Recently I offered a Twitter 101 Tutorial for small businesses who weren’t sure how to get started on Twitter.
Today, I’m going to follow up on that tutorial by helping you create your very own, customized Twitter background. I’m even going to help you do it for free! The whole process will take you about fifteen minutes.
Why you should burn 15 minutes of your day making this Twitter background
You don’t get a lot of opportunities to brand yourself on Twitter. You only get 140 characters to talk about your business. You get an URL and a picture. That’s it! That, and your great content, are all you have to arm yourself with as you get out there, attempting to stand out in a sphere containing some half a billion users.
Customizing your Twitter background gives you one more opportunity to capture attention. It’s a branding tool. It also makes you look more professional and established than someone who uses one of the “default” Twitter backgrounds. It causes people to sit up and take notice when they visit your Twitter profile page.
While some people will only look at you through the small window that pops up when they click on your name, others will want to visit your page directly. When they do, you want to give them something interesting to look at.
Now, if you want to be extremely professional you could get a real Twitter background designer to do this work for you. However, Twitter isn’t your primary lead generator. It’s mostly a resource that’s going to drive people back to your site and your content.
Personally, I wouldn’t spend a bunch of money on a nice Twitter background. I’d save that money for a bigger, better website instead.
The tool that will get you a professional Twitter background – for free!
Start by visiting www.FreeTwitterDesigner.com. Simply log in with your Twitter account.
As soon as you’ve signed in you’ll be presented with a couple of different backgrounds. Personally, I like the blank background. I feel like the blank background will actually look more customized and professional by the time you’re done with it than any of the patterned backgrounds. Of course, I also refuse to wear patterns because I can’t color coordinate, so take that with a grain of salt.
I also worry that one too many people will choose one of the other backgrounds, thus making those backgrounds look every bit as generic as the Twitter backgrounds I’m trying to avoid. By contrast, the blank background will look like anything I want by the time I’m done with it.
You’ll get to a page that looks just like this, though it will have your own Twitter account and actual Tweets on it:
Now you can do anything you want to it. For example, you can change the background color, add a logo or a picture, and even change the color of your Tweets. Just make sure you do better than I did on this example at making your logo match with the color scheme.
I did mention I’m pretty hopeless at the whole color thing right? There’s a reason why I use black and white on my real account;) If I did want to incorporate color I’d probably call my Mom or my brother, the artist, instead.
Now press “Generate Image” and you’re done! If you logged in with your Twitter account and authorized the application the entire design will upload straight to your account with no muss and no fuss. You can change it at any time.
Today’s Action Items:
- Visit www.freetwitterdesigner.com and generate your free Twitter background.
- Call your Mom for color advice as necessary:)
