Just transpiring literaly minutes ago, the very own @pistachio (Laura Fitton) and I teamed up to spread the good word of Twitter. This however is taking place off the web, Laura Fitton is the author of Twitter for dummies, and Founder/CEO of the Twitter app store oneforty.com. Twitter for Dummies was given to me as a prize at Aim Wests Social Media Confad, considering myself a novice and an avid supporter of Twitter. I saw it fit to pay this good deed forward and send it to a person I know that is not yet on Twitter.

How it will work

I will read the book, sign my “@” twitter handle and send it off to someone I know that is not yet on Twitter. The idea is this person will read the book, sign up for the service, sign there “@” handle and send it to someone they know not yet using Twitter. The goal is that this book will cross the world making everyone in the world  a thriving active part of Twitter’s community.

Guidelines

• Read the book
• Sign up for Twitter
• Send the book when your done reading it
• Sign your “@” handle and date in the book somewhere
• Tweet your location with the hash tag #TTFD (Traveling Twitter for Dummies)
• Advocate for the power of socially controlled content

Other Ideas

• Upload a Twitpic of you with the book
• Paste newspaper headlines from your local newspaper on the cover
• Add tips and ideas into the book

Lastly

Remember, the internet is an open transparent place, you own social media. Have fun with this and feel free to add whatever you want to the book. (keep it PG please) Laura Fitton and I strongly believe in the power of Twitter as a tool and it would be a shame for others to miss the boat.

Please use the hash tag #TTFD

Picture Credit: benjitao.com

TWTRCON DC 09/ Thursday, 22 October 2009/ 7:30-6:00 (ET)/ The Grand Hyatt, DC

TWTRCON DC 09 | TWTRCON

This one-day conference focuses entirely on Twitter and the many ways that this social media tool can transform the way that your company does business. TWTRCON also gives you the opportunity to network and share ideas with leading executives, key Twitter developers, and social media gurus such as Rohit Bhargava (@rohitbhargava), Laura Fitton (@pistachio), and Craig Newmark (@craignewmark). To find out more follow the #TWTRCON live feed or visit the blog.

Registration Costs: TWTRCON DC 09 Pass $595, Non-profit/academic/government pass $350

Every platform has an app store these days, and so it was almost inevitable that there would be a Twitter app store. Perhaps the only surprise is that the store comes from an outside company and not Twitter itself.

oneforty, which launched yesterday, is the creation of social media consultant and “Twitter for Dummies” author Laura Fitton. According to the site’s welcome screen, it is “currently tracking 1,336 apps that make Twitter better.” It is hard to believe there are that many apps built to work with Twitter, especially since most of them have lived in obscurity without a platform like oneforty to promote them. (And if, somehow, one is missing from onforty’s massive catalog, there is a place on the web site to suggest new additions to the site.)

The site’s home page features a variety of menus to facilitate access to various app selections. There is a featured app, an essentials list, a popular list and a category menu. The design is clean and intuitive to use.

From the home page, users can navigate through the lists or categories to find an individual app that looks interesting. Apps can also be found through lists generated by the site’s tagging system. The app pages are information-packed but not overwhelming, and are simple to read and navigate. There is all of the expected information, such as a link to get the app, the developer’s Twitter ID, and user reviews. But then there’s also somewhat unexpected information, such as related tweets and press mentions. Related tweets displays the most recent tweets mentioning the app, and press mentions links to relevant news stories.

oneforty accesses the Twitter API to create a profile for users on its own site. Users can then customize their profiles by “adding” their favorite Twitter apps to it, as well as adding further information about themselves. App reviews a user has written on oneforty complete the bottom of their profile page (and can be accessed for editing from that location by the user).

For developers, there looks to be much to love about oneforty. Developers are being encouraged to “claim” their apps that are listed in the store’s directory. Once developers claim their apps, they have the ability to add information like screenshots and press mentions to the apps’ profiles. They can also activate functions, such as the donation button (oneforty is ultimately a store, after all). In the future, plans call for developers to have the ability to sell their applications or add-on services on oneforty instead of just accepting donations.

Overall, oneforty is well-designed, intuitive and makes it easy to find apps to enhance the usefulness of Twitter. The only question I’m left with about oneforty is: why didn’t someone do this sooner?

