You may have several followers on your Twitter account; still it would not be of much help if they are not relevant followers, whose clicks can help you reach the zenith! This is applicable for all other social networking sites where you are either thinking of launching or already have your own trade show.

There are those who wander all day looking for a sale, and there are those who eventually make a handful of sales. Products displayed attractively are likely to grab maximum public attention and if they meet all requirements of a consumer, chances are more for a sale.

As soon as you sign up for a Twitter account, the immediate thought that comes to your mind is, “what’s the next step?”

Many people will begin following as many people as they can, but here is a better way of acquiring followers – set up your profile page first and be ready for the first follower. For profile picture, you can either consider having your company logo or you can even put one of your professional headshots. Make sure to have a bio of not more than 160 characters and consider including keywords in them.

After you have optimized your profile, take some time out and quickly cover searches on http://search.twitter.com on the basis of your keywords. Search for terms that are related to your location or industry. Surf through the profiles of local media, local news sites, local radio or television and you will be able to participate in several discussions. Try to keep close tracks with these profiles, re-tweeting some of their posts that you find relevant to your industry or business.
You can also browse through different forums or websites relevant to your business and consider sharing some useful posts or articles. Rewriting the article title would help you a great deal and obviously don’t forget to credit the article source.
In order to get absolutely guaranteed followers, mention the original author’s or the site’s Twitter grip. You can also activate Google alerts as it is the best way to keep a check on the latest online happenings related to your keywords.

How to grab maximum eyeballs within the Twitter community?

What we define as a conversation is slackly stated as a casual exchange of thoughts and information. Twitter frequenters will usually revert to direct tweeting and questions with the help of the @reply style. You can use some relevant keywords in your tweets but don’t overstate them or else you will get the tag of a spammer. Try to keep a subtle profile when you are promoting your concern or campaign, and that includes your social media account too.

The # sign, commonly known as Hashtags, can be utilized in highlighting keywords or topics within your tweets, although Twitter is not in favor of endorsing the use of hashtags in between tweets, still they mention it as a way to categorize messages. The main reason of incorporating a hashtag within a tweet is to let other twitterers looking for similar hashtag find your tweet, and land up in your profile.

Within every Twitter profile, there lays an area from where you can get the latest happening trends within a specific geographical location. Set your attention here to get fresh news about what all Twitterers are up to?

Find social chats on Twitter, where discussions take place on different topics and while interacting, don’t forget to add those hashtags. This will help you gain double exposure adding more followers to your profile.

So, if you want to sustain in this fierce competitive market and gain maximum Twitter exposure, having relevant followers is more important than having ‘out of network’ followers. For this, you may have to invest a good amount of time behind social networking and soon you will get all that you desire.

Social networking is still grappling for a place in the web. With so many social networks fighting it out for user attention, it still remains to be seen who will win the largest share of users. Even the most elite of social networks are in this race, and struggling against the ever-shifting web landscape. The failure to come up with effective monetization strategies in the face of an elusive web audience casts serious doubts on which network will survive, or will die a premature death.

Facebook and Twitter – Now, and How?

The differences between Facebook and Twitter are many and a comparison is not easy to make. Twitter is simple and direct, like Google, while Facebook has a portal-like interface like Yahoo.

Anyone who wants to reconnect with friends and family, or find new friends, will find Facebook more appealing. A mash of features like image and video sharing, instant messaging or chat, emailing, posting content, etc, makes Facebook a familiar ground for web users. In that sense, Twitter is not exactly user-friendly first round up.

Facebook’s concept is easy to grasp for anyone who has previously used Orkut or MySpace. As a social networking portal, Facebook beckons visitors to communicate and stick around the network. Twitter encourages a more touch-and-go practice; update and jump off to other places at any given moment.

Facebook – Why We Love it?

Facebook is addictive for anyone with an insatiable appetite to socialize and stay connected with friends and acquaintances. Facebook is like a Saturday night cocktail party that just got transported online – friends, gossip, pictures, videos, and much more!

