As a refresher, we covered the Basics to Purchasing a Domain in a previous post. The more we learn sometimes the more questions we have. Domain Registration, whether for a website, blog or a social media network, domain and/or user names are a valuable piece of web real estate, protect them.

Domain Value

Domains are an extremely valuable real estate, internet real estate, and the earlier you secure your brands and trademark the better. Protect your brand by registering variations of your domain names and other trademarks.

It guards against brand dilution, customer confusion, disgruntled employees, dissatisfied customers or even competitors from attacking your company’s reputation.

Expand your planning. Avoid competitive vulnerability by purchasing your domain in different extension (i.e. .com, .net, .org), and forwarding them all to your primary domain. You can also purchase domain with the common mis-spellings of your company name, so you don’t lose traffic.

Examples:

• einnoventions.com
• einnoventions.net
• einnoventions.org
• e-innoventions.net
• e-einnoventions.com
• einnovenitons-u.com

This is also true for Social Media Networks

The big brands understand this and they have secured their brands and trademarks on a host Social Media and Networking sites in addition to web domains; Twitter, YouTube, Delicious, Flickr, Facebook Pages. Social Media is the newest component to a solid communications plan. Secure your user names in the popular networks. You may not be ready to use them, but secure them for your future use. Most of these sites are free.

Domain Management

Your domain has a value. With the cost of marketing, branding and gaining internet traffic, you could cost your organization time and money if you fail to follow-up with Domain maintenance.

All of your domains should be held in a centralized system or Control Panel, managed and maintained. One common situation is having employee’s register domain names. Sounds like a simple request doesn’t it? Now imagine your relationship with this employee changes in the future, who is the domain owner?

The domain owner is the individual who purchased the domain. Domain names should always be purchased in the name of the business owner. A Disgruntled employee, domain hostage, dozens of communications, a payoff and finally your 9 dollar domain has cost hundreds and even thousands. The clean-up process is exhausting and costly.

You need a centralized location to:

• Purchase
• Renew
• Maintain WhoIs Records
• Transfer

All which can be achieved by selecting a quality Registrar.

Selecting a Registrar

Registrars are independent of ICANN and many extend this service to their Hosting services. Each has different processes and other domain service considerations. Here are some questions that we find important during the Domain Registration process.

• Are they ICANN Accredited Registrar?

Make sure they are the ICANN Accredited list, provide coverage to your country, has signed the current RAA which is currently 2009 and can manages the extension you choose; .com, .net, .org., etc. For a long time I “assumed” each registrar could provide all extensions, and found this not to be accurate.

• Do they 24 x 7 x 365 support?

Support is a valuable service no matter what service your business is evaluating. Can be significantly important if you hosting, coordinating or managing your clients Domain Records. Evaluate on the areas of the great important to your organization.

• Do they have a knowledgeable and helpful support team?

Are you confortable getting answers from an “support” member using an standard FLIP CHART, primarily effective with basic questions, or is your organizing highly technical and need support with knowledgeable individuals. Businesses need to understand each Registrar’s support services, prior to making a selection.

• Are the Domain Management Tools Intuitive?

Never under estimate the value of easy to use, intuitive domain management tools and online support.

• Do they offer auto renewal?

A simple feature such as Domain Registration Auto Renewal can save you many future headaches. People get busy, take vacations, have emergencies, it happens. This simple feature can avoid having another person buy your domain and then sell it back to you. Yes, happens often. A domain that would have cost you $9 to renew, is now going to 8k to get it back.

• Overall are their fees cost effective?

Registrar costs vary due to the competition of other Registrars. Each permitted to set charges above standard costs. I have seen prices vary from $1.99 to $30.00 a year. All registrars pay the registry a fixed price of $6 for each domain they sell.

Keep in mind if a Registrar is selling a domain for $1.99, and they pay the registry $6, they are making up the revenue in another service. Compare transfer and private registration fees.

Here are a few companies we have had good experiences:  Go Daddy, eNom , Tucows (through Hosting.com)

Guard Your Privacy

It often surprises people how much of their personal information is on the internet. This goes for Domain Registration as well. Recently I shared a CEO’s home address to him on a conference call. He was surprised. Simple it was on WHOIS. It was correct it immediately.