Which Twitter apps do you use?

9 INCH AXIOM:  Commitment to learning

“In life you should always be committed to learning.  When you are green, you are growing . . . Once you are ripe, you start to rot!”

A few weeks ago I completed the curriculum for the Inbound Marketing University (IMU).  The course consisted of 12 one hour webinars, a review and an exam.

It was fun putting on my student hat again.  The folks at Hubspot and their partners in IMU put together a star studded faculty.  

I received notice last week that I passed the exam with high marks and I am now certified as a inbound marketing professional.  Hubspot sent me a link to download my PDF certificate and I also have a cool badge which I’ll showcase on the blog.

I’m intrigued by inbound marketing or as I referred to it in a post a few months ago as PULL MARKETING. This image is by far my favorite image on my blog.  A huge hat tip to Gary Larson.

Today’s  Lagniappe (a little something extra) –  Hubspot

I have to give a huge attaboy to Hubspot.  If you are going to own the inbound marketing space, then you better be exemplary in terms of optimizing your site, owning relevant keywords, pumping out relevant linkworthy content (blog/podcast/white papers), generating boatloads of leads via landing pages and most importantly qualifying and nurturing those leads.  

Hubspot kicks butt on all of the above.  Probably the thing I was most impressed with was their Website Grader (click here to check it out and get your website grade).

First time seeing 9 inches?  Click here to subscribe via e-mail to the blog 

Laura Fitton (@Pistachio), a leading Twitter consultant, has teamed with Michael Gruen and Leslie Poston in authoring new Twitter book

June 19, 2009 – Millions of users are getting into Twitter to connect to friends, family and interest groups. Everyone from teens to grandparents, politicians to marketers and people in between are flocking to Twitter to follow conversations and find out what’s happening beyond their doorstep. Twitter For Dummies (Wiley; May 2009; $19.99) will help you join those conversations and start feeling connected. Recently Twitter has been used for a variety of viral marketing efforts, fundraising by charity organizations, calls to action by politicians on local and national levels (Obama actively tweeted), and even news organizations feeding real time info about the California wildfires or other natural disasters. The Red Cross was able to exercise its Twitter power and quickly disseminate information to local emergency workers to get them where they needed to be most.

It has been said that Twitter can take a minute to learn, but a lifetime to master. The deceptively simple microblog service has become a focal point for business conversation between high level execs and regular joes. Starting with the basics, this book shows how to get set up on Twitter, build a follower list, and find your voice for your tweets; then, it guides you through more complicated tasks like using third party tools to link Twitter to other sites and incorporate it into business communications models.

Twitter For Dummies is written by the ‘Queen of Twitter,’ Laura ‘Pistachio’ Fitton. Fitton has more than 20,000 followers on Twitter and has appeared at many Twitter-focused discussion panels and conferences. She’s joined by respected technologists Michael Gruen and Leslie Poston as co-authors on the project.

Whether readers need to know how to set up their account for the first time or are more seasoned Tweeters looking for cool third party apps to help streamline posting to a variety of sites, Twitter For Dummies covers the basics of using Twitter along with the strategies of getting better business, marketing, and communications results from the service. Topics include:

•The basics of signing up and creating tweets
•Following users and adding followers to your own tweets
•Establishing a voice on Twitter
•Mastering the ‘Twecosystem’ – the tools that tie Twitter to many other Web applications, including mobile
•Strategies for enhancing business communication and networking opportunities with Twitter

About the Authors
Laura Fitton (Boston, MA) is better known as ‘Pistachio.’ Not only is it the name of her marketing/consulting firm, it’s also her Twitter handle. Each day she communicates with her 20,000+ followers on Twitter. Her activity has earned her the reputation of ‘Queen of Twitter.’ She recently relaunched her consulting business to focus on microblogging and social sharing. Michael Gruen (New York, NY) has worked for a number of firms in a COO/CTO role. He is currently CTO of a venture group in “stealth mode” and CFO/COO at NOM, a Digital Services Agency. He still serves as an advisor to several small businesses, and on the board of directors on Hamilton Ventures. Leslie Poston (Boston, MA) is an accomplished author with over 200 ebooks and books in her repertoire. She is also a speaker and leading authority in social networking, new media, brand and business development. Leslie is founder of Uptown Uncorked social media and business development consultancy.

