'Net Features : development

Responsive Design Gets Simplified

Michael Garrity — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 19:45:00 GMT

As a Valentine’s Day present of sorts, Adobe announced the release of a handful of new Web design and development tools for its Creative Cloud suite earlier today. This includes updates to the Adobe Edge Animate and Dreamweaver programs, but the real star of the show is the Adobe Edge Reflow responsive design tool.

Edge Reflow will allow users to create “high fidelity” CSS3 website designs that can realize and resize for the design surface that the user is visiting the site from, while allowing creators to select from a desktop or mobile-first design approach and to preview their work (in its various sizes) from within a browser.

Needless to say, this is going to be a handy tool for many Web designers and developers out there, as it makes it significantly easier to create a robust, feature-rich mobile-responsive website; and really, isn’t that the ultimate goal of most Web professionals these days? Of course it is, and that is why solutions like Adobe Edge Reflow are not only going to become more commonplace, but they’ll likely become something of a necessity for the designers and developers of the future.

Responsive Design: Then & Now

Traditionally, the bulk of the work of responsive design has been laid at the desk of a content management system (CMS), which most websites utilize in one form or another through a platform like WordPress or Drupal, or by using an internally developed system. Either way, the responsive design challenge has long been based upon the capabilities of a company’s CMS.

Building a responsive website starts by designing a liquid layout or set of fluid grids that expands with a page to fit the browser/screen from which the site is being accessed. But that isn’t the most important part, because next the developer has to include the CSS3 media queries that help websites to gather data about a sits visitor and use that info to conditionally apply CSS styles. These queries effectively control the site’s behavior and allow it to respond to the end user’s needs.

Until now, the challenge for responsive design has largely been trying to find a theme for a designer’s content management system that would be able to respond to a wide array of different screen sizes and device types, but thanks to new platforms, solutions and services (like Adobe Edge Reflow) that take automatically take care of the “responsive” aspect of website design, that is quickly changing.

No Longer Just a Special Consideration

If the release of Edge Reflow signifies anything, it’s that responsive design isn’t just a cool added bonus that only a select few websites have or need to worry about anymore. From now through the foreseeable future, mobile is going to be a major factor in company’s Web success, and responsive design is the simplest and most effective way to meet that problem head-on.

As a result, solutions that make it easy to not only create a website that is able to automatically respond to a user’s screen size or device, but also allows designers and developers to preview what their site will look like in a variety of different shapes and sizes as they’re designing it, will become some of the most useful tools available to them; so much so that we will likely begin to see a proliferation of similar services sooner, rather than later. We already are, to some extent.

Just yesterday, a new all-in-one CMS and marketing platform called Bislr was launched, born initially out of the desire to combine all of the different touch points for business owners, designers and marketers into a single, unified platform. With Bislr, companies can build their own “intelligent” websites from the ground up, using a simple drag-and-drop interface, that come equipped with built-in social media and marketing capabilities, including integration with CRM and marketing automation software. And on top of all that, the service creates sites that are immediately responsive “with no extra work.” Users can even adjust their interface’s size to see how the site will look when rendered on different devices, allowing them to make changes as necessary during the initial build.

Responding to Needs

As the need for responsive design increases exponentially, so will the need to simplify the process for designers and developers, as virtually every site they create will have to be able to operate across devices. Adobe Edge Reflow may be the first big-name solution to provide this kind of quick-and-easy functionality, but it certainly won’t be the last.

What is TypeScript?

Michael Garrity — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 12:46:00 GMT

Have you heard of TypScript, yet? That’s Microsoft’s new JavaScript-like programming language that the company just released a developer preview of a few weeks ago.

TypeScript is translated into good old JavaScript so that apps developed with the language can run in any type of browser, which naturally begs the question, “Why come up with TypeScript to begin with?”

See, while this new language has a similar syntax to JavaScript, it also offers a slew of additional features that you can’t get with JavaScript, including optional static typing, class declarations, a Visual Studio plugin and module support. According to Microsoft, this will make it easier to build larger, more complex applications without straying too wildly from the commonly used JavaScript path.

In fact, Microsoft has been looking forward with this new project, and apparently much of TypeScript is based on the next version of JavaScript that is currently being developed by the ECMA.