It is simple to miss, but during the registration process, you can select standard or private registration. You will provide the same Registrant, Administrative and Technical contact information, however Private Registration your information will not be shown on the WHOIS list.

The information you provide is published in the WHOIS Public Internet Directory. This includes your name, your company name, telephone, email address or even home address.

Some services can also include domain history, IP history, Whois History and other information:

The best practice is to use pay for the annual PRIVACY feature, which is on average is $2 -$10 a year, for each domain, removing it from WHOIS.

See the information available on your registered domain names. Here are a few links to search WHOIS.

• http://whois.domaintools.com/
• http://network-tools.com/

Length of Domain Renewal

Registrars can offer registration periods from 1 to 10 years. Some offer multi-year discounts, which may be beneficial to you, but not necessary.

At some point in the future you may transfer your domain, and those fees may offset your savings. Most providers offer auto renew feature in your account control panel, making annual renewing simple.

Avoid Domain Renewal Scams

Through WHOIS other registrar’s can locate your information and send you letters, that appear to be from your Registrar making notification your domain is ready for renew. Our Registrar’s contact us using an email reminder, linking back to their website, not through the mail. These letters usually come MONTH before the renewal period is near. If you are not sure who your Registrar is, check the who is record. This will show your Registrar and your hosting provider who registered on your behalf.

Another security measure, lock your domain and prohibit transfer.

Summary

Domains are an extremely valuable piece of internet real estate and should be managed accordingly. Knowledge is power and I hope this post has provided some valuable information to manage your domains, locate a quality Registrar, avoid the mail scams and protect your personal information you don’t necessarily want on the internet.

Twitter is an exceptional tool to engage community. I provided a quick Twitter Overview and this process walks you through signing up, adjusting your settings, selecting user name(s), avatars, meta data and importing your current contacts.

Being active and engaging in your community is vitally important. The same time you invest in your personal face to face relationships, you will need to invest in growing and enhancing your online relationships to be successful and built trust.

Overview of Twitter Basics

Setting up a free Twitter account is simple.  Once set up you can move beyond the basics, and consider getting several accounts and avoid others from obtaining your brand, domain, product names, etc.

Check List:

Free Account
Select Name
Avatar/Photo
Global Location
Change Design Colors
Import Connections
Set Notices
Free Account.
Brief Biography

Free Account

Twitter names/ID’s are getting as popular as Domain names.  The best way to protect your brand is to reserve your name now.  Twitter allows you to register one user name per email. Have other email addresses available to this purpose.

Select Name

Keep User Names Consistent.  Use your real name, company name, blog title or a brand name.  Be consistent between networks. It is much easier to develop relationships, with your networks, when your community recognizes you across applications.  If you are your own brand, then using your real name “tawnypress”, or a hybrid “tawny_press”, plays a significant roll in your Google ranking.

Brief Biography

This is over looked many times.  Meta Data is important, very important on the web, but not usually people other than developers understand.  The explanation is simple, Meta data is a “tag” or keyword, which allows information to be found through a search on the web.

Write your biography, as you would a websites meta tags, in fewer than 160 characters. Choice words that best describe you, both professionally and personally.  People make observations based upon your bio and the look and feel, they express you and your company.

Avatar/Photo

Select a photo and use it consistently over all other social applications.  Be easily recognizable. In most cases an avatar in a 100 x 100 pixel size, in a JPG, GIF or PNG format, works across most applications, but there are exceptions.

Note: A 100 x 100 pixel size photo appears pixilated in TweetDeck’s larger profile window. Using a larger size of 1000 x 1000 file size, not exceeding 700 k, works best overall.

Global Location

Under “Profile” there is a LOCATION field.  Input your location in your profile; city, state or at minimum your country and state. This will help people locals people and business to locate you on Twitter when using search tools such as TwitterLocal or Twellow.

Change Design Colors

The color selector is greatly improved since I last covered this section.  Select colors that match or compliment your brands identity and image.

To activate the color wheel, click on one of the fields; background, text, links, sidebar or sidebar border. Click on the color wheel to select the desired color. The color wheel will put the appropriate web colors in for you, or you can directly input your web hex color information.

