Category: Blog

To the untrained eye an advert, web design, graphic or art piece may seem to have been designed without any thought of how it all fits together, the reason why this is so  is because the composition has been placed so well that it is almost unnoticeable. In this post I will be discussing why designers always consider composition in mind as they begin a new piece of work and how you too can take this skill and put it into your creative arsenal.

Dividing spaces

Everything in this world is made up of careful space arrangement from where you place your chair to where you place your monitor for optimum experience also known as ergonomics. If your chair is too low or your screen too far or too close to where you are sitting then you will not get the best user experience. All design work has this kind of spatial arrangement from architecture to fine art dividing spaces in a way that is appeasing to the eye is important.

Without placement this dot is centered and provides no interest or movement in the piece it simply draws your eye to thet middle. This method of placement does have its use when you have one main focal point or you want your viewer to look at one main thing.

Carefully offsetting the main visual component from the centre starts to draw one’s eye to other parts of the complete composition creating a feeling of movement and exploration drawing the viewer into the message the piece of art is holding.

Lastly, when you have more than one main point of interest in a composition consider the relationship between the two, looking at the above image you can see that there is a relationship between the two dots and the empty space.

Task : Study some adverts in a magazine notice how the main composition is layed out and how they relate to each other. If there is only one graphical element how is the text layed out in comparison to the product or element in the advert?

Placements

You’ve got a set of flowers in a beautiful bulbous crystal vase and you have three options where in your home you want to place them.

You can place it in the window so others looking in can see the colours of the arrangement or a table against a wall painted magnolia thus adding vibrance to a once drab corner of the room or thirdly, in the kitchen so when you are washing up you can smell the bouquet and feast your eyes on their natural beauty.

The message here is that depending upon your key goal placement can play a part in your judgements. Here is an example….

Example of placement

Image you the designer of a layout for a car advert, you have different options how you want to layout the image depending upon the message you want to portray. If you want people to imagine hitting the highway for a road trip maybe you would include more of the road

Or what if the marketing message was that by owning this car it would give you freedom, would more sky in the advert communicate this?

Or thirdly, do you want to promote the elegant design form of the car for those people who like their car to look sleak, with an excellent body? A close up of the form might be more interesting to that target market.

Although we all have varying tastes when it comes to design most composition tends to follow a set of rules to be seen as aesthetically beautiful and this rule is know as the Golden Ratio.

Don’t worry if you don’t understand these elements of design just yet, simply practice and be conscious of the visual layout you are creating with each and every new design you make and you will find it becomes your second nature.

Part 2 of this blog post about composition will look at the golden ratio and the rule of thirds. Do you know of any good pieces of art or design that show great composition design? Please comment and share in the box comment box below.

There are some really fantastic open source CMS platforms out there right now and everyone who is in the digital market place knows about them and many businesses use them to manage their online presence. WordPress, Joomla & Drupal are just three of the CMS platforms available to businesses and according to some of  the themes made by developers include things called website shortcodes & filters to add enhanced features but use of these things can cause problems.

Search Engines

The importance of organic search to a website owner is without doubt, high. Being able to find your content with a search by maybe targeting a long tail keyword and ensuring that keyword is re-enforced with heading tags, images and great content is what helps feed the belly of the SEO beast but when you start using shortcodes the SEO monster starts to get confused.

The invisible Code

By using shortcode you are effectively shrink wrapping the food of your search engine beasties. Some of these shortcodes are created with code that is unrecognisable by search engines. For an example, in a website I developed I used a code to put textual content into tab boxes but to my dismay when an SEO genius looked over the design of the site and turned off javascript being viewable those tabs totally disappeared! Not good!

Then with an SEO tool i used to check how the page was ranking in terms of tasty food for search engine spiders it suggested that there were no images on the page when at least two exist! The problem was because instead of using simple html code a shortcode was being used for the images and it couldn’t be recognised as a standard image by this tool and read the alt tag. Very bad!

This means that the search engine spiders may not be able to find that content as easily and we all know how content is king on the web.

Scalability

The other problem is forgetting to think about the scalability of your business website. It is important to think about your site in a five year plan.

Your website should grow and morph into a colossus as your business also grows and increases in size adding value to your company and a valuable experience to your customers and potential guests helping increase your turnover. If you use short codes in your theme ( particularly if you buy a theme created by someone else ) then growth might become a little more tricky.

Changing your theme

If like me, after a while you decide to change your theme ( but not currently designing your own from scratch ) then you will find different developers giving their short codes different names and this my friends, is where problems begin!

