30+ Twitter Lists and 5000+ Twitter accounts worth following
Twitter Lists are now officially available to all of Twitter's users. And there are plenty of them. While it remains to be seen whether Twitter Lists will help Twitter boost user engagement, Lists offer a no-hassle means to discovering and following people who you might find interesting.
Here are 30+ Twitter Lists that collectively follow more than 5,000 interesting Twitter accounts.
Site review: BBC Democracy Live
The BBC yesterday launched a new political website, Democracy Live, which enables the public to keep up with TV coverage of political debates.
The site offers live and on demand coverage of the Commons, the House of Lords, the European Parliament, Scottish Assembly and more, so you can keep up with debates on a variety of issues that may effect you.
Something else you can do with a spreadsheet
I recently visited Professor Ben Shneiderman at the University of Maryland, arguably the world’s leading expert on user interface design, and talked to him about human computer interaction, sustainability, social network analysis and spreadsheets.
Ben's most recent book, Designing the User Interface, with co-author Catherine Plaisant, is in its fifth edition and has lots of compelling new material especially in visualisation and social network technology.
FTC wants $11,000 for blogger payola violations
The Federal Trade Commission today announced the penalty for bloggers, celebrities and lay people who fail to disclose receiving payment for endorsements. Starting December 1, anyone who endorses a product, virtually anywhere, without disclosing brand relationships will receive a fine for $11,000.
This is the first time the FTC has updated its guidelines since 1980. Clearly some updating was neccessary. But enforcement is another story.
$11,000 is a steep price to pay for endorsement violations. And the fees will likely come out of brands' pockets.
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This article covers what I've learned from working with hundreds of customers on improving the results that they get from email marketing by optimising the subject line.
Whatever software you use for your email campaigns, these tips are worth reading...
Will tough privacy regulations hurt startups?
The calls for tough government regulation designed to protect the privacy of internet users are getting stronger in the United States. But could there be unintended fallout if regulations are implemented?
Jeremy Liew, a managing partner at VC firm Lightspeed Venture Partners, thinks so. In his opinion, the impact of the level of regulation that is being demanded "would be enormous for companies relying on online advertising".
Should advertisers boycott Glenn Beck?
It's a situation no advertiser likes to be in: a media property you advertise on is at the center of a controversy involving politics and race. Advertisers on Fox News' Glenn Beck Program found themselves in this situation last month when the show's host, Glenn Beck, called the president of the United States, Barack Obama, a "racist". In large part due to one organization's grassroots campaign, nearly 50 advertisers have reportedly pulled their ads from Beck's show.
Yet boycotting Beck may not be such an easy decision for many of them because of one fact: Beck's controversial statement hasn't put a dent in his show's popularity. In fact, the Glenn Beck Program is "pure ratings gold", pulling in the greatest number of cable news viewers between the ages of 25 and 54 at night even though he airs in a pre-primetime slot.
The workaround: technology strikes back
People have been finding workarounds for poorly designed systems for many years. Although both the technology and the workarounds have become more sophisticated, the problem, and its solution, remains the same.
Many years ago, before web-based interfaces, we were asked to investigate why an online ordering system wasn’t delivering the promised productivity benefits. Our research, which involved videoing staff dealing with telephone orders and then interviewing them about the process, soon revealed the problem.
Information visualisation and usability: Time is on your side
There is something beautiful about making complex information palatable, understandable and even attractive. As the the amount of data released into the world grows, this challenge of assimilating masses of information rapidly will also grow, and the skills of visual designers, information architects and statisticians should be appreciated.
Obama asks Americans to tweet their Senators
During his presidential campaign, Barack Obama made extensive use of social media to rally his supporters. In the process, he produced one of the best case studies yet on how to achieve results with social media.
Post-election, Obama's use of social media has changed a bit but he's still making use of it.
Social media: the best and worst of 2009
Email marketing: six steps to improving customer engagement in 2010
Web 2.0
Graham Charlton
Strategy & Planning
