Social analytics startup, Viralheat, has just developed a software application that it claims can isolate tweets on Twitter that are potential sales leads. It’s called Human Intent – and it aims to simplify lead generation by helping businesses identify social media users who are on the edge of making purchasing decisions. All the business has to do is set up a keyword search and Human Intent automatically sorts through social media updates to pinpoint those who’re expressing an intent to buy something.

So how does the algorithm work?

Viralheat says it’s a combination of sentiment analysis, language processing and predictive analytics. It identifies people looking to buy something, people complaining about an existing product they own or perhaps looking for a replacement, or anyone who may have an issue with a service they currently use. The algorithm also has built-in filters for intent actions by verticals. Viralheat’s CTO  co-founder Vishal Sankhla notes, “Auto leads are not the same as finance leads, insurance leads, electronic leads, software services leads, etc.”

For higher accuracy, Human Intent includes a spam filter, which removes retweets and mentions that are not relevant. Finally, the algorithm learns through human curation. If it makes a mistake, users can mark tweets that should or should not be identified as leads. As more feedback rolls in, the algorithm improves.

All of Human Intent’s data can be viewed in a dashboard, and can be exported to programs like Excel or Salesforce. Also, since it links directly to consumers’ social updates, businesses using the program can respond to those updates right on the spot.

This is a brilliant idea – as it eliminates the dreary marketing duty of sifting through thousands of tweets and other social updates to determine potential narrow sales leads – which, by the way, I thought was next to impossible on Twitter.

I thought wrong.

Launching in beta next week, Human Intent will only be available to existing Viralheat customers at no additional cost (for now). Once the program launches in full, pricing and availability will be announced, and beta users will receive a discount.

I can think of two instances in the past few months when I had problems with my services at a local athletic club and at Starwood Hotels. At the club, I had been trying to book a birthday party for my daughter but the party planner was not returning my calls. Two weeks after leaving numerous messages and emails, I finally sent a tweet directly to the athletic club’s account. And, not a direct message either. I sent a public tweet via @reply which EVERYONE could read. Low and behold, I received a call back that very day.

My correspondence with Starwood Hotels played out very similar. I had an issue with my preferred guest points and when I couldn’t get someone on the line, I took to Twitter and – presto – my call was returned and my issues were resolved quickly that very day.

The main goal of customer service is to help someone resolve their issues. While phone conversations can help solve problems, wait times do not. Twitter is a lightning-fast platform that can help sift through and solve problems quickly. And, if they are small issues – like in my cases – a single tweet may be enough.

Sadly, not every person, nor company, is ready to use Twitter as a customer care mechanism. My mom, for instance, does a lot of online shopping and has a whole laundry list of customer service complaints for various retail sites – BUT, my mom is not on Twitter. And, if she were, she wouldn’t know the first thing about contacting a company.

Twitter, in my opinion, is used only by the Twitter savvy. Think about it. It’s not used by the mom and pop who own that convenient store down the road. And, it’s certainly not used by older Americans who, in general, seem to have a lot to complain about. Those are the people who need Twitter most – with regard to customer service, that is.

The bottom line: Great customer service is active, transparent, and fast. And that’s what you’ll find on Twitter – not on the phone talking to an automated machine.

So what that 70% of tweets are ignored? Who has time to wade all that mess anyway? If you have something to say, say it directly to a Twitter user. Your message will be read, your voice will be heard – eventually.

Tweets on Twitter are being ignored. Facebook updates are getting buried – and businesses are taking note. The ROI is simply not there.

A September 2010 survey by Econsultancy, sponsored by digital marketing agency bigmouthmedia, found nearly half of companies worldwide felt they were not able to measure the return on their social media investment — even to put a value on it relative to their other marketing activities.

Econsultancy’s report also suggested integration with many other marketing channels was lacking. While the vast majority of companies had managed to integrate email and social media, search engine optimization was the only other marketing channel that came close in integration efforts.

What’s more, a Wired story released via CNN this week indicated – quite bluntly – that Twitter is a waste of time. Toronto-based social media analytics company Sysomos scanned 1.2 billion messages that were sent in August and September 2009 and found that 71% of tweets get absolutely no response. Seven in ten tweets are ignored!

This is tough to swallow – even for me. But it was inevitable. Social media’s swan song appears to be over.

Now what?

Television news was, and is, our life blood. If it goes away, we’re screwed.

That’s why I hate to admit that TV news really is dying a slow death thanks to Internet news Websites and social media, like Twitter and Facebook.

And now, a new social experiment may really leave me in a cold sweat.

It’s called “Huis Clos su le Net” or “Behind Closed Doors on the Net.” The experiment will lock five journalists, who are all from other parts of the world, in an isolated French cottage, leaving them without access to print newspapers or magazines.

