Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Design Sample Can Give Several Chances for Trial with Little Expense

Being a website owner it is a common expectation that people will remember the website and can be beneficial after going through it. The website has to be effective for both the owner as well as the visitors. The huge traffic rate definitely helps the owner to earn a good amount of money and the richness of the content and the information within the website enhance the visitors' knowledge. Even a website can attract the visitors with its design and the enriched material. The entire concept of Web Development
Service is based on the tools called website. Such service is all about making the website more informative, more attractive and more users friendly. Such services think about the ranking of each and every website in the search engines. Website will be so attractive and informative that people can have the eagerness to visit again and again. Even they can book mark any specific website and can give the reference to the friends. The usability and accessibility are two foundations of a popular and successful website. Even a proper design is also important to attract the visitors. A nice design is the basic criteria of a good website.

Undoubtedly the online services
are completely based on eye-catching materials. It is very important to give a well design to the website to attract people at the very initial level. Making the website well design is the foundation and being the owner you need to think first and foremost about the design. Being the owner of the website you can choose to assign one designer for giving the website an ethnic and attractive look. In that case you need to spend a good amount over the design as you are engaging an expert for your purpose. You just require to give all the details and your thought and the designer will give the structure of your thought in your website.

Another way can save a little bit of amount as the owner of the website while construction. A number of websites are offering ready-made templates over the Internet. You just need to select and pay for the template that may be Flash templates. Well-known and expert designer creates such templates. The difference is you do not need to expense over an expert designer just for a creating a single design for your website. Even you can purchase the template and can start working on the site. Design Template can really minimize the time period of launching the website. Time saving is a benefit as you can leave behind numerous opponents at every moment.

While selecting the ready-made template you need to maintain some issue in your mind to get the best result. Uniqueness should be the main focus as far as the design of your website is concerned. It is not profitable and good idea to have a same design site juts like any of your opponents. It is very important to try something very interesting, unique and distinct design from others to compete for a long run in the world of web marketing
. You can have a trial through Design Mock up templates for your website. If you re not satisfied with the design you can change it again before launching the actual website. It is also very important to focus on the simplicity as this leads to a very user-friendly site. The visitors do not have much time to spend over the construction of your site. They will never give more time to understand the construction and the use rather they will prefer to move further for the material they are hunting.

Source: http://www.articlealley.com/article_1760644_4.html

Importance of Learning Management Systems Training Solutions programs

Training for business training
and elsewhere is a major issue today. Funding reductions in our schools combined with the substantial turn over in the office along with the need to tighten our belts and refine business processes are all waking folks up to the value or improved and quality training resources. It is proven that education in the workplace will improve efficiency and productivity and help your company or remain competitive in a global economy. These key factors are all opening the door for the Joomla Content Management System with Learning Management capabilities.

There are a lot of choices for Learning Management but a couple of top contenders in the open source world are Moodle as well as Joomla using the various third party learning management system lms extensions. There's even a "bridge" between the two solutions which enables you to utilize both Moodle and Joomla for the same member list. CNP Integrations is one of the early adopters for this connection on our http://www.givetoed.org project where we incorporated quite a few tools for K-12 school teachers, parents and community leaders to collaborate and participate in discussions about the future of education and related subjects.


There are a lot of tried and tested products used for traditional learning
establishments and larger organizations but these are often very expensive solutions to put into action. Until recently this has made them far out of reach for the small and mid size business or non-profit organization. What we are finding is that by using Joomla CMS (http://www.joomla.org) along with LMS capabilities or Moodle (http://www.moodle.org) or even combinations of each we are able to help deliver an affordable scale of functions and student tracking capability that puts the strength of Learning Management Systems at the disposal of small and mid-size companies and non-profit organizations. Not only is this technology platform much more affordable but all of the curriculum and training resources that we develop can be designed to be SCORM compliant and as a result may be integrated with just about any other SCORM compliant Learning Management System should your requirements ever outgrow the platform. However, because the systems continue to improve and scale with new features you may never need to look elsewhere.


If you are a small business training can help you deliver your products more consistently and position your company to be able to scale up or down to meet the needs in the marketplace and protect you from risk in employee turnover. If you are a School or educational institution it is important to segment your user types and track student progress. If you are launching complex business tools on the web you need to empower your users to get the most out of your technology investments. What this means is that utilizing the capabilities of Learning Management can offer benefits to businesses and organizations of many types and range in size. It also means that this may be a wise investment that can have short term and long term payoffs.

