BUT- Some are pretty cool, and regardless of how many followers they have, according to Cornell University, they have the most interactive follwer base, and influence twitter as a whole more other accounts

It would be safe to say that these tweets would be the ones to get texted to your phone, if you happen to be one of the few who doesn’t have a smart phone still (Like me, whoo!).

OK, so here they are.

20.@Peoplemag

19.@Tweetmeme

18.@cnn

17.@whitehouse

16.@Rollingstone

15.@Pitchforkmedia

14.@Smashingmag

13.@wsj

12.@wired

11.@Techcrunch

10.@gizmodo

9.@harvardbiz

8.@espn

7.@bbcbreaking

6.@breakingnews

5.@time

4.@theonion

3.@big_picture

2.@cnnbrk

1.@Mashable

Way to go CNN for owning two of those- Also, congrats to @mashable, *cough* my future husband *cough* for winning #1!

Does anyone read these tweets religiously? Or rely on them? Or like them? Is there one missing in your opinion?

poor bird couldnt say tweet or people would think this was a twitter joke

-Sammlar

The Iphone 4 reporting tons of problems with losing connection based on a hardware problem has left a large number of consumers so angry, they think it’s funny. Not to blame them either, with a response to the problem from Apple CEO, Steve Jobs, of “Don’t hold it that way”, you can’t blame people for laughing at his douchebaggery.

And low and behold, that response has come back to bite him in the ass with a Parody Twitter Account.

@ceoSteveJobs

This is not actually Stevey posting his stupid thoughts (Although we wish it was). However, the account does prove to be entertaining every time Apple tries to make a move.

Here are some of his latest “Job-isms”

"Don't hold me that way."

@ceoSteveJobs

“Holding a press conference Friday…. and we’re not going to hold it wrong”. 16 minutes ago via Twitter foriPhone

“iPhone 4 is a revolutionary, magical product. Why? It can make your reception disappear like never before.” about 21 hours ago via Twitter for iPhone

“Forget the bars. iPhone’s AT&T signal level will now be represented by a happy face or a sad face. #MoreFacesinMorePlaces “ 6:49 AM Jul 14th via Twitter for iPhone

Also out there in the twitter world, the infamous polluting evil entity that is BP, has also been graced with a slap-in-the-face parody Twitter account.

@BPGlobalPR is the parody twitter account listed as “BP Public Relations”- but sadly it’s almost indistinguishable from the real BP public relations account (It just has about 10x more followers and is a heck of a lot funnier). The account boasts its actually doing something for the tragedy of the Gulf Oil Spill. Selling T-shirts with the “BP Cares”  line, for $25, has already contributed $20,000 to the fund. You can actually get one here (Hopefully people understand the joke and don’t automatically hate you when they see it).

The account has also been surprisingly nominated for Vh1′s “Do Something” awards.

Let’s take a look at @BPBlobalPR ‘s hilarity.

"Oops! Mommy, I spilled!"

“Attn: BP Employees- Office supplies do not belong to you. Please have some respect for other people’s property. #bpcares ” about 20 hours ago via web

“Of course we released a terrorist so we could drill in Libya! We’d suck Osama’s dick if he came oil. http://ow.ly/2b5Wl” 6:42 PM Jul 13th via web

“Here’s the truth: we got food poisoning from shrimp one time and said, “Let’s make sure that never happens again.” #bpcares 7:20 PM Jul 11th via TweetDeck

Don’t forget to check other people’s responses to the #bpcares Hashtag discussion.

Other Parody Twitter accounts (we will list but won’t get into for now)

• Ron Jeremy (*Caution with your exploration of this one!*)
• Michael Bay (Lol, Michael Bay)
• Helen Keller (For those Apples to Apples fans, you know this is the best one)
• Facebook PR (In respect to our last blog post)
• Paramount Films (Used to be just @paramountfilms…. The REAL Pfilms couldn’t take the sarcasm)
• Nick Nolte (Crazy Nick Nolte!!!)
• Dr. Tobias Funke (Thank God we can still get our Arrested Development fix.)
• Anderson Cooper 180 (In parody of Anderson Cooper 360 – His inner-thoughts)
• Drunk Hulk (WE SPEAK CAP LOCK TILL DIE)

It’s pretty amazing that Old spice has been able to gather their marketing team, coupled with a film crew, and a few social media experts (Yes these do exist….*questioning previous blog thoughts*) and release real-time videos which are essentially commercials without the requirement of purchasing expensive time slots. With 4 millions views in just two days, they have obviously been noticed world wide.

The MOST notable about the campaign is it’s likability. I think you have mastered the internet when even 4chan doesn’t complain about your hilarious marketing ploys.( Oldspice boasts about 4000 thumbs up, and less than 100 thumbs down on this evil emperor of message boards)

Besides spending about half my day watching these videos (including an accepted marriage proposal! *loser fiancee*) what I am most amazed at is the quickness of production. This team is given SO MUCH freedom to let their creative juices flow. The marketing department obviously trusts them and has displayed a model that hopefully more companies will adapt. If you believe in the genius that is your team, be specific in your guidelines, and trust them to do their job. If the team isn’t constantly worried about pissing off the CEO, they can focus their minds elsewhere. This strategy is obviously working, and is so very entertaining.

Congrats to Iain Tate( Global Interactive Executive Creative Director at W+K) for having the job that all of us want

Now watch this and try not to wish you had smell-o-vision so that we could actually link the smell of Oldspice with the hilarity that is Oldspice guy.

Follow the tweets and responses at @oldspice

Great article on the same subject by Read Write Web.

Big topic for the day: People are starting to invest in degrees in social media.

Is it even necessary? Or is it ENTIRELY necessary. For me I’m undecided; sure, going to school for twitter and facebook sounds SO FUN, but are the resources invested in a Master of Arts degree going to help out in the master plan? (*Disclaimer* As an undergraduate college student, we can all agree that most of us don’t actually have a master plan).

But in all seriousness this could be dangerous for those just finishing up their bachelor degrees, in search for the next step to take. Currently, most of the Universities offering this type of degree are in the UK (Birmingham City University, University of Salford). Sorry US kids, your tuition will be listed around £11,000, where as UK students still pay a pricey £4,000 for a nine month, full-time course.

Speculations of this degree are focused on the benefits reaped from the program, and whether there will be a need in the work force for these newly trained “Professionals”. Successful social media giants, already prevalent in the work force, seem to also be experts at other things (i.e. journalism, marketing, PR, etc.) In fact, these people seem to have been experts in their field long before facebook consumed their lives; they are just professionals who also happen to use twitter).

What I wonder is, as an intern whose job (Without pay!) is to run the social media of a non-profit organization, what skills would I learn that would get me paid for this? Actually, those skills claiming to be offered are listed on the Universities webpages. However, it scares me to believe that companies are offering reasonably sized salaries to people who don’t seem “over qualified”.

Social Media is still very new, everything happening right now is still experimentation, and people can only be so experienced in something before it changes entirely. I’m thinking you should know what you want to one day successfully use twitter for, and major in that. Want to market music? Go get a marketing degree and read up on the social media shelf in Barnes and Noble while you pick up a copy of Spin.

BTW this whole topic was inspired by a couple of articles released about the MA in Social Media. Check out this article on The Way Of The Web. Also, John Welsh posted a similar argument about the program at Salford on his Blog.

For those on Twitter you can see my tweets about it @Sammlar or you can check out the hashtag discussion #masocialmedia.

This Cat has an MA in Social Media, don't question him.

Here it goes!

-Sammlar