Broadstreet Blog

So you want to create your own background image for your twitter account, but don’t know where to start. Been there!

What’s the right size? Should it be a gradient, a photo, a logo, etc.? Should it have words? How do you avoid it looking perfect on a small screen, but screwed up on big screen, or vice versa?

Well we have a few helpful tips for you based on our experience!

 

1) Setting up the main background

I was lead to believe that the image should be 2560 x 1600 (about 35 x 22 inches).. WAY too big!  Then I read somewhere that recommended about 14.5 x 11 inches, still not right! After making my own measurements based on the inaccuracy of the first images, I came to the conclusion:

Perfect image size: 1700 x 900

That’s about 24” wide by 12” tall. It gives enough breathing room for large-screen monitors, showing up perfectly on both my large screen pc at home and my small screened MacBook.

We want to keep the main background simple. If you have too much going on, your image is likely to go over 800K and you won’t be able to upload it to Twitter.

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“Will it blend?” is a marketing campaign started in 2004 by BlendTec that Mike Mooney brought to our attention during the Broadstreet Bridges conference. It is “the best case study with viral marketing,” Mooney says.

With a $50 budget, George Wright bought a lab coat and basic necessities to film short youtube videos of BlendTec’s CEO Tom Dickson crushing various objects in their blenders.

“Blenders aren’t cool. Blending crazy stuff is.” – Mike Mooney

It is an amazing story of how a business can utilize the web as an inexpensive, easy and successful marketing tool. Within 5 days Mooneys says BlendTec had 6,000,000 views on youtube. Today they have 188,000,000 views of the video series and their sales increased by 1,000%.

Did you get that? BlendTec’s sales have increased by 1,000%.

These industrial blenders are now costing from $300-$400.

When it comes to viral marketing, you have to use imagination, creativity, and you have to dream big because the sky’s the limit.

Watch our video from the Broadstreet Bridges conference to hear Mike Mooney talking.

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Following up on a February promise, Facebook has organized page administrators into five different levels of permission.   The five different levels are as follows:

Insights Analyst.  This person can view insights and do nothing else.

Advertiser.  This person can view insights and create ads.

Moderator.  In addition to viewing insights and creating ads, the Moderator can also send messages as the page and respond/delete comments.

Content Creator.  This person has all the power of a Moderator and can also create posts as the page, edit the page and add applications.

Manager.  This person can do all of the above and can manage admin roles.

Note:  All admins start out as managers by default.  After that, roles can be assigned and power limited.

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I'll be teaching a session of "Hello Drupal" for the Open IT Lab at IT-Ology in Columbia, next Saturday, March 17, 2012, 9:30 - noon.     If you've never been to IT-Ology, you should definitely check it out.  It is a state of the art high tech training facility. 

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Yesterday I told you that you should get a Google+ page.  I told you I decided my customers need a Google+ page.  They are kicking and screaming, but I am taking them there anyway.

Today, I'll tell you why.

I set up a Google+ page for Dry Clean Delivery Inc. yesterday afternoon, and around 8:00 this morning, I posted a link to them on my personal Google+ page, mentioning their name in my post and linking to their spanking new Google+ page.

By 8:41, a stranger had posted on my comment with a question.

At 12:30 pm, I Googled "dry clean delivery, charlotte." In the search results, Dry Clean Delivery Inc. was the first paid link.  There were two more paid links. 

The very first UNPAID organic search result, was Dry Clean Delivery Inc.

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After great reluctance, I’ve decided that our customers need to get on Google+.   Yes, they are already far too busy.  No, they don’t have time for more social media.  Yet I think it’s crucial they do this.

Google is the #1 search engine.  YouTube is the #2 search engine.  YouTube is owned by Google.   Like it or not, Google will favor itself in searches.  Google+ results have already been indexed faster and higher than other search results.  Also, if you type a + in front of a search word, Google knows that you want to focus on Google+ for your search.  That means finding your Google+ page will be easier for a customer than finding your Face book page.

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QR codes are not seeing the rate of success I expected when they first hit the scene. I'm not surprised to see businesses using them poorly, however I am surprised to see a large group of people who still don't know what a QR code is.

QR codes are basically square images that, when scanned with a smart phone, will take you directly to a web page with information you are seeking at that point. QR codes should be helpful and rewarding to the customer while building brand awareness and revenue for the business.

I have been increasingly frustrated at the amount of QR codes being used improperly. It takes a little time to use a QR code and a person should be rewarded for the effort. Using the QR code takes a few minutes - you have to dig out the phone, slowly focus and take the photo of the code, then wait for your phone to get to the website. When you finally arrive, if the destination is disappointing, you probably won't want to bother with a QR code in the future, thus giving the QR codes a bad rap and tossing the baby out with the bathwater as grandma used to say.

From my experience, here are some good and bad uses of the QR code.

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Update, 10/11/2011:   Facebook has postponed the beta version of timeline after Timeline.com filed a lawsuit. Timeline is currently only available to those who have Facebook’s Developer application installed.

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Sure.... your customers like you.

Your friends like you.

Your mom likes you.

But does Facebook like you?

Edgerank is Facebook's way of "liking" you.  Edgerank is a search ranking algorithm designed to help Facebook choose which posts should be placed on a person's feed.  

Creating a business page and updating your status does not necessarily mean all your fans will see that status update in their wall feed. The default view for all personal facebook accounts is the Top News view rather than the Most Recent view.  The Top News will show the updates that Facebook has determined the viewer is most interested in.

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Google’s Instant Preview feature gives new meaning to the phrase “A picture is worth a thousand words.” 
 
The Instant Preview feature was rolled out without much fanfare so you may or may not be aware of it. Opinions vary on how much it affects SEM (Search Engine Marketing) or SEO (Search Engine Optimization,) but most strategists agree it places much more importance on design than ever before.
 
The Instant Preview feature provides a graphic overview of search results and enables people to preview the results right on the results page. This is done through the use of a magnifying glass icon to the right of your search results.
 
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