Last week we asked other Maine Web designers to Twitter some words of advice for our intern, Jordan Warren. What we got was good advice for any Web designer at any level. A sampling:

Wendy Clark – @wending (Senior Web Designer at MaineToday) – “Occasionally leave the computer for your education and inspiration. Visit the PMA or local galleries once a month.”

Tim Shackleford – @fiveleafdesign – “Always be learning, test early and often, and surround yourself with people smarter than you. You’ll learn alot.”

Dan St. Peter – @danstpeter – “Listen to and learn from the experts you meet. Study http://www.smashingmagazine.com and other great online resources.”

Maggi Blue – @magpiecreative – “Don’t over think it…it only gets you in trouble.” (Don’t overthink, Jordan, but please do think.)

Ellen Kanner – @ellenkanner (Kanner Kreative) – “Firebug plugin for FireFox. period.” (We got her squared away with that on day one, Ellen!)

Calvin Gilbert – @calvingilbert – “Create libraries of frequently used code snippets and site templates… and listen to Rob.” (Listen to Rob? Smart man, that Calvin.)

You can find all these “tweets of advice” on Twitter, tagged as #4Jordan. Thanks to the folks above for taking the time to share insights based on their experiences.

So what advice do you have for Jordan? If you’re a Web designer here in Maine, we’d love a quick comment. No matter how insignificant you think it might be, it’s a gold mine of knowledge for her. Help her get better, faster.

She’d love to hear from you.

Once again I’m speaking about Twittering (and Twittering about speaking).

This Friday I’ll be making my presentation on Smart Use of Social Media to the Maine Public Relations Council. Details on their events calendar.

Basic premise: understanding the Twitter timeline is good; making it work for your business – priceless.

Speaking of Twitter: did you know that there are now more than 32 million people using the service to spread the word about themselves and their brands?

Hope to see some old friends and new faces tonight at the Harraseekett Inn for tonight’s presentation on social media. Basic premise: understanding the Twitter timeline is good; making it work for your business – priceless.

Many thanks to the Maine Merchants Association and the Freeport Merchants Association for sponsoring the event.

Here are the particulars:

We’ll talk about a few Web sites you may have heard of – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube – as well as a few others, with an eye towards harnessing them to develop a sensible strategy for extending your organization’s brand or mission online.

Why me?

Good question indeed. I’ve built my business not on social media, but on the smart Web site design, usability, accessibility and content management, and that’s what I do best.

On the other hand, I also feel passionately about taking a no-nonsense approach to whatever it is you’re doing online, and that includes social media. I also know as much about social stuff as anyone in Maine.

I first bumped into Twitter in March 2007 while attending the South by Southwest interactive conference in Austin, Texas (which I call the Superbowl of Web Design). I twitter up a storm as @portlandhead and maintain @pemaquid (for the biz) and @Bluezberry_Jam (for my band; I play bass in my “spare time”).

I’m also the first (and to my knowledge, still the only) Maine Web designer to have developed Facebook apps. Pemaquid has done four: Bluezberry Jam, Portland Diner, Jenny’s Cards and Lost on Liftoff.

Editor’s note, 3/28/09: since creating this post, I’ve learned of another Mainer who’s created Facebook apps.

Fun Facts

Here are a couple fun facts about social media, to help you understand why it’s so important to use them effectively:

• 5 of the 10 most popular Web sites are social networks
• 3 billion minutes are spent on Facebook each day
• 13 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute

All that and more coming up April 7. See you there!

In the meantime, there’s a comment box below. You can use it. So give me your questions. What would you like to learn?

The meeting was special for two reasons: it featured the revival of another group of Web designers, the Markup & Style Society, founded by Dan Cederholm and Ethan Marcotte (members of the M&SS were on hand), and CSS wiz Eric Meyer, who had blown into town to meet with some East Coast Clients, was on hand.

How did I find out about this? Twitter, baby (if you’re not following people in your sphere on Twitter, you are missing out).

I got to reconnect w/Josh Porter of Bokardo, whom I’d met at SXSW and who works out of the North Shore area.

My real reason for going was not so that I could write up a nifty blog post and drop names (really). It was because I think Portland needs a group like this. Sure, there are Tweetups and Maine UX is a great group for all things relating to usability, but I think there’s still room for a group devoted to discussing the latest trends in Web design – and imbibing good ale.

I talked to several of the founders of these groups on their experiences and fortunately starting an interest group is not rocket science, it just takes “interest”. Free beer doesn’t hurt, either (libations were on the house last night).

Patrick Haney (Refresh Boston) – “The people were out there. They just needed a place to come together. We created that. We joined about 30 other Refresh groups located in cities across the country.”

Dan Cederholm (Markup & Style Society) – “You just get together with people who share a common interest, do it regularly, and eventually others find out about it and it grows.”