About For Dummies®With near universal name recognition, more than 150 million books in print, and over 900 + topics, For Dummies is the world’s bestselling reference series. With loyal customers around the globe, For Dummies enriches people’s lives by making knowledge accessible in a fun and easy way. Described by the N.Y. Times as “more than a publishing phenomenon, but a sign of the times,” For Dummies span every section of the bookstore, covering everything from health to history, music to math, sports to self-help, technology to travel, and more. The Dummies brand has expanded into new products and categories with an extensive licensed product line, including fitness and hobby DVDs, grilling kits, business software, cleaning products, automotive kits, craft kits, and apparel. For more information, visit Dummies.com. For Dummies is a branded imprint of Wiley.

For more information, contact: Ashley Evens (201) 748-6702 aevens@wiley.com

Twitter For Dummies By AUTHOR NAME(S) For Dummies; July 2009; $21.99 ISBN-13: 978-0-470-47991-9; Paperback

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This is part 2 of the Death of Social Media™ (part 1 is here, wherein we recount how the doomsayers are predicting the demise of SocMed, and the haters are rejoicing). Alan Wolk and I were exchanging. via Twitter, ludicrous traffic-inducing blog headlines about this doomsday scenario, which is how this 2-part “series” was birthed.

For those of an earlier generation, the lyrics and melody of Don McLean’s “Bye-Bye, Miss American Pie” will remain forever embedded in perma-memory – if you’re not familiar with it, here’s a performance on YouTube, and here are the original lyrics.

Now, onto the show…

Bye-Bye, Social Media Die

A short, short time ago
I can still remember how that Twitter used to
Make me smile
And I knew that if I had my chance
I could make those people tweet
And maybe they’d be happy for a while

Did you write a blog for nerds
And do you have faith in Zuckerberg
If the Scoble tells you so
Now do you believe in baiting links
And can Brogan save your blog that stinks
And can you teach me how to Plurk real slow

Well, I know that you’re in love with Guy
‘Cause I saw you tweetin’ on the fly
You both linked up your tribes
Man, I dig those linkback vibes

I was a lonely soc med guru schmuck
With a pink MacBook Pro and a rubber duck
But I knew that I was out of luck
The day the Soc Med died
I started singing…

Bye-bye, Social Media Die
Drove my traffic via bit.ly
But the stats were awry
And good old boys were linkin’ Godin and Guy
Singing this’ll be the day that it dies
This’ll be the day that it dies

I clicked an URL whose link was blue
And I pinged it for some happy news
But it just crashed my Chrome and went away
I scanned my feeds as I had before
But all I got was 404’s
I couldn’t even read Olivier…

Well now, at their desks the tweeters screamed
The bloggers cried, and the spammers schemed
But not a word was written
Not even by Laura Fitton
And the gurus I admire the most
Loren, Ev and Kevin Rose
They made a name, then it was toast
The day the Soc Med died

We started singin’…

Bye-bye, Social Media Die
Drove my traffic via bit.ly
But the stats were awry
And good old boys were linkin’ Godin and Guy
Singing this’ll be the day that it dies
This’ll be the day that it dies

(do I really think Social Media is dying? Of course not. Here’s how I see the evolution unfolding…)

————-

Prior StickyFigure spoofs

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It’s no real secret that I’m a huge fan of music – anytime I can introduce myself to something fun, catchy or full out rockin’ in music, I’m a pretty happy camper.  Music is one of those things that is completely personal.  Regardless of where you may come from, where you’re heading, whatever – music has the potential to touch you in a very personal way.

This is why I’ve always been fascinated on the song choices movies make when they use a particular song for a scene (I believe this person is a music supervisor).  In my opinion, the right kind of song can make or break a scene.  Can you imagine any one of the ‘big’ scenes from Guy Ritchie’s Film Snatch (or any of his other films for that matter) without music?

