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There are a number of major changes and new features in the pipeline for Twitter. Here is an overview:

Proximity- If you were not aware of it, Twitter considers itself to be a largely mobile service. Sure, during its adolescence it grew mostly on its website, but now with the plethora of smartphones Twitter is focusing on its mobile side.

Today Twitter began to discuss “points of interest,” that are going to allow tweets to associate tweets with locations, and not just raw latitude and longitude data. You can tie a tweet to a place. Everyone is noticing the similarity of this to what Foursquare and Galla are doing.

Twitter had this to say “[points of interest are a ]way to see where a tweet is coming from but also a way to read all the tweets coming from specific nearby landmarks.” That is going to make Twitter more personal, and more interesting. As we will see, more data more relevance, or as @Rsarver said “proximity is a proxy for relevancy.”

User Streams- If you thought that PubSubHubBub was fast, wait until you see User Streams, Twitter’s upcoming uber-real-time feed. Imagine no lag whatsoever between when I tweet, and when it shows up in your desktop Tweetdeck. This is the Google Wave of tweets.

Even better, it is going to come with no rate limits to let everyone use it as they will. No more running out of API calls, hallelujah. Assuming that Twitter can handle the load that this will add to their hardware, this is going to make Twitter feel much more like the final version of FriendFeed: information overload.

If you are familiar with Clicky’s Spy feature, it is like this but for the updates you want. And is not just for updates, but also for your complete social graph of DMs, @s, Favorite tweets and so forth. Twitter is only letting developers play with this for a few days as a trial, so we have to wait, but when this does come out it is going to be a massive upgrade to the basic Twitter experience.

A Twitter is going to let developers and applications tag tweets with metadata. What type of metadata? Any metadata that developers want.

Twitter decided to let developers decide how to handle the next big thing in metadata. What is even more important is Twitter’s decision to let developers pull the data back out of Twitter, once it has been sent it. More or less, this is a read write API for calling and tagging anything.

@Anywhere- If you missed our coverage, check it out here. @Anywhere is live, and out in the wild. Bringing deep Twitter integration to a plethora of websites, @Anywhere is going to bring hovercards, tweets, and other Twitter features inside of a publisher’s website.

If you know Facebook connect, this is Twitter’s answer.

Communication/Developer Relations- Twitter is launching a developer website, and is working to have more open and active discussions with developers as to what they need, what they want, what they hate, and what needs to change right away.

Twitter could do nothing smarter than this. If they want to stay ahead of their competition, and continue to be the darling that they are to all of our hearts, this is the golden goose they need to keep fed.

Twitter has a steady stream of updates, capabilities and new offerings. Following some of the key innovations.

Proximity

If you were not aware of it, Twitter considers itself to be a largely mobile service. Sure, during its adolescence it grew mostly on its website, but now with the plethora of smartphones Twitter is focusing on its mobile side.

Today Twitter began to discuss “points of interest,” that are going to allow tweets to associate tweets with locations, and not just raw latitude and longitude data. You can tie a tweet to a place. Everyone is noticing the similarity of this to what Foursquare and Galla are doing.

Twitter had this to say “[points of interest are a ]way to see where a tweet is coming from but also a way to read all the tweets coming from specific nearby landmarks.” That is going to make Twitter more personal, and more interesting. As we will see, more data more relevance, or as @Rsarver said “proximity is a proxy for relevancy.”

User Streams

If you thought that PubSubHubBub was fast, wait until you see User Streams, Twitter’s upcoming uber-real-time feed. Imagine no lag whatsoever between when I tweet, and when it shows up in your desktop Tweetdeck. This is the Google Wave of tweets.

Even better, it is going to come with no rate limits to let everyone use it as they will. No more running out of API calls, hallelujah. Assuming that Twitter can handle the load that this will add to their hardware, this is going to make Twitter feel much more like the final version of FriendFeed: information overload.

If you are familiar with Clicky’s Spy feature, it is like this but for the updates you want. And is not just for updates, but also for your complete social graph of DMs, @s, Favorite tweets and so forth. Twitter is only letting developers play with this for a few days as a trial, so we have to wait, but when this does come out it is going to be a massive upgrade to the basic Twitter experience.

Annotations Twitter is going to let developers and applications tag tweets with metadata. What type of metadata? Any metadata that developers want.

Twitter decided to let developers decide how to handle the next big thing in metadata. What is even more important is Twitter’s decision to let developers pull the data back out of Twitter, once it has been sent it. More or less, this is a read write API for calling and tagging anything.
@Anywhere

If you missed our coverage, check it out here. @Anywhere is live, and out in the wild. Bringing deep Twitter integration to a plethora of websites, @Anywhere is going to bring hovercards, tweets, and other Twitter features inside of a publisher’s website.

