Breaking News: Social media guru expert speaks heresy about popular 3rd party Twitter app!

That’s right, folks. I’m going to be the one person truly brave enough. I’ll point out something that has irked us social media types for quite some time, but too many are afraid to open their mouths. I’ve heard the grumblings long enough, so I’ll take the bullet for the team.

TweetDeck sucks!

Don’t you all feel so much better now?

Now, to all the non-believers clutching to your prehistoric ideologies circa August 2009, feel free to flame me in the comment section. I can take the heat. But before you stone me to death like a Salem witch, I will make these concessions:

Yes, I think TweetDeck is the “best” third party desktop application for using Twitter.
Yes, I know it handles multiple accounts and integrated with Facebook & Linkedin.
Yes, it’s awesome that you can drag/drop photos & movies and view within the program.
Yes, it has an increased API limit, infinite columns for lists and saved searches.
Yes, I’m aware that many seem to think TweetDeck is the greatest thing since sliced bread!

But does any of that matter when it grinds your computer to a halt after one hour of its usage?

I already know what’s coming, so save it. You’re going to explain the intricacies of an operating system, spew off mumbo-jumbo terms like registry hacks, memory leakage, CPU acceleration and ask “dude, why don’t you just install Windows 7? It’s awesome!”

That’s all well and good. I appreciate your willingness to help. But I’m not a total schmuck when it comes to computers… and if I can’t even figure out through all my stubbornness how to limit the application’s resources – then how great can it really be when 90%+ of the demographic using TweetDeck have even less of a clue than I do?

So, what am I using now to satisfy my Twitter addiction?

In true Arlen Spector fashion, here comes the flip-flop. As of this week, I am officially throwing all my support, however non-influential is is, to the web-based app CoTweet. It’s a pretty heavy piece of software geared primarily towards companies, but I have $8.35 in my Paypal account, so I guess I can be considered a “business”, right?

Only using this new application for a handful of days, I’m obviously in the infatuation stage of our relationship. What this means is soon you’ll see either one of these two things in the near future:

1. A blog post here soon reviewing CoTweet, singing its praises.
2. A retraction to this post next week as I sheepishly return to using TweetDeck.

Which one do you think it will be?

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Hanging Out: to socialize with your friends, whether it is of your choosing or not; most of the time the term is used to refer to a type of fun.

After the initial allure wears off, we all come to the realization that it is indeed hard work to succeed as a blogger. We start focusing more on serious business-building efforts, putting in long hours to create helpful content that inspires others to seek us out.

Our to-do list keeps growing exponentially as more ideas pour out from our minds. We attack each task with a sharp knife, inching closer to what we perceive as the holy grail.

Getting our hands dirty, we promote our work hardcore using tools to spread the word and position ourselves in a market. Never passing up a networking opportunity, we vigorously attempt to connect with anyone that takes a glance at us and rush to influencers at the slightest chance to get our names in front of their eyes.

In the process, are we missing out on opportunities simply because we’re too focused on the work at hand?

Relax. Loosen up. Take a break. Open your Twitter client. Spend some time on Facebook or Linkedin. See what others are doing. Not even when it comes to business, but as real people with real lives. Talk. Interact. Joke around. This is what truly bonds people together and helps build relationships. Not talking ‘shop’. Not incessant self-promotion. Not the bottom line.

You can very well make the same impact on someone simply by sharing a common interest outside of business. You can get your “big break” simply stemming from being the person who’s enjoyable to ‘chill’ with.

In a world where so many people can be connected to one another easily, the ability to network has never been more important than it is right now. How are you taking advantage of the opportunity to make an impact? Simply using the tools for work, work, work like most are? Or can you make yourself stand out more by connecting with others as real people?

Put away the business proposal. I’m not interested.

Put away your latest published book. I’m not interested.

Put away everything. Let’s just hang out. Who’s with me?

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Now that Google has officially entered the URL shortening game, it’s put into threat many of the countless other services that are struggling to remain relevant in this space. Will goo.gl crush all it opposes or will their competitors rely solely on differentiation? That users will prefer random letters made into cute words they don’t pay attention to whatsoever anyways?

I figure this would be a good time to reflect on the ‘heyday’ of URL shortening – when anyone with $10 and a game of Boggle could launch a multi-million dollar business! We can obviously see the results of this gold rush now, but let’s also take a look at the ones that didn’t quite make it… ones that never lived up to their potential or may have been too bold, too soon.

I present you with the list of the Top 10 Failed URL Shortener Spinoffs of all-time:

facetio.us

A spinoff of the now defunct faceto.us aimed at sharing humorous links. Coming in at a whopping double digit number of characters, company went under after web users thought they were “just kidding”.

biCurio.us

A sub-brand of curio.us aimed at users who want to share links, but aren’t sure which social media platform they lean towards.

DigBig.as

Created as a collaborative project between just.as and DigBig as a shortener exclusively for fans of Sir Mix-a-Lot.

is.god

The religious right wing of is.gd branded as “the moral way to shorten”. When questioned that their web address contains an invalid top-level domain name, the company creators stated “it all comes down to faith that the Lord will get you there”.

fire.me

The merger of fire.to and bloat.me was destined for success… until most users who were found clicking on their links were subsequently fired for spending too much time at work on Twitter.

shur.ly

Why did shurl.net go out of business? A 47 year-old loner obsessed with the movie Airplane! thought it was cute to purchase this domain name… then launch a “don’t call it Shirley” campaign against the company.

bacn.il

The eccentric founders of bacn.me attempted to expand into the lucrative Middle Eastern market without realizing most of their users couldn’t click on their links for religious reasons.

MooUrl.in

Same fate as above for this MooURL spinoff.

clit.ly

In the attempt to compete with the popular bit.ly, the downfall came early when female bloggers saw that all male visitors were getting 404 “not found” pages.

fuck.it

A rich entrepreneur paid $10 million from the Italian porn industry for domain name to compete against hurl.it. As a monetization method, approximately 3% of the shortened links take you to advertisements, spam & malware. Directed at the gambler inside all of us, the service’s tagline was “A viral video or a virus? C’mon, fuck it!”

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