The 5 twitter tools you need

After a few weeks of exploring the twitterverse (there is a whole new lexicon for this world) here are the 5 tools I have found most useful.

Desktop Apps
Lets take Tweetdeck first, it's built on the Adobe AIR framework and in terms of stability and speed it's been faultless.

The facility for monitoring favourite searches, as you can see one of mine is #magento, is absolutely invaluable. I recommend this application highly.

I also decided to give Twhirl a go as we have now set up a couple of twitter logins for the business. tweetdeck only handles one login at a time, Twhirl will let you monitor multiple accounts. The interface is a little too compact for my liking, others may completely disagree. The defining plus was the multiple account feature, otherwise, I'm plumping for tweetdeck.

Mobile Apps
Now, in my previous post I had a bit of a gripe about users outside of the UK not being able to effectively use twitter because the SMS service is not available here. Ahem.....jumped the gun a bit.

The first challenge was to be able to receive instant updates of incoming tweets from those people I follow. The solution, tweetbymail, I had the system set up in under 5 minutes and was recieiving emails to my Blackberry Curve straightaway. As well as reciving your updates you can send a tweet by emailing your unique address at tweetbymail. I didn't use this facility as I also loaded....

...TwitterBerry
This is a great little app for any 'berry users, fast, stable and easy to use. I downloaded it OTA (over the air), had it installed and running in less than 5 mins. Perfect.

Lastly we come to search.twitter.com. I highly recommend you go here, throw in a few search terms for subjects and trends you are interested in and see what comes out. This is my favoured route for finding new searches to follow in tweetdeck, for finding interesting people with similar interests and research.....I needed to know why the Liverpool fans were throwing socks on the pitch during the FA Cup replay and twitter search found me the answer in seconds. if you're interested, here's the link.

So those are the tools I have found most useful.....now...what the hell is twitter good for? More on that soon.

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DIY Branding with Balls - an Entrepreneurs toolkit

A challenge for any entrepreneur is coming up with an interesting company name or brand for your product/service.

Once you throw in the search for a decent domain name it seems all the more frustrating. Try being an IT related business, it's very easy to get caught up in the pitfalls of names that mean nothing and the usual cliche ridden rubbish.

I found the "Scratch n Smile" test from "Eat my Words" extremely helpful in my own quest for a new brand. I highly recommend you check it out. They also have a list of truly terrible names such as "Salesify" in their "Name Shame Hall of Fame". Thanks to web 2.0 it's highly amusing.

What's else do you need in the toolbox?

I would say you definitely have to subscribe to Visual Thesaurus, this is an excellent tool for exploring words in a mindmap style.



I'd also use one of the online synonym finders; Synonyms.net or Synonym.com

Another excellent resource is MoreWords, here you can search for words by letters contained, endings etc. This search is for words ending "ify".

Those are the useful online tools, there is NO substitution for grey matter though. You also need some people around you to try out ideas on. I would strongly recommend that some of the people you ask have no idea about your industry because your name has to reach out to your target people whether they be B2C or B2B. Being ironic and having a name with an "in joke" is all well and good but will damage your ability to sell. Potential customers who don't know you should "get it" straightaway.

One thing it's hard for us entrepreneurial brains to do sometimes is include other people, I am not alone in wanting to rule the world in the manner of Tony Soprano or Napoleon, minus the bloodshed of course. However, you need a few folks around to help you narrow down the options...a naming committee. I know the word committee is like Kryptonite to you but honestly, it will help. They will bend to your will anyway, because as entrepreneurs we are always right.

Right, you have narrowed it down to three candidates, time to do some domain searching. You probably have a preferred domain name service like GoDaddy because if you're anything like me you can't help registering the names for all those great ideas you never quite have time to execute. (btw, if you have a background in property I have a killer domain name which will make us both rich...RICH!).

When your looking for the domain be creative, it doesn't and probably can never be exactly what you want, every regular word plus combinations.com is registered already. Try throwing in things like "online", "store", "global" etc. You're not cars.com, don't delude yourself people will find you by the domain name alone.

A couple of other things.....just because the net is all about "mashup" these days don't take a welder to two normal words, really, please stop, it's painful. Made up words are fine for those with millions to throw at creating their "identity". Chances are you aren't that company so don't be a pretentious oick.

