To say that brands are trying to figure out the best way to use Twitter to drive commerce would be an understatement. The massive opportunity the Twitter platform presents for commerce has not been lost on Twitter CEO Dick Costolo.

Currently the extent to which brands drive commerce on Twitter is limited to broadcast advertising. Brands send out Tweet based ads designed to lure consumers from Tweetdeck to the brand storefront. A transaction is then still multiple steps away as consumers must pass through a traditional e-commerce checkout process.

Semil Shah has recently written a lot about discovery based commerce. In his TechCrunch article How Discovery Will Drive Transactions he discusses the changing landscape in social commerce from search to discovery based following. He actually mentions Sell Simply in the article as a payment system. But, we’re much more…

The transition from intent-based search on Google, to discovery based commerce, is absolutely occurring, and is a perfect example of how we take Twitter to another level in the commerce context. Since we enable transactions on Twitter (one can Tweet an item for sale — followers can buy simply by replying), we actually complete the circle from discovery (you’re following a brand selling something) to action (“reply to buy” payment)… all with two Tweets. Consumers do not have to leave the Twitter platform to transact. Brands sales percentage exponentially increases as frictions decrease.

In other words, we not only drive social commerce from a discovery standpoint, we go one step further and close the loop by enabling transactions on the same platform the discovery is taking place. With us, Twitter is no longer confined to just a broadcast platform for brands. When brands Tweet about a sale through Sell Simply their followers can purchase directly from the Tweet. This combination of social commerce with “reply to buy” transaction capability is what makes our platform so powerful.

The transition from search based commerce to social is on. We’re happy to be a part of it.

This weekend I created a Chrome Extension for Sell Simply that allows you to Sell your Etsy, Ebay or Craigslist items directly on Twitter.

The extension let’s you to Tweet your items for sale directly from the item listing wherever it may be. People can then purchase the item just by replying to the Tweet with the word “buy”.

I was recently interviewed by Rick Turoczy about Sell Simply for Meet The Startup.

The interview went super smooth, mostly due to the relaxed nature of Rick, and the obvious benefit of knowing your own startup inside and out. Thanks to Rick, Tom Turbull and Phil Kinjerski for their work promoting startups in Portland. I’m glad to have the opportunity to discuss Sell Simply and the direction it’s taking.

If you have a chance go check out all the Portland talent in the archives of Meet The Startup.

Flickfolia is a professional photography portfolio you can control entirely with your Flickr account.

Here are some features in brief. More on the site.

Control Freak
Control navigation, colors, layout, fonts, logos and all photos with your Flickr account.

Everwhere? check!
Flickfolia works on any device as well as the web. Plays nice with Google. Impresses on the iPad, and is very touchable.

Your Place, Your Stats
Flickfolia can live at your domain or ours. All stats can be viewed with your own Google Analytics account.

One of my photos in an Ann Sacks ad. Cool!

Model is @LisaTeso agency is @NORTH.

Rob Roy and Prudence Prim – White collies
Peter Pan – Terrier
Paul Pry – Airedale Terrier
Calamity Jane – Shetland Sheepdog
Tiny Tim and Blackberry – Chow Chows
Ruby Rouch – Collie
Boston Beans – Bulldog
King Cole – German shepherd
Palo Alto – Bird dog
Bessie – Collie
Rebecca and Horace – Raccoons
Ebeneezer – Donkey
Nip and Tuck – Canaries
Enoch – Goose
Smoky – Bobcat
Tiger – cat
Tax Reduction and Budget Bureau – lion cubs
Billy – Pygmy hippo
A Wallaby
A Duiker (a very small antelope)
A black bear

Source: wikipanion

Last night my previous post made it to #17 on Hacker News. These are the resulting stats as of this morning.

After digging a bit I got the upgrade to work. Here is what I learned, hopefully it will help you avoid pitfalls if upgrading from 1.7 to 2.0.

I’m a noob to CodeIgniter, so these changes may have been obvious to those who are not. That said, these changes were not mentioned in the upgrade instructions.

function __construct() { parent::__construct(); }

You must move your /applications folder to the root along side /system