Seeing the number of tweets, Facebook status updates, emails, informations, blogposts that are being exchanged online everyday, no wonder online presence is a big thing, and online marketing is very important.

How do you make your presence meaningful for one or two – or more people, among those piles of information??

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Below is the figure taken from Information is Beautiful, which I think may really reflect the social media sphere. The basic logic in social networking sites – networking, obviously – appeals more to women. As seen from the numbers below, men dominate or equal with women in sites where there is less interactivity. YouTube, DeviantArt, and Digg. As for LinkedIn, it is more of a professional networking than social networking.

from Information is Beautiful

Women, on the other hand, dominate other social networking sites where interactivity, connectivity, and networking is the main feature of the sites: Hi5, Twitter, Facebook, Ning, Gaia, MySpace, Bebo, and others.

This social media figures reflect women in real live – IMO. At least Indonesian women . They like being present, keeping in touch with others, be a part of something, talking to others, sharing stories and information. Hence, in Indonesia we have arisan, and regular meet-ups with friends.

Now that we’ve lived our live partially in the online world, women takes those straits online and keep doing what they do in the offline world as well. Talking and being present.

Nokia — Samsung — Ericsson — Nokia — another Nokia — Dopod 818i — Nokia — BB Curve 8310 — iPhone (until present)

Now, I have to admit that using BB is very convenient. Exchanging files (esp. pictures) is really easy. You can attach it on email easily, or send it through BBM or via bluetooth. Attaching pictures on your tweet is also easy to do. Connectivity is BB’s key – and for a while I really enjoyed it. I never lost track of any conversation, never missed any emails, can chat and browse easily whenever and wherever without having to depend on my laptop or desktop. Was very convenient…

Then, my boyfriend bought an iPhone. I just gazed dreamily at it – not having any further intention to buy it. Not long after, my dad bought an iPhone. And that was when the true intention of having an iPhone arose… So I bought one.

At first, switching from a BB to an iPhone is like you have to switch from going to the office with your car and then suddenly you have to take public transport (please imagine that you live in Singapore – or anywhere with a good mass transport system..). There are some things that you’re used to doing, but cannot anymore. At first it feels like something’s missing, but then you realized that you don’t really miss it that much. Like BB messenger. Or receiving work-related emails or advertisement mails at 11pm. You can live without that as well.

After some time, you even like it that you don’t have to worry about finding a parking spot every time you’re going to a mall or a restaurant. That you see more because you don’t have to drive. In iPhone terms – you even like it that the emails doesn’t push, which means that you have greater control over the information. And that you can install other productivity application that suits your needs better – such as To-Do List or Birthday Reminders. Or, heck, Absolut Drinkspiration!

Now I have embraced iPhone warmly – happily, with all its plus and minuses. I am happy with the picture quality, and that I can now record video. I am happy with the synchronization process with my Macbook. I like how I can choose which application to install that helps me doing my work: Document processor, to do list, Yammer, WordPress, Tweetdeck, Google. I also like the many free books that I can find in the iTunes store.

So, because of its many applications – a big proportion of which are games, some say that iPhone is 70% entertainment and 30% work. BB, on the other hand, because has very comprehensive connectivity tools and system – BB messenger, push email, constantly online through Blackberry Internet Service, is the opposite.

Well, I say, iPhone is 50% work and 50% entertainment. And, isn’t that how life’s supposed to be?

The number of users keep going up (sorry no real stats here), as can be seen from the amount of attention brands and marketers is giving to Twitter and the arrival of Indonesia’s own Twitter barometer – Twiterus.

Taken from Indonesian words – ngetwit terus – which literally means keep on twitting, Twiterus provides a local insight on Twitter. It is now still in its beta version, but they just did a make over. Last week, the appearance was different – but my colleagues and I think that it looked better than the one they have now. So far, they provide insight on trending topics and top users.

So far, I think this is the only site that provides localized insight for Twitter in Indonesia (how about in other countries? Anyone know?). Before Twiterus, the way to see the trending topic in Twitter is through twitter’s own trending topics list, or through sites such as Tweetstats. But it provides a worldwide insight, and therefore is affected by the time differences.

For instance, there were times when #jakartabomb and #gempa, both Indonesian keywords, were Twitter’s no. 1 trending topics. It makes us think that Indonesian twitter users are very influential! But, at that time, there were less users from the other part of the world who were online and twitting, because it was very late at night for them. So, the dawn of Twiterus is very useful in that it gives us insights on what Indonesian tweeps are talking about – real time.

For PR, brand, and marketing practitioners who are active online, this site is very effective in measuring the effectiveness of an online Twitter campaign. This campaign can be social, or brand-oriented, such as #koinprita or #bukasemangatbaru.

As for the #bukasemangatbaru campaign, it also ties-in with social cause: Coin A Chance! Since #bukasemangatbaru campaign is Coca-Cola’s new slogan, so for every new tweet with that hashtag, Coca-Cola Indonesia will donate IDR 100 for Coin A Chance!, and every Monday and Friday, IDR 1,000.

This proves very effective – approximately one week after the Twitter campaign was launched, there has been more than IDR 800,000 raised for Coin A Chance!

So, yes, Indonesian Twitter rush is on…

I always have an assumption that people who are closely and personally related with their devices are rather insecure about themselves. They cannot just be without their devices. They have to have their cellphones with them: at school, at home, at work, while cooking, while talking with their human friends, while having their meals, and while going to the toilet. And more than that, they grew weary and anxious when the nifty little thing is not around. One I know says that he would rather go back home and get his cellphone than coming on time to classes. Isn’t that being insecure??

And the infectious iPod disease… I would think that one every ten people in the world has iPod or some kind of an MP3 player. Okay, maybe it’s overrating it. But really, especially now that I live in Sweden, I think one every two people has an earphone planted in their ears whenever they’re walking or cycling or waiting. It almost become a part of themselves. How afraid are we of being only with ourselves that we need some devices to get away from ‘us’?

And the laptops.. The very important part of one’s life. It has all the files, the contacts, the works, the connections and network to the whole wide world in just a single click or touch. We simply cannot live with it now, can we?

Well, yes. The devices. And how attached we are to them now. And those who are very attached to them – I always think that they’re just afraid of being only with themselves, or just insecure. But this morning. This morning I found myself talking to my laptop. Yes, talking and listening to my laptop. How ironic.

I guess we are becoming less of a technology-users… And the technology is becoming more of a human-users…

*written on September, 10th, 2007, originally published on Facebook Notes*

So welcome and enjoy!!