Ever happened to you?  If you’ve spent much time working with social tools, you hear what I’m screaming!

Today, I saw a tweet from fellow community manager Jenna Langer:

Does anyone know of a tool that creates a Twitter list of users that tweet with a specific hashtag? Would be great for #cmgrchat

I offered up BlastFollow (which allows you to follow users of a certain hashtag)*** and we also tossed out Formulists, an application with a robust suite of List functions (which blows the Conversationlist app way outta the water!) that I am VERY excited about!

Of course, while we’re on the subject of twitter lists, how could we forget TweepML?

You’d think with all of these solutions, there’d be at least ONE that collected users of a particular hashtag and converted them to a twitter list, right? WRONG!

This is about the time I had a thought and went to work to see if I could make it happen! Here’s how I did it (and for the record, it worked!):

1) I went to What The Hashtag and searched for #cmgrchat http://wthashtag.com/Cmgrchat

2) Click View Transcript, and Export as HTML

3) Created a new list on TweepML, and in the “Find users on this link” field, I entered the URL from the What the Hashtag transcript.

Still following me right? It was about now that I was getting ready to give up, and almost tweeted that, but after having done that much work, how could I?

4) a.  Because I was doing this as a test, and didn’t want to use my twitter account, I created new twitter account for the cmgrchat test.

4) b. I followed everyone on the TweepML list from the new twitter account.

5) I created the cmgrchat list and added each person to that list.

(This last step, was the only manual part, but was still fairly quick.)

For other chats looking to do this – and in particular to keep it up from week-to-week, I think someone would need to repeat steps 1-3. Obviously, you can skip 4a.

In step 4b, you will still follow all in the list (of course, TweepML will skip anyone you are already following). When the following is done, you just need to go back and add each new person to the list. The first time this was time intensive, but in future updates, it should be quick to just add the new folks to the list.

The only real issues I see here are for larger chats the initial set up could be time consuming (this took me about 10 minutes for a chat of 115) and when the chat list reaches 500 people, you won’t be able to add anyone else to the twitter list. However, I’m thinking that creating the new twitter account to “host” the lists is a great solution to this problem because then you could simply create a new list (like cmgrchat2) and take up too many of your available lists on your personal account for your chat list.

PHEW!

That outta tide you over until someone fixes this problem… and STAT!

***UPDATE 9/9/10: Blastfollow.com no longer works.

I’ll start from the very beginning, a very good place to start.  I created an account on Twitter about a year and a half ago.  One of my Facebook friends status updates always read, “is twittering:” and I was curious what she was so nervous about all the time…

I went through the basics – username, password, etc, and following people in my address book who were using Twitter (all of 2).  I have to admit, like most, I had no freakin’ clue what to do or how this was supposed to be used. Naturally, my facination with it didn’t last long.

It wasn’t but a few months later that I got the pink slip due to downsizing and I thought to myself “Well, crap, better get on Twitter.” See, although I had been managing a 30k + member online community for over 2 years, I really hadn’t wrapped my brain fully around what was going on in OTHER communities, unlike mine.

But what I did know, was that whatever it was that was next for me, was to be found on Twitter.

Long story, longer, as hard as I tried I could not locate my former account. So, I started again from step one, calling myself @Miss_Banana. (Why banana is my nickname will be saved for another post – and yes – it’s a clean story.) Picture, check. Location, check. URL, check. Bio, check. Name & Username, check.

Time to start tweeting, or twittering or whatever its called.  I can’t even remember what my first few tweets were, but it was football season and I remember being very active on the weekends and during games (watch out – football season isn’t far away). I spent the weekdays following others, lurking, reading and absorbing all I could. I would jump in when I: 1) thought I had something interesting to contribute and 2) could muster up the courage to actually post it.

My first follow: @JuliaRoy … not long after @chrisbrogan. I followed every person in Austin I could find (Not only is Austin where I happen to live, but there are cool people here, and I quickly found out that the social media and techie community was no exception.) I followed everyone that I saw in an @reply from someone I followed.  I was a follower MANIAC, trying to soak up and absorb as much information as I possibly could.  I read and bookmarked dozens and dozens of blog posts each day; subscribed to feeds for the “good ones”.

It wasn’t long before someone pointed out that I wasn’t going to make it far with the username @Miss_Banana.  I really appreciated that – as up until then, for the most part, I had been using twitter on a more personal level, but of course i wanted to be taken seriously in the long run.  That’s when @katebuckjr was born (I’ll save the “jr” story for another post as well.)  Somewhere along the way, I started using Tweetdeck, began playing with backgrounds, and stopped hanging out on Facebook all day.

