Alert Blog Reviews

The other day I clicked a link on Twitter to a blog post everyone was talking about. I did like everyone else and read the post and then left a snarky comment. But then unlike most everyone else, I right clicked the margin and selected “view source”. Why did I do that? I am not really sure, I honestly did it without thinking. Looking at other people’s code has become something of a habit for me. I find myself sometimes getting more out of analyzing the blog’s HTML, than the post itself! Anyways, on this particular site I was shocked when I saw the HTML. It was horrible. I mean it was really really bad. It looked like this site was coded by a drunk monkey in 1998! And, to be honest, it really got my angry. Angry? Yes, angry! You see this site isn’t just any site, this site happens to be the corporate web site for a very recognizable brand. This company is known for their excellence in their industry. Furthermore I know a few of the folks that work for this company, and they are all really awesome people that do good work and believe in what they do. And because of that, it mad me angry that their site is so haphazardly put together. It made me angry that a company that I believed in, wasn’t taking my profession seriously. The folks that I know that work for this company deserve better, they deserve the best site money can buy, and trust me, this company can afford it. So I started asking myself, why? Why would a company that has earned so much respect, developed such a strong brand, and have such awesome employees, have such a horrible site? I ask myself these types of questions a lot, because unfortunately the story above isn’t uncommon. There are many good companies with strong brands that don’t care enough to build a good web site. And, I will freely admit that I have extremely high standards when it comes to web development. So why does this matter? Why should these companies care what a geeky code monkey thinks? They should care, because I am not alone! They should care because as leaders in their industries people look to them to set the standard. They should care because their competitors know they can do better and are prepared to prove it. But most importantly, they should care because their clients and customers expect the best in everything they do, and if they find out the truth, then they can find another company to do business with very quickly. And no I am not naming names, but if you think this post is about your company, get in touch with me and I would be happy to give you a free site audit.

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Cup of Joe: You Aren’t a Drunk Monkey, So Don’t Act Like One!

By Joi Murugavell – Follow her @joidesign A short definition of hashtags: On Twitter hashtags act as a means to create ‘groupings’ of tweets about a specific topic. Anyone can create a hashtag on twitter by simply appending # to a word (preferably a short word). Then other people who are interested in this topic look up the hashtag and ta-da all tweets about that particular topic are in one place. A recent event using hashtags brilliantly is #marketingnow. The diverse and often opposing opinions on hashtags is what makes it a powerful learning tool. Read more about hashtags and find out how to use them here . The good Hashtags are often used by companies to form a collective knowledge-base (and pats on the back) ‘in one place’. Adobe does this extremely well. Check out this example  of multiple hashtags being used to announce Adobe’s plans to open the iPhone to flash developers with its release of FlashCS5 (huge news for developers and iPhone users). In his tweet, @mszulc from Adobe skillfully uses 3 hashtags in one tweet (and even leaves character space for retweets, that’s pretty impressive!) By doing this, @mszulc adds to Adobe’s twitter knowledge base. He also added the ‘iPhone’ hashtag in, so folks who follow the iPhone tag can view the new announcement which is getting iPhone users excited it all sorts of excitable ways! The bad The bad side of hashtags is of course its best feature – ‘transparency’. A recent hashtag born out of extreme annoyance/hatred (quite funny) is #iSnack2.0 which was then nicknamed #vegefail Here, Kraft hating demons of fire exist, completely trashing Kraft’s new brand iSnack2.0. Kraft was no where to be seen putting out fires in their hashtag (they did listen and eventually pulled the name). The passion against the name was then of course transferred to their corporate hashtag #kraft, which used to have a mixture of news, comments, good stuff but is now dominated by iSnack2.0 laments. Monitoring unstable temperatures in your hashtag You can’t control what people say on a hashtag about your company. If you look at #Adobe you’ll see a mixture of comments from “yes! well done! Adobe releases flash for iphones” (which is the hot topic as I write this) to “my illustratorCS4 keeps crashing you suck Adobe!” etc. The negative and positive (temperature) in the Adobe hashtag is at a very healthy level, with more positives than negatives (at the moment). People are hashtag trigger happy, it only takes one unhappy customer to start a hashtag. For corporates, your hashtag is definitely not something you want to leave ‘on its own’ with a ‘what will, be will be’ attitude as it could quite quickly become a very large potty where you know … potty things happen. I recently bumped into a hastag about a CMS/hosting product we use to build websites. Its a fairly new, small hashtag with a current negative temperature. It was started by someone who was annoyed their email was down. Then someone else joined in and someone else etc. If you bumped into this particular hashtag now, it would seem like its your very own little corner to whinge about this particular product. At the moment it has the unfortunate building blocks of a potty (a shame, as its a brilliant product). A predominantly negative hashtag doesn’t exactly inspire you to say good things like “this is an amazing product”. A little peer pressure comes into play here too, if everyone is whinging you kinda feel a little bit out of place if you actually want to say something nice. Negativity loves company. Quick ways to plant some roses in a hashtag potty: 1) Start by telling a select group of people about your hashtag, encourage them to leave comments and get a conversation going with your hashtag, seed it with a topic. 2) Encourage your staff to use your hashtag, posting latest events, product enhancements, accolades etc 3) If you host an event, add your hashtag to your banners or simply let everyone know what it is (get lots of noise in there) 4) Ask your clients on twitter to post a short testimonial with your hashtag. Most people who are happy with you, will be more than happy to tweet about you. These are pretty simple things you can do right away, to throw a bunch of flowers in the potty mix. Hashtag potty mouths: Think before you poo At times its enjoyable to jump on the hashtag lament bandwagon. Who doesn’t like a big ol grumpy wumpy on twitter! Unfortunately, even though twitter encourages spontaneity, most of us who are not anonymous, still have to think a little before we tweet (sigh?). Probably the worst example I’ve come across was a bunch of people putting down a product they actually on-sell to their customers – not the best sales tactic is it? – #doh. Further reading How to get the most out of twitter hashtags Finding your community within a community Tools for monitoring conversations in Twitter Hashtags are dying – here’s how to save them What the hashtag – a user edited hashtag directory [image: Torley ] © 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips . Quick Ways to Plant Some Roses in a Hashtag Potty Related posts: Six Quick Ways to Becoming a Twitter Pariah 7 ‘Secret’ Ways To Use Twitter Search 6 Ways Twitter Can Help A Bad Memory