Folks said the interest groups usually start out their meetings with a 15-30 minute presentation, often by one of the members, about a hot topic. Then, social networking in meat-space takes place. Only rarely does a saloon-style brawl break out.

The organizers I spoke with said one of their biggest problems nowadays is finding a place to meet that will hold all the people who attend. I naively expected last night’s meetup to be a fairly intimate gathering of 30-40; yeah, no, it was more like 120 people.

Boy, wouldn’t that be nice here? I’d settle for a group of 5 or 6.

What do you think, Portland? Can we do it? Do I hear “Ayuh”?

Pemaquid Zone (FB)
Pemaquid Fan Page (FB)
Twitter: http://twitter.com/pemaquid

You can also find me tweeting at:
http://twitter.com/portlandhead

I think we do a pretty spiffy job cranking out sites, but are there other people practicing great Web design in Maine? Ayuh!

Would like to see more!

Let’s get a conversation started about Web design, Web sites and technology in Portland, Maine.

Nothing is going to come easy for Portland’s digital creatives in 2009. Every day will have to count. Here are my suggestions (resolutions, if you will) for making it in the coming year:

Keep your overhead low – this is not the time to fritter away your cash flow on things you don’t need. Daily $3 lattes are out (I know, this will be hard) and learn to love rice and beans – you’ll be glad you did (and you’ll be healthy).

Offer something of value - to get noticed you have to provide something worthy of consideration. Seems simple enough, but remember, people have to understand the value of the service you’re offering them. It has to be crystal clear.

Be a Problem Solver – Find a need and fulfill it. Be relevant. In 2009, don’t do something “just because”. Those who succeed will find ways to make themselves useful to clients.

Refine your elevator pitch – who you are and what you do – and how that’s better – should roll right off your tongue, in two sentences or less. And it should strike a chord.

Build up your base – The best place to look for business in 2009 is towards your existing clients. You understand their needs, and they trust you. Offer useful suggestions to help them get through a tough year, and they’ll help you.

Keep it real – Sock puppets didn’t cut it in 2000 (we realized there’s no “New Economy” – just an Economy), and idle Twittering won’t get the job done nearly a decade later. Provide a real, sustainable service. Keep the buzzwords out of your lexicon; they are a smokescreen used by those who don’t know what they are talking about.

Ride the wave – On the other hand, find out all you can about the latest trends (we’re back to Twitter here) and try to understand how your business, and your clients, can benefit from them. In the last few years we’ve seen a succession of new digital media: blogs, online video and social networks. Prediction for 2009: keep an eye on Google’s Android open source operating system for mobile devices.

Challenge conventional wisdom – If most people are zigging, and you see that zagging makes more sense – do it! Don’t be afraid to be controversial and talk it to a different perspective, if you believe strongly. If you’re right, people will eventually come around, and by then you’ll own the idea.

Be in it for the long haul – Have a plan and work your plan, day in and day out. Be consistent. Suit up to play ball every day. There are no overnight success stories – only tales of hard work and lots of midnight oil.

Be undeniably good – This is Steve Martin’s advice to anyone who wants to make it in any field. Be so good you can’t be ignored. That takes hard work.

I was awakened that day by my iPhone, which received this tweet from the State of Maine’s Twitter account @ http://twitter.com/www_maine_gov. I follow it for this very reason – to get citizen alerts on emergency conditions (kinda like the “Emergency Tweetcast Network”).

I haven’t been keeping track, but it seems like their follow count has increased quite a bit over the weekend.

I also follow @WCSH6 and @PressHerald on Twitter, and it was interesting to see how these conventional media outlets used the service. In terms of providing news-you-can-use, IMHO the results were not great, though @PressHerald came through at times.

Here are some example tweets from conventional media over the weekend:

Good:

http://twitter.com/PressHerald/status/1053143263

Yes, OK, fair warning. I’ll be careful out there.

http://twitter.com/PressHerald/status/1053778059

I feel bad for them; at least I know it’s a bad idea to run my generator in the basement.

Bad:

http://twitter.com/PressHerald/status/1055263330

Yes, lots o’ folks are w/o power. But that doesn’t help me much. Tell me where the downed power lines are, the large traffic accidents, what local authorities are saying to people in their respective communities about ETA of electricity.

http://twitter.com/WCSH6/status/1053509213

I could’ve guessed that. But I’m in my car on my mobile device – where are those roads?

http://twitter.com/PressHerald/status/1053582227

Street flooding? Where?!?

http://twitter.com/WCSH6/status/1052326387

Really?!? Drivers are sliding around? How about telling me where those roads/accidents are so I can avoid them?

http://twitter.com/WCSH6/status/1053359047

No shit, Sherlock!

