How to Customize Your Twitter to Compliment Your Website

Branding your twitter is essential to a successful web presence. It’s easy to create your own customized twitter page that will compliment your existing website/branding. Here’s how…

WHAT YOU WILL ACCOMPLISH | At the end of this tutorial, you would have created your own twitter page which compliments your existing branding/website background. You will use an element from your current site + twitter’s theme to create your own twitter page.

SHOW ME THE SAMPLE WEBSITE| Sample Admin Website

SHOW ME THE LIVE SITE| You may view the live sample of the final twitter page at Twitter.com/vatojane

Let’s follow each other on twitter| http://twitter.com/VATrngOnline

This is the second tutorial for our Twitter customization series. If you are technically challenged, you might want to consider trying out our first tutorial first.

How to Customize Your Twitter | for Virtual Assistants,Freelancers 1

INSTRUCTIONS

Level| Easy Cost| $0

You Need Twitter, Pixlr, PixlrGrabbler (or any screenshot tool)

Pick a Twitter Theme

Twitter Theme

You may simply choose one of twitter’s existing themes as a background to your twitter page. This saves you a lot of googling and customizing time. This assumes though that there is at least 1 twitter theme which compliments your existing website/branding. Do not worry about the color. You can easily change this to match your color scheme later.

You may also use other background/designs for this exercise.

ACTION| Pick Your Theme & Save it as a Background Image

Login to your Twitter Account
Goto SETTINGS – DESIGN – SELECT A THEME
SAVE CHANGES
Position cursor anywhere in your background, then Right Click – SAVE IMAGE AS [Save Background Image]

TIP| Alternatively, you may use Peekr to view the whole twitter page background. This is especially useful if you come across beautiful twitter pages you want to “benchmark” on.

Customize Your Twitter Background

Adjust Your Background Size & Color

1. Goto PIXLR.com.
2. OPEN IMAGE EDITOR, then open your saved background. FILE-OPEN
3. In Pixlr, goto IMAGE – CANVAS SIZE and adjust to atleast 1600 x 1200 [Adjust Size]
4. To change color, click ADJUSTMENT – HUE & SATURATION then drag the sliders. [Hue Adjustment]
5. To fill up the white spaces
  - Grab the COLOR PICKER & click the outermost portion of your template.
  - Pour color using PAINT BUCKET TOOL [Color White Spaces]

Add Your Website Element & Photo

If you have copies of the photos/images used in your website, please use those. If not, follow these steps:

1. Goto you website (ie. Sample Admin Website).
2. Take a Snapshot of the portion/s you want to include on your twitter page.
  - If you don’t have a screen capture tool yet, you may use PixlrGrabbler or ScreenGrab – these are free. We use SnagIt (paid)– excellent tool if you do a lot of screen capture (ie. for blogging). [Capture Website Screenshot]
  - Use the WAND tool – then DELETE to remove excess colors. [Remove Excess Colors]
3. If you have your own photo [Add Own Photo]
  - FILE-OPEN
  - Select MARQUEE TOOL and drag across your photo.
  - CTRL-C or Copy. Then Paste on your template’s left sidebar.

GUIDE TIP! You may download our Guide (Right Click – SAVE AS) to make it easier for you to position your photos/images. This helps ensure your images don’t overlap/go beyond other default elements in twitter. [How to Use Guide]

Design Your Background with Borders/Shapes [Add Broders & Shapes]

1. Use the DRAWING TOOL to add shapes (ie. left border)
2. Click EDIT – FREE TRANSFORM to resize images/shapes
3. Goto LAYERS – LAYERS STYLE to add shadow/effects
4. If you are feeling creative, try out the different effects on FILTER

Add Catchy/Informative Text

1. From the TOOLS Palette choose TYPE TOOL
2. Include your Name, Company Name, Tagline/USB, Contacts, Website Url, etc.

SAVE your file. [Completed Twitter Background]

PHOTO TIPS

The QUALITY of your photo is definitely critical to a professional looking twitter page!
You may reduce the size of your photo but never stretch your photo.
If you only have 1 cute photo and it happens to be small, try adding a background instead.
If your photo is not Vogue-material, consider applying creative effects.
- How to Edit Photos w/ Photofunia (Video/Slideshare)
- How to Edit Photos w/ Picnik & Befunky
For excellent one-click retouching/creative effects use PICNIK, BeFunky, Photofunia, FotoFlexer. We absolutely love them. You’ll love them too!

Upload Your Completed Twitter Template

Upload Your Completed Background Template

Login to your Twitter your account.
Goto SETTINGS – DESIGN – CHANGE BACKGROUND IMAGE then upload. [Design Twitter]
SAVE CHANGES Your new background should now be reflected!

Customize Your Text & Sidebar Color

Customize Your Text & Sidebar to Complement Your Background

For a more unified look, use the colors which are present in your background template. To determine your colors, go back to PIXLR.com
- Double click TOOLS – FOREGROUND COLOR [Color Picker]
- Point the color picker to any area in your template.
- Note down the HEX#s you want to use.
In Twitter, goto SETTINGS – DESIGN – CHANGE DESIGN COLORS & Plug this HEX# in Text/Background/SideBar [Change Hex#]
You should now see your masterpiece reflected on your Twitter Account! Make adjustments as necessary up until you get that Twitterific Twitter Page!