< a href=’http://blog.rssapplied.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/logo.png‘>Since Twitter owns the lion share of micro-blog participants, it becomes the benchmark for all new micro-blog communities that pop up. Plurk gets compared, Jaiku, Tumblr to some extent, FriendFeed, and now identi.ca. Twitter is a phenomenally addictive site, and as a social network it’s one of the most flexible ways to create and expand your network online. The often blogged about problem is that Twitter seems to be trying to self-destruct. It’s always battling with server downtime and latency, causing droves of people to complain, look for a new micro-blog community, try the new micro-blog community, and then go back to Twitter (because that’s where all the people are.)

Besides being the social network du jour, identi.ca has an interest opportunity because they are building the tool to be open source - meaning you can use the code yourself and build your own identi.ca derivative. What better way to beat Twitter than by giving everyone the opportunity to build one. The biggest issue here is that the reason everyone eventually goes back to Twitter is that it has the largest network.

Twitter provides a totally different perspective on why building and growing your online networks is so powerful. Twitter succeeds because of it’s network, in spite of it’s failures and growing competition. Social network users and new media early adopters can be a picky group - and are not typically patient when it comes to technology not keeping up with their demands - but because of it’s massive network Twitter survives. Keep in mind as you grow your blog and social network that content is important, but your network will make or break you.

Tags: Blog Marketing, Social Media Marketing, social-networking

This entry was posted on Monday, July 7th, 2008 at 6:01 am and is filed under Social Media Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.