It is the first week of 2009 and by now, most of you have probably heard of Twitter, or you’ve heard the name Twitter.  Some of you may not know what Twitter is or why it has become more and more relevant in today’s techno-age.

You may have read some news articles about how people were using Twitter on their cellphones/blackberries during the Mumbai, India attacks.  Or about the one man who used twitter when the Continental plane crashed in Denver just a few weeks ago.  But why should you use Twitter?  Some people may view Twitter as just a simple tool to broadcast what you are doing during the day.  But twitter is so much more.  What are some of the reasons why Twitter will become one of the largest social networking platforms on the planet?

1. Twitter encompasses some of the power of instant messaging. The ability to stay in constant communication, no matter where you are.  Your desk, your laptop, your mobile phone.  You can send a tweet to everyone who follows you or you can send to an individual person.
2. Twitter also is as convenient as email.  Whether you reply to a tweet or not, it is up to you.  Fellow tweeters are not expecting an instant reply.
3. The control of who sees your messages and which messages you see is completely left up to you.  Twitter is an “opt-in” communication tool.  You need to “follow” people in order to get messages from them.  and you can very easily “block” people if they’re steam of tweets get too much for you.
4. Twitter is transparent, which means that you are associated with everything you post which is a great deterrent for people to use it for spam.
5. Twitter is a good social network, but it is also great to use for tweeting about your latest business ideas, projects or products.  People can choose whether or not to read the tweet or follow the link.
6. Twitter can be linked to your blog.  It is a great way to drive traffic to your blog.  You can let people know you’ve just posted a new blog entry.  You can pique people’s interest in a topic or event.  One caution would be a recommendation to be selective about which blog posts you promote on Twitter and not just spam everyone with every blog post you make.
7. Twitter can be used to enhance the customer service of your company by being seen online and willing and able to help consumers answer product or service questions.
8. Twitter can also be used to monitor trends and follow competitors so that you know what is happening in real-time.
9. Twitter works well with most cell phones so that you’re never out of touch from your twitter feed.

Sign up for a twitter account at http://twitter.com and if you’d like to follow me, you can find me at http://twitter.com/benjaminbradley

These are just a few reasons why people should be using Twitter.  What other reasons do you use twitter for?

Just because you can do something, doesn’t mean that you should do something…

Sometimes you just have to ask why?  Why include the straw in the glass… is LESS exercise really a mandate for wearing the Burger King Crown?

It seems everyone who is anyone (and has a blog) has been doing a “review” of 2008 during the past few days.  Dave Barry is not one to shy away from following the crowd and he’s now added his voice to the cacophony.

And while a big point of his 2008 review was that everyone got financially whacked to a point at which grown men now have to consult with their significant others about whether or not they could afford a medium slurpee.  I thought I would provide a quick review of Dave Berry’s review.  Sort of like a niche market within a niche market… let’s call this 2008 review a micro-niche market review.

January

In the Iowa Caucus, the surprise winner is Barack Obama, who is running for president on a long and impressive record of running for president. A mesmerizing speaker, Obama electrifies voters with his exciting new ideas for change, although people have trouble remembering exactly what these ideas were because they were so darned mesmerized. Some people become so excited that they actually pass out. These are members of the press corps.  And in in what some economists see as a troubling sign, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac invest $12.7 billion in Powerball tickets.

February

Amid much fanfare, Congress passes, and President Bush signs, an ”economic stimulus package” under which the federal government will give taxpayers back several hundred dollars apiece of their own money, the idea being that they will use this money to revive the U.S. economy by buying TV sets that were made in China.  The undefeated New England Patriots lose the Super Bowl to the New York Giants in a stunning upset that confounds the experts, not to mention Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which had $38 billion on the Pats to win.

March

New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer becomes embroiled in an embarrassing scandal when a criminal investigation reveals that he looks like a large suit-wearing rodent. Also he has been seeing a high-class prostitute known as ”Kristen” in a Washington, D.C., hotel. Spitzer resigns in disgrace; ”Kristen,” hounded by the press and no longer able to pursue her profession, receives a $23 billion bailout from the federal government. Both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac apply to be contestants on Deal Or No Deal.

Barack Obama addresses the issue of why, in his 20 years of membership in Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, he failed to notice that the pastor, Jeremiah Wright, is a racist lunatic. In a major televised address widely hailed for its brilliance, Obama explains that . . . OK, nobody really remembers what the actual explanation was. But everybody agrees it was mesmerizing.

April

The price of gasoline tops $4 a gallon, meaning the cost of filling up an average car is now $50, or, for Hummer owners, $17,500. Congress, responding to the financial pain of the American people, goes into partisan gridlock faster than ever before, with Republicans demanding that the oil companies immediately start drilling everywhere, including cemeteries, and Democrats calling for a massive effort to develop alternative energy sources such as wind, the sun, tides, comets, Al Gore and dragon breath, using technology expected to be perfected sometime this millennium. It soon becomes clear that Congress will not actually do anything, so Americans start buying less gasoline.

May

The International Atomic Energy Agency releases a report stating that Iran is actively developing nuclear warheads. In response, Iran issues a statement asserting that (1) it absolutely is not developing nuclear warheads, and (2) these are peaceful warheads. The United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Russia and China convene an emergency meeting, during which they manage, in heated negotiations, to talk France out of surrendering. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac invest $17 billion in an Herbalife franchise.  Both the Kentucky Derby and the Indianapolis 500 are won by Usain Bolt.