Since most of our team has backgrounds in education
and training there is a lot of passion in our company for incorporating professional development and training as part of the value in our service offerings. We will be dedicating the Month of September as "Training Month" at CNP and moving forward you will see a lot more from us in training and curriculum development for educational products and services. We hope the articles and information that we present will generate conversation and help us find creative ways to help you engage your customers and better train your workforce using many of the cost effective solutions that we support.

If you would like to have a demonstration or more information of any of the Joomla LMS solutions or training we can offer, feel free to contact us so we can help you assess if what we offer will fit your needs.

Source: http://www.articlealley.com/article_1748519_4.html

Web Design Ideas For The Business World

We now live in a web-based world, which has its pros and cons. The positive is that we are now more easily connected with the world than ever before. The negative is that unless a website offers something unique, it can easily be over-looked. To ensure any site maximizes exposure, some basic web design ideas will help keep individual sites in front of the masses.

It's important to try out different options to see which rises to the top. Ensuring one has a couple of design options available, even if it appears the first one is perfect, will prevent the likelihood that others will generate a similar design which would reduce traffic. Additionally, by practicing one can often come up with new ideas that can be merged with existing concepts.


Trends have a tendency to come and go very quickly especially when it comes to web design. The style and look selected for the individual website should speak not only to the product and services offered, but should also reflect the vision presented to the public. For instance, if one is contemporary or has a punk vibe, a clean look should be reflected in the website design for the first company, but this would be totally inappropriate for those targeting a younger generation. This can be achieved by accessing libraries which contain styles that can be drawn on to achieve the perfect look.

For many, when designing their site they have a tendency to be reluctant to move things around, change colors, or rotate objects. Often the most creative minds work best when they're turned loose. Reducing the desire to "be in control" all the time often serves designers well in that, eventually, they learn that whatever was done can be undone. Additionally, by accessing the deepest recesses of the mind, creativity is born.


It's important to remember that the eye is drawn to visuals first so including photos and designs that draw the viewer "in" increases traffic. For instance, the simple logo on a corporate site may not say "welcome" to those visiting. Utilizing visuals to keep viewers in the site until the eye reads the most important information, however, is easier than one might think. Even dotted lines and horizontal separators invite those visiting to stay and look around.

Any design must be clean. That means every pixel needs to be reviewed to ensure sharp images appropriately spaced text, content without errors, and the like. This is called "polishing the web design". Text should be spaced and of a size to be easily readable even for those who are viewing it with tired eyes and pages must be structured with unstructured elements thrown in to enhance interest. The web is the key to success in today's business world and to access it incorporating web design ideas that best reflect individual needs will ensure one's site is accessed again and again.

Source: http://www.articlealley.com/article_1748615_4.html

A Multimedia Design Degree

Multimedia design
is when we communicate a concept or information in an interactive way, such as through a website, CD-ROM or a kiosk. Multimedia can also be used in a non-interactive way for mediums like television. There are many different types of media and techniques that can be used in production, and as a multimedia professional you will need to know and understand how to use each of these techniques. You will need to know how to manipulate images and information from a variety of sources including audio, video, still images, animation, physical objects, text, soundtracks and digital data using computer applications and related visual and sound techniques.

An interactive multimedia designer will create work for kiosks, interactive CDs or DVDs, and websites. The overall design output can include things like audio, video, animation and photos, while projects for any type of website will include custom web design. What sets interactive designers apart from non-interactive is that there needs to be a graphical user interface that gives the user the choice of which content they want to access. It is your job to make sure all the media gets tied in together effectively, and to make sure the user is able to navigate through the application and find the information they need.


Non-interactive designers will create work for non-interactive applications such as television and the Internet. Movies, commercials, and websites using Flash intros are all good examples.

As a multimedia designer you will be expected to know how to use a variety of different programs such Adobe Premiere, Macromedia Director, Adobe Photoshop, and sometimes Microsoft PowerPoint for business presentations. On the Internet, it has become popular to use Macromedia Flash to present a multimedia experience in a quick downloading format.

There are a number of jobs available for the graduate of a multimedia program, such as scriptwriter for multimedia, web designer, multimedia producer, computer-based training designer, web script language developer, and more. The types of companies that hire multimedia professionals include corporations, organizations, educational institutions, government agencies, entertainment, and advertising industries. More industries are looking to hire multimedia professionals because multimedia software and hardware is falling in price, and multimedia communications using the web are becoming mainstream.


