Brice Cheddarn Development

During the past few years, web enthusiasts have seen the rise in popularity of infographics.  

Infographics are representations of information, data or knowledge blended together with unique design to create awareness.  They are an artistic rendering of facts gathered from a poll or survey and conveyed by graphic elements, including charts, graphs and a wide variety of other methods. 

They illustrate information that normally hides in text form, and channel that info in a visually pleasing, instantly understandable manner, making it not only powerful but visually stimulating.  Infographics are universally understandable and provide content for people to easily share and link back to.

The infographic acts as a way to visually spread awareness through social networking sites, and will hardly need any pushing to get tweeted about or linked to if it is fun, interactive and not confusing.

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It's hard to believe that Twitter, one of the most popular social media sites thriving on the web, is already five years old.  Thinking of social media in dog years, Twitter would be around 35 years old which is actually close to the median age of the average tweeter.

The initital "tweet" was sent on March 21, 2006 by co-founder Jack Dorsey.  The company officially launched the website on July 15, 2006. 

Last month, people tweeted an average of 140 million tweets per day.  It took three years for Twitter to gain a billion tweets, but now almost 200 million users post that number every week.  As a result of it's increasing popularity, the company's valuation to approximately $3.7 billion.

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Recently, Facebook announced that the Like/Recommend functionality will replace the traditional share buttons that many website owners had incorporated into their websites.

Many people had already begun to switch out the Share button in favor of the Like button, despite the fact that the new "like" functionality didn't share as much information on a user's stream.  However, shortly after Facebook made their announcement, users started to notice that their "likes" were being featured in their stream just like the share functionality did.

For those who live in a cave, the Like/Recommend button lets a Facebook user share content with friends on the popular social networking site. When a user clicks the Like button on a website, that article appears in the user's friends' News Feed with a link back to the article.  

The change enhanced the visibility of people’s “likes” by adding thumbnails and meta data from Facebook’s Open Graph Protocol.  This means that when a visitor likes or recommends a page on the web using the button, the functionality sends the relevant meta data from that page back to the user's stream, complete with image and short description, for all of their friends to see rather than just a link with a status message.  With this change, Facebook is giving web developers, website owners and social media professionals more control over how their listings show up in streams.

The change also offered up a chance to enhance a piece of Mango Blog functionality.  

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Domain names act as great vehicles of advertising, promotion and brand extension for companies and individuals, but they can also generate revenue in a few ways.  Domains are good for more than just building websites on; they are also a great alternative investment strategy.    

Since domain investing is a somewhat unknown avenue of online business, it made since to dispel a few common myths about domain names.

Myth One: Social Media Profiles will Replace Domain Names
Myth Busted: Marketing and advertising firms across the globe might have some people believing that the popularity of social media will eventually lead to individuals and small businesses foregoing the creation of an actual website. This myth may be reality for a few small niche demographics around the web, but the benefits of a detailed and interactive website is far more valuable that some are led to belive.  

Purchasing a domain and developing a website offers a more flexible method of promotion than a social media profile.  They also offer a more reputable way to extend a brand name and usually don't come with an ever-changing User Agreement.  

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An article on msnbc.com recently declared, "The Soggies have finally won: Cap'n Crunch is quietly sailing into retirement."  The cause of this alleged retirement?  Apparently, its high sugar content.

With pressure from health activists affecting how PepsiCo and other food companies market their products, the thought was that Quaker Oats was forcing the esteemed Cap'n into retirement.

Not so fast, says the Cap'n himself via his new Facebook and Twitter (@realcapncrunch) accounts.

"Reports of Cap'n Crunch's demise are greatly exaggerated," Quaker said in a statement to Ad Age. "In fact, we just launched an official Facebook page for Cap'n Crunch. Now that our Cap'n Crunch brand is in the social-media space, our adult consumers can stay up to date on all things."

The message on the website reads, "I was out on the seas, but don't worry, I'm back and not going anywhere!"

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