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The Internet is dominated by social networks. There are the giants like Facebook, MySpace, Flickr and Twitter, as well as thousands of sub-genres that center around special interests and specific groups of people. These can include hosted community message boards, blogs and special-interest websites.

Wherever we look on the Web we are constantly invited to join social networks or become a member of a website. At last count I found that I’m a member of at least 10 different online social networks—not counting the websites and social networks like Digg that I read constantly but where I do not contribute or feel compelled to become a member. It can be difficult to understand just how big and pervasive these social networks are, so let me invite you to look at one of my favorite websites called Visual Complexity.

The creator’s goal was to provide a critical analysis of complex networks through graphic depictions. Or as the author puts it, to better understand that “the whole is bigger than the sum of the parts.”

There’s this one that looks at MySpace friend connections:

and this one that gives a colorful interpretation of how Facebook friends relate:

While some of the network visualizations serve scientific purposes and others (as in the case above) are clearly just for fun, this website is a goldmine of great ideas and amazing applications. One thought that keeps coming back to me as I browse through the library of documented networks is how organic these systems are and how intricate and delicate the individual pieces appear in contrast to the entire network.

I encourage you not only to check out Visual Complexity for yourself but to also consider how online social networks look freakishly similar to the food webs seen in junior high biology textbooks.

It wasn’t too long ago that I was completely disheartened by programming with Javascript. My comfort level was limited basically to opening windows, creating rollovers and slideshows and other common tasks. But as any respectable web developer these days will tell you, a solid handle on manipulating Javascript is key to creating visual effects, usability features and user interface elements.

Like many, my relationship with the language changed drastically upon experimenting with some of the magnificent free Javascript libraries out there. Probably the three most popular libraries are jQuery (my current favorite), Mootools and Prototype (as well as the Prototype effects library Scriptaculous). These libraries simplify the use of Javascript by creating common, reusable features which are collectively written and shared in an Open Source fashion.

It’s understandable that Javascript is such a pain to learn. For those used to seeing a cause and effect relationship between what they program and see on screen, Javascript does complicate things slightly. While the language is completely logical, the Document Object Model is not the most glamorous or obvious thing in the world. What these Javascript libraries do fantastically well is hide a certain level of complexity from the programmer. While this may seem like a loss of control, you can still get in there and rewrite the Javascript library to your liking, for good or ill. Regardless, the whole situation is a very good thing.

Like many aspects of technology and design, this perceived loss of control can be a bit troubling. If you don’t write all of your code aren’t you just a second-rate hack? While that may in fact be the case, at some point you have to make peace with the existential pitfalls of working with Open Source technology, or any technology for that matter. There are numerous benefits of NOT writing new Javascript for every project, the biggest one is that it’s a big use of time. Aside from that, Javascript libraries provide a reliable set of well-documented tools that are cross-browser tested and demonstrate how to write good code, a valuable learning lesson rolled into the super-useful fun.

The fascinating thing about all of this is that Javascript really hasn’t changed a whole lot in the last 10 years. Sure, modern browsers are a lot more consistent in their interpretations of the language, but the real change is in the evolution of thinking. No longer is Javascript programming a secret art but rather a sophisticated community effort.

I have a sense that you are excited about this, so go forth and read your first tutorial. If that’s too heavy, go play with this instead.

Before the computer was a household item, the great debate between Mac and PC (Windows) was started. I personally use a PC for financial reasons at home, and a Mac at work. What does that say about me? Probably that I’d be happier with a Linux box. But that debate is for a different day and subject completely. I’m not here to fight the merits of one over the other, because I’d rather talk about the evolution of Mac’s advertising.

Before Apple went on their latest PC-bashing tear they were near obsolete. PC dominated the world without hesitation, capturing every household in their wake. So, where did this leave Mac? With an identity crisis, needing a niche and a way to stay a float. But how much has their advertising changed? Not much. Want proof?

Here’s an ad from Apple created in the 1984.