No matter what specific field you choose, multimedia professionals are expected to be incredibly accurate in their work, leaving little room for error. Being able to see the big picture when working on a project, and being able to get a feel for how a finished piece of work will appear and be used, it a huge asset to most companies. Multimedia professionals are creative and able to communicate with a team, expressing ideas both verbally and visually. Working in teams is not uncommon, but you should also be prepared to work on your own. The multimedia industry is based on deadlines, so you may be expected to work late hours or weekends to finish a project on time.

In order to demonstrate your knowledge and understanding of the Arts, you might also want to think about getting a degree in an art or graphic design program as well. As mentioned above, there are a number of programs that you will be expected to know. The more programs you know how to use, the more marketable you will be. If your focus is in graphic and web design, you should be able to custom design all of your websites. Using custom web design in your portfolio will also make your more marketable and impress potential employers.

Source: http://www.articlealley.com/article_1746794_4.html

4 Features of an Effective Business Website

4 Focuses
Business owners and web designers
alike undergo common pitfalls when designing a website, by ignoring one or more of the features that makes a website effective. Overall, there are 4 key qualities that will make or break your site. They must be used in congruence - focusing too much on one while slightly ignoring another can sabotage your website. These 4 focuses for an effective website are:

1. Business Objectives - Does it solve your business goals?
2. Usability - How easy is it for your customers to use? (Google and Craigslist are great examples of this)
3. Functionality of code - Does the code do what it is supposed to?
4. Design aesthetics - How does it look?
Let's take a further look into each of these elements.

1. Business Objectives

This is your priority above all others. A great-looking site that doesn't fit your business objectives is like creating a pretty magnet that doesn't attract metal.

You first must decide "what is the goal of my website?" Is it just to give your company a professional image on the web? Is it to provide a potential customer with enough information to want to contact you? Or is it to directly sell your products with a shopping cart? What is your marketing plan to get customers to your site? If it's SEO (like attracting customers from Google), then your site should be content-heavy. If it's referring them to your site from flyers and business cards, they already have interest and this is your opportunity to close the deal. Who is your target customer? What will they like about your business that they won't like about your competitor's? How will your site convey this? In your industry, what will they make their final decision to buy or contact you from - credibility? Product information? Ease of website use? Everything else will revolve around these business objectives.


2. Usability
Is your website easy for your target customer to use. Let me highlight this again - not easy for you to use, but easy for your target customer to use. If your customer is typically in a low-income level, they may use an outdated browser, a slower connection speed, and an older, smaller computer monitor, so large, flashy web pages with high-resolution images is a bad idea, no matter how nice it looks to you.

Make sure your website follows these general rules for usability:
Navigation bar is consolidated, easy to find, and easy to use
The most important content is visible without scrolling
Contact page link is easily visible from every page
Quick load time, meaning limited image file size and limited flash
Footer with contact information and navigation links
Important information stands out from the rest, either by size, color, placement, or other ways of emphasis
Text is scannable - Highlighted keywords, short paragraphs, bulleted lists, images in between text

3. Functionality of Code
Whether you're having the site coded from scratch or using code-generating software like Dreamweaver, it is critical to make sure the code correctly achieves what it's created for. This does not mean that it just shows the way you intend on your computer browser, but that it displays correctly across all internet browsers, the most popular being Internet Explorer 6, 7 and 8, Firefox, Safari, and Chrome. If you're hiring web designers, ensure that each aspect of the site displays and functions properly in each of these browsers, including the site's navigation, table rows and columns, flash, images, and forms. If you have executed everything else correctly, you may sacrifice it all and lose sales simply because an Order link or contact form function works incorrectly in one browser.

4. Design Aesthetics
Because of the amount of detail involved, we've dedicated another article to design aesthetics. Following these specific details will help you create a beautiful website. See the bottom of the article, in the signature box, for more details.

"Don't Judge a Book by its Cover" - A Message Ignored by Website Visitors
Your website visitors have no choice but to judge your business immediately by the look, usability and functionality of your website. Let's be honest - the average customer has little patience, energy and trust when purchasing a product or service from an unknown company, especially when they're comparing it to 5 other companies. What does this mean for your business and its website? You have little time and opportunity to impress them. Gain their trust with a professional, well-designed website, save them time with effective navigation and layout, and save them energy by providing them the exact content they need to make a decision to buy your product or service. Do this and meet all 4 focuses - design aesthetics, usability, functionality, and business objectives.

