Forward Thinking: New Tech Ideas for the Marketing Mind

The term "Tweetup" officially became a word this week when it was accepted into the Oxford Dictionary of English. It's not news. The way people are consuming their news has changed and is still evolving.  New technology tools are popping up to aggregate and deliver our content in better ways, and thought leaders are asking big questions like "How will the act of reading change as we move from print to pixels."   What will it look like, 5, 10, 20 years from now? Here's a few new tech ideas bouncing around the web for the marketing mind to think about: 

* Extra, Extra! The Twitter newspaper by paper.li is a new tool that organizes links shared on Twitter into an easy-t- read newspaper format; An interesting tool that can be used for marketing. See how @IntDesignChat made use of it this week to promote its weekly Twitter Chats. (pictured left) 

* What impact will the iPad have on your blog? Consider that, and plug into iPad peek to take a look. 

* There's an app. for that, and that, and that.... An article in Wired implies the web is dead as applications, aggregaters like Facebook and other things are taking over search-based browsers. It's gotten the techies sparring in some heated discussions. What will ultimately win in the war for our screen sucking attention? 

Designers & Architects Put Their Ears to the Computer Screen on Twitter

In a busy little world called Twitterville, there's a growing community of architects, designers, manufacturers and industry professional chatting with consumers and peers about everything from Fall trends to client relationships in 140 characters or less.

If you're regular on Twitter, then you may already know what Twitter Chats are. If not, the quick definition is: a conversation between Tweeters on a given topic held on Twitter at a scheduled time, which is identified by a hashtag (#nameofchat) that makes it easy to follow.

There are a lot of different Twitter Chats happening on Twitter on all sorts of topics, but over the course of the past year a few new chats  have emerged in the design and architecture industry and they're gaining a healthy following of active participants.

The American Institute of Architects (@aianational) hosts an #AIAChat the first Wednesday of every month for architects to discuss common issues and challenges. Their last chat caught 73 participants discussing the topic of client relationships. Two other design chats #IntDesignerChat and #IDzineChat were launched earlier this year and have claimed over 150 participants.  The first is geared for discussion among interior designers, while the latter is a live question and answer chat  between consumers and interior designers.

While studies are being released to show what Twitter fails to do for brands, they miss the whole point of what it does do very well; Connect people and provide  real-time market intelligence to businesses.  These Twitter Chats are helping design brands stay inspired and strategic through challenging and changing times by simply listening to what consumers and other businesses care about. Maybe you should check it out. 

Do you participate in any Twitter Chats? What have they done for you? 

How Not to Pitch Someone via Twitter

If you ever wanted to know how NOT to pitch a journo, blogger or anyone for that matter your news via Twitter, read today's post on The Bad Pitch Blog where he shares a bad one and why it stinks.

Image from Bad Pitch Blog

New Furniture Etailer Lets You Vote Designs Into Production

Buying furniture online. Not so exciting. But what if you got the chance to play designer and help decide which designs actually make it into production?  A new website Fashion4Home.com sells furniture for 40% - 70% less than traditional retail prices and introduces new furniture designs based on customers' votes. Usually a process reserved for the behind the scenes folks, the German based company lets customers review design plans and comment and vote them into production. Those that make the cut move into the manufacturing phase where customers can continue to follow and eventually buy the item they voted on.  And there's an added bonus. If your vote contributed to an item going into the manufacturing stage, you’ll get a 10% discount if you choose to buy it. Manufacturing is on-demand. The company is several years old, but the U.S. store opens today. Visit Mashable for an exclusive 10% discount code. 

Social Media Strategies, Just a New Hat on "Old" PR Strategies

Just how can you use social media in your public relations plan? Are they different? The same? This excellent case study by Shift Communications helps put it all in perspective, and shows us how a well thought out, strategic plan merging both social media and traditional media can build awareness for a business. While many of you may be at a loss for ideas in the "new" media world (that's not that new anymore), what you'll see here is that the strategies are not new at all. The cornerstones of any good PR program include reaching influencers, getting and listening to feedback, building word of mouth, and knowing your customer and the media. We've just got a whole new set of tools and platforms to carry them out through. So think: How can you put a new hat on some old tricks?