My weekly thoughts on social media, set down while pondering why the Obama campaign has not officially adopted New Orleans legend Allen Toussaint’s “Yes We Can” for the campaign. The best version of that song is Lee Dorsey’s, for what it’s worth…
1) In preparation for the expected traffic onslaught during SXSW Interactive, Twitter shuts down for maintenance over the weekend, a dry run to make sure that the service can successfully come to a screeching halt as expected.
2) Speaking of conferences being talked about on Twitter, the annual uber-exclusive, invite-only superstar-studded TED conference results in a lot of thoughtful coverage. Of course, most of us will only remember a (likely) manufactured spat between Seesmic’s man-about-world Loic Lemeur, and blogger, Francophobe and, um, Seesmic investor Michael Arrington. To paraphrase, going to Twitter without A-List posturing is like going to a snipe hunt without an accordion (and the exchange made about that much sense).
3) Blogs, podcasts and social networks go dark for 48 hours as everyone spends the time populating their FriendFeed account, and wondering why there is no activity in the feed. Have you tried to find people on Friendfeed through your known list of friends? It’s like playing an unwinnable game of Whack-a-mole
4) A social media expert comes to the conclusion that advertising should “enhance user experience.” In response, advertisers ask if “enhancing user experience” is defined as a click-through and purchase.
5) The verdict is in: Pownce API kicks Twitter’s ass. I’m not a coder but I don’t know exactly what it means, but my guess is it’s easier to develop software when there are no users around to bug you.
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