Twitter

Since there isn’t any gadgets that catch my eye today, I wanted to talk about something else. About five months ago I was starting a project for my job that required me to register and maintain a twitter account. At the time, the company didn’t see how twitter would benefit us and it was still fairly small so we pulled the project.

Months had gone by and it seemed as if a lot of people have been jumping on the twitter bandwagon. From friends to followed companies, everyone started the whole twitter movement. Well about three weeks ago, my company decided to start our twitter again. The results have been nothing short from amazing. I understand how companies can benefit from twitter. Companies can interact with customers and potential customers, can address any questions, can update people on everything, and allow everyone to feel personable.

I do think that twitter is pointless for some individuals. Twitter should be for companies and well connected individuals or individuals that are working for a certain company. For instance, people really don’t need to know what you are eating or if you went to the bathroom. Information should be informative and helpful and give people a better insight. For example, retail companies have posted special coupons on twitter for their followers to receive a discount. That is an incentive to follow that will allow the retail company to give more person more updates.

Twitter has become a social platform for everyone to be updated on each other’s lives. However, we should be aware of what content we put out for people to see. Twitter can be a good thing and it can be a bad thing. You can gain an audience and be famous or you can be ridiculed and even lose your job if you twitter too much or about something that makes your company seem negative. If John Mayer could lose his girlfriend because of twittering too much, than of course you see how twitter can mess things up if you do not monitor what you do!

WiFi Jedi Going Public

Xirrus employee, Douglas Haider, is now going public with his blog. I wanted to help promote it because I do frequent his writings and consider them to be insightful. If you know nothing about Wi-Fi and want to learn more, I suggest checking his blog.

http://wifijedi.wordpress.com/

TechEBlog’s Annoying Pop-Up

I used to frequent TechEBlog’s site almost everyday.  Besides engadget, techeblog was where I would go to for the latest news in technology and gadget craze. However, with this recent Kaiser Permanente pop-up, I now try to stay away from this site. The pop up would disappear and then reappear when you scroll down. I don’t know if this has been brought to their attention or not, or maybe they are getting reimbursed for this, but this is a total buzz kill on my site viewing ability. FIX IT TECHEBLOG!

How Great is Your Website?

Instead of blogging about the newest gadget or latest technology, I wanted to write about how vital it is for someone to keep up with the advancements of technology, in a sense of websites. After researching for work, I came into a fairly frequent problem – most websites are HORRIBLE! I’m talking about websites that just come off lazy. Sadly a lot of these websites belong to companies, enterprises, schools, etc.  

My theory is that you need to do as well as your best competitor and then more, in order to stay in the game. If your competitor’s website is decked out with adobe and flash banners, and you’re running on just clickable links, then you are falling behind.

The common finding I discover to these horrible websites consist of:

1. Tough to navigate

2. Rough on the eyes

3. Cheap Looking

4. Having links that dont work

5. Way too flashy/busy

6. Outdated

7. Links are not categorized correctly

I hate to do this, but let me show you a screen shot of three different school districts to compare:

Now the first one on the left has an eye catcher, sufficient amount of information, and the colors blend well with each other. The middle one looks way too busy with text and has too much information that will turn people away. The Third just looks plain, lazy, and very simple. The third one would be okay, 10 years ago that is. If i was choosing a school district for my child, it would definitely be the first one. In my mind, if a school district or company is willing to take the time and effort to create a great website, they will take the time and effort to give my child a good eduction or provide consumers with good products or services.

I’ll leave you with this, if your company’s website doesn’t look as good as someone’s myspace, then you definitely need to hire a web designer or hire a new web designer. There are a ton of books about html or even guides online that will allow people to learn how to design a great website.