Ok so on Twitter, of course I'm following more strangers than I'm following friends. Maybe because some of my friends aren't on Twitter. Maybe because I don't want to follow friends on Twitter, I want to follow others who will become friends. But Twitter seems to think that instead of following strangers, people will find tweeting more fun if they can find their friends on Twitter. So they added a Find Friends feature which allows you to find Facebook and LinkedIn friends to Twitter.

You can find which of your friends are on Twitter using the Twitter Facebook. You can follow them instantly or add them to a list. Of course you can also post tweets directly to Facebook's pages when posting to your Twitter profile.

Twitter LinkedIn shows you which of your Linkedin connections are on Twitter. You can follow them and also post tweets on Linkedin.

Ok so! If you are my friend, now I can be your friend also on Facebook, and connect on LinkedIn, AND follow you on Twitter.

Uh but why do I NEED to connect with my same friend everywhere???

I keep getting these spam messages telling me how I can quadruple my Twitter followers in minutes. And a Google search reveals numerous websites giving you the option of BUYING Twitter followers. And all I can say is Really???

It's ludicrous and totally pointless to "Buy" followers. What would the point be again? Does anyone really believe that growing followers inorganically by paying for them will provide any value?

The whole purpose of social networking websites is having the opportunity to network with others online. Leveraging your network to spread your company mission, product and service information, and bragging about how good you are, are all relevant only when there's someone willing to listen, engage, and take some kind of action. When you buy followers, you see a growth in the number of followers but the end benefit is completely missing.

You wouldn't "buy" networking connections in a face to face networking session would you? Well then don't do it online either. There's no purpose to it. Be a smart social networker. Engage and pour your sweat and blood (not literally of course) to get noticed organically. Establish credibility through dialog and an exchange of ideas. Then and only then social networking will make sense AND provide a return on investment.

Since Google Buzz's launch a few days ago, most people opined that Google's newest plan to engage in the social networking arena was to give Facebook and Twitter a run for their money. But Google VP of product management, Bradley Horowitz, assured critics & others that that was not their plan. Hmmmm…..

He said that Google's Buzz is focusing on creating "conversation" which is missing in most other social networks.

Double hmmm!
 
Horowitz emphasized that for Google's  Buzz conversation and engagement was the focus and it wasn't just about checking or updating status like people do on Facebook or Twitter. Google also plans to create services around that engagement and interaction.
 
OKAY! So the Buzz is different according to Google. But I just don't see the difference yet; at least not from the standpoint of engagement. I engage with people on Twitter. I do a lot more engagement with people on Facebook than I do on Twitter. I've checked out Google's Buzz and I see the same kind of opportunity to engage. Except now I can stay on the Buzz and also email people.

Anyone want to enlighten me as to what I'm missing that's so special about the Buzz that it fills a "market need"?

Let's do the math:

• Approximately 400 million users on Facebook – most are active users
• Approximately 75 million Twitter users of which about 15 million are active Twitter users
• Approximately 60 million LinkedIn users

(Note: I didn't do the research to come up with the statistics. These came from smarter people who love digging into data)

So why are you NOT on social networks?
 
Are these your reasons?

"Ah, our industry doesn't have too many computer savvy people"

"Advertising provides us really good ROI, no point in changing what works"

"No one searches on Facebook, isn't that just for family stuff?"

"We spend about $60K in trade shows and industry publication and it works".

"No time."

"Can't afford it"
 
Let me summarize the lost opportunity cost as follows:

• If your competition is on Facebook and you aren't, guess who'll get the inquiry when a need arises?
   
• If you aren't found on the first page of Google, Yahoo or Bing but your competition is, no question about who'll snag that client.
   
• If you aren't engaging with your constituents, guess who'll get the edge? Yep, your competitor who is engaging.
   
• If you aren't listening to conversations about your company's products, calculate how much you will be spending on damage control.

Get online. Get engaged. Listen to conversations about your brand.

Every 2-3 minutes, over a 15-20 minute period, I kept trying to load Twitter and nothing would load. So I thought oh perhaps my internet connection is down. But no, everything else was working and all other sites were coming right up.

Then I went to google alerts to see if anything was reported on Twitter being down. Again, no news so I just ignore it. Then I asked a friend in India if Twitter was coming up for him and he said no. He dug around and found a "developing" story on Techcrunch.com about Twitter being hacked.

Techcrunch.com reported that Twitter was hacked and the following message was posted on it:
 

Hmmm……….Twitter hacked? Twitter, everyone's beloved, the favorite child of Social Media Marketers, the one that is in the limelight. That Twitter with it's big name geniuses can't protect itself from hackers?

Twitter's back online now and it's interesting reading all the tweets on what happened when the defacement message appeared on Twitter. All I can say is this is embarrassing!