Happy 6th Birthday Twitter, But Who’s On First?

It’s Twitter‘s 6th birthday today (seems like we’ve been talking about it forever) and as it passes its 500 millionth user it’s a good time to think about who was on Twitter first. Now, the recognized first public tweet is from Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, who at 4:50 PM tweeted “just setting up my twttr“. Short and sweet, right, with the trendy Web style of the day: no vowels. Very cool, Jack, very cool.

But, some have confused it with a tweet from co-founder Biz Stone or one by the third member of the Twitter triumvirate  Evan Williams  and no wonder — they tweeted the exact same thing.

OK, so the three founders got together and in a show of solidarity coordinated their “first” tweets. But it doesn’t stop there. That same day six years ago it seems like everyone working on the Twitter product sent their first tweets, and at least 45 of them tweeted identically as the founders.

So, while Jack gets credit for being first, he loses points in my mind for originality (as if that matters to him) but he does get points for one first: he started the first “trending topic” in Twitter history.

They say you never forget your  ”first“, so here’s mine:

I know, hardly Shakespearean. So tell us, what was your first tweet?

Another Great Infographic on Social Media Use

You hear it all the time. “Social media has arrived”, Social media is not going away”. “Social media must be a part of everyone’s (individual and businesses) online live” but what does that mean. Last August I commented on social media use at that time. So just how much has it grown?

The good folks at socialjumpstart.com compiled stats on what happens in social media — every minute.  The numbers are astounding, and of course are constantly in flux.  So take a look at their infographic (and note the updates at the bottom):

Updates:
Foursquare has 2x as many check-ins now ~10K per minute
A Stumbleupon representative told VentureBeat the company now does 25,000 stumbles per minute

Social Media: An Essential Recruitment Tool

You’ve heard how companies are increasingly utilizing social media to recruit new associates, but what exactly does that mean? Jobvite‘s 2011 survey provides a look at which social networks recruiters and hiring managers use to find and assess prospective employees.

How Many Businesses Use Social Media?

The answer is just about every company does, with almost 90% responding that they either already do or plan to use social media as a recruitment tool.

This makes sense, as more job seekers search for positions via digital means. Early in my career I poured over pages of job listings in the Sunday New York Times classifieds section weekly. Today’s digital route is much more efficient in finding opportunities and marketing themselves online.

Which Social Networks Are Most Important?
No surprise here, LinkedIn, long known as the social network of professionals and recruiters, gets the most play with 86.6% of respondents utilizing that network. Launched in May 2003 as a business-related social network, LinkedIn’s 120 million members are a prime audience for talent recruiting and vetting.

What’s impressive are the numbers posted by Twitter and Facebook. Dismissed by many businesses, they provide a large, often different recruitment pool, with insight into prospects’ character via status updates, photos and affiliations.

When Do Companies Look at Your Social Footprint?
And as you can see, you’ve got an almost three out of four chance that the company you’ve applied to will search out your online presence – even if you do not provide them with their links.

Advice: Do your own social media audit. Perform a Google search on your own name and see what is returned. Check out all of your mentions to see which you should take down, modify or request a correction.

Remember: What happens online, stays online — for all to see or discover. 

Related articles

• More Companies Recruit Via Social Networks (informationweek.com)

When to Say “No” to Your Social Media Marketers

More and more people are calling themselves social media marketers these days,  so how do you know the one you are working with is giving you good advice?

As always, my recommendation is to first hire a social media professional (someone employed in social media for at least five years) as your in-house guide, watchdog and subject matter expert. Until then, here are four red-flag warning signs that you’re getting bad advice from your social media marketer:

Great Infographic on Social Media Use

Everyone likes a good infographic — a chart or visual that conveys important information in a visually compelling way — but not everyone who creates them does it right. I love this one called “The Growth of Social Media” by the good people of Search Engine Journal. A ton of info, such as:

• If Facebook were a country it’d be the third largest in the world
• 1 in 4 Americans watches a YoutTube video every day
• 49% of Twitter users rarely or never check Twitter
• 80% of companies use social media for recruitment and 95% of those use LinkedIn

And there lots more. See the full infographic after the jump.