Endemic

One of my good high-school friends signed up for Facebook last week.

Yes, the same Facebook that, had you listened to the digerati, has jumped the shark.

But Facebook hasn’t jumped the shark. It’s still becoming more popular and adding more features. Facebook may have jumped the shark for the kinds of people who have to try every social networking service in its alpha-invite-only stage, but it certainly hasn’t for everyday people.

It’s great to have friends who are pushing the envelope, and to be with people who are willing to try new things. I love my digerati friends. But we cannot lose sight of what the average person is doing.

When I say non-wired, I don’t mean someone without a mobile phone, computer or the Internet. But I mean people who don’t live and breathe Web 2.0. In fact, they probably don’t read Wired magazine, and isn’t that the ultimate barometer of one’s wiredness?

Let’s look at Twitter as a good example. If you just listened to bloggers and the digerati you would think that Twitter is the hottest thing going today on the Web. Oh wait, it’s jumped the shark because of frequent outages recently.

In reality, Twitter has less than 2 million users in the world. In many ways, Twitter isn’t even mainstream, let alone clones like Pownce. In comparison, Facebook has more than 70 million active users.

My friend is like the majority of Americans — high school diploma, has a computer with Internet, uses a mobile phone but doesn’t have a blog, probably doesn’t know what the hell Web 2.0 is supposed to mean (does anyone, really?) and probably has no interest in joining Twitter.

Ultimately, we have to build products that not only interest people on the cutting edge, but that also provide functionality that average person can and will want to use everyday.

For my friend, the time was right to join Facebook because its functionality made sense for him. I don’t think he’ll be joining Twitter (or FriendFeed) anytime soon.

If you’re on the fence about signing up for Twitter, know this: Twitter can drive traffic to your site.

This blog is less than a year old. I’m 23 years old — hardly an established brand or identity. That’s why I only have a little more than 100 people following me on Twitter.

But Twitter drives traffic to my blog every day, and on some days it is the top non-search engine referrer to my site. Even if you don’t have a lot of followers, Twitter is very viral.

Let’s say I make a new tweet on Twitter about a new blog post. People read it and like it, and then they post that they are reading it on Twitter as well.

Some of their friends find my post through their tweets and then decide that they are going to tweet about my blog post too. And it continues. Suddenly, people who have never read my blog or knew I was even on Twitter are coming to my blog.

All with little work on my part. Now if Twitter drives traffic to my blog, imagine what Twitter could do for a large, established brand.

The secret to getting Twitter to drive traffic is to be interesting. Most news organizations have missed this point. Most news organizations use Twitter accounts to just list their most recent headlines.

Boring. Twitter is not a repurposing tool. It’s a conversation.

The most popular people on Twitter have a brand that people want to know more about. The New York Times Twitter account has about 2,400 followers. Not bad, but blogger Robert Scoble has more than 14,000 followers.

CNN has about 2,100 followers, while venture capitalist Guy Kawasaki has more than 6,500 followers. The major mistake that both the Times and CNN make is that they simply use Twitter as a headline feed. But Twitter is about conversations, not one-way pronouncements.

Before I make a Twitter post, I often talk about what I am writing about, why I am writing it and just give my general thoughts. People can then ask me questions or make comments. It’s a public conversation.

In fact, many times you’ll see me working through my thought process on Twitter before making a blog post. But it gets more people interested in my content. In fact, Twitter is a fantastic brand-building tool.

The Times probably doesn’t see a big traffic bump from 2,400 followers, but an individual like Scoble probably sees a lot of traffic originating from Twitter. Scoble is much more popular on Twitter than the Times or CNN because he uses Twitter as it was meant to be used.

So, how can news organizations use Twitter to generate traffic? First, news organization could begin using Twitter to have conversations about stories they are covering. Imagine a public page 1 meeting, where people can ask questions.

A page 1 concept could be very popular with users. Anyone at the Times who writes a blog or column should have a Twitter account where they share opinions 140 characters at a time. Employees must also be willing to interact with people on Twitter too.

Twitter is also a great way to cover live events in new ways. Many events are not broadcast, and those are good events to Twitter. Heck a reporter could even use Twitter to cover a local government meeting, and then use the tweets to write a full-fledged story.

I’ve done this before, and Twitter works pretty well as a note-taking tool. Plus, it gets people more involved in the process. All without any extra work on my part.

If you use Twitter as merely another one-way conversation tool, it will be nothing more than a really poor version of RSS. But if you use Twitter as the two-way communication tool that it is, not only will you be able to drive traffic, but you’ll most likely be able to discover new readers and users.

del.icio.us is the social network that everyone seems to forget about, but, to be honest, it’s one of my favorites.

Facebook, Twitter, Digg, etc all get a lot of press, but I find del.icio.us to be one of the most functional social networks out there. I also like how incredibly streamlined it is. It doesn’t try to be something it’s not, and it doesn’t have delusions of being the ultimate social network — ahem Facebook.

