The whole team (except for Mike) had Facebook on the brain today, as we all (except for Mike) talked about various aspects of the social networking behemoth. So, without further ado, let’s take a look at all the interesting things (except for Mike) that we had to say!

Hello, Folks. I’m Drupal.

Mike Newswanger, Lead Programmer

If you’re looking for a pre-built, customizable solution to create a website, there are many options available, but there are a few that are extremely well known for their ease of deployment and flexibility. Drupal was the option I presented today.

Drupal, by itself, allows users to create dynamic pages, controlled by a back-end CMS system, in addition to basic forum functionality and user management out of the box. From there, you can add modules to customize your site as needed, such as Google Analytics for ease of tracking without having to mess around with the code on the site, more advanced user control and functionality, calendar and event schedules, and many more.

Because of the ease of deployment, overall functionality, and unintimidating back-end, Drupal is a very popular option for this scenario.

Facebook: The Narrowing Gulf Between Real and Digital Life

Jonathan Arndt, Programmer

Today, I talked with the group about a topic near and dear to all our hearts: Facebook privacy. Specifically, how measurably disconnected real life is from some people’s digital persona. The article I shared dealt with litigation involving interpersonal relationships, and how easy it is becoming for attorneys to find evidence online. The upshot is that what people gab about online is often in direct conflict with that they are claiming is true in real life.

Most of us here knew this already, but this article provides some numbers that helped us measure the extent in some circumstances.

Facebook: More Information Than You Require

Jeff Burkholder, Engineer/Analyst

Launching off of Jonathan’s chat, I came across some interesting (at least, to me) Facebook and social networking statistics this week.

First off, the Pew Internet and American Life Project has been putting together some fantastic numbers that look at the internet and daily life in the USA. Part of this study also looks at where the internet is going in the future, and this week’s information specifically looked at the Millennial generation (ages 18-29, aka Generation Y). According to a majority of respondents in this poll, within the next 10 years, Millennials will continue in their current trend of being ‘ambient broadcasters’ on the internet, disclosing “a great deal of personal information in order to stay connected and take advantage of social, economic, and political opportunities”. In other words, the connected will … get connectedier. Or something like that.

I also talked a little about a study done on young (18-34) women and Facebook. There are some really interesting tidbits in here, including the facts that, of respondents:

• 57% say they talk to people online more than face-to-face
• 34% check Facebook immediately upon waking up; even before going to the bathroom
• 79% are fine with kissing in photos
• 58% use Facebook to keep tabs on “frenemies”
• 89% say you should never put anything on Facebook that you don’t want your parents to see
• 42% think it’s okay to post photos of themselves intoxicated

While those last two stats may seem to contradict each other, I think it more likely that 47% of respondents had no idea what they were talking about.

That last stat was made up.

Facebook: The Many Ways of Saying Welcome

Astrid Salim, Creative Director

This week, I have been working on designing Facebook welcome pages. It is usually the landing page that you see when you view a company profile on Facebook (if you are not a “Fan” yet). Smashing Magazine has compiled a list of big brand Facebook pages. So today, I shared my thought to the team about what is working or not working on these pages.

I’ll start with what I like first. One thing that these big brand pages have in common is that they engage the user to interact with the product. For example, Red Bull let the users watch their Web TV live. 1-800-Flowers lets the users take a poll on their page, send virtual gifts, see their Tweets, and more. Porsche’s page won our hearts instantly because we can customize a Porsche on the page, then share it. By engaging your Facebook user, your brand is more likely to be memorable.

However, there also some pages that I am not a big fan of. Coca-Cola, for example, requires you to allow them to pull information from your profile before you can see the page. Well, that makes me leave the page immediately. Digital Turf and Daddy Design have multi-layer navigation menus. I found that those menus are a bit overboard and distracting.

In conclusion, don’t over-design and don’t require people to do an extra step to view your page. However, do make your page interactive.

Social Media Updates and Branding

Daniel Klotz, Social Media Strategist

Digg is making a bid to re-spark its relevance in the social sharing space with a complete interface rebuild. I’ve been checking it out as an alpha tester, and I gave the rest of a team a brief tour of the new features.

Facebook is ditching its direct sales of virtual goods as of August 1. The official reason for closing the Facebook Gift Store is so the team can “focus instead on improving other products,” but no one’s buying that as the real reason. Some speculate that Facebook believes it can make more money by directly selling only Facebook Credits, which can then be used as currency to purchase virtual goods from third-party vendors. That would remove Facebook from the day-to-day work of managing a virtual goods store and instead let the corporation sit back and make money from exchanging real-world currency into currency for the digital realm.

The Pew Internet and American Life project released data this week that shows minorities in the U.S. are heavier cell phone users–87% of minorities own a cell phone compared to 80% of whites, and 64% of African Americans use their cell phones to access the Internet compared to 59% of the general population.

Twitter was huge during the World Cup. Whereas there is generally 750 tweets per second, at the end of one game the rate hit an all-time high of 3,283.

In addition to sharing these news items, I also took the opportunity to run some ideas past the team regarding YDOP’s own brand identity.

This week saw the departure of Lead Programmer David DeCarmine. While we’re sad to see him go, we’re excited for him about the new opportunities and challenges he’ll face in his next job. Regrettably, this also means the end of our supply of homemade apple butter. We’ll just have to find some way to carry on. On the bright side, we’re very excited to add Mike Newswanger to the YDOP team and look forward to his Resource Friday contribution next week.

