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Update Your Twitter Profile Images

One of my go-to sites, The Next Web, which is a great online and social media resource, posted THIS article about updating Twitter profiles. It’s a clever little tutorial that shows you how to update your background, header and profile images.  It seems it was needed, as many celebrities, athletes, brands, teams – you – have yet to take advantage of what I like to call, social “real estate.”

I cannot get over how few high profile individuals and brands have updated their Twitter profiles to include the new header image. There is a lot of room for creativity here!. Two athletes I wish would update their profiles? Hello @TimTebow, and Apolo Anton Ohno! I’m surprised at Apolo who is normally very socially savvy. Here are the few athletes, celebrities and brands I did find who have made great use of the header image. They’re all linked, so click away to view their profiles…

ATHLETES

@FranklinMissy USA Olympic Swimmer

@LarryFitzgerlad NFL, Arizona Cardinals

@karrileewalsh USA Olympic Volleyball  

@Matt Barkley USC Quarterback

@NastiaLiukin USA Olympic Gymnast

 

ATHLETIC DEPARTMENTS

@HarvardCrimson The background is fan-centric, the header image is seasonal and the profile image is simply their logo. But it all works well together.

@BaylorAthletics Love the use of the header image to point to other social sites.

@UWAthletics Nice motto to go along with that bio and images! Background images features coaches – Sweet!

@TechAthletics Simple but effective. Lots of red!

@Brutus_Bukeye Great use of Mascot as official account and answers the question, “What IS a buckeye, anyway?”

 

ATHLETIC BRANDS

@Padres

@espnW

@LAKings

@Packers

@BrooklynNets (I’m not sure I love this one, except that it is consistent.)

 

CELEBRITIES (Hard to find celebs who have updated!)

@Jason_Mraz

@RyanSeacrest (Probably the best of all with the most thought put into it.)  

@TheEllenShow

@richardbranson ( i suppose he’s a celeb too!)

@MariahCarey (I don’t love her so much, but her Twitter profile looks cool)

 

When people find you on Twitter, your background and header image can help you make a good first impression. Here’s some ideas for different individual use of the header image:

Student-Athletes: You can use your header image as a rotating billboard to promote yourself. Try posting your team’s stats or your batting average or that you got an A in chemistry. Post a team photo or one of you in action. You have to be strategic about your photo here.

Students: You might use the header image to highlight what is important in your life. You can put up a photo of your family or beloved pet, maybe your group of friends at the beach or all dressed up at the school dance. College students might post a photo of yourself at a famous spot on campus. Your header image can match your Facebook cover photo so that you present a well thought-out personal brand.

Coaches: Throw up an old photo of you when you were in the pros or in college. Current and prospective players will get a kick out of it, but it also gives a hint of your story. Get the athletic department to help you with a graphic that has your team schedule for the month. Spotlight any of your team members who make Athlete of the Month or achieve other awards. This shows you are focus on your players’ personal achievements, too.

Brands: You have so much opportunity here. Highlight your product. Give some face time to the hard-working employees who make your company a success. Give a shoutout to your favorite customers. Take a pointer from @BaylorAthletics and give your followers reason to click on another social site.

Professionals: Here’s a chance to tell people what you are all about. Are you artistic and creative? Do you love sports? Are you musically inclined? Do you love inspirational messages? Take this opportunity to showcase the best of you so that when that hiring manager or prospective client find you on Twitter, they are WOW-ed the moment they land on your page. (Writing this blog post actually inspired me to do more with my background and header images – even without fancy software, I can create something nice. My current photos are part of my brand design, but the backgrounds are too busy.)

 

Many social sites, like Twitter, continue to add features to improve the user experience and provide opportunities for visual appeal. It’s easy to understand from first glance who you are and what matters to you when someone sees your Twitter profile. Give them something great to look at and something that will drive their attention to what you are tweeting. If you see a great Twitter header image, leave a note in the comments so we can all see!  Now watch this video and then take advantage of the image “real estate” on Twitter – Make it work in your favor!

LinkedIn Updates

LinkedIn has made several upgrades lately. Have you noticed? Not only has LinkedIn changed the total design and function of the website, but they have been adding more features over the past few months in order to make the site more interactive.  Here’s a few of the big updates to note:

LinkedIn Today

When you land on the page, you’ll automatically see the news feed. This is similar to your Facebook Timeline or Twitter feed. You’ll see the header above the feed called “LinkedIn Today” which entices you to click on various news pieces and share articles with your connections. This is so that we can enjoy a more interesting feed than Sally Smith is now connected to Joe Jones. 

Once you click “LinkedIn Today” you’ll be taken to a magazine layout of news articles for your perusal. World news and business articles await your discovery. It’s a great resource to share on LinkedIn and your other social sites, too.