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Quick Ways to Plant Some Roses in a Hashtag Potty

By Jade Craven – Follow her @jadecraven . Twitter recently introduced a new feature called lists to many users. This isn’t available to everyone – I’ve heard many reports of people who are unable to see anybodies lists. Basically, it allows you to organize the people you follow into several different categories. These can be made private and can be followed by others. This is an awesome for those who are using the web interface as you can choose the groups you want to read at any time. However, there are some considerations you need to make before embracing this feature. 1. People may be offended by not being included on a list. Some of my friends created lists like ‘awesome friends’ and ‘top bloggers.’ They used these terms as generalist lists but some people took offense at not being included on a list. This is very similar to the follow/unfollow situations that happened before people started to embrace groups on other clients. So, what can you do to avoid offending? • Have a disclaimer on your twitter landing page • Make your list private • Organize lists by geographic region – ie, Melbourne bloggers. 2. You can see what lists you appear on This isn’t a bad aspect – in most cases, it helps show how people perceive you. This is especially helpful for people who don’t have a defined purpose on twitter. You may get categorized by geographic region or industry, but you may also get organized into trait specific lists. Examples are ‘helpful people’ or ‘interesting links.’ This can help you ascertain how you can be more useful on twitter. 3. You can easily get the tone of a group You can organize people into groups like conference attendees or people who work at a company. This is more efficient than a hashtag as you can filter out the people you don’t want to hear from. You can pick up on the overall vibe which will make it useful when reporting on it. 4. It may make it easier for companies to target you I actually wrote about how twitter lists can help with buyer personas over at the Think Tank Media (http://thinktankmedia.com.au/blog/how-to-use-twitter-lists-in-your-business/) blog, but I can also see it as another way some companies may be able to find, and then spam you. This is important to be aware of. 5. You can easily identify what types of people users follow Seeing the lists in the sidebar can let you know what type of people, and content, certain users follow. This can be useful when networking. You can see that you have a mutual interest and follow some of the same people and start a conversation. This can be useful if you are trying to join a community or connect with a new person. 6. You can use it as an extension of the groups function I’m a bit slack on tweetdeck – I only have three columns. One for my mentions, DM’s and one for a group of people I talk to regularly. I always pop onto the web version to have general chats but this can become unmanagable when I’m following so many cool people. I’m now planning to create certain lists and then dive into them at certain times of the day. This can help me assess the conversation across many fields of interest and geographic regions. 7. You can see how many lists OTHERS are on This may be used as another method of assessing popularity. As I write this, I’m on 2 lists and Chris Brogran is on 144 – which is the way it should be. This could be a really useful method but is also open to abuse and may impact on user experience. It will be interesting to see if spammers try to manipulate this feature. 8. You are able to follow other peoples lists I am not sure what twitters intentions were with this feature, but I really like it as it saves time. Some users can also use it to establish authority by finding the best users and creating popular lists around them. Over to you What do you think of this new feature? Do you think it will help you twitter experience? Let us know how you intend to use it in the comments. © 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips . Essential: 8 Things to Consider Before Using Twitter Lists Related posts: Construct your own ‘Top 10 Must Follow’ List as it relates to your own Niche Twitter Tips for Beginners: Lessons from the Evolution of Blogging Part 2 – Link Lists Topify – An Essential Twitter Timesaver

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Essential: 8 Things to Consider Before Using Twitter Lists