More pages, more changes

When i first changed my theme it didn’t matter so much, I had maybe 20 blog posts about 10 pages and a few images on each page so you can image changing the theme and style of the website didn’t take long to undertake.

Website growing bigger, problems grow too

The second time I changed my theme I must have had around 50 pages and over 100 blog posts. As I changed my theme all the shortcodes I had used before had no meaning with the theme now installed so i had to go through each page and each post checking and adjusting every image. Totally mundane!

So although shortcodes make it easy for the novice coders of a CMS website to create interesting layouts and include special features if you buy a theme with little or no knowledge of php then changing your theme in future is going to be quite difficult.

So do I recommend you stay away from shortcode altogether?

I wouldn’t say that this is necessary but you must understand ( or be willing to learn ) some of the technology that is being used by the shortcodes so you can know whether it is going to enhance your website’s functionality or possibly damage your organic SEO and ability to improve your sites theme in future.

One option might be to set up an external css stylesheet and div tags to help you to maintain and transfer the website style easier when upgrading than using shortcodes for one particular theme. Do you have suggestions? Please comment in the box below

Why can’t I use heading tags to make my text bigger?

Heading tags have a very specific role, they are to help the user ( and search engine spiders ) understand what the topic of the paragraph sitting below that header is about. The larger the header (i.e. Heading 1) the more importance that heading has to the search engine spider and usually it is a large indicator to the user what the page is about too.

If you decide you want to use heading tags to increase your font size then you are creating a humungous title and search engines don’t like that and it will push you down the organic search results.

Don’t be a DIV! Increase font size with CSS

When you start really getting into updating your website or blog you want to do things faster and faster to fit more and more into your 24 hour day, even 24 hours isn’t enough time to do everything so you start to cut corners and standards get effected.  Don’t feel bad about it, I’m a victim of  this myself!

Instead of rushing your layouts and content creation on your site simply spend ten minutes setting up some divs so in future you can repeat the div.

What is a DIV?

A div is a html tag that allows you to add style to a part of text with CSS coding. Don’t worry if you don’t know much CSS I am going to show you the one this blog post is about, font sizes and line spacing.

<div id=”nameofdiv”> A div will look like this, you need to ensure you are in html mode when adding tags otherwise they won’t work.All Div’s ( and html code for that matter ) end with a closing tag like this</div>

There are two different types of Div.

• Class
• ID

You use <div class=”nameofdiv”> when you specifcy a style that will be reused by a set of web elements.

You use <div id =”nameofdiv”> when you want one web element to have its own unique style.

You can probably guess but the one we want to use is the “id”  to change the font size of EVERY introduction paragraph to a page.

Step by step guide to using <Div id=””></div>

1. 1. Give your div id a name but something useful and memorable like “firstpara”so it will look this <div id=firstpara”>.
2. 2. Next you need to add some CSS Styling, most websites if setup correctly will have an external stylesheet so locate it and add the following code.

#firstpara {

font-size:20px;

line-height:110%;

3. Save the stylesheet and apply <div id=”firstpara>The first introduction paragraph here</div> and save the page. Your style should now be applied.

Still stuck on CSS? A total novice? You have a few options…

The free option

http://www.w3schools.com/ is the free option and was set up to make learning to code websites have a standard design level so that users get the best experience possible.

The cost but advanced guides

I am a user of online platforms like Lynda and Treehouse because they are regularly updated and give the latest technological advances so you can keep advancing your skills or learn a new skill you may not have had before but wanted to learn as well as being structured in a way that is helpful and easy to manage in terms of learning.

I hope this blog post has helped you to increase font sizes correctly, (you may have noticed I did a little bit of styling at the start of this post to show an example) if you get suck or have any questions please do not hesitate to leave a comment below I am happy to help.

As you start to build your online presence and you activate more and more accounts on various social media platforms it starts to become difficult to fit them all onto one business card but there is a solution and if you have been following my blog , the clue is in my last post…

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About.me

About.me is a website that allows you to promote yourself and manage your social media identities in one space.

Each personal page has the same layout.

• One large image in the background.
• a short bio about yourself.
• your website or company.
• your social media connections.

Why this can be useful to you is that rather than having around ten lines of social media urls they can be placed on your about page and simply use the url from this website.

It is a unique way to organise your social media but also another way for people around the globe to find you.

So if you want to minimise the content on your business card this is a possible solution. If you want the person you hand the  card to to be able to understand its your social media accounts simply add the logos of the social media accounts on the cards near the url to your about.me url and bobs your uncle, minimal social media on print.