June

Chicago developer Tony Rezko, a former Obama associate and fundraiser, is convicted on corruption charges, but the press realizes that this is not an issue after Obama explains that it is not an issue. Tiger Woods, in an epic performance, wins the U.S. Open playing on an injured and very painful knee, thereby proving, beyond all doubt, that golf is not a real sport.

July

Barack Obama, having secured North and South America, flies to Germany without using an airplane and gives a major speech — speaking English and German simultaneously — to 200,000 mesmerized Germans, who immediately elect him chancellor, prompting France to surrender.  The economic news continues to worsen with the discovery that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have sent $87 billion to a Nigerian businessman with a compelling e-mail story.

August

Internationally, the big story is the Olympic games, which begin under a cloud of controversy when journalists in Beijing, who were promised unfettered Internet access by the Chinese government, discover that no matter what address they enter into their browsers, they wind up on Chairman Mao’s Facebook page (he has 1.3 billion friends). But even the critics are blown away by the spectacular opening ceremony, which features the entire population of Asia performing the Electric Slide.  In yet another troubling economic indicator, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac rob a liquor store.

September

The federal government is finally forced to take over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac after they are caught selling crack at a middle school. But that is not enough, as major financial institutions, having lost hundreds of billions of dollars thanks to years of engaging in practices ranging from questionable to moronic, begin failing, which gives the federal government an idea: Why not give these institutions MORE hundreds of billions of dollars, generously provided by taxpayers?

October

A Las Vegas jury convicts O.J. Simpson on 12 counts of being an unbelievable idiot. He faces more than 60 years in jail, which could end his relentless quest to find the killer of the people he stabbed to death in 1994.

Congress passes, and Technically Still President Bush signs, the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, and everyone heaves a sigh of relief as the economy stabilizes for approximately 2.7 seconds, after which it resumes going down the toilet. As world financial markets collapse like fraternity pledges at a keg party and banks fail around the world, the International Monetary Fund implements an emergency program under which anybody who opens a checking account anywhere on earth gets a free developing nation. But it is not enough; the financial system is in utter chaos. At one point a teenage girl in Worcester, Mass., attempts to withdraw $25 from an ATM and winds up acquiring Wells Fargo.

November

Barack Obama, in a historic triumph, becomes the nation’s first black president since the second season of 24, setting off an ecstatically joyful and boisterous all-night celebration that at times threatens to spill out of The New York Times newsroom. Obama, following through on his promise to bring change to Washington, quickly begins assembling an administration consisting of a diverse group of renegade outsiders, ranging all the way from lawyers who attended Ivy League schools and then worked in the Clinton administration to lawyers who attended entirely different Ivy league schools and then worked in the Clinton administration.

December

Federal authorities arrest Democratic Illinois Gov. Rod ”Rod” Blagojevich after wiretaps reveal that he was . . . OK, that he was being the governor of Illinois. Everybody is very, very shocked. Meanwhile the recount in the extremely tight Minnesota Senate race between Norm Coleman and Al Franken is thrown into disarray with the discovery that more than 13,000 of the ballots were cast by residents of Palm Beach County, Fla.

The CEOs of the Increasingly Small Three auto makers return to Washington to resume pleading for a bailout, this time telling Congress that if they can reach an agreement that day, they will throw in the undercoating, the satellite-radio package AND a set of floor mats. ”We’re actually LOSING MONEY on this deal!” they assure Congress. Finally they reach a $13.4 billion agreement under which the car companies will continue to provide jobs, medical insurance and pension benefits, but will cease producing actual cars. The agreement will be overseen by the federal government, using its legendary ability to keep things on budget.

If you enjoyed these snippets, you’ll love reading Dave Barry’s full column over at the Miami Herald.

In the small-minded world of ABC News, they seem to have never heard a single democrat utter a dumb thing in their life.  They recently compiled a list of all-time dumb sayings. Many of the quotes are from celebrities who showcase their reasons why all of America should follow their advise and vote for whoever they say we should vote for.  There are six political figures who are given the “dumb saying” stamp by ABC News.  Five of them are Republicans and one is Tina Fey making fun of a Republican.  There were NO democrats listed as having said something dumb.

In case anyone has forgotten some of the things that were said in the past, let me help jog your memory:

• “I did not have sexual relations with that woman.” - Bill Clinton (Democrat)
• “I’ve now been in 57 states? I think one left to go?” - Barack Obama (Democrat)
• “My staff tells me not to say this, but I’m going to say it anyway, in the summer because of the heat and high humidity, you could literally smell the tourists coming into the Capitol. It may be descriptive but it’s true.” - Harry Reid, (Senate Democrat Majority Leader for those of you who voted for Obama)
• “You know, education, if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don’t, you get stuck in Iraq.” - John Kerry (Democrat)
• “I remember landing under sniper fire.” - Hillary Clinton (Democrat)
• “Hiiiiaaaauuuugh!!!” - Howard Dean (Democrat)
• Anything said by Joe Biden (Democrat)
• “Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are not in a crisis.” - Barney Frank (Democrat)
• “Most ethical Congress ever.” - Nancy Pelosi (Democrat)

What other dumb quotes have you heard in the past that ABC seems to want to ignore.

Happy New Year everyone!