FIVE FREE website apps Designers must check out...

1. Adobe Kuler is THE application for choosing color schemes. It helps you coordinate colors and play with various saturations, hues, and opacities of color. There are exisitng color schemes you can use or create your own. Another cool feature allows you to sync your Kuler account with your Adobe InDesign Suite (Illustrator, Dreamweaver, Flash, Photoshop). This comes in handy when you need color specifications on colors you created in Kuler or Adobe; and you can easily convert your Kuler schemes into Adobe swatches with one click. Imagine being able to insert your logo or any type of image into the Kuler app and have it define an entire color scheme around that object for you. If you like to play with color, you will love this app.

2. Smashing Magazine is one of THE top design resources on the web. If your not there yet, you are truly missing out. This website features design inspiration, templates, coding for AJAX, CSS, Javascript & more. It also boasts of FREE graphics, stock photos, and icons; and they really are absolutely FREE! For the Designer that seeks to sell their artwork, digital photography, and web templates, this is a great website to partner with. This site will also help you stay abreast of the latest global trends in Design.

3. W3Schools.com is a excellent source for the "Hello World" front end developer. This site is literally a school, you can actually learn a ton of code ranging from HTML & CSS, Browser Scripting, XML Languages, Server Scripting, Web Services and Multimedia. All for FREE! In addition to providing tutorials, you can get HTML character sets, examples of codes, and even obtain current monthly statistics related to browser and platform usage by internet users around the world.

4. DropBox.com saves the day! this site was actually nominated for being "The Best Internet Application of 2009". If you are a freelancer or contractor that means you probably work with more than one client at a time. The DropBox application is a real-time storage feature that connects to your main computer when prompted. The technology enables you to network and share files with colleagues and friends in remote locations, without you having to build data centers and/or establish shared networks. This proves efficient if your client prefers to have greater control of files and projects; you could easily provide them access to specific file folders on your computer in real-time. Also if you are ever away without your computer on hand and need to retrieve a file, here you go. DropBox is FREE to sign up and you also get 2GB of storage FREE as well.

5. Gliffy.com is an application that equates to VISIO. The website allows you to generate simple and complex diagrams. You can create flow charts and mock-ups of collateral, websites, posters, online banners, etc. It is very user-friendly and they have a wide assortment of iconic symbols you can use to create your project plan. Using simple mock-ups to communicate your thoughts serves as an effective way in managing any project whether it is designing processes, systems, or websites. This will empower your client to weigh in and give valuable feedback before time and money is spent in implementation. And did I mention it is FREE...

Personal Website & Portfolio: www.taraLbradley.com (still under construction)


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ANALYZE THIS....

By: Tara Bradley, MBA
Last week I blogged about gaining insights from your social networking http://taralbradley.blogspot.com/. As a follow-up, I did some research and outlined some FREE and easy analyzer tools that will quickly give you some consensus on how broad your network is and what is happening around the conversations. Check out the following analyzer tools.

Twitter Analyzer Tools
1. TwInfluence (http://www.twinfluence.com), marketers can track not only how many listeners they have (also called reach) but also how concentrated their audience is (centralization) , and the rate at which their campaign is growing (velocity).

2. Twitalyzer (http://www.twitalyzer.com) is another tool that enables users to measure important facets of social media, including their popularity (influence), signal-to-noise ratio (signal), and how many times they are being cited (clout).

3. A tool called TwitterFriends (http://www.twitter-friends.com) provides detailed insight on who is interacting with the brand on Twitter, who is responding, and the nature of the brand's tweets. The user simply logs in with a username and password, and TwitterFriends returns a significant amount of information and visualization tools that include everything from a map indicating where one's followers are to the average length of a given tweet. Don’t forget to havin a tracking tool (spreadsheet, database) to capture these folks for easy target marketing, promotion announcements, focus groups, etc. I touched on data organizing tips in a recent blog http://taralbradley.blogspot.com/.

4. Trendistic (http://www.trendistic.com) is a valuable tool that provides a visual interface to understand trends in Twitter. By entering a keyword, marketers can see how the keyword is being referenced in the space over time. Depending on the term and the amount of data available, it is possible to see up to 180 days' worth of information.

5. Another tool worth exploring is TweetEffect (http://www.tweeteffect.com) , which enables the user to find out how people are reacting to posts. After entering the user ID and clicking Search, the marketer is provided with a summary view of changes within the past, as well as the specific adds or losses based on specific tweets. It's an excellent way to see what is and isn't resonating with followers.

LinkedIn Analyzer Tool That Interfaces with Twitter
If you ever wonder what others are saying about you or your company, Company Buzz should be on your short list of web tools. It displays the Twitter activity associated with key terms or names that you provide. You are able to view tweets made by anyone that include the word(s) or name(s) that you have entered into the application. You are able to customize and modify your keywords to reflect your changing interests. Company Buzz works even if you do not have a Twitter account yourself!

What would you want to track using Company Buzz: Here is a list to get your thinking started:
- Your company name
- Your name
- Your boss’s name
- Your customer’s company name
- Your business partner’s name
- Your vendor’s name
- Your competition’s name
- Your supplier’s name
- Popular topics in your industry

Company Buzz can be found by clicking on the Applications section on the left of your LinkedIn homepage. Also the Trends graph will show how many times the term has been mentioned by day for the past week. Twitter is doing an awesome job with merging their application with other social network sites such as LinkedIn and Google Analytics. The merger eliminates time invested in your research. It also gives you the ability understand how well social networking impacts the visits and possibly sales conversions to your website. Source: http://www.fillthefunnel.com. Never underestimate the power of knowledge. Stay tuned! Great Resource for research trends: http://www.marketingpower.com.