With emailing, sharing and chatting, all in one place, users feel little need to log in and out of Yahoo Messenger, GTalk, AIM, YouTube, Flickr, Hotmail, etc. Instead, with Facebook, users have alternatives to every single one of these applications under one roof. This explains Facebook’s explosive growth and a vault of more than 600 million users!

Twitter – Why We Love it?

Caught somewhere between blogging, emailing and instant messaging, Twitter has a couple of benefits, although its usefulness is not readily apparent. However, once you get the hang of it, Twitter can be just as addictive as Facebook.

Twitter gets your posts more immediate responses, and allows you to link out just anywhere. It works similar to a search engine, making it easy for you to find people and content. Also, as a brand awareness tool, Twitter is exceptionally good. It has a loyal following among the online marketers, bloggers, technically adept people, and basically anyone with a product or service to promote on the web.

You don’t share on Twitter, you just make statements and leave it at that, which seems to suit Twitter addicts just fine.

How People Communicate on Facebook and Twitter?

Let’s take the Saturday night cocktail party example. A relaxed evening with friends over lots of good food and beverages is bound to set the conversation rolling. Facebook’s style of communication is similar…intimate and open, just as people were ‘in their element’. It’s all about sharing experiences and making connections. Take yourself out of this personal environment, into a larger social event where you don’t know most people, and you’ll know how to communicate on Twitter. Conversations are measured and out to create an impression, precisely why Twitter is something that people aren’t very comfortable using.

In fact, most first-time users mistake it for just another social tool to communicate with friends. They tend to post useless things like ‘feeling so tired’, when in truth, Twitter’s podium demands a more formal style to address an audience. Twitter is like a micro-blog that promotes but does not connect outside of it.

Facebook or Twitter – Who’s the Best?

Different users cite different advantages and disadvantages of Facebook and Twitter. It all boils down to what you are trying to achieve from both or either of these social mediums. Both are communication tools that are rapidly evolving with social networking trends. What remains to be seen in future is which of these two thrive as the most profitable and sustainable business.

A few years back, Facebook came and swept the web in a whirlwind of networking. Then Twitter arrived, and things were never the same again. Web users have been warring since, and so are the two social networking stalwarts, on who’s better.
If you have used both Facebook and Twitter, you’ll agree that neither is better or worse than the other. They are two different social mediums with comparatively unique features. They are both here to stay; Facebook still retains a majority of its loyal subscribers, and Twitter is only too happy to accommodate newbies.
The inherent differences between Facebook and Twitter are in the nature of its users: friends (Facebook) vs. followers (Twitter) and the nature of use: like (Facebook) vs. tweet (Twitter). These two primarily determine the user’s activity on either social medium.

• Facebook is a network of friends that allows users to connect with their real world, core peer group on the web. You are likely to make virtual connections with people you don’t know in the real world, but your ‘inner circle’ of friends will always come first.
  Twitter on the other hand has people following you, mostly people you don’t know, with whom you have little chance of making any personal connection, or is least bit interested doing the same.
  As a social medium, Facebook is more personal and home-like; a virtual coffee shop where friends gather, share stories, experiences, pictures and chat. Twitter is more business like in comparison.
• You will make a lot of mutual connections on Facebook; friends of friends with whom you can share notes, comments and pictures. Twitter is more of a one-sided relationship. You may have several followers interested in what you have to say, but you don’t necessarily share the sentiment and follow them back.
  Facebook banks on obligation. Rejecting mutual friends is often uncomfortable. Twitter does not care because most followers are just random people on the web without a face, per say.
• When you Like something on Facebook, you really like it. You want to share it with your friends. Sharing on Facebook is a consequence of liking something, not a reason for liking content. In other words, you don’t like because you want to share content, but share because you have liked it.
  Contrarily, you Tweet because you want to share content with your followers. If your followers find your content useful, they will re-tweet to share it with their followers.
  Facebook is more natural social networking that happens because you naturally like to share things you like. Twitter is forced social networking because you want people to like what you share and spread the word.
  Do you see the difference? The motivation behind liking something on Facebook and tweeting on Twitter is completely different. Where you continue to share a personal connection with your friends, you maintain a formal relationship with your followers.
  Both should work for you, depending on what you intend to achieve from a Facebook and Twitter account. If you have a blog and can’t decide which social media will work best for you, try with both Like and Tweet buttons on your site. User response will decide.