Also in an effort to be more forward-thinking, TypeScript is being developed to work with existing frameworks and libraries like Backbone.js, which intend to make it easier for people to create more large-scale applications suited to the Web today. Thus, any JavaScript code should be able to be pasted into TypeScript and work just fine.

TypeScript was developed by Microsoft’s Anders Hajlsberg, along with Steve Lucco and Luke Hoban. The language’s source code has been licensed under Apache 2.0 and now on Codeplex.

Scalable Java Development Comes to Open Source Community

Michael Garrity — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 09:50:00 GMT

The Web is an increasingly communal organism that provides a way for developers and creative professionals from all around the world to collaborate on projects that can, in some way, end up benefitting nearly everyone who uses the Internet.

Open source communities of developers help facilitate this kind of interaction, and as the technology evolves, this type of collaboration will become even more commonplace. This is likely why Azul Systems has announced that it was going to enhance its support of the Open Source community by making Zing JVM freely available to developers projects to use for development, qualification, and testing their projects.

Azul Systems is letting Open Source applications that support commodity x86 servers running Red Hat Enterprise Linux, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, CentOS, and/or Ubuntu Linux have full access to Zing, the company’s Java virtual machine, and all of its unique features and capabilities, including:

- Improved application responsiveness
- Reduced application latency
- Elimination of response time outliers
- Support for large, in-memory data processing
- Elastic scalability with memory heaps that grow or shrink to meet real-time demands
- Dramatically simplified application deployments
- Reduced customer total cost of ownership
- Accelerated time-to-market
- Improved production time visibility and runtime diagnostics

Zing JVM was built to give developers consistent Java performance and scalability, and putting it into the hands of Open Sources developers (for free, no less!) removes the bottlenecks often associated with Java runtime, while enabling application innovation in new markets, including in-memory computing and big data analysis.

Create an iOS-Ready Site with This New Tool

Michael Garrity — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 03:00:00 GMT

International domain name registrar and cloud hosting provider Gandi wants to help you be iOS-ready with its latest product, Gandi Basekit.

This new website creation tool was built for compatibility with Apple iOS devices, meaning iPhones and iPads. Customers create sites that will be easily, automatically viewable on these mobile devices; and, of course, they will be hosted by Gandi.

Oh, and it’s totally free.

Websites can be created using HTML5 and CSS style sheets, an important component in developing for iOS, which doesn’t support Flash. This does away with the need to set up Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) or Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) systems for similar functionality.

The tool comes with a variety of features and benefits for users. For instance, it was designed for ease-of-use, and offers preconfigured and customizable theme templates, so users can start building their websites in no time. That being said, it also comes with a powerful infrastructure for more advanced developers, providing tools that allow experts to directly edit their sites’ HTML and CSS codes using preset or user-supplied graphics and images.

And, one cannot forget the integrated social media tools (including link installation for the most widely used social media sites), e-commerce integration with a Google Checkout widget for payment functionality and intuitive content management that allows users to edit block text, add more blocks, reposition images and add a submit button or navigation menu using a simple drag-and-drop interface.

Basekit is the latest in Gandi’s portfolio of free tools. It is currently available for all of Gandi’s customers.

Facebook Announces Social App Center

Michael Garrity — Thu, 10 May 2012 23:00:00 GMT

Following in the footsteps of Apple, Google and many others, Facebook announced plans to unveil its own app store in the coming weeks.

This new offering will give developers a new avenue for promoting their work across multiple mobile platforms, while adding another place for users to discover new apps.

The thoughtfully named Facebook App Center will allow users to search for Facebook apps that run on the Web, as well as iOS and Android devices, provided the applications have some kind of tie into Facebook, which at the very least means using Facebook Login.

Apps will be searchable by category and ratings, with the most popular among them highlighted for convenience.

Facebook plans to set the App Center apart from its competitors by offering a social aspect to the discovery process. Instead of showing a single list of top apps that is identical for every user, each individual will see a list of recommended apps based on what their Facebook friends are using.

Developers can charge users for their apps, and anyone interested in building for the Facebook App Center can see the guidelines here.

Student Developers Try to Crack Joomla's Core

Michael Garrity — Thu, 10 May 2012 19:00:00 GMT

The widely used open-source content management system (CMS) Joomla will be participating in the Google Summer of Code program to allow students 18 and older to contribute to the company’s CMS core.

