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When it comes to Twitter I read more than write.  I’m sad to say I have had to say goodbye to some celebs that I have followed (Demi and Ashton) but celebrity stylist Rachel Zoe hasn’t disappointed me yet with her twitpics of worship worthy rooms full of shoes, fashion advice and generally cheery tweets.  Rachel finds time between tweets to create her own branded empire.  In addition to her stylist gig she has a reality show, partnership with Piperlime, she’s introducing a new line of products for QVC and just launched her new website – RachelZoe.com.

I’m usually curious enough to click on the links she offers and yesterday I found myself at her new site.  What I was surprised and delighted by was the ease at which she engaged the user in a multitude of interactions.  As a first time visitor to the site you are invited to “Get The Zoe Report” by simply giving your email address and zip code.  The call to action is straight forward and simple.

Next you are taken to a thank you page where they segment your gender, age and preferences with an option to add a category they haven’t listed.  I think this page starts to build the relationship with the user.  You are asked about what is important to you and given the chance to elaborate, in a way it sets the tone for the pages that follow. (more…)

Just saw this article on Reuters.  If Facebook acquires Twitter, it could be a huge advantage for users of both like me.  There are already some great integration points between the two apps.  As business users, we just need to start separating out personal contacts from business contacts.  Crap – too late for that now.  Here’s the article:

“(Reuters) – Social networking company Facebook recently held acquisition talks with Twitter, the micro-blogging company, the Financial Times said.

The negotiations, put a valuation of as much as $500 million on Twitter, which has become one of Silicon Valley’s most closely watched start-ups, the paper said.”

Read the rest of the article here >>

Social networking sites will turn into collaborative software platforms (think online Calendar, spreadsheets, word processing, web conference, presentation collaboration, image manipulation between many parties, and the already-standard email, chat, IM, blog, profile pages). Social networking isn’t just for kids anymore. Over 60% of new Facebook users are over 30 years old now. These 30, 40, 50, and a few 60somethings are professionals who will leverage these online communities to help with more than just business development.

If Facebook, LinkedIn, and other social community sites add professional collaboration tools like personalized calendars, spreadsheets, whiteboards into the mix, business people and businesses as a whole will standardize their entire internal communication operations (document sharing, chat, IM, blog, email threaded discussions) on these collaboration communities for increased productivity, mobility and trackability. A leader in the new frontier of Web 2.0.0.8 Collaboration Software is Portland’s own Jive Software and their blazing hot new product called Clearspace.

Not bad for a 23 year old kid who everyone chastised as insanely stupid for turning down Yahoo’s $1 Billion bid for Facebook a year ago. So, what’s the lesson for high-tech entrepreneurs? My takeaway is that you should be bold and hold-out for higher valuations as you continue to build community online and build tremendous value in your company. Of course, there is a finite window for some industry sectors, especially in technology. But, if you have confidence in the long-term viability of your business model, be patient and hold off on accepting seemingly generous offers like Zuckerman did.

Read more about this MSN article on Facebook (the first paragraph is below):
Microsoft Corp beat out Google Inc on Wednesday in a battle to invest in socializing Web site Facebook, agreeing to pay $240 million for a 1.6 percent stake in the Web phenomenon. Microsoft also clinched exclusive rights to sell ads on Facebook outside of the United States as part of the investment that valued Facebook at $15 billion — on par with the market capitalizations of retailer Gap Inc and hotel chain Marriott International Inc.

Social Networking has blanketed the news for the past 18 months because it works. YouTube and MySpace have built loyal communities through entertaining user-generated content and great tools to communicate with other like-minded people. However, Social Networking is going NICHE. People enjoy specific tools to connect, recommend, rate, and communicate within their niche groups.

For this reason, there are many types of Social Media:

B2C: MySpace, Facebook, Gaia, Freindster, Second Life
B2B: LinkedIn, Jigsaw
Search: Digg, Delicious, Wink, Technorati
Shopping: Wists, ThisNext, Woot
Expert Communities: Blogs, Wikis
Mapping: Geosearch
Video: YouTube, TurnHere
Images: flickr