And here’s one from 2006.
The message is exactly the same; PC is boring and creates lemming-like behavior, while Mac is fun, hip and cool. Mac positioned themselves as a lifestyle product as opposed to a productivity tool. Your Mac says something about you that your PC never could. The beauty of the new Apple campaign is that it has “legs,” meaning that it transcends the current ad, and can be reused in different media and space. How so? Here’s the new delivery based on the release of Windows Vista.
And in it’s full beauty, an online ad as it would have been viewed from CNet.com. This ad comes days after the latest study on Vista users downgrading back to Windows XP. The turnaround was quick, and the advertising placement and adaptation for the Web is brilliant.
In all reality, which one you use will be based on preference and budget. What does your machine say about you?

A couple of weeks ago, I listed the first five steps to effectively market your blog. I went over choosing a URL, blogging software, design, keyword research and optimization, and now have a few “more technical” steps to add.

For 1-5, click here.

6. Enable automatic trackback and ping functionality—A trackback is a way to notify a website when you publish an entry that references it. This is a great way to spread the word about your blog. Pingbacks allow you to notify a blog about an entry when you link to them in the content.
7. Enable feed tracking—Use an application such as Feedburner Pro to publicize your content and make it possible for readers to subscribe. Feedburner can also tell you a lot about your readers, such as where they are coming from and what they read when they’re on your blog.

8. Link to authoritative blogs and the sort—Linking to similar blogs and websites as resources to your readers is not only a great way to position yourself as a great resource, but also to attract the attention of these other blogs and sites that may be able to reference you. Great link bait.

9. Keep it organized—Organize your blog entries by categories and keywords. If a reader enjoyed something that they read months ago on your blog, you want them to be able to easily reference it.

10. Keep a watchful eye—Use web applications such as Google Analytics and ClickTracks to keep an eye on your readers. These applications can tell you what pages they are reading on your blog, how long they spend on pages, and other bits of information that can help direct your content. This is the best way to find out what your readers want.

The other day I was sitting in a quarterly strategy session with one of our large corporate clients, and the issue on hand was how to improve the user experience on our corporate site, which also acts as the main e-commerce engine. One of the tactics that was floating around the beautiful mahogany corporate conference room table was the implementation of a user-generated review system. It got me thinking about the pluses and minuses of this tactic, so without further ado, here are some ideas on how user-generated reviews could positively impact your web strategy.

• Consumers trust consumer reviews, and by offering such your website is automatically delivering value.

• Assuming that you’re selling a quality product, positive reviews could lead to increased conversions on your website.

• If you’re selling more than one product on your site, cross-references in reviews could lead to greater average order value.

• More text copy on your site will ultimately lead to more relevant organic search engine traffic.

• Last but not least, your consumers will be better informed about the positives and negatives of your products; and such should lead to lower return rates.

While I certainly recognize some potential negatives, I wanted today’s entry to focus on the positives. What do you think is the potential negative of implementing user reviews on e-commerce website?

As the college football season comes down the stretch there has been the annual talk about whether the Bowl Championship Series is a good thing for the game or not. As I listened to coaches and players talk about where they might fall in the standings I began to think how close the BCS is to search engine rankings.

Every season each team starts out with a clear slate, much like when a new website is created. Sure, there may be preconceived notions about how a team will do, but it’s really up to the team to prove itself over the first few weeks before the first BCS rankings of the year come out.

When a new website is created at a new URL, Google generally will not display that site in its search results immediately. It will wait to see what other sites link to it and what kind of updates it gets before including it in results. With sites that already exist it’s much like a team that was ranking high the previous year. They will have a high ranking right after the updated site is launched, but Google is always watching to see if the updates have changed the content and value of the site—much like a team that loses all it’s seniors to graduation.

Sites can work with partners or post on blogs to get as many incoming links as possible, but at the end of the day it really boils down to having quality content on the site that people find useful. I’d throw the “If you build it they will come” quote in here, but that’d be mixing my sports analogies.

Players and coaches across the country are talking about just winning their games and letting the rankings take care of themselves—just like building a solid website with info people want.

