I just did something that’s been on my “To Do” list since forever. I updated my Twitter profile with a customized background that contains my company and personal contact information. I’ve found myself using Twitter more frequently since it’s a convenient way to update my Facebook status as well as keep in touch with my family and friends. If you haven’t discovered Twitter – here’s a 2 minutes video that explains how it works.
Previously I’d made some lame attempts to upload my own backgrounds but they always looked slightly off. While I can shrink images for posting them on the web, my graphics capabilities stop right there. I had decided that professional assistance was probably in order. Thankfully last night Nan Palmero twitted about a custom Twitter background that he’d had made for his page. That was enough for me.
Twitter backgrounds are nothing more than big image files. The web is full of templates and starter images. I’d like to say that with a little time and effort I could have done something similar myself. And I’d probably be right. But by the time I was done tweaking it would have been 3 am. So I decided to call in the professionals!
The company Nan twittered about, Design Offering, creates custom Twitter backgrounds which are essentially one big JPG image design file that you upload to Twitter. This static image can be a more artistic design, or as in my case a summary of how people who stumble upon your twitter items can reach you.
I paid the $9.95 via Paypal and was contacted shortly after by Robert Losch who asked me via email to provide him with:
An idea of whether I wanted a casual or business design
What design style I’d like (In my case I simply found a similar Twitter background style that I liked and described it)
Any favorite colors that should be used
About two hours later I received the first draft of the image. I emailed Robert some updates (changed my mind about using a company logo and instead went with a more personal photo).
This morning the image landed back in my inbox – complete.
The final step to using a custom Twitter background is to upload it to your Twitter account via the settings screen.
I went with a very plain design because I anticipate using Twitter for both business and personal. You can have your Twitter background as fancy as you would like (there’s a maximum image size of 800k).
Certainly you can design the images yourself. I found it more of a hassle to piece together all the components and get the image just right and decided to leave the design work to the professionals.
What I Like:
Fast
Customized to my colors, pictures, content
No hassle of reformatting images and wasting time making a graphic look just right
Background page enhances existing (meager and plain) Twitter profile
Link: Twitter Backgrounds – Design Offering – $9.95
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