Blogs

I can still remember when I was 6 years old, the hottest gaming console was the family computer; I could can hear my then-little friend screaming at me for taking the "spread" ammunition in Contra. Aside from the hundreds of hours spent in front of our then-black and white coloured TV, we formulated many strategies on how to beat the different stages as well as learned from some of our friends the "thirty lives" cheat on Contra.

Later on, I found out that it was called the Konami Code (up up down down left right left right B A B A select start). Aside from Contra, the forever-classic Super Mario Brothers was our favourite. If I can't have Mario, I won't let my friend play (enough said). After which the Super NES and many others followed the claim to be the ultimate gaming console. The last gaming console I had was the Playstation 1. Armed with my Final Fantasy 7, it made most of my childhood a happy (and geeky) one.

At throughout my college years, I was thinking of buying a Playstation again. Just as I was about to spend my hard-earned money, I saw some guys playing at a computer shop a computer game that was quite funny, some little animated characters hacking and slashing monsters that look like jelly droplets.

The game was Ragnarok, an MMORPG (Massive Multi-player Online Role Playing Game). After a few hours trying to figure out what I was seeing, I didn't realise I was already hooked.

Without going over-technical, MMORPGs work in conjunction with the internet. People all over the world that are connected to the internet can install the game, log on to a server and that server would allow you to play against other people logged on at the same time that you're on. Definitely, more challenging than a console, plus it takes up a lot more time (since it has no end... EVER).

Ever since, I've never seen another kid play a gaming console as seriously as we did way back in the day. Today, in the world of 1s and 0s, MMORPG is king, and the gaming console seems to be a "retro" way of enjoying and passing your time.

The gaming console industry is trying it's best to fight the threat of current web-based gaming technologies. But I fear they're not succeeding. MMORPGs play on the ego of individuals, giving them a sense of power over other people, where kids can call grownups "noobs (newbies)". How many Marios can give that sense of power to a person?

Although I do play MMOs, I just play it as my pastime. But, I still want the good old days of consoles being the pastime of choice. But as of now, MMORPGs are killing my console dreams.

The COMSCORE Australia social networking usage study (August 2009) shows an overwhelming graph of statistics.

1. A more than 1000% growth of Twitter over Facebook causes different reactions; some are happy to know that over 800,000 Aussies are now active on Twitter, while other consider this a typical figure for the later-released Twitter, which is still way behind the 6,000,000 Australian users of Facebook.
   
   
   
2. While the first finding's reasons can be argued, the next finding cannot. That internet usage in Australia is growing rapidly. 75% of adults use social networks in Australia. Australia has over 400,000 bloggers. People spent on average 8.9 hours per week (or 1.5 days a month) using the web, which is up 27% compared to previous years - significantly, this is more time than Australians spent reading print media, watching movies, or playing video games.

These numbers are good for Australia.

Innovative web technologies have the potential play a vital role in driving productivity gain, creating new local businesses by those losing jobs during tough economic times, and helping fuel the growth the Australian economy needs to continue on its recovery path.

At KayWeb, we are all about guiding clients to embrace what is good on the web to advance their business.

Recently I blogged about Twitter. That despite Facebook being the best social networking ticket for individuals, the benefits of Twitter far outweigh those of Facebook when it comes to business.

The chief reason is that while Facebook pages are private to non-members, Twitter pages are public. Both are very popular websites, but by being public, there is greater chance your business will be exposed by Twitter to a wide audience.

Further, a link to your business website, blog, etc posted on Twitter, and clicked through from Twitter, will win you kudos with search engines like Google and Bing.

Here are my top 5 tips to get you and your business tweeting effectively:

1. Create account

   You have to be in it to benefit. Go to www.twitter.com and take the 5-10 minutes to register, add a picture and dress up your background.
   
   
   

2. Follow people

   Use Twitter's search feature to follow businesses and individuals that may be interested in your business' services or products, with the hope that you following them will entice them to follow you back.
   
   Also follow friends, as they will more certainly follow you back. Then their friends will see that you are being followed by someone they like, and thus, your network of followers begins to grow.
   
   
   

3. Be interesting

   The point of someone following you is because they want to read your status updates. Each status update is a micro blog post by you. This means you only have 140 characters to relay your thoughts, pitch, etc.
   
   Make those 140 characters as interesting as possible, or you will notice your legion of followers will end up dwindling.
   
   Smart ways of being interesting is by being short, including interesting links in tweets, including Twitpics in tweets, etc.
   
   
   

4. Link, link, link

   Include links to your business blog, website, etc as often as possible. People clicking through may end up clients/customers to you and search engines like Google will notice that a popular website like Twitter is linking people to your website! Kudos to you...
   
   
   

5. Take part in Trending Topics

   Trending Topics appear on the right side of your Twitter page, and they include topics that people are tweeting about most on Twitter at that particular moment. EG: Iran Elections and Michael Jackson most recently.
   
   You can identify trending topics and attract people to your post by including the relevant hashtag. Click here for more information on Twitter Hashtags.

Now, I hope you enjoy your Twitter experience. The above is enough to get you started.

Don't forget to follow me - Haig Kayserian - by clicking here.

And please follow KayWeb by clicking here.