Measure your Social Network "Klout"

Klout identifies how influential you are at using social networking.

Try it out

Just put your twitter name in as I have shown on this image...

Learn about your reach

Get a deeper understanding

Have some fun with it  

Here I compare myself with a few friends...

@AdgeBarkus

 @LittleCrewApp

@labtweeter

@ageniuswithgems

@LUCID_twit

Karl has romped it in with extra badges!, good on ya Karl... but you still only have a score of 28, so close :-)

 The link is here for Klout

Matching your Social networking look and feel

I have just created matching themes for my personal blog and twitter page.  I think it goes a long way in personal branding online.  Do you have any examples that you can share?

My Theme;

Background colour #EFEFEF

Text: adgebarkus text is the same

Image: wave image on both but thet are actually two different versions of the Great Wave.

Twitter

Personal Blog 

The art of the error

Errors have and WILL always occur, its a fact of life so why not take the opportunity to own your own bad news and offer some guidance? Here are my tips on what you should and should not do with error pages.

Adrian's top 5 error tips

1. Always take the blame

Your error message should always put the blame squarely on your shoulders not the users. Its human instinct to feel like you have broken something and feel bad about it. Let them know its not their fault.

2. Be positive

Error messages written in a negative tone (or even neutral) can suggest that the user screwed up, or did not follow instructions.... BE POSITIVE.

3. Be casual and humours

Your writing should take a conversational tone and use some humer, self deprecation humor is best but if your uncomfortable about that then you dont like taking the blame do you?

4. What now?

Always tell the user whet they should do next. You can give them a link or a series of links, even a search box works well.

SiiAM Example

This is our latest error message for http://siiam.net which is a system that accountants use with their customers. We use humor in the image, take the blame with a positive tone and tell the user what to do next.

Grooveshark example

These guys have nailed it. They have all 4 things covered... and the bear is so cute and a bit of an icon. You can even buy the t-shirt. Now thats owning your bad news! Good on you @Laura from Grooveshark.

8 Bit example

Super simple and humor that makes light of the error. This is all great but no instructions on what to do next? Apart from that I love it's simplicity.

iStockPhoto Example

Covers off on everything but the humor, and not keen on making it the users responsibility to report the issue, we'll as a user I didnt know if I had to report anything or not? Not a good place for me to be as a user.

Conclusion

I hope this helps you in creating your own error pages and if they do see your error page, they can move forward calmly while you fix things in the background. Please share your error pages or others that you come across. Cheers, Adrain As a followup on this I came across this great fail page suggestion for twitter. image shown above.

Update on Wednesday, April 20, 2011 at 10:34AM by Adrian Barkus

Some other Inspirational 404 error pages

Identifying an opportunity for your "Online Product"

Many firms and organisations have very smart people working full time with the single role of finding new opportunities for the firm.  In a way they are constantly auditing the firms offering and looking for new ways to package and release them against their competition.

Also elsewhere in the firm there are people going about their normal daily business, also discovering new opportunities, a Partner learns of a customer moving into a new market, a marketing executive learns of a competitors initiative, a staff member learns of a new regulation that may restrict trade for certain customers.

Non-Corporate Approach

Most major strategic decisions are mandated from the top down in, this is traditional corporate process, similar to a military organisational structure.  However identifying the greatest opportunities for you next (or first) "Online Product" usually come from the bottom up.  Its the staff and customers who live with your firms daily processes that have the real insight into what will make a difference.

Your "Online Product" Charter

This is THE most important document you can have in your firms possession when it comes to the future of the firm.  It sets out a loose and quick way to filter the ideas that will come flooding in once you open the flood-gates to ideas.

Typically the upper management should work with someone like myself to provide guidance to the different business units, that pitches ideas against the firms overall strategy and acts like kind of mission statement for charting the unknown waters in the innovative world of "Online Products".

 

If you'd like more information on how to create an "Online Product" charter, drop me an email at adrian.barkus@drivenaction.com and I'd be glad to point you in the right direction.

Cheers,

Adrian

QR Code for a cause

If you are new to QR codes, take a photo of this image with you phone and you will be directed to a website.

The Kings of QR codes are our friends from SET Japan.  Please follow the links and don't forget to donate to the Help Japan Red Cross Appeal, you'll feel great for helping out.

Image from Mark at SET Japan. The masters of QR codes http://www.setqr.com