What about the ‘battle scene’ in The Matrix

Can you imagine how different this pivotal scene would’ve been like had it not been for the music…?  Interestingly enough, even before this music was used in the Matrix, it existed as a piece that stood on its own.  I would argue that this scene helped make it truly memorable.

There are a variety of things being done today in public relations, social media and marketing that have positively affected a company’s bottom line.  Some great…some not-so-great.  Some of these tactics and ideas are unique and innovative…some not quite so.

What’s wonderful about business is that you don’t necessarily have to be ‘original’ to be successful.  You just have to put your own brand of passion, love, excitement and personality in it to really ‘own it.’  Incredibly smart and gifted people like Gary Vaynerchuk, Guy Kawasaki and Laura Fitton have gained much kudos and respect (rightfully so) for their savvy in social media.  In my opinion, part of their success has come from them making sure that they put as much of themselves as they can with everything they do – they really ‘own it.’

Not all of us can be a ‘Guy Kawasaki’ or a ‘Laura Fitton’ or a ‘Gary Vaynerchuk.’  So what are you doing these days to truly ‘own’ what you’re doing?  What new, memorable ‘scene’ are you producing with an ‘old’ idea or song?

Social media has really been an adventure for me in the past couple of years. I spent much of my free time in the fall reading and commenting on blogs that I found through Twitter. I love technology! But that is a post for another day.

This post is cutting it very close because the latest pinkslipparty in Boston will start in 15 minutes from this writing. But it will be there for the future, for all the potential pinkslipparty questions people may have in the future.

My adventure with pinkslipparty began when I saw a post by @Pistachio (aka Laura Fitton) on Twitter on the afternoon of January 9. She was announcing a pinkslipparty for the Boston area which she was putting together for that evening. She had found someone to donate a place and food and was looking for help from career services for both resources and prizes. I’ve given resume packages to church auctions and other projects before so I sent @Pistachio an e-mail volunteering to help with a donation of a resume package if she wanted. She replied that it would be great and there I was, a distant helper to a pinkslipparty half a continent away. I pointed her to the package on my very new web site www.designresumes.com and she was set.

Laura said on Twitter that it was like Stone Soup and that made me smile. I knew what she meant. She was referencing one of my favorite children’s stories, one I had seen over and over on Captain Kangaroo. Soldiers enter a village whose inhabitants don’t want to share anything with them. They suggest that they will make stone soup and then ask for one ingredient at a time. I don’t remember the order anymore but it was a carrot, a potato, an onion, until they had all they needed for the soup. The townspeople became more generous as the story went on and more trusting. I have used the analogy for Stone Soup which transcends beyond soup ingredients when I am organizing an event and want things to come together. I ask for just one thing and it expands until I have exactly what I need.

In Laura’s case, the pinkslipparty designed to help unemployed people gather to exchange ideas and just get past the feelings that come upon you when you are out of work. The pink slip party concept is explained here by Galen Moore of www.masshightech.com ”Like those festivities held after the dot-com bubble burst the last time the economy crashed, 2009’s pink-slip parties are popping up to provide a jump start for networking job seekers and a petri dish for growing new startups. Perhaps more importantly, they offer shoulders to lean on for the newly laid off.”

By later in the evening @Pistachio had sent me a DM letting me know that @JamesonBull had won the package. Even before that I caught Jameson Bull’s Tweet that the pinkslipparty was awesome and he was the winner! You can see the shorter web version of the resume I created for Jameson in his portfolio.

Tonight another Initial Launch Package will be given away in Boston. I told Laura that I would be happy to help out with another donation. This afternoon I e-mailed my Career Directors International colleagues to give them a heads up on what I am doing and open the door to other donations for other pinkslipparties. On March 6, one more Initial Launch package will be given away in Chicago at the pinkslipparty that Brendan Murphy, @dendari on Twitter, is planning.

I think that this is the time that the country needs to pull together, all of us need to work together. I’m a resume writer and make my living by writing resumes but I can contribute in a small way with a few packages to help someone move forward in their career. If you are unemployed, check for pinkslipparty on Twitter or Google and you will find yourself with others who share your concerns. At the same time, people like Laura Fitton are trying to find ways to pull in the career services industry, the hiring companies, and help people move forward. Together, we will survive the economic challenges, perhaps by making our own version of Stone Soup!

