Found In: Social Networks
You tweet, you retweet, and you follow but you’re really just one of the minions until you do a custom background for your Twitter page. Does it have to be about branding? Not necessarily–but it should be about you.
The 140-character length of tweets, the 160-character bio that appears at top right, and the tiny thumbnail that people see as your icon, even combined these don’t really add up to a whole lot of information about you. Often when people visit your Twitter page, they’re trying to decide whether they’ll follow you or not. They’ll look for the frequency of your tweets, what you tweet about, if you have a website, if there’s something useful that they can retweet, and they’ll also try to get a sense of who you are and why you’re using Twitter.
For many, using Twitter is a pastime or something to do on the mini-break. For others, it’s social media that is used purely for socializing. For still others, it’s a way to stalk their favorite, albeit willing, celebrity. For many, however, it’s also a way to network and a way to extend their marketing. In other words, it’s about business.
Whether you’re interested in branding your business or simply attracting more followers, here are a few points to consider when it comes to good and bad Twitter backgrounds.
• Be aware that you cannot control how much of your background viewers will see. The monitors that people use have different resolutions, effectively controlling how much they can see at one time, and they can resize their browser window as they please. Both characteristics factor into how much of a Twitter background is seen. You can, however, make the most of your chances by using the left side of your background–the most important part–and by keeping it narrow. Many of the most successful backgrounds limit the critical information, be it a photo or text or both, to a column at the extreme left of the background that is no wider than approximately 120 pixels. By the same token, the background doesn’t scroll so keep your information “above the fold,” in the upper portion of the browser window.
• You can also increase the odds that your background will be seen correctly by most viewers by selecting an overall image size that includes most monitors. The most common monitor resolutions used for browsing the internet are 1280 pixels x 800 pixels and 1024 pixels x 768 pixels, each accounting for 25% of all surfers. Thus, if your images are larger than 1280 x 800, they’ll be large enough that they won’t end abruptly when viewed on the majority of monitors that are currently popular.
• The image must be under 800K in size, per Twitter guidelines. A better rule of thumb, however, is to keep the image under 400K for a speedier load time. You can change the size of the file without changing the overall dimensions of the image by using jpegs with compression, i.e., saved with lower quality in your image manipulation software. There may come a point, however, when the quality of the image may suffer too much, at which point you’ll need to consider changing the dimensions of the image or possibly the size of the font that you may be using. If your custom background makes use of a solid color, remember that you’ll be able to change the background color via Twitter (as well as the sidebar and text, etc.) such that your background image could have smaller dimensions and blend into the background color where it ends.
• You can tile an image, but be sure to choose an image or swatch that can tile seamlessly. Images that don’t tile seamlessly can be distracting and also seem amateurish. Hitting the image sweet spot, at top left, may also prove difficult if you decide to use tiling.
• If you’re not a graphic designer, consider starting with free desktop wallpaper that you can either use as is or customize minimally.
• If you don’t want to alter an image, consider using one of the free Twitter background services on the web that will let you pick a background image and then add text and even logos that you can upload. The only drawback here is that they’ll likely brand it with their logo as well.
• When you’ve finally got your design, it’s time to put it up at Twitter. Log into your Twitter account, go to “Settings > Design”. At the bottom of the screen, click “Change background image”, click “Choose File” and navigate to the image on your local computer that you’d like to use. Then, click on the button that says “save changes” and see what you’ve got. At any time, if you change your mind, you can click on “cancel” or select one of the background image themes provided by zero.
By using a custom background image for your Twitter page, you are helping potential followers to understand what you and your tweets are all about, be it promoting a business or simply having fun. Consider showing a larger image of yourself, creating a longer biography, showing an email address, a URL, a company logo, or simply tiling a texture that creates a look and feel that fits your purpose. No matter how you decide to use your background, though, being aware of its limitations and potential will help you to achieve the final effect that you have in mind.
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