Posted September 23rd, 2008 by Brad Wellman
Brad Wellman
Spyder Trap Online Marketing
Twitter recently unveiled changes to their website. At first glance, the changes seem aesthetically pleasing to the eye, when compared to the small text links of the previous version; however after more careful consideration, these changes do not constitute any real functionality changes.
On the home page (/home) the links on the top of the timeline got moved to the right hand nav bar. I first thought this was significant because it made each link more noticeable and accessible. While this does not allow for any real change in functionality, it does however offer the user an easier way of accessing those links.
Twitter also made changes to the profile customization tool. Now, users can choose from 12 stock themes for their user profiles, rather than relying on one default theme if users don’t want to upload a background image or customize their profile colors.
For more details on these Twitter changes, as well as future changes the folks at Twitter are working on, check out the original post from the Twitter blog here.
Tags: Changes, Twitter
Posted September 19th, 2008 by Brad Wellman
Brad Wellman
Spyder Trap Online Marketing
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Tags: Comedy, Minnesota, Parody, PSA, Vote Yes
Posted September 16th, 2008 by Brad Wellman
Mike Rynchek
Spyder Trap Online Marketing
Social media giant Facebook recently migrated to their new 2.0 version despite wide based criticism and user backlash. The new site is set to showcase new user and developer features, such as additional tabs within the user’s profile, simplified navigation, dynamic privacy, and much more. If you are reading this post, you have likely already experienced these features first-hand. Instead of focusing on the feature side I would rather discuss the social side of this site launch. The purpose of this post is to raise the question; did Facebook ignore the outcry from its user base, thus essentially violating the first rule in social media: to listen and communicate with those around you and who participate in your brand?
I was originally intrigued when I provided some constructive criticism to Facebook about their new layout. The thank you page, or essentially their response, was a bit surprising. They basically said, “thank you for the feedback, we will take it into consideration, but you will not hear back from us.” Wait a minute? You are a social media site and I just helped you, but I will not hear anything back? On a regular basis, I tell clients that social media is a wonderful platform to gather user and customer feedback/criticism and to openly discuss and respond to it. I understand the scalability issues with it being more personal on this level, but these were the same people who made chatting sexy again!
The biggest representation of backlash didn’t so much take place in the blogosphere, on Twitter, in journals or publications. It happened on Facebook itself. Early on, new, anti-Facebook layout groups began to form, building massive followings. (Below I have listed some of the top groups, I have seen… okay, and perhaps joined.) Within these groups is a wide discussion about how much dislike people have for the new layout and how much better the old site was. Discussion even arose today about applications that still allow you to use the old site.
1. 1,000,000 AGAINST THE NEW FACEBOOK LAYOUT! – 1,977,456 members
2. Petition Against the “New Facebook” - 1,353,608 members
3. I Hate The New Facebook – 1,227,502 members
4. 5,000,000 people who want the option “Back to the old Facebook” to remain – 777,595 members
There are dozens of groups just like these.
So to conclude, I raise the question: Would Facebook have been better off not launching the new site, or even perhaps incorporating new features into the new design? Also, I thought it would be interesting to list out the violations against social media etiquette that I feel Facebook committed (Again these are only my opinions open to debate or discussion.)
1. They did not address any of the groups listed above (at least to show that they would like to add to the conversation).
2. Really lame feedback response or lack thereof.
3. Going live with the new Facebook prior to addressing user concerns!
Tags: Blogosphere, Facebook, Social Media Etiquitte, Twitter
