How has this happened ? I mean, here I am, a self-professed “blogaholic” and yet I am ashamed to note that I haven’t posted here for more than two weeks. (Blush !)

Well, I guess I shouldn’t beat myself up too much. Some people are very effective blogging just once a month, so I guess that this just proves that there is no right or wrong. And besides, I have had some catching up to do recently and I do have several “irons in the fire” at the moment.

But it’s important to “step away from the mouse” every now and again and that’s what I did yesterday. I had a lunch time appointment and because it was a beautiful autumn day, I walked. As I did so, I had an experience that I am sure most people are familiar with. (I’m actually searching for its name: not deja vu, but it must be something like it. Let me know if you have any ideas on this !)

You know what it’s like to turn a corner, look at a building that you are familiar with only to suddenly find that a new shop or office has replaced what you are used to seeing. I kept having that feeling yesterday ! (“Jamais vu” ?)

At least six times in the space of half an hour, I heard myself muttering, “Well, that’s new … how long has that been there ?”

And as I turned for home, besides thinking that I should get out more (LOL), I realised that if there’s one thing that you can be certain about in life, it’s that things will change !

With that in mind, be aware that Twitter are making changes as the popularity of their service continues to grow.

First, they are making it easier for users to report spam. If you check out the drop down menu that you see when you click on the Actions icon (the little gear wheel) on your list of followers, you’ll see that you can report a member for alleged spamming. More on this on Twitter’s blog.

Also, there are indications that Twitter are tightening up on people that tweet duplicate content, not just on one account but on multiple accounts. Obviously, this is also spam related. It’s most likely to affect people that use the various services available to schedule automated tweets.

I have had people blast 20+ different tweets at my timeline all at once, seemingly ALL affiliate links … what a turn off ! Besides being anti-social, this kind of practice could also be against Twitter’s Terms of Service.

Personally, I see the next few weeks as being extremely interesting for social media in general and Twitter in particular. I have seen a few articles lately that suggest that it is becoming a truly viable method of driving off-line traffic, so with the holiday season on the horizon, smart retailers will be looking to take advantage of every trick in the book to maximise their income.