Keep Your Brand Safe

Get your Twitter name before someone else does!

Even if you do not plan on using twitter as a way to promote your business or brand – you need to secure your twitter ID so that someone else out their doesn’t snag it and ruin your brand reputation.

Think of it as a matter of “brand security”.  It is like abstinence before you are married – it keeps your reputation intact.

Things To Consider When Choosing Your Twitter User Name

1.  Your twitter user name is limited to 15 characters (no spaces).

2.  I recommend NOT using dashes or underscores.

3.  Secure your actual company name if possible.

For example, if your business is Starbucks then your Twitter user name should be Starbucks. If your actual company name is not available then think of appropriate variations.

4.  Secure all appropriate variations of your twitter user name.

Sometimes you need to redirect twitter traffic to your correct username.

Sometimes you will need to redirect twitter traffic to your correct user name.

For example, there is a twitter user named MACvPC (whom I love and recommend to everyone to follow), but to avoid confusion, misdirection, and to secure his twitter identity, MACvPC has also secured the twitter user name MACvsPC. When you go to MACvsPC there is a little message there that will redirect you to MACvPC. This is a smart and appropriate use of securing a twitter name variation  There are no other updates on the MACvsPC twitter page (see left), it merely serves as a digital sign post to point the potential follower to the correct twitter account.

5.  Determine if you will have (or need)  multiple active twitter accounts.

If you are going to have people or departments tweet for your business, determine the naming conventions you want to use now. For example, if you have 3 people tweeting their user names could be representative of the departments they are in: AcmeSales, AcmeService, AcmeTech or they could be more personal like LizatAcme, BobatAcme, and JoshatAcme.

6.  Use numbers in your twitter user name wisely.

Be careful when using numbers in your name. Bob1582 is not easy to remember, but 1Bob is a little easier. If you are Remember911 – that is an appropriate use of numbers in your twitter user name. I suggest trying other variations before you add a stream of numbers that doesn’t have relevant meaning to the masses, and is thereby not memorable.

How to set up multiple twitter account.

DurbinDigital pointed out to me that new twitter users may need assistance in know “how to” set up multiple twitter accounts.  Here is how you do it.

1. Log-on to Twitter.com (do not sign in with your current account, or sign out if you are signed in)
2. Sign up for a new twitter account.  (you must have a different email address than the one you are using for your primary twitter account)
3. Set up your new twitter account and profile.  Add a custom background, etc.  I suggest using the same settings as your primary twitter account.
4. Post your first and only Tweet.  This tweet should redirect the person to your primary twitter account.  See the MACvPC example above.  Your tweet could say something like, “You are in the wrong place!  Find me @yourtwittername “

How I followed these recommendations above.

My twitter user name and general on-line moniker, is CreativeWisdom – see how that is much easier to read than creativewisdom? I was unable to secure the name BlueleafCreative (too many characters), and Blueleaf was already taken. So I had to think and think hard. This was before the days of my blog, so I chose the twitter id Blueleaf-Gal. (I had already broken one of my guidelines above, but I was new and this was a long time ago, lol). When I started my blog Creative Wisdom, I decided that I would use the same name as my twitter user name. It was available. Excellent! So CreativeWisdom I am! I have since secured the following twitter user names to secure my twitter reputation: Creative_Wisdom, LeahDossey, and Leah_Dossey (see how you can’t see the underscores in my username becuase of the link?  This is why I recommend NOT using underscores in yout twitter user name) I only suggest securing your actual name if it is a part of your business and your brand.  Each of these twitter accounts is branded and collectively they serve as digital sign posts to redirect people to my active twitter account CreativeWisdom.

So secure your twitter user name (and relevant variations now). Don’t let someone else tweet out in “your” name and ruin your reputation!

Happy Tweeting!  If you found this article useful, please pass this information along to your friends, send a “Tweet Out”, Stumble or subscribe to our RSS Feed.

Go secure your twitter user name now. Yes, NOW.  What are you waiting for?

Connect on Facebook, Visit Blueleaf Creative on-line. Contact Leah at ldossey@blueleafcreative.com Follow Leah on Twitter, join the facebook group Creative Wisdom, or become a fan of Blueleaf Creative.

candid career advice for twenty-something divas

Nicole Crimaldi @ExecutiveVision on Twitter
(http://twitter.com/ExecutiveVision) has featured the Make Mine a
Million $ Race as well as Blueleaf Creative on her blog Career Girls.
You can read the article here:
http://careergirls.wordpress.com/2008/12/22/make-mine-a-million-business-race/

Career Girls is a great new blog that targets “twenty-something” women to help them become successful women with not only their careers, but all things important to that age group.  Nicole has some interesting posts – and I’m looking forward to see what her future posts offer.

