Here's what happened when Chris Savage, the chief executive of Wistia.com, searched for the phrase "private video sharing" on Twitter, a social networking site. One post he found read, "A teacher requested a private 'video sharing' Web site so that specialists can observe student behavior—can anyone refer one?"

That got Savage's attention. He e-mailed back: "Still looking for a private video sharing site?"

Minutes later came the reply: "YES! It's the first request for one—thought I'd hit up my tweets before [I] go digging."

Savage: "Cool. You may want to check out Wistia.com. Full disclosure, I'm the CEO; -)"

While this exchange may seem a bit cryptic, Savage is one of a growing number of business owners to whom it makes an awful lot of sense. Savage frequently trolls Twitter looking for sales leads for his five-person, $1 million company, which makes software that facilitates video sharing through a private network. Although Savage has been using Twitter for only a year, it's already helped him find 12 new clients for his Lexington (Mass.) company. "This is a no-cost way of marketing," he says. Because Twitter provides a public forum, each post becomes a form of promotion as other users follow Savage's posts. "You are building a reputation; people can go back and look at your Web site and the quality of your content, and you are becoming part of the community," Savage says. Other business owners are using Twitter for market research and to keep an eye on customer service issues.

BREVITY'S BRAWN

Twitter distinguishes itself from MySpace (NWS) and Facebook by relying less on picture-laden profiles and more on posts of fewer than 140 characters, referred to as "tweets" or "microblogs." Twitter's simplicity is paired with a powerful search function that allows users to mine others' updates in real time for useful nuggets. "Twitter lets you stay on top of what is happening within your client base," says Chip Lambert, owner of Network2Networth, a business development consultancy in Phoenix. "You can look at conversations and reposition yourself, your products, and your services in a way that appeals to the market you are reaching out to."

An estimated 5 million people use Twitter, according to Cambridge-based Forrester Research. Twitter co-founder Biz Stone says businesses "that are not quite big enough to make an impact on the Web, or to spend resources there," have been some of the earliest users of the site. He says some San Francisco-based coffee shops and bakeries have sent tweets to tell their customers about specials or products they may be out of that day. One Los Angeles taco truck uses Twitter to tell customers where it will be that day. "Businesses use this as a hybrid between marketing and customer service," says Stone. "They use the Twitter Search to track mentions of their products and services and as a way to begin a conversation."

Like any online forum, Twitter may not be for everyone. Its immediacy and conversational nature make it a boon to those whose products and services may take a bit more explaining or back-and-forth. And it can be a time suck. "One of the major drawbacks is that [Twitter] is very addictive," says Savage, who has 800 followers and in turn follows just as many. He uses a popular add-on called Tweet Deck, which lets members organize messages by category.

GETTING STARTED

Joining Twitter is easy and free. You create a user name and password, then log onto the site. (You can also sign up to have tweets delivered to your mobile phone.) Once inside, there's a big box at the top labeled "What are you doing?" While you could start by typing something as mundane as "I am drinking my coffee and checking out Twitter," you'll see tabs on the right that say "following," "followers," and "updates," enabling you to follow others whose posts you find interesting. Once you've been posting for a while, people follow you too. A certain viral element takes over, and soon you may wind up in the middle of a Twitter community with common interests

Reading on: http://bit.ly/cvQdk

MySpace has teamed with Citysearch, a leading online local guide, in a bold bid to pursue local online business advertising. MySpace Local, a social directory of small business profiles that let users review, rate and share content from businesses nationwide, was unfurled today. Coors and Outback Steakhouse are inaugural brand sponsors. MySpace Local will expand in the next few months to include categories such as doctors, dentists, hotels, travel and attractions.
“This is a defining moment in MySpace’s emergence as a social portal,” says Jeff Berman, MySpace's president of sales and marketing. “MySpace Local is about taking advantage of MySpace's content sharing and people's ability to voice their opinions on it.”
The social-networking site is competing with Facebook -- which also has a partnership with Citysearch -- and others for tapping into the fledgling local-online ad market. Online spending by local U.S. advertisers grew 45% last year, to $12.7 billion, and is expect to improve another 5% in 2009, says media-research firm Borrell Associates. Last October, MySpace introduced MyAds, a service that lets small businesses buy ads on MySpace.
"The biggest opportunity for MySpace Local is on the mobile platform - where users can search for local restaurants and invite friends to join them," says Caroline Dangson, an analyst at IDC.