Important note: until you SAVE CHANGES, your preferences will not be changed. If you do not like your selections, CANCEL and begin again.

Import Your Connections

You can import your contacts from Yahoo, Gmail or AOL. On your home bar, click on “Find People”.

Note: if you use Outlook, you can export your CSV file and import into one of these free services.

Set Notices

These settings allow you to control notification emails.  You can set to have Twitter email you each time you have a new following or are send a Direct Message, by someone already in your network.

Mobile Settings

There are setting for having Twitter send to you though text messages.  Twitter does not charge for this service, but your phone provider, depending on your plan may.  There are many applications and services to view twitter on your phone, without using text messaging, depending on your phone and many are free.

There is even a mobile version of Twitter at http://mobile.twitter.com .

This was a brief overview of the Twitter Profile basics.  Take Twitter for a test run.  Take some time, follow a few people, listen to the real world in real time.  You can also see current trending topics at tweetmeme.com .

Purchasing a domain name can be a simple process with some pre-planning and understanding Domain Registration basics.  Lessons learned, through years of domain management for our customers.

Clients frequently inquire about purchasing a domains, it is a constant question, especially in the web development and design process.  I believe developers take for granted that people understand this process and being of such importance, it bears repeating.

This is an overview, with links to specific topics, written in more depth.  Please comment adding any information you feel is of value to readers.  This topic bears repeating for the benefit of all companies, especially those without departments, specially geared to handle these issues.

What is a Domain?

A domain name is a unique identification label, similar to a phone number that defines the autonomy, authority, and control on the Internet.

Domain Value

My domain name has a value?  The big brands understand that their brands and trademarks, are truly one of your businesses most value assets.  Domains are an extremely valuable real estate, internet real estate.  You can learn more “Protecting your brand:”.

Domain Costs

Registrar costs vary due to the competition of other Registrars. Each permitted to set charges above standard costs.  I have seen prices vary from $1.99 to $30.00 a year.  All registrars pay the registry a fixed price of $6 for each domain they sell.

Keep in mind if a Registrar is selling a domain for $1.99, and they pay the registry $6, they are making up the revenue in another service.  Compare transfer and private registration fees.

Domain Management

All of your domains should be held in a centralized system or Control Panel, to manage your domain names, including those that have been registered by other company locations or employees.  Domain names should include your brands and registered trademarks, which many overlook.

Select a Certified Register

Make sure they are the top level Registrar.  If you select a third party, your cost will reflect the many tiers, confusion to who you are actually registered.  List of Certified Registrars.

Below are some of the most popular:

Go Daddy
eNom
Hosting.Com
Network Solutions
1&1 Internet AG

Standard or Private Registration

During the registration process, you will also provide contact information for Registrant, Administrative and Technical contact.   The information you provide is published in the Whois Public Internet Directory.  This includes your name, your company name, telephone, email address or even home address.

The best practice is to use pay for the annual PRIVACY feature, which is on average is $2 -$10 a year, for each domain, removing it from WHOIS.

Avoid Front Running

Before you begin your online search for open domains, prepare your list on paper, prioritize them. When ready to purchase your domain, login to the Registrar and get your list and credit card ready.  Search for your preferred domain name, if it is available, buy it immediately. It may be available now, but may be unavailable when you return, depending on the registrar you have selected.   Print and file your receipts.

Length of Registration

Determine the length of time wish to hold the domain?  Registrars can offer registration periods from 1 to 10 years.  Some offer multi-year discounts, which may be beneficial to you, but not necessary. At some point in the future you may transfer your domain, and those fees may offset your savings.  Most providers offer auto renew in your account most control panels, handle renewing simply, with a credit card on file.

Registrar Suggestions

Our clients have an array of hosting providers and ICANN Certified Registrars.  We have become familiar with many of them.  All have pros and cons to their services, so research should be done

I would say the following should be considering in you selection:

1. Certified Registrar
2. Knowledgeable and helpful support team
3. Cost Effectiveness
4. Intuitive dashboard / Control Panel
5. Quality Support 24 x 7 x 365

This is a simple overview.  To learn more about the Registration process and domain management, read “Domain Registration beyond the Basics”.

