Although there is no shortage of businesses large and small making great use of Twitter, many are still trying to make heads-and-tales of how to harness its power to communicate with existing and prospective clients. CoTweet and HootSuite are trying to meet this opportunity with feature-rich CRM applications, but for businesses who are Twitter newbies, these apps can be daunting.
Followbase saw this opportunity-within-an-opportunity and designed a simple, bare-bones Twitter CRM app that could form a stepping stone to the more heavy-duty apps.
All you need to do to get started with Followbase is to connect it with a Twitter account. Twitter’s standard 3rd-party OAuth approval is used here to ensure the user is the actual account owner. Followbase then begins scanning the stream and funnels tweets into four customer service oriented topics: Mention, Ideas, Problems and Questions.
Tweets under each topic column are displayed with threaded replies as well as highlighting for the main account and additional team members. The columns are formed automatically, based on the usage of the “?” operator and keywords found in the body of the tweets. Examples include: idea, feature, suggestion, bug, issue, fail, etc.
Followbase attempts to deal with false positives in sense that phrases such as “any idea…” or “no idea…” do not end up classified under the Ideas column. If a tweet was accidentally mis-categorized, it can then be moved manually.
If you’re wondering whether there are any semantic or sentiment analyses, the answer is no. Nir Buschi, founder of Followbase, says that a 3rd party semantic engine could be integrated down the road but right now the focus is on keeping the entire experience as simple as possible for newbies.
Additional features expected to be rolled out in the near future include domain aliasing, customization of look & feel, custom search lists, and issue management.
Followbase is currently a free service, but I can certainly see it scale into a freemium model where it could charge small and medium businesses $10-20 per month.
This post was originally posted on TechCrunch.com where I cover the Israeli startup scene.
When Robert Scoble was here in Israel a couple of months ago he interviewed me about the Israeli startup scene. Here’s the result:
Two days ago I participated in DH Consulting’s first Validation Panel. The idea being that a startup gets to present to a panel of experts which then provide a feedback report.
Other than myself, the other panelists were:
- Jonathan Griffit - AngelsIP CEO
- Ron Porat - Hacktics CEO
- Doron Habshush - Myself, DHConsulting CEO
- Joeri Kreisberg, Adv. - Yigal Arnon Law Office
- Tal Karmon - KarmonTax CEO
- Shlmoy Gantz - BlueBrick CEO
If you are young startup and want to participate in the next Panel, email: doron@dhconsulting.info
Well, I am very frustrated with the Globes interview with me and more specifically the reactions it has received.
The face-to-face interview was conducted over a week ago and to the best of my recollection I was rather positive throughout. The printed interview came out with what I and other are perceiving as a negative overtone. As I said, I’m pretty frustrated about this.
I’ve emailed Noa Pereg the Globes reporter asking that she provide me with a copy of the recored interview so I can be absolutely sure of what was said.
I’ll keep you updated…
An interview with me was published in Globes yesterday. This was my first first-hand experience with Israeli “Talk-backs”. What is interesting about these is that unlike comments in my posts on TechCrunch, the comments made on the article were not meant to spur a conversation among the readers—the criticism was not followed-up with a substantive argument.
Many of my quotes in the article were out of context and a couple were mis-quoted, so I’d like to take a moment and clarify some points:
- FoxyTunes: Love the company, but would not have invested in them—in fact, no VC invested in them. The founders—Alex & Vitaly—are great guys, but FoxyTunes is far from your a-typical VC investment. This is why we need Yossi Vardi… His foresight and “balls” allow such companies to come about. The Globes reporter neglected to include this explanation.
- Video: Yes, video is hot. Thing is, there are hundreds of companies in this space and innovation is slowing down significantly. My main reasons for not entering this space are: a) very difficult to gain the traction to generate the amount of traffic necessary to monetize, and b) no one has figured yet how to actually monetize. On the flip side, while bandwidth costs have decreased, if you do have a site that gets traffic, your CDN will make a killing off of you and you won’t be making a nickel. Food for thought.
- Social Gaming: If there are any true social gaming networks here in Israel I’m not aware of, please contact me. Gambling does not fall under this category… I’m talking the likes of Zynga.
- Objectivity: So if wasn’t clear yet, yes, you can pay me so I’ll write about you on TechCrunch…! You will need to forward the payment to my Cayman Island bank account. :) Please read my About page for a crystal-clear explanation on this matter.
The traditional press in Israel is more about generating controversy than generating a conversation—it’s a shame, but that’s how the cookie crumbles… In any case, I hope this sets the record somewhat straight.
If anyone would like to contact me directly, you can always email me at: roi.carthy@gmail.com
Howdy y’all! I’ll be attending SXSW in Austin, Texas in a couple of weeks. If you’re planning to attend as well, drop me a note. Yee-haw!
That’s right–iMedix wins “Best New Startup” at the Crunchies!
Congratulations to Amir & Iri and the entire iMedix team for a job well done!!!
A couple of weeks I posted that I was looking for some help in redesigning my blog. At the time I was using a WordPress theme called Riaz, but felt I needed a custom design that better suited my personality and my professional services.
A few designers reached out to me, but after seeing his portfolio and several email exchanges, I chose Jonathan Fren of 31CW.
Working with John couldn’t have been better… He understood what I wanted, iterated perfectly and delivered W3 validated code–all in under a week!
Here’s what John had to say:
“This was a great blog to work with - and it’s nice to see someone as
enthusiastic about what they do as Roi. The final design is easy on the eye, easy to navigate, and has a professional, clean vibe. Keep blogging ;-)”
Jonathan Fren - Head of Development @ 31CW.
If you’re looking for a professionally delivered WordPress theme, John’s your man :)
So how do you like my new design…?
A stellar company I’m advising is seeking a Community Manager.
The ideal candidate needs a contemporary understanding of the Web (social networks, widgets, blogs, etc). Seeing as there will be significance correspondence with users (email, blog, etc.) English on a mother-tongue level is a must.
This is a great opportunity in one of the most exciting startups I’ve seen!
Need more info or want to apply? Contact me at: roi.carthy@gmail.com
I’m dying to change my blog design… ;) If anyone knows someone that can help me create a WordPress theme, I’d really appreciate it….!
Contact me at: roi.carthy@gmail.com
Thanks!
