3 Simple Steps to Create Your Custom #newtwitter Background

October 30, 2010

I don’t know about you but I was one of those caught in the transition phase from the old to the new Twitter. I was in the midst of designing my own custom background days before the #newtwitter launched and my effort went to waste since the measurements are completely different from before. What’s sad was I did not have the #newtwitter until a couple of days back in which I could finally proceed with designing again.

After some trial and error, I managed to get the measurements right and to my dismay (and many others too), the #newtwitter has very little sides to play with. Nevertheless, the below are steps on how you can create your very own custom #newtwitter background – the easy way in only 3 simple steps!

1. Determine Screen Size /Resolution

I would strongly recommend 1280px x 1050px as most people have this to date but this is entirely up to you. Anything lower is a no-no.

Note that I’ve purposely enlarged the resolution to 1050px instead of 800px as you may want the background to be fully covered even on non-widescreen monitors. 1680px x 1050px is the next most popular resolution.

2. Start Designing

This is perhaps the most time consuming part of the entire process as you will need to get your designs filling the space around the Twitter timeline. The good news is that if you’re using Photoshop, you are able to use this template that I’ve created (and used) at no cost! Simply download it and change the background accordingly and you’re all set to go!

3. Save, Upload and Test it out

Simply save your masterpiece as a JPEG / PNG file, upload it to Twitter under “Settings > Design” and you’re done! If you are wondering how would your background look like on different monitor resolutions, I used this really convenient Chrome Extension to do the job for me without having to change the monitor resolutions manually on Windows. It simply allows you to switch between different sizes on the browser window itself!

Note: if you’re using the template, remember to remove the Twitter timeline before saving it into jpg / png

You’re Done!

That wasn’t too difficult, was it? Check out my Twitter page to see what I did. I would also love to see what you came out with!

Do leave your links and I’ll definitely drop by. Have fun designing! :)

Why Do Fans Subscribe to Your Facebook Page?

October 27, 2010

| Jan Wong

Now that we’ve looked at why fans unsubscribe (unfollow) your Facebook page, let’s check out how were they converted in becoming your fan in the first place:

Looking at the results above, 75% of the attraction should come from you. This shows that fans are still attracted to what you can offer them by following you and 75% is huge! This also means that attraction strategy is vital to motivate fans to follow you, debunking the myth of “the word will spread just being on Facebook”. See what existing businesses have done to command attention on their Facebook page.

These three “conversion points” pointed out by the survey does not end there. It actually creates a guide on how businesses and brands can create their own social media strategy to MAXIMIZE RESULTS and leverage upon ALL three points above by including:

1. A Driving Vehicle

This is the actual promotional campaign and most businesses are capable of this pretty well – Facebook links plastered everywhere, ongoing contests, weekly giveaways, sweepstakes, webinars, exclusive contents and the list goes on; which is perhaps why 75% of the people are attracted to subscribe to you – you’ve captured their attention. Now what?

2. A Reason to Share

You’ve attracted the masses and now it’s the time to tap into your fans’ networks! Give them a reason to share you with their friends. Organize a bring-a-friend day to your shop, reward active fans, provide quality content or outrageous offers – anything that involves people getting people. Get them involved, create conversations and get your fans to co-promote. Remember, it’s a world-of-mouth on social networks!

3. An Edge to be Found

This may be a little trickier than the above but not the least important. This approach has the potential to draw in those that may not be active on Facebook, those that are skeptical of advertising and even those who think Google is the Internet. This strategy utilizes external resources to draw attention to your business.

This can be done by participating in forums, discussion rooms, local happening sites, blogs and microsites. Also if you’re familiar with SEO, it will definitely provide an additional edge to be ranked highly on search engines. These avenues creates additional content over the internet providing more information and value to your prospects / customers / fans.

The Social Media Strategy

There are tons of ways going about in social media and there really isn’t a perfect formula to success. Every business and brand has to take time and effort to identify what works and doesn’t for them. However, keeping in mind the 3 Conversion Points above in your social media strategy should assist you in what needs to be covered and done.

Click here to check out the ongoing social media series for more social media insights for your brand!

Attributes of an Entrepreneur: Sacrificial

October 25, 2010

| Jan Wong

The weekend went by exceptionally quick this time as I participated in a badminton tournament on Saturday. A fruitful weekend, that’s for sure. How about you? Did you manage to accomplish the task you set out to do last week? Focus is a difficult thing to do and often comes along with necessary sacrifices one way or another.

Some may sacrifice time spent on games, watching TV and for some, even sleep (which is, not good)! Sacrifices can be painful to some and perhaps the best thing could ever happen to another. Like it or not, sacrifice is often part of the package of being an entrepreneur.

