Nestivity wants to create communities on Twitter (exclusive)

Henry Min wants to turn Twitter into more of a two-way street.

Min is the founder of Nestivity, a company that helps brands engage more effectively with their followers on Twitter. It recently released a new TweetCast tool and announced raising $1 million in seed financing.

“Twitter to date is the most powerful social communication tool out there,” he said in an exclusive interview with VentureBeat. “It is the most global and the most open. But when you tweet at companies, it often goes into a void. Tweets are fleeting moments in time with no persistence. Our platform gives more shelf life to tweets and turns them into actual conversations.”

Twitter has created this unprecedented way for them to connect with their customers. Yet Min said a significant number of tweets companies receive go without response, and most companies don’t make the most of this opportunity. It’s like a crowded room of people all talking at the same time, without any meaningful discussions. Min has spent more than 15 years working for marketing agencies and startups to design interactive digital experiences. As someone in the agency world, he used Twitter to follow brands and thought there was a bigger opportunity for businesses to measure social media, have two-way dialogue, and use Twitter to form genuine communities.

Nestivity turns your Twitter handle into a “nest.” It’s piped into the Twitter firehose, and the engine collects all tweets relating to your business. You can then sort those tweets into categories like questions, ideas, experiences, recent replies, or closed projects to track and respond more effectively. Adding this structure also means businesses can move beyond a single feed and stay organized while having a number of ongoing discussions with different followers. It operates on a freemium model, with pro, business, and corporate plans available for monthly fees.

Companies using Nestivity can place a “Compose new Tweet” box directly on their site, so the visitor doesn’t have to leave to tweet. They can invite them to share experiences and/or feedback or communicate around specific topics. The mentions and tweets are all stored and searchable later. Min said brands have used it to test reaction on new design or features and to amplify their reach by directly interacting with followers.

The new TweetCast tool makes it easier to moderate discussions in real time with Twitter followers. Brands can present images, videos, documents, live streams, and so on, and have their followers participate in a conversation. The National Aquarium and the Discovery Channel used the tool for a chat about sharks, and other clients include New York University, Unicef, and Alan Colmes from Fox News.

Nestivity launched out of beta last month. It is based in Los Angeles.