Twitter is a microblogging platform that lets you broadcast short messages to your “followers” (the equivalent of a friend or connection). If you don’t already have an account, I recommend you get one, at least to see what all the fuss is about. It’s all over the media, has become part of major companies’ interactive marketing campaigns, your coworkers are talking about it, and even celebrities are using Twitter.

But I’ve talked to so many people who haven’t joined or gave up on Twitter because they didn’t know where to start. The interface is almost too simple, and it’s not always obvious what to do next. So here is a newbie’s guide on how to use Twitter.

1. Create a Twitter account

Go to http://twitter.com and click “Get Started—Join!” Enter your full name and create a user name. I suggest using your full name (firstlast) if it’s not already taken. There’s a time and place to be anonymous, and Twitter isn’t really it; one of the major opportunities of Twitter is the networking aspect. Still, if you want to create a fake identity, go for it. Then fill out the remaining required fields. Read the rest of this entry

About a week ago, I was browsing through a salon and hair product shop at a nearby outlet mall, when a very familiar design caught my eye. The Twitter bird was part of the design of Paul Mitchell’s Tea Tree products.

My first thought was “wow, Paul Mitchell stole Twitter’s logo,” so I quickly took some shots with my cell phone.

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Want to encourage your visitors to follow you on Twitter? Here is a large selection of badges to choose from, with a variety of colors, styles, and sizes. Just save the image of your choice, add it to your website or blog, and link it to your Twitter profile. If you have any suggestions, or requests for color or a different badge size, please comment below and I will add them as soon as I can. Also let me know if you would be interested in seeing these badges as a Wordpress plugin.

If you use one of these images, donations or links back to this site are much appreciated!

In the next section, the images on the left are transparent PNG files, and on the right are JPG graphics on a white background. Read the rest of this entry

Signing up for a new Twitter account is a sort of funny experience. After being asked to import contacts from Gmail and follow a bunch of people from a randomly generated list, you’re presented with nothing but a 140-character text box. Ok… so I’m supposed to say… what exactly?

You’d think writing 140 characters wouldn’t be so hard. On one hand, you’re thinking about Twitter as a micro-blog, so you must need to fit some serious insightfulness into a sentence or two. Or, you’re wondering if you should write updates about your daily life, and thinking “but do people really care if I’m watching TV? Making a sandwich? Doing laundry?”

All twitterers are different, so there’s no definite guide or formula to follow. But you should keep in mind what other people on Twitter want to read about. You want to provide them with valuable content and somehow engage them in conversation. Here are some ideas to help you start tweeting: Read the rest of this entry

Twitter is a social media phenomenon that can seem rather underwhelming the first time you log in. You’re presented with a 140-character limit text box and a way to find friends via your email address books. That’s about it. But Twitter is a powerful tool you can use to network and become highly visible in your niche.

I use Twitter every day (@dianafreedman), and here are the twelve Twitter tools I consider the most useful:

1. Tweet Deck – a desktop client

Tweet Deck is one of several Adobe Air desktop applications. Unlike the other desktop apps, it splits your Twitter feed into columns, so you can get a broader overview of your tweets. This is especially helpful if you follow a lot of people. You can have columns to separate @ replies, direct messages, topic, and friend groups. Friend groups are my favorite feature, so you can group people by industry, common interests, and you’re real-life friends. You can easily tweet, reteweet, reply, send a direct message, and follow people within the application.

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I’ve just uploaded the first set of free twitter backgrounds, available on the (yep, you guessed it) Twitter Backgrounds page. Feel free to use, share, and distribute these backgrounds. Some of the designs are customizable, so you can add your own photo and bio/contact information. If you don’t already have Photoshop, you can open the files in Gimp, a free photo editing software.

If you don’t want to customize your background, no problem– all designs have a JPG version available for download, so you can simply upload them to Twitter as is.

Want updates when new backgrounds are available? Follow me @dianafreedman.

Getting back to reality after a vacation in Disney World is no easy feat. I returned from the “happiest place on Earth” last week to a dreary and snowy Boston. I can’t even count the times I’ve been to Disney World/Land on my fingers anymore, but even as an adult it’s as magical as ever.

It’s not just an amusement park with overpriced food and even more overpriced merchandise (though it has both). If anything, I don’t mind laying down  $40 for a t-shirt I’ll never wear outside the parks. The environment they’ve created makes me forget about my worries from the real world. It’s not just about Space Mountain. Young or old, the Disney brand makes you start to believe that fairy tales could be real, and dreams can come true.

This perception really got me thinking. Even in a suffering economy, Disney remains packed with people willing to fork over hard-earned cash for tickets to wait in long lines. They’re doing something incredibly right. So what Disney traits can anyone (CEO’s, entrepreneurs, bloggers, etc.) use to make their products more successful?

Here’s a breakdown of what I think makes up the Disney magic, and how I will aspire to apply these characteristics to my blog in 2009. Read the rest of this entry

I’ve become an active Twitter user over the past few weeks (follow me @dianafreedman). If you’re not on Twitter yet, I recommend that you stop reading this article and sign up for a Twitter account. In case you don’t know, Twitter is a cross between blogging and instant messages. And if you need to be convinced, here are my top 12 reasons to be on Twitter:

1. Mingle with the influential

I never would have talked about houseplants with the CEO of Zappos.com if it wasn’t for Twitter. It’s a great place to connect with CEOs, top bloggers, and even celebrities. It takes a bit of effort (and having a decent following yourself doesn’t hurt) to get replies, direct messages, and better yet follows from the most-followed individuals, but by following them you can keep up to on what these individuals are reading and talking about.

2. Promote your content

Once you establish a following, you can tweet (post a message) updates/new posts on twitter and are very likely to get clicks. I’ve found that my click-through rate on Twitter is pretty decent, and if you post about something viral in nature, people might retweet (repost your message), exposing your link to all of their followers as well. Use a service like snipurl to track how many clicks your tweet links are getting. Read the rest of this entry

Want to easily track what people are saying about you, your company, a product, or any topic across the web’s social media sphere in real-time? Now it’s possible, and there are several tools out there that make it much more interesting than a basic Google search.

It’s undoubtedly valuable to immerse yourself in the chatter. Not only can you see what people are saying about you, your company, or your blog, but also you can see what topics are hot in people’s minds all over the world. This can clue you in on what to be aware of, and even what to write your own articles about.

Here are my top four picks for stand out keyword trackers: Read the rest of this entry

Branding can make or break your website, whether it’s a business or a blog. Your readers should connect with the theme of your site with they see your logo elsewhere. One way to increase your brand’s visibility is by creating a FavIcon. FavIcon is short for “favorite icon,” and is the small icon that appears in the URL browser bar. They’ve been around for a long time now, and it surprises me how many popular blogs and sites out there still don’t have a favicon.

FavIcons also appear on certain browser’s navigation tabs and on a reader’s bookmark list if he has bookmarked your site, so having a unique FavIcon can help readers easily remember your site. Try to use your site’s logo, initials of your website, or some prominent image that appears on your homepage. Having a FavIcon will also make your site look more professional; all the big sites are doing it.

Creating a FavIcon for your site is really easy. But since so many sites still haven’t taken advantage of this neat little feature, here’s are instructions on how to do it:

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