I recently saw a few Twitter pages that were different from mine.  They were bigger, more visual, more eye-catching with a wide header for Twitter and customized link colors… and I wanted it for myself!

So, I looked it up and found out how to change mine.  It turns out that there was an upgrade and unless you saw it on the Today show or saw it on your social media channels, chances are that it passed you by, like it did with me.

SO- here is how you change your Twitter page to get the wide header for Twitter.

Here is my before picture (screenshot from my Twitter page)
AFTER:

So- now onto the directions:
Go into your Twitter page.
Go to your gear at the top right and go to Settings:

Now to go DESIGN:

You can pick a theme:

Or you can create your own (that is what I did):

Thats it- just save the changes & you are all done.

The post How to get the page-wide header for Twitter (& change your Twitter link colors!) appeared first on Becky & Paula.

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Who is up for a really-quick, fact paced way to meet new people and grow your Twitter followers?  This 3 day twitter challenge will help!

I recently read the book UNMARKETING, by Scott Stratten.   If you have not read this, it is on my must-read blogger list, along with the one in our sidebar, How to Grow your blog while Managing your home. 

In this book, the author states how he grew his twitter followers by the THOUSANDS in just thirty days (yes, you read that right!).  How did he do this?   By connecting!

He was on twitter a lot during the day.   He tweeted a tweet every few minutes.   He said that this didn’t take too long because each tweet takes only a few seconds.

Scott says that one of the biggest mistakes people make with Twitter  is creating your content and then hoping over to Twitter and sharing it…  but you don’t have anyone to share it with.

He suggests that BEFORE sharing your content, you need to grow your followers!!    No one (including myself) wants to go onto your Twitter, Facebook, etc… pages and see ONLY your content/posts and nothing else.  While your content is probably very interesting, I go to your social media page for MORE… I go there to CONNECT with you.   I could just go right to your blog for your content information, you know?   (I hope that didn’t sound rude- I couldn’t think of a way to sugar-coat it)

I find that when I tweet things and stay on my twitter page to respond to replies, I gain followers.  I will get around 10 new followers each time that I have a real conversation (their followers see our conversation).

I also respond to others tweets, as often as I can.   They are meaningful responses, too, not just responding to respond.  (Does that make sense?)

So, Scott Stratten said that when Twitter started, there weren’t businesses on there, it was just people on there, talking to each other.   He states, in this book, that we need to do that again.  He suggests trying this for 30 days and see how different your Twitter presence will be. 

The biggest mistake that Scott says we make?   SCHEDULING OUR TWEETS!   

If we schedule our tweets, we can’t be on there to respond to them.  

A scheduled tweet would look like this: 
(SCHEDULED)    @urmodernfamily:  Awesome day today- what are you up to today?? 
@Paula_Rollo  : It is a great day!  We took the kids out.  Did you get to #play with your kids? 
@urmodernfamily :   

Do you hear those crickets??   That is what happens when a tweet is scheduled.  I am not online to write back. 

So- I propose to you a SHORT twitter challenge!   I can’t take it to Scott Stratten‘s extreme with a month-long challenge of over 100 tweets per day (with four kids, I would feel like they were only seeing the top of my head, as I looked at my phone), but  I can try to get on twitter once an hour for three days.

Think of your TWEET as a TEXT to everyone.   You respond to your texts, don’t you?  Do the same on twitter.

SO:  OUR TWITTER CHALLENGE:
I am going to get on Twitter today, tomorrow and Saturday.  IF YOU FIND THIS POST AFTER THE TWITTER CHALLENGE begins, JUST DO IT ON YOUR OWN!  This post is just encouragement to get started.   Do your own challenge for yourself.  I plan on repeating this, on my own, once a month!

During these three days I will make an effort to tweet at least 20 times a day!   I will NOT be tweeting my posts (except the ones that are automatically tweeted from Blogging on the Side & Your Modern Family for each new post.)

I will try the challenge with our BOTS twitter page, too, @bloggingonthesi  but I won’t be quite as good about getting on for that one, because I do that one through my computer,  and that would limit me to being home, at my computer. (while my @urmodernfamily Twitter page is easily done on my phone).

Who is with me?
#BOTS
Find us on Twitter
Paula Rollo is  @Paula_Rollo
(Me) Becky Mansfield  is @urmodernfamily

See you there – #BOTS twitter challenge!   I can’t wait to get started!
Lets grow our followers & gain connections!

The post Join us for a 3 day Twitter Challenge! (RAPIDLY grow your followers) appeared first on Becky & Paula.