Follow

You’ll notice that you can now “follow” business and thought leaders who write articles just for the LinkedIn audience. It’s tough to get directly to the list, though. There is no ability to click from the menu. There is no section on the sidebar. I think I discovered this feature because it showed up in my news feed. I went to the LinkedIn Help Page and found this comment:

Visit http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/whoToFollow to see the initial list of thought leaders who can be followed. Currently, only a small, hand-picked set of thought leaders can be followed from their LinkedIn profiles.

Not so user-friendly, but once you do land on this main page, you are treated to a wonderful list of influencers.

Follow the people you want to have show up in your news feed or just browse through the articles on offer. Underneath the header, you can click on the word “Following” to manage who you already follow.  I’m not quite sure why LinkedIn would make it so difficult to get to this page. Great feature, but not completely thought out.

 

Endorsements

One of the features recently added was “Skills.”  LinkedIn did this to assist college graduates who perhaps don’t yet have the work experience to fill out a resume. In addition, they now allow you to “Endorse” those skills for any of your connections. Have you noticed that when you view a profile, this box appears to encourage you to endorse specific skills?

 

This is a nice feature which somewhat replaces “Recommendations.”  Previously, you had to ask for people to recommend you, and it was a letter your contact had to write on your behalf. That feature is still available, but now they can go into your profile and just click on the skills they want to endorse. This saves time and is very user-friendly. It also gives greater opportunity for your contacts to endorse you without a request.

Make sure you take the time to add skills to your profile. This will help you get found when hiring managers are doing searches. On top of that, take a moment to go through your contacts and endorse their skills. Perhaps you are working on a project with someone … give them a boost on LinkedIn. If you get off the phone with a business contact, head to LinkedIn and endorse some of their skills. In order to play nice on LinkedIn, it’s a good idea to take a look at who has endorsed some of your skills and then go onto their profile and endorse them right back. Good professional karma.

New Profile

Finally, LinkedIn is rolling out new profile designs. I’ve requested mine, but have not yet received the upgrade. So stay tuned for more information soon.

 

I would love to hear what features you are enjoying most on the re-vamped LinkedIn. Are these new features making the site easier to use? Are there certain features that are helping you do business better or increasing your contact base? Please share with me. I’m happy to provide updates on my blog or in next month’s newsletter.

BB on The Hoops Show!

Twitter is a beautiful thing. After sending out several “save the date” tweets for my Social Media & College Athletic Recruitment event on October 11th, I received a message from a new contact on Twitter asking if I could serve as a guest on their Hoops Show web program. Of course, I was delighted to participate.

I had a great time with Marcus (@m_shockley) and Chad (@ChadCookAug) filming Episode 8 of The Hoops Show! Here’s what we cooked up:

College Athletic Recruitment Begins

309-a-athlete

 

September 1st marks the date that coaches and recruits may begin contacting high school student-athletes in their junior year. It’s an exciting time! A word of caution and advice to high school student-athletes: Make sure your social profiles are presentable.

While not all coaches are actively using Twitter and Facebook, YouTube or Google+ to check up on you and see what your personality is like, this is a growing trend that you should be prepared for. Here’s a short video from recruitment experts, NCSA and former UCLA softball coach, Sue Enquist. She explains very clearly why you need to present a positive profile online:

So what does your social profile look like? Are you sharing your hobbies and interests, promoting your skills and talent? Or have you posted profanity, explicit photos and/or items that cause people to question who you really are? Coaches are looking for strong character and leadership. They want to recruit well-rounded individuals and student-athletes who will succeed in their program. They want to see great skills on the field, and academic achievers off the court. Are you the leader they are looking for?

Take some time to polish up your profiles. Have a look at this post, 7 Handy Tips for Managing Multiple Social Profiles, for a few tips as to how you can better manage your profiles, or have a look at my presentation to UCLA law school students. It should give you some ideas as to how best to develop your personal brand.

 

Live in San Diego? Save the date for The Role of Social Media in College Athletic Recruitment at the San Diego Hall of Champions on October 11th at 6:30pm. Guest speakers include former Padre Carmen Bucci of NCSA and Sports Illustrated’s Jim Trotter, as well as other experts. High school student-athletes and parents are encouraged to attend, as well as College athletic staff and coaches. High school coaches can pick up some great tips too! More info to come, so stay tuned to Beaming Bohemian!

Cubs Social Media Night

This is really cool. The Chicago Cubs have really embraced social media. On the 16th, they hosted their first “Social Media Night.” The event included a panel discussion and attendees were given a swag bag.  A favorite item listed is the social baseball cards, special cards with Twitter handles.

