Notebook

For those who are just getting into the twitter scene, here is a great Twitter Guide. It contains tons of information for the absolute newbie, to those seeking to use twitter on a professional level.

If you are looking for a good list of people to follow, take a look at the 10 Must-Follow Usability Experts on Twitter.

With so many social sites to keep up with, a profile picture has become a stamp representing us in ways we don’t even expect. Most of us choose casual pictures usually considering whether the picture flatters us or not. But a profile picture can go a long way when describing the person you are.  It also can be surprising how it affects one of the most important parts of your website, TRAFFIC!  But like all new trends, testing and benchmarking is the best way to figure out this mystery.

If you are selling your services, seeking employment, or simply trying to get known on the web,  then your profile picture should be your brand. There is a good article on just this concept outlining how important consistency is. The constant uprising of social sites have geared the web into a casual state with more people leaning away from glamor shots and becoming more comfortable posting natural, funny or interesting pictures.

Either way those who want to read your blog, take your advice or use your services want to feel comforted by the human side of your profile. So investing a little more time choosing an apropriate profile picture that let’s others see the smart, savvy or funny side of you, is definitely worth the time.

With the advent of digital photography, the amount of stock images online has become limitless and for a few years now, there have been specialized sites catering to specific industries.  The problem with stock images is not that they are scarce, but that effective images are hard to find.  And by this I mean pictures that don’t fit into the Sears Catalog category.

The fact that optical technologies and photography equipment saw a steep curve in improvement only means that the average Joe can now afford a professional SLR at higher resolutions.  A high resolution image does not necessarily mean it is a good picture. In fact, higher megapixel camera’s are not always better.  And that is the problem with stock images.  True photography brings out certain moods or feelings using various aspects of colour, lighting and positioning techniques.

It’s a shame it takes a long time to simply search for images that don’t look fake or out of date.  Even buying a high end camera to take your own shots may be worth a try if it is more customized to your content and if you are willing to put some time aside to learn at minimum the technical aspects of photography.  As the old cliché states  “A pictures is worth a thousand words”.  So if a user lands on your page and the limbic system of their brain has been stimulated because of beautiful imagery, it was worth the effort.

Lately I’ve been doing some research on the different web applications available particulalry for real estate agents, only to be swarmed with pop ups, multi coloured fonts and extra large font sizes that remind me of grade school art class.

Does this type of in your face marketing really work? I usually don’t give these sites a chance and simply close the tab.  Even though web marketing has become a booming entity, not all industries have understood the power of it.  Real Estate in particular has always had a reputation of tacky print collateral but the web is a different dimension and users can simply end your chance with one click.

I am glad our application has deviated from this approach and it only confirms that we are on the right track to providing our agents with a functional, attractive and professional web presence.