 Twitter announced today they're following in the footsteps of Facebook and placing more emphasis on photos. Twitter's profile redesign allows users to upload a new header photo. "New profiles also help you get to know people better through their pictures. Photo streams now appear below anyone’s most recent Tweets on iPhone, Android and iPad. Swipe through the stream to see the photos other users have shared or tap any thumbnail to view their photos in fullscreen. While the header photo keeps your profile simple and consistent on iPhone, iPad and Android, you will also still have an additional photo – a background photo – on twitter.com. Upload a background image to complement your header and profile photos." After futzing with my Twitter header photo for a bit I discovered it's best to have a bio with limited info as the placement of the copy competes with your header photo. Thus, it's best to keep the photo and simple as possible.
READERS: What do you think of the Twitter's new header photo?
 About Karen MoranLike her love for adventure travel, Karen Moran's 15 year advertising career has been quite a journey. She launched her ad career at iconic Leo Burnett. From there she went on to BBDO, Publicis & Hal Riney, West Wayne and others.
With an equally diverse client roster, Karen has managed multi-million dollar ad campaigns for Dodge, Toyota, Oldsmobile, Sealy, OfficeMax, Time Warner Cable, Disney Cruise Line, Canyon Ranch, the Kissimmee Convention & Visitors Bureau and even worked on post-Hurricane Katrina marketing efforts for the Mississippi Gulf Coast Convention & Visitors Bureau. Karen has since given up big ad agency life to go off on her own. She is now Chief Mischief Maker (aka Head Cheese) at Magnet Social Media When not diligently working to help small brands ignite and foster social dialogue, Karen enjoys her time being out on the water. After all her company is located on a tiny palm-tree laden, stop-light free island called Matlacha off Fort Myers, Florida. Population less than 800. No really, it is. And, if ya every get a chance to speak with Karen, be sure to ask her how she got a Major League Baseball player...to tweet. Magnet Social MediaFort Myers, Florida Phone: (239) 314-4778 Contact Magnet Social Media Agency to turn your brand into a social media magnet.
 HOW TO: Find an advertising job on TwitterLooking for a job in advertising? Tired of scouring Monster? Don't know which recruiter to call? Look no further than Twitter. According to Jobvite's 2012 Social Recruiting Survey, 92 percent of employers use or plan to use social media for recruiting this year. According to Jobvite's survey, candidates who use social media overall are more qualified thus making it quicker to fill a position. While it's been a labor of love - I've found over 125 recruiters using Twitter who basically tweet jobs non-stop.Follow my Twitter list of 125 advertising recruiters.READERS: Have you used or found a job on Twitter?
 About Karen MoranLike her love for adventure travel, Karen Moran's 15 year advertising career has been quite a journey. She launched her ad career at iconic Leo Burnett. From there she went on to BBDO, Publicis & Hal Riney, West Wayne and others.
With an equally diverse client roster, Karen has managed multi-million dollar ad campaigns for Dodge, Toyota, Oldsmobile, Sealy, OfficeMax, Time Warner Cable, Disney Cruise Line, Canyon Ranch, the Kissimmee Convention & Visitors Bureau and even worked on post-Hurricane Katrina marketing efforts for the Mississippi Gulf Coast Convention & Visitors Bureau. Karen has since given up big ad agency life to go off on her own. She is now Chief Mischief Maker (aka Head Cheese) at Magnet Social Media When not diligently working to help small brands ignite and foster social dialogue, Karen enjoys her time being out on the water. After all her company is located on a tiny palm-tree laden, stop-light free island called Matlacha off Fort Myers, Florida. Population less than 800. No really, it is. And, if ya every get a chance to speak with Karen, be sure to ask her how she got a Major League Baseball player...to tweet.
Magnet Social MediaFort Myers, Florida Phone: (239) 314-4778 Contact Magnet Social Media to turn your brand into a social media magnet.
