Archive for the ‘Strategy’ Category

Instant Tweetup is a free iPhone application that allows users to find nearby Twitter users and send them tweets.

How Does Instant Tweetup Work?

Once launched, the application requests permission to use your current location. By providing your location, the application can scan your immediate geographical area and find Twitter users who:

1) Have set their “Location” settings in that area or,
2) Have their “Tweet Location” option on and have “checked in” nearby.

This “Tweet Location” feature is an opt-in feature that was added to Twitter a few months back. You can turn this on by going to Settings > Account > then checking on the “Tweet Location” checkbox. I tweet from home a lot so I have this turned off.

Once you use the application to find nearby tweeps, you can “@” message them an invitation to meetup with you and optionally include a bit.ly map link with your current location. You do not have to be following these Twitter users. The message is a simple “@” reply, not a Direct Message.

Possible Uses

1) Find nearby tweeps to follow. This works best if you already know the people. For example, you can follow nearby friends, schoolmates or workmates that you haven’t connected with on Twitter.

I personally follow a broad range of people on Twitter, but have also tried to find people in my home county to follow. This has worked well for me in terms of business networking. However, following people within a one to ten mile range (the Instant Tweetup range) in my small town is a bit too close for comfort. Imagine following someone and discovering they live on the same block. That could get strange.

2) Use Instant Tweetup to announce product or service offerings if you are a business. You wouldn’t want to blast it out to everyone all the time since some people will show up because they live nearby, not because they are looking to shop. For example, if you are the local sub shop, you could use Instant Tweetup to offer a special to nearby tweeps who are talking about lunch. If they are following your business this is an instant win, but if you haven’t connected with them yet then this could be considered spam.

3) Tweet out a business offer at a major event. If you’re at the Staples Center watching the Lakers wipe the floor with Seattle, for example, a concession stand or volunteer booth could tweet out an offer to those who are obviously at the Center.

4) Use it for an instant tweetup. Yes, if you have a group of friends in a nearby location, you can message them all and set a meeting place. “@MyGoodFriendJoe In line at Pinks in Hollywood, come and join me if you’re hungry! bit.ly/maplocation.”

One thing to keep in mind is that if you are tweeting these messages out with the map locations, you’re providing your location to the world.

Enhancements I’d like to see

1) Provide a way to filter out random people and only show Twitter followers. Depending on the context and the message, tweeting invites and your location at random people in your immediate vicinity can be both spammy and creepy.

I contacted Keith Moon (@keefmoon on Twitter), Instant Tweetup’s developer, and he said that he plans on adding color-coding to the results list to indicate if someone is a follower. That’s a step in the right direction.

2) Provide an opt-out feature. Right now, to “opt-out” of the Instant Tweetup application, a Twitter user would have to turn off their geolocation setting and also remove their Location setting. This would be an important feature request if people started using the application in a non-targeted manner. If a local business started sending out tweets at me every single day at lunch time, I’d eventually want to turn it off.

QUESTIONS

Do you have any other suggestions on how to use the application? Is it something you would use? Leave a comment.

I posted this review of Steve Garfield’s book, “Get Seen: Online Video Secrets To Building your Business” to Amazon.com. In the spirit of my 2010 mantra “Own your own stuff”, I’m re-publishing my review here.

The Amazon.com Review

Get Seen is a MUST for anyone looking at doing online video. I’ve been following Steve Garfield’s work for almost two years now and couldn’t wait to pick up a copy of Get Seen and pour through it. This book doesn’t just talk about how important video will be, it shows you step-by-step how to use the tools. You learn practical tips, expert analysis on the best ways to use cameras, Web sites, and social media tools.

I highly recommend Get Seen and you owe it to yourself to also follow up and follow Steve’s blog, Twitter account, and other digital trails.

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Shameless Affiliate Link

Bank robber Willie Sutton was once asked, “Why do you rob banks?” His reply, “Because that’s where the money is.” The AP is taking the same approach and sending some of it’s Twitter links to Facebook, because that’s where millions of people are.

I think this will be a short term marketing strategy. And even today they started sending people back to the AP site. Using Facebook as an additional outpost is a good idea, but not as a center point.

If you have a domain, use it. That’s where the true riches are.

Related Posts:
* The AP Is Using Twitter To Send People To Facebook. Wait. What? – TechCrunch
* AP is Visionary: They See a “Siteless Web” – Steve Rubel Lifestream

I love promoting awesome people, great causes, events, and organizations/businesses that are doing interesting things. My favorite tech tool to help me do this is the Apple iPhone 3Gs.

There’s a reason the iPhone 3Gs is such a hot seller, it is a mobile promotion machine. I use it to check email on the road or at home when away from my laptop. I use it to take pictures that I post to my Twitter and Facebook status feeds and to various blogs. The built in video allows me to post to my YouTube Channel, post via email to my Posterous account, send short videos via 12seconds.tv, and to live stream using Qik.com and UStream. With this single tool, I can immediately share what’s going on with my life or at an event.

