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.

Time 37:29

Make no excuses, only make decisions. That’s the quote I’ve come up with as a result of talking to our Marketing Edge Podcast guest Laura Fitton. Fitton is known to many by Pistachio, the name of her consulting firm and what she uses on Twitter. Fitton was in a pressure situation, mother of two young toddlers, going through a divorce, yet the desire to pursue her passion was so strong, and the network of innovators in social media was so supportive, that Fitton’s passion became a reality.

This podcast will cover two areas, the first is about how social media is providing a channel for entrepreneurial innovation. There are plenty of low cost or free tools to test your ideas, build a digital presence, and connect with networks that can be supportive. Fitton proves this statement and we chat about the tactics and principles of other social media business pioneers Liz Strauss and Gary Vaynerchuk who have been beacons for many in this the social media era. Vaynerchuk is also a passionate Jets fan so he is excited at least for another week. Go Jets.

The key bullets on pursuing your passion that I have identified are:

• Persistence
• Timing
• Vision
• Network

At first for Fitton, that passionate reality was a consulting practice focused on Twitter for business, today it has grown into a community platform for Twitter applications. You can participate in it at www.oneforty.com a community that supports, discovers, and exchanges information about Twitter applications. OK, the short description is, Oneforty, a Twitter app store and here is my Twitter App profile so far.

It’s a great resource for corporate marketers, social media and PR decision makers to quickly identify applications that may be a solution for your challenges. It’s also great for anyone, on Twitter or not, to explore the concept of real time, mobile information. The website lets you see what people are using Twitter for, stupid or not. Remember, beauty and stupidity are in the eye of the beholder. Oneforty incorporates crowd sourcing of those using Twitter apps and supports the Twitter application developer community.

Oneforty is developer friendly. Starting January 12 developers will be able to sell their applications on Oneforty and Oneforty will pick up the PayPal fee for donations made through the Oneforty site, and the developer will get the full donation. This is one way Oneforty demonstrates their support for the Twitter developer community.

Give this Marketing Edge Podcast a listen for inspiration to pursue your passion or discover the latest Twitter applications. Is there a passion you are hiding? Shine a light on it this year.