Gather Ye Social Networking Profiles While Ye May

Author: Debbie Hemley

11 Jan

If you spent 2009 making a business case for using social media marketing here are some tips to help you create your social networking profiles.

Before you begin it’s always a good idea to plan your pages in advance and gather the company information, usernames, profile images and other assets you will need.

For one thing the number of characters in usernames differ from network to network, the size of profile images are different dimensions, and some pages are more forgiving in terms of editing than others. Below are some guidelines for pages as well as a list of helpful resources.

Facebook

When you create your Facebook business page you will be asked to select a category upfront. You’ll want to choose it carefully since once you do you won’t be able to change it.

A category will also have an impact on the applications available to you.

Username:  Facebook username 56 characters

Description:  When you create the page you will need to include a description. A maximum of 200 characters may be used for your company description.

Profile Picture Size:
140 pixels x 185 pixels

Twitter

Username: Twitter usernames permit up to 15 characters.

Bio:  One line bio no more than 160 characters

Page Design:  Twitter you can Select a page background, or upload your own.

Profile Picture Size: 48 pixels x 48 pixels

YouTube

Username: YouTube usernames permit up to 20 characters
Your username can only contain letters A-Z or numbers 0-9
Once created, you cannot change your username. Even the slightest change will necessitate creating a new account.

YouTube videos are limited to ten minutes in length and a file size of 2 GB YouTube accepts video files from most digital cameras and camcorders, and cell phones in the .AVI, .MOV, .WMV, and .MPG file formats.

Profile Picture Size : 130 pixels x 100 pixels

LinkedIn

Your name becomes part of the url on LinkedIn which can contain 5-30 alphanumeric characters e.g.

Profile Picture Size:  80 pixels x 80 pixels

Learn more about LinkedIn Company Profiles

Helpful Resources for Social Networking Presences

Mypictr is a free online tool for creating profiles, resizing to the exact dimensions for each site

How to Build an Impressive Social Networking Presence, Beginning With Facebook

Build Your Own Opportunity Network: Getting Started in Social Networking

Social Media Tools 101 (From Blogs to Wikis)

Social Media Marketing An Hour A Day Hands On Worksheets

Filed under: social media marketing

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3 Responses for "Gather Ye Social Networking Profiles While Ye May"

Social Media Marketing January 12th, 2010 at 3:23 am 1

Social media has a major place in the marketing plans of independent professionals, entrepreneurs and small service businesses. It opens up a world to you that you would normally not experience. Social media – embrace it, use it and reap the benefits for your business.
Steve Garfield January 14th, 2010 at 8:01 am 2

When you create accounts on social media sites, make sure you provide a link back to your home page on the net. This should be a page that you own, preferably with your name.

Mine is http://stevegarfield.com

So in my twitter profile set up, I put that URL in there under the heading Web.

Then when people visit my twitter page, they can easily click on my homepage to visit me there.

Social media sites rise and fall in popularity over time, that’s why it’s a good idea to own your own page.
Debbie Hemley January 15th, 2010 at 8:27 am 3

Good points, Steve. I’ve seen so many social media initiatives where companies have created multiple presences but not taken the extra steps to make sure they’ve included the links, https://impressionsthroughmedia.com/?p=3309.