For those who don’t know, del.icio.us is a social bookmarking site, where you can see what other people are reading and share what you’re reading with others. My del.icio.us network is like my own personal Romenesko. In fact, it’s much better than Romenesko, because I get links from people from all different parts of journalism.

Throughout the day I find links to stories from my del.ico.us friends about journalism, tech and other news that interests me. The links are presented in a very Romenesko fashion, complete with little blurbs of text about each link. These links, however, come from a broader swath of people, and they often look at journalism from much different angles than Romenesko.

Romenesko is having on industry news, especially about layoffs and hirings, but with del.icio.us I can get links about the actual craft of journalism and how journalism is created in the 21st century. Basically, if you enjoy Romenesko, I believe you’ll find del.icio.us to be a far superior experience.

You can find what I’m reading at del.icio.us/journalismiconoclast.

Today is The Journalism Iconoclast’s inaugural Web App of the week. Hopefully, there are enough good Web apps for us to review one each week. If you have a nominee, e-mail connect (at) patthorntonfiles (dot) com.

Mint.com is our first pick, because it is a fairly revolutionary product. Mint.com is a personal finance management application, but it is over the Web and free. Both concepts are pretty ground breaking.

People have been using programs like Intuit Quicken and Microsoft Money for years, but those programs have several fundamental issues and drawbacks:

1. They are expensive – Quicken costs as much as $90.
2. They are difficult to use – One of the main reasons people don’t use personal finance software is that the software is not intuitive, and a lot of time and effort is required to set up the programs properly. Even more time is required to properly categorize purchases. If you don’t categorize your purchases, you cannot make a good budget, and budgeting is one of the keys to personal finance management. Many people buy Quicken and Money and stop using them shortly thereafter because of the maddening experience.
3. They require upgrades – Every few years, Quicken requires upgrades because Intuit stops supporting old versions of Quicken. Without support, you cannot electronically sync with your various financial accounts, rendering Quicken useless. So, not only can you shell out close to $100 for personal finance software, but you also have the privilege of being forced to upgrade every few years to the latest version.

Mint.com gets around all of those drawbacks. It’s free, which is a lot more palatable than paying $50-90 every few years. Mint.com is free because it is supported by affiliates.

For instance, if you have a bank account with Capital One with $10,000 in it, Mint.com will suggest that you switch to an ING online account, because you could make hundreds of dollars a year in interest with an online bank account over a traditional one. Mint.com leverages offers by affiliates to try to save you money. If you sign up for one of the offers, Mint.com gets a fee.

Mint.com analyzes all of your checking, savings and credit card accounts to see if you could be getting a better deal. If you could be, it will suggest you switch to one of their affiliates. It’s not all about money, however. Mint.com might suggest a frequent flyer switch to a credit card that earns a lot of miles.

My favorite part of Mint.com is its ease of use. In less than five minutes I had several credit cards and bank accounts synced up to Mint.com. It automatically categorized the vast majority of my purchases, and I was easy able to categorize the ones that it missed.

Mint.com also automatically created a monthly budget for me based on my past spending habits, and I can set up custom budgets. Mint also displays a pie chart of my spending habits broken down in various categories like travel, education (student loans for me), health care, entertainment, investments, etc.

I’m really impressed with Mint.com because of how easy it is for me to manage my personal finances and just how nice the user interface is. It’s really great to be able to check in on my personal finances from anywhere in the world. That’s the biggest advantage Web apps have over desktop apps.

The last thing I really like about Mint.com is the notifications feature. Mint.com will send me e-mails and SMS alerts when the balance in my checking account gets below a certain level, if Mint.com detects any unusual spending, if I get hit with bank fees, etc.

There are some things not to like about Mint.com. I should caution that it is in beta, but it misses a few features that I would really like to see. The biggest feature, as far as I’m concerned, is the ability to track investments.

Mint.com should be adding this missing feature later this year, but it is a feature that Quicken has had for years. It’s nice to be able to see how your investments are doing while you check out your other financial accounts, and if you want detailed information on your investments, you’ll want to stick with Quicken for now.

Mint.com is far easier to use than a program like Quicken (which I own), but it also far less powerful than Quicken. If you are a long-time Quicken power user, you won’t be that excited by Mint.com. If, however, you have been put off by financial management software for years, you might really like Mint.com.

Mint.com is free, easier to use, has a fantastic interface and will be adding more features in the coming months. Quicken also recently launched Quicken Online, which is a $2.99 a month version of the desktop product. I haven’t checked it out, but I have heard that it is similar to Mint.com. It also lacks some of the power features that desktop versions of Quicken have.

In the coming years, however, Web versions of personal finance software will take over. Why would you want to keep access to your personal finances tied to one computer? The ability to be able to check on your financial situation whenever and wherever you want is a great feature and feeling.

Mint.com is a Web app worth checking out because more people should pay more attention to their personal finances. Mint.com is free and very easy to use. You can’t lose.

If there is a Web app you want me to check out, send your nominees in.