We hope you find this helpful and I would enjoy learning more about your experiences.  We are always looking for added value and good support, so if you have a Registrar you have had good experience, please let me know.

Spring is here and I felt like a clean, fresh start. We have spent the last 7 months on two large development projects, and we upgraded our website, so we decided the blog needed a new fresh beginning.

The old blog had a few of my favorite posts, so I decided I would to start by updating a few past articles and started with Social Media. As I read through them, it was like going through a time machine. It brought me back to a time, not so long ago, when people were laughing at Twitter, didn’t understand the usefulness of LinkedIn, and Facebook was for high school students. If you would mention Facebook or Twitter for business, most were met with resistance.

How perspectives have changed. Early adapters recognized the potential, but to be honest my own expectations have been exceed, especially with Facebook. Two years ago when our design team began developing Facebook Pages for clients, Facebook had less than 2.18% of online traffic. Today it has become a social phenomenon making up 7.07%, compared to Google at 7.03%, and 20 million people becoming fans of Pages each day, enabling business and brands to drive customer awareness.

Today, Facebook is one of the most powerful and useful social media services for brands, with over 3 million active Pages and growing. There are 1.5 million local businesses on Facebook today and 20 million people becoming fans of Pages each day. If you are in brand or business, you should take another look at Facebook. It might just surprise you.

LinkedIn is a company that was created on one simple mantra “Relationships Matter”. They have become one of the most widely used professional networking sites of today. The site has grown and has added more interactive functionality for sharing.

The LinkedIn Answers, similar to Google Answers or Yahoo! Answers, has grown considerably and is a fast and effective method to get answers to business related questions, from your network and from industry experts. It even has features for jobs seekers or professionals wanting to expand in their careers with new opportunities.

And if you haven’t heard of Twitter yet, you are missing the largest surprise to come from social media in my opinion. I remember myself asking what Twitter was two years ago and was lucky to have people on LinkedIn help me learn and experiment. It is instant information whether you have a question, need information or want to see what the world topic is currently trending. Many applications, but Tweetmeme is one of my favorite sites to catchup quickly, but there are hundreds of others available.

All of these services have upgraded iPhone, Blackberry applications, helping you stay on top of your networks and easily communicate or reach out in a moment.

Take a quick and free peek at what people are saying about your brand or business with one of these free services, such as Addictomatic, it is quick and easy. Or, Setup a simple Google Alert that sends you an email each time your name, your brand, product or services are mentioned on the internet.

If you want to see more including simple monitoring charts visit Sensidea’s website and download Social Seek’s for your desktop and has a free iPhone application.

I am most surprised by how quickly Facebook and Twitters popularity has grown in the past few years.  I look forward to seeing the future.

This post has taken an interesting turn. My original thought was to feature individuals, as well as big brands in this set of examples.  That turns out to be an entirely different post, as few big brands have actually “branded” their Twitter backgrounds.  Valuable no cost space to show their unique brand, being wasted. Why? Maybe it was over looked as they hashed out their ROI justifications.

What the big brands have missed, the savvy business professionals have not. What do I mean? Take a look at these creative backgrounds, not only shows their brand, but also contains useful information in addition to the mini bio of 160 characters and your single URL link.

Sonny Gill

In this background Sonny Gill has managed to show his brand logo, email, AOL IM, Google Talk and shows the symbols of six of his other networks; Linkedin, Plurk, Facebook, Digg and StumbleUpon.

It is simple, clean and sleek, yet packed with valuable information.

Armano

I am constantly inspired by David Armano’s graphic illustrations, so it was no surprise his Twitter background would be as inspiring. He has his brand logo, expanded bio and information of address for five other networks. As a personal touch, a photograph of his motorcycle, showing more of his personality and interests.

Mayhem Studios

Calvin Lee updated his background just yesterday. Thank you Calvin! He gave me one more great example for my this post. He has managed to show his brand logo, website, blog and email addresses. In addition, four alternative network addresses, he is available to engage; on Linkedin, Bizmik, Facebook and Skype.

Michael Bertoldi

In this simple, clean and sleek. Michael Bertoldi has his brand logo, email address and five symbols of other networks he engages his community; Linkedin, Deli.cio.us, Facebook, Digg and StumbleUpon.

