The Twitterati very much Mind the Gap

cNet

 

You never really know what will get social-media marketing chatter going. Film directors getting kicked off planes, for one, or that Old Spice Man sensation. This week, it was when retailer The Gap--which has lately been getting loads of positive digital press for its use of Groupon and Foursquare--unveiled a complete revamp of its iconic logo, and everybody freaked out. More specifically, they seemed to think it was the worst idea since New Coke.

"Gap" became a trending topic on Twitter, as design- and branding-savvy Twitterers (as well as those who just like to voice an opinion on everything) proclaimed their distaste for the new logo. A set of individuals referring to themselves as "The Randian Preservation Society" went so far as to launch a site called Crap Logo Yourself, in which you could put any text into the style of the new Gap logo, playfully asking, "Why hire an expensive firm to rebrand?"

Someone else created a fake Twitter account, @GapLogo, with the tagline "I have feelings too, jerks" and tweets like "American Apparel had some spare letters on clearance" and "FINE. I wanted to sit on this for a while but I can't keep it a secret any longer. The blue square is a scratch-n-sniff. Go ahead, try it."

The new insignia is certainly different. In the old, well-established logo, the company name is spelled out in a white serif font against a navy blue square background. The new logo relegates that iconic blue square to the upper-right corner, with the company name in the Helvetica font that's been all over Gap ads lately--and also, many have pointed out, those of trendier (and by some accounts, already-passe) retailer American Apparel. "New @gap logo is just American Apparel's logo with a dumb gradient box like someone was playing around with Photoshop for the first time," Twitter user @jordandroid griped.

Considering Gap's proclivities toward social media use in recent months, the company sort of had to acknowledge the uproar. "Thanks for the logo buzz!" the company posted to Twitter. "After 20+ years, it's time for a change. We like the new one, but want to see your ideas."

Indeed, on its Facebook page it's soliciting suggestions, which of course requires stomaching comments like "the only thing that could make the new logo worse is if you had used Comic Sans...or Papyrus," and leading one AdWeek columnist to wonder whether the entire thing was a stunt in which Gap drummed up publicity by designing an intentionally bad logo in order to kick off the hunt for a "crowdsourced" replacement. A Gap executive has publicly denied this conspiracy theory.

Still, there's a silver lining either way: "Actually, Gap should be thrilled that so many people care about their logo," read a tweet from Webby Awards chief David-Michel Davies.

UK Regulator to Expand Supervision Over Online Ads

PC World

The U.K.'s advertising regulator will increase its oversight of online marketing, scrutinizing how companies advertise on their own Web sites as well as social sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) said on Wednesday that the new code, which will take effect starting next March, is in response to nearly 3,000 complaints in the last year over advertisements that were not within its purview to act on.

The ASA already oversees paid-for online advertisements and sales promotions, investigating complaints over misleading advertisements and other issues, such as social responsibility and child protection. In some cases, advertisements have been withdrawn or removed by search engines, said Matt Wilson, ASA press officer.

For advertisements that are not withdrawn, the ASA has worked with search engines to publish a notification next to the ad that there is a problem with it, Wilson said.

The new rules will cover companies or organizations running promotions in unpaid space, including their own Web sites and social-networking sites. Companies are increasingly using platforms such as Facebook and Twitter to draw people to their brands or causes.

The ASA said that assessing whether material constitutes advertising or marketing communication will require a "careful assessment."

User-generated content, for example, is created by private individuals, the ASA said in its guidance notes. But if a website owner solicited the content and used it in marketing material, it would be subject to the code. Even if a private individual provided unsolicited content that is incorporated into marketing material, that would also be subject.

The code will apply to companies and organizations that have a U.K. presence or a U.K. registered website, Wilson said.

Advertisements targeting the U.K but placed outside the country "are subject to the jurisdiction of the relevant authority in the country from which they originate if that authority operates a suitable cross-border complaint system," the ASA said.

The initiative will be funded by a 0.1 percent levy on paid-for advertisements appearing on Internet search engines through media and search agencies. The ASA, which has a £7 million (US$11 million) annual budget, will have to add 9 or 10 staffers to enforce compliance, Wilson said.

