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TweetDeck for Business Twittering

tweetdeck_128If you’ve decided to Twitter for your business, you may now be a bit overwhelmed with the influx of tweets.  How do you filter through them and keep track of contacts and conversations that matter?  TweetDeck is an excellent tool for business twittering that will bring some order to the chaos.

The genius behind TweetDeck is multiple panels that can be configured to make it easy to keep track of conversations.  First you have a panel that has the feed from all the people you are following.  Next there are panels for replies and direct messages, respectively.  To keep track of certain people, you can create groups and quickly add anyone to a group.  Lastly, to see what is hot in the Twitterosphere (Tweetosphere?), you can add a TwitScoop panel which will give you a tag cloud of the hot topics.

Managing contacts is also easy.  Clicking on the name under a tweet will bring up a user’s profile right inside a panel where you can see all their information and tweets, follow/unfollow them, or add them to a group.  There’s also a little plus sign under a tweet which will allow you to quickly add a person to a group.

Twittering (tweeting?) is easy with a update section that includes a way to shorten urls and add twitpics. With each tweet you have the option to retweet, favorite, direct message or reply, making having conversations a cornerstone of TweetDeck’s functionality.  And using Twitter for business is all about having conversations.

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Ustream is streaming our language

I’ll be honest, its Friday.  Its gorgeous outside. I’m doing research on this post by watching shows on ustream.tv.

In truth it is hard to pull myself away from the high quality live broadcasts that sit up at the top of the ustream select channels.  Shows like Buzz Out Loud (a CNET property) are slickly produced and highly engaging examples of what businesses can do with ustream’s distribution technology. While CNET may have more polish in their delivery, their setup really isn’t much beyond a set on a show floor, two suits in front of a a good mic and a stationary camera.  Replace that show floor with a conference booth, or a marketing board room, store opening or factory floor and now you’re a broadcaster for your business.

ustream.tv has an interesting backstory.  Co-founders John Ham and Brad Hunstable met as cadets at the Army’s West Point Academy.  While serving as officers during wartime they experienced the troubles soldiers had in contacting many family members and friends within the short time given.  They started ustream as a way to connect many people to one soldier broadcasting over the internet.  From millitary to civilian, ustreams interactive technology fit comfortably into the Live Streaming space being left open by more established video hosting players.  In a Fox News interview the founders seem comfortable in their monitization plans which involve traditional silos as Ad revenue, partnerships and sponserships.  Funding for the live internet broadcaster has involved Angel funding from Ross Perot and the young company claim to list General Wesley Clark as a board member.

Getting away from the corporate About Us page for a moment, ustream does have a good man-on-the-street reputation.  Their video community is well policed for copyright and inapporporate content, lending to their legit rep.  Streaming tools available are intuitive to use, which is a must have for the competitve market.  Offering Javascript embedding, pre-recorded video, and chat capability is also standard selection.  Their monitization model is standard enough to say that most small broadcasters will be able to use their service for free.  Really for me the distinctive asset is a customer base which includes CNET, Penny Arcade and Digg.

Someday Sazbean will ready yet for live broadcasting.  When that day comes ustream will have our business.  Unless, you know… there is someone better by then.  Im looking at you justin.tv

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Cubeless – A Virtual Water Cooler

Cubeless is a fun and easy-to-use corporate social network platform which provides a virtual water cooler for employees to share information, jokes, insight and to connect on a personal level even if they are miles apart.  The platform is revolves around questions – employees asking and answering questions from/for each other, but adds fun features to keep them coming back.

Once an employee has logged in, they see the ‘Hub’ or an overview of everything that is currently going on in the community:

  • Latest Community Question – Lists the last question asked by anyone from the company.
  • Recent Notes from friends/coworkers (to the employee) – Peers can leave notes for each employee.
  • Hot Topics – By tag cloud.
  • Watch List – Questions an employee wants to track.
  • Ask a Question – Employees are able to ask a question right from the first page.
  • Explore Profiles – Pictures of other employees with links to learn more about them.
  • Questions With New Answers – A list of questions that have new answers.
  • Referred Questions – Questions that have been referred to the employee to answer.  This allows people to get a question answered by the person who knows best.
  • Questions I Can Help Answer – Questions the employee has selected as ones they can help answer.
  • Latest Picks – Restaurants, Companies, Attractions, etc. other employees have recommended to each – a fun way for employees to find new places to eat or meet.
  • Who is Online Now? – Who else is on the community right now.
  • Company Stream – List of last 20-24 actions any employee has done on the community.

Just like many social networking platforms, Cubeless allows employees to create their own profile with picture, blog, and join groups.  But as an employee asks and answers more questions, visits the sites regularly and contributes, she gains Karma points.  This is a fun way to encourage employees to continue to use the network and to interact with each other.  Cubeless may be a great alternative to the bland Intranet/Portal solutions out there if you just need a place for your employees to share information and learn from each other or if you have employees who do not all work in the same location.

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