“Sacrificial – the willingness and the inner defense of an entrepreneur. To sacrifice breeds success. Sacrifice also demonstrates ownership and keeps one humble. Sacrifices may take time, effort and money with the potential for long term returns. Without sacrifice, an entrepreneur may end up with nothing.”

Think about it, many entrepreneurs first started out with ZERO. You may have heard stories of how they went on zero payroll, going through a series of trials, tribulations and challenges before they actually took off and became what they are today.

Yes, their stories are inspiring. The truth is – you CAN, too!

It is simple: If you don’t work for your own success, who will?

Citibank with Card 2.0

October 24, 2010

| Jan Wong

If you’ve read my previous post about an innovation about the next generation of credit cards (Card 2.0), I mentioned two things:
1. Some banks in the US have been running tests and prototypes on Card 2.0
2. I personally think that this concept would not go too far as the next generation payment may go beyond cards (mobile, maybe?)

Well, Citibank is seen to be the first heading into the Card 2.0 world with two buttons – giving cardholders to have the option to pay either via credit or Citi Reward Points anywhere the card is accepted. Introducing to you the Dividend Platinum Select MasterCard and PremierPass Elite cards from Citibank! It is said that these cards will officially launch in May 2011.

Citibank Card 2.0

Pretty interesting, huh? Instead of sticking to the concept of having 2 different cards represented in 1 Card 2.0, they made it simpler for their cardholders to make different modes of payment. Simple, yet smart.

Do you have a better idea for Card 2.0? I’d love to hear them :)

A Bronze Saturday

October 23, 2010

| Jan Wong

In case you’re wondering – this site also reveals part of my happenings in life, injecting a little bit more flavour to the site as a whole; something lighter than the usual information dosage, especially for the weekend :)

The day started pretty early (for a weekend) today as I was participating in a mixed doubles badminton tournament in Brickfields, Kuala Lumpur. I was looking forward to it as it has been quite some time since I last played in a tournament (5 years, at least?).

Tournament Match up Things started out pretty well until a heavy downpour bringing strong winds blowing through the windows and worse of all – a leaking roof, soaking different sections of the court. It was a struggle battling against mother nature herself apart from the game but we managed!

We came in 3rd!

Despite all odds we came in 3rd with a mini bronze trophy to go home with although we could have done better in the semi finals. I would say that we were pretty close in reaching the finals but we kinda gave it away.

Nevertheless, it was definitely a fun experience and different from the ones in the past as it was also my first tournament with her! Am glad we managed to progress this far into the tournament since there weren’t many ‘training sessions’ prior to this.

There we have it! The entire Saturday dedicated to a day-long tournament with a Bronze finish! It’s now time to kick back, relax and recuperate.

How was YOUR Saturday? Hope your weekend has been productive thus far!

Why Do Fans Unsubscribe from Your Facebook Page?

October 20, 2010

| Jan Wong

We’ve been talking a lot about how to attract fans on Facebook, engaging them and retaining them but do you know what causes them to ‘un-follow’ or ‘un-fan’ your page? Do you know that they WILL stop subscribing to your page?

Take a look at the results of a recent survey:

32% indicated that they decided to abandon your page because your brand does not excite them anymore. Perhaps your competitor became more appealing, or they have simply outgrown your brand, or you’ve lost your ‘spark’ that drew them to you on Day 1.

Whatever the reason is, 32% sure is a figure to watch out for and you may want to consider monitoring the growth / decline of your fan base. If it is increasing day-by-day, identify what interests them and what keeps them and keep at it. If it is declining, it’s time to examine what went wrong. Throw a survey or hold a discussion – find out what are your fans looking for and improve on it.

It is also interesting to note that fans are also turned off if a page is updated with new posts too often. Too much information may be seen as spamming and you definitely do not want your fans to perceive it that way. The general rule of thumb is 2-3 updates, spaced out throughout the day (e.g. 1 morning, 1 afternoon, 1 night) and ensure that it is quality content (related articles, updates, reports, etc). Of course, it still comes down to how your fans respond to your updates and each page differs from another. Take sometime to spot trends among your fans – you won’t go wrong that way.

“You may want to watch out for this one as fans can also opt to hide your notifications / updates on their news feed apart from unsubscribing if they are unhappy.”

Now you know what drives your fans to unsubscribe from your page. Want to know what drives them to subscribe to your page? That will be next!

Attributes of an Entrepreneur: Focus

October 18, 2010

| Jan Wong

Happy Monday! Mondays always seem to be the toughest day to get started for the week, huh? Focus is all you need! That’s right, and to focus requires a lot of dedication.

