LinkedIn strikes a deal with Twitter

According to the Bits Blog at the New York Times, Twitter has struck a deal with LinkedIn. The professional networking site will soon feature incoming tweets.

According to Allen Blue, LinkedIn’s co-founder and vice president of product strategy, "Twitter is not only a massively open platform, but also it’s a place where there’s a tremendous amount of professional information already being shared, and we wanted to be sure that was coming to our LinkedIn user base.” By integrating Twitter into LinkedIn, the professional networking site can enable more conversation, as they aspire to be the hub for all professional conversation.

We've seen Twitter be used for marketing, but there's no real spotlight on how many business conversations are taking place. What will the partnership do for the business world? Will Twitter become a more integrated part of communication and business plans?

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Twitter accounts for more than one person

Read Write Web mentioned yesterday new new platform that allows more than one person to manage a Twitter account: CoTweet. It's a device that is free for now, and allows multiple persons to access and tweet to one Twitter account. Read the full story here.

Vine - Microsoft's New Social Web Application

According to this article in eWeek Microsoft will launch a new Facebook/Twitter like application that is expected to blow them out of the water. Brier Dudley of the Seattle Times describes the app as,

"...a hyperlocal, personalized message and alert system. It's intended to be a dashboard that people can use to keep tabs of their family, friends, activities and major events in their community."

The app Vine is expected to be used first to alert people of schedules and changes. The idea for this came out of Microsoft's response to Hurricane Katrina, so Microsoft will be initially targeting first aid responders and local emergency officials. It shouldn't be too long though before we see this app being used in the enterprise.

Twitter's wide web

Are you still looking for those companies on Twitter who tweet about your industry? Are you looking for your competitors? ReadWriteWeb recently did a great wrap-up of what they consider the top 7 Twitter search engines. Check them out:

monitter
Twitterfall
twistori
Tweet Scan
TweetChannel
Twitscoop
Tweetizen

Twitter commercial accounts on the way

eWeek reported today that Twitter has announced that they will soon offer commercial accounts for an extra fee. This is just one step in what Gartner predicts that 80% of social software platforms will include enterprise blogging features by 2011. For the full story, read the article here.

Twitter now fastest growing social network

According to a new article at Read Write Web, Twitter had 7 million unique visitors in February of 2009, as opposed to 475,000 in 2008, which is a growth rate of 1382% over the year. Surprisingly, the largest age group using Twitter is between the ages of 35-49. The article also states that 62% of the users access the application from work. Read the full article here.

Silverlight to broadcast inauguration

According to CNet, the Presidential Inaugural Committee has selected Microsoft's Silverlight as one of the programs that will stream the President-Elect Barack Obama's inauguration tomorrow. The PIC has already made arrangements with YouTube, Flickr and Twitter. Live and on-demand video can be found here at the PIC Website.

Small Business Owners and Social Media

This afternoon I came across this post on ZDNet which discusses the findings of a recent survey conducted by online payroll service SurePayroll. According to this survey, 55 percent of 120 small businesses surveyed believe that online social networking like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter are extremely beneficial to their business. One of out 5 businesses surveyed even mentioned that they have gained at least one new customer because of social media. Interesting stats…

Even smaller companies are beginning to discover that social media is not just only for personal use; it is a must for business success. The survey provides information on small businesses reaching a customer base through online communities, but where are the stats for benefits for small businesses on using social media internally? Does anyone have any input on the usage of enterprise 2.0 in small companies?

Corporate Social Networks according to Robert Scoble

Ed Cone recently had a chance to sit down with Robert Scoble and discuss where web 2.0 and enterprise 2.0 have taken us today. This is just one of his responses about corporate social networks, but check out the rest here.


"A lot of enterprises are looking outward, at the public. They're customers are moving to Twitter, and they're trying to learn how to do it. Some are doing it effectively. Zappos has 400 employees on Twitter. H&R Block talked to me on Twitter while I was doing my taxes -- I twittered that I was at HYR Block getting my taxes done, someone at the company was watching for their name on Twitter, and they wrote back to say, let me know if you need anything. this was while I was in the office. It was more brand building than tax advice. It was the fact that somebody was listening. She was linking to anyone talking about taxes, starting a conversation with them about taxes and H&R Block."

"In terms of internal use of social nets, I just spoke to Cisco's employees. They asked how to use social media, office 2.0, collaborative stuff. I said, My first thought every morning would be, how do I get rid of the email? The crowd cheered. I thought, there's pain here. I touched a nerve."

"I left behind a gig and a half of email when I left NEC - I couldn't look at it, and they erased it. My former coworkers couldn't use that knowledge. A collaborative toolset helps to get information out of email into the shared social space. Sharepoint and others are working on that problem. You see productivity benefits. Now people can see where you are going, make suggestions on who to call there.

ESME: Twitter for the Enterprise

Here is a video preview of a new tool for enterprise 2.0. Called ESME (Enterprise Social Messaging Experiment) it is similar to twitter but for SAP’s ‘Netweaver’ SOA. As this article explains it:

“is essentially a behind the firewall version of Twitter, designed to run on top of Netweaver. In some ways ESME is more advanced than Twitter since it features user groups and tag clouds, enabling project based contextual messaging.”

In a review from ZDNet they say:

“In the meantime the community around ESME should be congratulated for pushing the envelope. This is a valuable differentiator for the enterprise focused, which is helpful in cutting out some of the Twitter inanity and focusing on powerful business case uses of social networking.”

