While Linda debunks rules other than Twitter's standard regulations, you might abide by certain personal guidelines so you don't open yourself to a lawsuit. Additionally, people already have been fired over their Twitter comments. Do you really want to lose everything you own and a job to boot over one 140-character comment? In this article, Linda shows you how you can possibly avoid those problems.
Read MoreIn the previous article, Linda introduced Twitter to designers, including some tools to use and some basic rules that you might follow for Twitter success. In this article, she will take you into the realm of Twitter Rule Meisters, or people who insist that you follow their rules. She offers some alternatives that, outside of Twitter's official rules, actually bring total freedom to your Twitter use.
If you aren't on Twitter or you don't know about its intricacies, then Linda will introduce this social media tool to you in this article and in following articles. Linda points to some basic “rules” for Twitter, but questions other rules provided by users. She also provides links to find other graphic designers and programmers on Twitter.
Read MoreIf you're a member of any social network, you may bemoan the fact that you don't have many connections compared to, say, Guy Kawasaki. But, the number of connections aren't the point – the quality of connections you make on any social network – such as LinkedIn – are key. In this article, Linda provides a number of ways to find those LinkedIn connections and how to treat those connections once made.
Read MoreIf you followed Linda's LinkedIn article last week, you now have a LinkedIn profile and you may be anxious to connect to friends and potential clients or employees. In this article, Linda shows how you can add some punch to your LinkedIn profile as you begin to search for colleagues and others who can help promote your design or programming skills.
By this time, you may have set up a Facebook and Friendfeed account and perhaps even started a group at one or the other – or both. Now you're ready to set up a LinkedIn account, where you can send prospective clients to view your resume and your professional side. In this article, Linda provides readers with a basic overview of LinkedIn, and how you can use it as a stationery and low-maintenance tool that will help your career.
In this article, Linda talks about how to gain readers by building groups in both FaceBook and in FriendFeed. You don't need to be an extrovert to lead a group, as many times the readers will build that group for you. In the process, you will develop a 'community' that could become loyal followers as well.
The discussion on web design for older site visitors often drifts towards accessibility and gets mixed up with looking at disabilities rather abilities, but this should not always be a given.
Not every person over 65 years has eyesight so poor that they have to increase text size or change the contrast of text colours. Not every person over the retirement age has problems with motor control or significant short term memory loss. The diversity of the 65+ user group is enormous. A website might be easy to use for someone over 75 years old; simply because they're experienced web surfers or familiar with the site. In contrast you might find someone younger, but with less Internet experience, struggling to use the same site.
For the past five days, Linda visited a place in the U.S. that doesn't have a proliferation of connectivity. In other words, she was unable to connect to the Internet even to download her email. What does this mean to someone who relies on the Internet and social media to connect with others in a seemingly well-connected society? Does it matter? Should designers and programmers take note of this situation?
Last week, guest writer Karoli Kuns offered readers an introduction to Friendfeed. Whether this social media tool will replace Twitter is unknown. But, for the user, Friendfeed can be remarkably more efficient than Twitter, as it combines a number of social media tools into one place. This week, Linda offers some more discoveries she made at Friendfeed as she followed Karoli's advice from last week.
Friendfeed has emerged as the “shiny new tool” in the social media arsenal for building community with friends, around causes and with businesses. Although Friendfeed has been active for over a year, it recently rolled out a series of new tools that makes their interface seem more appealing than Twitter – but is it better? Linda did not know , as she’s an active Twitter user – so she enlisted the help of social media maven, Karoli Kuns, to help deliver an introduction to this social media tool (more about how to contact Karoli at the end of the article).
Last week, Linda showed you how to create Pages on Facebook. If you've signed up with Facebook, you may have already looked through some Pages to see how they function. Some Pages have very few fans, and others – such as Pages for some Hollywood stars, may number in the thousands. If you work your marketing correctly, you may end up at least with several hundred fans. In this article, Linda approaches some marketing techniques for Facebook Pages.