Before you go changing anything around on your twitter profile to make it more professional you must decide what the purpose of the account is.

Is your purpose to connect with friends and family?
Is your purpose to share important updates to customers of your store or online business?
Is your purpose to attract potential clients and to give them an understanding of why they should choose your product or service?

If your purpose is only to connect with friends and family then you don’t really need to have a professional presence in my opinion.

But if your purpose is business related then the following steps will help you create a professional presence on twitter.

Sometimes people will have a personal and a business-related purpose for using twitter. In those cases I recommend having a personal twitter account and a separate business related account on twitter.

1. Get a custom background

To create a professional presence on twitter you want to have your own unique background. The default background is used by millions of people and you want to set yourself apart.

There are many websites that will help you create a customized background for your twitter account. And the best part is that most of them are free.

To create a custom background for my twitter account I used Twitbacks.com.

2. Use a picture of yourself

Twitter allows you to have a small avatar picture associated with your account and I recommend using a personal photograph for this.

It doesn’t have to be a professional headshot where your hair and makeup is perfect; it just needs to be a picture of you.

This allows your followers to connect your tweets and messages with a real person. This personal touch adds credence to what you say.

3. Your phone number

I like to post my phone number on my twitter account for all of my followers to see. When followers see a phone number listed with a twitter account it gives them confidence that if they had a problem or question there is someone they could call.

I know some of you will be uncomfortable doing this and it’s completely understandable.

But if you run a small business or work in any line of sales then you really need to have your phone number listed on your twitter account.

To my knowledge twitter does not allow you to actually list the phone number as part of your account. But you can have it be part of your background.

In the example below you can see my phone number is on the far left side:

4. List your email address

You will also want to list your e-mail address on your twitter account. Just as with phone numbers, you can’t actually list your e-mail on your account but you can include it as part of your background.

I know some of you will be concerned about posting your e-mail and receiving spam.

To deal with this I created a second e-mail address that I used specifically for my business. And this is the e-mail address that I post on my twitter account.

Luckily Gmail has a very good spam filter and so I actually get very few spam messages in my inbox each week.

5. Be professional in your tweets

People follow you for a reason. Whether it’s to hear about new products your store is offering or updates about the cause you represent, people are listening to what you say.

And the minute you deviate from that you will lose followers.

So before you post a tweet ask yourself, “Why are people following me? And is this new tweet something they want to hear about?”

If the answer is no or if you’re not sure then do not post the new tweet.

6. Tweet regularly but don’t overdo it

I will usually tweet something in the morning and then sometimes in the evening. 1 to 3 tweets today is optimal.

You want to your followers to see something from you each day but you don’t want to overdo it.
The last thing you want is for one of your followers to see that the last 20 tweets are all from you. When this happens to me I immediately unfollow the person.

7. Only follow people that you’re interested in

A popular way to get followers is to follow a whole bunch of people and hope that many of them follow you back. This results in you having 3,000 followers and you are following 3,000 people yourself.

When people see this it looks less professional. They know there is no way you can be listening to what all 3000 people are tweeting about.

On the other hand it is much more impressive if you follow just a few people and yet have hundreds of followers yourself. When people see this they are more likely to follow you in my opinion here.

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



7 Ways To Create A Professional Twitter Presence

Twitter profiles are a dime a dozen. Anyone can sign up and start tweeting. Because Twitter locks down a lot of the customization options, it’s a bit harder to stand out from the crowd. The default backgrounds you find in your settings tab are nice, but they’re default! Everyone has access to them. Why settle for the standard background when you can do so much more.

What I’ve done is create 7 free Twitter backgrounds (in .PSD format) that you’re free to download and customize to your liking. I’ve also created a short tutorial on how to add your own pictures, text and information. If you have any questions, be sure to send me a message @jasondrohn and I’ll be sure to get back to you ASAP.

Anyway, here are the downloads:

And the video tutorial:

What are your thoughts on Twitter backgrounds? Or better yet – what are your favorite ones? I’d love to hear.

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



7 Free Twitter Backgrounds to Download and Customize

Twitter can control your Mac. Today Danny Hinckley from Maciverse (follow him @dhinckley) explains how to do it.

One of the best things about Twitter is its adaptability to the tools we use in our everyday lives. In addition to its increased use with cell phones, Twitter is also very useful for performing tasks on your computer, especially when you’re away from it.

Now you can use Twitter to have your Mac send you important files, turn off your computer to keep your power bill low, send an email with the date of your Mother in Law’s birthday, and many other functions you perform when you do not have access to your Mac.

With some initial setup you can have your Mac ready to provide you with the information you need away from the computer and on the go.

Setup your Mac for Twitter Control

To be able to control your Mac with Twitter you’ll need to follow these steps:

1. Setup your twitter account with your cell phone details so that you can update your status on the go, or use Twitter applications like Twitterific on your iPhone.
2. Create preset tasks with Apple’s Automator application. This will allow your computer to perform actions that you may need your Mac to do when you’re away from it. Save these as apple scripts. A number of sample Automator actions can be found at Maciverse.com
3. Setup rules in Mail to execute the created Apple Script when certain new messages or RSS feed updates are received from Twitter.

After you’ve followed these three steps you’ll be ready to perform tasks by updating your Twitter Status. When your computer receives email messages or RSS Feed updates from your twitter account it will check them for key words that you assigned in your Mail rules.