We talked a lot about Twitter in class and it’s made me wonder why people use Twitter.  I signed up for an account back in October 2008 and I think I posted 8 Tweets before getting bored… maybe it’s because not too many of my friends use Twitter or maybe I just don’t understand Twitter… either way, I wanted to find out: Why do people Twitter?

Laura Fitton, of Pistachio (a company specializing in web 2.0 applications), was wondering the same thing.  To get an answer, she posted the open-ended question “Twitter makes us more…” on her own Twitter page and the responses she received were really interesting.

Here are just a few of the many responses:

Musing. Twitter makes me more: informed, networked, amused, challenged to think, aware, enlightened, distracted, curious, connected, loved… I could probably go on all day. what about you? How would you fill in the blank: “Twitter makes me more ____________.”

you replied:

Matt Shandera @MattShandera Hmm good question: how about visable?

AnnOhio @AnnOhio *willing to spread my wings and try new things* Like meeting and connecting with soem amazing people. )

Jim Turner @Genuine exposed

Tom Summit @tsummit Twitter makes me more: human and gregarious

Laura P Thomas @LPT twitter keeps me more informed, connected and up-to-date.

Aneel L @aneel twitter makes me more chatty

Chris Wilson @Aithene Distracted. Cozy. Its like I’m hanging out in a room full of people I mostly like.

Ed Illig @Illig That’s quite a list. H’m, “…a better cook.” also inspires me to continue learning, appreciate/respect creativity of others.

Stowe Boyd @stoweboyd “Twitter makes me more messy, and messiness is good.”

royblumenthal @royblumenthal Twitter makes me more connecting.

Colin Walker @ColinWalker using your “Twitter makes me more…” tweet in a blog post as an illustration if you don’t mind. (@colinwalker have at it, thanks!)

Starman @istarman connected

jljohansen @jljohansen Twitter makes me feel less alone in my cube

Interesting huh?  (You can read the other replies here.)  I didn’t realize Twitter meant so much to its users.  So what do you think?  Why do you Twitter?

With its ability to process information coming from more than 60 social Web applications, FriendFeed seems to be less of a competitor to Twitter and more of a threat to Facebook’s News Feed.

With a 3,170 percent increase in traffic over the past year, FriendFeed could be THE social application to watch in 2009.

From PR 2.0:

Defining FriendFeed is easier said than done. In fact, it’s less of a competitor to Twitter and more of a vertical threat to Facebook’s prized news feed. The News Feed featured in Facebook is considered the central nervous system to the social graph. It powers conversations, connections and collaboration. As Facebook Connect “connects” you and your social graph across the Web, it will increase in value as it aggregates all outside activity into one centralized stream for your friends, and friends of friends, to review, interpret, and respond. Also, don’t rule out an acquisition of Twitter either.

FriendFeed is one of the most prominent examples of a dedicated lifestream (brandstream). It channels your social activity and also that of your social graph into one simplified river of relevance. As new items appear in the stream, it invites bookmarking and threaded conversations that promote dialog. For example, you can import activity from flickr, youtube, twitter, backtype, blogs, Last.fm, Seesmic, Upcoming, LinkedIn, Yelp, Amazon, Picasa, Delicious, StumbleUpon, Digg, Reddit, Disqus, and 12 seconds. The growing list of services currently sits at 60, but technically you can integrate any service that generates an RSS feed. Most important is FriendFeed’s ability to port your Facebook status into your stream. Technically, you can now host, contribute to and participate in a more comprehensive “news feed” with the potential of reaching a far greater, or perhaps focused and dedicated audience of people who either aren’t on Facebook or prefer something different.

Pink Slips, originally uploaded by My Hobo Soul.

“Fear is the mind-killer,” says media whiz Laura Fitton, quoting “Dune.” She of the @pistachio Twitter moniker with the gazillions of followers, @wbur among them, is organizing “pink slip parties,” intended as morale boosters and networking opportunities for the recently laid off.

WBUR’s very own David Boeri (@davidboeri) caught up with Fitton and two casualties of the souring economy yesterday at Zaftig’s:

Note: The audio lead mistakenly implies that David attended a “Pink Slip Party.”

