Here are some free Twitter backgrounds with a holiday theme! Feel free to use, share, and distribute these backgrounds. The first three designs are customizable (PSD downloads), so you can add your own photo, links, and 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; variations of these designs are available that you can simply upload to Twitter as is. 

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

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Twitter has recently launched a new retweet functionality intended to solve tweet attribution confusion, the repetitive nature of retweets, and messy editing of the original tweet. Since the functionality is still in BETA, not everyone has access to this feature yet. But Twitter is gradually rolling out the feature, so you should see this soon. Read the rest of this entry

Facebook launched a new feature yesterday that allows fan pages to target updates by geography and language. Admins of fan pages have access to this option, and this functionality will be great for local and global brand integration.

This will be great for brands considering creating separate pages in order to gain an international social presence; now they won’t have to. All international updates, in all different languages, can now live on the same fan page. Read the rest of this entry

Several weeks ago, a widgets center went live on Facebook, where users could create widgets for their blogs or websites. These included both widgets for individuals’ profiles, such as the profile badge, and widgets for businesses’ fan pages, such as the fan box and share functionality.

Now, Facebook users can create a fan badge to promote pages they are fans of. Your most loyal fans will gobble this right up. And what blogger doesn’t like filling up their left sidebar with useless widgets?

Just kidding.

Here’s what the tool to generate a fan badge looks like: Read the rest of this entry

About two months ago, @ mentions went live on Facebook, mimicking the way @ replies work on Twitter. The “social media experts” exclaimed that it would be Twitter’s downfall. Yet very few people actually use @ mentions on Facebook. Fewer understand what the benefits are. And even fewer know the functionality exists.

Way to go, “social media experts.”

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If you’re new to Twitter (yes, many people still are new), getting followers can seem like rocket science. Twitter has evolved since a year ago, when everyone followed everyone back. Now social media is a glamorous affair, with celebrities, companies, and CEO’s joining the party. Now there are tens of millions of people on Twitter, and they’re more picky about who they follow back.

The biggest influence in the decision is interests and how much you have in common. When you follow someone, they’ll get an email notification from which they can click on your profile to see if they should follow you back. The decision is often made within seconds, so it’s important that your interests jump off the page. Read the rest of this entry