Amber Naslund (aka AmberCadabra)

Amber Naslund’s Twitter background is simple, clean and has focus on her branding. She has matched the images, log and colors between her Twitter background and her blog. Nice transition and no doubt it is the same brand.

Cheryl Smith

Cheryl Smith’s Twitter background is a great example of  branding. Her Twitter background is clean, simple and has focus on her branding. What is most nice is when you go from Twitter page to blog. The transition is smooth and almost transparent.

Need help creating a custom or semi custom background?

Not everyone wants to spend precious time on branding, yet wants to set their Twitter page apart, so I have listed a few sources to help those who want to create something, quick and easy. Here are a few websites to help, some services are free, others have are fee based.

Twitbacks -This application allows you to be creative, without any design or illustration skills.  You can add your name, company, website, blog, bio, photo, logo, phone, email, twitter name and add social network icons. As of this post, the service is free.

Twitterbacks – They make it simple for those with Photoshop or any software capable of editing a PSD file. Go ahead and download a file and construct your own Twitter background.

There are many other great backgrounds out there and over time I will locate and enjoy more. If you have a good background, please drop a comment and give us your Twitter page link.  I also made a Flickr album with more backgrounds I have admired.

Conclusion

Have you looked at your Twitter background? Do any of these samples inspire you? Will you create your own creative background? If you create or always have a creative Twitter background, please post a comment with a link.  All creativity welcome.

I admire these professionals for thinking outside the box and taking advantage of what has been missed by many big brands. To learn more about them, click their Twitter Background. Enjoy.

Related articles:

• • Using Twitter to Enhance Your Social Network

  37 More Information Packed Twitter Backgrounds

You have selected a Social Networking service, created your profile, selected a photo of yourself and invited your contacts to join your network. Now you have built a network! Congratulations!

The network you have created is an important one. You have invited people to become part of your network community, so what is your plan? How are you going engage with your community?

Being active and engaging in your community is vitally important. The same time you invest in your personal face to face relationships, you will need to invest in growing and enhancing your online relationship.

Twitter is an exceptional tool to engage community. Why Twitter? It allows you to communicate in real-time, share information, get help to questions and build relationships. People share many aspects of themselves on Twitter, much more than the carefully planned bio on their profiles. Twitter allows you to gain unique insight and open the doors to many new relationships quickly.

Overview of Twitter Basics

1. Account – Setup a free Twitter account.
2. Name – Pick a meaningful user name that you can use in all of your networks. Be consistent.
3. Avatar/Photo – Be easily recognizable. Select a photo and use it consistently over all other social applications.
4. Bio – Complete your one line bio, telling visitors a little about yourself.
5. Location – Put your location in your profile. This will help local Twitter users locate you.
6. About You Page/URL – Add a URL to allow people to learn more about YOU.
7. Customize Twitter – Create a custom background and promote your brand.
8. Invite Your Connections – Locate your connections on Twitter and invite non Twitter users to join in the conversation.
9. Set Notices – Set your notice preferences for followers.
10. Promote Your Twitter Account – Promote the fact you are on Twitter on your networks, in groups and in the Twitter Yellow Pages.
11. Managing Tweets – Simple tools to help you engage with the community.

Let’s Get Started

1. Account

Set up a free Twitter account or consider getting several accounts and avoid others from obtaining your brand, domain, product names, etc.
Twitter names/ID’s are getting as popular as Domain names. The best way to protect your brand is to reserve your name now. Twitter allows you to register one user name per email. Have other email addresses available to this purpose.

2. Name

Keep User Names Consistent. Use your real name, company name, blog title or a brand name. Be consistent between networks. It is much easier to develop relationships with your network, when they immediately recognize you across applications.
Seriously, using your real name on Linkedin, nickname on Flickr, and yet another on Twitter gets confusing for the best of us. Same goes true to avatar photos, be consistent.

3. Avatar/Photo

Select a photo and use it consistently over all other social applications. Be easily recognizable. In most cases an avatar in a 100 x 100 pixel size, in a JPG, GIF or PNG format, works across most applications, but there are exceptions.

