7 Jul

Twitter Your Way to Bargains

Posted by Tom OKeefe in BostonTweet, boston, twitter. Tagged: , , .

MSNPicture 6Thanks to @MelindaFumer of @MSNMoney for including @BostonTweet in the MSN Money article entitled Twitter Your Way to Bargains:

And don’t forget to follow some local tweet aggregators in your city if you want to find deals at restaurants, happy hours at bars, free concerts, cheap haircuts or just new, inexpensive places to shop.

Search for people by your city name and look for users posting deals in your area, such as @BostonTweet and @NewYorkology, to find gems like this: “@Bostontweet: Free burritos today at the Natick @Boloco from 11am-8pm.”

6 Jul

Improper BostonTweet

Posted by Tom OKeefe in BostonTweet, boston. Tagged: , , .

Improper BostonTweetThe most recent issue of the Improper Bostonian is all about Boston’s best restaurants, bars, shops and more. I’m (aka @BostonTweet) ecstatic, and grateful, to be featured at the beginning of the list.

Thank you Improper Bostonian (@TheImproper) and thank you Kimba (@KimbaKimba) for the photo.

6 Jul

Twitter Down

Posted by Tom OKeefe in boston, twitter. Tagged: , , .

BostonlogoOn Sunday Twitter accidentally suspended thousands of accounts including my @BostonTweet. Of course this came as a great to surprise to me and “scared the bejesus” out of me until I realized that I hadn’t done anything wrong. What also came as a (pleasant) surprise were the numerous “Free BostonTweet” tweets and the article from the Boston Phoenix about my “downtime.”

In response I commented that I took the evening off and went to JP Licks with a friend but due to my “suspension” I was forced to contact that friend via the ancient form of communication known as the telephone. This was yet another revelation on how reliant I’ve become on Twitter as a mode of communication – a form of communication that takes precedence over email, text messaging and the telephone. So with that the below headline is hilarious but sadly true.

SHOCKING: Boston man’s Twitter account suspended, uses TELEPHONE to ask friend out for ice cream

1 Jul

Restaurants on Twitter

Posted by Tom OKeefe in BostonTweet, boston. Tagged: , , , .

On Monday the Boston Globe published a feature article about the increasing number of Boston restaurants using Twitter to connect with their customers. In addition to talking about local restaurants the Globe also interviewed BostonTweet about my support of everything Boston. Below is an excerpt from that article, which thanks in large part to John Pepper @Boloco includes BostonTweet:

When Boloco wanted to set up focus groups, market research that would have cost thousands of dollars, the company turned to Twitter. Pepper contacted Tom O’Keefe, an online business developer (and avowed fan of Boloco competitor Anna’s Taqueria) whose Twitter stream, @BostonTweet, has more than 6,000 followers. “Within one hour we had 50 people,’’ Pepper said. “It not only saved us all kinds of money, but it turned out to be an amazing group.’’

O’Keefe says he started BostonTweet as a way to create awareness for local restaurants and bars in the down economy. BostonTweet hosts frequent tweetups, events where those using Twitter, a.k.a. tweeps, meet in real life.

“It’s great for business,’’ he said. “It gets people in and they spend money, but it’s also a very vocal group. People talk about the event leading up to it and while they’re there,’’ posting to Twitter via cellphone.

It’s also fun. “I meet so many great people,’’ he said. “It’s the best thing I’ve ever done.’’

Article Source: The Boston Globe and GlobeDevraFirst

8 Jun

iPhone OS 3.0 Software Release

Posted by Tom OKeefe in apple. Tagged: , , .

promo_iphone_os3_image20090317The iPhone OS 3.0 software upgrade will be available on June 17th.

7 Jun

Boston News

Posted by Tom OKeefe in boston. Tagged: , , .

Widget1Over the weekend @SJCallan and I launched the BostonTweet Widget. This widget is powered by Twitter & BostonTweet.com and gives anyone with a website the ability to add the Boston news feed to their website.

Not only does the widget pull information from @BostonTweet but it also allows anyone to post Boston news to the app by creating a new tweet with @BostonTweet in it. 

Get the code to spread the Boston Twitter community.

2 Jun

BostonTweet Widget

Posted by Tom OKeefe in BostonTweet, boston. Tagged: , .

BostonTweet will soon be releasing a widget which can be embeded on your website and be updated by you for broadcast to all the embeded widgets. The BostonTweet widget enables anyone with a Twitter account to report Boston news & events directly to the widget by creating a new tweet with @BostonTweet in it. Currently you can broadcast updates directly to BostonTweet.com in the same manner but with the new widget we bring Boston news & events to a much larger audience!

