Good old days of no Cellphones! (must read)
Posted by: Aditi on: December 14, 2009
Loved the cartoon
Reminds me when we dint have cell phones.
Courtesy : LA Times (comic strip) 
Twitter background in Adobe Photoshop!
Posted by: Aditi on: December 8, 2009
By now many of you must have tried your hands at customizing your own twitter background. A good twitter profile goes a long way. I easily get bored with the same twitter background, therefore I always try to keep it fresh with a different style and color scheme. Below mentioned is a very basic step by step twitter background designing tutorial.
I used Adobe Photoshop CS3 to create it. I tried to make it very simple and most of the below mentioned steps are accompanied by the photographs in order to make it easier for your to understand.
It may look very long but its the easiest one. Even if you are not a Photoshop professional all you have to do is simply follow these 6 simple steps and you will have a cool twitter background in minutes. Below mentioned tutorial is inspired from my current Twitter page . Don’t forget to check it out.
1) How to create a Twitter Background in Adobe Photoshop?
- Create a New Document in Adobe CS3: 1600 x 1200 px or 22.3 x 16.5 inches
- Keep the resolution 72dpi
1600 X 1200 px
- Activate ruler with CTRL+R. Scale the document, so that X and Y co-ordinates coincides.
2) Designing the background:
- Fill the background with the desired color.
- Check the box against “Only web colors”
- Color selected “ffcccc”. Press “OK”
- Press Alt + Del to fill the background
3) Designing background pattern:
- Create a new layer Shift + Ctrl +N. Call it “Pattern
- Pick your desired brush by pressing “B” and draw the pattern. Apply the desired gradient to the layer
4) Designing Side bar:
- Create a new layer (Shift + Ctrl +N): “Side bar”
- Apply your desired design.
- Use Ctrl + T to resize or rotate and confine it to area of 4.5 x 9.5 inch.
- Apply Gradient. If you want you can add other effects as well
5) Create a new layer : Text layer and place your text according to your design.
After the completion of your design save it as JPEG and keep it under 800K.
Final Image
6) Uploading it on Twitter:
- Go to “Settings” – “Design”
- Before uploading your design click on “Change design colors”
- Click on “Background” – pick the same color as your design’s background color. In this case it is “ffcccc”. Save the changes.
Now go to “Change background image” and upload your design there and save it.
Check out the finished design : Aditi’s Twitter page
· Pick your desired brush by pressing “B” and draw the pattern. Apply the desired gradient to the layer
Facebook status updates: No links??
Posted by: Aditi on: November 14, 2009
Just observed something weird.. None of the Bit.ly or TinyUrl links are allowed in Facebook status anymore.
No links in facebook status updates.
If you are importing your links from Twitter to facebook via any facebook & twitter app then there will be no click-able link. Instead your friends / fans will have to copy and paste the whole URL and only then they can visit the page.
In case you are directly posting the links in facebook updates (not via any other application), there will be no hyper-linked text, instead you will get a brief info about the page which is click-able though.
When posted directly on facebook.
I wonder if this is Facebook’s new design feature, in that case I think link click-ability of any article will be effected. Hopefully they will revert it back.
Social Networking Gen!
Posted by: Aditi on: November 11, 2009
Word spreads fast via Socal Networks!!! Wow
I found this amazing comic strip in LA Times. The cartoon by Garry Trudeau is a perfect example depicting what our social media savvy generation is doing to our parents and family.
….. ROFL …..
(click on the image for a clear view)
New version of Orkut!
Posted by: Aditi on: November 10, 2009
Few days ago Social Networking website: ORKUT , majorly used by Brazilians and Indians revamped its whole style. It is faster and intuitive.
New Orkut is definitely a much awaited change. Few major changes are:
1) Practically you can view everything on your home screen
2) No need to flip through pages in order to see your friends all you have to do is scroll down and same applies to communities as well.
3) A personalized color scheme makes it all the more interesting and fun.
New Orkut.
4) In case you love to keep your friends in loop, all you have to do is update your status and now your friends can comment on that.
5) Besides the recent visitors and friend suggestions, you can now see your friend’s updates and see who commented on their latest pictures or videos.
6) Last but not least easy text formatting and emoticon access makes it super easy.
In case you want new Orkut .. all you have to do is find a friend in your friends’ list who is already using the newer version.
Happy Orkutting !!!
Twitter & Gravity.
Posted by: Aditi on: October 1, 2009
Twitter is an addictive Microblogging channel. Since the moment I started using it, there was hardly a day when I didn’t tweet.
To get to know anything relating to Social Media and other topics my first stop is Twitter. It is a great sharing and keeping my knowledge up to date platform. To access Twitter on a go, on my Nokia 5800, I use “Gravity” made by @janole.
I remember using Twitter’s mobile site at a very early stage (when I was getting acquainted with Twitter). But since Gravity happened there was no turning back for me . It completely revolutionized my mobile twitter usage. All the add-on features like Retweet , Direct messages and preview of Twitpics made it so very simple to use.
