At first glance, I thought this is could be the least secure way to pay someone but a very innovative way to pay someone. They are calling the payments a “promise” to pay. When someone sends a payment through a tweet, Paypal send the money from the Tweeter’s account to the Tweet recipient’s account. From there, the two parties work out the transfer (payment) on Paypal and that is it. So, the payments aren’t direct payments but an offer (promise) and then the acceptance.

I have a few worries about Twittpay:

First, Twitter accounts have been hacked left and right since the launch in 2006, so these Tweets can be of Hijacked accounts and your money can be drained quickly. The safeguard to this problem is if the user only has a very small amount of funds in their Paypal account.

Second, all payments are public with a direct (@) Tweet. If I see a user giving out thousands of dollars a week I would worry about the safety of that person. I would worry about his person and his account.

Lastly, each user needs a Paypal account to make this work. If they don’t… where does the money go? I mean, you can just Tweet to a user a promise to pay, but why make it public? How about a Direct Message (private) to the person for an email address to transfer the money? They have to go through the Paypal steps anyways.

Though, there is a clever way to send money on Twitpay. On the Guide page is shows users that they can Tweet a beer or tea to another user. For example, you can tweet me (@tskaggs twitpay a beer) and it will send $3 to me. This gives Twitpay a lovable charm and brings more realism to the Twitter world.

Check it out for yourself. I think it’s a good start to a good idea.

**All Twitpay logos are propery of Twitpay

For those of you stuck under a rock or on Bing, you might have missed the release of Google Buzz. Google Buzz is another status report/micro-blogging system like Twitter but for Google. Google gives you no choice but to use Buzz if you have a Gmail account. You’ll have to privatize your Buzzes and Google Profile if you don’t want your Google information to be see by billions.

There really isn’t much to say about Google Buzz other than it’s a Twitter knock-off and it’s kind of annoying. I’ve been using it for a few days now and I’m following my friends (who never post anything) and some tech people. When someone Buzzes that is internet famous, their Buzzes are lost in a sea of comments… I have probably 5 new Buzzes but it takes me 20 minutes to scroll through the garbage to read those Buzzes. Plus, now there is a popularity contest going on with Buzzers to get the most followers… random people are trying to follow me and they’re all boring!! Just because you have 1,200 followers in the first week of the release of Google Buzz doesn’t mean you are interesting.

Oh yeah, did I mention you can link your Buzz account to Twitter… blah.

The only good things to come out of this mess is that your Buzzers can be public, so when you Google your name the Buzzes show in the searches. That’s about it. So, I say to you reader(s), harness your Google Profile and make it worth using Buzz.

My Google Buzzes

My Google Profile

Let me know what you think and I might change my mind about Google Buzz.

Now, Seesmic has just released a downloadable new app for Windows called Seesmic Look. This app is based on Windows’ Silverlight technology, so OS X users can not use this Application. So far, the app is very pretty but definitely geared toward the simple consumer and computer user. If you like advance searches and trend seeking, then this isn’t going to work every well. But this app looks great for the simple computer user to understand Twitter and the information out in the world. The great thing is that the a user won’t need a twitter account to use this application.

There are a few not-so-great things about Seesmic Look. The application is Windows only… I’m a OS X fanboy, so I won’t be using it very often. The interface is too flashy and load time is slow, and there is no advanced trend options. Lastly, the launch and app seems like a very large branding commercial for Microsoft and all the people on the “channel” area on the application.

We’ll see how this goes and the updates to come. Look through my past posts and there are better solutions for Twitter management like Gist, HootSuite, or Brizzly.

#1. HootSuite : In my past post about the web app, you will notice I have a real attraction to the User Interface. Its so easy to manage your Twitter account in the HootSuite interface by scrolling left and right and inputing your message. Also, there is a feature to watch keywords used by users on Twitter, this is great to keep track of trends.

#2. Ow.ly : This is a URL shortener for those long-pesky URLs. This also works with HootSuite to keep track of your click-throughs. What an excellent way of seeing what your followers like and dislike. Don’t be afraid of the URL shortener, its good.

#3. WeFollow : This is the best Twitter directory out right now. There are a few other directories that are good but not great. Sign up is easy: Username, Password, Keywords and submit. Now when someone searches a keyword on WeFollow your username will appear on the list. You are ranked by followers or influence. So, go and get noticed!

#4. Twitpic : Submit your pictures and share! This is an excellent geo-tracking web application that works like flickr but its just for Twitter. This also places a geo-tag on your photo so it can be found by region, city, or town.

#5. Friend or Fellow : Do you have trouble finding the people who you are following but they’re not following you? This is the web app that will easily make the list of people that are not following you, so you can either suggest that they follow you or you can remove them from your follow list. Twitter has a give/take etiquette and if you follow someone they should follow you back, but you can use Twitter how you want because I follow about 50 people that will probably never follow me back.

