non other than Dr Phil @DrPhil. Dr Phil thinks that no one on twitter has anything of value to say, no one, not @garyvee, not @chrisbroagan, no one. You know how twitter has a rule where it blocks people from adding more than 2000 people. Twitter should implement a rule that blocks people from getting more than 2000 followers if they don’t follow anyone. If you are too good to follow anyone on twitter then you need some help, Dr Phil, know anyone?

What bugs you on twittter?

                          

New years resolutions fail because there are no strings attached, so if you want to really give something up, the main event, where not living up to your resolution is coming right up. That’s the grand daddy of them all, your last chance to be good this year is here, and if you don’t live up, you got a higher power to deal with.

So what are you giving up for Lent? I was thinking twitter, what do you think? Is twitter something to give up for lent? what will happen if I do? Will you join me? What do you think?

                          

Some follow back rules that I am using

1) If you add me, and have 2000 followers and < 500 following you, I will not follow you back.

2) If you add me and have 2000 followers and > 500 following you, I will only add you if you tweet something meaning full to me.

3) If you add me and have less tweets than followers, I will not add you back

4) If you add me and tweet once or twice a day, I will not add you back (what is the point, i am going to miss 99% of your tweets)

5) If you add me and dont have a pic or profile (odds are I will not follow you back)

6) if you add me, and I add you and after 4 week, i see that I have no clue who you are, I will unfollow you

7) if I add you, and you DM instantly with a blog post to check you out, I will unfollow you

If you follow me, and I dont follow you back, you remove me, and then follow me again so that i follow you, I will NEVER follow you back

Other than that,

I follow back, I follow people from all walks of life,  I am not concerned or impressed with the number of followers you have, I am more interested in your tweets and what you have to say.  I tend to follow those who converse with people I follow or people who tweeted around a topic I am interested in.

@sforzley

                          

Samer, is this you, OMG, is this really you, its been so long, you look the same, just a bit bigger, how are you, what are you up to, where you working, remember how we used to… omg if this is you let me know, i hope this is you.

This was a message i got from an old friend, we grew up together, went to school, then life happened, and lost track of each other, thanks to the magic of facebook, we reconnected. I am sure you all got a similar message on facebook, maybe not the same words, but that is the tone.

Of course my reply was equally enthusiastic, answered his questions, added some of my own, and off we went, for about 4 message exchanges. And that was it…. Its like bumping into a friend you have not seen forever while walking down Anytown, Main St. You have that quick excitement that fades fast, from happy memories of the past, to awkwardness as you both quickly realize you grew up and grew apart, your interests are no longer the same, all you share are memories. Here is the thing; facebook does a great job keeping you in touch with old friend, funny enough without really being in touch. I mean you can look at their pics, oh sally is in NY this week, Oh Joes new kid is cute, and of course John is….. but you dont really say anything, mostly looking, gossip on mute.

I have asked people the following question: How many new friends have you made on facebook since you started using it. A moment of silence, then… hmmm, not many, none i dont think. Yea none. Weird…There is also one harsh truth about friends on facebook, The majority of people who are friends on facebooks are ones that I would not want to meet in person and build a relationship, as a matter of fact most of the people i am “friends” with live in the very same city i live in, and neither I nor them make an effort to connect. I bet its the same for you, if not, call me out.

Now there is this weird thing called twitter, I dont know how i got on twitter, I dont remember who i followed first or why, I dont remember my first tweet, It took me a minute to figure out what a retweet is, and what a DM is. Worse yet, all i have is 140 characters to say what i have to say, there are tiny URL’s and twirl, twellow and twitpic, tiny twitter, omg, the list goes on and on, how can one wrap their head around this mess. Add to it a very unstable site and what you have is a usability nightmare.

But there is one thing i can say about twitter that is different from facebook, no one i follow or no one who follows me is from my past. All the people in my twitter circle are new, most i have never met, most i follow because i think they have something good to say, and i hope the feeling is mutual. Most I will never meet in person in my whole life. As we tweet, we share current experiences, shed some light into each others life, share knowledge, learn form each other, point each other to the coolest new thing. And while we tweet on our own, there is sharing and interaction that is quite different from the snooping that happens on facebook. On twitter I have learned so many new things and I can with great certainty say, i have not learned a thing from any of my friends on facebook.

For those who are part of my experience on twitter, i can say one thing, I look forward to any tweetups (get together’s) in my town. I would seek out, and attend these tweetups. I will look forward to putting a name to the face, sharing a beer, strengthening the relation, tweeting up again and again, i know this is true for many, if not most. What a difference from those who are my “friends” on facebook.

I think by now you know where this post is going, before i wrap up, i have this to say. I think Twitter and facebook got their lingo backwards. I think those who are followers on twitter have a more friendly relation that those who are friends on facebook. I therefore will make the following suggestion to facebook, please relabel the friends as followers. Twitter, please relabel the followers as friends.

In conclusion here is the punch line. Facebook is about the past, Twitter is about the future. They are not the same, and thank God for that.

@sforzley