If you’re going to tweet, please make it useful. If your mission is to provide information to the public, make sure that tweet contains actual information. Please don’t tweet and say, in essence, “go to my Web site for complete coverage”. A lot of folks had mobile devices that worked (the AT&T network was rock solid for me and my iPhone) but could not get to the ‘Net (my tweet peeps and I were hard pressed to find it all day Friday – I hear Portland coffee shops were crowded).

So, to news outlets: Don’t try to drive me to your Web site b/c your advertisers need pageviews for your banner ads. Gimme some news on the spot! If you don’t, I’ll gravitate towards others who will fulfill that need.

Reports say Google intends to release the browser for download from its site today at: google.com/chrome but so far nothing’s available.

I haven’t had time to immerse myself the details yet, but here are some of the important details:

• It will be open source
• It will offer a way for people to see how Web sites are consuming system resources
• It will handle tabbed browsing in a slightly different way

This could have a major impact on both Microsoft’s Internet Explorer browser as well as the Mozilla Project’s Firefox.

You can find out more about the Google Chrome features at Google Blogscoped, a blog which follows the company; learn more about some of the technical implications of Google Chrome from John Resig on his blog.

As far as the impact on front end Web designers? It remains to be seen, but if you assume that Chrome adheres to Web standards and standard CSS implementations, it shouldn’t change the game all that much. Stay tuned….

Let’s pick on content management systems. There’s Drupal, Expression Engine, SilverStripe, Django, TextPattern… the list goes on and on.

They are all great tools for managing content. On the other hand, you need to have a bit of savvy to use them. Take Drupal, for example. It’s a powerful and flexible framework, but I wouldn’t turn it over to the marketing guy and walk away (I know, I used to be the Marketing Guy).

For decent interaction design for Everyman we can look to social networking sites. Facebook and Twitter are easy to use. In the case of Twitter, there is a very simple core feature set that’s fine for most folks, but just below the surface there are a ton of other goodies that experts can put to use when tweeting. That’s the hallmark of a killer app.

So when creating successful interaction design, start with simple – and keep it that way.

I remember when blogging first came on the scene – it took me awhile to ‘get it’. Why, I thought, would someone take the time to post their musings about the everyday, and who would care? I couldn’t see the point of most of it initially, though now the Web is full of thoughtful, colorful and amazingly informative blogs on every topic, and you don’t have to look hard to find detailed information about something that’s of interest to you.

Now, we have Twitter and everyone, it seems, is tweeting. For the most part, these tweets are pretty mundane (“…heading out for a bikeride…”, ” Trying to finish up several key deliverables so I can get out on the boat today ” and even simply “Baseball”) are samples of the <140 character slices-of-life you'll find when you follow someone's twitterings.

You could call all this 'micro-blogging'.

I'm not sure how meaningful all of this is, where it's all going or even what any of it means, but I do know one thing - it's an exploding cultural phenomenon. Just like blogging was a few years back.

I've learned my lesson. This time, I'm going to pay attention to the cultural changes wrought by the Web and work harder to understand what it all means.

Follow me on Twitter

For the uninitiated (unindoctrinatred?) Twitter is a service that let’s you tell your buds where you are and what you’re doing in up-to-the-minute detail (emphasis on “minute” as in ‘my-NOOT’). You can post to your Twitter via a cellphone text message and your pals subscribe to be notified when you “twitter” (verb). You can “follow” the tweets of others, having the site alert you by cellphone when friends update their accounts.

It’s this “text-message-broadcasting” that makes Twitter unique.

I’d always been of the opinion that all this twittering is not especially useful, and that instead of making life easier it adds an unnecessary layer of complexity. I recently had the perfect opportunity to test that assumption: the 2008 SXSW conference in Austin, Texas. I knew some folks who were going to attend and Twitter seemed like the perfect way to stay in immediate contact as we fanned out across the cavernous conference facilities.

At that it worked reasonably well. “Panel in Ballroom A rocks! – u should b here” or “I’m coming down from the second floor – meet me at the 4th Street entrance and we’ll go to lunch” were typical posts. On the other hand, I concluded that I could have easily survived – as I have for many years – without the tweeting.

There’s a certain tyranny about using Twitter. Ostensibly, one of the biggest reasons to use Twitter is to let your pals know where you are or what you’re thinking in up-to-the-minute fashion. So you can easily fall into a post-early-post-often-vortex in order to keep friends informed (otherwise, after all, they might think you’re dead, and come to look for you at your last-twittered location).

Many technological tools are like this. There’s a tantalizing enticement to do something you’ve never been able to do before (“Cool, I can send a single text message to a Web site and it can alert all my friends? Dude!”). We spend a lot of time in front of our computers… because we can (I’m guilty as charged). We use devices that save us time – but if we then fill up that newly-found free time with activities that aren’t very meaningful, our quality of life goes down, not up.

There’s a usability message here: before adopting a new technological device or app we should take a serious look at whether these tools truly help make our lives easier and better – or merely different.