Designing a Twitter Background

Different kinds of people are now on Twitter. Even technical writers are now using the social network to promote their documentation services. If you have your own Twitter account, you should design an appropriate background.

When you create your profile page on Twitter, a default background is often given to you. If you want to create substantial impact, you should use custom-designed backgrounds. It is an effective way of generate more traffic.

How can you design your Twitter background?

What kind of information do you want to convey to Twitter users? You need to choose the right information, palette, and color for the sidebar. You can see the background next to the message column. The image does not contain image maps and so you can’t insert HTML links. Once you switch the image, the default background is changed.

For a more professional and cleaner look (for those who want to use Twitter as a marketing tool), don’t include any tile on the image.

There are image editing programs that you can use like Photoshop that allows you to save in GIF or JPG format. You need to create a large image that can occupy the computer screen but without tiling. A rectangle of 780 pixels x 1200 pixels is just right. If this size is not enough to cover the whole screen, you can increase the size by making it longer or wider.

For your information bar, you can line up your images or photos, business info, and website; this bar can be found on the upper left of the background image. It can also include your name, job title, blog URL, specialty, social network URL, and other important information.

Try to save everything as image. You can also create much smaller files by saving it ‘for web’ (if you’re using Photoshop). After that, click on the settings and then ‘Design’. Click on the link ‘change background image’. By clicking on ‘browse’, you can now find the image that you’ve previously created. Leave the tile check-box unchecked. Finally, click on ‘save changes’. After several seconds, you will have a custom Twitter background image.

Your background on Twitter tells a lot about your personality. If you plan to use Twitter for online marketing, make the background more professional. However, if you’re planning to use Twitter exclusively for making friends and staying connected, make your background more friendly and inviting. Make sure that it suits your image and personality. Cool backgrounds are great for youngsters. There are many editing programs that you can use aside from Photoshop’ it’s up to you to choose the best one that can provide the best background ever.

For technical writers and other serious professions, stick to simple and basic background designs. Having a formal look can also attract formal followers who are serious in their business. Hurry and change your background now. If you have a hard time in following the instructions mentioned earlier, ask someone who has been using Twitter for some time; perhaps some of your friends or relatives know how to edit the background.

Twitter backgrounds can be custom made. If you don’t want to use the default background, change the image now. Find an editing program and start making the changes. Choose the information well especially those contained on the information bar.

Be creative and simple to develop a sensible background.

Twitter or Blogging

Most Twitter users still don’t know the basics of the site. You don’t need to choose between Twitter and blogging because the social network is considered a micro-blogging site as well. You can blog about anything as long as you consume the 140- characters. The short blogs are more personal and you can post anything.

What can you do on Twitter? Once you’ve created your own profile page, you can now post blogs. You can do it every minute, every hour, or a few times everyday. You can also follow bloggers and other users, create conversations by replying to the tweets sent to you. Through constant conversation, you can easily build good relationships. You don’t need to log to the Twitter site all the time because you can also receive and reply tweets through your IM or mobile phone.

However, there are also bad points in using Twitter. Your blogs will be limited to only 140 characters. For those who want to post longer blogs, Twitter is not for you. You must also use the code provided in giving replies.

Many new users commit certain mistakes in using Twitter. Some of them don’t use real pictures, they send too many impersonal tweets, they use AutoDM wrongly, they spam, etc; don’t commit these mistakes so that you can have more fun in using the social network site.

If you don’t want to get bored, you should find friends on Twitter and get as many followers as possible. If you can find friends, try to encourage your friends to join so that you can start using the site. It’s very easy to join and it’s free. Now, you can send tweets at any time of the day.

For a more memorable Twitter experience, you can add Twitter to your browser so that when you see it, you will use it most of the time. Try to post useful tips and interesting articles. Reply to the messages you receive. If you simply give some of your precious time in sending tweets and in communicating with your followers, you will have a great time using Twitter. You can also add Google Talk so that you can follow your friends and check on your followers even without opening your browser. You can also post replies and new tweets through the Google Talk.

Micro-blogging is for people who want to write short blogs. Blogs are usually long and in Twitter, you will only write very short blogs. It is more personal and you can let everyone know what you’re doing. If you want, you can also post beautiful and carefully-researched tweets. There are also those who join Twitter to conduct online marketing. Well, whatever your reasons are, you’re free to use the site.

Aside from blogging, Twitter is also for social messaging. Its’ very easy to type status updates. You can follow as many individuals as you like and you can also maintain many followers. You can interact with them online or through your mobile device. There are also small groups on Twitter that helps you in coordinating activities or events especially if some of your friends or followers are from the same area.

All in all, Twitter is a business instrument, social messaging, micro-blogging, reporting service, and marketing utility. Twitter or blogging? Well, it doesn’t really matter. Everything you want is in Twitter.