Source: http://www.articlealley.com/article_1746917_4.html

Monday, April 4, 2011

4 Ways to Improve Your Twitter Strategy

A few months ago my friend Dr. Ben Hanna led an extensive statistical study to discover the optimal tweeting strategy by running matched tests of tweets over a period of weeks. He uncovered some very interesting ideas that will help you get more out of every tweet!

Tweet quality versus tweet quantity – The study looked at the relevant importance of tweeting only when you had something really interesting to pass along (quality focus) versus a strategy of tweeting with frequency to make sure your content was always in front of your audience (quantity focus). The study showed tweet quality is MUCH more important than quantity.  Tweets that provided a higher average number of clicks per tweet with a track-able link correlated to higher follower growth.

I guess this finding verifies my hunch. People who tweet on a schedule just strike me as unapproachable and disconnected.  While the study definitely verified the “quality” strategy, you still have to be in the game – average tweets/day during their testing ranged from 2.9 to 11.0.

The first words are critical – At 140 characters, tweets are like headlines and people scan them quickly.  If you want to catch someone’s eye, think like an advertising copy writer and make sure that either the main topic keywords or a number/statistic are found in the first 3-5 words.

The results also recommended against using the standard retweet style (i.e. “RT @markwschaefer: …” to start the tweet), instead shift attribution to the end of the tweet (i.e. “… via @markwschaefer”) so people can concentrate on the first words.

Quality tweets live four days – If you measure the lifespan of a tweet by the number of days on which it receives at least one click, then tweets don’t live very long. On average, tweets with a clickable link received at least one click on four separate days with a range of one day (not a very popular tweet) to 23 days (very popular content).

Optimal time between tweets – In a study examining the number of clicks on business-related tweets, the optimal space between business tweets to attract the most clicks is either 31-60 minutes or 2-3 hours. Tightly packed tweets just don’t appear to attract as much attention as tweets with more space between them. The study really couldn’t explain the bi-modal distribution. The cause of the dip in click activity for tweets between 61 and 120 minutes is uncertain.

I found this research interesting and hope it will help you hit your tweet-spot on Twitter!  Any surprises?  What do you think makes a tweet work?

Source: http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2011/01/24/4-ways-to-improve-your-twitter-strategy
About the author:Executive Director Mark Schaefer has 28 years of global sales and marketing experience and advanced degrees in business and applied behavioral sciences.

Facebook Gives Businesses More Security for Their Apps

Earlier this week, Facebook launched some new security features for user accounts. Now, they've followed that up with new security feature for applications. 

"As companies building on Platform grow, they develop the need to give people different levels of access, depending on individuals' roles," says Facebook engineer Harshdeep Singh.

Apps now have roles for: administrator, developer, tester, and insights user. An administrator of course has complete access to everything. A developer can modify technical settings and access Insights, but they can't reset secret keys, delete apps, or add users. Testers can simply test the app in sandbox mode, but can't modify it. Insights users can access insights, but can't modify the app. 

To start, all users listed as developers will become administrators, and Facebook is encouraging them to update their settings.

Facebook App Roles
They've also added more ways to monitor and control application changes. "To help businesses track changes, administrators can now specify an email address to receive notifications when their application's settings are modified," says Singh. "We've also introduced an advanced security feature, which lets administrators require that changes are made from specific IP addresses."

As more and more businesses rely on Facebook applications (a number that is bound to increase significantly as Facebook Credits continue to pick up steam), it's going to be increasingly important that businesses have all the control possible for their applications, so these changes would appear to be much needed.

Source: http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2011/01/28/facebook-gives-businesses-more-security-for-their-apps

About the author:
Chris Crum has been a part of the WebProNews team and the iEntry Network of B2B Publications since 2003. Follow WebProNews on Facebook or Twitter. Twitter: @CCrum237

Now You Can Monetize Your Facebook Fans By Promoting Their Likes

Facebook has a new ad product that may be its most promising ad unit yet - the sponsored story. These ads are simply brand-related stories that users have already shared, but then paid for by the brand mentioned to appear in the ad space, as to attract more attention and engagement. 

Will you be promoting your fans' engagement with your brand? Let us know.