DO:

• Ask for others opinions
• The scratch n smile test
• Think about how it sounds on the phone, literature, web etc
• Take your time and keep coming back to it
• Save ALL your ideas in a textfile or notebook of some kind.

DON'T

• Weld two words together
• Think everyone will get your ironic little in-joke.
• Throw thousands at a naming consultancy with a name of their own that means nothing. They are charlatans of the first degree and a waste of money.
• Think that a cool name is everything - What you actually DO is the important thing.

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Business finance, forget the banks

There is huge coverage right now centred on the flow of money in business banking....well, the lack of it.

You could have a very sound business plan and a great strategy, all banks are willing to do right now is extend services like invoice discounting or factoring (which is releases capital from your order book). Banks want want security for any lending, they always did but now you're screwed unless you can sign over your home and even then you need to have a stack of equity in it.

In these challenging times a fast growing business will always need some form of financial support to manage the peaks and troughs of cashflow, or to get a great idea off the ground. So what are the alternatives?

In Wales we have an excellent organisation backed by the Welsh Assembly which was created to fund growing businesses. Finance Wales offer both capital lending and equity investment. If you are based in Wales then I highly recommend contacting them, my own experience has been first class and this is an excellent route.

Also in Wales we have Xenos, which is a country-wide Business Angels network, again backed by the Welsh Assembly. Business Angels are typically private, early stage investors, excellent as a source of seed capital. If you choose the right investor then you gain an invaluable ally who will be there to provide support not just in cash but in hard earned business experience. Again I speak from first-hand experience.

A great approach is to mix both, Finance Wales will always be re-assured by the presence of a private investor.

In the rest of the UK there are other organisations similar in nature to the above;

Finance South East Angels Network
South Yorkshire Business Angels Network
North West Business Angels

Those are just a few, contact your local Business Link office to find out of there is an Angel Network in your area.

Before you start looking to raise funding you have to be able to answer the questions you will be faced with quickly and with confidence. Know your business, your market, upside down and back to front. Here's a quick checklist;

Business Plan - This is more than just a dry financial forecast, you should be setting out what you want to achieve and how. Details on the market you will be competing in, opportunities for growth, background on the team. Let your enthusiasm for the business shine through.

Talking about the team - Sometimes a business is just one person but you need support. Every business needs the following;

• The creator and visionary
• The evangelist...your sales person.
  
• The sensible one....good at counting and paperwork because the first two probably won't be.

Without the visionary, the creator, there's nothing. In the short term you can fill in the other two with support from third parties if necessary but it's always good to have these people on board from the beginning. Your business Angels can help with the right contacts but you MUST acknowledge the importance of these areas in your business plan.

Independant Sales Agents, Public Relations Agencies, a dealer network or channel will help you get the word out, no one will have the passion of someone who is part of the original team though.

Outsourced bookeeping and accountants. Instant electronic communication means that you have access to a wide range of financial support services. You need a steady hand to keep you on the straight and narrow, especially if you're growing quickly.

Cashflow forecasts
If your background isn't in finance and you don't have a bean counter on the team from the get go find someone who can help you with this. The worst thing you can do is get this part wrong and be crying out for further investment in 12 months time. What happens if you win an opportunity which means you need to recruit and pay three bodies for a month before you get the cash in from your customer?

No forecast is 100% accurate, especially in this "crunch" period but spend time here and you'll save yourself a world of hurt down the line. If the forecast shows milestones where further injections may be needed, put them in, an investor will respect you for it.

Don't under-estimate how much cash you'll need, if the rewards are real then ask for a real figure, don 't be embarassed to ask for money. If an investor sees an opportunity it's because they see the potential for profit on their original investment. Do your homework, find out what other businesses like yours have been sold for, show potential investors what kind of returns they can expect.

These are things I have learnt over the past seven years, having gone through the process of securing funding from banks, government institutions and private investors. They still have money, they still want to see exciting opportunities. If I had ready cash I'd be aggressively investing right now, you can believe other people are too.

This isn't a comprehensive "howto" but I hope you pick up a few valuable pointers. Feel free to drop me a line if you want to pick my brains on anything covered in this post, one thing about business people, we LOVE talking business. Good luck.

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Twitter ye not

So you're fascinated by the twitter micro-blogging service and you want to use it in the UK.

FAIL.

Why? The whole basis of twitter is to use SMS to send and receive "tweets". You text twitter with your update, 140 characters max, and that then gets sent out via sms to any of your followers (people who have opted to receive your tweets).

