Cocktail Hour: March 23, 2012

First, I’d like to give a very enthusiastic “Happy Birthday!” to Twitter, which celebrated the big 6 this week. Thanks, Twitter. We’ve been through so much together. Some of you probably came here from Twitter. Some of you might post this to Twitter (feel free!). Some of you might be busy following #Trayvon, #NFL, #MarchMadness or #HungerGames. Any way you look at it, Twitter has brought us all together to share, converse and retweet a particularly funny anecdote. Cheers!

Here are some great things from the Internet this week:

I Can’t Stop Reading This Analysis of Gawker’s Editorial Strategy (Nieman): What are you willing to do to get eyes on your content? For Gawker, it’s a process called “traffic whoring.” This very entertaining piece takes a look at achieving the balance between quality and quantity, and that maintaining substance is still important. But seriously, I can’t stop staring at that weird Chinese goat.

Advertising for Internet Explorer is Like Advertising for Tap Water (Buzzfeed): Some of you might be reading this on Internet Explorer. That’s...nice... In any case, Internet Explorer knows it’s the butt of many jokes about technology, speed, functionality, modern lifestyle and more, and decides to use it to its advantage. Is it successful? Is it “The Browser You LOVED to Hate” or do you still hate it anyways?

The 140 Best Twitter Feeds of 2012 (Time): Of course it’s a list of 140 users. We’re only three months into 2012, but these people are Tweeting every minute of it. Are any of your favorites included? Which are you now following after reading? My personal favorites include Sesame Street, Bill Simmons, Longreads and Fake AP Stylebook.

What CMOs Can Learn From Amazon Part II (ViralBlog): If you aren’t in love with Amazon, you’re seemingly in the minority. It’s easy, fast, well-stocked and personalized, even though you’re one of 281 million customers. This idea of putting the customer experience first is what makes people love and continue to use Amazon. How are you putting your customers first? (You can also read Part I here.)

5 Steps to Becoming More Interesting -- and a Better Leader (Smart Blogs): How many times have you heard “It’s just important to be you! There’s no other you!” You know you’re awesome. Share it with everyone else. Be humble, be up-to-date and be nice. Just keep doin’ the damn thing.

And for bonus design, check out Ad Age’s look at Newsweek’s Mad Men-inspired advertisements in preparation for Sunday’s premiere. There are no wild horses that could drag me away. (Wouldn’t THAT make an impressive Gawker post?)

What are you reading (or tweeting)?