Twitter Launches 'Who to Follow' Feature

Information Week

 

"Suggestions for You" is based on algorithms built by the site's user relevance team to help users find others with similar interests.

Twitter has started rolling out a feature that helps people find others on the site with similar interests.

The "Suggestions for You" feature, introduced Friday, is based on algorithms built by the site's user relevance team. The suggestions are based on several factors, most notably on the people you follow and the people they follow.
People can access the feature within the "Find People" area of the site. However, Twitter has also added a "Who to follow" section on the right side of people's homepage. The area lists people or organizations a user might be interested it, and provides the option of either following the suggestion or hiding it.

Twitter has also started showing recommendations to similar users when a person views another account's profile.

All the new features are available for developers. The company said it would be launching an application programming interface, so third parties can provide the suggestion features in desktop, mobile and Web applications too.

Twitter's new features resemble Facebook's "Friend Suggestions," which analyzes people's social networks to recommend others they can "friend."

Helping people continually expand their social networks is helpful for users, while also building a better platform for advertisers to meet larger numbers of people with similar interests. In separate studies released this week, Gartner and Deloitte found that Facebook and Twitter are increasingly emerging as important shopping tools for retailers and shoppers.

Gartner says sellers can tailor their online offerings to influence purchases, while Deloitte predicted that mobile phones and social networking platforms will have an increased influence in the upcoming back-to-school shopping season.

Deloitte found that nearly 30% of the respondents in its survey said social networking would likely play a major in their shopping decisions. On the other hand, Gartner said identifying and then targeting specific "influencers" in social networks can help drive sales.

Twitter Approaching 10 Billion Tweets

Mashable

About one year ago Twitter reached a huge milestone: one billion tweets. Four months ago, five billion tweets were served. And now, in about one day, Twitter should reach another very important milestone: 10 billion tweets.

Notice the trend? Although Twitter (Twitter) has been somewhat struggling with traffic (compared to its earlier immense growth) in the last couple of months, it still managed to go from five to ten billion tweets in four months; quite a remarkable achievement.

Counting tweets is actually quite easy: Just look at the URL of any tweet. The number at the end of the URL seems to be the number of that tweet, and at this moment the number of one of the latest tweets is 9917803012. If this seems like a long way to go before we reach one billion, check out this counter. Yup, we’re getting there fast.

The five billionth (now deleted) tweet was a simple, “Oh lord,” written by Robin Sloan. I wonder what the ten billionth tweet will say?

And This Bird You Cannot Change

CNBC / Tech Check

Ballmer takes flight from Twitter questions

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer was on hand earlier this morning at the Search Marketing Expo in Santa Clara, and sat for a wide-ranging interview on stage in front of about 1,000 visitors, and while much of his comments were about Bing, Yahoo, Google, Microsoft more broadly, and lots of other topics, what he had to say about Twitter was intriguing.

Ballmer was asked directly whether Microsoft would be interested in owning Twitter. Interestingly, he didn't dismiss the idea all together, and judging by his answer, Microsoft has clearly been noodling all this.

"Not clear," says Ballmer about whether it would be a good idea to buy Twitter.

"We have a great relationship, partnership with Twitter. It's not clear to me. I would hate to not have that partnership. Whether we need to own the company is far less clear. In some senses, as an independent, they have a lot of value, a lot of credibility with their user community. Would they have that same credibility with that user community if they were captive? Not clear. They want to be an independent company which means we want have a great partnership with them and do a good job."

Microsoft made lots of headlines with its early investment in Facebook as a way to head off any deeper partnership that might have been under consideration between the social networking giant and Microsoft nemesis Google. That deal was widely seen as a placeholder of sorts for Microsoft should Facebook ever entertain the idea of being acquired. Of course, that was billions of dollars in value ago, and it seems Facebook would probably go public first before submitting to a Microsoft acquisition. Knowing that, maybe Microsoft would be more interested in working some kind of deal with Twitter, which clearly has the eyeballs, but certainly not the path to profitability and growth that Facebook enjoys.

Meantime, check out the accompanying video of me trying to get a comment directly from Ballmer after his on-stage appearance.



