Along with success comes a responsibility to its users to provide an exciting and beneficial service that enables people to network with others efficiently. Today came the announcement by Principal User Experience Designer, Kevin Bury that LinkedIn is currently in the process of redesigning certain aspects of the website.

According to Kevin Bury there will be four main goals/areas of the redesign.

1. A global navigation bar at the top of the page that provides convenient access to all LinkedIn services.
2. Simplified local navigation within each of the LinkedIn areas (Profile, Contacts, Groups, etc.).
3. More room available for page content. Less scrolling.
4. A cleaner, less-cluttered look.

The most dramatic change is the doing away of the sidebar, with LinkedIn deciding that top navigation is the way to go. Why they feel it’s necessary to change is anyones guess!

There is also a slight change to the profile page, although not that dramatic (bar the already mentioned sidebar of course).

What do you think of the new designs?

Over the last 18 months there has been a huge influx of enterprises becoming actively involved online in an attempt to boost the performance of their organisation. Networking approaches can differ from person to person and from organisation to organisation, while naturally results can also vary.

One of the big reasons that some succeed while others fail is because of analytic analysis. Every business knows that for something to succeed you need to know how you are performing and how to better yourself, yet when it comes to social networking many never follow through with this vital requirement.

A major factor that contributes to the lack of social media analysis by organisations is a lack of understanding. People may understand how social media functions, yet not know how to analyse their performance on them. This can be attributed to a new and often complex analyses methodology when it comes to social media. Are you active on a lot of networks? How much exposure does social media bring to your business? How long do you spend online? These are all questions that organisations should be asking themselves if they are to successfully analyses their online efforts.

To help organisations monitor and analyses their social media campaigns Loopthing have launched a new application called OpenScore.

OpenScore is an application that will assist you in your web analytics by presenting you with a detailed breakdown of how your business brand is performing online.

The technology works by analyzing a number of factors and data from some of the most relevant social media sources across the web such as Facebook, Twitter, RSS, Google, Digg, StumpleUpon, Blogs, Media files (video, audio, imagery) to name but a few. Specifically factors such as activity rate/presence on Internet ; time; level of visibility to others; the amount of media files they upload; the amount of information they provide about themselves and the amount of people talking about them on the Internet are some of the most important factors analyzed. Each factor carries its own weight in order to provide a comprehensive analysis of online activity.

Not only will OpenScore show you how you have been doing on the social web, it will also suggest to you where you should be going. Customized advice and detailed statistics will be available to all members that avail of OpenScore that will point you in the direction of a successful marketing campaign online.

Social media analytics is an up-and-coming area within the social media world.  As consumers move online at an ever increasing pace, organisations need to join them if they are to succeed in an ever changing marketing place. Only by knowing where you’re currently placed can you know where you need to go.

Well here’s a list of some of the more common words that you’re going to come across on the new “Web 2.0″ internet.

API – An API (Application Programming interface) is an interface provided by developers/websites which allows others to tap into and interact with their services. If you’re not a developer then don’t worry about it!

App – An app (application or webapp) is a piece of software that adds functionality to a service. Apps are popular on social networking sites such as Bebo and Facebook while Apples App Store allows users to download apps to their iPhones.

Blog – A blog is basically a website! Blogs are usually personal websites where people express their views. Corporate blogs have become popular in recent times as organizations take to the web. People can view a blog and leave comments. If your blog is popular a lot of interaction will likely happen between people on your blog.

Blogesphere – The blogesphere is a term that refers to every blog on the internet as a whole.

Blogroll – A blogroll refers to the links that people put on their blogs, linking to other blogs.

DM – DM is a term coined by Twitter. It’s an abbreviation of the word ‘Direct Message”. If you want to send someone a private message then you send them a DM. E.g. DM @loopthing Looking forward to launching Loopthing.

Embed – When you take a video from a site such as YouTube and put it on your own website it’s called embedding.

Failwhale – When something goes wrong on Twitter users are greeted by an image of a great giant whale. Since its launch Twitter users have unfortunately being seeing all too many failures, hence the term Failwhale is used by users to refer to when things go wrong. The Failwhale has become somewhat part and part of Twitter.

Follower(s) – Another term born as a result of Twitter. When you want to link to someone on Twitter you are said to become one of their followers.

Hashtag – On Twitter specific topics can be identified using specific words that are preceded by the # symbol. You would use such a hashtag when engaging in a conversation with many people in order to allow everyone to follow the conversation.

Mashup – A mashup is basically the bringing together of a number of webpage or applications to form one.

Meme – A meme is a term used to refer to something that has gone ‘viral’ on the internet. It’s usually a catchphrase, topic or concept. A recent example of a meme is the Balloon Boy.

Microblogging – This is what Twitter is all about. Unlike blogs which can posts of limitless size, microblogs are limited to a specific amount of characters per post. Twitter is a microblog that allows 140 characters per post.

ReTweet (RT) – On Twitter you can take a ‘tweet’ that someone is after ‘tweeting’ and post it yourself. It is common courtesy to give acknowledgement to the original person that posted the message.  E.g. RT @DonaghMc Loopthing is a social network that allows business to grow their online presence.

There is no limit to the amount of ReTweets that can occur for the original post. In recent month, ‘Via’ has emerged as an alternative to the RT abbreviation.

SEO­ – I debated whether to include the next two, but here goes anyway. SEO is a term used mainly by web developers. It’s short for Search Engine optimization, which is the process of developing a website in a manner that search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing will like. The aim of SEO is to make a website rise in ranking on a ‘SERP’.

SERP – Refers to a Search Engine Results Page, which is the page you see in Google, Yahoo or Bing when you search for a specific keyword(s).