That is it! Let me know what you think of the list…

Foursquare is a smart phone app. It uses GPS or signal triangulation to find where you are in a city. With your location found, the app will find a list of nearby restaurants, book stores… anything that can be named and located. So, I go to my favorite coffee shop, Pour House Cafe in Bloomington, and I click ‘check-in’, the app finds me and gives me the list. On the list I select Pour House Cafe and complete the check-in. This gives me points and I compete with my friends who are on my Foursquare social network. You can manage your friends and information via smart phone app, but the web app is bigger and easier to manage. You can not ‘check-in’ on your computer (or at least I haven’t found how) which is a down side, but it’s fun and you can keep track of your friends favorite places. Oh yeah, you get ‘badges’ for checking-in the most or at a number of different places. Lastly, there are Mayors of places on Foursquare. This means they have been there a lot.

Try it out! Have fun with friends and family, and let me know what you think about Foursquare.

Here are some screenshots:

While drinking a cup of coffee, I head to my home office and proceed to check my websites’ Analytics and Keyword ranking. I quickly develop a simple plan to help the ranking and boast my stats by  at least 5%. Checking the websites’ web stats and keyword ranking is very important to your banding.

Then, I log into my HootSuite account and check the latest news, my DMs, @s and my stats for my Twitter account. I can’t express how important keeping stats on everything you do will help build your brand!

Once I get my plan of attack, I eat my breakfast and get to work on SEO, Twittering, Blog posts, and communication with other Social Media addicts.

I figured I should give my readers a glimpse into my routine. What is your routine?

It was a great turnout for the Bloomington Tweetup (#Bloomingtontweetup) at Stone Cutters Coffee! For all of you that don’t know what I mean by “tweetup”, it’s a term used to describe a meet-up of your Twitter friends. This give you a chance to put the actual person with the twitter name. It was excellent seeing Adam P. Schweigert (@aschweig), Kevin Makice (@kmakice), Colin Clark (@colinaclark), Phil Skaggs (@bastoid1), and Megan Meyers (@megameyer) come out for the first Bloomington Tweetup.

Please visit http://bloomingtontweetup.com/ if you want more information on the Bloomington Tweetup schedule. Also, the sponsorship on the site is $50 and all proceeds go towards  Jill’s House, a local non-profit that provides a comfortable, affordable home-like residence for cancer patients undergoing treatment at the Midwest Proton Radiotherapy Institute.

Here is some video from the event:

Also, I checked-in with FourSquare at the Stone Cutter Coffee. Let’s play!!

Please let us know when a better time to schedule a Tweet-up.

Social Media is not just a way to advertise but it’s a way to connect with your core market! This connection will build the brand to new heights by giving the core audience a feeling of trust and understanding about you and the company.

Let’s take Twitter as an example: Twitter is a way to quickly post a comment, suggestion, or idea to all your followers. This post is then read by the followers and this may initiate a conversation between a customer and the business. This conversation (if public) can be seen by all of their followers and the reach of your brand can be endless. This will build value into the company without spending a dime!

So, my message to all small businesses is that you should start using these networks to maximize your brand and build trust! Marketing with Social Media plus a great website will give you more recognition and hopefully get more customers.

HootSuite makes managing your Social Media easy, much like Brizzly, by offering an interface to manage your feeds from Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin. It’s easy to post new statuses and updates via the interface to just one account or all the account that you linked to HootSuite . The accounts are separated by tabs, so navigating the feeds are very simple! The Twitter account manager is split into five different sections and at a glance you can view the Twitter feed, Mentions, DM (Direct Messages), your profile feed, and Pending Tweets. The Pending section is offered to all accounts and this section is what sets HootSuite apart from the other web apps because this will allow you to post tweets or statuses at a different time. Why is this important? Keeping your account up-to-date will help build your brand by Social Media.

Lastly, HootSuite offers stats! It is very important to understand what your followers are clicking on your feeds. I can’t stress how important this feature is to your success on Social Media accounts. The stats will show your views by region, clicks, and links clicked. Analyzing the stats on your postings is huge! Did I mention signup and usage of HootSuite is free?

Please try this app and let me know what you think of it?

Now, I’ve reviewed other Social Media managing web applications in my other posts (Gist and Brizzly) and you know they have their pros and cons which I will highlight in a roundup article very soon.

Don’t worry, all of the features you find on the feeds of Twitter or Facebook remain the same; the ‘Like’ button, ‘Comment’ section, ‘Retweet’… etc. So, using it is intuitive and easily. This is a simple feed manager with some added security and bonuses, unlike Gist which is a secure feed and email manager and much much more (Read more about Gist).

Here is a video explaining Brizzly:
A video introduction. Getting started with Brizzly.

Brizzly is very cool and I hope you enjoy managing your feed now! Let me know what you think about it.