I admit it, I’m resisting Twitter solely because I’m afraid of what people will think if I really tweeted what my up-to-the-moment thoughts and musings were.

JP and Saulter have been pretty insistent on me getting on Twitter, and more than once, JP’s told me about how awesome Tweetups have been. It’s possible I may have fallen victim to the variety of knee-jerk reactions from the initial wave of users who tweeted…well, crap. Since then, though, the community has exploded in numbers and there are lots more mature and professional people tweeting things pertinent to their business and career. Tridea has somewhere in the neighborhood of 80 or 90 people following us, and I’d venture to say almost all of them have some interest in web design, which makes for some really interesting tweeted conversations.

Still not convinced, I went ahead and Googled for benefits of joining twitter, and sure enough, I found some pretty convincing blog posts. Twitips spoke about the ways in which the networks of people that can be tapped into can be to promote your company and also find clients! Problogger espoused on the positive networking aspects along with the ability to keep up to date with your friends and coworkers in a non-intrusive way. Blogger Douglas Cootey wrote about how it helped him with depression and ADHD by finding others with his conditions and helping each other maintain positive attitudes on a daily basis. On the same note, I even found a post on a site called Fat Man Unleashed that also said the ability to reach out to networks of people with similar problems and receive almost instantaneous advice on things like diet and workouts was really helpful.

So with all these positive endorsements, I’ve decided to join Twitter and see what it’s like! Join up with Tridea and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/Tridea!

Backpack

I’ve used Backpack for my own personal needs, but never for planning an event, let alone a wedding. One thing that I want to make sure if, is that we stay organized when planning. And, organized in the sense that I can easily edit lists, notes, etc., without having to worry about stacks of paper. Backpack will allow us to easily keep in touch with ideas, post links, and jot down ideas. There doesn’t seem to be any “standard” use for Backpack, so it will take some time finding out footing to get the best use out of it. But so far, it’s been great.

Twitter

I am heavily involved in Twitter, and I’ve spent many hours building up a network of people around me, especially the creative types. My first experiment with using Twitter for wedding planning was the task of finding a photographer. So, I posted the question, and within minutes I had a handful of responses, and was referred to great photographers, leaving me hours of portfolios to sift through. This beats searching a phonebook or Google any day. I plan on following the same routine for other aspects of the wedding as we progress.

Since it’s still very early in the planning process, I’ve only uncovered the two tools mentioned above, but I’m pretty sure more will come in handy. I’ll be sure to post an update as I come across more tools, but there is certainly no shortage of online resources to help with planning a wedding. Are their any other tools that you’d recommend on the web?

Back in May we had the Bear Sterns bankruptcy sell-off to JP Morgan. This past week it broke that Lehman Brothers was filing for bankruptcy which caused a miserable few days for financial markets. In a move that many feel should have come sooner, the government stepped up and offered a bailout plan for Wall Street with the hefty figure of 700 billion. Yes, billion with a “b”.

In a tough economic time, dollars companies spend on advertising are sure to go down. Where, in times like this, where is it best to put ones money? In your website!

We’re in the midst of a Web 2.0 shift, one in which online communities and connections with users are being formed as opposed to old static sites and pushing content one-way onto the users. Social networks are growing and social media opportunities offer low-cost (and often free) ways to interact with your user-base. Companies now utilize fan pages on Facebook as well as creating Facebook Apps that can integrate into the site itself.

And let’s not forget the mobile web. With the Apple upgrading the iPhone’s data speeds to 3G and opening up the Apps store, there’s a been a flood of mobile web application development. Before the end of the year Google’s Android cellphone operating system will debut and there will be yet another major reason to focus energies on mobile-based websites.

So instead of shelling money out for advertising, focus on your site. Create rich content. Explore social media opportunities. Work on making a iPhone/mobile optimized version of your site. While the economy may be going through some rough times, web based business presence continues to grow and you can flourish if you focus on it.

So if you’re on Twitter, follow us to keep updated with anything Tridea related. And if you’re still not quite sure what Twitter is, this video may help:

The next resource is a slide show on social media and marketing, and is definitely worth going through for a few minutes:

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It really makes you think about how marketers will be successful on the web with its’ users getting smarter by the day.