Social bookmarking – Social bookmarking sites allow you to save bookmarks online, rather than in your browser. You can also recommend bookmarks to others and social bookmarking icons are found on most ‘Web 2.0’ websites today. Digg, Del.icio.us and StumleUpon are examples.  

Tag – A tag is a word used to describe a blog post, profile, media file, etc. They help to create an association between certain items.

Tag Cloud – A tag cloud is a gathering of ‘Tags’ in one area. Usually tag clouds display tags in different sizes, with the tag that is most popular appearing the largest size and the least popular the smallest size.

Trackback – A trackback is feature found on blogs. When a ‘blogger’ writes a post they may choose to send a trackback to another website/blog that was used as inspiration or for research on the post. The person on the other website/blog will receive the trackback and then decide if they wish to make it public or not.

Trending – Trending refers to hashtags/topics on Twitter that are the most popular at a certain time. The top 10 trending (popular) topics appear at the bottom right of a person’s Twitter page.

Tweep(s) – A tweep is yet another Twitter word. It refers to a person with a mutual following.

Tweet – A tweet is a post/message on Twitter.

Twitterati – Refers to celebrities on Twitter.

Twitosphere – Is a word used to refer to people on Twitter. Similar to ‘Blogesphere’.

Viral – When an item such as a video, image, catchphrase, event, etc takes over the internet and becomes gigantically popular is it said to go viral!

Web 2.0 – Is a term that refers to the new wave of development on the internet. Web 2.0 sites are said to be more dynamic, organized and stylish compared to the old.

Webinar - A webinar is meeting or conference that takes place over the internet. It’s usually organized with plenty of notice and is usually a one-way interaction. Like real life, some are free while others may charge.

Widget – A widget is a piece of code that you can take from one website and display on your own. They can be personalized to your own liking to an extent. Widgets usually display some changing information of some sort. MyBlogLog’s Recent Readers widget is one of the most popular out there.

Wiki – A wiki is a website that uses wiki software, allowing the easy creation and editing of any number o web pages.

Wordpress – Wordpress is a popular blogging platform. It’s allows bloggers to establish a website quickly with relatively ease using a number of templates and widgets.  This blog is using wordpress!

There’s many more out there so feel free to contribute!

As you can imagine, panic ensued! All sorts of emergency services were mobilized, Denver airport was closed and even the army sent a UH-58 Kiowa helicopter and the mighty Black Hawk to assist! Live pictures were streamed across the American airwaves with most of the major networks following the story and the world was captivated.

With the instantaneous nature of Twitter millions jumped on the story with people expressing their shock while hoping for happy ending! Balloon Boy enveloped Twitter and much of the social web within an hour or so! And in what must be a Twitter first, the story was trending on Twitter under 8 separate tags such as Balloon Boy, #ballonboy and Colorado! Everywhere I went it was the same thing, the same story! It was quiet amazing to see.

After a 50 mile race through the skies the inevitable happened, Balloon Boy crashed. Tweet Tears were shed and shock set it! Was Balloon Boy dead? Injured? Traumatized? Well actually, none of the above! In fact Balloon Boy was actually never Balloon Boy at all! In fact he was actually at home, 50 miles away hiding his attic after receiving a scolding from his father! Mother f**cker!

The boy’s father, Richard Heene, said the family was tinkering with the balloon Thursday and that he scolded Falcon (Balloon Boy) for getting inside a compartment on the craft. He said Falcon’s brother had seen him inside the compartment before it took off and that’s why they thought he was in there when it launched.

It didn’t take long for a tone of viral videos, jokes and even T-Shirts to hit the web. You can now buy your own Balloon Boy T-shirt on Zazzle if you’re interested! Of the lot, CollegeHumour have one of the best videos out there on 50 mile chase across the skies!

[collegehumor 1923183 425 380] httpv://www.collegehumor.com/video:1923183 -> [collegehumor 1923183]

Today rumours have started to circle the web that the whole thing was one big hoax! And there might be some truth to the rumours with an interview on CNN raising all sorts of questions. Asked why he didn’t respond to his family calling his name, Falcon says, “you guys [his parents] said we did this for the show.” His parents, seemingly stunned by the answer, quickly try to change the story. Watch it for yourself!

1. What social networks are most popular with my target audience?

There are many networks spread out across the internet. The people that are actually actively participating in the some networks can be based on a number of criteria such as age, interests, occupation and location. You need to find the social network(s) that are relevant to you.

2. Where should I have a presence?

Things change quickly and frequently in the online world. MySpace yesterday is Facebook today. How should I adapt to these changes?

3. How much time should I spend online?

Time, time, time! It’s something that people always want more of! The amount of time you need to spend online in order to see results depends on you. If you’re the type of person that can work quickly, communicate your message and network effectively then you may only need a small portion of time. It’s also true that different networks have different need! How long can you apportion on a daily basis to your networking needs?

4. What’s approach should I take?

You need to strike a balance between ‘your’ needs and the ‘community’ needs. A strategic approach that is completely self serving will bring you little or no return on social networks! Engage with your target audience!

5. What do I want in return?

Settings goals are a must if you are to achieve anything! A return on investment will only be achieved when know where you currently are and where you want to be!

Think about it!

Many people fail to stop and ask themselves these questions! Knowing the answers will give you valuable insight into any social media strategy.

The problem only seems to affect the actual “Home” page. All @ messages do arrive but the problem is also spreading to third party apps like TweetDeck! So the question remains, “what the hell is going on now?”

There’s nothing on the Twitter blog as yet to suggest what the answer is! Social media chaos predicted!

Update : An update from Twitter posted at 1:50 Eastern time said the company was “deploying fixes to solve the problem.” And as of now all is hunky doory again!