Example: A 100 x 100 pixel size photo appears pixilated in TweetDeck’s larger profile window. Using a larger size of 1000 x 1000 file size, not exceeding 700 k, works best overall.

Special thanks to my friend Simon Salt, for allowing me to feature him as my example.

4. Bio

Complete your one line bio in fewer than 160 characters. People will look at your bio and by this brief description decide whether or not to follow you or engage in conversation. Make your bio interesting, by being “REAL”. Not everyone works 24 x 7, so put a mix of interests in your bio. Even business people have interests in sports, arts, family fun, pets, video games, gardening, etc.

5. Location

Put your location in your profile. Include the name of your city and state, or at minimum the county and state. This will help Twitter users locate you and your business on TwitterLocal.

6. About You Page/URL

Create URL to allow people to learn more about you. In Twitter you can add one link. Which link to choose? What is best, website, blog or one of the many other profiles you have created? Which one is best?

Connect to all of them. How? Create a custom landing page, just about you, and provide links to all of your social profiles. A little thought goes a long way. Make it easy for people to find, learn, engage and connect with you.

Please, avoid creating a link that appears like spam, which will turn people off immediately.

7. Customize Twitter

Let us not forget the “Visual” aspect of you or and your brand. Continue with the consistency with a custom background to match your website brand. It can be enhanced to be a , company logo or personality. Caution: Avoid creating a background that looks like a “sales” piece. The appearance of spam is a turn off to many.

• Creating your background

In this example, we used Adobe Illustrator, but any graphic software will work if you can export into GIF, JPG or PNG format.

Format: GIF, JPG, PNG.” Images must be smaller than 800k.
Canvas Dimension: 795 px by 400 px (this was viewed on 15, 21 & 23” monitors)
Top Branding Dimensions: 39.428 px by 795-821 px

• Change Design Colors

Select colors that enhance custom background graphic. You can change the RGB colors for the background behind your graphic, text, link colors, sidebar background fill and sidebar border.

To activate the color wheel, click on one of the fields; background, text, links, sidebar or sidebar border. Click on the color wheel to select the desired color. The color wheel will put the appropriate web or RGB colors in the appropriate field. You can also directly input your web hex color information if you have it available.

Important note: until you SAVE CHANGES, your preferences will not be changed. If you do not like your selections, CANCEL and begin again.

8. Invite Your Connections

Locate your connections on Twitter and invite non Twitter users to join in the conversation.
You can import your contacts from Hotmail, Yahoo, Gmail, AOL and MSN. Note: if you use Outlook, you can export your CSV file and import into one of these free services.

9. Notices of Tweets in your timeline

These settings allow you to control the replies that appear in your timeline.

In the notices section of your settings page, you can choose how you will see the @replies of others. You have three options:

• all @replies: see all of the @replies made by people you follow, whether or not you follow the person to whom the reply is directed.
• @replies to the people I’m following: see @replies from people you follow directed toward other people that you also follow. This is the default setting.
• no @replies: never see any @replies in your timeline, ever

10. Promote Your Twitter Account

• Twellow

Twellow is like the Twitter Yellow Pages. You can search by name, Twitter user or by category. Members can set up a brief bio or an extended profile with links to a variety of their social networks. , as well as your web or blog URL’s.

• Communication Materials

Email Signature – Include your twitter name in your email signature. A simple and professional signature can be created with WiseStamp a Firefox extension enables you to easily customize & add personalized email signatures on any webmail service (Gmail ,Yahoo ,Aol mail, Hotmail).

Business Cards – Include your twitter address near your blog and/or website information.  One Twitter user @adellecharles, suggested if your card has too much information and it begins to look busy, you could consider adding a Twit Bird as a symbol.  I love this idea!

As @Twalk said, “Many of us operate in multiple niches, so why not have mult. biz cards”. This is a great idea. Going to an event or conference, want more than your normal biz card has on it? Try Moo cards.

• Join a Twitter User Group

Facebook has a group named “Twitter”, with over 8745 members.
LinkedIn has several pages of groups, one prominent group Tweeple, has over 1700 members.

11. Managing Tweets

There are a variety of desktop and mobile applications that will help you organize and manage your Twitter communications are available.