Here’s an example of how I used my iPhone for shameless self-promotion. A couple of months back, I noticed Nancy Rodriguez’s Twitter update where she mentioned that she and the crew from Q1047, the local Hip-Hop and R&B station, where going to be live broadcasting from a nearby McDonald’s. It was around 7am so I grabbed a fast shower then zoomed over to McDees. I had chatted with Nancy before via Twitter so it was great meeting her and the rest of the Rico and Mambo show. I took a couple of photos of them in action, posted the pictures to Twitpic and Twitter, spoke to Nancy, then headed back to go home.

Now, I’ve been listening to Q1047 since I moved to Ventura County and it’s my favorite station. So I was glad to post pictures and tweet about them on Twitter. But as I headed back to the car I realized that I could have plugged my new online blogging course. So I decided to grow a sack and went back to ask Nancy to send a shoutout to my BuildYourFanBase.com readers and she kindly did so.

Fifteen minutes after I left the live broadcast, I had uploaded the video shoutout to YouTube and had already tweeted out a link to my blog post on the event. Minutes later Nancy retweeted the link and gave my blog and new blog class an on-air shoutout.

Now that’s promotion at the speed of light!

Do you have any other mobile promotion tech tools that you swear by?

The Apple iPad will start shipping in about 3 months and the tech industry is buzzing. Many people were disappointed after the Steve Jobs presentation because they expected a new wizbang technology that just didn’t seem to be there. Others have been cautiously expectant.

I think the iPad will be very successful and Apple will ship 8 million units in 2010 for the following reasons:

1. The iPad will jump all over the Kindle market and greatly expand the mobile reader market
2. The iPad will open up new types of mobile interactive media. It will finally create the first “electronic book” that we have been expecting for years
3. We’re going to see a lot of activity from the developer community in the form of expanded iPhone apps and new iPad applications. People are already coming up with ideas for the next great games.

So there you have it, my prediction for the future of the iPad. In case you’re wondering, I did have a prediction on the iPhone and I was largely wrong. The biggest thing I learned from the iPhone launch was that Apple addresses weakness very quickly.

How do you think the Apple iPad will fare? Will it be wildly successful like the iPhone or fizzle like a Mac Book Air that slides into the envelope of oblivion? Once you blog your prediction, leave a comment here so we can follow up in a few months. Or, if you’re not blogging yet, leave a comment with your prediction and key reason(s).

Are you in?

Photo credit: Apple Computer

This is so awesome! You can submit your 12seconds.tv stream and have it show up as a video podcast in the iTunes directory.

Submitting my 12seconds.tv stream to iTunes never occurred to me until I went to check for iPhone app updates via my desktop iTunes. I did a search, saw the three flavors of 12seconds apps, then noticed some 12seconds feeds. Wow!

This year, the name of the game is Own Your Stuff. In this case, by creating a Podcast out of a 12seconds.tv, users can repurpose and redistribute the content that they have created. And the best part is you get to tell folks that you have an iTunes Podcast.

So let’s get to the good stuff and describe the process to get things listed.

1. Go to the Apple iTunes “Making a Podcast” page and review the process.




2. Test your feed. Open iTunes, under the “Advanced” menu, select “Subscribe to Podcast” then enter your 12seconds.tv feed and click “OK.” Your feed will look like http://12seconds.tv/channel/jesseluna/feed, but you will substitute your username instead of “jesseluna.” Doing this should bring up your latest 12seconds update.




3. Submit your podcast. Open iTunes, click on the Podcasts tab or main link. You’ll see a “Podcast Quick Links” section on the top right hand side. Click on “Submit a Podcast.” It will take you to the “Submit Podcasts to the iTunes Directory” view.




4. Note: Before you continue you need to have an iTunes account and be logged into iTunes.




5. BEFORE YOU SUBMIT THE FEED, make sure your avatar is the one you want to show up in the directory. I submitted before double-checking that and when I went in to change my avatar in 12seconds, I found that the change did not cascade through to the iTunes store.




6. Submit the feed by entering the feed URL and clicking on the “Continue” button. You may be prompted to log into iTunes.




7. If there are no errors, you will receive confirmation that the feed is being reviewed and you will receive an email. It took 24 hours to receive the confirmation that the feed was approved and for it to be accessible from the iTunes directory.

This worked for me the first time so that bodes well for other efforts.

Follow Up:

1. Add me as a friend on 12seconds.tv




2. Leave a Comment if you have questions or use the FormSpring “Ask Jesse” box on the right of this page to leave an anonymous question.




3. Once your feed is set up, come back and tell us about it so we can check it out




4. Subscribe to my 12seconds Podcast (opens iTunes)




5. Make sure to keep your 12seconds.tv account updated or iTunes will remove your feed from the directory. Update at least every 3 days.

You just learned how to add your 12seconds.tv video stream to the iTunes Podcast directory!

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