Twitter introduced a new feature, called Twitter Places, that I think could be beneficial for B2B companies. It allows you to assign your location to a Tweet. It also gives each location a dedicated Twitter page where users can view recent Tweets and check-ins (integrated with Foursquare and Gowalla) associated with that place.

How can this benefit B2B companies?

If a customer or prospect comes across the Twitter Place page associated with your business, he or she can view the Tweets and check-ins listed on that page. If someone has never heard of your business before, that feed can have a huge impact on that person’s first impression of your business.

So, B2B companies, make sure your corporate Twitter account is associated with your office location before you Tweet, and inform co-workers who are on Twitter to associate their Tweets with your business’ location while they’re at work. This will enable your Twitter Place page visitors to connect with your employees. And, I think it’s important for employees to make a connection with customers and prospects that goes beyond the products or services a business sells.

Twitter Places is now available. Below your tweet box you will see “Add a location to your tweets.” Simply click on the “Turn it on” link.

Do you think this feature could benefit B2B companies?

I was reading this article about how Twitter will be obsolete as a marketing tool in the near future because of the shear number of connections someone has. The idea is that there will be so much Twitter clutter, that marketing messages will get lost in the shuffle.

Obviously Twitter’s business model is evolving as we speak, and surely its technology will continue to evolve to compensate for this. I’ve put together a few predictions for how I think Twitter will evolve to be more useful to marketers

1. Contextual tweets: I see more Twitter-gration in the future. Twitter will integrate with other platforms like Facebook, 4square, Google and whatever is next. Therefore, Tweets can be prioritized by what you’re searching for, where you’re located, your most recent update, etc.
2. Opt-in DMs: Marketers will be able to respond immediately with customized DMs to Tweets like: “I’m looking for a good e-mail marketing software with Salesforce.com integration, please DM me.”
3. Automatic segmentation: Currently, you need an application like Hootsuite or Tweetdeck to organize Tweets, but I think Twitter will develop more sophisticated segmentation algorithms, so you’ll be able to receive messages that are most relevant to you.

Do you have other Twitter predictions? How do you think other social media applications will evolve to be more relevant to B2B marketers? What’s next for social marketing?

In PR, it’s common to hear the phrase, “I want my company name in ink.” I admit, landing placement or a really great feature story in a target publication is fantastic —and valuable—and clients or bosses love it. But, while we’re concerned with securing print coverage for our clients or bosses, it’s important that we don’t forget about the many social media outlets out there. There are already conversations taking place about your company or brand on social media sites, and your online reputation is being created because of those conversations.

As PR professionals, it’s our job to educate our clients and bosses about the importance of social media and online reputations. Much like great print coverage, social media conversations deliver valuable information about a company or brand directly to current and prospective customers and influence opinions.

In my opinion, the best part about social media is that you can participate in the conversations about your company or brand that are already happening and you can engage with your customers on a more personal level.

Are you a big fan of all things design related? Are you a fan of Twitter? I stumbled upon this new Web site called Dribbble that takes the best from both worlds and combines them.

Instead of sharing your daily thoughts 140 characters at a time, Dribble gives you 400 x 300 pixels of space to share visual creativity. Another great feature is that, like Twitter, Dribbble allows you to “follow” your favorite designer, illustrator or developer and keep up with what they are working on.

As Twitter can be helpful to trend what’s happening in this great b2b world of ours, I believe that Dribble can also help us keep up with all things design related and keep things fresh!

Are there any other b2b resources you use to keep at the top of your game?