The standout point in this article was what Public Relations and Marketing Specialist Kevin Saghy shared:

He also articulated the five point plan for how the Chicago Cubs use social media:

1. Deliver the core values of the Cubs

2. Get to know their key influencers

3. Listening and engaging

4. Offer something of real value to the fans

5. Financial benefit

Take another look at the first point – Deliver the core values of the Cubs.  BINGO!  That’s what successful brands do on a consistent basis. And notice how the last point listed was financial benefit. The Chicago Cubs have their act together. It will be fun to follow them and see how fans respond to the Social Media nights and continued opportunities for engagement.

 

Here’s the link to the article or you can read the full post here:

 

Chicago Cubs social media strategy articulated on social media night

By Paul M. Banks, Friday at 8:28 am

On Wednesday May 16th the Chicago Cubs hosted their inaugural Social Media Night. Fans who purchased tickets were invited to a pregame social media panel at Wrigley Field’s Captain Morgan Club. And by social media, we obviously mean the discussion was Twitter heavy.

The panel consisted of Chicago Bears kicker Robbie Gould (@RobbieGould09), (more on his night here) Cubs.com writer Carrie Muskat (@CarrieMuskat) and Cubs Public Relations and Marketing Specialist Kevin Saghy (@Cubs).

Each person was given a swag bag that included a Cubs “social media” t-shirt, a copy of Vine Line magazine, a teeny foam finger, a voucher for a hot dog and a multi-card set of Cubs “Social Media Series” baseball cards featuring Cub players that are on Twitter.

“We looked at a lot of other teams, what they do and how we could differentiate themselves. We wanted to do something really interactive, then do you a unique giveaway” Saghy said.

“That’s where the baseball cards came in. I’ve never seen a professional baseball team do the social media themed baseball cards. Our ticket office came up with that idea, and as a kicker we got a lot of them autographed. So everyone that came here today actually got an autographed card.”

Mine was Ian Stewart.

“It just kind of ties into our theme of we want to provide value for following us, we really do care about fans and it’s something that we take very seriously, and hopefully we were able to portray that today.”

Kevin said that he and his team read every single tweet and message they receive through Twitter, and they often respond.

He also articulated the five point plan for how the Chicago Cubs use social media:

1. Deliver the core values of the Cubs
2. Get to know their key influencers
3. Listening and engaging
4. Offer something of real value to the fans
5. Financial benefit

 

Carrie Muskat approaches social media from a professional, not a personal perspective as she’s a reporter for the Cubs and an employee of MLB. She said her main uses for Twitter are sharing team news and stories, following other Cubs reporters and blogs to get the latest team/player news and following current players who tweet. Her tweets appear on Cubs.com.

“Twitter has totally changed our jobs cuz it’s 24-7 now. Paul Maholm announced his signing on Twitter,” Muskat said.

The Cubs have seen increased Twitter volume since merging from @cubsinsider to @cubs.

“We reply to everything that we can, and we have a monitoring dashboard where we’ll able to summarize, qualitatively and quantitatively tweets and we can then we can go to our management team and say this event was really popular, or say this is the number of tweets we got for this campaign versus other campaigns,” said Saghy.

“We’re just getting much more sophisticated in our measurements basically.”

September 17th versus is the next Cubs Social Media night. A contest will be held, and one follower from the next event will get the chance to throw out the first pitch before that game.

Paul M. Banks is CEO of The Sports Bank.net, an official Google News site generating millions of unique visitors. He’s also a regular contributor to Chicago Now, Walter Football.com, Yardbarker, MSN and Fox Sports

A Fulbright scholar and MBA, Banks has appeared on live radio all over the world; and he’s a member of the Football Writers Association of America, U.S. Basketball Writers Association, and Society of Professional Journalists. The President of the United States follows him on Twitter (@Paul_M_BanksTSB) You should too.

It’s an Issue of Trust

trust word in letterpress type

Perhaps you’ve seen the news peppered with stories about university athletic departments all geared up to monitor their student-athletes’ social media accounts. With several universities receiving media attention and NCAA infractions, it’s no wonder athletic departments are “scrambling” for solutions.

Without a proper education, there is no doubt that student-athletes are going to commit social faux pas online. Even coaches and athletic department staff have committed noticeable errors. However, the message that you send the moment you set up a monitoring system is, “We don’t trust you.”  Your message to your players becomes,  “We have the greatest faith in you on the field, but the moment you’re out of our sight, we don’t trust your actions or your judgement. We don’t trust that you know how to communicate or what to say. We don’t believe in you.”

