We humans are social creatures that thrive on face to face interaction and communication.   Tom Erickson, interaction designer and researcher in the Social Computing Group at IBM’s Watson Labs defines social computing as providing an online place, application or service that have some of that “life” to them. 
His new report provides a though-provoking analysis of what is “social computing,” how does it differ from “social media,” and what is its impact on the way we work, live and play.

Erickson’s report and interview discussions provide insight for digital designers and developers like Manning, but also important ideas for those in online marketing and communications.  He likens digital designers to architects and urban planners who are creating public spaces to encourage people to interact, communicate, and live together.  He suggests that we look at online spaces in terms of the interaction they support and promote.

It’s a compelling analysis well worth the investment of time.

My beautiful infographic

From the day I stepped into the marketing world, one of my first lessons was in the great debate of usability versus design. The way of thinking was, and still is for many people, that you simply cannot have 100% of both.  Meaning, you MUST sacrifice one or the other; should your website be visually spectacular and lack common navigation and web standards or should it function well and just be… kinda good looking?

For a while, I had been trying to decide which side of the fence I stood. As a digital marketer and all around #websavvy gal, I started to subconsciously analyze the websites I came across with regards to the design and user friendlessness.  What I found is that many of the websites that balanced usability and design would fall into this cookie cutter mold – logo upper left hand corner, navigation near the top, big rotating banner messages, and if the user experience was really good (these are gems) a few calls to action sprinkled in.

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Mobile usage is up - how does your website rate?

A while back (read: months) I happened across a very interesting survey done by Gomez, the web performance division of Compuware which focused on consumers shifting attitudes and usage of the web.

Specifically, the article I found talked about the general user’s increasing impatience with websites that are slow to load, bog down or are difficult to use. While this has been anecdotally discussed amongst folks in the web industry for years, it’s nice to finally have numbers that back up this feeling.

However, users’ ire with slow or difficult sites isn’t the part of the survey that I want to hold up for examination in this post. The second half of the Gomez survey has dedicated to the growing mobile market and users’ evolving attitudes to web access on mobile devices.

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Periodically, we like to challenge ourselves and test out an idea we’ve been kicking around. In this case, we asked ourselves, “What if we create a web app that uses the content of people’s tweets to determine what gifts they might like?” That’s the basic premise behind our Twitter gift idea generator: tweeSP.

We’ve just launched the site and so far we’ve been very pleased with the results of our little social media experiment. We’ve used tweeSP to find gifts ideas for friends and family, or just had fun seeing what presents are recommended for celebrity tweeters.

Many people question the value of Twitter, but here’s one example of how tweets can be used in an incredibly interesting and useful way. So take tweeSP for a spin and see if you get some interesting gift ideas for the last few people on your holiday shopping list.

PS – for those of you scratching your head over our name for this cool new toy, it’s a play on Twitter and ESP. Now aren’t we punny!

We have launched many websites in our time, but few were as eventful as the one we participated in for GlenviewMarines.com. Doug and I headed up to the old Glenview Naval Base for the official launch of the site dedicated to helping the servicemen and women who make up the Glenview Marines. Having donated our services, we wanted to introduce them to the ins and outs of their new site.

As part of the celebration, we were treated to the presentation of the flags by a full Color Guard and a spontaneous singing of the Marine Corps Hymn (Did you ever hear the last verse? Hilarious!). We were also joined by representatives from the Semper Fi Fund, the Wounded Warrior Regiment and Andrew Tibby, a local Iraqi vet who had received grants from the Semper Fi Fund. Continue Reading →

For anyone following the 2010 FIFA World Cup, the vuvuzela is an impossible-to-ignore aspect of the tournament’s location. A traditional South African musical instrument, soccer fans have turned the now-plastic noise makers into the Jar-Jar Binks of the sporting world – loved by few, hated by most, ridiculed by all. The buzzing noise has gotten so bad that FIFA briefly considered a ban in response to players, commentators and broadcasters complaining about it’s impact on the game. Now, if they’d just stayed in the soccer stadiums where they belong, I’d have nothing to blog about. But the vuvuzela has become an internet sensation as well; that’s right: its trademark buzz has gone viral.
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A new study validates the concepts that we have been employing to help clients connect with journalists using social media. Check out our post “Reinventing the Online Newsroom” which focuses on a project for the American Bar Association.  This study by Cision reports that about two-thirds (65%) of journalists say they use blogs to research stories and more than half (52%) use microblogging sites like Twitter.  The big issue for journalists is credibility, and companies and associations can enhance their own standing and outreach by using these tools to be a reliable source of fresh content.

I have been highly impressed by the use of multimedia during the recent catastrophe in Haiti. News organizations and the public have relied on Twitter, blog posts, photo and video sharing sites for news and images from this earthquake ravaged country. CNN has compiled a list of organizations tweeting about the Haiti earthquake.

And social media has become a critical component of the international aid effort. The American Red Cross has set up a cell phone donation campaign, where individuals can text Haiti to 90999 to donate $10, which will then be included in their next cell phone bill

As a side note, the LA Times is featuring an interactive Flash earthquake feature that provides interesting background on the location of fault lines globally, the types of faults and the different types of earthquake waves

It took the Pony Express 10 days to delivery a letter across the country.  In 1832 railroads were used to speed mail delivery, followed by airplanes in 1918.  All that seems like ancient history compared to e-mail. It has cut down message delivery to a point where we complain if an email delivery is delayed 10 seconds.

Email fundamentally changed the way business communicates.  But in the always-connected environment that we live in today there are a range of faster and easier communication tools supplanting email.  A recent Wall Street Journal article talks about the impact on personal communications.  The impact on businesses may be even more substantial as companies try to take advantage of and manage a myriad of different communication tools.

Facebook‘s changed a lot from the online university student community it was in 2004.  It used to be that you joined, selected what classes you were taking–or a bunch of silly, fake classes as was the case for some of us–and then found other people in your classes to ask for homework assignments.  Clearly, it’s transitioned into a social application for everyone. I still remember the outcry when it was announced that Facebook would open itself up to people not currently enrolled in university, “oh my gosh, everyone will be able to see me and stalk me now… even, gasp, non-college-students!”  The same outcry that’s gone up every time something has radically changed at Facebook.  I’ve been waiting all this time, as someone who’s been active in “online communities” of sorts since online communities consisted of dialing your 2400 baud modem into a Bulletin Board System and leaving a note for whomever dialed in next, to watch Facebook (and others) initiate people into a realm that used to be for enthusiasts only.  It’s funny to hear people call fads, like “25 random things about me” or “use song titles to describe yourself,”  Facebook fads, when I remember taking part in those via email chain letters in 1995, and then again in blog posts in a sort of redux at the height of blogging-as-personal-journal in 2002. Continue Reading →