Tweetworks

It was very nice to see Tweetworks mentioned on Mashable again. It is exciting to be part of such a vibrant development community.

In other awesome news, Tweetworks user-created groups have crested the 2,600 mark. You have created 2,009 public groups and 606 private groups. That’s incredible. Group count is my most important metric because when the rest of the Twitter development community gets around to understanding what Biz Stone and I know, that meta data (aka relevancy and context) is needed to bring the conversation web to the masses, we’ll see many of them leveraging the foundation we’ve built through our API.

Speaking of community…

Many of my friends, Aaron Strout of Powered, Jim Storer and Rachel Happe of The Community Roundtable, and Bryan Person of Live World are heavily involved with developing and facilitating community engagment. Recently a few of them have mentioned that I should promote Tweetworks’s inherent community assets as a value proposition. I think they may be on to something.

Featured Groups:

• LotusConnections (created by Praveen Pandey) – If you use Lotus Connections as a social software for you busienss be sure to connect with other users and administrators here. On a side note, John Stack of 3 Big Heads, had the interesting idea of plugging Lotus Connections into Tweetworks. Hmm..
• DevelopingTwitter (created by Kristi Colvin) – The Twitter developer community is growing by leaps and bounds. Barely a day goes by without something new and creative hitting the scene. Kristi herself recently released TwitterFace, a branded Twitter interface tool.

All this talk of community, Twitter and the Tweetworks API got me thinking of Laura Fitton‘s new company OneForty (which launched its Alpha today). Laura is working to make it easier for users to navigate the maze of Twitter powered products while giving developers a showcase for their creations. Be sure to pay OneForty a visit to see what’s cooking. I smell some coolness.

In Episode 20, Mike Langford took you through two examples of how business owners can use Tweetworks to engage with their target market more effectively than using only standard Twitter clients. In this episode he encourages business users to participate in groups beyond the obvious. He uses the example of @BurnTees, who sells T-Shirts, and points out that it would be wise for him to participate in discussion in groups where the other participants are likely to wear t-shirts frequently. In short, talk about things other than t-shirts. Talk about what your customer cares about and the opportunities to sell tees will present themselves.

Mike also announces some powerful new enhancements such as search and key words for groups. While he originally thought these features would be available today, they will not be installed until Monday February 2nd. Ugh! It’s tough to install new stuff right before the SuperBowl.

And of course, there was Mike’s special “How you doin’ Killer?” to @pprlisa.

Featured Groups:

1. Superbowl-XLIII (created by @Loreen72) – Live tweet the Superbowl without hashtags.
2. Foodies – (created by @chrisandrew) – “What munchies do you have planned for the Super Bowl?” asks @alangford. Drop by the thread and share yoru favorite SuperBowl fare.
3. ScottBorasIsTheDevil (created by  @chadnorthrup) -The Super Agent is holding up the resigning of Red Sox Captain Jason Varitek. Chad is right, Boras is the devil.

The new tag line is here! The new tag line is here!

Tweetworks TV: Talking the Talk!

You use Tweetworks to talk about the stuff you like to talk about with other people who like to talk about the same stuff. In short, you want to find community. Episode 10 is all about community.

There are two basic elements of community:

1. A common interest – This is what first comes to mind when people think of community. “People who have something in common.” is a typical answer to the question “What is community?” But, being a bald guy in a room full of bald guys isn’t enough to have community.
2. A conversation – A community becomes a community when we commune or communicate. Conversation is key and that is why we have structured Tweetworks to maximize the power of conversations.

Groups Featured:

1. WineTweets: Big thanks to @RobertDwyer of Wellesley Wine Press for letting us know about the discount to the Boston Wine Expo.
2. CatLovers: A purrrrrfect example of a leisure/entertainment community. People love their kitties. As you can see @JourneyCoach able to find and interact with others interested in kitty talk pretty easily.
3. BTTradeSpace: Some communities are built around business interests. @BTTradeSpace set up this group as an extension of its arleady vibrant community.
4. PanMass: A good friend to Tweetworks, @DougH is riding in the Pan Mass Challenge again this year. We set up this group for him and all other Pan Mass participants and supporters. What a great idea for a mission/cause community. Riders and supporters can tweet about raising money, training ideas and sometimes just cheer each other on.
5. SM4SC: @GradonTripp is truly onto something amazing with the Social Media for Social Change group. The mission is simple, pick a cause and put the full power of your social media might and muscle behind it. Join the group and see how you can make a difference in your neck of the woods.