Here are some of the more interesting stories that I’ve noticed over the last day or two.

Top 3 Twitterers of Each Country in the World based on Number of Followers (Updated)
As a stats junkie, bourgeoning Twitter addict, and believer in the global flattening effect brought on by technology, this story is particularly cool.

How cool?

Cool enough to note while looking at one screen that Carol of Taiwan has 2,201 followers, Baher Al Hakim of United Arab Emirates has 1,542, and noted author (and one of my all time favorites) Stephen Fry of the United Kingdom has 32,058.

Oh, and who’s #1? That would be a gentleman named Mr. Barack Obama of the United States, with 149,001 followers and counting.

The takeaway: Twitter is for real, global and worldwide.

Ways to Monetize Twitter and Repeat After Me: Revenue Generation
The “how’s Twitter gonna make money” meme has long been a good one to jawbone about. My long standing (and suffering) take: throw a 728×90 banner at the top of every single web-based Twitter profile page. It may not be a panacea, but I’d love to hear someone explain to me why that would be a bad idea!

In any event, the debate continues and is even intensifying as the economy gets wackier and the spotlight on Twitter brightens. Ideas for monetization really run the gamut, from “freemium” models to tweet-based ads to focusing on search. And Twitterati notes that Twitter’s job posting for a revenue-focused product manager may mean that we will learn more soon. So perhaps the long wait is nearly over!

News About News, in 140 Characters
The ways in which Twitter is starting to shape and even drive news coverage around the world is another area of attention and focus. You can kind of feel the unease and discomfort in how the mainstream media is contending with these developments – along with the economic hardships that traditional media companies are facing – in blocks of copy such as this:

With staff changes and reductions across the media industry, even a blog post can be too time-consuming a way to announce who is in and out of a job. That is why a public relations employee turned to the instant-blogging platform Twitter to create The Media Is Dying, a Twitter feed that documents media hirings and firings in one-sentence bursts of text.

I find the use of the term “instant-blogging” very interesting here. Makes using Twitter sound so easy, doesn’t it, with a side of insignificant, perhaps? However, the truth is that while Twitter is easy to use, it’s also flexible in scope, and remains a simple yet powerful publishing/micrblogging platform.

That, my friends, is a far cry from insignificant.

I’ve been spending a lot of time on Twitter lately. In order to share links efficiently on Twitter, you need to use link (or URL) shortening tools, which quickly take URLs that typically have a large number of characters and translate them to a shorter form that can squeeze into Twitter’s 140 character-max requirement per “tweet.”

TinyURL.com has long been my favorite go to way to shorten URLs. For example, the post I wrote yesterday has the following URL:

http://onlinemediacultist.com/2008/12/16/louis-gray-google-could-provide-a-democratic-version-of-techmeme/

Plug it into TinyURL.com and you get the following:

http://tinyurl.com/5z9w8n

It’s a great little service, and no wonder the site proudly boasts that it has already shortened more than 100 million URLs.

Now, Twitter and shortened URLs have been on mind in relation to thinking about Twitter as a “full-fledged publishing platform” (which I explain my thinking on here). Part of the equation has to do with giving “microbloggers” on Twitter the ability to get statistics and, yes, make money.

Mark Vermut was kind enough to point out to me on Twitter recently that:

bit.ly cli.gs and twurl.nl all offer the ability to track clicks, referrers, other linkers and geography from links

Therefore we see that URL shortening services are beginning to fill the need for microbloggers to obtain analytics about the information and link sharing work that they’re putting in.

But what about the making money part?

Adjix has been on my radar for a little while, a service that runs this tagline: Short Links. Tiny Ads. Big Payoff.

Some initial experimentation shows that two of those three statements are correct.

Running the same URL from the example I used above, the nice thing is that we get an extremely tiny URL to run on places like Twitter:

http://ad.vu/nwr

And it’s also a plus that when you click through an Adjix URL, the ad that runs at the top of the page is very unobtrusive. However, you need to rock a lot of adjix ad views and/or clicks in order to make anything substantial:

Linkers earn $0.10/1000 unique link views (10 cents CPM per unique link impressions) and $0.20 for each valid, unique, click-through. In other words, Linkers receive $0.0001/link impression and $0.20/ad click-through.

Yeah, in other words, not so much!

