the goose

As I think I mention pretty much every second blog post, I’m a fan of the simple world view on building a business that Keith Cunningham expounds.  “Find out what people want, go get it and give it to them”.  The trick is, it is far harder to find out what people want (in my experience) than it is to go and get it.  Building a website/widget/service/car wash is easy and well understood.  Finding out what type of website/widget/service/car wash is the hard part.  That is why i was plesently suprised by my experiences with Ag Tweet so far.  I don’t have to bother asking people what they would want – they just tell me via twitter.  So here are the top 5 unexpected uses for “Ag Tweet”.

1. Updating for FREE with Meteor:  Meteor and a couple of other networks offer free on-network texting which means that there is no need for you to pay for your mobile tweeting at all.  I had started off with an 087 number but added the 085 after getting some feedback (aka: abuse ) by users.
2. Group Texting:  @trinitysailing have done something this afternoon I thought was very neat.  They are registering multiple mobile numbers against the same account so it means that anyone on the committee can text to update their twitter feed (and also their website as far as I know).
3. Sports Reportage:  @Orwell_Wheelers and @killorglinrowin have been busy updating from the field by text.  It has been fun to follow along even though I have no idea who they were talking about. This of course isn’t something you couldn’t do from a regular smart phone but I’m suprised by the number of sports clubs that seem to be using the service in this way.
4. Texting to Europe:  A few blogs has mentioned that they’d love the same service in other countries.  I know that peophaps no-one else is doing this because the anticipation is that Twitter will do it eventually but there is definite demand.
5. Broadband replacement:  Well – sort of.  Some proper nerd types with new-fangled smart-phones get caught out in the back of beyond without coverage from time to time.  I hadn’t expected anyone to use the service if they had an iPhone – but it seems AgTweet is a handy backup when emergency tweeting in far flung places is required.

I also hadn’t expected to do anything but avoid my tax returns and lose money on this.  However – it turns out that I have had generous offers of support in the form of sponsorship which I hope to go ahead with.  I am slightly worried that sponsorship might make the whole thing look a bit corporate and lose some of the great good-will we’ve been receiving.  Then again – bills to pay etc.