Twitter users vs Habitat

"Habitat" is a UK furniture brand; apparently it's like an upscale IKEA. It's been a respected brand since its creation in the 1970's, but then they decided to dabble in the social media giant called Twitter. Not only did they use their brand and marketing power for evil by using spam tweets, they still haven't apologized for it.

In the world of social media, where feedback is instant, brands need to have someone on

Image via CrunchBase

call when they use a campaign tactic like this. Twitter's not a bad way to advertise promotions, sales and new products, but it needs to be done in a responsible way to avoid the negative fallout that can follow within minutes.

Here's a link to a good article on Habitat's mess:

http://www.digitaltip.com.au/index.php/how-not-to-use-twitter-habitatuk-as-a-case-study/

How could this happen?

News Corp. has decided to "dissolve" Fox Interactive Media (FIM), which has, up until this point, been their digital arm. That's sad, and even more sad is the fact that they might lay off 350 people in the near future. That being said, as a social networking specialist, I'm even more worried about that will happen now to my favorite part of FIM: MySpace; News Corp. already fired 400 employees at the former social networking juggernaut on Tuesday.

This revolutionary company turned the world upside down with its ability to network people across the globe like never before. It helped turn the Internet into the necessary part of life that it is today. Now it may disappear. Goodbye, old friend...

Blogging for Dollars, Part 1

Fifteen years ago, no one could have guessed that people would have FREE space on the Internet to write WHATEVER they wanted to write. And now, to top it off, people can make money off of these personal records on the web, called "weblogs" (now just called "blogs")! There are more ways than ever to make money off of the Internet. The plethora of companies that sell their products via electronic stores has grow exponentially, even in the past five years. Web 2.0 and it's usability have turned the web into a money making machine.

In addition to web carts, Google has enabled advertisers of all sizes through its service, AdSense. If you're unfamiliar with the products, it works like this:
- Bloggers sign up for free accounts.
- These authors choose where and how ads are displayed on their sites.
- Google uses its analytical tools to match up random ads with content found on sites.
- If visitors to these blogs click on ads, the authors get paid by the advertisers.
- Genius, no?

Granted, the money that most bloggers receive is pretty paltry, and to actually get a check, a blog has to have $100 worth of ad revenue. Considering that you need 100 or more hits on your blog to receive anywhere from 1 penny or more means that it could take a while. But still, it's an interesting idea that has paid off for people.