Changing the Way People and Business Communicate

by Walt Carvalho

Yes, it is true. The days of people being the only travelers on the social media landscape is over.

Mattel apparently has a different idea. The toy manufacturer has come out with a new dog collar, which allows your four legged buddies to tweet with best of us. They apparently have designed a device that translates dog’s different barks into comments which gets posted onto their very own twitter site.

Puppy Tweets is a plastic tag with a sound and motion sensor. You can attach the tag to your pet’s dog collar and connect its USB receiver to your computer. Once this is completed you simply create a Twitter account for your dog. Updates can appear all day from your dog on your computer or smart phone.

The tag is set with several tweets, which are pre-recorded. They are triggered by the dog’s activities. The tweets posted are determined by the activity your four-legged buddy is involved in.

CNN News.com recently reported, “Puppy Tweets capitalizes on two popular trends – the use of social media and real time communication, as well as peoples’ extreme love for their dogs,” said Susan Russo, Mattel’s director of marketing.

Puppy Tweets is part of the No. 1 toymaker’s line-up of new products for 2010 that it showcased to members of the media Thursday ahead of the industry’s annual Toy Fair in New York next month.

Jim Silver, a toy industry analyst and editor-in-chief of TimetoPlayMag.com, said he was “curious” about Puppy Tweets when he first saw it.

“I thought that a 5-year-old doesn’t know about Twitter,” he said. But he said that Mattel is going after an entirely different market and “expanding beyond kids” with Puppy Tweets. “This is a product for adults.”

Does it make sense?

Said Silver, “It’s a good thing to try especially since no one else has come up with a pet product quite like this.”

Puppy Tweets will be available at retailers in the fall, and will carry a suggested retail price of $29.99.

So there you have it, with social media tools in place, people are finding different uses.  They are creating beyond the original concepts. Original uses are expanding into new ventures. People are finally beginning to understand the potential that these powerful platforms provide.

The future is looking to provide interesting uses for social media. There is a very good chance that some implementations will be beyond our greatest dreams, as people explore the possibilities.

Who says puppy dogs can’t talk?

Get Creative. Get Social.

Photo: “Henry and Etta” by Lisa Sutton Pinguelo

Special thanks to CNN News.com