It’s time once again to break up the longer format content I’ve been writing with more bite-sized thoughts. Today, I thought I’d list some quick insights I’ve gleamed as a heavy contributor, participant and early adopter on the web daily for the last 12 years or so that continue to hold true:
1) People love controversy
2) The web doesn’t forget
3) The us-vs-them mentality is huge
4) Popularity begets popularity
5) The core users focus the head of attention on just a few things daily
6) The long tail of attention matters too and is up for grabs by anyone
7) People hate flash – especially influencers
8) Hilarious/unintended humor will be found, and magnified
9) Self-congratulatory, corporately refined text is boring, and ignored
10) Personal, emotive content wins
11) Chasing spikes in traffic is addictive, but unsustainable as a strategy and should be used sparingly
12) The web’s addicted minority crave and push change
13) The casual majority of users don’t notice the invisible hand guiding their browsing
14) Telling stories that are unique, novel or in some way remarkable can always cut through the clutter
15) What has been deleted, restricted or otherwise censored inevitably will make that content popular (Streisand effect)
16) We’re slowly building a semantic world
17) There is a growing business digital divide
18) Many internet marketing agencies and self-proclaimed experts are carpetbaggers
19) Inside jokes that get too popular are inevitably killed by mass media
20) Randomness is a factor
21) Creativity is also a factor
22) Content trumps design
23) A vast majority of web designers still can’t create Google-friendly sites
24) Knowing traditional graphic design doesn’t make you qualified to do web design
25) Search advertising is exceedingly effective if you know how to use it right and have a good product
26) Trust is non-transferrable
27) Persistence pays off
28) The rise and fall of social sites is natural, and happens quickly
29) 140 characters can change your life
30) Advertising is content
31) People love lists
32) You can’t fake authenticity
33) Many old school users are jaded
34) If you’re old school and can remain positive, spending time to teach those who are new is important
35) The most passionate professionals in every industry blog
36) Anyone can start a meme, in many cases completely by accident
37) You can’t erase the past, but you can embrace and learn from it
38) The web is a reflection of society
39) People with mobile devices are far more efficient at spreading news than traditional media
40) Don’t make the mistakes of the RIAA, their reputation has been perhaps forever ruined to an entire generation
41) We are editors for each other
42) Say hi to your favorite blogger or web influencer, they’ll respond to you personally
43) It’s always fashionable to reject what’s mainstream, whatever that may be at the moment
44) Groups form naturally
45) E-commerce requires patience and good leadership/strategy
46) No one is always right
47) Participation inequality holds true for web 2.0 as much as it holds true for web 1.0, and will into the future – it is a strong model of how society functions and actually has little to do with technology
48) The web changed the world at the macro level, far more than most consider – for business, society and how we live
49) Future generations will see our use of the internet as quaint and merely scratching the surface
50) Distributing news via print is a relic of a previous era
51) The web is great at ignoring you, if you’re boring
52) There are still newcomers, but eventually such a thing won’t exist
53) People fall in love through text
54) Quake clans were the big thing before World of Warcraft – games have encouraged the social grouping of people since communication was built into them
55) IRC and message boards predate web 2.0, social media has been around a while and it’s development is a fluid process – it is not new
56) You don’t need to spend insane amounts of money to develop a popular site, product or web destination, but you do have to have a strong strategy, purpose and goal
57) Programming is the new literacy
58) There’s huge value in acting as a content filter or aggregator
59) Anyone can be creative in using the web to successfully spread ideas, it is the great equalizer
60) Building microsites is a mistake
61) Be unique, useful and updated and you’ll win
62) Studying sociology is equally vital for success as understanding marketing
63) Never underestimate small and determined groups
64) We love things that are offbeat
65) The lede is equally important as the title, sometimes more important
66) Everyone wants to be part of the next hot trend
67) The conversation goes on with or without you, but that’s not a reason to feel overwhelmed
68) Personal branding changes everything
69) Text still reigns king
70) People will always take the path of least resistance
71) With design, less is more
72) Attempts to game the system will always be called out when they are discovered
73) Trying to hit control z in real life doesn’t work
74) When someone publishes something about you, it will potentially exist forever
75) Everyone has a startup idea, most without doing any research
76) Just because you build it, doesn’t mean they will come
77) Ignore people who think the world can’t or won’t change
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