Great web sites and applications pop up all the time.  Here’s a pick of some of our recent favorites.   Some of these may be directly applicable to your business. All of them will give you ideas that you can apply to what you do online:

20 Decibels

This is a terrific monitoring tool for Twitter campaigns.  The advantage over others like Tweet Deck is the analytic capacity it provides.  It’s still in Beta but we’re already using it for our clients.

Square Up

Square up is genius. Take credit card payments from your mobile phone. You could see this type of technology coming a long time ago. Cash is slowly becoming more and more obsolete. There are two main barriers to this working. The first is that the security of the service needs to be accepted by the end user. This will happen over time. The second is that the price point needs to be right (ie a transaction cost that is cheaper than Paypal). This will be great for both businesses and individuals. It would be great for mobile service providers or retaurants. I could envisage situations where I’ll use it to take payments from my friends, especially when we go on holiday together.

The Sixty One

Users rate the coolest new artists and new music. The application uses your previous music request and ratings to populate your next songs‬ It ties in all the big sites; Twitter, Facebook and Myspace. The better the songs that you rate well score in future, the better your reputation becomes. This concept of creating a status will work well for ratings sites and sets them apart from Facebook. Four Square have been successfully implementing this technique in the restaurant and bar scene. We are doing it in the travel industry with Life Points. ‪Can you create or sponsor something similar in your industry?

Word-of-mouth marketing comes alive in social media.  Through our app development program, we’re helping clients to incentivize Facebook users to become product champions.  There are many ways you can do this on your own through your Fan Page, your employees’ personal pages, through Facebook advertising or through groups.  Think strategically about your efforts and carefully choose the metrics to gauge your success.  Some strategies are easy but most need persistent effort, which requires significant of time and resources.

Fan Pages don’t engage people on their own. Anyone can set up a Fan page in a matter of minutes.  You have to empower your product champions, every individual within your organization and your customers who had an amazing experience.  If your people aren’t telling their Facebook and Twitter friends about your products, you’re missing a huge opportunity.  You just need to give them a reason.  The easy strategies for this aren’t always successful, otherwise all of your competitors would already be doing them.  Give them something they want, something that they want to share.  Then you can cost effectively leverage Facebook’s viral channels.

There are a number of routes you can go in the application space:

1. Custom build stand-alone applications: This is great for big branding players or smaller organizations with a terrific idea.  A good example is Quiksilver’s surfing game.

2. Custom build apps for your fan page: a great approach if you want to engage your existing fan base to spread the word.  Create engaging quizes about your product.  Give users something they really want.  Get creative and allow your people to share their passion.

3. Pay to brand existing applications: This is great for exposure and necessary for running competitions under Facebook’s new restrictions.  Tourism British Columbia are currently branding our application; getlifepoints.com.

4. Buy existing, proven applications: a good option that minimizes risk if you have a lot of money lying around that you don’t know what to spend on.  Trip Advisor spent a few million to buy Cities I’ve Visited.

There are many options.  Try to forget about shiny object syndrome.  Think about your organization’s social media goals, then achieve those by providing something that your clients really want.