We just launched a new website for Lipof Real Estate Services, Inc., a Newton, MA-based real estate appraisal firm.
The website was designed by Nick Riotto with CSS work by Alex Chan, PHP work by Will Blair, and Project Management by Peter Ross. The website has already been recognized on BestCSSVault.com.
Visit the new website: Lipof Real Estate Services, Inc.
In addition to being featured on Creattica, the new 829 Studios design has been featured on WeLoveCSS.net, Speckyboy Design Magazine, and BestCSSVault.com!
Our new 829 Studios website has been featured in Creattica's Best of CSS gallery! This marks the third website designed by 829 Studios to be featured in the gallery - Choice Camps and Wilderness House were both featured in the past.
Edison Research has just released a new study entitled "Twitter Usage in America: 2010" that reveals some key insights on the Twitter user base and how the site is affecting businesses.
Demographic Information
Social networking growth has been explosive - just 24% of Americans maintained social networking accounts in 2008 compared to 48% in 2010.
Approximately 33% of monthly Twitter users are between the ages of 25 and 34. People ages 35-44 make up 19%, ages 12-17 make up 18%, ages 45 to 54 make up 12%, ages 18-24 make up 11%, and 55+ make up 7%.
Twitter users are well-educated (30 percent attended a four-year college, compared to 19 percent of the general population) and relatively well-off (nearly half have a yearly household income above $50,000.)
Awareness Far Exceeds Usage
87% of Americans are aware of Twitter, but only 7% (approximately 17 million Americans) actually use it. This means that more than six times as many people maintain a Facebook profile than use Twitter.
Brands do Benefit from Twitter
Twitter users are three times more likely to follow brands on Twitter than on other services (about half of Twitter users follow at least one brand or company compared to just 16% on other social networks). Twitter users follow companies to receive updates and promotions, but also to provide opinions and feedback. 42% of Twitter users use the service to learn more about products and services, and 41% use it to broadcast reviews. It's important for brands and companies to monitor the sentiment of customer opinion on Twitter to gauge successes and potential issues that may be emerging.
The Majority of Twitter Users Don't Participate
The majority (53%) of Twitter users are considered to be "lurkers" who passively follow the updates of others while not actually contributing their own. However, more than 70% of Twitter users do post status updates to other social networking services (like Facebook and LinkedIn). This means that those users are not reluctant to post content, they're just not interested in doing it on Twitter.
Twitter is Fueled by Mobile Devices
One in five regular Twitter users updates the service via mobile phone several times per day, while one in three do so at least daily.
My takeaways from the study:
Twitter Has Not Established a Clear Value or Usage Benefit for Most Americans
Almost 50% of Americans age 12 and over maintain a profile on at least one social networking website (with the majority of people using Facebook), meaning social networking is now mainstream behavior in American society. While sites like Facebook and LinkedIn have well-defined use cases and benefits, Twitter has yet to establish a clear value proposition for users.
As Facebook encroaches more on Twitter's 'real-time feed' territory, it's going to be increasingly difficult for the service to compete. I believe that ultimately Twitter is a bit too one-dimensional to continue thriving with its current features and functionality. Either the service will need to adapt a series of valuable features, or it will ultimately lose out to Facebook.
Still, if used effectively, Twitter is not without its advantages in the short-term. It's a good platform for brands and companies to broadcast news, interesting articles, promotions, and events. There are a few success stories (such as Best Buy's @twhelpforce and Dell's @dellOutlet), but ultimately ROI is tough to justify if too much time is spent on the service.
Finally, Twitter is a good way for brands and companies to measure sentiment and awareness. There are a variety of tracking tools available on the web, and quality consulting firms can help companies identify highly effective ways to use the service. Ultimately, though, Twitter should be used as a small component of a larger marketing campaign, and not a lone source of advertising.
You can follow 829 Studios on Twitter at @829Studios.
When we're discussing new projects with potential clients, they're often curious about how we manage our projects and track time. After experimenting with numerous management tools over the past few years (including the ubiquitous Basecamp), we have found Intervals to be the most complete project management tool for consulting, development, and design firms like ours.
The best part about Intervals is that it allows everyone to participate in the development process. Our project managers are able to add tasks, assign them to the appropriate person, and track their time down to the second. Likewise, our clients are able to sign in and keep track of the progress we've made on their project and how their budget is being allocated. The solution provides complete transparency throughout the development process, and our clients greatly appreciate that. And, the interface is highly intuitive, leaving no need for training or explanation to our clients.
Intervals' numerous visual reporting features allow us to understand where the most hours are being spent (whether they're in consulting, programming, design, or social media) with each client, how efficient our employees are, and where our clients could streamline their requests. Reports can be exported into PDF or Excel, and often provide valuable insights when reviewing budgets and project status. The program also allows us to export detailed time sheets, making invoicing and paying contractors an absolute breeze.
I could literally go on for pages about all the features and benefits of Intervals and how it's helped us streamline the development process for the dozens of projects we work on each year. Their customer support is responsive, friendly, and committed to building and refining the product. And, at $20/month, the price is an absolute steal for all that they offer.
We have been using Intervals for just over a year now, and there's simply no comparison to anything else out there on the web.