QR Code

You could go one step further and use a QR Code that directs the user to the about.me page so that it has an element of fun as most people have smart phones now so if they are keen to connect via social media it gives that option.

Do you want to advertise ALL your social media?

Considering the majority of people you will hand your card to what social media are they likely to be using? They may not want to know your Pinterest and Instagram account details so maybe just include the main social media account you want people to connect with you on, probably LinkedIn if it is business.

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I hope you have found this post useful, if you have any other ideas how to minimise your business card details and design then please comment in the box below. I look forward to hearing your ideas and thoughts.

Not only did the owner of Diamond Lifestyles want me to design her an identity she also wanted a business card that represented her ideals. The brief was to create a business card that clearly represented the health industry but also had a sleek, modern and professional look. In this post I show some of the business card designs I developed before arriving at the final one.

Initial Logo Design

The benefit of being hired to design the logo and business card is that I can play with the two side by side to see how it may work on a printed piece of material. When I was first designing the logo I wanted to see how it may look on a business card. I tried the logo on a pure black and white background with inverted colours. I wanted to keep the design minimal as it would look more clinical and relating to the precision that health products and services usually provide.

Aloe Vera Focuses your attention

This was a design that the client really liked. She liked the Aloe Vera Leaves on the card but she wasn’t quite sure black was the right colour for her company, it was something I wanted to keep in mind as I was designing the logo.

Full Colour relates to Aloe Vera

When I designed the logo in a minimalist way I was a little worried that there was little relation to Aloe Vera and rather about the diamond relation. To combat this I considered how the business card and future collateral could show the Aloe Leaf & plants and possibly using the colour of the plant in its brand guidelines. It wasn’t the client’s favourite choice, she definitely wanted something minimal and she preferred the white rather than the black so I created a few more options.

 Portrait Minimal Business Card

As the client wanted a minimalist approach I took the design right back to as much of a simple design as possible. By keeping the card to a minimum it gave it the clinical look that was desired but I wanted to give several different options so tried a few more different layouts and styles.

 Final Design

Considering that my client liked the Aloe Vera Leaves on the card design this was inco-operated into the final design. It added visual interest and communicated exactly what the product was that the company sells. The logo in the 3d Chrome/Silver effect worked well with the white background and vibrant green of the Aloe Leaves. The font choice was classic and re-enforced that of a professional and competent health professional. See the final design below…

By this stage of blogging I imagine if you are reading this you have had a good go at blogging your own thoughts, ideas and content, you find it a great way of relaxing in a productive way, advancing your own skills whilst being able to help others. You may have even noticed traffic to your website increase ten fold as an added bonus to this new hobby you have found. It is a great start to gain traffic and awareness of what you do but there is another way to increase your traffic levels one step further and that is through guest blogging.

What is Guest blogging

Guest blogging is where someone who doesn’t own the website, blog or social media account create a blog post that the editor of the website is happy to share with its audience.

Usually a blog post by a guest will be related to theme of the website so that the audience will be interested in what is being written otherwise a blog post about knitting won’t go down too well on a blog about gardening ( unless the target market are a group of pensioners maybe).

Why website owners love guest blogs?

Its not secret, the best way to generate traffic to your website is to create content and a lot of it! By guest blogging for another person or business it gives them the ability to generate more content. Great for website owners as it has the potential to generate new leads and potential to also gain more revenue.

Whats in it for me?

So far it sounds like the website owner is the big fat banker and we are the lowly peasent but it isn’t so! By guest blogging on another website that is relevant to your industry you are promoting your work to an audience who may not have seen what you do before thus arriving at your website through someone elses, maybe even a competing business. If the reader is impressed enough ( or if you ask nicely ) the new reader may also become a social media fan of yours and follow you on one of the many social media platforms.

Still not sure if guest blogging is for you?

Well here are seven points why guest blogging will help you and your own website improve conversions.

1. SE0
2. More Brand Awareness
3. Showing yourself as an expert in the industry
4. Increase your reputation and be respected
5. The website owner respects your opinion
6. Increase your website traffic
7. Increase your fan base on your website & social media

Interested in guest blogging on JAWilsonDesign.com?

If you are interested in guest blogging on my website please contact me with content at [email protected] or you can sign up to myblogguest.com locate me and send me a blog post through the website or alternatively if you would like me to guest blog on your website or blog please feel free to contact me with subjects or topics you think are appropriate. Have a great time blogging guys!

