Going Viral Visualized The baby who laughs at ripping paper. The overdramatic chipmunk. Nyan Cat. These characters are forever immortalized in the world of viral Internet content. But what is it about these vastly different pieces of content that make them so ubiquitous and sharable? So if "going viral" is your goal, how can you optimize a campaign to transform into a Web meme goldmine? What's your favorite viral campaign? Infographic designed by Voltier Digital
Top Web Developer Tools of 2011 While browser-based operating systems haven't taken over the world, 2011 has been a pretty good year for Web developers. It's an exciting time to be working in Web development, and there's never been a better crop of tools to work with. Web standards are eclipsing proprietary toolkits, and the development community is creating its own set of open source tools to work with. Here's a look at some of the best we've seen in 2011. To be clear, this isn't exclusively a list of tools that debuted in 2011. Instead, I wanted to look at some of the most popular and best tools for Web developers through 2011. Basically, we're looking to highlight tools that are innovative, widely used and/or wildly useful for Web developers. jQuery and jQuery Mobile No list of Web developer tools would be complete without jQuery, the ever-popular JavaScript library that we've covered extensively on ReadWriteHack. That's not to say that jQuery is free of critics. Modernize IE with CSS3 PIE Bootstrap PhoneGap The Future?
7 Easy Steps For Creating Buzzworthy Content Few marketers know how to create stellar content without being too promotional. Here are the steps to buzzworthiness. October 17, 2011 We've heard for years now that "content is king"—yet so few marketers seem to understand how to create useful content that isn't overly promotional for the brands supporting it. Even for those who understand the importance of rich content, though, it can be costly to get a content strategy up and running. Michael Durwin, director of user experience at Boston Technologies, has nailed down a simple step-by-step process for creating buzzworthy content on a shoestring budget. Here are his seven essential steps for creating buzzworthy content. 1. Leverage your resources on your staff, coworkers, customers and fans," says Durwin. 2. Once you've found the individuals within your organization that are already participating in or are very excited about creating content, assign tasks to those people based on what they are interested in and would like to contribute.
Node.js Performance Tips from LinkedIn LinkedIn's Shravya Garlapati has shared a number of tips for improving performance on their mobile site while using Node.js. LinkedIn is working with a standard HTML5 mobile site as well as apps for iOS and Android. Previously, LinkedIn has talked about its continuous integration testing for mobile, now they're sharing some of what they've learned. The Obvious and Not so Much A couple of the tips are fairly obvious. For example, make sure that you use gzip to compress requests and responses. Another tip that (one hopes) is obvious? But LinkedIn also has a few insights that might not be obvious. Garlapati also recommends using binary modules with Node.js, and standard V8 JavaScript rather than client-side libraries.
Internet of Yesterday & Today: 1996 vs. 2011 [INFOGRAPHIC] Where were you in 1996? If you were in cyberspace, surfing the World Wide Web, chances are you were waiting a long time for pages to load, laughing at the first Internet meme and suffering through some god-awful graphics. My, how times have changed! SEE ALSO: AOL Eyes Merger With Yahoo [REPORT] But you know what? Did you see this coming? UPDATE: Thanks to commenter Bill Vandermark for pointing out that Go Daddy was in fact founded in 1997, and would not become Go Daddy until 1999. Infographic courtesy Online University How Gamification Can Make News Sites More Engaging Gamification, the use of gameplay mechanics for non-game applications, is transforming online news into an engaging, social and fun activity. It’s quickly becoming the next frontier in web and mobile technology. But what makes gamification successful? Simply put: motivation. By tracking readers' success, news organizations provide a sense of progress. At Mashable, we’ve incorporated gamification into Mashable Follow, our social layer and content curation tool. Activity is the core of Follow. Rewarding readers for taking these actions was an important component of Follow. Of course Follow badges are just one example of game mechanics on a news site — and here's why they work. Fostering Community As a result of the hunger for badges, readers develop a more personal and valuable community on our site. Andrew David Baron, an avid Follow user, can attest to the badges encouraging Mashable readers to comment more. Bob Aycock, another frequent Follow user agrees. Resonating With Readers Conclusion
The Anatomy of a Social Media Crisis Social media crises are on the rise, but 76% of those that occurred since 2001 could have been diminished or averted with the proper social media investments, according to a report by Altimeter Group released on Wednesday. For the report, entitled "Social Business Readiness: How Advanced Companies Prepare Internally," Altimeter Group analyzed 50 social media crises that have occurred since 2001 and found that those reaching mainstream media have risen steadily through the past decade, with just 1-2 incidents per year in the first five years and a total of 10 social media crises last year alone. The report also sheds light on exactly how social media crises arise and how companies can avoid them. The majority of businesses caught up in social media crises lacked proper internal education programs, but the lack of a professional staff, triage system and employee social media policy were also key problem areas for companies. And what were the causes of these crises?
22 Essential Tools for Testing Your Website's Usability The Web Design Usability Series is supported by join.me, an easy way to instantly share your screen with anyone. join.me lets you collaborate on-the-fly, put your heads together super-fast and even just show off. A site's ease of use, or its usability, is an integral part of its success, especially with websites becoming more and more interactive, complex and packed with features. User-centered design is all about building websites that fulfill the goals and desires of its users, and at the heart of this concept is that a user must be able interact with your website effectively. Testing usability is an art and a science. In this post, we'll discuss six crucial factors that affect usability. We'll focus on practical usability testing, so the emphasis is on pragmatic and inexpensive strategies that most site owners can do. What other tools have you used to test website usability? 1. The first thing that must be done is determine what the core user tasks are. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
HOW TO: Recover from a Social Media PR Disaster This post originally appeared on the American Express OPEN Forum, where Mashable regularly contributes articles about leveraging social media and technology in small business. You know that awful, "Did I leave the oven on?" pit-of-your-stomach feeling of dread at a possible screw up? Yeah, well now you can also get that feeling from social media. On social media sites, a rash of Twitter accounts have tumbled into nasty PR disasters. Fortunately there are also some success cases of companies turning bad social media situations into something good. So you screwed up, now what? What Counts as a PR Disaster? Social media PR disasters comes in a range of fails and embarrassments. There are also slips that can do serious damage to your brand. Inappropriate opinion is, predictably, when an opinion goes out over your social presence that is either inappropriate to your brand or to the format. The insensitive statement can do a little more damage by reflecting the ethos of the brand.