Changing my Twitter background, updating my online life
As I commented on her Web site, the lovely and talented Andi Narvaez (as well as one-third of the San Antonio Media/PR/Business Tweetup collaborators) has inspired me to change out my current Twitter background for one with far more information about me as a person, as well as touting the rest of my online identity.
Sure, the Chuck Taylors are a classic image, but it doesn’t say much about me, especially when you consider I haven’t actually worn a pair in many years. It’s time for a return of the new. If you’ve read this far, please continue as the lessons I’ve taken away should help you, too.
While it’s hard to see, you can see I had a personalized Twitter back when I was temporarily stationed at Local10.com in Miami, Fla., during impending Hurricane Ike coverage. I’m not sure exactly why I changed it, but Andi convinced me it’s time to return.
Like the TwitTip post says, your background is your first impression on Twitter. If anyone is debating whether to follow you or not a background can help them figure out whether they share a common interest with you and can give them a sense of what kind of person you are - professional, personable, fun, serious, etc. Customized backgrounds are one step towards establishing your personal brand as well. If you have a blog or other social network profiles it helps if your background matches or is somewhat cohesive with the rest of your online personalities. Multiple identities is something that many of us struggle with on the Web but the more time you invest in customizing each of those indentities in order to create some unity the easier it will be for others to wrap their heads around who you are.
Far be it for me to not take the opportunity to shameless self-promote, but I just wrote a post about personal branding (or as I explain in the post, online identity) as a teaser for the SAMPRB tweetup later this week. I won’t go into additional details, but that post can be found on the SAMPRB blog.
Back to my upcoming Twitter back, I will also use this time to clean up, update and organize various profiles and social networks where I can be found. My Facebook, LinkedIn, Wired Journalists, Flickr and Publish2 accounts will all be worked on this week as I also work on my Twitter background. I’ve also made the decision this weekend to use my Facebook account as more than just a personal way to stay connected with people. I will use it as another public profile instead (which mainly means removing my phone number except for certain friends and being a little more willing to accept friend requests than I have been in the past).
As I explained to Andi, I have a little less than seven days to complete this task (of the background, certainly, but the added online profile work, too) or I owe her a drink at Olmos Perk.
Tags: facebook, flickr, linkedin, online profiles, publish2, social networking, twitter, wired journalists
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April 27th, 2009 at 12:46 pm
Your comment on my blog was on Sunday so I’ll be checking in
Not that I don’t want you to get your new background up and running but a free drink at Olmos Perk sounds like perfection.
And… shameless Google plug: Google Profiles really rock. The more I stick with Google the more I’ve found that it’s made a very helpful difference in my life.
Non-Google shameless plug: I recently discovered Profilactic to get my entire “online beingness” stream in one place. It’s amazing. It pulls from a ton of sites and lets you add your own/custom ones in case something isn’t listed. You should check it out.