This week, I discovered Linkbee.com, which I’m messing around with at present. So far I’m pretty impressed, though the “money part” will not quite make your typical link sharer rich anytime soon either.

The interface is cheerful and clean, which always helps, and the performance time has been pretty fast thus far, which is crucial when you’re looking to shorten a quick URL and pop it into Twitter (Adjix by contrast can run quite slow). I also like that you can choose how your ad is displayed: interstitial, banner, or no ad at all. Interstitial views pay out at the highest rate ($1.00 CPM) while banner ads pay at $.50 CPM.

While those rates aren’t earth shattering, they’re not miniscule either, particularly when you consider that they’re not relying on a two click CPC model as Adjix is with their “higher” rate. In other words, Adjix gives you a $.10 CPM until the moment that you get someone to click your short Adjix URL and then click a text link that runs on top of the exit page. That’s a lot to ask for, so in my view Linkbee’s model is clearly superior thus far.

With information sharing such an important part of the social media and microblogging environments, I’m looking forward to seeing how URL shortening services continue to evolve.

But what about microblogging? You could make the argument that paid microbloggers already exist in the form of social media workers who make their wage by blogging, microblogging, and engaging far and interwebs wide on the behalf of their organizations.

Let’s set aside this growing industry and look instead at those manic Twitter fiends, those FriendFeed addicts, those Pownce, uh, pouncers and whether it’s possible to microblog one’s passions and beliefs and expertise into some kind of tangible financial sum.

I’ve been thinking about this quite a lot lately and have come to the conclusion that while it is possible, the idea is still so new that it will take people some time to get used to it.

When Magpie, an “ad network for Twitter” launched recently, I was very curious to see how people would react. The deal with Magpie, as the site explains, is:

1. Advertisers create campaigns providing a message and some keywords.
2. Matching twitterers are selected, costs are calculated based on # of followers and hotness of the topic.
3. Ads will be blended into the message stream: 5 tweets, one ad, 5 tweets, one ad, …

In other words, as a microblogging Twitter addict, you sign up, set the interval of Magpie ads that you’re willing to accept on your Twitter feed, and then in theory let the riches roll in as you monetize your “life stream” through this rent-my-Twitter-ad space service. Magpie, for its part, attempts to place contextually relevant ads into your stream based on the topics you’re “tweeting” about.

As you might expect, the reaction from some has been negative, to say the least:

* The idea of twitter.com/beamagpie is completely spam-annoying

* Be-A-Magpie Is PayPerPost For Twitter

And here’s a pretty good representative reaction of Magpie fear and loathing on Twitter:

What the brass tits is Magpie? I feel instinctively that it is wrong, that I must hate it. Is this correct?

Check out Twitter search for “hate magpie” for more (if less entertaining) of same!

Reactions such as these led me to wonder why some would react so strongly to the insertion of advertising into the previously “pure” Twitter environment. I then recalled that only some 8-10 years ago, there was a sizeable contingent that didn’t believe in online advertising of any form.

So it takes time for people to get used to new stuff. That doesn’t mean that Magpie will become the advertising behemoth of the social media world, but I still can’t help but think that as microblogging becomes an ever more important part of the online publishing realm, there will be a natural need for advertising services to support it.

So Magpie falls under the general heading of “sponsored posts.” This led me to go a little further to think that, in fact, sponsored posts are already a staple of the blogging world, particularly with those “big blog” sites that attract large audiences and the heavy hitting sponsors that go with it.

Mashable is a great example of a publisher who employs this kind of online advertising. They run occasional posts in which the entire content of the post is material about their sponsors. Presumably, the vast majority of Mashable readers are fine with this, understanding that websites need to pay the bills, and some people probably find the sponsor information intriguing enough to click a link and check it out more closely… which makes the advertising and Internet economies spin round, of course.

Now, what’s the difference – really – between a Mashable sponsored post and a Magpie tweet inserted into a Twitter feed? I would argue that there are differences, but that they are more subtle and nuanced than many might recognize upon first glance.

This post, by the way, was kicked off by a fantastic conversation on Twitter itself. I had a ball trying to poke holes in the argument, playing devil’s advocate at times, with the likes of Marc Vermut, David N. Wilson, and Brandon J. Mendelson.

My Twitter feed is available here.

Now let me explain.