Oh, and in case you were wondering, I did wear a different T-shirt for last Thursday’s Ducks game. That’ll teach me.

As you venture into the world of Web 2.0 it is imperative to start thinking about your “personal brand.” I feel strongly on the importance of personal branding and therefore will divide this blog posting into a two part series, Personal Branding 101, and Leveraging your personal brand into social sites.

Personal Branding 101:

My former University of Montana professor/mentor/friend Mary Ellen Campbell always lectured on personal branding as an occurring theme all her classes. Mary Ellen stressed thinking of your personal brand as a mini-corporation, and to treat it accordingly.

For instance, when you are thinking of Nike you probably think athletic and high-quality, and Burberry is classy and pretentious, while Wal-Mart is cheap and inexpensive. Like it or not, it’s human nature for people to put each other into theses same categories. How many times have we used similar adjectives to describe our contacts? Is your sister the shy, caring type, your co-worker the enthusiast, your best friend loud and obnoxious, or your neighbor the pretentious jerk?

Most mature individuals don’t try to portray themselves negatively, but our actions speak louder than words—or in some cases our lack of actions. We should strive to build a positive brand for ourselves and lasting relationships will follow, both personally and professionally.

The good news, personal branding was taught growing up by our families and in elementary school. As a result, there is no learning curve as we already know the skills. Overall, it is about being a good person, taking pride in your work, taking interest in other people’s interests and having a positive attitude.

It is hard, however, to practice these soft skills. With the extreme amount of pressure we put on ourselves—from family stress to our careers—it is difficult to think of the bottom line: Being a good person! Remember that we should give our friends, family and co-workers a reason to invest in ourselves. Everyday you should be thinking, “How can my ‘personal stock price’ skyrocket today?”

Below are a list of techniques that help your brand:

• Remember people’s hobbies, not just their names
• Listen! Don’t just talk or think of the next thing you want to say
• Leave your negativity at home, that’s what your loved ones are for. Not too often do you hear company’s complaining about a bad day to the public
• Keep contacts alive, especially with the advent of social Internet there is no excuse to not connect with the people who formed who you are today
• Send thank-you notes
• Spell check!
• Try to make others lives easier, even though this may make yours a little tougher
• Give credit where credit is due
• Try to make everyone feel important and needed

While walking to work this morning I passed in front of my favorite furniture store –never mind that I can’t afford their minimalist tea kettles. Affixed to the store window is the phrase:
“The difference between mediocrity and excellence is attention to detail.”

I love this quote. What an inspirational way to start the morning. This bit of wisdom holds true for everyone, be they upscale sofa designers, professional website developers or part-time bloggers. It’s all in the details, people. Nothing will kill a website quicker than stale design, broken links and misspelled words.

The strength of the Internet lies in its immediacy, but it also reveals a weakness in its users—mostly that we seem too busy to proof our own work. Too often I come across sites that have not undergone the editing process. The author has not checked to ensure individuals can navigate the site with a minimum amount of frustration and confusion. This is a death sentence for commercial websites—it’s like showing up to work in your pajamas. How long did you stay at a website filled with broken links and error messages? I’m a vicious, quick Web surfer, and if a link fails to work I’m off to the next website with a click of the mouse.

So, looking to improve the quality of your website? Looking to keep people clicking on your links instead of somewhere else? Then whip out a red pen and start proofing.

Short answer: it depends on the service and the client. Cookie-cutter sites are generally best hosted externally, while custom jobs are better off hosted internally.

My rowing-crazy brother bought a hand-made, mahogany racing shell from a Canadian woodworker in the late 80s. I still remember him telling the story of how he gingerly strapped it to the roof of his Volkswagen and carefully drove it down to his home in Portland, Oregon. It was a sleek, featherweight, unique, efficient thing of beauty, intentionally put together by an extremely talented boat-maker. I only saw it once, and I’m sure it just flies across the water.

If something as beautiful as this needs repairs or real maintenance, the first impulse is to call its maker. After all, the guy put his heart and soul into it, and knows the best way to bring it back to its original condition. He could probably even make some modifications to the boat if we wanted them.

