WSJ on Web 2.0 marketing

If you're venturing into social media, this article from the Wall Street Journal has a few good points to keep in mind.

Nielsen on Twitter

Usability guru Jakob Nielsen discusses Twitter in this week's BusinessWeek. Most interesting parts:

Do you think it's a good idea for CEOs to tweet to their customers?

Mostly no. Posting on the Web is the modern PR, and the CEO's job is to articulate the company's vision and direction, which requires more than 140 characters. Being perceived as a wise guy or a shallow thinker is not going to do your stock price much good. We have just completed a usability study of investor relations info on corporate Web sites, and one of the big reasons individual investors turn to companies' Web sites is to find the CEO's vision and take on the company's and industry's direction.

Because users don't want to read very much online, this information should be addressed concisely, but not as concisely as in a tweet. Better to write something deeper (or post a video clip, since investors also want to assess the CEO's personality by watching him or her speak), and then announce that, with a link, from the company's general Twitter update, as opposed to in the CEO's personal tweet.

Do you think the growth of Twitter is a threat to individuals' ability to concentrate?

If you care about productivity, don't check your Twitter feed while you're trying to get work done. Disruptions are deadly for productivity because it takes several minutes to reorient the brain every time you go off track looking at something else. Stick to checking updates once per day—for example, during lunch. All the tweets will still be there.

Dos and don'ts of web design

Some good basic tips on Web design from The New York Times recently. My favorites:

- Don't get Flash drunk
- Don't eliminate all white space
- Don't make the user wait

NY Times: 10 ways to build traffic to your site

This article from today's New York Times has some good online marketing tips that small businesses can use. Like most top 10 type lists in this space, it does not do a good job of prioritizing the options -- and it includes some tactics that are too advanced or time-consuming for most small businesses. But if you've done all the basics and want more traffic, there are some good ideas in here.