Find people to follow on Twitter

So you are new to Twitter and you want to find people to follow.  Good people.  People relevant to your industry or markets that you find interesting.  How do you find them?

There are sites that offer tools to help you find people to follow – they are very useful tools in finding new people to follow.

Twellow is cool because you can search for people by catagory.  The services also tells you how many followers a person has.  This is important becuase if they have a lot of followers, then they should have interesting content.  I always check a persons Follwers/Follow ratio.  If they have a lot of followers but they don’t follow many people, then they are likely not going to follow you.  I look for a mutral follow relationship with most of my follows as I belive Twitter is all about creating new opprotunities for building relationships.  Expect to spend some time on Twellow as you will have to navigate from catagory to catagory to find the people that you find interesting.

Just Tweet It Just Tweet It is a directory.  If you want others to find you – sign up!  Then look for other people in the catagories that interest you.  Nice interface and easy to use.

Twubble Created by @crazybob Twubble suggests followers based on who your followers are following.  You can then see which of your followers is following any of the recommended Tweeters twubble suggests.

Finding great people to follow when you start can be difficult, these tools should help make your search easier!  You can always follow me on Twitter as well!

Written By Leah Dossey, owner, art director and designer at Blueleaf Creative.  Contact Leah at ldossey@blueleafcreative.com  Follow Leah on Twitter,  join the facbook group Creative Wisdom, or become a fan of Blueleaf Creative.

Use Twitter to Get Hits and How to Get People to Follow You

Twitter seems to be the new “buzz” word.  So I set up my account and stared at the screen.  Like many of you, I was like, “Really?  How can THIS help my business?”

Then my “Ah-ha” moment happened.

I noticed that Twitter is about sharing information.  All kinds (like what’s for lunch?) but that doesn’t get you new business. So what is the deal?  How does this Twitter thing work?  When I started my blog  I needed to drive up traffic. “Perhaps I could promote via Twitter?”, I thought.  I did – hits went up.  THEN I noticed that I was clicking on links that people posted that I found useful.  So I thought, “Hmmm, what could I post that people would find useful on Twitter?”  So I created a post to my blog called “How to create a twitter background”.  Suddenly my hits went up 10 times!

Bingo – but that was only half of it.  I didn’t have a large follow base.  I had offered some help to a Tweeter I was following Jim Connolly (he has around 7,500 followers) and BAM he put up a Tweet asking everyone to
follow me as a “thank you”!  Now I didn’t offer to help him because he had so many follower – I just offered to help because I wanted to.  Be sincere in your actions on Twitter.  After his tweet, my followers went from 39 to 149 in 24 hours.  Hits on the blog went up 10 times again!  I have gotten two new job requests for my effort in the last 48 hours.

What I have learned from all this – and why I wanted to share it with you-is that Twitter can increase the traffic to your website or blog.

You need 3 key elements to get a successful outcome from Twitter

1. Followers

2. Someone to give you a “Tweet-Out” that links to your website or blog.

3. A URL about your company, product, services, tutorial, guide, etc. That people can visit and learn more about YOU!

Despite the evening news there are still LOTS of good people out there and those good people would love to help you out.  So post relevant, interesting and human tweets and your follow base will increase, as your follow base increases hits to your blog or website should also increase if you tweet the links out to your group.  When someone helps you, help them in return by promoting them (so they get more followers) or hits.  How do you do that?  It is simple.  If someone posts a link you like, then “re-tweet” the link to your group.  Your twitter post might look like this:

How to give credit on Twitter

As you can see, The topic of the tweet is clear, the link to the article is next, and then I thank MillerMosaicLLC and problogger for sharing the information.  What this does is that it allows my followers the opportunity to view the post, but it also allows them to click on the two posters names and then they can follow them as well.  Good content, with proper credit will introduce your followers to new people that have relevant content (and the two people I thanked will be apt to do the same for me when I make relevant posts that they like).

If there is someone you REALLY like and they have lots of relevant information you think you group would enjoy, you can ask your group to follow that person and explain why.  Most of the time, but not always, they will return the act in kind either by promoting your tweets or suggesting to their group that they add you!

Suggest Tweeters with excellent content to your group

Twitter is called a Social Media tool for a reason.