1 Jun

Sweet Retweet!

Posted by Tom OKeefe in BostonTweet, boston. Tagged: , , , .

gallery2.jpgThis afternoon BostonTweet & Sayagle started their three day Sweet Retweet promotion with Sweet Cupcakes. The original tweet from BostonTweet reads as follows:

@BostonTweet & @Sayagle are giving away 2 dozen Sweet Cupcakes (2 $36 gift cards)! RT to enter – drawing on 6/4 http://bit.ly/ibCHl

The power of Twitter continues to amaze me – especially when you have a niche and you target local.  Sweet Cupcakes is a Boston based bakery that sells cupcakes and BostonTweet talks about everything Boston – very straightforward. Well apparently Boston likes cupcakes and Twitter works, because after one tweet there have already been 80 retweets and 609 visitors to SweetCupcakes.com! Not bad for one tweet with at least three or four tweets to go!

29 May

Google Wave

Posted by Tom OKeefe in Google Wave. Tagged: .

Over the last day the blogs and Twitter have been in a flutter over Google’s new product announcement called Google Wave – set to launch later this year. In sum Google Wave is a communication & collaboration platform that pulls in many of the communication tools that we’re already familiar with into one browser based client. Some of these communication tools include new perspectives to email, chat, instant messaging, social networking and project management. From day one Google Wave is an Open Source platform allowing for immediate adoption and innovation.

Some additional features of interest to me are playback conversations, drag and drop file sharing (instantly to all connections) and the Embed Wave – the ability to embed a Wave into your website which then acts as an integrated chat room.

There are thousands of articles about Google Wave but I’ve found the Mashable article to be one of the best.

28 May

Biz Stone Discusses the Monetization of Twitter

Posted by Tom OKeefe in twitter. Tagged: .

In a recent Techcrunch interview @Biz talks about potential strategies & features to monetize Twitter. I know as a prolific user of Twitter for both @BostonTweet & @Sayagle I would pay a monthly fee for the following premium features & services:

  • Analytics
  • Scheduled tweets like Tweetlater current offers
  • Demographics on my followers
  • Multiple users/username and multiple mobile phone synching
  • Additional exposure (especially via location) for my accounts on the Twitter network

13 May

Tuesday Night in Kendall Square

Posted by Tom OKeefe in Uncategorized.

Last night we had our weekly Tuesday night Sayagle meeting in Kendall Square, Cambridge. This one was especially productive with Ken, Carol, Alfred, Tony and David all in attendance. In this photo David is joking about something and I thankfully was able to avoid the camera as the cameraman.

Tuesday Night Sayagle Meeting

13 May

What is Boston Doing Right Now?

Posted by Tom OKeefe in BostonTweet, boston. Tagged: .

The thing that continues to amaze me about Twitter is the ability to collect information on what’s happening right now. In the case of BostonTweet it’s purely Boston but it can be anywhere in the world. No other platform, not even Google, can tell you what’s happening this exact second. The goal of BostonTweet is to give the entire city the ability to post events, sightings, happenings and the scene as it’s happening directly to BostonTweet.com. Whether it’s an event, telling the city about the scene at a bar or tweeting pictures directly to the site – happenings can be broadcast directly to the site by anyone in the city. Citizen journalism, social messaging and often pure entertainment.

What is Boston Doing Right Now?

12 May

Pizza and the Mayor

Posted by Tom OKeefe in boston. Tagged: , , .

Boston’s Mayor Tom Menino has been hosting a number of meet and greets throughout Boston and tonight’s is in the North End. For additional information about the event visit BostonTweet

11 May

BostonTweet & Sayagle on Vernacular

Posted by Tom OKeefe in boston. Tagged: , .

Vernacular, the Emerson College writing, literature & publishing graduate student blog, recently interviewed me about BostonTweet, Sayagle and my invitation to their Gala on May 15th. The interview touches on my previous online experience, Sayagle, Boston, advice for new graduates and my favorite books.

To read the entire interview please visit: Spotlight On…

11 May

Tweetup at McGreevy’s

Posted by Tom OKeefe in Uncategorized.

On April 30th BostonTweet held a tweetup at McGreevy’s on Boylston Street, and as usual my man @JoselinMane was the photographer. To view some of his stills visit Flickr.

@eknopf2 & @BostonTweet looking like dorks with their iPhones

McGreevy's

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