Logo Design Essentials

Astrid Salim, Creative Director

I found this article from when I was in college about developing a logo. I thought it would be interesting to share since we were talking a lot about branding and logo this week. So today, I talked about 7 criteria for a good logo.

1. A logo has to have distinctiveness. A distinctive logo will not create confusion for the audience.
2. A logo has to be memorable.
3. The logo has to have good visibility. It has to be readable in different situations.
4. Next is usability. A logo has to be able to be translated well on different applications, like business cards, billboards, websites, merchandise, etc.
5. A logo has to have universality. We need to keep in mind whether the logo is reflective of what the company does.
6. Six is durability. Do not design something that is limited to a specific use/function/time.
7. Last but not the least is timelessness. A logo that is not outdated does not need to be changed, therefore, will be more memorable to the audience.

So keep these criteria in mind when designing a logo.

Facebook Privacy Changes

Daniel Klotz, Social Media Strategist

I walked the rest of the YDOP team through the Facebook privacy changes that were made in recent weeks and that are soon to be rolled out. In my mind, there are three key implications for the businesses, schools, and organizations we serve.

1. The ability to click a single button and block all Facebook applications will pave the way for many skeptics of the social networking service to embrace it. I have friends who’ve been on Facebook since it was limited to college students who have lamented what they see as the demise of Facebook from a simple, elegant site (one that broke away from the clutter and chaos of MySpace) into a commercialized time-suck full of notifications about friends’ achievements in Mafia Wars and Farmville. They will love the ability to block every stinkin’ application and get the “purist” Facebook experience they want. At the same time, the ability to block all applications will appeal to individuals who have so far avoided Facebook completely. A Facebook without applications is much more safe, closer to LinkedIn than MySpace.

2. Two long-standing best practices on Facebook remain unchanged. First, never write or share something on Facebook that you don’t consider public. Nothing on Facebook is “private,” it’s simply “not yet public.” Second, divide your friends into lists, and use those lists to give sophistication to your privacy settings. For instance, I block any friends in my “Professional” list from seeing my religion and political views.

3. Counting on Facebook as the provider of information about your customers and fans is looking like an increasingly bad idea. Facebook is making it easier for its users to shut out businesses who use Facebook applications, Facebook Connect, and Facebook pages and groups to keep tabs on their customers and communicate directly with them.

Always Be Testing, Ch. 2

Jeff Burkholder, Engineer/Analyst

I continued my survey (aka “book report”) on Always Be Testing, about Google Website Optimizer (for more on this, see last week’s Resource Friday post). This week, I focused in on the idea that knowing what to test is more important than even being able to test. GWO assists in the testing process by serving up different versions of sections of pages (or even completely different pages altogether) to site visitors, then allowing you to find which method produces more site conversions. You could also see what garners more clicks, longer “linger” time on a page, or just measuring whether or not visitors do anything different, depending on what version of the page they are served. Best things to test are headlines, as that’s what most people are initially attracted to/repulsed by. However, you can also set up tests that involve different calls to action, fonts, product images or reviews, form fields, or even shopping carts. All-in-all, it seems a very powerful tool, despite its free price point.

Mobile Marketing

Jonathan Arndt, Programmer

Today, I talked about how CSC (Common Short Codes) and SMS (Short Messaging Service, aka “texting”) can be the most profitable part of an ad campaign. Mobile devices are present in 87% of U.S. Households, and 96% of mobile phones can send and receive SMS messages. Not only that, but the response and opt-in rate for SMS ads can be two to three times that of other means of communication, such as e-mail or direct mail.

Even senior marketers say that they feel that are not reaching their campaigns are not reaching their full potential. These same senior marketers say they do not feel they have good insights into consumer behavior. But companies are starting to run structured scenarios, and listening to the results. And these structured results can be quantified, and can help marketers get the results they are looking for.

“Remarkability”

Steve Wolgemuth, Principal

Naturally I was concerned when Daniel logged into Facebook and announced that he was going to talk about his privacy. What would I learn (that could be potentially visually traumatic), and how would I follow his ten minutes on our Resource Friday at YDOP? But it turned out relatively PG and a great lead in to my subject of “being a remarkable employee who helps in leading a remarkable company that has remarkable service offerings.” It’s remarkable that I finished up in eleven minutes (just one more minute than my alloted time-slot), and everyone remained awake (one of the few advantages of being company owner).

But seriously, I carefully hired each of the amazing individuals around the table because I believe in their ability to be remarkable and to take a leadership type role in helping YDOP to become a remarkable company. That’s not just some huddle, grunt and run to the field ploy. I mean it, and did my best to cite specific examples of how this could work. We’ve been told by more than one local business person and even by a highly qualified business consultant that we have a unique and (if I don’t mind saying so), remarkable service offering available to our clients. There really aren’t other companies offering the type of approach that we bring to the table; and when well suited companies/organizations learn of our offerings, they typically hire us. But the paint will quickly wash off of Seth Goden’s purple cow – and in our case, that could be in a fairly short time-frame (when other companies start using our unique approach and model our systems and offerings). The race to remain remarkable will only be won as YDOP’s incredible staff chooses the risky path of setting their sights (sites) on being remarkable!