Where to find me:

FaceBook: http://www.facebook.com/TaraLBradley

Twitter: @TaraLBradley

LinkedIn: http://www.LinkedIn.com/in/TaraLBradley

MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/TogetherWeWillRise

SOCIAL NETWORKING & EXTRAPOLATING USEFUL INSIGHTS
By: Tara L Bradley, MBA

What is all the rave about social networking? As a marketing professional I have witnessed a total transformation of resource allocation as it relates to the marketing mix. I see it really as an extension of traditional marketing but the real question is how do you gain insights from your audience in the social network environment? How do you transform those insights into profitable relationships? I think this is the biggest challenge that companies face with integrating these tools in the mix.

As marketers we are not only challenged with identifying a need for a service or product but also to communicate powerful reflections of the brand culture that will attract and influence purchase decisions. First, I will address the question of how to gain insights. There are several ways you have to think about researching social networks; it's similar in traditional research that you set systems and processes up to help you understand the overall importance of the conversation. The conversation should really be the core of what you are trying to understand about the Twitter followers, the FaceBook (FB) fans, the MySpace friends, etc. The substantial amount of information provided thru these conversations can ultimately be built into modeling the individuals. Once modeled, you can use the information for useful predictions, decision-making and innovation.

EXAMPLES of how I approach the systemic aspect of organizing the conversations so they don't just become sound-off boards:

1. ENGAGE: on Twitter for example, you should follow everyone who is following you. Communication is a two-way street. If they are following you and you are not following them, you've missed your opportunity to find out who they are, what is happening in their lives, issues of importance and most importantly any response they may or may not have to your tweets. For FB, take a look at your fans and befriend them or search for your brand name or product description in the FB search engine. Everyone who populates, attempt to befriend them as well. Obviously at one point in time they made an expression relating to your business interests. You can do the same in LinkedIn and MySpace.

2. ORGANIZE: group your individual connections. In Twitter, you can set-up group columns that consist of individuals who you group together based on your research needs or any preference you decide upon. FB and MySpace allows you to group your connections based on your preferences as well. These group preferences can be based on whether they are close friends, family, fans, women, men, celebrities, business contacts, specific common interests, etc. LinkedIn is a little different in a sense that they pre-determine the group type (i.e. -colleague, done business together, manager, etc.) at the time the connection is made and the application limits your ability to engage based on how the connection was established.

Well you may still be wondering in what other ways can you be organizing your connections beyond the given such as friends, family, fans, celebrities, etc.

SEGMENTING & GROUPING:
• One way to think about it is the level of connectivity of each individual connection. This will require a bit of easy research that entails gathering numerical data (yummy :). Mostly all of the popular and mostly used social networks provide details on the number of followers, friends and connections each individual in your network has. I have 149 friends on FB, 53 followers on Twitter, and 35 connections on LinkedIn. Look at the numbers, you can determine the level of connectivity by reviewing these numbers on individuals in your connection. You will easily be able to identify who in your network has the highest connectivity. Obviously, the higher the numbers the bigger the network is. A person with 500 friends on FB, 1200 followers on Twitter and 125 connections on LinkedIn has a broader network than I do. These numbers can make a huge difference when it comes to campaigning, advertising, and ROI.

• Other numbers you should be reviewing are the number of tweets or updates each individual has made in the past 6 months. These numbers can really be of importance when you think about viral marketing and who you should be focusing your advertising spend on. Focusing on individuals who engage more than others is very important. These are the individuals who most likely have more of an influence on their acquaintances. You can also gain an idea on the level of influence by reviewing how many people respond to their updates, tweets, and blogs. With high connectivity and influence, these connections can be very effective in helping you not only spread the word but be effective in persuading decisions as it relates to purchasing and advocacy.

• When you are reviewing conversations with your connections on a daily basis, make sure you capture and segment or group those individuals who respond directly to you, whether the response is negative or positive. By grouping individuals by their responses to your brand, product, cause, management, etc., you can began to build network models that could later be used to form focus groups. These online focus groups can assist in product launches and be creatively used to gain further insights using traditional marketing research methods that rely on quantitative measurements .

If you found these tidbits useful, next week I will continue to address this rising challenge in the new age of marketing. I love what I do and enjoy sharing my thought processes and opinions on competing in a business environment which is becoming flatter everyday. I blog often on marketing, travel, design, and various viewpoints on current hot topics. Stay posted on upcoming blogs and events. Website coming soon!


Where to find me:
FaceBook: http://www.facebook.com/TaraLBradley
Twitter: @TaraLBradley
LinkedIn: http://www.LinkedIn.com/in/TaraLBradley
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/TogetherWeWillRise

Another resource on social networking and data mining:
M. Richardson and P. Domingos: Mining Knowledge-Sharing Sites for Viral Marketing. In Proceeding of the Eigth ACM SIGKDD International Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining, pages 61-70, Edmonton, Canada, 2002. ACM Press
http://www.cs.washington.edu/homes/pedrod/papers/iis04.pdf