Twitter's @anywhere and the looming Lo-so landscape

17/03/10 posted by Annie

If you've been following our lowdown on Twitter, the latest is that it's fighting back to get more heavily integrated with the rest of the web. CEO Evan Williams yesterday announced a new platform called '@anywhere', which will see users being able to engage in Twitter activity without having to navigate off a third-party website and into Twitter. You'll be able to follow a participating journalist from his or her byline, or tweet about YouTube videos without interrupting it.

Sites currently using @anywhere include eBay, Yahoo, and Digg. Twitter's innovation couldn't have come sooner, with the latest stats showing that purhcases correlate strongly with Twitter followings and Facebook fandom. The study says consumers are 67% more likely to buy from the brands they follow on Twitter, and 51% more likely to buy from a brand they follow on Facebook. People are also 79% more likely to recommend their Twitter follows to a friend, and 60% more likely to do the same on Facebook.

Obviously this doesn't mean a Twitter profile will translate to increased sales - for all we know it might just reflect consumers who already like and buy a brand simply clicking 'follow' on Twitter. But it is a good indication of where our times are heading - having a presence on such social media sites means you're up for exposure to your existing fans' friend lists, and their friends, and so on. The potential is endless! As Mashable says, "the study is another sign that social media is becoming a competitive advantage for those that are participating, and an increasingly major weakness for those that aren’t."

Speaking of advancing your business, yesterday Mashable posted some killer tips for location-based marketing. The phenomenon is called 'lo-so', and includes networks like Foursquare, Loopt and Gowalla, and it might be the answer for bringing more people through your physical door. Lo-so uses Global Positioning Satellines (GPS) on smartphones to locate users and determine what 'venue' they're at - which their friends can also stalk and share. The promoting happens when users 'check-in' to a venue. Your business can offer discounts, or the chance to win prizes, to every person who 'checks-in' to your business - and don't forget, it will all be seen by the person's friends. Some networks, like Foursquare, are even linkable to your Twitter account for increased usability and contagiousness.

The moral of the story is this: learn up on how @anywhere can be integrated on your business website, and make sure your business boasts a good presence across the lo-so landscape.