Visioning 2026 Blog

Twitter A Social Networking Phenomenon for Business

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, April 11, 2009

 Twitter A Social Networking Phenomenon for Business

 The power of social networking and the numerous communications capabilities now available has helped expand our opportunity to collaborate, with problem solving , become more effective creative thinkers, develop more responsive marketing processes, and consider evolving trends on a variety of business and community topics. One of these newest tools is Twitter. Why would this particular tool be any different than other internet applications?

 Here are a few things that I find that has helped separate this on-line tool and a growing trend from others communication applications (http://twitter.com, currently free requiring an email address, userID and password).

• The Tweets, 140 character messages or micro blogs are open to the public. Twitter allows you to interact at a personal level verses a typical a static website or blog site on the internet. This format follows the phone texting standard, short message service(SMS).
• The application supports text messaging (e.g., phone SMS) and communications with other applications such as Facebook and the expanding smartphone instruments.
• It has search capability similar to a tradition search engine such as Google.
• Third party application developers are expanding on this open source platform to make the data useable in a variety of ways, for example, key word tracking and analysis.
• One of the features I like about this tool is it a quick and easy way to capture references that I’ve found useful and share them with others as well as keeping them on-line for future reference.

WebProNews reports that, “New data from comScore indicates that Twitter approached 10 million users in February. That's a growth of over 700% from February 2008. On top of that, worldwide visitors climbed over 5 million more. Just in the US, visitors climbed over 1000% in a year's time. The two largest age demographics on Twitter are the 45-54 crowd, and the 25-34 crowd. Interestingly, the youngsters (12-17) are the smallest demographic as comScore notes, referencing info from Alexei Oreskovic of Reuters. “

A recent community in Kansas is using Twitter to disseminate notices related to different departments activities and services, e.g., road closures, park activities, etc. (http://www.eldoradotimes.com/homepage/x1525910911/City-twitters-for-quick-communication) . Twitter is also being identified as part of the six technology trends (on-line communications tools) impacting the K-12 educational system (http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/top-news/?i=57910).

 For business purposes the search capability and the third party keyword reporting features help me stay up to date on micro trends that are evolving. This tool has great collaborating capabilities when it comes to creative ideas and problem solving. It can help with some word of mouth advertising and you can use it for target marketing. Some businesses are using this tool to allow customer to order carry-out or schedule just in time delivers for their customers with hectic schedules.

I use this tool for a variety of adaptive and critical thinking purposes.

1.       When I find an interesting website/article I post this link with a short note as a Tweet. I’ve included the Twitter API on my Facebook page so I can increase my sharing options. This is a very convenient method for me to capture my interesting references in one place for future references. The internet or what some are now saying is cloud computing, is becoming my long term storage solution of choice.

2.       Twitter now has a search option similar to other search engines. This is very helpful in keeping updated on what people are commenting on concerning existing products I am marketing through our website. Another third party applications is helping me find other Tweeters in my geographic area.

3.       Third party software developers have access to the public data (Tweets) that is produced by Twitter users. One particular product, TweetLater, allows me to set up a daily report to list all tweets that contain keywords that I’m interested in for business purposes.

4.       The internet marketing community has quickly jumped on the tool for helping increase their marketing opportunities without worrying about email spam. This micro blogging tool allows for quick notes and the ability to incorporate pictures and web links to other websites.

5.       The ability to establish and define Hashtags allows users to tag a Tweet with a character/numeric string preceded by the # sign so that others can follow (e.g., #CMEcon is the hashtag for the Creative Molecular Economy topic). A dictionary of hashtags has been developed to see what topics people have established for following and sharing.

For a few of the tools you may find helpful to improve your Twitter communication experience please refer to either of the following website links.

http://www.visioning2026.com/blog/post/twittersocial-networking-tools/

Mark Hall is the General Manager for Tru Mark Athletic Field Marker (http://www.AthleticFieldMarker.com), a manufacturer and distributor of field marking equipment, supplies, and tools. He is also the Vice President of eSelling4u.com, Inc. which operates an internet business operation, Watertight Storage Case Co. (http://www.WaterTightCase.com),  that markets protective cases for active life-style people and businesses needing to protect valuable mobile electronic equipment. Mr. Hall is a graduate of Leadership Norfolk course, one of the team members involved in the 5 step process for the Visioning 2026 Project (http://www.Visioning2026.com) and a current board member for the NorthFork Riverwalk Development Foundation (http://www.NorthForkNE.com). You can contact him at mhall@eselling4u.com, Twitter:trumark, LinkedIn:hallmarkd, and Facebook: 517061207.

Connections Between XStreet, FreeBase, and Smartphones

Several technologies are changing our lives for the future.

1. Open application interface standards -- Application Programming Interfaces (APIs)
2. Open structured data base standards -- FreeBase  http://www.freebase.com/
3. Smartphone technologies integrated with navigation tools -- high bandwidth wireless technologies
4. 3D Virtual Reality platforms -- SecondLife
5. Web 2.0 integrated technology development tools -- eCommerce payment tools such as XStreet  http://www.xstreetsl.com/
6. Secure exchange of information between mobile devices -- Create a publicly available digital fingerprint, known as a cryptographic hash mark, that will make it possible for anyone to determine that documents are authentic and have not been tampered with. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/27/science/27arch.html?_r=1

With structured data you can now do intelligent or scripted queries. With this structured database and open source application programming interface (API) services I can see where smartphone user development features will accelerate.

The next big break through, I believe, is when we can start using our smartphones to complete secure transactions. Your mobile communicator, computer, web search tool, business organizer, navigation tool, and entertainment center will then be almost complete (needs to be a outside your body remote sensor to collect health information off your internal sensors).

Now we should be able to use the smartphone sensor technology to record information and then be able to transform/transpose the data into a 3D virtual reality platform and then back again once we have modified the virtual reality.

We now could visualize (with holograhic display technologies) our future reality right in a community redevelopment effort.

Weak Signal/Emerging Trend--Amateurs Trying Genetic Engineering at Home

I would submit that we have an emerging trend in home based bio/genetic engineering.

"People can really work on projects for the good of humanity while learning about something they want to learn about in the process," stated 31-year-old computer programmer Meredith L. Patterson.

Future Trend In the Making--information technologies started in the garage, how about the dining room table for genetic engineering.

Why are we starting to see this trend you might ask? I believe there are a couple reasons leading to genetic engineering in a non-traditional laboratory, more educated individuals, access to information and experts through the internet from around the world, access to much less expensive laboratory equipment, and access to supplies for the experiments.

People with a passion to solve problems in our everyday lives will have another great adventure. Just as our grand parents started cross breading cattle and hogs to achieve better traits and improve their performance, now armed with information and tools we can transform our local economies and livelihoods once again.

What short term and long term tools, resources and skills as a community should we be helping these problems solvers of the future become successful and experience a rewarding passion to help themselves, the community, and world?

What other examples do you have that reflect this weak signal?

Next Page