Few other features are:
- Access to Facebook status updates, you can dd other accounts as well
- Audio alerts whenever some one Tweets or sends DM
- Full screen view
- Preview pictures Twitpic , MobyPicture etc
- Supports all features like: Follow , Unfollow, Retweet, Previews of pictures, DM , Creating favorites, Access to other user profiles etc
- URLs can be easily opened from the tweets itself
- Love the kinetic scrolling on my Nokia 5800
For more information about the product and its features visit http://mobileways.de/products/gravity/gravity/ . You may follow @janole as well.
Don’t forget to share your twitter mobile app .. Looking forward to it.
New Gmail Themes!
Posted by: Aditi on: September 4, 2009
Gmail new themes rocks your Inbox once again.
It was a such a pleasant surprise to see the 4 new themes on Gmail. It’s time for a change and a new feel. All you have to do is go the “Settings” tab and click on “Themes”. From here on you will be on roller coaster journey to THEMELAND. Pick your favorite and have fun .
1) Orcas Land : This theme is all about nature, with a new image each day of the week. Today I see foggy mountains , Ahh what a relief to be in a Cool & Relaxing Inbox, being in a heat stricken west coast. Cant wait to open my inbox tomorrow for a new background.
2) High Score: Specially made for those who are video game buffs. Imagine your inbox looking like game as well.. Cool
3) Turf: This is one of my favorites. It’s gorgeous. Background image of green turf produces a very calming effect , and you can stare at it as much as you want
4) Random: Select this theme and your inbox will cycle all of the provided themes for you.
AWESOME right
Blogging is “An Art”.
Posted by: Aditi on: August 11, 2009
Blogging is definitely “An Art”. Some people are blessed with great writing abilities and some adopt them (like me ). But whatever is the scenario, in today’s economy and social media age, blogs can do wonders for a company. If you know your customers , you have valuable information to share or you want to attract more readers who can eventually turn into your future clients, in that case you need to know some basic guidelines.
This blog post is an attempt to answer few of your questions.
Few points to keep in mind before blogging
- Do you have the resources and time?
- Do you know what and which topics you want to mention in your upcoming posts?
- Create a long term online content schedule, it always work.
- Set the time frame, how frequently you will blog?
- How will you engage your readers?
What are few issues that needs to be considered when picking a blogging platform?
- How many people will blog for your company?
- How comfortable are you with editing your blog’s template?
- Do you want to host on your website or a separate domain?
- Do you want a free blog platform or can you pay a monthly fee?
What qualifications are required in a blogger?
- People who are passionate about blogging and social media
- Passionate about company / product / service that you are selling
- Passionate about connecting and helping your customers
- People who can write
- People who can commit to it and keep the conversations alive not just on their blogs but with others as well.
- People who are ready to commit to it and has the required mindset.
If a CEO of a company should blog?
“IF”:
- He can maintain a constant blogging rate
- He has time
- He is passionate about writing
- He can commit to it and take it to new heights
- He can engage with readers
What works best Group of bloggers? Outside bloggers? or a A dedicated blogger?
This basically depends upon a company’s product and if it has the resources (along with other factors).
A dedicated blogger:
- Its a full time job for one person
- Basic qualifications are present (mentioned above)
- All the new happenings and news (in and around your company) needs to be fed handed out to him
- He / she may or may not be an expert on some topics that needs to be mentioned
- Can be a little time consuming
Group of bloggers
- Popular choice
- Great way of involving more people of company
- Great way to update it timely
- Reliability of a company increases
- Works for B2B purposes
Outside bloggers:
- Letting your evangelists blog for you can be a great idea
- Don’t just ask them to blog
- Giving them guidelines work, though do not spoon feed them everything
How to measure the performance of your blog ?
Start measuring and comparing it from level zero and see how and where it goes. Blogs are very conversational, see if there is an increase or decrease in the following aspects:
- Amount of interaction
- Incoming links
- Traffic that is coming to your website
- No of subscribers
- No of comments
- Measure the conversions or ads
How to engage (your current readers) and attract more ?
- Use various Social Media Channels to promote your blog like Twitter, Facebook fan pages, LinkedIn.
- Linking back to other bloggers who talk about your company or similar products and services
- Conducting Surveys and polls
- Creating content that your readers want to read (not what you want to tell them)
- Do not brag about your product, writing about others works best
- Ask your readers feedback or comments (if you made some changes or you want first hand user reviews)
- Create a section dedicate to “Most interesting and valuable comment”. This will help in creating curiosity in your reader.
- Make it interesting not just with text, but with images, videos , audios etc.
For more information check out the Webinar from inbound marketing university : “How to blog effectively”
Results of Poll#1 :Social media websites are: ….
Posted by: Aditi on: July 24, 2009
Thanks everyone for voting, I really appreciate that you took out few moments from your day to vote.
As promised below mentioned are the poll results.
- Tied at # 1: Definitely a great communication platform to listen to clients and customers
- Tied at # 2: It is for sure a #1 source of information and an opportunity to get more leads
- It’s unbelievable people actually become friends to get to their photographs ..lols
- Thankfully everyone who voted knew What is social media
Another option that was suggested by Rena Bernstein from Elektrik Ink was : Finding people with common interests with whom you can share information an ideas for mutual benefit.
Thanks everyone for your votes and your time. Stay “SociallyKonnected” for a new poll on next Monday.
If you have any Topic Suggestions for my upcoming polls then please share.
Have a great weekend
Cheers
(Click on the image for a full view )