If you know Facebook connect, this is Twitter’s answer.
Communication/Developer Relations

Twitter is launching a developer website, and is working to have more open and active discussions with developers as to what they need, what they want, what they hate, and what needs to change right away.

Twitter could do nothing smarter than this. If they want to stay ahead of their competition, and continue to be the darling that they are to all of our hearts, this is the golden goose they need to keep fed.

After creating a successful pop-up shop in Facebook for their Rachel Roy brand, Jones Apparel Group decided to create a “fan shop” for their Nine West brand. Only fans of Nine West on Facebook can access the “Shop Lookbook,” and they get a 15% discount through the end of the month on the items offered.

The flash-based store within Facebook (shown above) was easy to navigate. Several products were available, and fans are allowed to “like” and “share” them. Items are added to a shopping cart, and clicking on “Go to Shopping Bag” takes the user to the Nine West e-commerce site where they can view their cart and see the 15% discount. Its a pretty seamless experience that leverages the e-commerce site nicely.

Due to theses efforts, both of the Nine West brands have significantly increased their “fans” in Facebook. This is the equivalent of opting-in for future wall postings, which are typically promotions.

Social Retailing will continue in new and innovative ways and it is essential for retailers to recognize the need to take the store to the customers and instead of expecting customers to always seek them out.

It’s been one day since the Google Buzz announcement and reactions in the blogosphere have been decidedly negative. Naysayers represented a dominant 65% of the total discussion in the last 24 hours.

Primary discussion topics included lack of need (no different than current options) and absence of any innovative features or functionality.

It’s still early and only time will tell, but so far the product has failed to impress.

The majority of today’s “traditional” marketers use outbound marketing to reach their audiences. For
message distribution, they use print media, radio and TV. For lead generation, they use direct mail, cold calls and email blasts. These methods may have worked in the past; however, by using tools like
TIVO/DVR, email spam‐blockers and caller ID, consumers block messages they don’t want. People now
control how they consume media and what messages they care to hear.
But all is not lost! Consumers still want to learn about the best products and services for their needs.
The key is they want to find this information on their own, most often by using the Internet. For
example, someone might peruse the blogosphere to read first‐hand experiences with a particular
product. Maybe that person will also search for reviews online or engage with others in social media to
learn other views and opinions.
Instead of continuing to push marketing messages out, effective marketers adapt to this consumer
behavior by creating marketing campaigns that pull people into their business. This strategy is called
inbound marketing. Inbound marketing is marketing focused on getting found by customers. In other words, instead of taking the time and resources to go out and find customers, you set yourself up in such a way that the right kinds of qualified leads find you. Inbound marketing, focused on areas like search engine optimization, content and social media, is cheaper and better targeted than traditional outbound marketing like advertising, cold calling, direct mail and email blasts. Inbound marketers offer the public useful information, tools and resources to
attract people to their site, while also interacting and developing relationships with consumers on the
web. Inbound marketing tools include blogging, content publishing, search engine optimization, social
media and social networks.
As 2010 approaches “being found” should be on the top of this list of any effective marketing plan.

The

Social media is about sharing. Coupons are about shopping. Shopping is an extremely social experience. That is why a major social media topic in may discussions revolve around tips, advice, and sharing purchase information.

Mobile marketing requires that the participant opt in to your offers. Because of this, mobile coupons can deliver the Holy Grail for marketers, targeted prospects and customers that want your information, and revenue generation.

On-demand mobile marketing platforms provide you with low out of pocket costs and speed to market. With little risk, marketers can get their mobile coupon promotions lined up and running. Once you’ve got your strategy and integration into your traditional marketing mapped out, it takes just minutes to setup and run a mobile coupon campaign. With the open rates at 97%, it’s a no brainer to start using mobile coupons for prospecting and retention campaigns.

Major points to consider:

1. Coupon sharing is a major social media activity

2. The SMS marketing message space is relatively spam free and uncluttered resulting in a 97% open rate (83% within the first hour) for messages.

3. Mobile coupons work best when incorporated into your other social marketing programs, include your short code whenever and wherever possible. Also, give your program time to build, and get viral, your first few offers will serve to build your database.

4. Once you’ve got your communities created, consumers or groups react positively to exclusive coupon promotions. For instance, the clothing designer Armani held an exclusive in-store preview for their mobile clientele that had lines out the door and near record receipts.

5. Now is the time to start thinking about how you can incorporate mobile coupons into your marketing objectives. Your competitors are thinking about it or doing it, so don’t be left on the sidelines.

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