For example, if one of our Facebook fans likes an article that we posted or likes our Facebook page in general, we could pay Facebook to promote that, and that story from that fan would appear in the column to people who would have already seen it in the first place. 

"So, my friend Joe goes, and he checks into Starbucks," explains Phil, a Facebook engineer. "That will appear on my news feed, and I may or may not see it, and what we've seen is that a lot of impressions do get lost because there's so much content coming through. Starbucks can come in and say, 'I want to promote check-ins to our locations', so when I come to the site, I see a story that my friend checked into Starbucks. Now, I can click through. I can like the Starbucks page from that story, and when I like that page, it creates more organic content."

Sponsored Story for Starbucks on Facebook
"When we make decisions about the products we want to buy or places we want to go, we're basically looking for cues from our friends about what those things should be, and all us aren't out there trying to market ourselves or try to influence people to go somewhere or do something, but the reality is when we make a decision, we're looking for information, and we want that information to come from people we trust," says product manager Kent.

If you're worried about how Facebook is using your content, the company says it will never show it to somebody who's not your friend. The only people who will see it are the people who would've seen it in the first place via the newsfeed.
According to AdAge, there is no opting out of the feature (that could change if enough people complain about it). The publication also says, "The way that the product is today, a check-in post will show up in the ad feed exactly as the user wrote it. So if a user checks into Starbucks with a 'I hate this place, but it's the only coffee around' then that's exactly what the 'ad' turns out to  be." Advertisers can limit their sponsored stories to likes though, if they want.
According to recent estimates, Facebook took in about $1.86 billion in ad revenue in 2010. I expect that will increase significantly this year. 

These ads could prove to be extremely effective, as they're not really ads at all. They're real stories from friends - at least that's how they start out. Like Phil says, "It's your friend saying, 'Look, I did this, and I want to tell you about it.'" 

Ning, a Facebook engineer, says that in the pilot cases, sponsored stories increased brand lift and the likeliness to recommend the product to another friend. 

Source: http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2011/01/25/now-you-can-monetize-your-facebook-fans-by-promoting-their-likes
About the author:
Chris Crum has been a part of the WebProNews team and the iEntry Network of B2B Publications since 2003. Follow WebProNews on Facebook or Twitter. Twitter: @CCrum237