Read today on usatoday.com/technologylive

All the world's atwitter. Or so it has seemed over the last few months anyway. But with the G20, finally Twitter has shifted from being the story to becoming a tool with which to tell the story. It could be argued that this shift began with the Hudson plane crash but very quickly the "Twitter angle", that the news had broken in a tweet, was everywhere. Suddenly a rash of stories cropped up about news being broken on twitter, not to mention great excitement every time Stephen Fry so much as sneezed.

As the G20 protests spread through the City, Twitter is finally being widely recognised as a great way to follow events as they unfold. Here at the Telegraph we are pulling tweets into our G20 page (with some help from Twitterfall). The Guardian is collating its journalists' tweets here as is Sky here. Yesterday, Reuters hosted a live discussion with Robert Zoellick, the President of the World Bank, in which he answered questions from Twitter. Most mainstream media organisations have reporters tweeting about the summit.

And of course you can follow tweets pouring in about the G20 at Twitter Search. It's been wonderful to sit here at my desk and follow all sorts of observations, pictures and videos coming from people in the heart of the throng in central London as well as from those watching from afar.

Next month, the impact of Twitter and microjournalism on newsgathering will be examined at media140, an event which will bring together bloggers, journalists and publishers. I will be going along and you can follow my tweets on my Twitter account. I suspect that the G20 will stand out as a turning point for Twitter, and indeed social media more generally, and its relationship with journalism. I hope this is just the beginning.

But here I am falling into the same trap as everyone else and making Twitter the story again. So I'm going to shut up now and get back to watching screens.

Read all in: http://bit.ly/o0Eya #G20

A Vocal Few Don't Represent the Majority but Could Signify a Larger Issue.
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- If the social-media sphere attacks your brand, do "real people" hear the screams? Not likely, according to surveys that indicate marketers shouldn't rush to quiet every micro-outrage that sweeps across the web. Last fall, Johnson & Johnson's Motrin broke creative of a mom complaining that wearing your baby "in fashion," via a sling, can cause back and neck pain. It offended some in the social-media sphere, and an army of Twittering moms got the brand to yank the ad and issue a mea culpa on its site. But, according to a Lightspeed Research survey, almost 90% of women had never seen the ad. Once they saw it, about 45% liked the video, 41% had no feelings about it, and 15% didn't like it. Even fewer, 8%, said it negatively affected their feelings of the brand, compared with the 32% who said it made them like the brand more. Was Motrin's decision to yank the ad and apologize the right one -- even if it made the problem go away?

Skittles recently redesigned its website and adopted a sort of "anti-site." Instead of building a destination, it built an overlay that sat atop several social-media communities: Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Wikipedia. It launched debate -- and mischief -- in the Twitterverse as users started posting sometimes-naughty comments about the candy to the social-media sites. But when private online community Communispace asked more than 300 people if they'd heard of the endeavor, only 6% of a fairly web-savvy audience had.

The internet has made it easier than ever for consumers to get their opinions heard -- and for marketers to listen. But it also creates real challenges: Do marketers know who they're listening to? And at what point does the echo chamber of social media drown out the real opinions of the people who buy your brand?

"The data is a really compelling reminder that a lot of our target consumers are not the people who are sitting on Twitter freaking out over a packaging design that they don't like," said Diane Hessan, CEO of Communispace. She added, "These are people online, having conversations, and yet they are totally out of the loop on stuff us marketing junkies love to obsess over."

Read all in:
http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=135605

It's Not Just What's on a Page or Who Links to It; It's How It Relates to Users' Personal Networks.
A young woman in Chapel Hill, N.C., wakes up sweating. Her air conditioner has died. She knows she wants a new one, but she wants one that will be energy-efficient, easy to install on her own, reliable and not too expensive. She hops online and types, "I need a new A/C today; I have $250 to spend -- help!" into Twitter, which in turn feeds automatically into her Facebook status. She immediately begins to receive replies in both channels from friends with advice on retail outlets, air-conditioner brands and how to stay cool with no A/C. She also sees an @ reply on Twitter from a national big-box retailer letting her know its Chapel Hill location has new air conditioners in stock, as well as a link to the section of its website that shows air conditioners for under $250.

