Quickly Share How to Get to a Place on Twitter with TwitArea

Kim Vallee — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 13:45:05 +0000

Many people use Twitter to meet their friends at restaurants, shops, museums and other public places. Launched last week by Praized, TwitArea enables to quickly lead them to a place’s address, phone number and locate the place on a map. If you have a smart phone, you will find that having a direct link on tweets saves you time while you are on the run.

Another good use is to clearly identify a place. A couple of weeks ago, I tweeted about a hotel in Toronto. But the Toronto hotel has almost the same name as a trademark hotel in Chicago. Linking to the place on my tweet would have avoided the confusion.

How to Use TwitArea

No need to register. All you need to post a tweet with TwitArea is to use Firefox and be on the Twitter.com site. Simply install the Firefox add-on for TwitArea. The Firefox add-on will add an Insert Place button under the text box on Twitter.com. Click on the button whenever you wish to add the information of a place. Find the place you are referring to and click on the Tweet this! button. Voilà!

Your tweet will look like this. Anyone on a computer or using a smart phone will be able to click on the short URL to know the address, phone and locate on a map the place. I like it because TwitArea simplifies my life.

About Praized Media, the maker of TwitArea

TwitArea is related to Praized community database containing the location of 16 million businesses in Canada and in the United States. The Praized application is what is powering my Places community on At Home with Kim Vallee. Located in Montreal, Praized enables publishers with an easy way for their readers to recommend local businesses to each other.

+ TwitArea

The City of San Francisco fully Embraces Social Media with Twitter

Kim Vallee — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 22:33:31 +0000

San Francisco is known as a city with a diverse pool of Web 2.0 professionals. So maybe it is not surprising that the City of San Francisco launched a Twitter application where anyone can send direct messages (DM) to report a problem or send a request to the city’s customer service hotline.

Twitter became one more point of contact with the 311 Customer Service Center. View “Sample Tweets” of their most requested services to help ensure you provide the information needed to properly service your request. 311 can help with:

Street Cleaning
Graffiti Removal
Pothole and Sidewalk Defects
Abandoned Vehicles
City Garbage Can Maintenance
Department Information (office hours, location, phone numbers)
… and much more!

Added Value of Attaching Pictures to Your Requests

Like any direct message that you send on Twitter, you can attach a picture. This is an added value of the Twitter reporting. Seeing the pictures help the City gives a round estimate of the problem. With that added information, the City could better and faster prioritize every request.

If you are not on twitter, know that San Francisco residents, businesses or tourists wishing to get non-emergency information or request services pertaining to San Francisco government may call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year by dialing 311 and talk to a real person.

+ Via RT @jeromeparadis : RT @mathewi : @craignewmark