So how will they keep up with the world? Through Facebook and Twitter.

The experiment will judge how well the journalists can interpret news of the world solely through social websites and how they might go about verifying the facts presented through Facebook and Twitter.

I have yet to get a handle on when this experiment will begin mainly because every website and blog associated with Huis Clos se le Net is in French, including their Twitter feed.

I do expect, however, that when it actually does begin news will spread like wildfire here to the United States.

My gut tells me that the findings from this experiment will not be earth-shattering; that, indeed, you can get ALL of the day’s news right there on Twitter. Facebook I’m not so sure about.

TV news is toast.

My husband better start looking for work.

Sure, ALL of us hit a rough patch now and then – but what I’ve been through, and what the people of Haiti are now growing through, is anything but rough.

It’s pure hell.

My husband and I, and our then 9-month-old daughter, were in New Orleans when Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005. As you know, the storm sucked the life out of the vibrant city – leaving it flooded and in ruins. The images you saw on TV were bad. But you have no idea what it was like to be there in person. No idea.

I expect the same can be said for what is unfolding right now in Haiti. I’ve seen the footage on the evening news, but being there is another story.

There is a silver lining though.

It is the monumental effort to give and help.

Back in 2005, I was astounded by the generosity of people across this country, and others, to help New Orleanians deal with Katrina’s aftermath. Donation after donation helped the city heal and rebuild. The call to action back then was, what I thought, unprecedented.

What we’re seeing now in Haiti is historic.

Aid is pouring in at an unbelievable rate – more so than ever before. And, it’s all because of technology.

Social media sites like Twitter and Facebook have helped people spread the word, and many one-click FREE iPhone applications make donating effortless.

I often wonder how things would have played out in New Orleans – or even in tsunami-ravaged southeast Asia – if Twitter and more smartphone applications were around.

Funny, it was just five years ago – yet it seems like a completely different time.

Professional branding.

Online reputations.

For some, livelihood depends on what’s being said and passed around on the Internet.

Given the power of sites like Twitter and Facebook, online reputation tracking has never been more important.

After all, you want the power to react after someone has hung you (or your small business) out to dry, right?

Months ago, I touched on an application - Salesforce CRM for Twitter - that allows small businesses to track their complaints through basic searches.

Sure, that is all well and good – but now there’s a new, bigger breed of tools that can help you monitor your rep.

Enter Traackr’s Authority List.

Squidoo’s Brands in Public – which is a total (and expensive) waste of time.

And, perhaps the biggest and most controversial one of them all, Microsoft’s LookingGlass.

LookingGlass monitors conversations on social media sites, including Twitter, Flickr, and YouTube, so that companies can track consumer sentiment about their products in real-time. The product can also connect social media feeds with elements like customer databases, CRM centers and sales data within an organization. Most importantly, it will keep a log of what’s been said. Where, when and by whom.

LookingGlass is still in its testing phase but, in good Microsoft fashion, the company is singing its praises.

An excerpt from Clickz:

“While testing the system during the past nine months, Marty Taylor Collins, a group marketing manager for Microsoft, said the information acquired on at least two occasions saved her department from a serious misstep. First, the tool halted her team’s plan to discontinue an ad campaign when it helped them discover that a lead character had quietly become popular. In another instance, a PR disaster was averted during the beta-test release of Windows 7, after a system crashed just after launch.”

LookingGlass appears to be the total package, right?

Wrong.

There’s a hitch.

Microsoft is limiting its LookingGlass services to companies that purchase its suite of Microsoft products.

Way to share to the love Microsoft!

Given the bitter disgust surrounding the Windows 7 release, Microsoft better rethink its strategy.

Or, better yet, Microsoft should take a good hard look at itself through LookingGlass.

You know, the one about the power of social media and the influence it had on the dissemination of crucial, otherwise censored information following Ahmandinejad’s brutal win?

Well, it turns out the social media-driven revolution that was unfolding on Twitter didn’t have the impact we thought it did.

Charles Leadbeater, a British writer and analyst, and Annika Wong, his fellow researcher, decided to empirically explore Twitter’s role during that time. Making use of data provided by media analytics company, Sysomos, Leadbeater and Wong found that Twitter’s impact was negligible – at best.

And why not?

After all, a mere .027% of Iranians are registered to use Twitter – and of that minuscule figure includes some Westerners who changed their Twitter address to Iran as a show of solidarity.

Duh!

Given that only a third of Iranians have Internet access – these findings make complete sense.

I – like so many others who spent countless hours pondering the powerful link between Twitter and Iran’s potential regime change – was dead wrong.

Perhaps, Twitter isn’t has effective as we thought.

