But unfortunately, it was no match for whatever the virus is that I caught and am still fighting against Actually, my symptoms have changed and shifted: my throat and chest are not so sore but I still have a cough … though it’s different to the way it was before. Anyway, on the grounds that generally speaking I am lucky enough to be fit and healthy, I feel as if I ought to be doing better. Truth is though that whatever it is, this bug continues to suck my energy.

So every now and then, I have to take time out and have a breather. Well, more often than not, a little nap. Let’s face it, at the moment, I’d be a gold medal contender at the Sleep Olympics ! BUT … I have to say that whilst I have been suffering like this, I have been able to do some good things.

For example, I have been able to do some research on twitter, something that I have been long overdue in getting to grips with. I am steadily building my following and hope to break through the four digit barrier in the next couple of weeks. I am also looking in to a number of different tools to use with it, although IMHO, this is dangerous territory.

Why ? Because there are so many of them ! In some ways, it’s very possible to get lost down the rabbit hole investigating tools for use with twitter in the same way that it is when you’re actually using twitter manually. However, I have found one or two ideas which I think will prove useful.

I read somewhere recently that twitter has now gone past “The Threshold” where it’s a geeky, nerdy thing and that it’s now “Mainstream” … whatever that means exactly ! Whatever, it passed 50 million unique users this summer and growth continues at a seemingly exponential rate. I guess this puts quite a strain on the IT infrastructure. My own subjective experience is that at busy times, it just drops offline for very short periods. It usually comes back pretty quickly, but it must be something of a nightmare for their IT guys.

We’ve also seen Facebook announcing what look to me like “me too !” features, adopting the @name nomenclature as well. In terms of numbers, I understand that Facebook is still light years ahead of twitter. But, a recent report on brandrepublic.com suggested that it’s actually serving two increasingly distinct audiences. The report quotes Nielsen as saying that only 16% of twitter’s users are under 25.  It goes on to say …

According to one theory, teens are more interested in Facebook than Twitter because their lives tend to revolve around their friends and Facebook is more oriented around friend groups.

Twitter however is better for broadcasting comment, ideas or products to the outside world, to people users have never met.

Evan Williams, Twitter’s co-founder and chief executive, said: “Many people use [Twitter] for professional purposes — keeping connected with industry contacts and following news.

“Because it’s a one-to-many network and most of the content is public, it works for this better than a social network that’s optimized for friend communication.”

Source: brandrepublic.com, 26 August 2009

Interesting, no ?

Meanwhile, back in the real world (whatever that is !), my researches have caused the seed of an idea to germinate. It combines the use of twitter with some of the ideas taught by my internet marketing mentor, Alex Jeffreys. As best I can at the moment, I am looking in to setting up a little trial and when I do, I’ll let you know about it.

Final word today: I will be dosing myself with all the necessary to allow me to stay up and listen to my co-student Rob Canyon give a totally unique talk to a strictly limited number of people. The title of the talk is How I Made $3,758 In 21 Days Online With My Double Click Blueprint Strategy. I know that Rob is a great marketer some I am signed up already.

The thing is that for tonight only, he will explain this strategy for free ! After that, he’ll be charging several hundred dollars for people to discover his secrets. Time is tight now and there’s a limit of 200 people for tonight’s webinar, so I can offer no guarantees as to whether you’ll get in. But if you have a chance, click on that link and follow Rob’s instructions. Hope to see you there.