This is the new face of the "search" experience online. The separation between search and social media is melting away, and a new paradigm is taking hold. Finding the right content is as much about whom it comes from as where you find it. By building a network of credible sources via social media, we're able narrow our "searches" to a select group of people whom we trust.

For brands, this means a host of new challenges and opportunities are emerging beyond the traditional search channel.

And how far it's come: When search began, marketers used paid search and SEO to make content findable on their own web pages.

by Peter Hershberg. Reading all in: http://is.gd/pF3G

Social networks, as we know, are modes of representation of groups of social actors. While modes of representation of social structures, networks can also express power structures implicit in these groups. From my point of view, every social group has some kind of hierarchy and some kind of structure may consist of either implicitly or explicitly. A power relationship, for Foucault, is a relationship of domination of individuals on other individuals or institutions and other institutions. This power is legitimated by a particular social group in different ways. We could imagine, for example, that in a social network on Twitter, people with the greatest number of followers would have more power in the network, since it could influence a larger number of individuals. This connection would, therefore, cause and consequence of the legitimacy of a structure of power there expressed.
The purpose of this post is to draw attention to a discussion that often take for granted: one where the social networks on the Internet is democratic in principle and democratizing our relations. Not quite. Internet social networks are also hierarchical and dependent relationships of influence and power. There is also domination. There are also social contract. When choosing who the next Twitter or accept requests for friends on Orkut, pesamos carefully the advantages and disadvantages of this relationship and decide whether or not to the others. Many of these networks may be highly centralized, where a single individual is the connector and filter the information to all.
Read all (in portuguese): http://twurl.nl/5kw0z3

SANTA CLARA, CA, (EUA) -- A South Bay business has now found an innovative way to use the hottest trend in social networking to help keep the business growing. Use hottest trend in social networking to help keep business growing (Twitter & Facebook).

The Pizza Party parlor in Santa Clara has been spinning pizza pies in one shape or another since 1962.

"You can find us on Facebook; we're on Twitter," said Silber.

This is a sign of the next generation of marketing.

"I'm young. I'm only 26, and I use the Internet everyday anyways," said Silber.

Silber swears by using online social networking tools, like Twitter and Facebook, as a fresh, free, and fast way to market his small business.

"Immediately when I have an idea, I can tweet it," said Silber.

Pizza Party already has more than 1,000 followers on Twitter and Silber sends them instant messages about different meal deals and other incentives to come in.

"On Super Bowl Sunday, whoever came in wearing their team's jersey got free pizza," said Silber. "Sharks games, same thing,. I'll do the same thing. I'll put those out on my Twitter.".

It has become a marketing and advertising tool that is beginning to help increase business, especially critical during this rocky economy.

Silber says social media can be useful for many types of businesses. The challenge is to think, and act, outside-the-box.

"Especially within the traditional mom and pop pizza parlor, they're so used to Yellow Page ads, doorbell hangers. These old, old marketing things that in my mind aren't successful," said Silber.

But it's not just Twitter and Facebook that has catapulted Pizza Party into the 21st century. Silber has even developed a way for customers to connect by iPhone.

"We actually have an icon here. It's its own app. It's an iPhone app," said Silber.

And if you really want to feel connected with your pizza, visit www.pizzapartyonline.comfrom a computer or a mobile phone, and you can watch your pizza being made live on three different cameras. Now that is one modern way to get your customers drooling.

For more information:

• www.pizzapartyonline.com
• Or Twitter: Pizza_Party

See all Video in http://twurl.nl/iul032

Together we’re better; Global or local: you choose; Self-awareness and reflective practice; Ideas workshop and sounding board; Newsroom and innovation showcase; Professional development and critical friends; Quality-assured searching; Communicate, communicate, communicate; Getting with the times has never been so easy!