Real-time. Chris Brogan today talks about real-time coverage of events, using as an example his live-tweeting of a press conference last night. What do you think – how much of a game-changer is this? Frankly, I think that the convergence of the tools (cameras, smartphones, etc.) and the platforms (blogging, Twitter, etc.) has already fundamentally changed the game. Immediacy is now here, and we’re just realizing it. Latency is….well, a thing of the past.

2009 – The Year of Going Social. From the blog of Laura Fitton (Pistachio). “The bad news for business? You’re late. The good news? You’re not too late…”

Is Social Media the same as Marketing? Beth Harte’s asking – what do you think? I’m guessing most of us have had this discussion, at least in our own heads. “…a good communicator does not always make a good marketer nor does a good marketer always make a good communicator. They are two different disciplines.”

Want a nice daily summary of some Social Networking headlines? Here’s one of my secrets. Business Week’s Business Exchange. Worth a daily visit.

Jeremiah Owyang provides a nice summary blog post of Social Networking news each week. Well worth subscribing to. Here’s the latest.

PLUS – What’s Cramberry? A cool spin on an old technique. Too neat-o to pass up a link. From ReadWriteWeb. And, just because the headline is so imaginative: The Art of One Butt Cheek Blogging (from Copyblogger).

—

Like this? Re-tweet it on Twitter (just cut/paste):
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(Image credit)

Laura Fitton started a new wave with her charity.water fundraising campaign on Twitter, and there is no stopping the flow of other social organizations wanting to jump in. After all, money’s tight and big donors are no longer so eager to write the big checks that used to keep non profits afloat.

The problem is, people like me, with not so deep pockets, want to help, but only up to a point. Once the novelty of  Tipjoy wears off, my hunch is, the people are going to start suffering from micro-donor’s fatigue, and micro-fundraisers are going to have to work a lot harder.

When going for the gold on Twitter, or other social media platforms, try to answer these five questions first:

• Who are the people most likely to be interested in helping our cause?
• Who else is competing for these people’s money?
• What is it in our cause that’s uniquely compelling, and that will give potential donors the biggest emotional reward?
• Besides altruism, what are some creative ways that we can we reward and entice donors?
• How high is the gift threshold?

Any other question I have not covered, please add in comments.

The last few weeks I had a closer look at Twitter-like solutions that work within the enterprise. This is a summary post of the discussions that I have found on the internet. It is mainly focussed on the new enterprise microblogging product ‘Yammer.com’

Yammer at TechCrunch

Short summary description of Yammer: ‘Yammer Wins TechCrunch 50 with Twitter-like Enterprise Service’

TechCrunch50 Awards Ceremony – Yammer (video)

Short video explaining the functionality of Yammer: Yammer presentation by David Sacks, CEO of Yammer at Techcrunch50

Summary description from the Yammer site:

‘Yammer is a tool for making companies and organizations more productive through the exchange of short frequent answers to one simple question: “What are you working on?”

As employees answer that question, a feed is created in one central location enabling co-workers to discuss ideas, post news, ask questions, and share links and other information. Yammer also serves as a company directory in which every employee has a profile and as a knowledge base where past conversations can be easily accessed and referenced.

Anyone in a company can start their Yammer network and begin inviting colleagues. The privacy of each network is ensured by limiting access to those with a valid company email address. The basic Yammer service is free. Companies can pay to claim and administer their network’

Other remarks in this presentation:

- a tag cloud give insight into what people are talking about within the organization

- comparison with email: conversation is shifted from email to Yammer, enabling other employees to find relevant information

- Apple iPhone, Adobe AIR clients are available

- Business model : everything is free; you pay to be administrator to remove users, enhanced security (like IP address ranges, password policies).

Pistachio consulting

‘Pistachio consulting’ has an excellent blog on Microsharing/ Microblogging.

On Yammer, they present  is an overview of all articles related to Yammer, which is an enterprise microsharing solution. Yammer is a ready-to-use solution (Software as a Service)

Downside of this solution is that you have less control, and that the data is not within your organizations’ firewall, but at the service provider. Upside is that you do not have to take care of all servicing yourself (updating the software, backup etc, problem resolution, customer service, etc).

