Since July 2006 Twitter has challenged us to get to the point with 140 characters or less.  In the past 5 years Twitter has gone from 0 to 200 million users sending 350 billion tweets a day!

Twitter has been used by, and for almost every demographic in the world including movie stars connecting to their fans, protesters during Iranian elections, and asking for disaster relief during and after a disaster, in a medium that spans the world in mere seconds.

The general responses that I get when talking to people about Twitter is one of two: 1.) “Tweet me later” 2.)” I just don’t understand Twitter?”.  If you answer like #2, you might want to check out this “Twitter in Plain English” video to help you join the 200 million other people that are already connecting.

Below is an infographic from visual.ly about the history of Twitter in the past 5 years.  Oh and if you would like to follow me on Twitter, you can find me here: @leeyount Enjoy!

If you have not heard about Google + by now, this article will probably not interest you very much, or it might inspire you to join the millions (including myself) that have turned to Facebook, Twitter, and any other communication means, asking for a Google+ invitation.

Google’s clever, “invite only” way of launching many of their products has the ability to instantly create enough interest in their products that defines the very theory of supply and demand.  This time they might have a winner as opposed to the most recent product launches such as Wave and BUZZ.

A lot of people have been comparing Google+ to Facebook since it’s launch.  I have to say it is very similar, much like Facebook when it first began, but with more features.  Below is an infographic from Technobombs comparing Google+ and Facebook.

What do you think about Google+?  Will you be using using it?  Will you be replacing Facebook with Google + or do you think it is just another poor attempt at a “Facebook Killer”?

Facebook announced today that they will be partnering with Skype to allow over 750 Million Facebook users to video chat with each other.  It appears to be very easy to use with a “simple click of the button” and a quick download to connect with your friends via video. In a blog post from Facebook they detailed the new Facebook Video Calling and more.

Along with the Video Calling, Facebook announced that they will be launching Group Chat as well as a new chat design.  With the new design, if your browser if large enough, you will see a “buddy list” appear in the right-hand part of your browser, making it easier to see your friend list.

[UPDATE]: Want to go ahead and get started video chatting? Get started here: https://www.facebook.com/videocalling

Video Calling screen grab from the announcement demo

I had the opportunity to be in the studio with Bert Lindsey this morning at WSVM 1490 V-Radio where we discussed how to leverage social media in a business.

If you missed it, you can check out the interview here: Radio Interview 6/22/2011

Resources from the show:

Facebook: http://www.facebook. com
Create a Facebook Business Page:  http://www.facebook.com/pages
Twitter:  http://www.twitter.com
Foursquare:  http://www.foursquare.com

Bert Lindsey – Magical Music: http://www.magicaldj.com/
WSVM 1490 V-Radio:  http://www.1490vradio.com/

On June 20, 2011 Foursquare announced that they have reached 10,000,000 members in it’s community since their launch in March 2009.  We all share their lives in different ways whether you are one of the 1,061 users that announced a birth at a hospital check-in, or you are one of the 4.7 million users that have checked in on a Main St. in the U.S, this is a tool that people are using and a tool that businesses are leveraging.

Check out this Infographic from Foursquare to see some other neat stats from over the past couple of years:

Check out the official Foursquare Blog post here: https://foursquare.com/10million

I live in in the foothills of North Carolina, Newton to be specific.  Recently, like much of the Southeastern United States have been struck with destructive severe weather in the form of high winds, hail, and tornadoes.  While many of you know that I monitor the weather and post watches/warnings as they come into Catawba County, I thought I would share some of my resources so that you can be better prepared as well, here they are:

Facebook - I post updates, links, etc. on my personal facebook profile: http://www.facebook.com/leeyount

Twitter – I created a Twitter list named NCemergency (http://twitter.com/list/LeeYount/ncemergency) with several people, organizations, news, and government officials that tweet about emergency related items.

Hootsuite / Tweetdeck – I use both of these tools (depending on where I am and what device I am using) to follow different columns of Twitter and Facebook.  These are also great tools to use to search for hashtags.

Twitter Hashtags - Here are several (but not all) hashtags that I search when there is a severe weather event in North Carolina
(if you do not want to download or use Hootsuite or Tweetdeck, you can always do searches directly on Twitter at http://search.twitter.com/ although it is not the most effective way to use Twitter search)

• #ncwx – north carolina weather
• #nctornado – north carolina tornado
• #tornado – tornado
• #damage – damage
• #tornadowarning – tornado warnings
• #smem – social media emergency management

You can also combine search terms in Twitter like this:

• #NCTornado OR #tornado OR #damage OR #tornadowarning OR #shelter OR #wind OR tornado
• twitpic OR yfrog OR plixi OR twitgoo OR picktor OR mobypicture OR twitxr OR posterous #tornado

If you find yourself in need of assistance here are a couple of good resources:

• 911 – Always call 911 if you have an emergency.
• Find a Red Cross Shelter – If you need to leave your home because of an evacuation or if your home is damaged, find Red Cross shelter openings here.
• Red Cross Safe and Well – After a distster, let your family and loved ones know that you are OK by registering on this site.  You can also search for family or loved ones here.

