twitter

I spent many years in the automotive business, ok, I was a car salesman and yes I know you just rolled your eyes. The video below brought back memories of my car selling days. It also sums up a lot of what designers deal with today. One of my designers sent me this video this morning when we were discussing scope creep. Scope creep is… well, just watch the video below.

I decided this morning with it being #followfriday on Twitter I would go about it in a different way. I see a lot of people putting several names and then the hash tag #followfriday and I have done this myself. There is nothing wrong with doing #followfriday this way, nothing at all.

My idea today was to do my #followfriday tweets one person at a time. I thought about it and decided each person is special and they all mean different things to me. Each #followfriday person has touched or impacted my life in a special way. I figured I could at least take the time to mention each one personally and give the reason why I think others should follow them.

I have to say with my (what I would call short) time on Twitter this has to be the best #followfriday ever. Not because I got several mentions but because of the reactions I got from other people. I know… I could not see them smiling but I felt it and that’s like a drug, no it’s better than a drug.

Pastor Jimmy told a story last Sunday about how sometimes he says before service “Stand up and hug some people to the right of you and to the left of you.” A lady told him she really loved that because that was the only time during the week she ever got a hug… that touched my heart and made me think.

Connecting and touching others lives is what it’s all about, I know sometimes I get so wrapped up in trivial things I don’t stop to take the time to tell people how much I appreciate them. I am very grateful for kind words and smiles and I am very grateful for the folks on Twitter that follow me and put up with my silly hillbilly ways.

Twitter is one of the most powerful tools to hit the internet in years and it can be one of the best tools you can use for social networking. Like a lot of programs Twitter will let the average user go in and change the settings in order to make their Twitter profile look different.

You can change the colors of different elements of the page and you can select from several background images they offer. Twitter also allows you to upload your own background image and really make your profile custom.

Taking advantage of using a custom background in Twitter is crucial in my opinion; it will not only set you apart but will let you give more information about yourself. Custom backgrounds also let others know that you are serious and will help you build confidence in your would be followers.

There are a few things to keep in mind when setting up your custom background or having someone set it up for you. You are only allowed to upload a background image that is smaller than 800K for your twitter background but that is plenty big enough to do what you need to do.

You also want to make sure you have your background the right size so that your information will not be behind the center section of text where the tweets show up. If you stay with 1600 X 1300 pixels you should be pretty safe. You want to be careful to not get too much info too low on your background or it will be cut off on certain monitors like laptops.

I started off using the simple backgrounds that Twitter provides when you set up an account and had a few followers, after I added my custom background it gave my Twitter profile more personality and I did see an increase. I’m not saying a custom background will get you a ton of followers by itself, you still need to tweet valuable info but it will help for sure!

I’m through with being online
Just to waste my time
Spending all my money

Almost every dime
The nets not turned out
Quite the way I want it to be

(tell me what you want)

I want a big website
On top of the engines
And be considered a marketing ninja
And a spot in Entrepreneur mag
That’s just about me

(yeah, so what you need)

I’ll need a Twitter account and good laptop
And followers coming in like they’ll never stop
Gonna tweet on the beach
With my toes in the sand

(Been there done that)

I want to be more famous than MySpace Tom
Be ranked up high on Twitter Grader.com
Somewhere between CNN and
Shaq is fine by me

(So how you gonna do it?)

I’m gonna type and tweet till my fingers bleed
I’ll have all the followers that I’ll ever need

[CHORUS]
‘Cause we all just wanna be big Tweet Stars
Sportin’ nice profiles getting big PR
The tweets come easy from all my tweeps
We’ll all be tweetin’ cause we just can’t sleep
And we’ll all hang out on the coolest site
Tweet all day it’ll be alright
Every good tweet monger
Gonna wind up there
Come one come all
Cause we just don’t care
and well…

Hey hey I wanna be a Tweet Star
Hey hey I wanna be a Tweet Star

We have all see it, you follow someone and as soon as you do an auto generated direct message is sent to your inbox on Twitter from them. I personally don’t like canned auto direct messages but that’s my preference. You can debate if auto generated direct messages are good or bad and maybe they are a good thing if you are getting hundreds of new followers a day but I wanted to address another important part of direct messages.

I consider the first direct message sent to someone after they follow you the very most important message you can send, it’s almost like a first impression. These messages should not be focused on asking your new follower to do something (go to my blog, download my eBook, click on my affiliate link, etc), remember this person just followed you and you could leave a very bad taste in their mouth.

Your first message to your new follower should be about them and them only. You should thank them for following you and let them know you appreciate them. Ask not what your followers can do for you but what you can do for your followers! If you take the time to make a good introduction you will build a better relationship with that person.

We have plenty of time after we build a relationship with a person to send another direct message or @ reply tweet with a link to our blog, website, etc. After a relationship has been established and trust is built they will be more likely to click the link then, rather than having it shoved in their face the first time we make contact with them.

We must remember that the people following us are real people and they have real feelings and should be treated with respect. It has also been said if you help enough people get what they want then you will also get the things you want. I am a strong believer in paying things forward, how about you?