• TweetDeck – My favorite and most valuable tool is TweekDeck. Why? I can create different columns and categorize my followers, topics of discussion, clients, etc. Plus the added benefit of having Twitscoop built directly in the application and the expanded profile viewing in the side panel.
• Twirl – This application also runs on Adobe Air, but is a compact version, taking up much less room on your monitor.
• Twitter RSS feed – Keep up with Twitter updates by subscribing to Twitter via RSS Feed. You can subscribe to any Twitter user or even track your own feed.

Just go to the users page and click on the RSS feed at the bottom left hand side of their page. Note: You do not have to follow them, to get their feed.

Closing

Now that you are easily recognizable, linked to your network connections, promoted your account so others can locate you easily, you are ready to begin engaging with your community.

You can communicate in real-time, share information, get help to questions and build stronger relationships.

Writing this post was a great re-check of myself, soon realizing I had been a bit lax in following my own advice. I found a few of my avatar photos were not consistent, my landing page needs work and I will consider a new style of business cards with room for my Twitter address, or at minimum a Twitter Symbol.

People are creative, with creative ideas, what are yours? How do you promote yourself on Twitter? How do you manage your Twitter steam? What tools and tricks work best for you?

Does anyone have the perfect background size for all monitors? I tested 15” to 23”, but there must be an overall method that fits all? No?

Look forward to hearing your tips and tricks!

Related articles:

• Twitter – How Do You Manage the Noise?
• Brands Using Twitter

I enjoy the benefits of connecting with colleagues, friends, clients and other people in our industry.

This isn’t random spam, this is spam being created by network connections.  How can this be? Interestingly, everyone views spam slightly differently.  I have found a few, who view it as the reason they have a network, which I find interesting.

The benefits of LinkedIn are plentiful, however using it as an adverting tool is not one of them.

Obviously, everyone in LinkedIn has a product or service to promote, but I find the direct emails, which are apparently random in nature, as they not directed to me or my industry.  They are sent to everyone within that individual’s network.  Emails include everything from event announcements, requests to complete surveys, promotions pieces, invitations to other networking sights, etc.

In my view point, the value of networking is the community and relationships within that community.  As human beings we enjoy relationships with people we trust, respect and find knowledgeable in their field of expertise.  It takes time to build relationships and trust, but ever so quickly can be tainted by the appearance of violating the relationship with unwanted surveys, promotional pieces and events announcements. Would you agree?

Do I want to discontinue getting all announcements through LinkedIn?  Not at all.  If the emails are specific to my interests and industry, then yes I am interested.  It is my opinion that the best place to promote an event in LinkedIn, is through participation in a group, specific to the industry and event you are promoting.

LinkedIn Groups are made up of people with an interest in the specific field, have chosen to be part of this group and have common goals and interests.  The group board allows members to post and comment, within the specific group.  This approach doesn’t appear as random as sending your email to your entire network and reaches individuals most likely to be interested.

What do you do when you receive unwanted spam via your LinkedIn group repeatedly? Do you ignore it? Do you request to be removed for future emails? Or do you remove the individual from your network entirely?

What do I do? Good question.  Fortunately I have only been faced with this twice.  Once after frequent emails being sent to me, I look at the contact and re-evaluated the value of the connection.  In this example the person was valuable and respected by me, so I did nothing, except to delete them when received.  Glad to say they have sense changed their communication method and now use LinkedIn Groups.

The second relationship, actually relationship would not be an accurate description.  This individual requested a connection, I accepted, within 60 seconds I was sent a spam promoting his services in India.  The quickness of their action clearly stated the true meaning behind the request to join my community.  I mean really, 60 seconds.  I felt like I had been hunted and shot with spam.

How do you remove someone from your connections? It was amazingly simple.

• Click ‘Connections‘ under the ‘Contacts’ header.
• Click ‘Remove Connections’ in the upper right hand corner of the ‘Connections’ view.
• Select the people you’d like to remove from your ‘Connections’ list.
• Click ‘Remove Connections’.

What do you perceive to be spam within your LinkedIn network?  What do you do when you receive unwanted spam repeatedly? Do you ignore it?

How do you want to receive event announcements, surveys, promotions pieces, invitations to other networking sights?

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• Make Your LinkedIn Profile Work for You