Customize Your Twitter Profile With Free Backgrounds

Posted by Denise Griffitts on Jan 3, 2009 in Internet Mastery | 0 comments

Not everybody works in Photoshop and for my less tech savvy friends, My Tweet Space offers Twitter users a way to brand their Twitter profile without having to know how to work in an image editor.  Spend about ten minutes working with their free Twitter backgrounds and your profile will stand out from the crowd.  My Tweet Space offers over 100 themes and backgrounds and you can also create a custom badge that allows you to add your contact information such as your name, company name, website, blog, phone number and address.

Do You Have Your Business Profile Set Up At Fast Pitch Networking Yet?

Posted by Denise Griffitts on Nov 12, 2008 in Internet Mastery | 0 comments

Fast Pitch has been nominated as one of the TOP SOCIAL NETWORKS on the web today. I will tell you very frankly that I love my membership and use it daily. While you can build a very fine free profile the paid membership plans at $9 per month ($27 quarterly) for the Premium Plan or $27 per month ($81 quarterly) for the Platinum membership boasts a very comprehensive array of business-to-business tools.

I found this review of Fast Pitch at Star Reviews and agree with it so thoroughly that I wanted to share it here with you.

If you want to put your business on the fast track for growth and success, you need to look at today’s best business networking websites. After all, connections are everything. Not all business networking websites, however, work at the same speed. Hence, the reason we included FastPitch in our business networking reviews. Wondering if FastPitch can really help you stay on top of your game? Read this review and decide for yourself.

What’s New?

Distribute your company’s press releases using FastPitch! Press.
Participate in FastPitch member discussions using FastPitch! Forums.
Check out FastPitch! Events to network offline at conferences and networking events.
Star Reviews’ Favorite Feature:

We really liked the FastPitch! Networking feature of the FastPitch website. This FastPitch member feature allows you to create a business profile and advertise your products and/or services to other FastPitch members. FastPitch claims that millions of introductions have been made using this service.

About FastPitch:

FastPitch is an online business networking service that allows professionals to network and market their businesses to other FastPitch members. The site is dedicated to helping members connect to other like-minded professional who want to build a business network quickly.

The FastPitch Experience:

The first thing you’ll want to do when you visit the FastPitch website is create your own business profile. Only then will you be able to begin using the FastPitch website to its fullest. Creating a business profile is free and it took us barely any time at all. We clicked the “Create a Free Business Profile” link and were brought to a simple two-page form to fill out. When you’re done, you’ll be brought to a page asking you what type of membership you would like. You have three to select from – one of them is free, the other two cost money. Just click the “Start” tab located near the top of the page to remain a basic member. If you do want to upgrade, this is the place to do it.

Once you access the FastPitch member website, you can begin searching for people to network with. A great way to start is by selecting the “My Network” link located on the left-hand side of the page. At this point in the game, you don’t have a network yet so it’s time to begin building one. That’s where the “View members who match your profile” link comes into play. Once you click that, you’ll be taken to a page where you can see all of the members who have profiles that match what you’re looking for. It’s really a useful tool.

If you do find someone you’re interested in networking with, click the “get introduced” link to get started. However, if you’re a free member, you’re going to have to cough up some dough. Free memberships do not include FastPitch introductions. You can either purchase them ($20 for 45 introductions or $50 for 150 introductions) or you’ll need to upgrade to a paid subscription. Once the money issue is out of the way, the introduction is made and your network starts to grow. It’s one of the easiest networking services we ran across during our business networking reviews.

FastPitch Pricing:

Basic membership is free and includes:

Your company profile on the FastPitch website.
Search other FastPitch profiles.
Upload photos to your profile.
Receive email alerts when new members join the FastPitch website.
A premium FastPitch membership costs $4.95 per month and includes all of the benefits of a basic membership as well as:

Preferred profile ranking.
Up to 50 FastPitch connections each month.
Make your profile interactive with podcasts, blogs, video and more.
1,000 advertisement impressions.
View your profile statistics.
FastPitch Customer Support:

FastPitch really sets itself apart from the competition when it comes to customer support. Most of the other networking websites we researched offered brief FAQs or one-page webmail contact forms. FastPitch, however, offers support via phone, email and live chat in addition to an online FAQ section. What more can you ask for? We were able to easily connect with the company using all of the contact methods and each time were treated well by a knowledgeable customer service rep who seemed more than happy to attend to our needs. If you’re a stickler for good service, FastPitch is probably the way to go.

Upside:

Great customer service, affordable premium membership, incorporate podcasts, blogs and video into your profile.

Downside:

Free members can’t get introductions without paying.

Visit my profile here.

The Relationship Economy – Why Social Networking Matters

Posted by Denise Griffitts on Nov 6, 2008 in Internet Mastery | 0 comments

So many people entering the online marketing world miss the entire point of using social media to grow their business. In fact, many make it harder and much more time consuming than necessary, while others get bombarded by so much information that it effectively paralyzes them.

This beautifully crafted post on The Relationship Economy blog explains the basics of social networking. I suggest that you read it and then compare your current social media marketing strategy to it. I think that you will quickly understand where your social marketing can become the performance engine that drives your business.

No Time to Twitter? Problem Solved.

Posted by Denise Griffitts on Aug 22, 2008 in Internet Mastery | 0 comments

I don’t know about you, but I often find it difficult to make the time to twitter as much as I feel I ought.  Today I found a neat little solution to my twitter time management problem while visiting Rosalind Gardner’s Net Profits Today blog.  I am now able to have twitterfeed automatically post my blog post to twitter which makes me very happy indeed.

Setup is simple.  Just go to twitterfeed.com and signup for a new account.  You will need to supply them with your twitter username and password.  You will also need to create an open ID if you don’t already have one that you use across the internet.

Once you have that setup, and this takes just a couple of minutes, you will create new twitter feeds for your various blogs.  Rosalind suggests that you use the prefix option if you tend to write long  blog post titles as this can get truncated if the title is too long.  That’s it.  You are done and no longer have to run to twitter to post your blogs.

Check out my twitter posts.

Enjoy!

New Online Social Networking Site – Twellow

Posted by Denise Griffitts on Aug 6, 2008 in Internet Mastery | 0 comments

I received this note from a new networking service called Twellow this morning and thought it worth a look.

“Twitter is a popular communication service, and one of the best ways to get ahead in any business is by networking. Twellow effectively merges Twitter’s micro-blogging service and this professional pursuit within one easy-to-use site.

Even as people tweet about what kind of sandwich they’re eating or movie they’re watching, Twellow looks at their areas of specialization and job titles.  This information then becomes the basis by which you can search for and sort folks.  Collect enough useful contacts through Twellow, and you’ll be well on your way to success”.

As 100% (yes, you read that right) of my clients for my virtual assistance practice and 80% of my clients for my web development company come from networking on online sites such as LinkedIn, FaceBook and Twitter, I will be checking it out and posting more here later.