Social Software Explored

Ok, I think this subject has been beaten to death in the past whatever months but I want to throw another idea out there that I am not sure has been thought of.

What if there was a way to Monetize clicking on links from within a Tweet?

One of the hardest thing to do is to get someone’s attention – especially on Twitter.  I only follow 50-60 active users on Twitter and get more than 20 pages of tweets everyday.  I don’t read all of them – can’t.  It would take forever.  On Twitter you are forced to be clever or in a sense “market” their tweets in order to get someone to even read it.  And this is coming from someone with 50-60 active users – what about those people with hundreds if not thousands…

Here are 3 links that appeared in my stream today which exemplify what I am talking about:

@blakespot: Change. That’s what’s up. http://tinyurl.com/59resq about 22 hours ago from TweetDeck

@georgedearing: http://ping.fm/p/PrFjH – This is the crappy part of the trip about 4 hours ago from Ping.fm

@sfsmaus: Bugger all… http://snipr.com/4tqwo about 4 hours ago from digsby

Each of these Tweets was a promotion.  More so than posting it to their Del.icio.us accounts or to FriendFeed etc…. they posted to Twitter because it was something that they wanted to share.

In most cases (these three tweets as examples) I would have never stumbled upon (hee hee) these links and  would have never been subjected to their sites advertising.  Never.  Twitter is a crucial network for sharing information like this and if there was some way to monetize this I think it would help.

At some level most of the early adopters on Twitter – the one’s that are active – are all mavens.  Maybe not like a Blogger is but in a different way.  We are all promoting something – us and how we think and see the world.  In most cases that includes products.

I don’t know how many people I have turned on to Digsby.  I found out about Digsby on Twitter from @tonyk – else I might still be using that other crappy program – Trillian.  Goodness gracious.  So glad.

Maybe if we could track our influence similar to those silly pyramid schemes like Amway and Herbal Life – we could put a dollar sign to it.

Just a thought.

If Angel Batista is correct and we are all truly connected and somehow the energy of thought helps make things happen (must have watched ‘What the #$*! Do We Know’) then I am telling the Universe what I want.

I want us to not drill for more oil.  I want the project that Honda is working on and this lady from California to be viable solutions for consumers – soon (a.k.a. today).  I completely understand that Oil is the foundation of our economy – but if we are going to rebuild the economy – lets take this opportunity to do it right.

I like the fact that we are producing “eco-friendly” packaging (except for children’s toys which have gotten ridiculous).  And I love the fact that Windex is marketing a bottle that can be reused – and the fact that with less diluted detergents we can produce less plastic waste.  I am perfectly ok that I have to spend a nickel to ensure that that the beer bottles I drink out of get properly disposed of.  All of these things are fine.

What I am not fine with however is thinking that drilling for more oil is the answer.  Please watch this rant by Archie Bunker (a.k.a. Carol O’Connor – who was unfortunately a proud democrat during his time on the planet). This was over 30 years ago – for goodness sakes lets do something here.

And while I don’t take sides in this great political debate – I have to say that he was correct – we need to change.  And I am not talking about Obama “change” which is fictitious political change – I am talking about real change. Mr. Goodwin style change.

And then after you have thought about it for a minute.  Get out there and join something.  Say something.  Let the Universe hear what you have to say.