There for awhile, I didn’t personally know anyone who followed me on Twitter, nor vice-versa.  And this was a good thing.  I found a comfortable voice for myself, and I found that 140 character posts were fun!  It gradually got easier and easier to post updates. At some point I must have realized the whole world wasn’t hanging on my next tweet.

That being said, as I watch the Twitter world rejoice with happiness as they opt out of Fun140 auto DM’s from hell, I can’t help but feel pride as the one who I single-handedly saved Twitter.

Here’s how it went down (or up, depending on how you view the stream):

And the rest is history. You’re welcome, Twitter.

Simple face-lift #1 – Choose one of Twitter’s ready-made themes and use “as is” (takes one minute!)

1. Log in to your Twitter account

2. Go to the “Settings” link in the top right corner of the web page

3. Go to the “Design” tab

4. You will see 12 images (“themes”) that Twitter has displayed for you to use. Click on one you like and then click “save changes”

5. Voila!

Simple face-lift #2 – Choose one of Twitter’s ready-made themes and customize the colors (takes 2-5 minutes)

1. Log in to your Twitter account

2. Go to the “Settings” link in the top right corner of the web page

3. Go to the “Design” tab

4. You will see 12 images (“themes”) that Twitter has displayed for you to use. Click on one you like and then click “save changes”

5. Click “Change design colors”. Here you have 5 boxes that allow you to customize the colors for the background, text, links, sidebar, and sidebar borders. You’ll be able to see how the changes you make look as you make them. Click “cancel” to start over. Click “save changes” when you’re done.

More customization /Branding #1 – Have an image of your own to use that includes your logo, photo, URL, and your tagline/slogan? (takes 5+ minutes)

1. Log in to your Twitter account

2. Go to the “Settings” link in the top right corner of the web page

3. Go to the “Design” tab

4. Choose “Change background image” and click “Browse” to locate the image you want to use on your computer. Remember, your image needs to be 800k or smaller and in a GIF, JPG, or PNG file format. Upload your image and click “save changes”. (Make sure the “tile” box isn’t ticked or your image will repeat.)

5. Once you’ve got your custom image uploaded, you can customize your text, links, sidebar, etc to complement your custom look by selecting “Change design colors”.

6. Voila!

Later, I’ll post some tips on creating your custom image so it doesn’t overlap with the Twitter posting area.

1) Tweet that everyone who has RSVP’d is either old or trying to sell stuff.
2) Let everyone know that your not going to follow them because you don’t follow anyone who has the word “social media” in their bio.

Tell me again why you’re attending the tweetup? So you can meet old people, who are going to try to sell you stuff and talk about social media?

More great tips on attending tweetups from @Omarg.

When you’re just starting out, I usually recommend putting up at least 10 tweets over your first couple of days. You want to have about a dozen before you start following people.

Tip: It’s fine to start following your personal contacts before you’ve built up your first dozen tweets. Twitter will find your personal contacts for you. Click “find people” in the top right Twitter navigation, and then click the “find on other networks” tab and enter your email log in information. Twitter will present you with a list of users that match addresses in your contacts. Tick the ones you want to be connected to on Twitter and click “follow”.

As for following people that have never met you, you want to have put a few tweets out there so folks will have a sense of who you are and what you’re about. Your tweets and your bio are how they’ll determine whether to “follow you back”.  Be sure to make your tweets compelling so that people will want to be in conversation with you.  I recommend not immediately including URLs to your company or product website when you’re starting out.

If you’re planning to market your product or services on Twitter, you’ll want to find people with similar interests – these are the people who will be interested in your website URL when the time is right!   Here’s one of my favorite tools for finding those folks: Twellow (The Twitter yellow pages – http://www.twellow.com). In Twellow, you can search by category, just like in the phone book. You can search on anything from boat building and book reviews to veterinarians and volleyball. You’ll find me in the Social Media category.
Another very cool thing is Twellowhood. You can use it to zoom in on specific geographical areas and get back the list of everybody in say, Austin, Texas, ranked by number of followers.

You can also search by keyword in Twellow. For example, type in “yoga”, and if “yoga” is in another users name or bio, they’ll be in your search results! If yoga’s your thing, you can follow the people in those search results right there from Twellow by clicking, logging in, and creating a profile –you even get to self-select the categories in which you want to found!

People want valuable connections with people who have similar interests and concerns. Twellowhood makes finding one another a lot easier.  You’re ready to start following people with matching interests and almost immediately the majority will follow you back! That’s when it’s time to start discussing the tools for managing and categorizing your followers.  Coming soon… the Tweetdeck and Peoplebrowsr lowdown!

Whether to use your own name or your brand name is an important consideration.  How do you want people to find you? What is going to be your primary identity? Will there be more than one person updating for your company/brand?

