by Rosemary O’Neill
Social profiles have gotten a lot of tweaking in the past year. Have you kept up with all of the updates?
Today’s the day to roll up your sleeves and get it done.
Here’s a handy cheat sheet:
1. Twitter header
A few months ago, Twitter started including a photo header at the top of your profile. It should be a graphic 1252 pixels wide by 626 pixels tall, maximum size of 5MB. You can easily change it by going to your Twitter profile settings page. Here are the details straight from Twitter: https://support.twitter.com/articles/127871.
2. LinkedIn company page header
Not to be outdone, LinkedIn now allows you to have a profile header for your company page. The graphic should be a .png, .jpg, or .gif no more than 2MB. Size recommended is 646 pixels wide by 220 pixels tall or larger (you can crop on the page). Here’s a handy video on setting up a company page: http://youtu.be/WiTQL_M_fv0.
3. Facebook cover photo
You should already have this one nailed, but just in case…your Facebook cover photo should ideally be 851 pixels wide and 315 pixels tall, and under 100KB (for fastest load time). Here are Facebook’s recommendations: http://www.facebook.com/help/125379114252045/. Remember that Facebook frowns on calls to action or overtly promotional content within the cover image. It’s intended to be a compelling photo or graphic, not a banner ad.
4. Pinterest business pages
Your favorite slack-time hangout just put on a business suit. If your business is suited to graphic imagery, or you want to flex your creative juices, you might want to create a business account (or convert your existing personal account, if you’ve been using it to support your business). Learn all of the details from the Pinterest announcement: http://blog.pinterest.com/post/35710687813/new-tools-for-businesses-in-the-pinterest-community.
5. Your own site needs some tweaks
When is the last time you spiffed up your own blog or home page? Do you have a widget on there from last year’s conference? Take 10 minutes and look at your own site with a newcomer’s eye, or have a friend look — a refresh might end the year on a high note.
6. Update your avatar
I’ll step forward and say “guilty” on this one. My avatar is from a favorite photo that was taken 7 years ago. Ouch. It’s time to cowboy up and get a new picture taken. How old is your avatar?
7. Forum signatures
If you participate in online communities around the web, you probably have customized forum signatures in some of them. Usually these are appended to the end of your posts, and include a favorite motto, sometimes a link to your site, or your bio information. These can get totally forgotten in the day to day hustle. Take a moment today and fix the broken links, update your job title, or breathe some new life into your forum signatures.
8. Stop procrastinating on Google+
I know, it involves “code” and it seems really tricky (it sortof is). Many posts have been written about how to implement the author tag for Google+, but the best one I found (and the one that actually worked for me) was this step-by-step from Social Media Examiner: http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/google-author-tags/. Do this one today.
If you systematically go through and complete these 8 minor tasks, you’ll get a bounce into the new year with a fresh face to the world.