“Focus – the single-mindedness and the mental strength of an entrepreneur. Focus keeps one on-track. Focus shuts out distractions. Focus sets things into motion. With focus come quantified plans, objectives and goals. With focus come an increase in productivity, accomplishments of plans, objectives and goals. Focus gives a clear head and helps in decision making. Focus also helps in identifying good business plans. Focus plans with a purpose. Focus allows calculated risks. Focus knows when to move on. Focus leads people. Without focus, an entrepreneur may end up taking a long detour to the intended success… that is if he/she even makes it there.”

Interestingly enough, I’ve heard from many that entrepreneurs in general, lacks focus. Why? It is said that entrepreneurs have so many ideas and at times, don’t know how to or which to first execute. Focus goes beyond just entrepreneurs – everyone needs focus, especially when there are so many distractions around us these days.

Think about it – emails, phone calls, Facebook games and the list goes on. How many of these can actually be put on hold? How much can be accomplished if those were cut down?

It’s time to get rid of distractions and move towards your goal. Do you have a focus? What is your focus?

How Popular is the iPhone? [Infographics]

October 15, 2010

| Jan Wong

I don’t know about you but it would seem that almost everyone carries a smart phone nowadays, and with telecommunication companies here at Malaysia pushing the sales of iPhones, almost everyone is seen with one on the streets. Is the iPhone really THAT popular?

If you’ve noticed, Apple’s iPhone only owns 2% of the world mobile phone market share but yet they make tons out of it.. thanks to Apple supporters and fans! Now that’s the power of branding!

How to: Social Media in Business – Facebook (Part 3)

October 13, 2010

| Jan Wong

Part 1 >> Part 2 >> Part 3

Thank you to those that have been following the Social Media series! If this is your first time here, welcome and here are the links if you’ve missed out on Part 1 and Part 2. Enjoy!

After looking at various real life integrations of Facebook in Part 2 last week, you may be all fired up to take it on now – which is great, but you may want to take a look at what Facebook has to say about promotions – you definitely do not want to risk your page being shut down just like that, with all your fans in it!

Note: Facebook’s definition of ‘Promotion‘ includes “sweepstakes,” “contests” and “competitions”

Let’s head directly into the Facebook Promotions Guidelines (last updated: 22nd December 2009):

You cannot: Condition entry in the promotion upon a user providing content on Facebook, such as making a post on a profile or Page, status comment or photo upload.

You can: Use a third party application to condition entry to the promotion upon a user providing content. For example, you may administer a photo contest whereby a user uploads a photo through a third-party application to enter the contest.

You cannot: Administer a promotion that users automatically enter by becoming a fan of your Page.

You can: Only allow fans of your Page to access the tab that contains the third-party application for the promotion.

You cannot: Notify winners through Facebook, such as through Facebook messages, chat, or posts on profiles or Pages.

You can: Collect an address or email through the third-party application for the promotion in order to contact the winner by email or standard mail.

You cannot: Instruct people (in the rules or elsewhere) to sign up for a Facebook account before they enter the promotion.

You can: Instruct users to visit the third-party application to enter the promotion (as described in Section 3.4(i)). Since users must have a Facebook account in order to access an application on the Facebook Platform, if you give this instruction, they will be prompted to sign up for a Facebook account if they do not already have one.

Wow, that’s quite a list, isn’t it? To make things worse, that’s not the end to it and I would strongly suggest for you to look it up on the given link just to be sure yourself. And if you’ve read all of it, you’ll realize that the rules practically prohibits any form of competitions / contests to be organized on Facebook at all!

All Hope is Lost?

Not a chance! Else we wouldn’t even be on this topic. Besides, you’ve also seen brands and businesses doing it on Facebook, right? If it’s that you’ve been wondering about, simple – there are 3 ways to go about it and the good news is, I’ll be sharing them with you as promised:

1. Do it Illegally

Yes, most people actually do it illegally. Why? Because it is the way with less hassle involved. I am not in anyway suggesting that you should do it illegally as Facebook has all the rights to shut your page down without any notice, and you’ll lose all your fans and hard work just like that. This is definitely not the path you would want to consider :)

2. Do it Legally… with Facebook’s Permission

All you need to do is to clear your promotion mechanics with an account representative from Facebook. However, this comes with a catch. You’ll also need to have spent about $10,000 in Facebook advertising to ‘qualify‘ yourself as Facebook mentioned that this is necessary to minimize scams on the network to protect other users.

This also means that if you’re running on a tight marketing budget (or none), this is not what you would want to do either.

3. Do it Legally… Yourself

If you have looked into the guidelines in full, it is 100% legal for you to have your contest / competition / campaign held OUT of Facebook, using Facebook to draw traffic to it. This also means that I can organize a giveaway on my company’s website / personal blog and announce it to my fans on my Facebook fan page to visit my external site. This is pretty straight forward but if you’re thinking “isn’t that too much of a hassle? wouldn’t it be better if it’s done directly on Facebook instead?“, read on!