I caught up with him, camera in tow, trying to get his thoughts on Microsoft's increasingly aggressive behavior in lobbying the European Union to go after Google for possible anti-trust violations (forget about the pot calling the kettle black, here; if anyone knows its way around anti-trust charges, it's Microsoft!) Ballmer seemed ready to play ball, but zealous public relations handlers said Ballmer was unavailable.

Umm, he was standing right in front of me!

Nonetheless, despite Ballmer telling me he wanted to answer my questions, he was escorted away.

So I pursued! And Ballmer's swift exit, while frustrating, was at least kinda funny to watch.

Conan Joins Twitter, Asks for Help

Chicago Tribune

Conan O'Brien is keeping himself busy by interviewing animals.

That's the word from the former "Tonight Show" host via his new Twitter account.

"Today I interviewed a squirrel in my backyard and then threw to commercial. Somebody help me," O'Brien said in his first tweet. His account bio reads: "I had a show. Then I had a different show. Now I have a Twitter account."

O'Brien hosted "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" for 16 years before taking over the "Tonight Show" in June 2009 for Jay Leno, who went on to host a quickly canceled program on NBC at 10 p.m. ET. After conceding that the Leno primetime experiment failed— because it made a poor lead-in for local news—NBC execs decided to move the "Tonight Show" to 12:05 a.m. ET to make room for a half-hour Jay Leno show at 11:35. O'Brien declined to accept the move because to do so would mean participating in the show's "destruction," he said, ending his "Tonight Show" gig after just seven months.

O'Brien's final "Tonight Show" aired On January 22. Guests Tom Hanks, Steve Carell, Will Ferrell and Neil Young stopped by to pay tribute to his run as the host of the late-night institution. The normally ebullient host grew serious as his final "Tonight Show" drew to a close. He's been keeping a low-profile ever since.

O'Brien received a $45 million payout for exiting the show; of that sum, $12 million went to his staff as severance pay. Under the terms of the payout, O'Brien isn't allowed to host another TV show until September 1, 2010. Jay Leno returns to host the "Tonight Show" on March 1.

To follow Conan on Twitter, check out twitter.com/ConanOBrien.

Pixar Finance Chief To Join Twitter As CFO

The Wall Street Journal

Twitter Inc. on Wednesday named Pixar Animation Studios' current finance chief to be the micro-blogging service's new chief financial officer, part of the company's drive to develop new sources of revenue.

Ali Rowghani, who has served in several roles at Walt Disney Co.'s (DIS) Pixar since 2001, will join Twitter in March.

"Ali will be an important member of a growing team focused on creating value for our users and capturing the financial opportunities that result from it," said Twitter Chief Executive Evan Williams.

The San Francisco-based micro-blogging service, which lets users blast short messages their from computers and mobile phones, has been one of the hottest brands in the technology sector over the past two years or so.

But critics have been quick to point out that while Twitter had more than 60 million unique users in December, it still does not generate significant revenue. Twitter recently struck deals to provide Internet giants like Google Inc. (GOOG) and Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) with real-time access to its stream of tweets. The company does not provide financial details.

Twitter last year secured about $100 million from a group of investors that includes mutual-fund giant T. Rowe Price Group Inc., private-equity firm Insight Venture Partners and venture group Benchmark Capital.

Currently CFO and Senior VP of Strategic Planning at Pixar, Rowghani previous served as director of the company's production finance and strategy group. Prior to joining Pixar, Rowghani was an associate at management consulting firm McKinsey & Company.

Twitter Buys Location Tracker Mixer Labs

BBC News

The micro-blogging website Twitter is buying the location tracking start-up Mixer Labs for an undisclosed sum.

Mixer Labs, founded by two former Google employees, makes an application for Twitter called GeoAPI.

Twitter chief executive Evan Williams said the deal would allow Twitter users to show people where they are when they post updates to the site.

The application will also allow users to search where an event is happening, the firm said.

On the company's blog, a statement said: "We want to know what's happening, and more precisely, where is it happening.

"As a dramatic example, twittering 'Earthquake!' alone is not as informative as 'Earthquake!' coupled with your current location".

Twitter is a social networking site in which users write messages of no more than 140 characters.

An estimated 58 million people use Twitter around the world.