Finding Blog topic inspiration can be tricky. Sometimes you may have noticed my blog posts start drying up…I go three to five days without posting anything new and it sometimes is due to a lack of creative writing inspiration but how do we get back into the flow of things when this happens? How do we get our creative cogs turning again? In this post I give five suggestions on how you can get inspiration and start writing regularly and freely.

Trending topics

Sometimes what others are saying about a particular topic in your industry can be useful to spark your creativity. I have written about how to find out what is trending on the major social media platforms before here but there are other ways too!

Twitter trends

For instance on Twitter you can #Discover things you are interested in. Okay so, for an example, I would probably search for something like #art or #graphics or #brand. This will bring back hashtags with those phrases on and give you inspiration to see what others are talking about in your particualr field of interest.

Instagram trends

Or on Instagram you can search for tags in your field of interest. It is a lot similar to the Twitter discover tool but obviously these are images relating to the hash tag. This isn’t a bad thing, why not take inspiration from an image and write about it or maybe do a review of another artist or someone else’s photography. Maybe an image will spark a piece of creativity within your own soul.

Tumblr trends

Tumblr offers the same ability to search for hash tags so there are oodles of ways for your to find some inspiration from others.

Questions, questions, questions

Have people asked you questions about your work or industry lately? This is a great area of inspiration, every time someone asks you a question don’t just answer it but write it down too! You would be surprised just how many people in the world probably have the same question.

Get your work colleagues to help

Are you a business man or woman reading this blog? How many employees do you have? For each colleague you could have a potential new blog post in each and every person! So if you have 40 employees and each creates just one post a week that is 40 pieces of new content A WEEK!! A huge advantage over a lot of your competition.

If your creativity is a bit low as sometimes happens call a friend and ask them for a little hand, we are all creative and all have things to say about the industry we work in.

Old Works

Another option is to consider old works such as case studies ( if you provide a service ) or artworks you have created ( like myself ) and explain the concepts you had behind them. You can even discuss what you learnt from the experience too, that might help you to readdress where your strengths and weaknesses are which is always a great thing to do.

Guest Blogging

If you are totally dry and still struggling to blog about something interesting then you could open up your blog to others in your industry. This will help to keep your readers interested in coming to your website but also allow others to gain promotion from your website. You may think this is crazy to allow people to post on your blog but the truth is that the internet has made it easy for people to shop around a lot easier for what their specific needs are so don’t get defensive at the thought of advertising or helping a fellow person in your industry, actually helping others is great for business!

By helping promote another you are building a relationship with the person who has blogged on your website which may result in internet karma and potential leads when that person can’t complete a job for whatever reason.

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Once you have some inspiration spend just ten to twenty minutes of your time writing down around 10 to 20 topics you can write about in the near future then, when it comes to writing you can choose from one of your titles you came up with at the start of the week.

Have you got any more ideas how you find inspiration? Please feel free to leave a comment in the box below.

Logo Design

I was approached by a health business expert who is in the process of starting up a business in association with Forever Living Aloe Vera Products to design a logo and business card. In this post I show how the logo developed and evolved over the two week process.

Starting point

To start I needed a basic understanding of the company’s service and products. I was informed that Diamond Lifestyles will be promoting a lifestyle selling Forever Living products and building a team of other sales members to keep the sales flowing, increasing your turn over and reaching the “Diamond Lifestyle”.

My first idea was to combine the Aloe Vera plant with a diamond as can be seen in this picture below. This was a very basic idea and only a very quick mock up to see what it may look like combining the two elements but I beleived it to be “too literal” and no at all professional or communicating the right message so… I went back to the drawing board!

Classical and elegant typography

My first thought was to be very visual but then I considered how other health companies represent themselves to the market and after studying some of the more successful brands a classic and elegant style is used by most brands. I decided that I would try combing the D and L to create an abstract use of the two letters and ensuring the typography was communicating the right message.

I decided this  was the right way to approach the logo but decided it needed some graphic within the lettering. As the company was branded Dimaond Lifestyles I wanted to include the diamond somewhere on the logo. Above you can see the first logo is inside the lettering on the tip of the L but something just wasn’t right so I got a pen and paper out and did a few sketches.

Realising that the key aspect of the company is to help people reach the pinicle point of a “Diamond Lifestyle” I took the back of the D & turned it into a pedestal ( as can be seen above ). This felt right and communicated the message in a more subtle way than the first idea.