 Social Media Mistake: Who you should and shouldn't follow on TwitterSo ya wanna start tweeting, eh? You signed up to Twitter, uploaded a cool Avatar, wrote a pretty snazzy bio, included a link to your website, decided you're going to start tweeting about advertising, or photography, or food or little red balloons and now...who the heck do you follow? Regardless of whether you're tweeting on behalf of a brand or as yourself - the same principles apply. R emember these two very important things and you'll be sure to succeed on Twitter- Focus on engagement and not obtaining a high number of followers
- Align yourself with like-minded tweeters that -- pay attention -- key point -- will help promote you or your business
Engagement vs. Number of FollowersThe number #1 biggest social media mistake people make is thinking they need a high number of followers. Instead of focusing on a high number of followers - focus on high engagement with the followers you already have. Keeping your Twitter ratio in check (number of followers compared to number of people you're following) is important because your ratio will be skewed. Essentially - long-term - you never want to follow significantly more people than are following you.Why not you ask?Twitterville will think you're a spammer if you're following 800 people but only have 100 followers. They'll think your content isn't good enough and if all those folks you're following won't follow you back - well then I shouldn't follow you either. Focus on engaging the community you have. Hop into conversations - but not in a creepy way. RT their tweets if they align with your business model/goal. Share a little bit of yourself/your personality. Tweet fun captivating pictures using Instagram, Diptic or Photoshop Express. Build. Your. Twitter. Community. Sloooow-leee. If after a few weeks of trying to engage a tweeter and not succeeding - it's ok to unfollow them. There's a great free site to check out called Friend or Follow. Friend or Follow will let you know who is and isn't following you back on Twitter. Just be sure to never follow or unfollow mass amounts of people in a short time. Twitter could easily close your account leaving you crying with zero recourse. Aligning Yourself With Tweeters Who Will Help Promote You/Your BusinessSure you may want to follow eNews or get the latest sports scores but the reality is - those folks more than likely will not - Follow back
- Engage in dialogue
- RT your tweets
So why follow them? Why skew your Twitter ratio by following people who won't help you obtain your goals? What benefit do you as a brand receive by following another brand that doesn't engage in conversation with you, doesn't follow back or worse - doesn't and more than likely never will, RT your tweets? That should be your ultimate goal when looking for people -- not brands but actual people -- to follow on Twitter. Other brands won't come into your establishment from your tweets. So why follow them? People on the other hand will - so if you're a brand, you follow people as they are your prospective customers. Think of Twitter like a cocktail party. You walk into a room, scan it and don't make a beeline for unemployed Ben who still lives with his parents and worse never looks you in the eye when you talk. You will however immediately zone in on Jennifer because she has a hip new store you'd like to sell your beaded necklaces in. You connect with Jennifer because you both have the same goal. Twitter is the exact same thing - well - except on steroids. So when you're looking for great content to pass along to your community or because you really want to know how much Katie got in her split from Tom - create a Twitter list for Celebrity Gossip, Sports or whatever you want and add those tweeters to your new Twitter list instead of following them. By adding folks to a Twitter list instead of following them- It does not skew your Twitter ratio of followers to following
- You can easily reference the tweets from your Twitter list regardless of whether you're reading your tweets on a desktop or a mobile devise
- If the list is of Foodies or in my case I have a Twitter list of 120+ advertising and marketing recruiters - promote the hell out of your personalized Twitter list. On Friday's I add the hashtag #FollowFriday and #FF to my ad recruiters Twitter list. There are now more people following my one Twitter list than I have listed. And in this economy my Twitter list of advertising recruiters who are constantly tweeting open jobs - is a pretty valuable commodity.
READERS: What are some of your best Twitter tips?Tweets containing less than 100 characters receive 17% higher engagement than longer Tweets (Source: Buddy Media) Click to tweet.
 About Karen MoranLike her love for adventure travel, Karen Moran's 15 year advertising career has been quite a journey. She launched her ad career at iconic Leo Burnett. From there she went on to BBDO, Publicis & Hal Riney, West Wayne and others.