Or, perhaps, I was naive enough to get caught up in, what I thought, was a “big” event unfolding before my eyes.

Fool me once, but not twice.

People say that with the invention of Google Wave and rise in social media – email has died a slow death.

The philosophy is this:

According to Jessica Vascellaro at the Wall Street Journal, we still use email – but not the way we used to.  It wasn’t that long ago when we would log on and off the Internet – in turn checking our email periodically throughout the day.

But that isn’t the case anymore.

Now, we’re always connected either through Facebook, Twitter or some form of instant messaging.

Put it this way. Let’s say you want to catch a movie with a friend. You send him an email – and wait. Two hours later, still no response. As you get ready to shoot off a second email to your friend – or in fact pick up the phone to call him – you see on your Facebook mobile app that your friend is indeed sick with the flu (H1N1?) – and is at the doctor’s office.  Your friend has, in a sense, answered your email via a Facebook status update.

Ok. I get it.

Social media has taken the place of email to a certain extent.

But let’s not forget how many folks out there – hardworking lawyers, investors, software developers, accountants, small business owners – who find themselves composing and responding to emails several hours a day. I, myself, am one of those people.

Email is not dead in the working business world. In fact, it’s alive and well.

WSJ’s Vascellaro points it out herself, writing that email continues to grow. In August 2009, 276.9 million people used email across the U.S., several European countries, Australia and Brazil, according to Nielsen Co., up 21% from 229.2 million in August 2008.

Business professionals simply don’t communicate with each other via social media or IM.  In fact, many employers – roughly 54% - ban social media sites at work.

Will Google Wave change the way we communicate with colleagues and friends?

Probably so.

But in the meantime, let’s not get carried away and cast off email before it’s past its prime.

I like my Yahoo and Gmail accounts – and I’m not ready to give them up just yet.

I was wrong.

It’s Twitter.

The social networking/ internet messaging service/ micro blogging site (whatever you want to call it) has grown in gargantuan porportion.

An estimated $1 billion to be exact.

And, now, like the Apple iPhone app frenzy – Twitter is having its own profound effect on the app world.

Enter the state of Massachusetts.

The Bay State is home to many things: the Boston Red Sox, the New England Patriots, prestigious universities and hospitals – to name a few.

But, it’s also a hub for innovative tech startups –  companies, that have developed some interesting applications and services connected to Twitter.

And, unlike Twitter itself, these apps and services are actually bringing in money.

According to Boston Globe’s Scott Kirsner, here’s a look at how some companies are feeding off the Twitter effect – and what they’re bringing to the table.

- Oneforty - Offers a directory of software applications and services that work with Twitter. It helps direct new users and paying customers to them in exchange for a referral fee.

- Thoughtbot – Their Thunder Thimble helps companies track what Twitter users are saying about their brands. Subscription fees start at $9 per month.

- Tweetworks - Aims to help users who are interested in a topic create groups on Twitter and track strings of messages on a particular topic. No revenue model yet.

- Crimson Hexagon - Helps companies track conversations about their products on Twitter (as well as blogs and online forums).

- GraphEdge - Helps Twitter users understand trends among their followers. May soon start charging a monthly fee for Twitter users with a large number of followers.

- HubSpot – Twitter Grader analyzes how well a Twitter account is performing in terms of attracting followers and supplying them with content that they’re likely to pass along ( or “re-tweet”) to other users.

- Traackr – Generates lists of influential users of Twitter so that marketers at a company will know who to reach out to when testing a new product or website.

Anyone can see that by the amount of users (roughly 8 million new users a month) – and the endeavors of these tech companies – the Twitter effect is spreading.

The world is literally Twitter’s oyster.

Let’s hope the site doesn’t blow it by getting swallowed up by Google – or worse, Microsoft.

It’s not a virus.

It’s not spam.

It’s a new service designed especially for those who are scared to tie their names to their Twitter updates.

Yep, you read that right.

You can now send tweets anonymously though Tweet From Above and Tweet From Below.

As their names suggest, one service is meant for good; the other for evil.  Simply use the service to @reply someone – and they’ll see the tweet, but won’t know who it’s from.

Curious?

I just sent an anonymous tweet to myself using Tweet From Above and this is what it looked like:

tweetfromabove3 @ErinMcElveen Go back to bed! half a minute ago from API

Sure – from a third party app standpoint – this is a creative idea.

But come on – anonymous tweeting?

Sounds to me like this may become a breeding ground for harrassing, malicious tweets. And despite its stern terms of use warning – I really don’t think anyone will comply, especially if they’re posting from Tweet From Below.

It’s sort of like going back to junior high.

Thanks, but I’d rather not.

I’m keeping it real on Twitter and I hope the rest of Twitosphere does too.