In conclusion, I will quote a fellow Twitter user: “Facebook is for friends you grow up with. Twitter is for ‘friends’ you didn’t grow up with.” I think that pretty much sums up the difference between Facebook’s and Twitter’s social networking concepts.

The newly inducted interface of twitter looks more interesting and elegant and there is not a single shred of doubt about it. The reasons for introducing such drastic changes are quite obvious. Twitter is trying to earn some bucks by giving some spaces to advertisers and I have nothing against this. But the problem is that its a super cool and brand new web design interface giving twitter background designers a hard time. There is barely any space available to showoff your designing skills. Since the old twitter background is not going to work with this new interface, we have tried to give you all some cool tips that can make your life a bit easy. Check them out and tell us what you all think about it.

Have Your Layout Ready
The new twitter layout is distinctly different from its previous version. It is now using a fluid layout and that simply means that the width of the columns can get affected either by screen resolution or by browser window. Even it can determine how much of background image is going to get visible.

Here are some issues that you need to take care before you start designing a new background for your twitter account:

• The right sidebar is now semi-opaque and the opacity is about 75% and that simply conveys that you have to be a little particular while choosing the color or style of your background image since it can have direct impacts on the readability.
• The spacing has become a bit slender from what it was once before. Spacing to the left and right columns is fluid. Depending on the resolution and size of the browser window, spacing is likely to vary.
• The default width of the timeline column is 540 pixels. However, if you increase the resolution to 1130 pixels, the spacing gets fixed at 500 pixels. But if you are viewing the new twitter interface in smaller browser or smaller screen, the spacing can look as small as 380 pixels.

Try Built-in Twitter Theme Tool

Themeleon is doing a fairly a good job and it is offering an excellent opportunity to change your twitter theme. Either you can access this tool by visiting the designing section of twitter where you can find its link or you can visit the site directly.

You need to Login to your Twitter account for customizing your colors and backgrounds. The most interesting thing about this amazing tool is that until you hit the save button, the change will not take place. There are over thousands of themes and color schemes available and you can try them out without wasting much time. You can find some cool background images there but you can keep your faith on your existing background.

Choose The Palette
COLOURlovers is truly a great tool but there are some other cool color tools available that you can give a try.

Color Hunter: – This website contains some unique palettes based on some uploaded photographs. You can make a search though the palates and can upload photograph if you wish to find the perfect palette for your twitter account.

ColorCombos.com: – This website contains a wide range of user-generated color palettes and if you wish, you can try out your designing skills.

The probable transition of twitter from an utterly simple micro-blogging site (it was coined after Twitter) to a featured rich and flexible platform is something that we are all looking forward to. This can be a grand success or can be a complete devastation (but there are fewer chances as far as we believe) but one thing is damn sure that it has managed to arise the curiosity of the twitterholics who get insane even at the very mention of change. In the latest announcement, Twitter has dictated that it is going to bring an overhaul change in its website by integrating it with photos, videos and other media content in a bid to give its competitors mainly Google and Facebook a run for their money.

Upcoming Changes
If you are among those fortunate few who have managed to get a quick glimpse of its new design, you have certainly wonder what Twitter is up to. This is certainly not a redesign, as it will certainly undermine the intention of Twitter rather, it is complete overhaul that is going to the change the way we used top share information in 140 characters forever. So, bid a goodbye to these precious moment and lets face the truth.

