August 30, 2010

How To Create A Custom Twitter Background

As one of the leading social networks, Twitter has become more than just a place for friends to keep in touch with one another. It is also a leading platform that businesses are now using to stay in touch with current customers and expand their reach to new clients. One of the central ways to stand apart from other Twitter users is with a custom background. Not only can you brand your Twitter page, but you can also promote yourself in creative ways via a Twitter background too.

Canned Backgrounds

If you’re feeling creatively challenged, or if you’re strapped for time and looking for a quick fix then visit one of these Twitter background sites and explore patterns, prints and images that can be used to spice up your page.

TwitBacks

Twitrounds

Twitter Background Images

My Tweet Space

Themeleon

Custom Built

Here’s a little secret, you can use PowerPoint and Mac’s Keynote software to design your own fancy Twitter background. There are two main elements to consider before you start to build-out graphic elements, monitor resolution size and final image size.

W3Schools current trends show that more than 76% of computers are using a screen resolution higher than 1024x768. The higher the resolution, the more that a user will see of the Twitter background. Having a grid that shows you how many pixels your background components need to be constructed at will make things much easier to put together.

Depending on what resolution size you decide to design your background for your placement dimensions will vary. Try giving yourself a width of 250 pixels from the left margin for your left hand graphics and at least 85 pixels from the top header bar. Experiment to see what works best for your layout and design. Here's a sample background template from Smashing Magazine to help illustrate how dimensions can be laid out.

Remember that the final size of your design is important because Twitter caps the size of backgrounds at 800k. Try to use JPGs and lower resolution images to avoid ending up with a file that’s 10MB in size.

When you’re ready to start building a background, open up PowerPoint or Keynote and create a blank slide that’s sized to the resolution of your choosing. Use the rulers and drag and drop guides to help you position your background elements. Once you’re satisfied with your creation do a Save As or Export and process as a JPG, GIF or PNG. Try uploading to your Twitter account to see how it looks.

Sidebar Promotion

Just like tweets are limited to 140 characters or less, Twitter bios must be 59 characters or less. That doesn’t leave a ton of room to promote your brand. That’s where the sidebar area comes in handy. You can use the left hand side of your Twitter background to feature other social media profiles, your blog URL, contact information and even some additional highlights about your brand, product and services.