Over the summer I wrote several pieces about this emerging idea called Blogging 2.0. My sense at the time was that successful bloggers (more on how to define this below) would need to continue to churn out valuable content, network effectively in their space, get linked by high quality websites, and so forth, but would also need to engage in the emerging social media space, on red hot communications platforms such as Twitter, FriendFeed, and Disqus.

In Blogging 2.0: from surviving to thriving, I wrote:

My sense is that there’s a galaxy of well intentioned and ambitious bloggers out there who are and will be trying to figure out how to find their way in this new and strange era of distributed conversations (i.e. you spend the time, brain power, expertise, and hard work to create and share a new idea on your blog and it ends up being discussed in any number of other places).

…successful Bloggers 2.0 need to dive headlong into the places where eyeballs are and conversations are being held. The idea is to make friends, share ideas, and above all else promote one’s personal brand with the hope that people will eventually find their way back to your blog. It’s “old fashioned” online promotion – make friends, show that you’re smart and have something to share, and the people will hopefully follow.

So my overriding theory was that activities outside of the “home blog” should hopefully in the end lead to increased activity and participation back on the home site.

Now we’re hitting the end of the year. Social media participation and engagement is more intense than ever, drawing time and attention spans ever further away from these very home sites, and that’s not really even touching on the “distributed conversation” side of things!

The basic question that I’m left with these days is a somewhat existential one I suppose: can participation on social media sites become its own good?

Or in slightly less lofty terms: can successful bloggers evolve into some sort of successful blogger/microblogger hybrid? In specific terms, this means less posts and less words and less engagement on home sites in favor of relatively more of all of that on social media and microblogging platforms.

My sense is that yes they can, and yes, they will probably have to in this quickly evolving environment.

To quote myself on Twitter today:

Meaning that from now on *probably* the best bloggers will also tend to be the best microbloggers/social media publishers, and vice versa

Now, back to the definition of “successful blogger” for just a second. Obviously this can mean many different things. If it means making money, the new blogger/microblogger hybrid will change the equation some. I’m particularly fascinated at the moment with advertising services (such as Magpie for Twitter and Adjix for link shrinking) that seek to bring revenue directly to social media participants. This industry niche is extremely new though and is struggling with initial resistance from purists even as start-ups in the space figure out their own business models. But the tremendous movement in the overarching social media space will surely bring more players, more competition, and innovation.

Aside from the money part, success may mean things like learning opportunities, personal branding, product/service promotion, networking, and all round high fun and online conversatin’. All of these things seem to play into the blogging/microblogging hybrid model extremely well.

All of that said, I wouldn’t be surprised to have substantially evolved (or you can say changed, perhaps!) opinions about this topic in a few months. That’s how quickly things are moving.

The historic election that we all witnessed yesterday provided a unique “live event” that was perfect for Twitter engaging, chattering, mini-pontificating, and all around hanging for information junkies around the globe.

What follows is the “transcript” of the “live twittering” of what I saw, communicated, and thought through the election. I think it’s a pretty good example of the enduing power of this simple, flexible, engaging, and surprisingly powerful product. It’s simply a great way to hyper-quickly share information and to connect.

Slight warning that my political sensibilities are more on display here than I usually let out on OMC.

And everyone can follow my Twitter feed here if you like, a place that I seem to be quite a bit these days, finding a world of wonderful social media and other conversational threads to explore.

Live election news feeds round-up on Silicon Alley Insider: http://tinyurl.com/6xe8ep

It’s getting close now…. two years in the waiting… eight years of Bush administration

Obama winning Indiana… w/ 1% reporting thus far

@ccadelago Wonder how closely the newspaper endorsement tally will mirror the electoral outcome !

@ccadelago Very impressive, and fascinating to look back at the days when McCain was the “media darling”

I want to have election.twitter.com running but can’t because that + live MSNBC.com feed will get my computer kill’d

Real state result projections coming in! Vermont for Obama, Kentucky for McCain !

Wow…. Obama and McCain like 50 votes apart in early Indiana results

Mitch McConnell Senate race in Kentucky too close to call so far… could be a very long night for GOP

@mikeysan So true… Getting tempting to hang it up for night to get pulled into elections vortex

Pat Buchanan: “We could be on the cusp of a new liberal era”… wow

@geekaren Buchanan to me is a paradox. Incredibly astute political observer with some seriously wacky beliefs

My twitter stream just got flooded with CNN hologram talk

@Ben_Parr: “Wait, wait, wait – When did the Emperor give CNN its Holographic Technology?” lolz

@ccadelago OMG… Lieberman jumped on the bizarro train some time ago

McCain up in Indiana by about 18k, can Obama catch him… and does the tight race there simply mean it’s gonna be blowout for Barack/Dems?