Mini Profile
Twitter’s enduring love for small is showing no sign of ebbing anytime soon. With this revolutionary new interface, you would be able to take a quick look of some profiles, which was not feasible before. However, there are some old familiar features such as who followed you recently or whom you followed recently and of course, the trending topic is also there.

View photos, videos, and other media content
Those of you who were getting bored with texts and texts and loads of texts, here come the much-needed relief. This new interface is going to give you an exciting opportunity to share almost anything that you love to share with the world. Embedding photos is now east and there is option to upload videos directly in your twitter account. To make it a smooth affair, Twitter has gone one step ahead by tying up with Kiva, YouTube, DailyBooth, TwitVid, Twitgoo, TwitPic and other similar photo or video sharing websites.

Rediscover Twitters
In this new and exciting version, you will be able to get detail information about a twitter user without leaving your profile page. Whenever you click on to the tweet of someone, it will automatically open up a right panel where you can see additional information pertained to that subject or that particular author. You can check out the tweets of the same author, there is option named “Geo Tagged”, and by clicking on that, you can check out the location of the author.

There are so many changes but what about the 140 characters restrictions? Is Twitter turning a blind eye to the growing needs of making it somewhat flexible for the users? Of course, 140 characters limit it its trademark but it is changing itself and the impacts are quite palpable, as from now on, people will spend more time on exploring through Twitter rather than twitting. But as change is the only stable thing in the world, Twitter had almost no other option but to accept it. Now it is up to you. You may accept it or you can spurn it but this is going to be the Yahoo moment for majority of twitter users.

The queen of pop music is on the news again and this time for all the good reasons. However, reaching new height is not anything new to Pop diva Britney but still; it seems she is relishing this particular achievement. With a whopping 5 million followers, Britney has officially become the queen of twitter. So far this position was relished by Ashton Kutcher but Britney with her sheer glamor coupled with charismatic personality has dethroned him ultimately.

Though Britney is not a twitterholic by any yardstick and usually tweets sporadically, she has become the most followed person on Twitter. Her tweets are not witty to be honest and oftentimes, her twitter account is monitored by her manager Adam. But as you know, people loves to follow their idols no matter where they are and this is probably the reason behind the rise of Britney Spears.

An ebullient Britney Spears has thanked her fans for their constant supports and tweeted fervently after donning the crown of Twitter.

This is what Britney has to convey to her aficionados:

“WOW!!!!! #1 on Twitter! Thank you…”

The popularity of twitter is showing no sign of abetting. From celebrities of tinsel towns to veteran politicians, everyone seems to have a great time with Twitter. So, there is no reason why you should stop yourself from joining this latest bandwagon. Now, if you are conscious of your brand value, you should avoid using readymade backgrounds. The best thing that you can do is to have a custom background for your twitter account, as it will enable you to promote your brand image. Now, designing twitter background is not an easy task by any means. Check out the below mentioned areas if you want to avoid a fiasco at the end:

Check The Resolution: While designing a twitter background, you should not blatantly ignore the fact that different people use different resolutions in their PCs and therefore, your twitter background should be resolution independent. Now, if you do not have mastery over website design, you should take professional assistances of others.

Use of Images: – Do not overboard your twitter background with images only. As your twitter profile is likely to be visited by a large number of visitors, you need to use images sparingly and with utmost care. Texts have to be used judiciously and they should serve a useful purpose. Do not use any fancy fonts, and make sure that the text is not getting overshadowed by any other designing elements.

Shun Repetition: – Repetitive background is not something that you can boast of in your twitter profile. It looks lousy. In order to make it look stunningly beautiful, you should blend your creative inputs in it. Try to use images that can reflect what you want to convey through your twitter account. It should look aesthetically pleasing at any cost. Continue reading ‘Twitter Background Design Tips and How-To’ »