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Earlier this week I wrote about why I’m using Twitter.  I really like it to keep up with my friends in the SQL Server world like Brad McGehee.   Nik Kalyani of the DotNetNuke Corporation is also a prolific Tweeter. 

As promised, here’s my post about San Francisco Bay Area digital marketing consultant, Ted Prodromou.  Through his consulting firm, NetBizExpert, Ted helps his clients make their websites and blogs “famous” on the internet using blogging, podcasting, social networking, and best practice search engine optimization (SEO) techniques.  He’s also a big fan of Twitter.  Here’s an excerpt of our chat:

Why are people using Twitter?  

Initially people weren’t very creative and they actually typed in “drinking coffee” or “going to lunch”.  Over time people have become more creative. Now they post links to useful information, ask for help, ask provocative questions and pass along interesting news related to their niche.

What kind of information can I find using Twitter?

You can enter any search term in http://search.twitter.com and find many conversations in progress related to your search term.  People discuss the weather, ask for help with their iPhone, talk about sex and share extremely personal details on Twitter. Can you say “too much information?”

Ted Prodromou

What are some useful Twitter apps?

I use TwitterBerry to Tweet on my Blackberry and TweetDeck on my PC. Some other great apps are:

• TweetStats: Provides detailed usage information about any Twitter user
• Monitter: Let’s you search for Twitter conversations within a certain distance from your location. This lets you find local people that can use your service or product.
• SnapTweet: Lets you Tweet pictures from your Flickr account
• 12seconds.tv: Gives you the ability to tweet 12 second videos you create with your webcam

Do big corporations use Twitter?

Oh, yes definitely.  Corporations are using Twitter for team communication when they work remotely. Companies are also scanning the internet for negative conversations about their products and services and engage the complainers in conversation immediately to solve their problem. Some creative uses by corporations include:

• Comcast provides tech support to customers who are waiting for the tech to arrive.  (Here’s an article in Business Week about it.)
• H&R Block gave away free tax software in Twitter contests then they provided tech support via Twitter
• Intuit gave away free software in Twitter contests and provided tech support
• 800 Dentist engages people that are afraid of the dentist on Twitter

Should small businesses use Twitter? 

Of course small business owners should use Twitter!  By using Monitter they can search for people talking about problems that their product or service can solve.  They can join in the conversation and instantly create a relationship with that person.

What about independent consultants?

They can use it the same way. People use the internet to find solutions to their problems. People share everything on the internet so you can find highly targeted leads for free.

Lastly, I know you attended the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco in March.  Can you mention a few of the more interesting things you learned at the conference?

The internet has been around for a long time and companies are really starting to figure out how to leverage its unlimited potential. Even though we’ve been through Web 1.0 and now Web 2.0 is turning into social media, it all comes back to relationships. People buy from people they know and trust. Web 1.0 was about building static websites that promoted a companies products and services. There was no interaction between the customer and the company.

Today the web is interactive and conversations are everywhere. If you’re not engaging your customers in conversation online you’re missing the boat. It’s funny because we’ve come full circle, back to the days before the internet.

Thanks, Ted!

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Chances are, you’re either sick of hearing about Twitter or you’re tweeting.  Well I’ve been tweeting for about two months now and it’s already paid off. Twitter is easy, informative, and it’s a great way to stay in touch with my software network.  You can view my Twitter profile here. 

Twitter is on fire.  In March it had 9.3 million visitors, up 131% from 5 million visitors in February.  And do you want to know something really fascinating?  The most active folks on Twitter are in the 45-54 age group.  You can read about it on the comScore blog.

Twitter Users by Age Group

Right now I’m following 387 people and 199 are following me.  That means I see the tweets of the 387, and 199 of my digital admirers see mine.   I follow people that have similar interests and are in the same loops. You need to have something in common with your Tweeple, and for me, it’s primarily business related.  How did I find them?  Easy, just go to search.twitter.com 

A few weeks ago, someone who knows me saw one of my tweets and it prompted him to drive about 60 miles to the Silicon Valley SQL Server User Group meeting I was hosting at Microsoft in Mountain View.   He wouldn’t have learned about the meeting otherwise.  I must admit, I was impressed by the power of Twitter.

There are a few folks who I enjoy following on Twitter, like Brad McGehee. Brad was just in San Francisco in March, but he travels worldwide in his role as a SQL Server evangelist for Red Gate Software.   Thanks to Twitter, I know that Brad attended the European PASS Conference last week and is on his way home to Hawaii.  Brad tweets on the latest news in the SQL Server world, including new books coming out and news from his latest blog posts.

Other folks I follow on Twitter are Tech Bubble (that’s Nik Kalyani of DotNetNuke),TechWatching, ProWebDevBlog, TechCrunch, MSFTBizBuilder, SharePoint Buzz, Database Journal, and (why not) Lance Armstrong.

Tune in later this week when my next blog post will be an interview with San Francisco Bay Area Twitter guru Ted Prodromou on the hows and whys of using Twitter for business.   

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Indian Motorcycle site - created with DNN

A few days ago I met with Nik Kalyani and Shuan Walker, co-founders of the DotNetNuke Corporation, to learn more about where the company and product line are heading. DNN (DotNetNuke) is the most popular open source application framework for the Microsoft .NET platform. The DotNetNuke Corporation was formed in 2006, dedicated the ongoing stewardship and management of the DotNetNuke project. 

The company received Series A funding last Fall.  With the influx of cash, they are hard at work creating a development and support organization.  They have pledged quarterly releases of the Community and Professional Edition.  And now there’s a DotNetNuke Professional Edition version.

DNN (DotNetNuke) is the most popular open source application framework for the Microsoft .NET platform.  They boast about 7 million downloads to date, and 400,000 websites running on DNN so far.  DNN has a big following, and plenty of third party support.   The architecture supports modules and skins, and there are thousands of each available at sites such as www.marketplace.dotnetnuke.com, www.snowcovered.com, and www.codeplex.com.  You can also create your own custom modules and skins.

Among the many terrific sites created with DNN are TV Guide,  Indian Motorcycle, and Chicago 2016.  (Did you know Chicago is bidding for the summer Olympics in 2016?)  I have to say these are among the most visually stunning sites I’ve seen.  Talk about eye candy!

DNN was created in 2002 as an open source project called the IBuySpy portal.  It was used by Microsoft to showcase the capabilities of the newly released ASP.NET 1.0 platform.  Shaun Walker released an enhanced version of the portal later that year.  It drew a large developer following, and in 2003, the open source project was renamed DotNetNuke.

In February of this year, the company released DNN Professional Edition.  This edition has more formalized testing and release standards, and is intended for corporations building mission critical enterprise software.  They provide support, additional documentation, certification, and indemnification.  The pricing for the Professional Edition is $1,995 per year, per production IIS server the system is running on.  You can run multiple portals and hundreds of sites on each IIS server, at no additional charge.

The Community Edition is still free.  We will see differentiation in product features over time, with the Professional Edition gaining more standard modules.  The framework will be the same in both editions, as compatibility is critical to the third party development community.

We had a chance to talk about some of the new features coming in DNN Professional 5.1, due for release by June 1, 2009.  Nik writes about it in the DNN Blog, which I highly recommend. While the details are not yet public, I can tell you that I am impressed by what was shared with me.  These are exciting days for the DNN open source community.

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