Comparison matrix of Yammer and 14 rival microsharing solutions: ‘Twitter’s “water cooler” collaboration, support and problem-solving qualities have led to much discussion about a similar application for internal “Enterprise 2.0″ collaboration and communication.  Yammer’s success touched off a spate of announcements about similar applications, and Jeremiah Owyang and I have been tracking the growing list. ‘ (Scribd.com site; free account needed to download the comparison sheet).

Chris Brogan

Chris Brogan has a different opinion on Yammer:

‘Twhirl Makes Yammer Irrelevant’: ‘So, to sum that all up: Twitter inside the firewall, private for your business is Twhirl+laconi.ca. Twitter outside the firewall with your business colleagues and friends is Twhirl+Twitter’ – Discussion on FriendFeed about this post

Twirl+laconi.ca: Indeed, this might be a good solution when you want to host the service inside our own organization, within the firewall.

Other (some more critical) voices

Mathew Ingram (Communities editor at The Globe and Mail in Toronto): Yammer: This thing is a prize winner?

NY Times article: Will Microblogging at Work Make You More Productive?

BBC is using Yammer: Yammer goes down, companies all over go silent

Mark Evans: If Yammer has potential as an enterprise tool, the big question is why hasn’t Twitter already moved into the corporate market. For a company scrambling for a business model, you figure that selling a corporate version of Twitter would be a no-brainer.

Good commentary blog post by Steve Boyd: ‘The idea that work activities — like request for meetings, status changes in tasks, peoples comings and goings, and new information about projects — should flow to you rather than sitting in web pages, documents, or emails is compelling.’

‘Yammer is a more-or-less point for point duplication of Twitter functionality, which makes it so odd that Twitter has refused to build this product. That is spectacularly dumb. Here’s what it looks like.’ – Steve Boyd’s own Yammer site:

Steve Mann (SAP) on Yammer (Steve Mann is a 20-year veteran of the high tech industry. Currently he is a Global Vice President of Marketing for SAP, focused on driving SAP’s Social Media Strategies to market. ): ‘In the hopes of becoming part of an Enterprise 2.0 backbone for organizations of all sizes, grouping functionality is absolutely essential. Without it, there’s no way to cleanly and precisely provide direct team support capabilities.’

From the NY Times: ‘Now, Brevity Is the Soul of Office Interaction’:

“Every time we put something across Yammer, we’re exposing it to people but not forcing it down their throats,” said Tom Link, chief technology officer of Universal Mind, a Web development company in Westfield, Mass., with 70 employees. “Depending on what they’re doing, people might be paying attention to messages as they’re posted. But if I’m not in the office, I can go back and get the whole company stream for a day and read it in about 10 minutes. I could never do that with e-mail.”

“Companies with many employees who work from home or in far-flung offices may get the most out of internal microblogging, which can help fill the inherent social gaps among remote workers. Even simple updates like, “Going to the dentist” or “Mopping coffee off the keyboard” can make co-workers feel more connected to one another.”

Security concerns

‘Security. Any time a business has employees putting data outside the corporate firewall, there will be privacy and data security concerns. If the Yahooligans could get Gov. Sarah Palin’s private e-mails and post them to the Internet, it could happen to one of your employees.

Yammer’s security statement

Technical

http://www.programmableweb.com/api/yammer: links to API description, blog

Other platforms: Present.ly

Enterprise Twitter heats up with Present.ly

Other platforms: ESME

ESME means Enterprise Social Media Experiment. ‘ESME is a secure and highly scalable microsharing platform that allows people to meet and discover one another in a business process context.’

ESME is an open source development; developers from companies such as SAP and Siemens are contributing to it.

The interesting part is that this platform is very much focused on delivering a solution that can integrate well into the overall enterprise software landscape. This is no surprise when we see that most of the contributors have strong background in SAP.

More on this platform later, in a separate post.

So after not quite 24 hours of Motrin’s Twitter Moment (Hat Tip to @Pistachio), some more in-depth analysis of the offending ads and the online response is starting to roll in.