Google Summer of Code is an international program that gives students stipends (up to $5,000) to write code for open-source projects.

Eight different students will each be working on a separate project, and when they’re finished their work will be considered by Joomla for inclusion in its platform. Among the assignments are creating APIs for integrating Facebook and Google services onto a Joomla-powered website, MediaWiki APIs and multi-language options for Joomla installation.

Summer of Code ends on August 24, but the codes won’t be moved immediately into the Joomla CMS core; rather, they will continue to be developed, and may even be used by extension developers. Many of the projects involved in the program are focused on the Joomla platform, providing the infrastructure for the future development of the CMS and other applications that build upon it.

The Joomla platform generously allows developers to create multi-purpose and multi-device apps (including mobile and cloud computing applications) and enterprise systems that can be run independently of its core CMS offering.

Students working on Joomla projects span the globe, coming from Brazil, Sri Lanka, the United States, Romania and France.

Cloud Testing Just Got a Little More Exciting

Michael Garrity — Thu, 03 May 2012 06:00:00 GMT

While cloud testing may not be the most thrilling topic in the Web industry right now, there is no doubt that as the cloud continues to pervade the ‘Net landscape, it will take on a much loftier status.

So it’s a big deal that CloudTest, a solution from SOASTA, is going to be the first mobile and Web performance testing service in CloudForge, the new hybrid cloud development platform from CollabNet. Developers on the CloudForge development-platform-as-a-service (dPaaS) will now have access to CloudTest products and services to help evaluate their projects and deliver faster results.

SOASTA’s CloudTest provides fast, functional test automation and performance testing with critical integration, ultimately expediting the creation and time-to-results process for developers from the beginning of the project through its live production.

Existing integration with Continuous Integration servers, like Jenkins and Hudson, as well as monitoring technologies like New Relic, make it easy for developers to immediately start building new tests to assure the highest coverage and deepest performance diagnostics.

Thus, it is a perfect fit for CloudForge, the industry’s first enterprise-level dPaaS solution. CloudForge will give users codes for repository hosting, access to both hosted and third-party Agile tools and will help facilitate application deployment in public and private clouds. Ultimately, the hybrid technology enables developers to lever Agile processes, and provides enterprises with a centralized view of their company’s productivity, cost management and compliance.

CloudTest is already available for CollabNet users as a free download in the App Center.

10 API’s to Integrate within Your Next Website/Application

Pete Prestipino — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 22:31:00 GMT

To stand out with today’s more savvy and sophisticated user, you’ll need to push the boundaries and be disruptive when it comes to the experience you provide. Website Magazine pays close attention to news and events related to API’s and that’s as good a place as any to start. Below you’ll find a list of recently updated/released API’s that you may want to consider integration with your next website or application.

Advertising: Google’s Affiliate Network API enables publishers to look up advertisers and access order and lead transactions.

Answers: Ask500People’s API allows users to vote, create polls and retrive data from the Ask500People website.

Bookmarking: Gimme Bar’s API allows developers to access user collections, get user information, post and access collections.

Social: The Badgeville API allows developers to manage reward programs, access behavior information and manage user information.

Calendar: Online scheduling and appointment setting service MakePlans enables developers to access and integration the sites services into their sites/apps.

Education: The API from Blackboard Collaborate enables developers to integrate the services features into any learning management or content management system.

Tools: Yahoo's Content Analysis API enables users to perform content analysis on text or a URL. The API can extract terms from content and rank them based on their overall importance to content.

Invoicing: The FetchFlow API enables developers to access client information, create and manage invoices and retrieve estimate information.

Feed Search: An API from Q-Sensei offers a multi-dimension search and indexing technology to leverage both structured and unstructured data.

Database: Amazon’s DynamoDB (a NoSQL database) API enables developers to create, update and delete tables from a database.

Media Management: MetaCDN’s API supports user account management as well as functions including creating, retrieving, updating and deleting media elements.

Media Search: The Library of Congress provides access to an image collection that can be incorporated into other apps.