Remember the landing page technique we’ve seen in Part 2? That’s another way you can implement to have a little more Facebook “feel” to your campaign. All that’s required is a nifty little Facebook App called the Static FBML Application. Simply add it to your Facebook page tab and with some minor designing, your landing page will be up and running! We won’t be looking at the various technical aspects of setting up FBML and the configurations but you can look it up here or here.

However, remember that the FBML Application technique only allows you to create your very own customized landing page and DOES NOT facilitate contests and competitions. You can, however, link your landing page to your external site that runs the contest :) This also means using the landing page to attract visitors to your site that runs the contest. After all, a well designed landing page would be much more attractive as compared to your Facebook wall of texts!

“FBML works somewhat like enabling you to add HTML codes unto your Facebook page. This means that you’ll now be able to insert download links, images, videos, styled texts, newsletter signups, rss feeds – basically almost everything you need to create an amazing landing page for your Facebook page!”

If you absolutely insist to hold your contest on Facebook itself, fret not – WildfireApp is here to the rescue! What it does is really simple – a step-by-step wizard to help you create your very own Quizzes, Sweepstakes, Contests, E-Coupons, Registration Forms, Trivia and more – you definitely can’t go wrong with that! The wizard also ends with a “Publish” option that publishes your new App to your Facebook page instantly! There is a slight catch, though – it isn’t free. However, the ‘basic’ package is only priced at $5 per campaign + $0.99 per day which is pretty affordable and sufficient for a mini campaign for individuals, bloggers and etc. The higher packages definitely has greater benefits including analytics, customizable templates, data export options and more! You can compare the packages over here.

“To date, WildfireApp is perhaps one of the most highly recommended App to be used on Facebook to run contests due to it’s simplicity and it’s 100% legal to run a contest through WildfireApp on Facebook.”

Is that all?

Remember that starting up your contest is just the beginning as marketing still has to take place. After all, you’ll want to make your investment worth and to build your fan base. For starters, I would suggest for you to work on a landing page using FBML and start testing out various techniques to draw attention to your page. Only move on to paid contest apps such as WildfireApp only when you’re comfortable with what you’re doing, and getting a somewhat steady response with your existing fans. That way, you can be assured that your investment will bring you results.

Moving On!

I hope the social media series have been beneficial to you, your business and your brand thus far! Facebook is just the beginning and we’ll be looking at other tools in the near future. Stay tuned! :)

“Social media is beyond Facebook.. it’s not just a network of people, but it also requires a network of tools for it to work for your business”

Attributes of an Entrepreneur: Perseverance

October 11, 2010

| Jan Wong

Good morning! How was 10-10-10 for you? For me, it’s a reminder that we are already in October, just about 2 months more before 2010 ends. How time flies and how have we kept up to it? How many of us are keeping up with our new year’s resolution for 2010? How many have already gave up in achieving them?

For one, it is never an easy task to achieve goals – especially big ones. The higher the goal is, chances are, the greater the challenge is; and what makes an entrepreneur differ from another is perseverance.

Perseverance?

Thats right! Perseverance is the shield, the willpower, the spirit and the first line-of-defense of an entrepreneur. Perseverance keeps an entrepreneur in-the-game. Perseverance often is the key difference between a winner and a loser. Perseverance accepts defeat only to become stronger. To persevere takes courage. Persevering opens opportunities to strike-back. Perseverance makes success sweeter. Without perseverance, an entrepreneur accepts defeat only to be fully defeated without finishing the race.

However, perseverance does not mean that one should just sit still and accept failure over and over again. It has a goal, a desire to improve, to perform, and to succeed.

Persevere!

Each entrepreneur has a different measure of perseverance and can only be developed / trained through experience, guided with his / her own passion. One can also start training their level of perseverance by setting goals with a DATELINE and make sure it is accomplished by then. Track your progress throughout and celebrate when a milestone is achieved! It takes a great deal of discipline to develop perseverance but it pays off in the end especially for an entrepreneur.

attributes of an entrepreneur: perseverance

Interestingly enough, the Chinese character for ‘perseverance’ or ‘patience’ portrays the very essence of perseverance in an entrepreneur – to persevere even when the heart is under the blade / knife – to keep pressing forward despite the circumstances to obtain success.

“Perseverance helps you to keep your focus and not be distracted by failures, effectively learn from mistakes, a better team player and helps you maintain your composure even during time of crisis.”

Already have a passion? Want to make it a reality? It’s time for some perseverance and action today!

The trick to perseverance? Keep going forward!