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Basically, the speed of the real time Internet is now moving into the application world as well. Real time data is the beauty that sits at the center of Twitter. Will Twitter be able to capitalize on it? Who knows? There is a possibility that their free offering that is gaining so much momentum could end up hurting them on the revenue side. But how or if Twitter makes money is almost irrelevant.

What is more important is a real sea change that is occurring which shows that in business it’s real time or it’s no time. While it may not be practical or even possible to have true real time for everything most companies should be tapped into some form of real time availability of information that occurs outside their four walls. If not, they stand a real chance of being left behind. Now that this reality is hitting the inner workings of core company systems and not just the marketing areas, the adoption of Twitteresque services of the world only stands to escalate more rapidly.

In social media, participants will forever be at odds with the brands they represent.  Who we are as an individual and who we are as a representative of a company aren’t always in harmony or unison. However, there is an attainable balance and it’s this balance that inflates and steers the impression of all brands involved on both sides of the conversation.

While we profess to inject a human element to those companies as a way of making them approachable and compassionate, we must assess our intended role and the advantages of engagement in the communities we wish to reach before our inaugural utterance or declaration. Then and only then, can we discover our bearing and trajectory.

Humanizing the brand is necessary, if and only if, a human voice will reduce or eliminate potential friction between the customer and the company. Otherwise, social strategies must personify the greater purpose, significance and symbolization of the brand and reinforce those traits through everything we contribute. We do so by also humanizing our existing and potential customers, gaining empathy and sincerity in the process. But we must do so at a profound measure through not only a deep-rooted comprehension of human nature and connections as it relates to our individual personality, but also an entrenched comprehension of perception management, brand shaping and reinforcement, and active counseling and guidance that leaves those you encounter more informed, aware, and fulfilled. We’re instilling the attributes that engender awareness, enthusiasm, and loyalty.

The shift from specialist to authority is driven specifically by experience and the activities that define your social portfolio.  As a business professional seeking guidance, direction, and insight, become the person you’re trying to reach using the voice of the persona you wish to convey and fortify.

This is connectivity through inspiration. In the process, we become the very social media experts we sought to employ.

What's the Point of The 6 Spheres Diagram?

The point is for you to see how it's a process, with different actions and tactics depending on how close your prospect is to your ultimate goal.

The assumption is that you want prospects to buy something, or if you're a charity or non-profit, you might want them to donate or sign a petition.

(Yes, maybe now your goal is to get emails or build your twitter account or whatever- but those are ends that become means to the real end… if you're ultimately not making money, you're going to have to get another job.)

Surviving and thriving means keeping the end in mind, which is the small green sphere at the bottom.

• A. Mindless Chatter: This is basically saying whatever comes to your mind and sometimes you might get a reply (the other person may also be bored, right?) and you might think there is engagement.
• B. Inconsequential Topics: These are like ice-breakers. After you break the ice, you have to move on but many people are happy to continue those conversations forever and think they are engaged.
• C. Genuine, Caring and Thoughtful Conversations: You are genuine, caring and thoughtful about those topics you are discussing. That comes across and this is like the entry point to getting the other person engaged at a higher level. When I say this is an “entry ticket,” it means there is more work to be done. It’s not over.
• D. Immediate Relevance: From here on, you always include the previous section starting from C (Genuine, Caring and Thoughtful) as a given. You talk about things that are of immediate relevance to the other person. So you become a positive possibility for the other person right NOW.
• E. Future Relevance: You start engaging in conversations that are of immediate and future relevance to the other person. You show that you are a positive possibility for the other person now and in the future.
• F. Who You Are: This is where your personal brand kicks in. You not only show that you are a positive possibility in the immediate and future concerns of the other person in your conversations but also by showing “who you are.” The other person will make an assessment on the level of engagement based on both - what you are saying and who you are.

140 characters felt less like a limitation and more like an invitation to be surprised at how much you could squeeze into the frame. Like perspective in a painting, or echo in a recording, the creative use of limitations helped us overcome gravity and imagine more than we could “see.” Supporting the limits became a creative validation of the surprise that Twitter has always been. How many events and ideas must we share before we get over that surprise, that once again Twitter has exceeded expectations?

140 characters brought us url shorteners, the key to this new self-compressing and auto-expanding universe. Our software is now compensating for the microURL opacity, unpacking these links and harvesting the metadata they carry to aid indexing of the gestures they contain. Once again, the apparent limitations of the shorteners (gas station on every corner, lurking potential runaway code, mom and pop businesses closing down and orphaning links) are creating investment opportunities and entrepreneurial enclaves.

It’s a little like the present wrapped in a series of enclosed boxes, where the joke of what’s in the big box is replaced by the joke of how small something can get before it is even more valuable. Twitter continues to confound the experts, even those who are getting rich with and around it. That’s because the real value of Twitter is the one thing that will remain secret — its ability to delight. It’s not for Ev or Biz or even Fred or Marc to own. It doesn’t matter what it’s called either.

This graph shows you the average number of tweets posted per hour over a 24 hour period. As you can see, the network has a number of peaks and troughs during the day, with three increasingly large peaks at approximately 9am, 4pm and 10pm during the US business day.

So in order to achieve maximum exposure for your tweets, focus on Tuesday to Friday and time your tweets so that they arrive on the network just before the three spikes in use (in other words, 8am, 2pm and 9pm). As more people access their Twitter accounts shortly after these times, there is a greater chance that your followers will see your recent tweets.

May 2009 data from Nielsen Online show that people continue to spend more time on social networking and blog sites than ever before. Total minutes increased 82 percent year-over-year and the average time per person increased 67 percent year-over-year in May 2009.

Twitter.com was the fastest-growing Web brand in May 2009, increasing 1,448 percent year over year, from 1.2 million unique visitors in May 2008 to 18.2 million in 2009.

Despite being the fastest-growing brand year-over-year, Twitter's month-over-month growth has begun to slow, increasing 7 percent from April.

The average time per person on Twitter increased 175 percent year-over-year, from 6 minutes and 19 seconds in May 2008 to 17 minutes and 21 seconds in May 2009. However, month-over-month growth was flat, decreasing 1 percent from April 2009