In the last few weeks Twitter has come out with their latest feature, Lists. The basic function of Lists is to allow users to group people into separate categories based on interests and location, or pretty much anything they can think of. The Lists can be comprised of anyone who is a Twitter user without a protected account. Once a List is created, other people can follow it.

I am still attempting to use Lists and have been monitoring other people’s use of them. One benefit I can see from the new function is that it makes it easier to follow those people you are most interested in. Once a user is following over 500 people, updates from those that are most important to you are easily lost in the stream. By creating a list, those updates and connections can be much easier to keep track of.

Tweetdeck has actually been using their own version of Lists for a while. Users could create their own categories, but can only include people they followed. Twitter takes that prerequisite out of the equation.

How can businesses us Twitter Lists?

Businesses can use Lists in order to organize their contacts and optimize the time they spend on Twitter. One of the arguments against using Twitter for business purposes is that it takes too much time. Lists allow you to organize that time so you can keep updated on the contacts that will deliver the most value.

For example, at CGI we would utilize the Lists by people’s interest in our services, Flash, PowerPoint, video, web. We could then answer people’s questions in those area’s more efficiently and hence decrease the amount of time we are looking around our account to answer specific questions.

Have you used Lists? Do you feel it is one way Twitter is setting themselves up in order to eventually earn revenue?

When thinking about SEO (Search Engine Optimization) there are an endless number of ways to improve your website for various search engines. But your main strategy should focus nailing down specific keywords and phrases that relate to your business (and website content) and mapping them to appropriate pages in your site – without this, SEO is pointless.

As you’ve probably heard “content is king”, and it’s true. More pages of content are going to be better than less. Websites that have only 8 pages of good content will usually have a tougher time getting traffic and better ranking than that of a website with 16. It makes sense – having more pages broadens the opportunity that searchers will find you based on a wider range of keyword possibilities. For example, let’s say you target 2 keywords per page. In this example, one website is targeting 16 keywords while the other is targeting 32. See how the numbers can quickly grow?

An important but overlooked area to take advantage of SEO is with website and webpage URLs. Have you ever seen a web page with an Http address such as yourwebsite.com/page/page.aspx?ID=4278asg while browsing? It’s entirely too common and those types of addresses are not search engine friendly (SEF). On top of that, you lose potential keyword targeting when all you have is a number or ID that doesn’t help to describe the page content in any way, shape or form. Now, if those website URLs were like yourwebsite.com/services/website-copywriting.aspx you’re now allowing search engines to rank you higher.

URL addresses are an excellent and important place to add your keywords for each page of your website. If a specific page is meant to target “social media consulting” you might have your address for that specific page as “yourwebsite.com/social-media/social-media-consulting.html” – search engines will read the keywords in that URL. As long as you use the same keyword in the page title, description, and a few times within the content, you’ll be setting yourself up for success rather than failure. Getting this part of the SEO equation right early on is certainly better than having to go back later and adjust it.

Take a look at your website URLs, evaluate each page and the targeted keywords, and determine if you need some adjusting.

Creativity-Online recently released The Discovery Channel as their choice for “Best Ad”. This winning commercial incorporates The Discovery Channel’s various shows into a single song with an addictive chorus — which by the way doesn’t really seem to mean anything. However, the success of the commercial lies within how they were able to connect many “favorites” into a single, cohesive piece all adding up to the final tag “The World is Just Awesome.”

Check it Out:

Global theme is something CGI has been increasingly seeing as a trend within our own client work. People today are working with more international companies and connecting with more cultures than ever before. Interactive now has to reflect this change through their design and development in order to convey our more connected world.

iPhone released their Sketches application this fall that allows users to “sketch” on their Apple devices. Apple advertises the application as a way to keep digital notes on your iPhone or iPod touch simply by drawing on the screen using your fingers. However, Sketches has quickly been picked up by artists and taken to the next level. Today in Art recently wrote a post featuring some of the extraordinary works of art that are being digitally created using the application.

Here were a few of my favorites:

iCoke

Jorge Colombo iPhone Drawings

Traveling Salesman

With art going increasingly digital, one has to ask how long real canvas will be the traditional medium? The works above simulate brushstrokes, and if I may say so, do a really good job of it. Do you think that digital art will soon take over traditional methods? Is that a good thing?