Cross-Team Collaboration for Design and Development

Pete Prestipino — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 20:45:00 GMT

Collaboration is a key element of successful design when working within a team. Fortunately, several powreful tools/platforms exist to facilitate much of the collaboration and they work wonders when it comes to documenting decisions, tracking progress and even providing a much needed spark of inspiration from time to time from others.

One of the best is Protoshare, a tool developed to combine collaboration with the real nuts and bolts side of website and Web app development - wireframing and prototyping. The latest release (Protoshare 6) is out today and the new version features a stronger collaboration engine with new workflows that aim to support team communication and better decision-making throughout the idea and project lifecycle.

New decision tracking features in ProtoShare 6 allow project team members to tag design elements, assign topic ownership, document decisions and track project status within a discussion thread. The tool's new interface enables users to filter and view the discussion threads that are most relevant and in its "Editor," where prototypes are created, users can now drag-and-drop images from their computer onto the canvas or into the page tree. This will be attractive to users as it carries the potential to help speed the building process.

"Collaborative prototyping enables UX, design, development and business teams to better focus on priorities and support the true purpose of prototyping: getting your work done,” said Andrew Mottaz, founder, president and CTO of Site9/ProtoShare. “Getting it done on time, on budget and with the fewest possible headaches requires clear communication and effective decision-making. We’ve designed ProtoShare 6 to support that process through the entire idea-to-design lifecycle."

Web Design & The Rule of Thirds

Pete Prestipino — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 19:30:00 GMT

Grid-based design provides designers a formal way to assess the communicative expression power of the UI thanks to the rule of thirds - a topic Website Magazine addresses in our July 2011 issue. But what is the rule of thirds and how can you use it to improve interaction on your own site?

Originally used in the visual arts field, the rule of thirds is adapted well to any design and any design format or device thanks to its simplicity. The rule of thirds identifies four focal points within compositions to where the human eye is naturally attracted. By aligning elements on dividing lines or placing elements at these focal points, a maximum amount of interest and energy can be directed to the most important elements of the page. While eye tracking and heat maps provide meaningful, empirical data on how the site was used in the past by users, applying the rule of thirds can be useful as the design takes shape to ensure you are meeting the underlying objectives initially set forth and within the boundaries of standard design practices.

To really understand how the rule of thirds can be used it is necessary to compare and review various websites to see what are they doing right and what are they doing wrong. WM reviewed homepages/index pages of three sites in the "Music/Entertainment" category including Rolling Stone, Spin Magazine and our very own WM Senior Editor Mike Phillips' Chicago Music Blog, Sound Citizen. We're looking beyond the homepage as well with an analysis of content pages on these websites and how the rule of thirds applies to their layout/structure.

Rules of Thirds on Homepages
When applying the rule of thirds to home or index pages, having site-wide objectives prioritized is of vital importance. In the case of the three sites reviewed, exposing content, profiling advertising, and encouraging "social" are the apparent core objectives of these sites when the rule of thirds is applied.

So how do the sites stack up? All things considered, pretty well. Some things that stand out at the outset are the predominance of advertising on Rolling Stone and Spin and how well they have done to balance advertising with featured editorial content. Sound Citizen's focal points mainly target content and community features. Sound Citizen is also the only one of the three sites to employ a two column layout as opposed to three column layouts used by the others. The use of a two-column layout has different restrictions than that of a three-column. Rolling Stone and Spin are able to feature more content over the fold than Sound Citizen without losing site of the primary ad's importance. Also, notice how much more linear (and in-line with grid based design) Rolling Stone and Spin are compared to Sound Citizen.

Rules of Third on Content Pages
When it comes to content pages, the rule of thirds once again proves useful. Keep in mind that the intersections of our "thirds" (represented by the blue dots) are not actually intended to be the the exclusive focus of our readers but also what is immediately around them.

So how do these pages stack up? Not very well, in our estimation. But there are some instances of abiding by the rule of thirds. Rolling Stone once again puts the ad in plain sight and Spin further exposes its most popular content to the lower right of the fourth focal point. Both, however, put the burden on the viewer to locate and consume the page's content. Unlike Rolling Stone and Spin, Sound Citizen maintains its structure well. The design supports the primary objectives of the site (content and community) and it is carried over from previous pages visited by the user, such as the homepage. However, based on our evaluation, there is a great deal of room for improvement on all three sites.