With an equally diverse client roster, Karen has managed multi-million dollar ad campaigns for Dodge, Toyota, Oldsmobile, Sealy, OfficeMax, Time Warner Cable, Disney Cruise Line, Canyon Ranch, the Kissimmee Convention & Visitors Bureau and even worked on post-Hurricane Katrina marketing efforts for the Mississippi Gulf Coast Convention & Visitors Bureau. Karen has since given up big ad agency life to go off on her own. She is now Chief Mischief Maker (aka Head Cheese) at Magnet Social Media When not diligently working to help small brands ignite and foster social dialogue, Karen enjoys her time being out on the water. After all her company is located on a tiny palm-tree laden, stop-light free island called Matlacha off Fort Myers, Florida. Population less than 800. No really, it is. And, if ya every get a chance to speak with Karen, be sure to ask her how she got a Major League Baseball player...to tweet. Magnet Social MediaFort Myers, Florida Phone: (239) 314-4778 Contact Magnet Social Media to turn your brand into a social media magnet.
 “Common sense is not so common.” -VoltaireSince hopping on the Twitterville bandwagon – I have been completely amazed by not only the power of 140 characters or less, but well, by some of the down right stupid things people Tweet. So in an effort to help you not make those faux pas as well – below is a quick little guide to help keep you safe. PrivacyUnless you’re Kim Kardashian and you’re looking for 8 billion people to show up at an autograph signing – for your own safety – you should never broadcast to the world – exactly where you’re at – or worse – when you’re on vacation. This includes auto-updating your Foursquare check-ins to Twitter or using TripIn on LinkedIn or anything else that will inform strangers of your exact whereabouts or when you’re away from home for an extended period of time. It’s also a wise move to nix posting a picture of the absolutely beautiful (and rather expensive) Tiffany & Co. 18k gold key heart charm necklace your oh so wonderful boyfriend bought you for Christmas like one of the people I follow did. And, unless of course if your Governor Schwarzenegger and have a staff of armed body guards ready to pounce, it’s probably best not to tell everyone when you go to sleep at night. Sadly, thieves, stalkers and all sorts of colorful characters are preying on people to leave the door open. When you provide valuable information to strangers – they will use it against you. You’re telling them your habits. You’re not only leaving the curtain open, you’re handing them their very own solid gold key on a silver platter to come and go as they please. ProfessionalismIf in your bio you indicate your looking for a job, include a website to your LinkedIn profile, or are already employed and indicate – oh I don’t know – you’re the “Full time Director of Marketing” and then proceed to Tweet, at 10:00 in the morning on a school day, things such as, “Readyyy.. Settt.. LATE FOR WORK!”, and then follow it up with “.....still drunk” and a short while later “ehhh, It was a good night tho. Intoxicated ride to work was worth it,” it’s probably not a good thing. And while I could be wrong, but then also tweeting “Training a new Marketer.. She doesn't seem promising BLEHH Sorry you are 25 yrs older than me and I have a higher position. Get over it.” I’m thinking HR would have a field day with that. Then of course, my favorite was a Starbucks barista who texted to Twitter, “Wish all these damn people would leave. Don’t they know I don’t want to work today?” I would classify these tweets, while absolutely hysterical, also career suicide. Not only are would-be thieves preying on you on-line, chances are your employer is also aware of your status. So, if you wouldn’t actually say to your boss, “Hey Bob, by the way, I was late today, cuz I’m still drunk from last night,” well then ya probably shouldn’t tweet it. Unless of course I can actually witness you tell this to Bob, cuz I’d like to see his face when you do. Just Be NiceMany years ago Robert Fulghum wrote a book All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten. Basically, the same principles you learned as a child; share your toys with others, always say thank you and please, if you don’t have anything nice to say-keep your yap shut, apply to your on-line activity. So being snarky for the sake of being snarky to a Facebook update or a tweet, is just really not necessary. This also includes going further and opening wretched Twitter handles with the words, “fire”, “ murder”, or anything else intended to torment someone. When you start harassing people on-line – you’d be amazed how quickly it turns to cyberstalking. As for thinking about opening a Twitter or Facebook account in someone else’s name – and not for fun – guess what – it’s considered identity theft and is a 3rd degree felony charge. Swear.So the same principles that apply when you were five in the sand box with your bestest friends in the whole wide world – well – they also apply to your activities on-line. Just use some common sense judgement and don't be a knuckle head.
