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Playing the @Fame Game

Want to be more Twitter-famous than Lady Gaga? That’s the goal of Fame, a fun new “lottery” built on the Twitter API that wants to give one random person 24 hours of Twitter-fame daily. Every person that joins Fame will automatically follow the one user that is selected daily at 12pm ET, and once a new one is selected, everyone will automatically unfollow the old user and follow the new one. It’s no $640 million, but at least your chances are better.

As a heavy Twitter user, this is a pretty exciting game for me. Not only is there the prospect of reach a broader audience with my tweets (if only for a limited time), but there’s the opportunity of finding interesting new people to follow. Some of the winners so far have been great, and others not so much; however, I think I can deal with an annoying person in my feed for one day as long as I keep finding some great new follows.

Unfortunately, the only ways to keep following a person once their Fame ends are to either favorite a tweet of theirs, or re-follow them later. Also, as this game starts to snowball into Lady Gaga proportions, the quality of tweets people entering and winning may see a decline. At that point I may have to make like a hipster and start hating on it.

I’m not entirely sure what I’d do if I won. To start, I’d probably promote a work-related thing or two (without being tacky about it), and of course I’d show some love to any projects that my friends are working on. Other than that, I’d try to have fun with it and put on a good show.

If you’re interested, join here! And if you win, don’t forget the little guy.

What would you do with your 24 hours of Twitter Fame?

A Blog Post By:Evan Connors (@evcon)

Evan is a Digital Producer and has already bought his Braves post-season tickets.

Google+: The Unneeded & Underdeveloped Facebook Appendage

Google. Added to the Oxford English dictionary on June 15, 2006. Voted the ‘Most Useful Word’ by the American Dialect Society in 2002. The most used search engine and electronic mail database in the history of the Internet. So why did one of the most successful Internet ventures ever create and invest $585 million in a social media platform that ultimately failed? Simple, because it’s not Facebook.

If you have not heard of Google+, you’re not alone. Although the social media platform, boasting different ‘circles’ to separate your social and professional life, experienced record initial numbers, 26 million to be exact, the growth was quickly stunted.

Steve Yegge, a senior engineer at Google, publicly posted a critical analysis of Google Plus, describing the platform as a “complete failure.” Here are four reasons why the over-hyped and over-publicized platform mounted to nothing more than a few engaging commercials during the Super Bowl.

Exclusive Party
Google Plus began as an invite-only site that was over advertised and over exposed, which explains the initial and short-lived growth. The exclusivity of the Google Plus party has web surfers begging for invites, and when their wish was finally granted the party was more of a dry basement gathering and nothing to sit on but a musty couch covered in the ever-recognizable Google logo.

Where is Everybody?
This is social media, and although 43 million users sounds like a significant amount, Zuckerberg has 750 million at his estate across the street and it continues to grow. Talk about social.

Sitting in a Circle
Google Plus gives the ability to organize your connections. Separate your friends from your coworkers, your family from your past significant others, your acquaintances from your neighbors. You can even create your own circles such as ‘High School’ or ‘People I Never want to Speak to Again.’ Only problem is, they may be able to see where they stand in your social realm. This does not mean the title is visible, but if you’re only seeing your connections’ public posts, you are most likely labeled an acquaintance.

Time Check
The largest factor turning users away from Google Plus is the time needed to build a profile, organize circles, and really just waste time on the site. The majority of users have already spent seven+ years developing an internet presence, building and fostering relationships, joining groups, and becoming fans of pages, so why would they move from a platform that is fulfilling all of their needs and entertaining their interests? They wouldn’t and they didn’t.
The irony of this situation is that Google is a generally carries a positive connotation, but when they added a ‘+,’ the reaction was anything but, positive.

A blog post by:
Liza Rush

Liza is a Social Interactor at No Limit and newest member of the Buzz Factory.