Time 33:34

Ideas are wonderful things, especially when they are the basis for action and evaluation. Creative marketers can be a tad like the Jackie Gleason’s character Ralph Kramden in the television series The Honeymooners. (this show will resonate with boomers, TV fans, and New Yorkers). The video below is a classic, a live advertisement of Kramden’s new kitchen gadget that does supposedly everything. Ed Norton, his best friend and in this case calm presenter.

Regardless of the outcome, ideas are the seeds of innovation. Those who till the soil and nurture ideas, whether successful or not, are advancing knowledge for everyone who learns from their experience.

In this podcast we share a real life example of how a marketer (me) and a developer (Justin Dessonville aka @iamdez can work together to test an idea that I have simmered for a long time. We explored whether it was possible to get real-time data on Twitter followers. I realize there are several apps that report on Twitter counts, followers patterns, ( a great resource for this is One Forty.com I am interested in something similar to the chat feature in Facebook where I can see who among my friends are present and engaged. Why does real time twitter follower persistence matter?

1. More accurate quantification of exposure of tweets and to whom
2. Indication of audience interests that are currently following (a subset of a tweet chat if you will)
3. Increased accuracy of follower engagement during times of the day

We’ll also get a better sense of whether this type of information is necessary as the data promoted tweets program being run by Twitter is evaluated.

Dessonville IAMDEZ also authors the increasingly popular Tuesday Blogversations

Some of the lessons learned about objectively evaluating ideas include:

1. Be brutally honest in the midst of being hopefully energetic
2. Being overly focused on competition will paralyze
3. Not understanding the competition will waste time
4. Don’t be afraid to fail and admit it, the next idea is right around the corner

Have you tried to develop an application, or product or service? What are your tips on getting the project to a go no go decision? Provident Partners gives a food item for every comment we get on this blog. Also as a special just for this post, Justin will match our food item contribution. Your thoughts are worth a lot more than a penny.

Innovation can only come from ideas and that’s what the Big Omaha conference is about, innovation. Big Omaha is a Big Deal Conference – May 13-15 (OK the 13th is a party night but hey what’s a great conference without a party, then a day and a half of substance) The Silicon Prairie News is producing a conference on innovation, technology, and social media in Omaha with Tony Hsieh CEO of Zappos and Dennis Crowley CEO of Foursquare among many others. I don’t have discounts because it’s a great starting price, give a look, but you can tell them we sent you. Why? no financial kickback, just the marketers’ joy of knowing the decision path.

Ok perhaps I’m a protective parent, with 5 kids, however, you’d be hard pressed to make that label stick on me. That’s why I don’t think I’m overreacting when I say “What were they thinking?” when this print ad was produced for the Citi American Airlines Advantage card. What gives me this reaction is the combination of the picture they used, and the potential thousands of similar images they could have used. Take a look below. It appeared in the February 1, 2009 issue of the American Airlines in-flight magazine American Way.

Isn’t that kid on what looks to be a ledge? My reaction was dumb parent, dumber ad. As you can see I wrote that on the ad. OK OK let’s just say it’s all photoshop right? Why use it when there must be others with the same captivating beauty of nature? Perhaps it is the shock value they were going for, and I’m the dumb one that is too protective.

As a little million to one shot, I was sitting in 26F on flight 557, an MD-80 from MSP to ORD when I wrote my missive in the magazine. It’s my physical way of sharing social media. If you find it, let me know.

Meanwhile what do you think -dumb ad or overly protective dad that’s afraid of heights?