Developing the logo idea further

The logo was starting to get somewhere! The pedestal idea was really liked by the business owner and thus some more development ensued. I realised that the new logo had no relevance or indication that Aloe Vera was involved in the company which I considered to be a slight problem.

Considering the plant itself, an aloe vera leaf has what look like spikes ever so often down the edges. Taking this element of Aloe Vera I added it to the D but after self analysis I concluded it was starting to look less clinical and elegant and starting to look a bit more cartoon like which I definitely didn’t want. The message I was sending out to anyone viewing the logo was going in the wrong direction so I took a step back and added The name of the company below the DL positioned like a set of stairs.

Big is best?

After showing the logo to my client we discussed how we both felt the diamond was being lost a little so I made the diamond a lot bigger and more prominent in the logo design than it used to be. Below are a few different variations of the logo with a large diamond.

Add some colour to your life

Now we had enlarged the diamond colour was the next thing to be considered. My client said “I don’t think black is the right colour for an Aloe Vera company” and maybe she was right.

The black is the colour I usually create any logo in so that colour doesn’t influence design but black can also be used in logo design to represent a clinical and crisp feeling which is a characteristic that I felt was important in designing for a health company.

Listening to my clients wishes I took the favoured logo design and then tried varying colours to see what it may look like.

Realising that flat design is in vogue at the moment I tried to steer clear of gradients…now that the logo had colour I didn’t feel it was adding anything of particular value and I still felt as though the black was best closely followed by the white, my client agreeing but also showed interest in the green ( for the literal sense of aloe vera).

Too cartoon like again

Again I felt adding colour to the logo in this flat fashion gave the impression of a cartoon like and even worse, cheap impression to the company which I wanted to avoid thus I spoke to my client and suggested we strip back the colour again and consider “the colour of a diamond”.

A diamond doesn’t have any colour, it can trap light and thus become iridescent of every colour of the rainbow but it is in my opinion a diamond shares similar qualities to that of ice…all these thoughts of multiple colours led me naturally onto considering a 3d gradient approach.

Diamonds are forever

As can be seen in this logo the diamond has been reduced right down but an edgey diamond like gradient has been applied to the logo. Showing this to the client she was extremely happy with how it looked, she preferred a 3d look rather than the flat logo, it was really starting to go in the right direction.

Final Logo

The final logo was slightly metallic/silver. It kept the initial idea of a clinical and sleek look to represent the health industry whilst keeping colour to a minimal to avoid any message linking to colour. Although there is no representation of Aloe Vera my client and I concluded that the key aspect of the company is the “Diamond” status for new members of the sales team.

We discussed that the Aloe Vera could be on the business card thus communicating the link to Forever Living. To learn more about Diamond Lifestyles please click here.

In my next post I will show and discuss the business card I developed in combination with the logo.

Schedule tweets you say? But how?

Juggling your time between social media accounts and the important part, your paid work, can be difficult at times. You want to be seen as active on Twitter and attempt to add something of value but you also want to ensure you complete your work to as high a standard as possible so tweeting ever so often isn’t really productive to your job’s productivity. Do not fear, there is a solution! In this post I discuss how you can schedule tweets to appear at different times of day throughout your working week allowing you to get on with other elements of your job.

Managing your Tweets

Social media managing program “HootSuite” is a great tool to see all your social media identities all in one place. One of my favourite features about HootSuite is the ability to schedule social media activity down to the exact day and time it will be posted, how good is that!?

1. Set up an account with HootSuite

Setting up an account with Hootsuite is simple it even gives you the option of signing in with one of your many social media accounts once you have registered them. As you register to use Hootsuite you will arrive at your dashboard and a button will say “Add a Social Network”, click it.

As we are looking at Twitter then simply follow the instructions to add your Twitter account as your first social media to manage via Hootsuite, you can add all the others later.

2. Flying in to publish and schedule tweets

Once your log in to HootSuite there is a dashboard to the right. To proceed click the paper aeroplane symbol (publisher ) and you will arrive at the screen to schedule tweets that can be seen above.

In order to begin scheduling Twitter posts you type your tweet where it says “compose message…”.

Once you have composed the message you want to communicate, to the right of your newly created message is another box where you select the social media platform you want to share the message on.

As mentioned earlier Hootsuite isn’t just for managing Twitter and scheduling tweets, you can manage every social media program you use via Hootsuite so proper use of the program can really help you to be more productive with your time whilst enhancing your social media experience for you and others.

What time is it!? Schedule tweets tiiiimmme!!

