Squidoo.com this week launches Twttrstrm.com, a lightweight free tool that helps Twitter users organize and archive feedback from their followers.Twttrstrm makes it easy for anyone on Twitter to create a page about a topic, question, prediction or debate. "Should I buy a Blackberry or an iPhone?" or "What do you think of Alltop?" or "Short reviews of The Dark Knight" or "The best line in Obama's Inaugural is..."
With one click, followers can respond and in turn easily tweet their answers. A powerful element of a Twttrstrm is that you not only reach your followers, but you reach your followers' followers, and so on. And then, once the storm has passed, the record of the conversation stays live for the rest of the web to see for weeks or years to come.
"Here's the magic part," says Squidoo founder Seth Godin. "As your followers click through and respond, the storm spreads to their followers. So, in short, it's a threaded, viral, structured conversation in the middle of the Twitter melee."
Powered by Squidoo's popular platform, every Twttrstrm page supports versatile uses far beyond just simple polls or surveys. It's simple to add content ranging from videos, photos and polls, to links, RSS feeds and even Amazon and eBay widgets. These options help bring background and context to the central question or statement.
And every page generates revenue, for the person who built it or for the charity of their choice. Some Squidoo users earn more than $40,000 a year.
"One of Twitter's many strengths is in culling realtime (or near to it) feedback from your followers," says Squidoo Editor in Chief Megan Casey. "If Robert Scoble asks for restaurant recommendations in Tokyo, 10 minutes later he's got some. But it's hard to see all the @reply responses at once, even with the help of hashtags. Even harder to access that rich, human content a few days later. So we've created an easy way for Twitter users to gather and store all responses to a certain question or discussion. In the Scoble example, a single list of great restaurants in Tokyo is a super useful page to share with the rest of the web. You get the best of both worlds: quick feedback, and an organized storehouse for it."
Just imagine a Twitter user creating a Twttrstrm page to ask and gather replies the following questions!
Q: What are the best Twitter tools?
Q: Which should I buy, Blackberry or iPhone?
Q: I'm looking for people to do freelance research for me. Post your contact links here.
Q: What are the best blog posts on green building?
Q: I think the Oscar for best picture should go to...
Q: What's the worst thing about Bill O'Reilly?
Q: Shoutout what you like about Guy Kawasaki. Let's make a tribute page.
Q: Here's a photo. Now you write the caption!
Q: My book is getting published next fall. What cover design do you like most?
Q: Livetweet on January 20th. The best line in Obama's inaugural is...
Q: I love Oasis. Anything similar to them I should by on iTunes?
Q: I read Moneyball... should I read Panic, and why?
Q: I'm applying for a job at Google. If you've worked with me, post a testimonial.
Q: Who's the stupidest person in the news today? Post to the stupid list.
Q: Tweet today's smartest person. Join the smart list!
And so on.
Go to http://www.twttrstrm.com/ to start your free page in under 2 minutes.
