Twitter has launched a new service which will enable people to reveal the location of where their ‘tweets’ are coming from. You can read more about the introduction of the new service here.

This development clearly has implications for organisations who are interested to know where their customers are based who are using Twitter. In theory, it will be possible to build up Twitter followers in specific cities and countries, and send direct messages to them.

If you are interested to know more about this Twitter development, or if you would simply like to know more about how you can use Twitter to gain attention and manage your reputation, then please get in contact with us directly.

We spend a lot of time reminding clients that content posted online has the same legal status as something that appears in print.

This story from the US backs up this advice. A blogger using Google’s blogger.com network used defamatory language about a New York fashion model. The model’s attorney demanded that the blogger’s anonimity was lifted in order for a defamation suit to be pursued. A judge has ruled in favour of the model and Google have been forced to reveal the blogger’s identity.

This situation could easily repeat itself if employees from your organisation are commenting online in an uncontrolled manner. A set of employee social media guidelines, highlighting the pitfalls and of course the vast opportunities that social media presents, is now a must for any organisation.

Here at ItsOpen we have been banging the drum for greater openness and dialogue with consumers. Businesses that are responsive to what people are saying online will get a competitive edge.

In that sense, social media channels such as Facebook and Twitter offer a huge, low cost marketing opportunity. It’s also virtually free. But like all good things that are in demand, that won’t last for ever.

The principle of the Internet has always been: capture a user base first and charge later. Now social media sites are starting to do the same, suggests Roberto Rocha in Canada’s Financial Post.

Take Twitter. The service has millions of users and is probably the most talked-about site in 2009. So far it hasn’t made a dime. And how could it, as long as its leaders refuse either to display ads or extract a usage charge? What they are looking at instead is the idea of charging companies that use it as a marketing tool. It makes perfect sense. Big companies have the money, and are increasingly turning to social media as a way to reach consumers and cultivate a youthful brand image.

There are other possible approaches. Rocha points to the example of Praized Media, a Montreal startup that offers a search tool that website owners can embed to help their visitors look for and rate local traders.  That’s a pretty conventional approach, but the company has now come up with something a bit more original: monitoring online conversations to spot marketing opportunities, and then sell them on. Someone might be tweeting about plans for her daughter’s wedding, for instance. That contact could be passed to a florist, for a fee.

Some people might find it a bit creepy to get a call from a marketer who had been eavesdropping on their online conversations. On the other hand, if people will gossip in public, what do they expect? Others might see it as a useful service.

These revenue models are bound to be a bit hit and miss. A few will take, most will probably not. But in one way or another, as the marketing opportunities in social media become ever more viable, companies are going to start paying for them.

In the old days Gap would have splashed out on TV advertising to launch its new line of jeans, featuring famous actors like Nastassja Kinski, Orlando Bloom and Liv Tyler.   In this brave new world of social media it’s done the obvious thing and created a Facebook page instead.

There will still be posters, print ads, and cinema commercials, but their main aim will be to drive traffic to the Facebook fan page. This includes an interactive gallery, links to the Gap website, and videos and commentary from Gap designers and engineers.

There’s also an iPhone app that lets users can mix and match outfits and get feedback from Facebook friends and the iPhone community.

It sounds a bit lame, but it makes sense. For one it’s a lot cheaper: the fashion retailer has had to scale back its marketing spend as its sales slump during the recession. But there are times when the interactivity that social media provides can work just as well as conventional channels, especially when there’s a good demographic fit.