Laura Fitton weighs in with a pithy summary and analysis here:

Even if your brand or agency isn’t ready to engage formally and integrate the business applications of Twitter throughout your campaigns, community building and other market engagement efforts, you need to get clued in — fast — to the reasons, times and ways that you can listen. Maybe you’re not even ready for full-time social media monitoring. That’s your call. But not tuning in while you launch a new tactic borders on gross negligence, in this day and age.

Here’s what Peter Shankman has to say, in part:

Screw focus groups, use Twitter. The moms have been sucking the life-forces out of their children since 4am this morning to use it as a weapon of mass destruction against Motrin. And they’ve been doing it on their blogs, on Twitter, and the like. Not ONE person at either Motrin or Twitter has an alert on this crap, to say, “Hey Bob, maybe we should pull the ads for now and revisit the situation tomorrow morning at 8am in an all-hands?” Hell, I have alerts on my name ping me every 20 minutes on my blackberry because I’m bored! That Motrin or their agency didn’t do it is pathetic.

And this is from Brian Brown at Brand New World:

If the brand gets very real, admits their mistakes, listens, keeps asking questions, lets real moms do the talking, and does a really good job at it, they may just be able to turn this backlash into strong brand advocacy – then everyone would be happy.

Karoli writes:

Had the folks who created this ill-conceived PR campaign thought for half a second, or had a clue about how Twitter works, they would already have been reaching out to the community, asking about how they handled pain, how they did it while nursing, what they most loved about being new moms, what they most wished could be different, what tools they wanted but don’t currently have.

And, at the end of the day, the response from Motrin’s VP of Marketing.

We certainly did not mean to offend moms through our advertising. Instead, we had intended to demonstrate genuine sympathy and appreciation for all that parents do for their babies. We believe deeply that moms know best and we sincerely apologize for disappointing you. Please know that we take your feedback seriously and will take swift action with regard to this ad. We are in process of removing it from our website.

Jeremiah Owyang weighs in on Monday with some lessons learned:

Always test your campaign with a small segment first

Always have staff on hand to be prepared to respond during the weekend

Don’t launch a campaign right before the weekend unless you’re prepared to respond

The participants have the power, so participate

For better or for worse, more influencers are talking about Motrin than ever before

Robert at InfOpinions writes:

Saying a response withing 24 hours is good … hey, that’s old school. Welcome to the new world. Listening is the key, here. Listening before preparing the ad would have sent out warning flares galore. Listening after it was launched (24/7) would have alerted McNeil and J&J to the potential firestorm. They could have dealt with this faster. PR people, the protectors of reputation and brand, never sleep. Didn’t you folks at McNeil & Johnson & Johnson get that memo? More importantly, they should have dealt with it faster. If you’re going to be online and engaging the masses online … pay attention! Hello?

And the newly posted Motrin.com website:

What’s your take?

I asked Geoff Livingston (@geoffliving), CEO of Livingston Communications, what he thought of the MotrinMoms uproar, and he confirmed what many on the #MotrinMoms Twitterstream have suspected, namely that

a focus group would have stopped this from happening.

Geoff would know; he was just at the Society for New Communications Research awards ceremony with Shashi Bellamkonda (@shashib) of Network Solutions, who received an award for Excellence in New Communications, for the turnaround that company has seen in customer satisfaction, directly as a result of the improved social media listening and engagement they worked with Livingston Communications to achieve.

This made me think of the point Laura Fitton (@pistachio) made recently at the same SNCR award ceremony, where she discussed the future of Twitter, and why Twitter matters to business (click on the first tag to jump to the part of her talk I’m referring to):

Sadly for Motrin, what we’ve seen happen this weekend is Twitter functioning as a focus group AFTER the ad was launched.  Generally, it’s considered preferable to get feedback from your focus groups BEFORE launch.

On the bright side, they now have their pick of volunteers:

What might have happened if they had reached out to the community of mommy bloggers on Twitter first, asked them what they thought of the ad, and incorporated their responses before launch?

And here’s the best analysis I’ve seen of this so far, from an advertising guy.

Laura Fitton (@pistachio, Principal of Pistachio Consulting) accepted the SNCR Innovator of the Year Award on behalf of Twitter founders Jack Dorsey, Biz Stone, and Evan Williams.