Educating your players, on the court and in the office, prepares them to be successful communicators and builds trust between an organization and its team members.  When you (re)educate your team – and I mean every staff member, coach and player – about your brand identity, the brand message and provide social media guidelines (methods for successful communication), you empower your people to serve as brand ambassadors. Enabling them with a better understanding of the various communication tools develops personal pride and a willingness to better serve your organization. Directors and Head Coaches serve as positive, capable examples and can better relate with staff and players about the events happening in the social stratosphere. A thorough education and open discussion can serve as a spring board for ideas which may be generated from the most unexpected sources.

Some universities have chosen to provide some level of social media education, but yet continue to employ monitoring services, “just in case.”  That only sends mixed signals to the players,  “We want you to learn how to use these tools and we want to help you improve your communication skills. But…we still don’t trust that you’ll be successful and remain worried you’ll say or do something stupid.” How else are these young adults to interpret this? How are they (and you) to learn from their mistakes?

ASU’s Michael Crow said at the NCAA Convention in January that the student-athlete experience is, in a sense, a leadership academy. In addition to creating opportunities for their players to become the best athletes they can be, the ASU athletic department staff and coaches offer “life coaching” to motivate their young men and women athletes to consider what they want their life to mean, what life goals they want to achieve and what they want to contribute to the world.

In a CBS video of several coaches weighing in on social media, it was Jim Christian at Texas Christian University who said, “As opposed to just restricting them, you know, sometimes they have to make bad decisions in order to learn. And I think that’s what college is all about.” And UNLV Basketball Head Coach, Dave Rice chimed in with, “I really believe in the importance of empowering student-athletes, making it a part of the education process and really using social media in a positive way.”

Universities, which are at their core, educational institutions, are far better off preparing their athletes for success versus assuming their failures and continually operating in crisis management mode.  Educating your athletes about reputation management, personal branding and all the nifty details of social media, challenges them with responsibility and professionalism and a chance to rise to the occasion.  At the end of the day, that IS what college is all about and a sure method for creating an environment of trust and empowerment while paving a path for tomorrow’s leaders.

Through Beaming Bohemian’s branding and social media education, including the development of social media guidelines, you can change your tune and deliver the message of trust to your student-athletes. Investing in this education is a uniquely positive approach which delivers the message, “We believe that you are amazing individuals who have a unique ability to inspire others through your leadership. We believe you are just as talented off the field as you are on the court. As a student-athlete, you have a more visible platform for story telling and brand development. We trust that you respect yourself, your teammates, your coaches, fellow students and members of the community. We believe in you and we are excited for you to share your story with the world.”

 

Media Sources

Maryland Bill Addresses College Athletes’ Social Media Privacy via The New York Times

Supreme Court to schools: Take care with First Amendment via LA Times

Athletic departments get free rein with social media via Minnesota Daily

UNC, NCAA Address Monitoring Athletes On Social Media via WFMY News (CBS)

Schools scramble to monitor athletes’ social-media activities after NCAA ruling via philly.com

NCAA: No plans to police Twitter via Missoulian

Have I? Have You?

question-pan_13412

Lately I’ve been reading the online magazine Inc. which is geared toward small business owners and entrepreneurs.  I’m loving the tips and advice and chance to learn from others’ experiences.  Today I found this fabulous article which really hit home. It is a completely different concept of achieving success – asking yourself 10 questions.  Once you read the list, I believe you will see how checking in with yourself every day and being focused on results will push you to achieve more.  The article is below or you can read it on the Inc. site – HERE.

 

10 Questions That Create Success

Want help focusing on what really matters? Ask yourself these on a daily basis.
By Geoffrey James | Jan 23, 2012

Think that success means making lots of money?  Think again.

Pictures of dead presidents have never made anybody happy. And how can you be successful if you’re not happy? And buying things with that all money isn’t much better. A new car, for instance, might tickle your fancy for a day or two–but pride of ownership is temporary.

Real success comes from the quality of your relationships and the emotions that you experience each day. That’s where these 10 questions come in.

Ask them at the end of each day and I absolutely guarantee that you’ll become more successful. Here they are:

1. Have I made certain that those I love feel loved?

2. Have I done something today that improved the world?

3. Have I conditioned my body to be more strong flexible and resilient?

4. Have I reviewed and honed my plans for the future?

5. Have I acted in private with the same integrity I exhibit in public?

6. Have I avoided unkind words and deeds?

7. Have I accomplished something worthwhile?

8. Have I helped someone less fortunate?

9. Have I collected some wonderful memories?

10. Have I felt grateful for the incredible gift of being alive?

Here’s the thing.  The questions you ask yourself on a daily basis determine your focus, and your focus determines your results.

These questions force you to focus on what’s really important. Take heed of them and rest of your life—especially your work—will quickly fall into place.

If you found this post helpful, click one of the “like” buttons or sign up for the Sales Source “insider” newsletter.

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