It got way too expensive for twitter to keep paying mobile operators large fees for sending bulk texts so they shut off this part of the service. You can still send sms to twitter and update your network.....useful if you have a large network in tthe USA, Canada and India.....bloody pointless over here.

However, you can still receive updates from twitter via email using TweetByMail.com or twittermail.com. It seems like a simple use of the API and as such why the hell haven't twitter added this option for users outside of SMS supported areas?

I've just signed up for tweetbymail so I'll let post a review soon. In the meantime, c'mon twitter, the solution is pretty obvious...I know it strays slightly from your core modus operandi but not adding the feature is an epic fail.

UPDATE: I also get the stamp of fail....honestly sometimes my lack of common sense is astounding...I am on an unlimited data plan with T-Mobile, using a blackberry curve, so....most people would think "I bet there's a client for twitter on the berry"....not me...oh no...bashing about with email for ages....muppet. Fail Jeremy...FAIL!

I have just loaded TwitterBerry onto my handheld so...review of that soon too.

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Web 2.0 on 1.0 broadband?

It's very interesting to see all the exciting developments in the web 2.0 world, especially now journalists can classify apps and services in this way. How amusing that the Internet is just like the music world, if you can pigeon hole something to a genre or style you get happy journalists.

Anyway, I digress (unsurprisingly), amongst all the excitement has anyone taken a bit of time to think how "cloud computing" affects users who have to live with broadband that is more of a trickle than a torrent?

In relative terms I live in a broadband poor area, not unusual for rural Wales and yes it's my choice to live here. Our only option for broadband connectivity is a BT Wholesale based ADSL service. SDSL? Nope. Any LLU? Nope. BT have a target date of Q3 2011....excuse me while I am underwhelmed.

I was very excited to hear about the Wales Fibrespeed project as it's stated aim is to bring High Speed Backhaul at city prices to rural areas like mine. Great, it gives the more entrepreneurial minded of us a shot at leapfrogging BT and getting real broadband to businesses in our area. Oh wait, I forgot...we don't vote Labour round these parts so....no fibrespeed for us, not just in phase one either...not ever.

I'm not BT bashing, it's too easy and how do I beat them at their own game if I tell them how they're screwing up? BT are a commercial entity and can't justify the expense on a small exchange like ours, totally understandable.

I'm not a money grabber after another handout either, I really don't believe in our seemingly ingrained "Grant culture". Invest in basic infrastructure to drive change and growth, the folks with imagination and drive will do the rest. Just give us a chance otherwise the Internet will grow beyond our means to utilise it.

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Pay thousands for a new Logo? NO!

I still can't believe that local graphic design shops think it's ok to charge many hundreds or even thousands of pounds to create a new logo.

Wired magazine have a great article about the online options available for these services. I have personally used the winner of their group test The Logo Company and they deserved the win.

The service was great, $150 for a shiny new logo, very fast turnaround, great work, everything you need. For just $50 more they will also include all the stationary design.

If you have a bit more budget for a logo then I would definitely recommend Crowdspring . You post a project, logo, website design etc and the "crowd" of freelance graphic designers pitch their ideas. You have to deposit the value of the project from the get-go but if you receive less than 25 submissions you get a full refund. The quality of the submissions is of an extremely high standard I will definitely be using the site for future projects.

Yet another reason why "I love the Internet"

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Thanks Darling!! You've totally f*cked christmas.

It seems a pre-budget report is actually a mini-budget so we should really find a different name for being totally reamed by our erstwhile Chancellor.

Pre christmas dry ass-f*ck?
Yuletide back door Surprise?

I am reminded of an old gem we used regularly in a our selling bunker many years ago. "BOHICA" ....Bend Over, Here it Comes Again. It seems awfully apt as in less than an hour on Monday Darling turned everyone's end of month sales forecast paperwork to recycling.

Why? Simple....If you have a customer due to place an order for £250k this week and they can't claim the VAT back (The NHS can't) why on earth would they place the order now? Waiting a week saves them £6,250. Result, that's £243,750.00 we won't see till the 2nd week of January.

The knock on effects of this are commission lost for sales people, cashflow issues for us as a business and it serves only to further diminish spending power at christmas.

Thankyou Darling.

PS: What the hell is going on with those eyebrows? He looks extremely shifty.

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