Once you have completed your tweet and added a link to the post then you simply click the calendar icon ( shown in blue on the above image ) and a calendar will pop up with the date and time options. This is where you plan your social media activity.

There are optimum times of day that are best for posting on different social media  see this infographic on my Pinterest account for more information so you can get the most of scheduling your posts for certain times.

Once you have completed the time setting press “send now” and it will appear in your schedule list.

Repeat the process until you have a weeks worth of scheduled tweets at varying times, sit back and watch the tweets roll out allowing you to focus on the other parts of your job.

Wait! Don’t forget to interact with your Twitter community

Although its great being able to pre-plan your tweets don’t forget that Twitter is a “social” media platform so try and interact with people’s tweets and when you receive communication on your own tweets, respond back for Pete’s sake!

The more you personalise people’s experiences with your social media accounts the more you will gain in online respect as a social media influencer.Like in the real world talking and giving importance to others views and opinions helps to build relationships, no one likes to be just spoken to and not heard…

Hootsuite is a great social media management program and to be able to schedule tweets is just one of the many great features that it has to offer. I highly recommend you take a little adventure through this management program and see just what can be done with it.

If you have any feedback or have a question please don’t hesitate to contact  me below or hey, why no on my twitter account?

So you have your Twitter account and you have a few thousand Twitter followers, great stuff! After a small amount of time, you notice a feature on your twitter account to the top left called lists. “What the heck is this for, Twitter lists!?” you think, why on earth would anyone need a list feature? Well in this post I hope to help decipher exactly why Twitter lists are useful and how to use them effectively to improve your social media experience.

What is a Twitter List?

As your twitter followers increase and you start following lots of relevant Twitter users, being able to keep up to date with all your favourite Tweeps and finding useful tweets can become difficult, if not impossible. One feature of lists is to help you cut through the noise to find the diamonds amongst the coal!

Twitter Lists help you organise tweets you are interested in

A list helps you organise your favourite Twitter users into a type of “Twitter Groups”. So for instance, if you look at my Twitter Lists on my personal account you will notice at the time of writing this blog post I have around ten lists, three of which can be seen below.

Being able to add your favourite Twitter users to groups makes it easy for you to organise the most influential Twitter users you follow into categories like “Web Design“, “Graphic Design” Typography” etc and is useful for when you are having a day where a specific interest is grabbing you. I guess you could compare twitter lists to a telephone directory, it makes it much easier to find people and information you are looking for.

So why should you bother creating Twitter Lists?

There are several reasons you may want to create Twitter lists, one I have already discussed to keep track of your favourite Tweeters but there are more.

Another reason is to build relationships with those who really matter to you in your personal and professional life.

Build Relationships using Twitter Lists

By adding someone to one of your lists that Twitter user is notified and it is almost like giving that person a little high five to say “Yo! My hommie, your tweets rock my world!” and helps to build a mutual respect between the two of you, after all, you think that Twitter owner can add a lot of value to your digital life.

Recommend other Twitter Followers

When you create a new Twitter list you have an option to make it private or public. If you think that some of the people you have in your lists should remain private ( i.e. family members, celebrities you like or a bit of a detective keeping track of your competitors tweets) then do consider making a list private otherwise keep it public.

This helps the Twitter account user benefit from a little bit of publicity should your followers check out the twitter list they are on.

Make a Twitter Search for Twitter users easier by sharing lists

You don’t have to keep your lists stored away in the Twitter closet…get it out!

Simply navigate to the list you would like to share, copy the  url and post it into your Twitter Feed. Hey presto! Twitter list shared!

Do you have to be following the user you include in a Twitter List?

This is a question I asked myself when I started creating lists and the good news is, you don’t have to be following them!

This is particularly good news if you are reaching your “2000” limit and unable to follow any more users ( until you have a 10% followers to following ratio ) but don’t want to loose some really influential and educational tweets.

To gain the most benefit from this part of the twitter list feature  then you need to use twitter tools like justunfollow.com.

One of the features that Justunfollow has is that it allows you to find who is following, not following and unfollowing your Twitter account cutting out the mystery of who to follow and unfollow.

There are more features to this Twitter tool but I recommend visiting the site for more information.

Ok, so I kind of understand Twitter lists now but how do I create one?

Rather than rewrite the wheel, so to speak, I have provided a link to Twitter’s very own guide in how to do this here.

Should you have any questions about twitter lists or have some more information you would like to share navigate to the bottom of the page and please leave a comment.

P.S. Please add me to some lists too and I may just return the favour! Cheers my dears! 😀

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