By Laura Walker. Read all article in: http://is.gd/pxRE

David Plouffe, campaign manager for Barack Obama at the Conference on 30 March 2009 in Lisbon, at the invitation of Cunha Vaz & Associados:
"In four or eight years, social tools like Facebook and Twitter will still be around but seen as prehistoric" folllow #dplouffe on Twitter search. "The (traditional national) media is (just) part of the package"; "200,000 students donate monay for our campaign"; "Obama had an unique connection with supporters": "The grassroots: 20 hours a week was the average time spent by Obama's volunteers"; "Social networking was the engine of our grassroots movement"; "We use our supporters to spread our message"; "direct contact with people not only how to involve the filters of journalists and commentators."; "Autenticity matters in any human endeavor but specially important in politics"; "You cannot hide who you are"; "very important lesson on strategy: you can't abandon it two weeks later"; "The speech in Berlin was a huge gamble"; "using the technology, but that is justified and not just because of all"; "not just the will of Obama to be President, people were like that"; "We want to keep citizen's involvement"; "Transparency: every US Dollar spent on recovery plan will be tracked online"; "we can not afford to wait to make decisions"; "We need to have a long view - we need that and that's not very usual in the US Presidency". -->> Fantastic conference by David Plouffe in Lisbon.

Others:
Journal Diario Economico - http://twurl.nl/b72q7f
RTP tv: http://twurl.nl/gc8mpj
Journal "Jornal de Negócios": http://twurl.nl/k7ofrn
Journal Publico: http://twurl.nl/hq5ymp
"Meios e Publicidade": http://tinyurl.com/cm5gcr
Journal Destak: http://is.gd/qaJN

Salesforce harnesses Tweets. The customer-service software company launches tool that imports Tweets about its.

By now, it's old news that lots of businesses (like @jetblue or @starbucks) use Twitter to monitor what the Internet is saying about them in real time, and, where possible, respond to people's questions. But as Twitter keeps growing, how do companies transition their twitter-based customer service from an ad hoc thing to a robust, full-fledged customer-facing experience?

Enter Salesforce.com (CRM). At a Salesforce meetup in New York this morning, CEO Marc Benioff introduced "Salesforce for Twitter," marrying Salesforce's customer care software with the 140 character tweet.

Here's how is works: Salesforce plugs in to the Twitter API, and customer care reps can start Twitter searches from within Salesforce's service, bypassing search.twitter.com. If a company discovers someone tweeting about them (good or bad), a button click can import the entire Twitter thread into Salesforce's software.

The advantages are obvious: Beyond better customer care, Salesforce's approach is scalable as Twitter continues to grow. With multiple designated Twitter repliers at a company, it's easy for customer care managers to track who on their team is answering how many Twitter questions and how helpful individual staff are being.

We like this idea so much, we fear it may be too successful. It's one thing to answer a Twitter-user who's complaining as an isolated example of great customer care.

Read in CNN Money in http://is.gd/oBYi

Twittez is a very simple web application that crowd sources for you by looking for the text “does anyone know?” within your tweets. In my opinion this is a very clever way to introduce new users to their service, and gain traction by integrating seamlessly with the Twittersphere.

Cute phrase that people or organizations said on the Twitter service. The non stop reading. Read and think about it. Reading in: http://is.gd/iQpW

Not completing a bio; Protecting updates but complaining about no followers; No updates but complaining about no followers; Carrying on long conversations between two users; Making the text unreadable; Going in to RSS/Twitterfeed overload; No avatar; Read the all text in http://is.gd/mBan

Designing for the web today requires leveraging sound and well-tested information-design principles while increasing the amount of interaction and "social" components offered to your readers.
The Web wave 2.0 has seemingly brought significant design innovation in the form of rounded corners, pastel colors, 3D embossed shiny buttons, floor reflections and large text captions and many a designer have rapidly adopted and made theirs this new simpler, more visually impactful and highly legible 2.0 style.
But what separates cute 2.0 cosmetics from true design innovation, is the ability of information architects and web designers to skillfully orchestrate the multiple forms of interaction and engagement that Web 2.0 services and technologies have come to offer: Multi-dimensional navigation, social bookmarking, community search, readers recommendations and comments, user generated content and contributions, video and chat components, grassroots news... you name it. It is in this direction that information designers could look next: moving beyond the basic visual organization of content elements and into the realm of social simplicity where the elements information reading, contributing and exchanging are coreographed in ways to make them mutually supprtive and synergistic.
Simple & Social - This is... Twitter.
By Robin Good on http://www.masternewmedia.org