I was very excited to hear about the forthcoming @Twestival, taking place across the world and bringing together users of the Twitter microblogging service to raise money for charity:water on February 12th 2009. A great idea, a great cause, and no doubt some great social events where people will get to meet new friends…

There’s a @twestival event being organised in my local city of Edinburgh, but I may not be able to attend that (even though it’s my birthday!), so I wanted to help them raise money, irrespective of my geography, by offering something.

I’ve been creating twitter backgrounds and enhancing online profiles for my customers for some time as The Digital Biographer, and I normally charge a minimum of $120 for a Twitter Profile Makeover, with a custom background and avatar. I’ve decided to offer this service at half price - just $60, and I will donate half of that - $30 - to charity: water for each Twitter background I create.

So if you want a custom Twitter Background Profile Makeover then just make payment using PayPal, and I’ll contact you to discuss what you want.

See recent examples of Twitter Profile Makeovers for @sherylbreuker, @kencamp and @clarocada. (Will open in new browser windows)

Here’s How it Works…

1. You click and pay securely via PayPal (no need for a PayPal account - any debit/credit card is fine)

2. I contact you and we have a chat via Skype, or Gtalk, or old fashioned Telephone
   
3. You send me any images you wish to use

4. I then create your new background image and Twitter Avatar (photo)
5. I send you the graphic to upload to Twitter, give you hex color codes to amend your twitter colo(u)rs to suit, along with a new avatar image
6. If necessary, I will ‘walk you through‘ uploading to your twitter profile
7. I complete the whole process within 24 hours
8. If you wish, I will announce your new image and support for @twestival in a tweet

YES DAVID! Please create a Twitter Custom Profile Background, Color Scheme and Custom Avatar for me for just $120 $60! I am happy to support charity: water with 50% of your fee being donated to them.

“David really knew how to listen without jumping to conclusions. He then deconstructed the business and came up with great ideas on how to better communicate what we do. He was of great help. - Dragos Ilinca, Marketing Executive, uberVU

“If you want to make a digital footprint leveraging your presence, you may would consider using David’s services. I am. Besides being a creative writer, David has a background that make it possible for him to understand his client (whether the client is an actual person or a corporation) as well as using his empathy to pin-point what you actually want to say and helps you say it.” - Erich Nielsen, President, nielsenandcompany.com ltd

IMPORTANT: I am limiting this offer to just four people a day, until Thursday, 12th February, as I have a number of other commitments. So get your money down, help provide safe drinking water for those who might otherwise die without it, and feel good about making yourself look better too!

It’s hard to be objective when you write about yourself. Do you come across as too dry, are you too boastful, or are you too chatty and informal?

Your profile is your first (and often your last) chance to make an impression online. No matter how impressive your online contribution to discussions, groups, clubs, assisting and advising others - your profile is the touchstone and reference point.

Get it wrong, and your first impression is a bad one. Repeatedly.
Get it right, and doors fly open before you even turn up. Repeatedly.

Your online profile is a combination of a sales pitch, a personal presentation, a business card, a brochure, a personal statement, a list of recommendations, a mini web-site, and a wave from across the room.

It has a lot of work to do. Is your profile doing you justice?

Call me, David Petherick, now on 08456 58 90 58 to discuss your profile, get a free 15-minute critique, and my free “Ten Insider Secrets for Profile Success”.

It’s official - well, it is if you rate the Wall Street Journal’s front page as authoritative - if your name doesn’t Google well, you can have problems with your credibility - and not just with prospective employers.

You’re a Nobody Unless your Name Googles Well published on the 8th of May 2007, cites the example of  Abigail Garvey, who, when she adopted the married name of Wilson, began to be questioned on publications she listed on her CV (résumé) because they weren’t finding the publications in online searches.

In the age of Google, being special increasingly requires standing out from the crowd online. Many people aspire for themselves — or their offspring — to command prominent placement in the top few links on search engines or social networking sites’ member lookup functions. But, as more people flood the Web, that’s becoming an especially tall order for those with common names. Type “John Smith” into Google’s search engine and it estimates it has 158 million results. (See search results.)

Ask.com estimates about 7% of all searches are for a person’s name, and more than 80% of executive recruiters said they routinely use search engines to learn more about candidates, according to a recent survey by ExecuNet.  ExecuNet published “Growing Number Of Job Searches Disrupted By Digital Dirt” in June of 2006,  which  found that “35% (of executive recruiters) have eliminated a candidate from consideration based on the information uncovered online - up significantly from 26% just one year ago.

So, aside from naming your children carefully after a Google search, and including your full name in all online postings, how can you reach the top of Google?

The answer is actually very simple: Join Ecademy: - Just create an online profile at Ecademy, and within as short a timescale as a few weeks, by following simple techniques to add structured information to your profile, and adding blogs and marketplace content relevant to your expertise within Ecademy, Google will rank your name, link to your web content and web sites. The cost is minimal - £10 ($20) a month lets you raise your visibility, as well as become part of a strong business network that’s been growing quietly and organically since 1998, when social media really was not on anyone’s radar.

Of course, you may already be paying your staff to spend time on Ecademy, Linkedin, Facebook and other social networks, but not know it… or maybe you ban them from doing so. You’re making a mistake. I say: don’t be dumb - get them on there before it’s too late, and you get the boot for not doing your job.

Oh yes, I’m serious. I’m actually advocating an approach where you pay your staff to use facebook and similar social networking sites to network, and promote themselves, and your business, to the world. Because otherwise, they’ll not promote you - they’ll just promote themselves. What would you rather pay for?

You could explain it to them like this: —

1. You’re valuable to the organisation not just for what you do, but for how you relate to others, and who you relate to.
2. We know you have a personal opinion, personal life, and friends and colleagues outside work. You know we wouldn’t employ anyone who didn’t.
3. So we know you have a brain. We’re not going to say “don’t use social media in work time”, because we’re social people. We like friends, chat, buzz, news, even fun. Yeah. We know you’ll get your work done better if you get to be sociable. So go do it, but remember the work is primary!
4. Keep it structured, though, and use your time well. Remember that our customers might not want to see all of our family and party photos, but they will want to see some insight and ideas that you blog about and introduce them to. So be good. But be you.
5. Remember to keep your passwords and access secure - because it’s not our reputation we are concerned about - it’s yours. We want people to say “It must be great to work for those guys - they let you network and be yourself. Maybe their stuff is good too. I’ll get in touch with them.” We might even build in some blog business bonuses…

And now I could explain it to you like this:
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I was pleased to hear that my interview with Adam Walton of BBC Radio Wales yesterday sounded good, was a good three minutes longer than expected, and was ‘top of the hour’ as the lead story.

The programme first went out on Sunday 12th August, is repeated Wednesday, 15th August, and was online in the archive to listen to for a week. You can listen in online (I take up around the first 8 minutes) by clicking the arrow below.

I’d like to thank Broadcaster and Speaker Jeremy Nicholas for his first class advice on preparing for, and handling this radio interview.