Many people use their own full name as their Twitter name. You may run into problems if your full name is very long because there’s a 15 character limit. For instance, my friend Miranda Wright Cole, ended up with the username MirandaWrightC as she didn’t have a brand she was promoting and wanted to keep her username as close to her real name as possible.

Tip: if you do use your real name, I recommend that you use an upper-case letter at the beginning of your first name and the beginning of your last name as Miranda does. (no space, of course, and no underscore between your names)

If you want to use your brand/company name for your username (as I do), you can also put your real name in the “name” field when you set up your account.  I prefer this method as then you are “double likely” to be found easily. This is because Twitter provides search results based on both the username and the first/last name fields.

Another reason to use your brand as your username is that it might be easier for people who want to communicate with you to remember and spell. Also, brand names tend to be shorter than human names and won’t use up character limits when people direct comments to you.

If you are in more than one industry or are considering having both personal and business personas, my best recommendation is: don’t. Wherever possible, marry up your many selves. I’ve found you increase the impact of your exposure by consolidating. And don’t forget, one of the great opportunities of the internet is the transparency it brings to business. Customers now have a unique opportunity to see the people that make up the businesses they deal with and they are hungry for that! It is easy to be both professional and personal at the same time. Just remember this simple rule: don’t tweet anything you would feel uncomfortable saying to your best friend’s mother.

The last item that needs consideration before creating your profile is what you want to say in your bio. Again, I find its best to marry up your many selves. Use a blend from your business and personal life. It doesn’t have to be a 50/50 blend. It could be 90% business plus the fact that you have a new puppy. This may take some creative honing as you have to express it all in 160 characters, of course.

Here are some examples (I’ve removed actual URLs):
“Conflict resolution and communication skills consultant, community mediator, conflict coach, social entrepreneur, puppy owner and lover of life”

“Journalist turned entrepreneur. Now running www.xxx.us a new biz model for journalism. Personal blog: www.xxx.org”

“professor of game theory and economics. enjoy internet and experimentation. married. one son. photography. golf”

“UX consultant/designer, dad, recently moved to Charlotte.”

Now that you’ve decided on your username strategy and drafted your bio you are really ready to dive in.  Go here and create your account! https://twitter.com/signup

Tip: remember to fill in your URL (to your company website, blog, or even your Facebook profile) and your location!

The next steps will be to personalize the look and feel of your twitter page, start tweeting, follow others, and get followers. I will cover these in future posts.

The following is Part I where I describe how to create a custom image to use for your Twitter background in three simple steps using Adobe Photoshop.

A)    Color your background

1. In Adobe Photoshop, go to the “file” menu, choose “new”, give the image you are creating a name (e.g. Twitter_background) and set your image size with a width of 1250 and a height of 1000.  Click “ok”
2. Click on the “rectangle” selection tool and then click on the color selector and choose a color for your background.  Click “ok”
3. Using the rectangle selection tool, select your entire image area and it will automatically fill with the color you selected. (you can additionally play with textures, gradients, etc. if you wish)

B)    Add your photo

1. Now, it’s time to browse for the photo on your computer that you’d like to drop into your background. Go to “file” menu, choose “open”, locate a photo of yourself on your computer that you want to use. Click “open”
2. Then, using the arrow tool, click and hold on the image of yourself and drag it and release it onto your background.
3. Reduce or expand the size of your photo, by dragging the corner and then move your photo to the top left of your background image. Once you’ve placed it where you want it, click the “accept” check mark in the top bar of Photoshop.

C)    Add your name, website address, contact information

1. Click the “T” tool to type text underneath your photo. I recommend using black or white –whichever shows up nicely with the background color you’re using.
2. Type in your name, URL, company name, tagline, contact info – whatever information you’d like displayed on your Twitter profile.
3. Once you’ve typed your info, you can place it more precisely by clicking the arrow tool and sliding the whole text area exactly where you want it. You may need to grab the right vertical edge of your text area and pull it to the left to narrow your text a bit.
4. Save your image as a .jpg. I recommend saving it to your desktop to easily locate it when you upload it to your Twitter profile.

You’re now ready to upload!

1. Go to the “Settings” link in the top right corner of your Twitter page.
2. Go to the “Design” tab
3. Choose “Change background image” and click “Browse” to locate the “Twitter_background.jpg” image you just created. Upload your image and click “save changes”. (Make sure the “tile” box isn’t ticked or your image will repeat.)
4. Voila!

In Part II, I will discuss in more using Twitter themes and other Twitter customization tools.

But honestly, blogging is just not my thing. And there’s already more than enough people blogging really great stuff, some of which are really brilliant. Personally, I have a hard time keeping up.

If you want fresh & up-to-date content STREAMING LIVE from my brain to your browser…follow me on twitter. I’ll let you know when I’ve got something to say that’s more than 140 characters!

http://twitter.com/katebuckjr