 About Karen MoranLike her love for adventure travel, Karen Moran's 15 year advertising career has been quite a journey. She launched her ad career at iconic Leo Burnett. From there she went on to BBDO, Publicis & Hal Riney, West Wayne and others.
With an equally diverse client roster, Karen has managed multi-million dollar ad campaigns for Dodge, Toyota, Oldsmobile, Sealy, OfficeMax, Time Warner Cable, Disney Cruise Line, Canyon Ranch, the Kissimmee Convention & Visitors Bureau and even worked on post-Hurricane Katrina marketing efforts for the Mississippi Gulf Coast Convention & Visitors Bureau. Karen has since given up big ad agency life to go off on her own. She is now Chief Mischief Maker (aka Head Cheese) at Magnet Social Media When not diligently working to help small brands ignite and foster social dialogue, Karen enjoys her time being out on the water. After all her company is located on a tiny palm-tree laden, stop-light free island called Matlacha off Fort Myers, Florida. Population less than 800. No really, it is. And, if ya every get a chance to speak with Karen, be sure to ask her how she got a Major League Baseball player...to tweet. Magnet Social MediaFort Myers, Florida Phone: (239) 314-4778 Contact Magnet Social Media to turn your brand into a social media magnet.
 It wasn’t that long ago that most folks had ever heard of micro-blogging site Twitter. Mainstream media started to take notice though when one lone Twitter picture broke the story of Captain Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger landing his USAir plane in the Hudson River. And of course no one can forget Sohaib Athar @ReallyVirtual who unknowingly live tweeted the Bin Laden raid. So much for a top-secret attack. So now while we all may know of Twitter, that doesn’t necessarily mean we all actually know how to tweet. Sure “Content is King,” but what about character count? Just cuz ya have 140 characters doesn’t mean you should actually every…single…last one of them. During two months in 2009, Toronto-based social media analytics company Sysomos scanned 1.2 billion tweets and discovered 71% of tweets…elicited no reaction. No @ reply dialogue. No retweet. Nothing. Could this be because what you tweeted was just too darn long? Take a note from social media hot shots Pete Mashable and Guy Kawasaki and don’t use all 140 characters. Instead tweet short attention grabbing headlines. - By not using every last possible character you’re now forced to write a headline that will quickly cut through the clutter while Twitterville is scanning what to read -- and more importantly -- what to discard.
- My rule of thumb is to use, at most, 120 characters. Not only does this allow for your tweet to be retweeted, but it also leaves room for any commentary, which theoretically should entice more folks to read your content.
So with your next tweet instead of thinking big – think small. Not overloading every tweet with the maximum character count is a sure fire way to make it easy for your community to retweet your content. It’s also an excellent way to quickly captivate your followers who are already being bombarded with information. READERS: How do you discern what to read and what to ignore?Tweets containing less than 100 characters receive 17% higher engagement than longer Tweets (Source: Buddy Media) Click to tweet.About Magnet Social MediaFounded in 2010 by Karen Moran, Magnet Social Media in Fort Myers, Florida, fosters brand-building social relationships. Our strength lies in creating and nurturing your social presence while seamlessly integrating offline messaging with online conversations. From a mom and pop storefront to larger organizations, Magnet Social Media will help your company grow its online brand awareness, customer engagement and loyalty by creating a targeted social media strategy and executing tactics tailored to your unique needs. Contact Magnet Social Media to turn your brand into a social media magnet.
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