How to be prepared / receive National Weather Service emergency alerts:

• TV/Local Radio – As long as you have power, stay tuned to your local news outlets / radio stations for National Weather Service emergency information.
• Weather Radio – Weather radios are a great tool to have to wake you up in the middle of the night when there is the threat of severe weather of an emergency situation in your area.
• SMS/Text Message – The Weather Channel provides text message emergency alerts for your area.  You can also choose what you want to be alerted of.
• There’s an app for that – Weather Alert USA is the name of the iPhone/iPad/iPod touch app that will alert you of emergency alerts in your area.  Here is the iTunes link: http://ow.ly/4IAcs web link:http://ow.ly/4IAct
• Red Cross Emergency Preparedness Store – Find and purchase several products including, but not limited to Weather radios, first aid kits, preparedness guides, and more.
• National Weather Service Severe Awareness Page – This is a great page with a lot of useful information, especially the Preparedness Guide.

The bottom line is stay safe and use common sense.  When severe weather is eminent, take the proper precautions to protect yourself and your family / loved ones.  Stay safe out there!

Facebook Profile to Business Page Migration Tool Link: https://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php?migrate

Attention businesses and organizations that have a personal Facebook Profile rather than a Facebook Business Page, this is what you have been waiting for!

Facebook recently released a profile to page migration tool that many have been waiting for. This is useful to businesses and organizations that have established their Facebook presence in a, let’s just say not the best way.

Facebook has provided a help page that answer several questions about this migration tool.  Please note that at this time, there is not a way to switch back one you have migrated your profile to a page.  Another item that you will need to be aware of is that only your photos and friends will be moved to your new page, here is what Facebook says about it:

“Be aware that when you convert your profile to a Page, your profile pictures will be transferred, and all of your friends will be automatically added as people who like your Page. No other content will be carried over to your new Page, so be sure to save any important content before beginning your migration.”

If you are worried about saving your current content on your profile page, then you can always utilize the Facebook “Download Your Information” tool before the migration.

There are a couple advantages of an organization or business having a Facebook Page over a Facebook Profile, here are a few:

1. Your “Fans” do not have to request you be your friend, they can simply Like your page.
2. Applications – There are hundreds of applications that you can integrate with your Facebook Page.  Here are a few that I use:
   1. YouTube – Display your YouTube videos on your Facebook Page
   2. Flickr – Display your Flickr photos on your Facebook Page
   3. Static FBML – Create a custom landing “tab” on your Facebook Page

As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me!

I recently had the opportunity to facilitate a session at the 2011 North Carolina City & County Communicators Conference in Fayetteville, NC.  The name of my session was Social Media – Shock and Awwww Awe.  This was the first time that I facilitated a team/workshop style session and it went great!  I was alloted 2 hours for my session so I wanted it to be fun as well as applicable.  Below is the presentation that we were working from.  Here are the note slides if you would like to download them: Note Slides

New Discover Twitter Page: http://discover.twitter.com/

Twitter celebrated their 5th birthday yesterday and to celebrate, they launched a new webpage to help people “Discover Twitter“.  Included on this page is a wide variety of some of Twitter’s most prominent users including Snoop Dogg (@SnoopDogg), Martha Stewart (@MarthaStewart), and The US State Department (@StateDept).

Not included on the Discover Twitter page, but here are a few Twitter users that I (@leeyount) like to follow:
@catawbacounty
@catcoem
@seizethephoto
@terrybledsoe

Also included in this new page is a great video with a diverse groups of people talking about why they use Twitter (embedded below).

So how do you use Twitter?

5 years ago today Jack Dorsey (@jack), Creator, Co-founder and Chairman of Twitter tweeted for the first time with the message “just setting up my twttr”.  Since then, the multi-billion dollar company has rapidly grown to nearly 200 million users.

Twitter has been used to connect people, businesses, and causes.  Recently, Twitter has been used as a vital communication channel during an emergency/disaster.  Whether it’s and earthquake in Japan, or a tornado ripping through Catawba County, NC, people are looking to Twitter to get important information quickly.

The number of apps that have been developed by Twitter and by 3rd party developers has been astounding!  Per Twitter Co-founder, Biz Stone, there have been over 70,000 registered applications that integrate with Twitter, many of those being on a mobile platform.

So what’s next for Twitter?  I think that people will find new ways to apply this technology to their everyday lives that will transform how we communicate.

What do you think the next 5 years will hold for Twitter?  Comment below!