Innoventions | Weekly Observations » Training & Development

Get Creative with Your Twitter Background

Tawny Press — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 16:51:08 +0000

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.

Tweetburner – Tracking Shared Twitter Links

Tawny Press — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 12:57:04 +0000

I follow a variety of wonderful professionals on Twitter. Through their daily links I learn a great deal, on a variety of levels, without the time investment of surfing the internet for information. I use links as part of my daily education process, quick, easy, sent by respected members of my network community.

In return, I send out information that I found interesting or helpful. That information was valuable to me, but how to analysis the value to my network community? Sure, many times I get tweets of appreciation or DM’s, but that is not a analysis by any means.

In compiling a database of social media applications, I came upon Tweetburner. It provides information on your most popular URL’s shared on Twitter, historical statistics, and more.

The first rule in using this application is the requirement of sending links in the shortened URL format “Twurl”. Twurl? Yes, you guessed it, not the format I had been using for the past eight months. A little frustrating to start a test with no history to view, however once I sent out five new links, I had plenty to help me evaluate Tweetburner.

Tweetburners Home Page

Let visit the Tweetburner home page. On the home page of Tweetburner, you can view the generated Twurl’s to date, Twurl ‘s recently shared, most popular and top 10 URLs in the past hour.
Here is what you can view :

•    Current number of Twurls
•    Number of times Twurls have been clicked
•    Most popular Twirls in the last hour
•    Top 10 URLs with most clicks in the last hour
•    Recently shared Twurls

Now that we have teased you with Tweetburner ‘s main page, let us set up your free account and view your own Twitter and Friendfeed statistics.

Create Your Free Account

Let us start by creating your FREE account. This is a two step process:

Step 1 - Go to the Tweetburner website and click on “Create An Account”. Keep it simply and use your Twitter login and password.

Step 2 - Customize your Tweetburner account to include Twitter and Friendfeed. Here is the information you will need on hand:

•    Twitter Name & Password
•    Friendfeed User Name
•    Friendfeed remote key.

What’s a remote key? A remote key is a password to share with third-party applications and other websites, which allows them to interact with your account with limits. This is much safer than supplying your password.

Your Stats

Your account is now set up. Let us look around at YOUR user statistics. Start by clicking on the “Your stats” tab.

•    Clicks on user’s Twurls last week
•    Number of Twurls shared in the past Two weeks
•    YOUR top 5 Twurls
•    Latest Twurls

Please Note: As previously stated, if your historical links were shortened using any format, other than “Twurl”, you will not see a history. To begin tracking your history, set your application to send links in a “Twurl” format.

Account Sign Out

To sign out of your account, simply click on the button “Signout”. Obviously self explanatory, but I wanted to complete ALL the tabs.

One wonderful thing about Twitter is the ability to interact and learn from your community. I find Tweetburner to be useful in evaluating the usefulness of my URL links. How do you evaluate the usefulness of the URL’s you send in your Tweets to share? What other tools have your discovered and why do you find them beneficial? Do see Tweetburner as a value to helping you engage more effectively? Would appreciate your feedback. If you found this post helpful, please consider subscribing to our feed.

Corporate Training… Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow

karlnewman — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 20:01:06 +0000

When I first got involved in corporate training in the mid-1980’s, content development was King. Big binders were packed with tons of text on every page (often double-sided!) with very little white space. Such binders were housed what I like to refer to as the “Black Page Principle” because there was so much ink on every page in the training manuals. It seemed like many of these old school instructional designers were getting “paid by the pound” for training materials, not by usable content. These binders were placed on office shelves, where they usually remained unopened.

Through the 1990’s I noticed a great deal of change in instructional design, with the advent of PowerPoint. Corporate Trainers reveled in the world of Bullet Points and Clip Art… often at Nauseam! Training manuals gave way to training slides and outline sheets, that varied from the extremists who used too much text and “cheesy” Clip Art, to the minimalists, who wrote everything in one=word Bullet Points that didn’t effectively convey the message.

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For those of you who have sat through many “Painful PowerPoint Presentations”, I think you will get a kick out of this short YouTube Video on “How NOT To Use PowerPoint”

As we entered the new Millennium, with Y2K, and the growth Computer Based Training (CBT), the old school of instructional design seemed very one-dimensional and more like “CBR” (Computer Based Reading). During this time Corporate Training Departments were growing in size (and budgets), and “mandatory” training became the norm for most organizations.

Today – New Rules

My, how things change… Today, as budgets are stretched and time is at a premium, traditional training departments are becoming extinct. Online learning is becoming very Interactive, filled with relevant content, in a rich multi-media environment. Online Universities with Learning Management Systems (LMS) are replacing bloated training departments, reducing training and travel expenses, while increasing retention and results.

We look to tomorrow with excitement and envy as Corporate Learners will be able to access what we call “Knowledge Now” (What you need to know, when you need to know it). Where learning becomes meaningful and FUN… or as we refer to as “Traintainment” (Entertaining Training). This is where you can gain “Instant Expertise” (one touch answers), and utilize Interactive Simulations to “Fail Forward”, turning mistakes into mastery.

Tomorrow – Innovate or Evaporate!

Corporate Learning will NOT look the same in 3 years. So, what are the Training Trends to watch for in the next few years? Here are some highlights of what to expect.

 Training Command and Control becomes Community Learning.
 Next Generation “Fingertip Knowledge” in an e-Learning Evolution.
 Rapid content development with User Friendly Authoring Tools.
 Thin slices of e-content consumed in “Bite-Sized” chunks.
 Re-usable training content built within Content Management Framework.
 Content becomes “Community Created” through vast Social Networks.
 “Hands-On” Users become the new Subject Matter Experts.
 Reading based materials rapidly drops down, as interactive media moves up.
 Instant deployment to Handheld Devices in Rich Media Formats.
 Gaming / story scenarios and e-Simulations emerge as a very powerful momentum.
 Self-Service Learning becomes driven by individuals, accessible anywhere 24/7/365.

QUESTION:

What has been your experience with the changes in Corporate Training, and where do you see it heading in 3 to 5 years?

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Learning to Change – Changing to Learn

Tawny Press — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 14:48:50 +0000

This is a very interesting video, “Learning to Change – Changing to Learn”. It was created by Pearson Education, Inc. is an international publisher of textbooks and other educational material, such as multimedia learning tools.

It begins with this statement:

“The US Department of Commerce ranked 55 industry sectors on their level of IT intensiveness. Education ranked number 55, just below coal mining.”

Please watch, consider and let me know your thoughts, in both school & business education changes.

We encourage you to share, any of our posts that you find interesting or useful. Please feel free to repost portions or the entire post, but please link back to blog.einnoventions.com‘s article, and give our team credit. Thank you! (This notice excludes use for profit)