Rule of Thirds @ RollingStone.com

Homepage

Content Page

Rule of Thirds @ Spin.com

Home Page

Content Page

Rule of Thirds @ SoundCitizen.com

Home Page

Content Page

Get Big Returns with Abandoned Cart Email Remarketing

Mike Phillips — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 19:30:00 GMT

Too often, merchants forget that shopping cart abandonment is not the end of the line. In fact, it can be a very small stumbling block toward an increase in sales. That's what Dungarees has discovered.

In just 30 days, and using iGoDigital personalized product recommendation software, Dungarees realized a 490 percent increase in abandoned cart email revenue. Implementing this software within their existing email service provider (ESP) solution, Dungarees is able to send an email, triggered by an abandoned cart, that makes recommendations based on the abandoned item, while using that item in the subject line. Those emails had a 55 percent open rate, 17 percent conversion rate and the aforementioned 490 percent abandoned cart email revenue increase.

"In a content-driven world, the number of messages consumers receive on a daily basis continues to increase, making personalized marketing messages that much more important," said Eric Tobias, president, iGoDigital. "By injecting product recommendations into remarketing emails and mentioning the name of the abandoned item in the subject line, Dungarees has seen an improved customer shopping experience, ultimately generating more purchases and return visits to its website."

SeeWhy, another provider of remarketing solutions, recently concluded a study that found customers who abandon shopping carts spend 55 percent more than those who purchase straight-away. Why? There are many reasons, including that heavy online shoppers are accustomed to price comparison shopping before making a final purchase – hence the abandoned cart. Another factor is that some customers are using shopping carts as virtual lists, saving items for purchase later while they shop around. A remarketing email reminds them of that list, as seen in the Dungarees example of mentioning the original product in the email's subject line.

SeeWhy also found that timing is critical. In the first 24 hours following abandonment, 54 percent of returning customers who make a purchase will do so within the first few hours. After 48 hours, that number climbs to 64 percent and rises again, to 82 percent after seven days. In other words, more than half of customers will abandon the cart for good if not remarketed within 24 hours of the abandonment. SeeWhy outlines four key metrics when analyzing remarketing:

Recovery rate – percentage of visitors that abandon, are remarketed to then return to make the purchase.
Open rate – SeeWhy's analysis shows an average 46 percent open rate for remarketing emails, more than double most standard email marketing campaigns.
Clickthrough rate – the rate of those who click to the site from a remarketing email. SeeWhy shows 15 percent, more than triple standard email marketing campaigns.
Unsubscribe rate – the proportion of shopping cart abandoners who subsequently unsubscribe from future remarketing emails.

While the monetary returns are most impressive, developers should keep in mind that retargeting is not just limited to e-commerce.

When unsubscribing from Groupon email lists, you might see this page. It asks you to punish "Derrick", the person responsible for keeping Groupon subscribers active. Click the video and Derrick gets chastised, ending with a splash of hot coffee in the face, followed by a button to re-subscribe. Of course, Groupon is known for its edgy, witty atmosphere so this approach is not for every business. But it does highlight a unique approach to remarketing.

Email remarketing could be used to gather feedback. If a user unsubscribes, why not ask a couple of questions? Why did they unsubscribe? Were you sending too many emails? Are the products or content no longer relevant to their interests?

Another option might be to introduce a new product. Perhaps they have unsubscribed because of a relevancy issue – but do they know about your new product or service? That might be just what they were looking for. In the same vein, maybe you have another website that more closely matches the user's needs? Consider including a little information about that site, along with a link to a page describing the benefits and, of course, a subscription button.

By all accounts, remarketing with email is an opportunity available to just about every business using any sort of email marketing system and can be tailored to fit any unique business model. If the customer is all but lost, why not make an effort to get her back?

iRise Developer Network Unveiled

Design & Development Digest : feature — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 17:15:00 GMT

If there is one trend that will stand out for large enterprises in the coming year, it is that software development will be changed forever as tools that enable anyone to "visualize" applications come to market in a big way. Those companies...(read more)

10 Questions Before Starting a New Web Project

Mike Phillips — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 18:30:00 GMT

Developing a website takes time, money and resources. And in today's hyper-competitive landscape filled with new content and expanding Web capabilities, it's important that new projects are planned with scalability in mind.