Establishing A Sustainable Social Media Marketing Strategy

For companies trying to make sense of social media and online marketing, it’s important to take a step back from all the “TwitFaceBlogTubeIn” mania for a second and look at the nature of how these things are going to work for the overall business.
There are many questions that need answers:  ”Should we develop a strategy first before engaging?”,  ”Should we experiment and develop a strategy as we go?”, “Will it ever be OK to ask customers if they want to buy directly within social channels or will we always have to tiptoe around the subject?”
Here are a few considerations to help answer those questions and establish the framework for a sustainable and successful social media marketing program.
Social Media Strategy: “An ounce of prevention is worth a pond of cure”.  Having some idea of what measurable goals and business outcomes you’re after is essential for planning resources and forecasting outcomes. This is true with any kind of marketing and is certainly the case with social media.
I polled a number of industry smarties on social media strategy vs. tactics and while there was some distance between the approach Guy Kawasaki preferred and that of people like Chris Brogan, the consensus was that developing an approach is essential for planning, implementation, accountability and measurement of success.
The formation of a social media strategy is a ripe opportunity for creativity and certainly shouldn’t get in the way of getting started. Gaining consensus about social strategy within a corporation could easily create a bottleneck.  A strategy that calls for experimentation with iterative improvement in the context of overall goals, approach, tactics, audience and an effort to measure success is more likely to be implemented and gain support.
Social Media Marketing Tactics: The best mix of tactics needs to tie into the plan for reaching business goals.  Whether it’s “Better engage with our customers” to “Filling the top of the sales funnel”, an understanding of audience preferences and behaviors will lead to the right tactical mix.
A lot of companies take the path of least resistance and go for what I like to call, “The Social 5-Pack” of: Facebook, Twitter, Blogging, YouTube and LinkedIn without thinking through tactics. For example, one common question often I hear is, “Is a LinkedIn group a better use of time and resources or a Facebook Fan Page?”
What the marketer might want to ask is, “Where do social networking vs. blogging vs. microcontent vs. media sharing fit in the context of our social media goals?”  Then do the research and implement a listening program to discover which social networks, media sharing sites or blogging communities the target audience is present and participating in. That homework will answer the question about Facebook vs. LinkedIn and any other social communities where customers spend time.
Social Media Process: “Companies who start with implementation are at risk”, is a great quote from Jeremiah Owyang in his recent post, “A Pragmatic Approach to Social Business“. There he lists a checklist of 8 steps that form a process for approaching social media.  Jumping into tactics can send a company in a very unproductive direction. Working through a strategy, tactics and developing processes leads to efficiencies, scalability and social engagement that is true to the business goals.
We’ve published a social media checklist that can serve as a prompt for companies to gather the information necessary to make smarter decisions about how their organizations can incorporate social media in their marketing and communications mix.
Process with social media marketing is important for a variety of reasons ranging from quality assurance to accountability. How can an organization scale its social media efforts without some kind of processes in place? Redundant processes can often be automated by software. Processes also outlive internal social media subject matter experts who move on to other opportunities.
From a personal process perspective, take a look at Tac Anderson’s daily routine as a social media strategist, which he calls a “workout”.  In addition to planned activities and tactics, there’s room for putting out fires or handing spontaneous situations. In the end, a routine or process helps keep social media marketing tactics on track over time.
Social Commerce: Social Media that Leads to Sales: Question - What’s the ROI of Social Media?  Answer – What’s the ROI of having a phone system in your office?  That phone systems facilitates communications for a wide variety of reasons that are important to the functioning of the business from product/service inquiries to hiring new employees to customer service.
Social media in a business sense, is technology that facilitates communications, sharing and connecting brands with customers.  For the most part, people buy from those they like and social media helps build, maintain and improve those relationships.
So how does social media influence or result in sales?  A helpful post on BarnRaisers summarizes several studies that show exactly that. Click on the link to see the post (How Social Media Drives Sales Relationships).  I’ll also summarize them here:
Facebook - “The top reasons people press the “Like” button on Facebook is to have a sales relationship with a brand - either to receive promotions & coupons (40%), get updates on upcoming sales (30%) and show their support for companies (39%).” – ExactTarget 2010.
Twitter - “For over 40% of the time people are on Twitter, we spend it learning about products and services, listening to what others have to say and giving opinions.  That explains why over 20% of the time we’re on Twitter, we’re ready and willing to buy directly off Twitter.” – Edison Research 2010.
Social Networks – “For every hour we spend on online, we spend the most amount of time on social networks, almost 15 minutes of every hour. Roughly half of the time (approx 6+ mins), we are seeking out products and services and looking to have a sales relationship with brands.” Nielsen 2010.
As more brands include commercial offers in the social experience they provide for customers, those customers will become increasingly comfortable with the notion of social commerce. At the same time, more social features are being added to ecommerce websites. In the way that blogs and Twitter accounts are expected features of brand websites, so will social commerce functionality.
Building a flexible strategy that considers business goals and the people to engage will help marketers identify the best mix of tactics for their social media marketing program. Developing processes from a corporate and an individual standpoint will help sustain, not stifle, social engagement activities in the long run.  Start by building community and relationships.  Listen, respond and create value. Monitor and analyze for opportunities to implement social commerce features, but don’t rush it.
How have you incorporated social media into your business processes? What are you doing to create more sustainable social participation within your organization?


Source: http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2011/01/26/lee-odden-social-media-marketing-strategy-to-commerce

About the author:Lee Odden is CEO of TopRank Online Marketing, a digital marketing and public relations firm in Minnesota that specializes in search, social and online PR consulting and training for companies worldwide.

New Twitter Feature Shows Mutual Connections for Users

Twitter has launched a new feature accessible at Twitter.com that shows connections you may have with other Twitter users. 

If you go to someone's Twitter profile, it will display a section in the right-hand pane (of the new Twitter design), just under the account info (tweets, following, followers, listed) that says "Connections", and displays people that are following that person and people that both you and that person mutually follow.

Twitter Connections Features Now at Twitter.com
It's a simple and subtle feature, but one that could help build relationships on Twitter. As others have pointed out, its' similar to what Facebook does when it displays mutual friends. 

The feature could actually help people use Twitter in a more social manner, as opposed to (or at least in addition to) as a news reader.

Hat tip to Carolyn Penner with Twitter Communications for pointing the feature out (as there has not been an official announcement).

Source: http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2011/01/26/new-twitter-feature-shows-mutual-connections-for-users

About the author:
Chris Crum has been a part of the WebProNews team and the iEntry Network of B2B Publications since 2003.