Huge news for Obama…. Pennsylvania being called for Obama by MSNBC, also bunch of other blue states…

Wow… New Hampshire also goes blue… and Maine. Looks like a Northeast sweep for Dems at the very least

Seriously, Pennsylvania being called minutes after polls close shuts down Republican window considerably

Chris Matthews: “Republican strategy to go through Pennsylvania has crashed”

@jlvblogger Looking very very good thus far !

@michaeljbarber Interesting, thank you, was surprised that MSNBC so quickly. But any chance at all it could be wrong?

@geekaren If Obama takes Florida it’s pretty much ballgame

@michaeljbarber Enlightening poll early today for me showed Obama doing 8% better among white voters nationally than Kerry in ‘04

Virginia moved from too early to call to too close to call… so Obama has yet to break through on a red state

Wow, Elizabeth Dole lost her Senate seat. Huge Democratic Senate majority looming

Georgia being called for McCain… that was a long shot for Dems, but McCain still holding onto Red states, albeit solid / longshot ones

Obama sweeps midwest states that went for Kerry in ‘04

McCain grabs Georgia and North Dakota, so one thing we know is that it’s not going to be an insane electoral avalanche

Biggest news of night on presidential level thus far you’d have to say is that Obama holds blue Pennsylvania

Tons of “too close to calls” — should be fun night !

Chris Matthews: “This is a good time to order a pizza.” I’m eating sushi !

Man, if McCain *does* pull out Virginia, things start to get interesting, right ?

@ray That gets Obvious Award and obviously very true

Obama up 4 points in North Carolina with 40% of vote in… interesting

Harold Ford Jr. channels Tim Russert, intoning Florida Florida Florida

@TDefren Wow, seriously? That’s enormous on multiple levels! (@TDefren quotes Fox calling Ohio for Obama… wha?)

Anyone else seeing Ohio being called for Obama?

@niczak Was quoting @TDefren, who says Fox called Ohio for Obama

@zaibatsu confirms Ohio…. and now MSNBC calls it as well !!!!

Democrats taking Ohio is so enormous, sweet sweet revenge for 2000 and 2004, and you have to think that GOP road is now TOUGH

The northeast and midwest are now looking straight-up blue !

@JasonCalacanis Now saying New Mexico for Dems! http://tinyurl.com/6c2l2o

Huge game breaking news rolling in all over the place

@niloyphoto Hahaha, getting closer each minute !

@geekaren Yes, and now two major networks calling Ohio for Obama, looks like it’s in the can

@stuartma Seeing you muse about prospect of President Obama starting to make it very real !

New Mexico goes to Obama, this thing is tipping fast

Obama already at 200 electoral votes with tons of the country (and California!) not yet called

Matthews talks about McCain line about “fundamentals of economy are strong” line as being killer

@webomatica Amazing… simply amazing

@gregsmyth Yes, that was a critical mistake by McCain and his campaign… and lets not forget Palin pick too! Lets face it, there were many

@ScottSays Definitely makes you feel hopeful, like new and better era may be on way

Iowa goes to Obama, number of Bush ‘04 states going to Obama grows

@gregsmyth lolz !

Virginia still too close to call but it may not matter at this point

Chris Shays loses seat, House Republicans now shut out completely in New England

@mbj Yes, looking like how close Dems get to 60 seats and margin of Obama victory are now major topics… but this is the fun stuff

Indiana looking like it’ll go down to the wire… amazing

@jpgardner / Donklephant reporting that Colorado goes to Obama – http://tinyurl.com/5527xg

Dean’s 50 state strategy / Obama expanding electoral map now part of overall storyline

@jriversmn Go Al Franken !

NPR called Virginia for Obama whilst I was in the car… this thing is getting huger for Obama…

@jriversmn Thanks for keeping me posted, love the informationz!

@mbj Not a cabernet of celebration then I take it?

OBAMA WINS ! ! ! ! !

@jpostman You got that right !

McCain concession speech happening right now… it’s all a little bit surreal after such a long and historic election, isn’t it?

Amazing inspiring speech… a new president for a new time… makes me feel hopeful