Personal conflict over my own Twitter page is what led me to writing these posts (click to read “How to Make the Most of Your Twitter Page, Part I“). You see, I knew my description needed some updating, and my background and colors didn’t reflect the newly redesigned look of my blog. Your Twitter profile page is an extension of your blog, so now that I had a new blog look, I needed an updated Twitter page, too.
Twitter Page Profile Photo
I started with my Twitter profile photo. I “fixed” my existing photo by changing it from a sepia finish to black & white. This allowed me to keep my current photo and have it coordinate with my new grey/blue/green blog color scheme.
Something to consider: Consistency is key. If you are going to change your Twitter profile photo and you use the same profile photo for BlogFrog, Klout, PeerIndex, StumbleUpon, etc., be sure to make that same change in every place that photo is used.
Twitter Page Description
Next, I tweaked my Twitter description. My existing description read:
Thirty-something. Temporarily-retired marketer. Chi-Town girl. SAHM. Relocating & home-remodeling fiend. Internet shopper. SUV lover. Organic. Anti-HFCS.
I wanted my description to serve as a reflection of me and to give a potential follower a general vibe of what I’m all about. If someone were to ask me to characterize myself in a few words, these words are what come to mind.
Now that I have a new venture* with Kristin of Taming Insanity, I needed my Twitter description to reflect that. Here’s what it now reads:
Thirty-something temporarily-retired marketer, SAHM & Chi-Town girl. Internet shopper. Relocating fiend. Organic. Anti-HFCS. Co-Founder of EliRose.com
Some things to consider: You are limited to 160 characters. If what you’d like to say is too long, what elements are essential? Is there anything that goes without saying? For those who are having a difficult time crafting their description, do you have a tagline for your blog that you could use?
Twitter Page Background and Colors
After modifying my photo and tweaking my description, it was on to the background and colors of my page. When Sharon from Good, True and Beautiful did my redesign, she told me about this super awesome (and free!) online tool at BGPatterns.com. You can choose your color, texture and image pattern (including setting the image’s opacity), then save a “tile” to upload for your blog or Twitter backgrounds.
Sharon used this tool for my blog’s background, so I followed suit and changed my Twitter background to match. I uploaded my grey textured tile by clicking the “Change background image” button under Settings when logged into Twitter.com.
With my new grey tiled background in place, I adjusted the colors of my sidebar, text and links next by clicking the “Change design colors” button.
Once done, I saved my changes and completed my Twitter page redesign!
I used BGPatterns in order to match my blog, but there are other free Twitter design sites that you can check out, like Themeleon and FreeTwitterDesigner.com. Also, if the thought of designing your page makes your head hurt, you can instead upload your blog button (either as tiled background, or a single button image that will appear in the top left corner of your page), and adjust the background, sidebar and text colors to match it.
Something to consider: Since your Twitter page is an extension of your blog and a reflection of you, how it looks and what it says is going to be very different from blogger to blogger.
I made changes based on what is best for me, and I hope that these posts provided a few thoughts and tools to help you make your Twitter profile work best for you.
*To see what KLZ and I have been up to, check out Eli | Rose Social Media (@EliRoseSocial)
Thanks for the info on designing your own Twitter background page. That will be helpful for me.
Great tips! I really need to do this, something to work on when I have a free minute or two. Thanks!
Great tips! I just headed over to check out your new business.
And this is why I am Spiccoli and you are not. Thanks for sharing the knowledge.
These are great tips…especially for someone just starting out!
I am loving these tips, after reading your first one, I “Tiled” my button for my blog on my twitter page and tweaked my description. These were awesome ideas!!
THANK YOU
Great tips! Thank you for sharing!!
Wow, I’m impressed. I was getting stressed just thinking about trying to figure this out when I got to your brilliant idea about adding my button to the background. That I can handle. Thanks again for some great tips!
