Tutorial: twitter backgrounds

Are you still among the newbies who have a generic Twitter Background?  Do you love the idea of having something that looks seamless with your website and blog?  Want to save yourself $60?

Starting today, when you sign up for our newsletter, you can get a copy of one of our Twitter background templates so you can start creating some fantastic new options for your Twitter page.  The busy folks over at The Filipino Entrepreneur had a perfectly simple display of the dimensions for your Twitter background.

One of the most important things to keep in mind when you’re doing your background is how it will look on other people’s screens.  It’s going to look much different on a 15″ monitor than it will on someone’s wide screen monitor.  Screen resolutions are something else you’ll have to consider.

Yes, there is a lot to think about, but my stance is that I can’t please everyone all the time, so I do right by me and try to please the most amount of people I can.  So when I design backgrounds, I do it for those people who have a screen resolution of 1024×728 which just so happens to be one of the most common resolutions right now.

So you can see that you have a few places to put your information.  The safest place {and most common} is the left hand side of the screen.  You don’t have a ton of room so you have to plan your content wisely.  Using the right hand side of the screen is something I personally like to include, but don’t put your most important message there because it’s going to be cut off by anyone with a smaller screen.  The background below (click the images to view the image on the Twitter page) shows how I used the right hand bar for a recent client.  When you look at her website, you’ll see how seamless her Twitter page is.

The other big consideration when you’re creating your background is the size of the finished file.  Twitter will only give you 800k of space so don’t load it up with huge graphics.  Besides, sometimes a simple design can be powerful.

And simple doesn’t ever have to be bland.  Just ask Shelley.

Here’s a few tips to get you through the process:

1.  When you export your graphic out of whatever program you’re using, make sure the final image will be the size you’re looking for.

2.  Take time to consider the sidebar and border of your Twitter page.  Choose something that will compliment the background but not necessarily white.  And watch your choice of border colours.  Yep, it’s only a few pixels but if you get it wrong you will definitely know it.

3.  Put your links in a blue colour.  Even though you won’t be able to click on them, it will draw the eye to them.

4.  Don’t put the same content that’s already on your website or in your Twitter bio.  This is prime real estate so use it wisely.

5.  If all else fails, give me a shout and we can help you put together a page that will knock your socks off.