Today, we feature a guest author in Patricia Mejia, VP of marketing, Siteworx (a Virginia-based interactive agency).

When it comes to your organization’s website, just how much up-front planning is necessary?

The short answer is: not as much as you might fear. At Siteworx, we’re fierce proponents—and in some ways pioneers—of the agile design philosophy, which allows websites to evolve organically over the course of their development.

But just because we advocate an iterative, flexible design methodology doesn’t mean you should dive in with your eyes closed. It’s essential for even the most agile organization to create a basic blueprint addressing a project’s core considerations.

So in the spirit of preparedness, we’ve put together a list of the top ten questions to ask and answer before breaking virtual ground.

1.     What’s driving the project?

Believe it or not, most major Web and mobile projects are driven by nothing more than a vague sense of inevitability—the “we just need an upgrade” syndrome. Maybe so, but you’ll also need clear business objectives to communicate to prospective vendors. Those drivers will help inform some critical decisions concerning your investment level and the long-term viability of your project.

2.     Who’s driving this project?

Every Web project needs ownership, and most contingents within your organization (e.g., Marketing, IT, Product Development) will have their own opinions on essential features and functionalities. So be judicious when assigning project ownership, and make sure your vendor knows the chain of authority.

3.     Which features are essential for the initial launch?

If your Web project is large or complex, don’t delay its launch while waiting for a finished product. Instead, you can greatly expedite the process with a phased launch schedule; just be sure your most important features are included in the first release.

4.     Have you documented your requirements?

You certainly don’t need to write a treatise, but by capturing your project’s fundamental business, user and marketing requirements, you’ll communicate a no-nonsense professionalism to prospective vendors. Even better, you’ll help foster transparency and alignment among scattered internal stakeholders.

5.     Which technologies are you considering?

Does your internal IT staff favor commercial products over open source? Are cloud-based/Software as a Service (SaaS) options viable, or do business requirements necessitate an on-premise implementation? Once you’ve determined the feasible options, allow the needs of your target audiences to dictate final technology selections.

6.     Who are the internal/external users?

Speaking of those target audiences, have they all been accurately accounted for? Make sure you’ve thoroughly analyzed the needs of every discrete end-user segment during the planning process. A common mistake amid large-scale Web projects is a failure to account for the needs and expectations of internal audiences—an error that practically guarantees long-term adoption hurdles.

7.     How many visitors/users/transactions are projected per month?

When it comes to site capacity, anticipation is the watchword. So try to be as open as possible with prospective vendors about your current traffic numbers, projections, and aspirations. The better your communication of these requirements, the more suitable your resulting infrastructure.

8.     What’s your mobile strategy?

With close to 40% of U.S. adults now accessing the Internet via mobile devices, your organization’s mobile Web presence may soon become the most crucial component of your entire Internet strategy. For maximum efficiency and continuity, consider developing your mobile site in conjunction with your fixed site. And think seriously about mobile applications for the iPhone, iPad, Android OS and other platforms/devices.

9.     What’s your content management strategy?

Most websites are only as valuable as the content they feature, and content is worthless if it can’t be easily updated, shared, and located. Today, enterprise search and Web Content Management (WCM) tools are more necessity than luxury. And just like most interactive features, they’re best integrated at the start of a Web project, and difficult to integrate after the fact.

10. What’s your budget?

Last but certainly not least, try to establish a budget for your prospective vendors. By sharing financial considerations up-front, you’ll spend more time evaluating realistic solutions and less time downscaling unsuitable proposals.

Appcelerator: Mobile Dev in Focus

Pete Prestipino — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 17:35:00 GMT

Appcelerator, a platform for developing native mobile, desktop, and iPad applications announced that it is now powering over 4,000 mobile applications in the iPhone and Android app stores.

That is pretty impressive by itself, but it gets better - four of the apps developed on Appcelerator’s Titanium platform have hit number one in their category and major brands like eBay, NBC, MTV, and Budweiser have developed multiple applications. Intrigued yet? Keep reading.

Big brands are seemingly and clearly quite attracted to Appcelerator (which may just motivate you to check it out, too): NBC released Jay Leno's Garage, MTV released an avatar-personalization app “Jersey Shore Yourself”, Budweiser released “Bud Light HFL” for the iPhone and Android platforms through its advertising agency Tribal DDB. The list goes on and on.

