Today we have a special guest post by Marian Schembari (@MarianSchembari) from marianlibrarian.com telling us why we need a kick ass twitter background.
Last week I ran a massive sale on my latest service, Personalized Twitter Strategy. Phew! I am officially done with the mass of Twitter critiques, and it’s been an interesting couple of days, let me tell you.
Doing two or three critiques per day is exhausting in and of itself, but doing so showed me that many people are making the same mistakes over and over. I want to share with you the most common:
A Boring or Half-Assed Twitter Background
Having a relevant Twitter background is one of the most important parts of someone’s online presence. It’s also one of the most overlooked.
I critiqued the profile of a photographer who wasn’t showing off his work, which just blows my mind. What better way to give people a glimpse into your artwork than display it prominently on one of the most trafficked sites on the web?
Look how photographer and filmmaker Jory Cody uses his Twitter background to display his work in a creative and interesting way (click image for larger picture):
We want to see the whole package. I want to see how your background is relevant to you and how much thought you put into your Twitter profile. My thought is: It’s important to have a background that reflects you and what you do, as the images round out your personal brand and make you more appealing to followers.
Graphic designer Desirai Labrada (who I critiqued two weeks ago) subtly shows off her design skills with a highly personalized background:
How You Can Use Twitter Backgrounds
Are you an author? Show off your book covers! You want people to then recognize the jacket when they see it in the bookstore. If you have lots of books and don’t want to make a cheesey collage, think about using art to visually represeng the feelings in your books.
Now, Neil Gaman doesn’t need my help one little bit, but look at his profile below:
I mean, COME ON! The man wrote books that were turned into the most visually stimulating movies of all time. Artwork and tattoos are inspired by his words. Why does the man not play it up? He’s a fabulous tweeter (I use him as an example to many of my clients) and he’s wasting prime Twitter real estate by using a generic background.
Own a business? Hire a designer to create a customized background based on your logo. Check out Shatterboxx Media, I’m in love with their background and it matches their site perfectly:
Not sure what you’re niche is? I am so so proud of my latest 30 Minute Strategy participant, Emily Lu. She was lacking a little focus, but after 30 minutes with me she’s tied her background into her bio with the theme of “making a difference” (you need to read the quote and bio to get it – click to enlarge). Check it out:
Right now my background is a stock photo I bought from Dreamstime of a flower and words on a page. I like it because it’s girly and pretty and the book represents my industry (publishing). Someday I’d like a logo, but while I’m still poor my current image will have to do.
Is having a logo going to get you tons more followers? No, probably not. Will people even look at your bio more than once or twice? Nopers. Nowadays, fewer and fewer people are using the web to access Twitter. I myself am obsessed with Hootsuite and only use Twitter.com to look at people’s profiles when I’m notified they’re following me. Still, it’s important to show you take Twitter seriously.
About Marian
BIO: Marian, 23, is a blogger, technically a social media “thug” for authors (consultant is a boring word) and has a bad case of the Quarterlife Crisis. She’s got the travel itch too moved from New York to London and is headed to New Zealand in December. As much as she hates to admit it, her posts at marianlibrarian.com are usually about social media and the freelance life. When not blogging about blogging she helps people rock out on Twitter (but also secretly wants to be a pastry chef slash author slash farmer in the woods).
great content easy read much thanks
Great article! We're fairly new to Twitter, but one of the first things we noticed (sure, we're a graphic design firm) was how horrible people's Twitter pages were. We have been experimenting with a few, and love that Twitter allows you to do this. Thanks again!
great post. i've noticed that twitter backgrounds display differently in firefox, most often the background is mostly covered by the center section. people should check out what their pages look like in different browsers. for example, in firefox, you can only see half of a_singledrop's poem.
thanks for posting i enjoy your blog and tweets.
I totally agree. Though I have Firefox and am having no problem seeing a_singledrop's poem. Very weird…
that is weird. i can only see “a single dro” and half the p.
strange thing, this world wide web, strange thing.
Sometimes its because of the screen the person is using, some are using laptop and some desktop, maybe mac are different too. Backgrounds look diff on my desktop screen and on my laptop. If you want to see more of the background you can do this
Hold Control + move your mouse scroll
I agree, twitter pages are a little horrible, someone made a joke and said people spend to much time on twitter that they need that default background to remember how the sky looks like 🙂
Glad you found them useful 🙂
Hasn't this to do with your screen resolution? Smaller resolution makes you see less of the background, bigger resolution shows the image with blank gap next to it. No?
Twitter is a networking and marketing tool for many, many people. Having a custom-designed page that matches your branding or that stands out from the crowd is very important.
For some really wicked pages, check out @Petershallard, @michelfortin and of course, @menwithpens (yes, we design Twitter pages.) Those really show distinction and customization, I feel!
Great post, having a unique Twitter background definitely makes a difference! I'm definitely putting that on my to do list! 🙂
Yeah! Everyone should have one. Glad you like the post. It was a great blog post by Marian.
That is very nice! I'm sure many would want a custom twitter background. What is they best way for you?
Not quite sure what question you're asking…? (Sorry, I'm lacking coffee this morning!)
Great article, Marian – gee, Neil Gaman and I share a background – who knew? Will have to put a little time into this, I see…
Haha, well then you must be twins! Show him up one by getting on this 😉
Another twitter newbie here. Darn you for giving me another job to do! I can see I need to sort this out on my profile in order to reinforce my “brand”. Thanks for sharing!
LoL! Don't worry there are free backgrounds which are spectacular too 🙂
Aaron's right, there are some awesome places to get free backgrounds. My favorite is tweetygotback.com. You can always buy a stock photo or use one of your own!
Aaron's right, there are some awesome places to get free backgrounds. My favorite is tweetygotback.com. You can always buy a stock photo or use one of your own!
Abso-freaking-lutely. The backgrounds you link to are all fabulous – thanks so much for sharing! A friend of mine designed the Regretsy background (they were just going with the general theme – blech) and I think it looks GORGEOUS: http://twitter.com/Regretsy
Well, I kind of agree on the default or some other built-in background being boring, but for personal use, there are a lot of other ways to express what you're all about. For example, since I'm all about the others and not myself (kind of the whole 2.0 idea there..), I've just let some service make a collection of profile pics from my tweeple – the sum of what makes Twitter valuable to me (and all the companies are not).
Best regards,
@sigaard
http://creativefolks.net/
The #1 marketplace for graphic design, including logo design, webdesign and other design contests.
http://creativefolks.net/
The #1 marketplace for graphic design, including logo design, webdesign and other design contests.
HI MArian,
Loved your post and trying to take your advice. Every time I try to upload a new background, twitter says file too big (even for my smallest pics). Any suggestions?
Thanks!
Dave
Thank you for letting me know how important it is to showcase the love I have for health and nutrition by showing my followers I care about presentation.
If you look food and want to learn positive nutrition, follow @foodisourfriend!
Very well written, fun, and informative post. Keep up the great work and good luck with your quarter life crisis. Being a pastry chef would be much more fun…
yep I can attest that they look different on a mac, messing with mine right now as it displays differently on my desktop pc (different on Firefox and different on IE) and differenly on my macbook air (via firefox)