Twitter Challenges

Winner "Industry Most Disrupted by Twitter"

@PhilipHotchkiss issued the following challenge via Twitter last Friday:

predict the INDUSTRY that will be most disrupted by Twitter and WHY by Wed Best Tweet receives http://zi.ma/f2cf

I issued this Tweet because I believe that many industries will be disrupted by Twitter, and I was curious to leverage Twitter’s “creative constraints” to bring new ideas to the surface.

The Winning Tweet by Beth Temple

@BT4U @PhilipHotchkiss breaking news-citizen journalism is faster, more real & on scene, big news gets scooped & focuses on follow-up & commentary

Congratulations Beth. Your Tweet won because it is clearly starting to happen, and in a big way. CNN and others are integrating blogs, social media and specifically Twitter into their programming, we all know that. But, what’s insightful about your Tweet is the sequence of news dissemination and the shift in roles.

The recent Tweet from Lance Armstrong is an excellent example, and one that I believe, will be looked back upon as a real tipping point. Lance’s first call about his stolen bike—the police, second communication—a Tweet and then the media followed with updates, pictures, “what does this mean for his race commentary”, etc.

It’s a different world when everyone becomes their own news feed and can distribute that news (with multimedia images and links attached) from a computer or mobile device via Twitter in real-time. This individual empowerment is compounded by the ability Twitter provides news organizations to search and monitor the Twittersphere in real-time and makes it a near certainty that we will see many more examples of this shift in news dissemination sequence and roles that Beth Temple predicts.

I’m still waiting for someone to Tweet a story so big, that the mainstream media will herald it as “The Tweet Heard Around The World”. 

Thanks to all for the submissions, look for more Twitter Challenges down the road:-)

Beth will receive a CrashPlan+ Software License (my favorite backup software) and a 750GB LaCie USB Drive for her winning Tweet!

Winner "Best New Biz Concept in 1 Tweet"

@PhilipHotchkiss issued a challenge last week to entrepreneurs via Twitter in the following Tweet:

ENTREPRENEURS: the best single Tweet I receive by Friday **pitching a new business concept receives a new iPod Touch

I’m a big believer in creative constraints. Twitter’s 140 characters or less constraint is a classic example of the power of such constraints. People usually hear the word constraint and recoil. The opposite reaction, however, is empowering! Constraints should be embraced because of their crucible-like effect to produce ideas that are focused. And focus, is the single most important requirement for successfully bringing new business concepts to market.

The Winning Tweet by Darrel Austin

darrelaustin @PhilipHotchkiss (re: idea) a paid service (minimal fee) that automatically backs up your entire Google Account (ie, your life) nightly.

Congratulations Darrel. Your Tweet won because in a world of online services, cloud computing and other forms of virtualization, I believe there will be demand from a large market of individuals and businesses wanting to regain varying levels of possession of their virtualized information and multi-media digital assets. 

Darrel you also won because your Tweet articulates a business model, value proposition, product description and a demand driver that is both practical and emotional, i.e., “backing up your life”. And you accomplished this in 119 characters.

So Darrel, go for it! It’s your idea—make it happen by reaching out to the Twitter community—collaborate and connect feverishly to get the ball rolling, because as good as any good idea is, in the end, it’s all about execution.

Your engraved iPod Touch has already been ordered. DM (direct message via Twitter) me your address, and when I receive the iPod Touch from Apple, I’ll ship it directly to you.

iPod Touch Winning Tweet

Adam Ostrow, Editor and Chief at Mashable.com, called my challenge, “Elevator pitches to the extreme.”

Earlier this week, I Tweeted the following challenge to entrepreneurs:

ENTREPRENEURS: the best single Tweet I receive by Friday **pitching a new business concept receives a new iPod Touch

I’m a big believer that if you can’t describe your business idea, value proposition and business model in a sentence or two then either the idea is flawed or needs tighter focus.

Some very good submissions were pitched to me in 140 characters or less @PhilipHotchkiss via Twitter and the winning Tweet will be announced Monday, at 11:00AM CST.

Not only will the winning Tweet be re-tweeted, but the winner will also receive a new iPod Touch engraved with the winner’s @TwitterName compliments of Apple’s personalization offer.

My hope is that the winner will be inspired to continue working on their concept, reach out and collaborate with the Twitter community, and ultimately, build a successful business originating from a single Tweet.