Thanks for the tips. My Twitter page needs so much work it’s ridiculous. I finally changed my picture, which is a start. Now I need to work on the background.
Great tips, once again! I’ll have to check out EliRose tonight. From a quick glance, looks like a great venture for you two.
Very helpful, Liz! I think I need a little tweaking on my page.
Well, I know what I’m doing this weekend.
This weekend…I know what I’m doing NOW…work can screw off
Does anyone else worry incessantly about their profile? Anyone? Anyone?
*puts up her hand*
*whew* Glad I’m not alone. Those 160 characters sure make me anxious…”will they like me?”
Great tips!
Great tips! I’m all about making my Twitter page better. Any thoughts on what type of picture? The one I had is pretty old (as I was pregnant in it, although you can’t tell) but I feel like it fits my personality. I need to work on my description, I think. Lots to think about, liz! Thanks!
What a great and incredibly helpful post. Thank you! And I love elirose.com so much–beautiful site! And it just helped me with adding my email to my google profile. Thanks!
Another awesome article! Love it! So extremely helpful! Continuing to tweak my twitter page!
Nice post. Good advice. A twitter page is an extension of one’s blog. I still need to update mine (the twitter page). Sometimes it’s difficult to keep up with everything! Still, good points here.
Yours looks really cool, Liz! I have to get on this…and 30 other techie things I should be doing. But I appreciate that you put it into plain English for people like me!
Have I ever told you I think you’re cool? Why did I thoroughly enjoy this information and I don’t even tweet?
You know, when the girls are in school, I think you could do web design/twitter background/social media consultation for small businesses.
I really do.
and…whoa? What’s this about a new venture with Liz? Hello? ON my way…
Great info! Thanks.
How do I get my background picture to be Kate’s flower portrait?
THAT’S what I’m talking about…
(no offense to Maddie’s art which would – of course- be my second choice.)
Liz, you’re amazing! Thank you for these tips and I can’t wait to check out your new venture. No doubt, it will be a huge success!
I’m having a twitter identity crisis. For some reason I’m being put into “mom blogger” categories and being asked by multiple people through Twitter DM if I will be joining them over at mommy bloggers, momsrus, etc. I’m very confused as I don’t talk about my kids and certainly don’t post pics of them, seeing as I have none. Maybe I need to make this more clear in my description.
I can’t wait to use these tips when my blog redesign is complete! Thanks, Liz!
Such great info. Had no idea about those free design sites. I had my blog designer do mine, because I’m lazy. but this will no doubt come in handy at a later date!
Amazingly helpful – love all the free design suggestions and links. I’ll get to this (like everything else) eventually! Your new venture looks exciting – congrats!
Such good tips, that are so often overlooked (even by those of us who know better!)
I love your passion for Twitter. I’m just not there yet.
You rock Liz! Love the advice. I must say that this is the reason I updated my twitter page. It’s no work of art, but I’m happy to say that I did notice an increase in followers. Keep the advice coming.
I’m totally going to check out that website to get a new tile. So helpful – thank you!
And look at you and KLZ! What busy bees you are!
Very well explained…I love that about you..simple and to the point!
Thanks for the info! Super helpful.
You’ll be very proud to know that I actually went over to your twitter page after your Twitter I post, and it looked quite lovely and was so very impressive. Although, confused the s*** out of me. I mean . . . what’s with all the @’s and #’s and all the other thingies? Oh, and one more question . . . do you sleep? (I can’t figure out how you do all of this . . . you must be one of those nocturnal folks, huh?) You amaze me, ma’am.
I took your advice and changed my bio. I would have liked to put “champion for the underdog, but it didn’t fit. I will think about putting my logo as a tile … do you know of a program where I can make a blog button?
Great tips! I am so behind in all of this stuff. Gotta get in the game! Can’t even remember how to change my avatar (I think that is what it is called – the little picture that shows when I post on a blog).
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Oh this was brilliant! Thank you for sharing!