From Facebook to Twitter: Save Your Community From Redundancy Caroline Chen | March 10, 2011 | 8 Comments inShare107 By understanding the nuances of each platform's digital culture, you can create unique and relevant content, speak the right language, and effectively grow both communities. Of all the social platforms, it's hard to avoid your favorite brand on Twitter or Facebook. There's a page for every living, breathing moment you have: shampoo, face wash, makeup, breakfast, work, lunch, exercise, dinner, entertainment, and sleep. I can't be alone in thinking there's not only a glut of information, but also brand redundancy that still exists across Twitter and Facebook. If Twitter remains your bite-sized Facebook RSS feed, you've only built a crutch for readership rather than a community. Consider these three areas of differentiation when managing your brand's presence in both environments: Customer interactions. Content. Capacity.
10 Essential Free E-Books for Web Designers While many may still prefer print for long-form reading, e-books are gaining popularity as a worthy digital alternative. Aside from all the usual benefits of digitizing a book (faster searches, less page-flipping, linked pages, additional resources, etc.), e-books are a huge help to digital and online professionals. There are now e-books available on almost every aspect of design, from planning your business and managing your time, to designing web applications. This post highlights 10 of the best free e-books for designers, with selections available as PDFs or in HTML. Whether they're meant to inspire or educate, let us know if you can recommend any other free e-books aimed at designers in the comments below. 1. This detailed, intelligent guide is a how-to on transitioning from print to web by Jeffrey Zeldman. 2. Web Designer's Success Guide is the definitive resource for starting your own freelance web design business. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. More Dev & Design Resources from Mashable:
Are Marketers Struggling to Keep Up with Social Trends? Social media is no longer new, but it’s still a turbulent space. Just a couple years ago MySpace was on top of the world, only to be ousted unceremoniously by crowds flocking to Facebook. Twitter crept onto the scene and then exploded with growth in 2009, putting itself on every marketer’s radar. New trends are developing in the social location-based area, and that’s not counting the seemingly constant mergers, acquisitions, startups and failures. Little wonder that marketers find it difficult to stay on top of the hottest social media trends. A May 2010 survey from staffing firm The Creative Group found that 65% of US marketing executives considered it at least somewhat challenging to keep up. “Marketing has always been a field with a constant learning curve, but the shifts taking place today are occurring more quickly, making it especially challenging to keep pace,” said Donna Farrugia, executive director of The Creative Group, in a statement. Previous Article
101 Social Media Stats to Make Your Spirits Bright and Your Head Spin Finding the right needle in the haystack that is the Internet is often times an exercise in futility and frustration. Sure, you can find “quick tips” for just about anything, a “how-to” guide for maximizing anything you’d like to maximize, and “case studies” that illustrate someone else’s success story which you believe – for a fleeting moment – you can just as easily apply to your own situation. Most often the tips are oversimplified, the how-to guides leave much to be desired, and the case studies seem to more like exceptions than they are rules. What you really need, at the beginning, middle, and end of the day, is the truth. I Wanna Know Where the Stats At As you probably know, 108% of statistics are exaggerations, so be careful what you glean from this. That said, here is my collection of social media statistics I’ve cobbled together over the past year. Social Media in the Daily Life of Web Users Far from complete, here is a brief (but current) breakdown of social media usage.
The Web Is Dead. Long Live the Internet | Magazine Two decades after its birth, the World Wide Web is in decline, as simpler, sleeker services — think apps — are less about the searching and more about the getting. Chris Anderson explains how this new paradigm reflects the inevitable course of capitalism. And Michael Wolff explains why the new breed of media titan is forsaking the Web for more promising (and profitable) pastures. Who’s to Blame: Us As much as we love the open, unfettered Web, we’re abandoning it for simpler, sleeker services that just work. by Chris Anderson You wake up and check your email on your bedside iPad — that’s one app. You’ve spent the day on the Internet — but not on the Web. This is not a trivial distinction. A decade ago, the ascent of the Web browser as the center of the computing world appeared inevitable. But there has always been an alternative path, one that saw the Web as a worthy tool but not the whole toolkit. “Sure, we’ll always have Web pages. Who’s to Blame: Them Chaos isn’t a business model.
86% of Companies Plan Social Media Budget Bumps The “Social Media and Online PR Report” provides detailed information about how companies are using online PR tactics and social media sites – including Facebook and Twitter - for marketing and customer service. The research found that an overwhelming majority of companies (86%) surveyed plan to spend more money on social media in 2010, and a further 13% are planning to keep the same level of budget. Barriers to Better Engagement The biggest barrier to better social media engagement for companies surveyed is a lack of resources, with more than half of companies (54%) saying this is a significant problem, the report said. The research also found that many companies are experimenting with social media without yet reaping any measurable benefits. These results echo findings about social media use in other industries. However, the Econsultancy study found that companies who have made an effort in the social media area have typically reaped some reward. Twitter Stats Additional study findings:
Minimalism in Web Design: A Guide Minimalism is a word that gets tossed around in a lot of different contexts. Whether it be a lifestyle or an art form, saying something is "minimalistic" can take on a variety of meanings. In the web design field, minimalism is carving out an ever-increasing niche among designers that are looking to convey important content in a new way. Like just about any trend or theory in the web design world, minimalism can be easy to get wrong. So what is minimalism in web design? It’s easy to see how a minimal web design can be misconstrued as something that requires less effort or time to create. However, saying that it requires less work couldn’t be further from the truth. A Minimal Mindset In order to properly execute minimalism in your design, a focus needs to be established. Take the time to consider what this site is going to be about. You may be surprised at how little information really needs to be presented to the user at a time in order to get your point across. The Art of Taking Away
Four Signs Social Media is Now a Mass Medium One common complaint I hear from marketers is that social media is not (yet) a mass medium. For example, the circulation for Cosmopolitan is 3 million, while the magazine counts just 700,000 fans in Facebook. And while it seems (almost) everyone is creating, using or consuming social media today, it is a highly fractured channel. Thirty years ago, almost every person watching television was tuned into one of three networks; today, 550 million people use Facebook, and each and every one of them is their own network. However, the fact that social media is fractured and personalized does not mean that it isn't a mass medium; it just means it is a challenging mass medium. Impressions: In a report published earlier this year, Josh Bernoff and I shared data developed using a new word-of-mouth analysis tool, Peer Influence Analysis. I find the debate over whether or not social media is a mass medium rather silly.