Below is a demo video of ESME:

Union Square Ventures goes into the clouds

At ReadWriteWeb, they discuss Union Square Ventures latest investment. Union Square Ventures invested $1.5 million in 10gen, an open source company. 10gen provides complete open source software, and users only pay for the hosting, a service legal agreement and customer service. Union Square Ventures earlier investments include del.icio.us, FeedBurner, EToy and Twitter.

Albert Wenger, part of Union Square Ventures, had this to say about it the new investment on the company blog:

10gen could be seen as a departure from the kind of investments that we have made. But in fact 10gen fits in well with many of our basic premises. First, 10gen is attempting to change the structure of a large market, the $20B+ a year hosting industry. Hosting providers running 10gen will be able to completely abstract away machines and instead provide developers with a platform a la Google App Engine. Second, it is doing so in a capital efficient manner. 10gen is not investing in physical hardware. Instead, 10gen is developing the software and services to run on existing hardware that has been built up and continues to accumulate. Third, 10gen is not looking to traditional sources of defensibility in the form of proprietary closed software or hardware. 10gen is opensourcing the key components of its stack and is actively recruiting contributors (if you are interested, check out the SDK and the contact page).

Get Rid of Email

This latest post on The Workstreamer Blog argues whether Twitter and Basecamp rely have any business value. It is true, email is going out of fashion, and it is being replaced by social media.

The post mentions that the real value of Twitter comes when you follow over 200 people and have just about the same number of people following you. Although I agree that following people on Twitter means you are genuinely interested and trying to learn more, being followed on Twitter does not bring much value to the Enterprise, it just means that you are popular. Nevertheless, the combination of tweets mixed in with work provides effective communication within the work environment, thus eliminating much need for email on a daily basis.

Basecamp is workplace oriented since it eliminates the social components Twitter has, and it allows employees to concentrate on work solely. But should social apps in the Enterprise be solely used for work purposes? Or should there be some leeway in allowing employees to have some fun and “poke” their employees?

What’s Your Take on Twitter in the Enterprise?

Can you really trust a social networking site that turns its back on it’s own community instead of defending it? Dennis Howlett brings up this interesting point in his latest post on ZDNet.

Ariel Waldman’s case of harassment on Twitter has been well publicized, but what’s interesting about this story is that Twitter has decided not to ban the individual who has been harassing Ariel from using its services. Jack Dorsey, CEO of Twitter, explains that the company is scared that it wouldn’t be able to handle a major lawsuit it would most likely experience by banning an individual. So in turn, it has chosen to not uphold its individual rights

This could be a major concern for usage of Twitter in the future. What’s to prevent Twitter from upholding rights of its enterprise users? After all, corporate liability is at stake here…

Follow…Do not be Followed!

How many people out there still think the secret to Twitter is to be followed? This used to be the by way of thinking, before I stumbled upon this latest post on the Scobleizer blog. Robert is right on the money when he explains why being followed is not so important. Here’s a quick recap of his ideas.

Being followed means that:

• You’re just popular, kind of like having tons of friends on Myspace.

• You might be using it as a media source, ex: Newspaper, magazine, or website.

• You just want attention.

On the flipside, following people tells us that you are genuinely trying to learn more, become a better listener, and that you are trying to connect with the rest of the world. Let’s get out of the popularity mindset, and start using Twitter to its full advantage in the enterprise by maximizing its collaboration potential.

Twitter Watch Out!

Matt Mullenweg’s new post introduces Automattic’s launch of Prologue, which is a Twitter style service for groups. Could this new platform give Twitter a run for its money?

In Prologue, users are able to input short messages about what they’re doing…sort of like the status portion on the Facebook application. What’s interesting though is the ability to subscribe to RSS feeds for the author, the prologues, and the tags itself. So why is all this important? Prologue’s service will allow users to connect to each other on a personal level.

Prologue is offering their template on an open source basis, whereas Twitter offers a centralized service. With these differences in hand it will be interesting to see how the newcomer Prologue will do against the established Twitter. After all, Twitter has already knocked out competitors like Jaiku…

So what does this mean for the Enterprise? Twitter in general has not been significantly used by enterprises, but these tools and features in Prologue give industry users a chance to determine what they truly find useful. And what will happen to corporate executives who rely heavily on their blackberries for one to one communication. How will social blog sites like Prologue and Twitter help businesses shape and improve on group communications?

Twitter: Is There True Enterprise Value?

To the naked eye Twitter seems like a dumping ground for details on the activities of complete strangers, but there is more than meets the eye. Employees generally misunderstand what Twitter can bring to the Enterprise. Michael Krigsman’s latest blog entry quotes Dwight Silverman, a Houston Chronicler and an active Twitter user:

“Don’t even try using Twitter in the way its regulars do….To really understand Twitter as a journalist, I think you have to live with it for a while, just as you would when reviewing a software program.”

The real business value emerges when employees engage in a community of peers, co-workers, colleagues, and friends. Twitter feeds maximize effective collaboration and enables file-sharing in the enterprise. Just like with any other social networking platform, talking to oneself is not great fun. The real action comes from subscribing to feeds and maintaining relevant relationships. Imagine subscribing to your boss’s twitter feed and knowing what’s on his mind regarding future and current projects while he is hundreds of miles away. This is where Twitter truly shines…