Like most everyone I know, I wasn’t sure what to make of Twitter when I first began using it. I didn’t know anyone on it, and I wasn’t sure I’d really use it all that much… and now I’ve sent well over 4000 messages through it, it’s my only means of communication with PAXers, and I’m not sure I could survive without it.
What’s more, Twitter has become an extension of my website. Whenever I publish a blog entry, it pops onto Twitter. It’s primarily through Twitter that I keep in touch with people from PAX, and for many, it is only through Twitter that they know me. Like my site, it ought to reflect my personality a bit more than a stock background, and perhaps more to the point, it ought to match up with my site.
I’ve written before about the importance of branding, so even though I don’t run Twitter, I should put my personal stamp on it. The first place I turned for help was Google, and it led me to the article Make a Good Impression with a Custom Twitter Background on Twitip. This article has some excellent advice, so if you’re looking to make a custom Twitter background, this is pretty much all you need.
I would offer one additional tidbit, though: Darren writes about the potential screen resolution your visitors will be at, and how that can affect your Twitter background–while taking this into account, also take a look at your Google Analytics results (which you ought to have set up) where you can see what resolution visitors to your site are using (see screenshot). I ended up going with a 200px wide branding spot; 120px was simply too narrow, and I think it’ll work for enough people to be worthwhile.
