Twitter | Metricz

Jan11 0

Politweets: Great example of Twitter’s “Track” feature!

One thing that I failed to mention in my last post, which is an extremely useful feature of Twitter that has enabled me to find many of the people that I currently follow is the “Track” feature.

You can simply type “track X”, or “track X Y Z” and twitter will automatically send you anything that anyone says that includes that word or combination of words.

Politweets is a great, and recent example of this awesome feature in use. It tracks what people are saying about all of the presidential candidates, and presents the comments side by side in a nicely designed interface.

Steve O’Hear gives a great overview of this over at ZDNet, as does Josh Catone at Read/WriteWeb who also gives some other great examples of the power of the Twitter “Track” feature.

Just one more reason to start using Twitter!

Have you come across any other extremely useful Twitter mashups? I’d love to check them out.

Jan08 2

What’s so great about Twitter?

Posted by Jesse Kliza in Business, Collaboration

I’ve been telling a lot of people about twitter lately, so I thought I’d broach the topic as to what makes Twitter so great.

For me, Twitter has been WAY more effective in helping me find and connect with individuals with similar interests than anything else. More effective than if I had actually been looking for them.

That’s part of the beauty of Twitter. It happens organically. I am constantly finding more people to follow that “speak my language”, and/or are interested in the same things I am.

There is minimal effort involved in the beginning, but once you start following a few people, you tend to just naturally find additional people to follow that add value. One thing I would suggest is to browse who other people are following, and check them out as well. I’ve found lots of great new people to follow this way.

I was definitely a naysayer at first, but this article was what caused me to give Twitter a second look and actually try it out:

Ten Questions with Chris Brogan – http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2007/09/ten-questions-w.html

Also, if there is one person I would suggest you follow to start, follow Chris Brogan. Check out his blog as well. Fantastic stuff. Definitely one of my favorite reads online.

Here’s an additional link to a good post about how twitter improved Truemors:

http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2007/10/how-twitter-mad.html

And a post with a link to a research report by Forrester on “microblogging” (PAID):

http://blogs.forrester.com/marketing/2007/10/i-just-dont-get.html

Of course, you can follow me on Twitter as well at: http://twitter.com/kliza23

Dec11 0

Game Changing Business Application Design…Anywhere?

Posted by Jesse Kliza in Business, Collaboration, SaaS

One of the things I’ve been thinking about more and more lately, is somehow enabling the next generation user experience for business software.

For far too long, business applications have been built for businesses, not for the people in the businesses that use them.

Rather than approaching the design with the goal of enabling the best, most enjoyable experience for the individual, many ISVs have kept their designs inside the box, and focused solely on the needs of the business.

I may be missing something (and I’m sure I’ve not seen nearly everything), but I’ve yet to see an application that really breaks the mold. One that presents data in a totally new way, or enables a totally new experience for the user. Or one that incorporates some level of fun and enjoyment in the mundane tasks of creating service tickets, accounts, invoices, activity notes, meetings…etc.

If we look at sites/apps such as facebook, twitter, youtube and others, the sites that’s user bases have grown virally at an incredible pace, the three words that immediately come to mind are: personal, networked, and addictive

Personal – All of the above sites present information to the user that is personal and important to the individual user. This is similar to dashboards we see in many business apps. However, that is one single place in the application that is personal. Some applications also provide themes, but not to the extent that some of the social networkings sites provide customization of the overall look.

Networked – All of the above are web based applications, that leverage their network of users to create their core value. This is something I’ve written about in the past, and now Salesforce is just beginning to take this to the next level with their new Salesforce-to-Salesforce capabilities.

Addictive – Facebook, Twitter, YouTube… they are all addictive. They have something that makes people want to use them. However, that something can be different for different people, but I venture to say that what ever that something is, it is a direct result of those applications leveraging the network of users as the underlying core value of their offering.

Aside from Salesforce’s recent moves, another great example that is more on the design side is Entellium, and their Rave CRM product. Paul Johnston, Entellium’s CEO talks about the “Gamer Influenced Design” approach here on his blog.

Phil Wainewright also talks about Rave, and the concept of gaming elements applied to business software here.

I’d love to hear what others think, and if you can point me in the direction of some applications that you think are truly breaking the mold, I’d greatly appreciate it.

Nov08 1