John Halderman writes about personal growth and online marketing , helping people take command of their income, personal growth and wellness. He is also on Twitter

Real time web is evolving quickly and being offered in more and more places. As we all experience how everything is moving faster and faster communication on the web gets quicker. At one time, long ago, we thought email and RSS feeds were an efficient way to get information out there, but now there is the speed of Twitter. How will this increased speed help your social networking and marketing is the question?

Frederic Lardinois, in his post “Five Sites that Let You Experience the Real-Time Web Today” details some of the fast, near real time communication sites operating today. The question becomes, do you really need communication to be this fast? Does it have a purpose? Or is it all just an example of creative oneupmanship, where we keep going faster just because we can.

Is the speed of communication holding you down? Or do you just find it hard to keep up with now? Have you been upset with RSS feeds only updating about every hour? If you have, Notifizious may just be what you are looking for.

As we see on Twitter, there seem to be two general uses, one of holding conversations which is essentially a chat. And the other of posting messages, which the speed of delivery is usually not so critical.

For those who have a need for fast, or just want it because it’s there:

* Notifixious is a very new service and still has limitations where it can be used, but if you want it fast -might see if you can give it a try.

* Monitter is interesting – quite addictive. You can set any keywords you want to follow on Twitter and it pulls them all in for you. You choose, a tool or a distraction!

* And for those who have stayed away from Facebook because it’s too slow on the update- coming soon, real time updates of users news feeds.

As with everything, these are tools that we each choose how to use for ourselves, so it is us alone that must ask the important questions;

* Do we have a need to receive immediate information?
* Do we have a need to transfer information out immediately?
* Does a given service offer the speed that supports it’s use, or
* Does the increased speed open up new uses?
* How much time should I spend in front of it?

As with any service, I think these communication services will eventually get a thumbs up or down from the online world depending on their usefulness. I must admit, all these new faster services are real neat, but they can be addictive ending up consuming more of our time rather than saving it. I suggest, don’t get involved just because it’s there, rather choose the communication methods that best serve your needs.

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Yisel Guajardo is an entrepreneur who writes about internet marketing, social media, and blogging. She authors the blog Advanced Income. You can also follow her on Twitter.

The debate hit the Internet Marketing world last week when Ed Dale announced on his blog he’s flushing most of his Facebook friends and starting fresh.

(Why did flushing, friends, and fresh just seem weird to me? Anyway.)

It really isn’t anything new, the desire to have lots of friends on the social networking sites is viewed as a type of social validation. You know, “Hey I’m cool, look at all the friends I have”.

Come on, admit it. How cool did you look on MySpace when Tom was your only friend?

Hey, I’m just saying…I’m not pointing any fingers, I fell for it too.

But this led to a mad rush to add friends as quickly as possible with friend adding software and viral gizmos and gadgets that are still prevalent to this day. Especially on Twitter.

Yet time has shown, that just like in the real world, it’s not the number of friends or followers, but who is actually listening and cares what you have to say.

You can’t fake influence. Just like men can’t fake…well, you know. It’s either there or not.

So here we are, a ton of useless friends that put in question our use of social media socially.

Huh? Well, the cartoon below says it all. Are you so busy adding friends that you are missing out on the real value of the sites you use either personally of professionally?

With over 175 million people on Facebook, as marketers we start rubbing our little hands. And yes it’s tempting. Oh yes very tempting. I mean, if Facebook were a country if would be the sixth most populated in the world! (And we don’t need a passport or have to put up with airline security.)

But Ed has a point. He says:

People who study Internet marketing intensely as we do, use Facebook completely the wrong way. Actually let me rephrase that, we do not use it the way “real people” use it.”

I’m certainly rethinking my use of Facebook. I haven’t logged in for months, simply because it was a time hog having through sift through an Inbox full of solicitations, spam, and useless conversations to find anything of value and personal.

And although I don’t know wether I’ll be flushing friends from the bathroom of my account just yet, not because I don’t want to, but because I’m too lazy to do it myself, I don’t think there is a right or wrong answer.

Its really going to boil down to answering this question for yourself: What’s my purpose for using it?

I’d love to hear from you. Especially those using Facebook both professionally and personally.
Will you be flushing your friends? How do you use Facebook and what do you get out of it?

Talk soon.

 

 Twitter Interview with Sherman Hu: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Here’s a quick 15 minute interview with social media expert Sherman Hu as he processes his thoughts on Twitter and how everyone needs to look at potentially adding it to their arsenal of marketing weapons!

I’ve been following Sherman for a while now and have always wanted to meet him. In a matter of a few messages back and forth on Twitter, not only have I been able to connect with him there, but also have the opportunity to interview him as he processes his thoughts on Twitter.

You’ll hear some valuable information on how you can start using Twitter today for your internet business.

Sherman discusses:
- Competative Analysis Advantages
- Market Research – find out what people are talking about in your target market
- Why adding value to other people’s conversations (tweets) can build your brand add traffic to your site
- Connecting with other influential marketers
- How you can integrate Twitter to Facebook

Make sure you’re following him on Twitter @ twitter.com/shermanhu

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