Be kind to your followers.  It is all about interesting content.  Don’t just tweet one sales pitch after another to your group.  Get to know your followers, make connections with them, allow them to see you and your business as a real person.  Help other people out, share information that will let others know that you are an expert in your industry.  Your followers may not need your product or services, but they may refer to you someone who does. Be warm and friendly.  Be helpful.  Be interesting.  This is how you gain followers and how your followers will want to support you and your efforts.  It really is that simple.  By doing these things you can accomplish the three things that will help boost your business and make Twitter a tool for free advertising for your blog or website.  Pretty cool huh?  Tweet on!

Posted By Leah Dossey, owner, art director and designer at Blueleaf Creative.  Contact Leah at ldossey@blueleafcreative.com  Follow Leah on Twitter,  join the facbook group Creative Wisdom, or become a fan of Blueleaf Creative.

A good Twitter background can do a lot for you.  It can brand you, your company, your message or your cause.  It can give information to your visitors and encourage click-throughs to your website or blog.

Who has the most interesting, informative or creative Twitter background?  Nominate your friends (not your self – any side deals you make with people to nominate you in DM (direct messaging) is up to you. 

We want to be inspired by others and see their Creative Wisdom.  So post links to your favorite Twitter background pages below and share with us why you like them!  Share your suggestions on how they could be better.

Here are three I really like – the bug thing is just a coincidence. (two happen to be designers…hmm, do I just like designers or do they “get” the fact that visual communication is important and know how to execute it?)  The third is by Jim Connolly – I like this because it shows both his professional photo and his “everyday” photo – makes him more approachable.

Looking forward to seeing everyone’s creativity!

Follow Leah on Twitter, join the facebook group Creative Wisdom, or become a fan of Blueleaf Creative. Connect on Facebook, Visit Blueleaf Creative online. Contact Leah at ldossey@blueleafcreative.com

How to Create Twitter Background

You are on Twitter and you want a custom background.  Here is what you need to know.

You can create your own background in any application that will let you save the file as a .jpg, .gif or .png and allows you to create the graphics you desire.  I used Adobe Photoshop to create mine (take a peek to see what it looks like).

Here are some things you need to know before getting started:

• Your twitter background will force itself to the far left of the page.  Give your self some room from the left side.
• People have different size monitors, so it is best to keep the graphics on the left and a solid color on the right so that you know they are seeing what you want them to see.

Creating your background

Set Your File Dimensions (page size): 378 px x 583 px or 5.25 inches wide x 8 inches tall

Now Set A Logo Area: 80 px by 583 px or 1 inch x 1.25 inches (this is about how big you want it to be)

Left Margin: Remember to set everything over 3/4 of an inch from the left side.

Top Margin: 14 px or 1/8 inch from the top is where you are going to want to put your logo (this way it lines up with the Twitter logo).

Right Margin: 3/4 inch – 1 inch  from the right is where you are going to want to put your guides.  Place your information between the left and right margins.  This will give you a little “elbow room” as people expand and collapse their windows.  Thanks The Harriman Team for point this out.

Important Note:  Different monitor sizes, and different screen resolutions will cause variations on how your background appears.  The sizes above were created so to meet the needs of most people.

Final file size according to Twitter:  “Images must be smaller than 800k.”

Make it “Purdy”

Colors: Select colors that match your Twitter template colors. You can change the colors for Text, Name, Link, Sidebar fill and Sidebar border as needed in the dialog box on Twitter.
Recommendation: Choose colors that work with the template you have choosen and save yourself the headache of matching the links, etc. to your image.

How to Upload your Twitter background

1. Login and click ‘Settings’ >> click ‘Design’ >> Select ‘Use my custom style below’ radio button >> Upload your image

It took me quite a bit of time to get a background image that I was happy with. There was a lot of editing and uploading again, and again until it was just the way I wanted it. Have patience and you’ll be thrilled with the results. Remember that you are working within someone else’s website and can’t control all the features.

Keep these things in mind when creating your new background for Twitter.

Things to remember when creating a twitter background image

Good Luck!

If you found this article helpful, please Stumble or give a TWEET.  Your support is greatly appreciated.

If you have any questions or problems, please leave comments below, Tweet me or send me a direct message via Twitter.  I’m always here to help!

Happy Tweeting!

Connect on Facebook, Visit Blueleaf Creative online. Contact Leah at ldossey@blueleafcreative.com Follow Leah on Twitter, join the facebook group Creative Wisdom, or become a fan of Blueleaf Creative.