“Since the release of Appcelerator's all native platform in March, we have seen an exponential increase in the pace of application development," noted Jeff Haynie, CEO of Appcelerator. "Some developers are on their sixth app in just a few months, and several have seen their applications hit the top of the charts."

The attention paid to mobile is well warranted but is it the dominion of big brands with even bigger budgets? It certainly still requires development time, creative and marketing resources to develop a competitive application – something which many businesses may not have to spare.

Off-Site Development Tops Holiday Retail Objectives

Mike Phillips — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 21:30:00 GMT

Shop.org's annual eHoliday Study points to a growing trend among merchants this holiday season - off-site Web development. According to the study, retailers are taking social media seriously. They are developing their presence outside of their own websites to help attract consumers. Or - more to the point - to help consumers find their businesses.

Over 60 percent of retailers reported making enhancements to their Facebook presence this year, and over 58 percent have done the same for their Twitter profiles. In addition, more than 65 percent have updated their blogs and RSS feeds.

So what can you do enhance your off-site presence for consumers? Below are five places to develop your brand this holiday (and beyond) and a few pointers to get the most out of your efforts:

Discount sites: Consumers are quite adept at finding discounts online. One trend with staying power is coupon sites. RetailMeNot.com attracts more than 6 million visitors per month and that number will rise sharply over the next 45 days or so, just like it did in 2008. Consumers come here to find coupons to your products - give it to them. Other sites to consider are Groupon.com, FatWallet.com and CouponCabin.com.
Facebook and Twitter: Millions of Facebook users update their statuses with news or offerings from brands. But you can't just announce products on Facebook; you have to give people a reason to share. That means special offers and discounts. Also, make sure your Facebook presence is customized to your brand - with your logo and special sections of the page specific to your brand and industry. Don't limit yourself to your own page - there are plenty of special interest organizations and other "clubs" on Facebook where you can make your presence known. Want to make friends on Facebook? Try a paid ad - they are highly targeted. Search Facebook advertising coupon code and you can likely find a $100 or so voucher.

Twitter is an excellent place to connect with users who are accustomed to spreading messages. This is where you want to "tweet" a special promotion - as long as you can handle a possible influx of interest. One of the nice things about Twitter is the prolific use of small URLs. They are non-descript and people click them without too much thought. So, you can direct them to your Facebook Page, a product page on your website, a YouTube video ... just about anywhere. Like Facebook, make sure your Twitter ID is representative of your brand, your logo is consistent and identifiable and that your messages provide true value. Also, with the recent announcement of Twitter lists, your tweets can extend far, far beyond Twitter itself and onto blogs, websites and other social profiles and networks.
YouTube: Online video is appearing in search results more these days and easily shared through channels like Facebook, Twitter, e-mail and more. And the main stage is YouTube. Create videos for your products and services. They can be video instruction manuals, product feature explanations, or even ways to use your product that might not be immediately apparent to a consumer (how many packs of Mentos and liters of Diet Coke do you think were sold from that one YouTube video?) Make sure to optimize your videos with keywords in the title and links to your website or product page in the video description.
Q&A sites: The Internet provides one of the easiest places to research products or services. Take a hard look at your industry and your products and think about the questions consumers might have before purchasing. Check out Q&A sites like Yahoo! Answers and industry forums. Be sure to include your brand message (tactfully) in answers to your target audiences' questions. Also consider guest-blogging on an industry leader website - it positions you and your brand as a trusted authority figure.
Blogs: A blogger's lifeblood is his or her network. Catch the attention of just a few highly-regarded bloggers and your brand will end up on Facebook, Twitter, Digg, and possibly thousands of other blogs and websites. Identify top bloggers in your industry and send them some free products. Of course, you must follow-up relentlessly (preferably without badgering.)

Your website is the most important touch point for consumers this holiday season and every other season of the year. But more and more, consumers seek out and expect to find your brand at their convenience, wherever they might be spending time online. Be sure they can find you, that you deliver an experience worthy of their attention, and - more importantly - the attention of their friends.

Also read: Get Your Brand on Every Social Network with KnowEm.

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