Now let’s talk about my brother’s Volkswagen. It’s a product that was planned by a committee of marketers and businesspeople, designed by an army of engineers, and built by a roomful of robots. When he needs help with it, he certainly doesn’t attempt to get in touch with the robots who made the car, the people who designed it, or the people who sold it. He can find someone else to fix his non-unique, well-documented car. However, if he asked them to move the rear wheels to the back a couple of inches, he’ll be met by blank stares.

At Respond2, sometimes we build a cookie-cutter site for our client, perhaps because of cost limitations, or perhaps because that design is the best for our client. One client chose this route for several reasons: they’re completely in charge of the site now, they have a common platform that’s understood by many people, and their hosting fees are low. Under the hood, this site is like a Volkswagen in that you can usually find a good, cheap VW mechanic within your community to help you keep it running. This “nothing special” approach to technology is great when you have high turnover in your organization and a limited budget. Also, note that our graphic designers are very, very good at making mundane technology look really good.

Most of the time, however, the websites we build for our clients are so tailored to the individual client’s needs that it’s in their best interest to have us host and maintain the site. We’re building custom boats for our clients, making them as light, flexible and smart as possible, serving the clients’ needs with a perfect fit. We’re familiar with the technical design of the site and the clients’ wishes, so it’s best that we’re hosting it. Our R2Commerce engine is superb at serving the sometimes strangely unique needs of our direct response customers.

This kind of work is more exciting for us Web developers. It’s also more expensive, but often more financially rewarding to our clients. It helps our customers create a directed, intentional Web presence that’s generally not available with the cheaper cookie-cutter approach.

If you don’t know about Digg.com, you surely don’t spend enough time on the Internet. While I say that as if it’s a bad thing, I guess that’s really just more of a reason to read this blog. That said, by definition (per Wikipedia) Digg is a community-based popularity website combining social bookmarking, blogging and syndication in a form of non-hierarchical, democratic editorial control. Sounds boring, right? Actually, quite the contrary, as Digg is probably the best thing to happen to the Internet since Al Gore and Google. That might be a bit of an overstatement, as YouTube, pop-up ads and e-mail marketing communications from Nigeria are revolutionary achievements in their own rights. Nevertheless, Digg is extremely insightful and can do wonders for marketers and ad folks alike.

All moderately funny jokes aside, Digg is something everyone in the digital world needs to know about. There are a number of community-based popularity websites on the Internet, but Digg is unarguably the most popular. Why? Probably because Digg did it right from the beginning by enabling its users to pick what makes it on Digg’s front page. Sure, not everything on the front page of Digg is newsworthy, but you better believe that whatever article, picture or video makes it on the front page is going to be seen by tens of thousands of people. Take for example Apple’s iPhone-if the cell phone’s announcement wasn’t the second-highest “Dugg” item this year, would it have been such a big hit? I venture to say yes; nonetheless, with nearly 25,000 Diggs under its belt, I’m sure there was some impact.

So, I guess the question you need to ask yourself is -”how do I (you) get on the front page of Digg?” To tell you the truth, there isn’t a straight answer to that question, or fa magical ormula to get on Digg’s front page, but it can be done, either purposefully or by accident. For something to be truly Digg-worthy, it needs to be at least one of the following:

1. Shocking - Which entails being funny, disgusting or just plain wrong; either way it needs to be something the reader feels like he/she needs to tell their friends, and possibly the world, about.
2. Important - The definition of what is important is up for debate, but in order for someone to Digg your piece, it must be truly newsworthy. Beware, “Net Surfers” are savvy and if you try to trick them you might still make the front page of Digg, but in the inverse of what you were trying to do.
3. Insightful - The item at large has to encompass applicable information, something new to the reader and be easy and fast to implement.

In the end, breaking into the Digg culture isn’t easy, but with some amount of effort, strategic thinking and a bit of luck, it can be done and the results can prove to be invaluable.