You can test the process from either Twitter.com or if you’ve already setup your cell phone with Twitter, send a status update that includes the keyword text designated in your Mail rule.

Once the message is sent through twitter, Mail will receive an email or RSS update that should trigger the rule you created to perform an Automated task. Watch as your computer acts on its own, all triggered from your twitter status update.

Conclusion

Customize various Automator workflows to instruct your Mac on different actions you’d like it to run while you’re away. Be sure to create a separate script and a rule for each process you’d like your Mac to run when it receives instructions from you via Twitter.

The combination of Twitter status updates and your computer acting on them can be very useful or used for fun. Be sure to check out our complete instructions for how to build an automated task that will take a picture using your iSite camera and send the results to your email address when it receives key words via twitter.

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



How to Control Your Mac Via Twitter

Since Twitter’s focus is on saying a lot with very little, it makes sense that the Twitter profile space is very brief and the default settings leave little room to present yourself in detail. It’s also the first and last thing potential followers will see before deciding to click “Follow” or to click away from your profile. Here’s a few tips to customize your profile so that potential followers will be convinced they can’t miss your Tweets!

1. Create a Custom Profile Page Background

Since the visual impact of your Twitter background is the strongest tool you have available, customize it to give people an eyeful of who you are.

You can make your own image on your computer and upload it under Settings – Design – Change Background Image. The first 200-250 pixels width on the left hand side is a great place to put additional profile information and list websites.

For a quick solution, you can create just the sidebar (250×700) as your background image with “no tile” selected. Then, modify the rest of the Twitter color scheme to complement it. You can use the first 200 pixels from the top for your picture or “header” for a possible logo and tagline.

The rest of the 400-500 vertical pixels should be used to tell others what you’re about and most importantly, what you’re looking for. Are you using Twitter to get business? To gather ideas for a project? To get feedback from customers? This is the best place to reflect your interests and other facets of your professional life if necessary, so that others can see it immediately.

Alternatively, you can use it to tell people how best to contact you like @garyvee who encourages people to email him instead of sending a Direct Message on Twitter.

Still not sure about the dimensions? You can use Browser Shots to see what it will look like on different screen sizes and browsers.

For an in-depth look at how to create a custom Twitter background, read the Twitip article – Make a Good Impression with a Custom Twitter Background.

Also check out these resources on Background images”

• Boinblog provides two different Photoshop templates to download, or you can create your own!
• Several templates for free at TwitterBacks

Other interesting uses of Twitter backgrounds:

2. Create a Twitter Landing Page as your “Web”URL

@pistachio had a great tip for this months ago when she created a “Twitter landing page” instead of sending users to the front page of your website. Advertisers create custom landing pages for different markets, so why not treat your Twitter audience differently, too? You can create one that explains to potential followers how you use Twitter and how to interact with you.

Some things you may want to include on your Twitter landing page:

- who you are / an abbreviated intro with a link to your more detailed About page, if available

- how you use Twitter (including frequency of Tweets, topics and if you use Twitter to tweet your new blog posts)

- your “follow” policy and how others should contact you if they want you to follow them back (with a “@user hello,” for example).

See Laura’s (@pistachio’s) Twitter Landing Page (Who is @pistachio?) as an example of this.

3. Use a Profile Picture that Reinforces Your Brand (You!)

Keeping your profile pictures consistent across all your social networks will help people find you and recognize you online as well as offline. A picture of you with a hat obstructing your face or you in your Halloween costume should probably be swapped out for a picture that looks like you almost all of the time. A hard-to-recognize picture may result in users squinting at it and clicking away instead of clicking “Follow.”

Of course, using a photo of your face may not be the only way to be “recognizable”:

@photomatt Matt Mullenweg, co-founder of Wordpress, has a profile picture which is simple a bright pink square. It’s certainly recognizable in a Twitter lineup, but unless you’re on magazine covers like he is, you’ll want to use your picture as a way for people to identify you and to create a visual and hopefully emotional connection with your Tweets even if they haven’t met you in-person.

If your company has a memorable logo (and you have the permission to display it) you may consider using it to increase brand recognition. Note that this is best when the content of your Tweets is close to your company’s mission/communication strategy.

4. Utilize your Profile “Bio” to your Best Advantage.

Be clever, be witty, or just be yourself! In a few words, sum up who you are and make it sound interesting. Since that’s what Twitter is all about, writing an intriguing Bio in such a small space shouldn’t be hard. Here’s also another opportunity point your audience somewhere. If you are going to point users to a site that is not your website or Twitter landing page, I recommend putting it here so that users see the entire URL instead of in your Web link which gets cut off. Transparency is always best.

@jowyang uses his Bio to give a brief explanation of who he is and points those interested to an article he wrote “How I use Twitter.”

5. Break up any @ Reply Marathons with Useful Tweets

If your potential follower is still on your profile page, and they’re not yet convinced about following you, they are going to check what you’ve been tweeting recently. Hopefully, they won’t see a sea of @ replies, which might insinuate that you spend a lot of time in micro-conversations that they may be left out of if they follow you.

I recommend breaking up any @ reply marathons with some useful, wide-audience tweets, share links or re-tweet a fellow Twitterer’s useful link.

For more on @replies ettiquette, read the Twitip article Twitter as Dinner Conversation: A Guide to Using Replies.

How would you personalize your Twitter profile to encourage newcomers to follow you?

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



6 Tips for Using Your Twitter Profile to Get New Followers