Digital Marketing Specialist, Social Media Consultant,
and Tech Geek at Heart

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usability

13 Reasons Why I Am an Obsessive Compulsive Facebook User

February 15, 2007

I was one of the first users of Facebook back in April 2004 when it was rolled out to specific schools other than its founding community, Harvard. I had graduated college the previous year, so many of my classmates seemed to have “moved on” from the social sites of my time (all of which have dissolved). But over the past few months, the Facebook community has become a huge success and is continuing to flourish, and my classmates are slowly beginning to join the network.

I look back at Facebook’s emergence as a truly popular and desirable network that has simply gone from good to better. While other networks seem to lag behind, Facebook is truly another face in the crowd. And it’s obviously doing something right.

Facebook Main Page

I “interviewed” my friend (and fellow ’03 grad) who recently signed up to Facebook. Why the sudden appeal? Not surprisingly, word of mouth took the cake. The icing? Her younger siblings were using it all the time. Facebook is not just a social network anymore; it is a society. I’ve seen several profiles with quotes to the likes of “I live on Facebook.” And several people are trying to convince others to jump on the bandwagon, because this one seems to be a keeper.

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Crappy Site Design, Great Content: Is This Poor Social Media Optimization?

January 9, 2007

Really Ugly DogThe phrase “don’t judge a book by its cover” has been brought to a brand new level on the World Wide Web.

Consider the mindset of your users. A penetratingly ugly website design can negatively impact your site and visitors, despite the fact that there may be great content — and especially if you’re a relatively new player in Internet Marketing.

I’ve encountered a few sites, including those of family members, that have been begging for a good Internet Marketing campaign. And I’d like to help. However, I personally feel that these sites don’t necessarily only call for good marketing. Many of these sites need something else. Upon looking at website design and usability, I realize how these two important elements truly go hand-in-hand with a successful campaign that can really translate traffic into results. In today’s day and age, a successful website needs incoming links, the ability for people to want to talk about your site — and to be acknowledged among peers.

Cameron recently discussed how social media optimization focuses on more of an “on-page” effort which entails “improving the design and usability of the website so that it becomes more compelling to users” [emphasis is mine]. A relatively new site needs more than just good content to be compelling. Design and usability are key.

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Internet Marketing Best [Blog] Posts of 2006: The Year in Review

December 25, 2006

Given that I’ve only recently become involved in Internet Marketing, it still is something that I am learning more and more about, and there are a lot of blog posts and books that have helped me along the way. In light of my anti-Digg post, I wanted to take this moment to appreciate the best [blog] posts in the Internet Marketing world of the year — those that have significantly increased my awareness of this exciting field. That said, these are mostly how-to and tips/secrets posts, where some come from a beginner’s level and others are more advanced. I’ve done a lot of digging (this was mostly by hand rather than from existing bookmarks!) and am hoping I have included a huge chunk of them, though I realize that this has been a tremendous undertaking and there are simply too many blog posts out there (thanks, guys!). Since I started reading SEO blogs mid-year (and I can’t possibly read all of them on a regular basis), I know I’m missing more! If anyone has any essential posts to add, please feel free to leave them in the comments. :)

Without further ado, here are some of my favorite posts of 2006.

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Website Usability in a Nutshell

November 15, 2006

I find it ironic (and totally unplanned) that the blog topic I wrote on usability on at work today is featured in a similar light from the New York Times in today’s article about web site usability. They must have attended the conferences yesterday for World Usability Day. (For the record, that work blog had been a work in progress since yesterday, before I knew about World Usability Day as well.) :)

I’ll summarize my blog points on web usability guidelines:

  1. Make the goal of your website (a product sale, for example) stand out at you on the landing page.
  2. Understand the emotions of someone interested in your website and know that you are not your audience.
  3. Include persuasive content. Use power words.
  4. Design something memorable — in a good and catchy way.
  5. Don’t add unnecessary bells and whistles that detract from your offerings.

The New York Times article reiterated important guidelines that I also touch upon, such as approachability (contact information being easily found), eliminating unnecessary design elements, and even mentions a bit of SEO basics (using quotes from Matt Cutts) as well.

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