Put Your Best Social Media Face Forward – Customizing your Facebook Cover Photo and Twitter Background

At WePostMedia, one of the first things we impress upon our new clients is to get a professional images created for Twitter and Facebook. Along with a completely filled out profile and bio, and an attractive profile picture, an eye-catching, brand-focused Twitter background and Facebook cover photo are essential to your success in social media.

Nothing looks worse than a basic Twitter background, or empty Facebook cover photo. Creation of custom Twitter backgrounds and Facebook cover photos is one of the services we offer our social marketing clients, and over the years we have helped many of them improve the look and feel of their social media presence. There are a few sites which offer customizable Twitter background templates, covered in their branding. The resultant graphics are simple to use, sure, but in the end none of those backgrounds have the polish of a custom, professionally designed social media image.

Are you interested in making your own? Read on.

Templates

Templates are invaluable for creating custom social media graphics. Simply Google “Twitter template 2012″ or “Facebook Cover Photo Template 2012″. You’ll quickly find one that works for you. Any template you work with for creating your background should have resolution guidelines. We have provided a simple version of each template below, for use in Photoshop. Follow these for best results. Now get designing and have fun! When you’ve finished creating your image, upload it. You’ll be amazed at the difference it will make.

Background essentials: Must haves for a successful social media image.

• High resolution graphics: company logo, photos, etc.
• company or personal mission statement
• contact information
• brand colors

Just using a logo works fine as well, as long as your contact information is in your profile bio.

Facebook Cover Photo Specifics and Template

File Size: varies
Resolution: 851×315

 

Facebook has gradually been rolling everyone over to the new Timeline layout, from the previous sidebar image and five highlighted photos style. The cover photo is a new feature of this Timeline layout, and is a wonderful place to highlight your brand, or who you are as an individual. A small portion on the lower left will be covered by your profile picture, however it is possible to work that into the image in many fun ways. Creating your own cover photo for Facebook is quick and easy.

Click on the button to download your Facebook Cover Photo Template:

Twitter Background Specifics

Maximum File Size: 800k
Resolution: varies

 

Twitter has changed its format a number of times in the last few years. In fact, the one (and only) advantage that a default Twitter background has over a custom-designed one is that it always works with whatever the Twitter UI is currently doing.There is little risk of your face or company logo being buried by the Twitter stream, or your phone number being cut off at the last digit. Should Twitter rework the UI again, updating your background is simple, and typically only involves resizing the elements already present.

Designing a Twitter background that is completely viewable on all monitor resolutions can be tricky. Keep all important information to the left, to guarantee that everyone will see it, no matter the resolution of their monitor. If you keep everything to the left of the Twitter feed, you will have the most success.

Click on the button to download your Facebook Cover Photo Template:

That being said, a lot fun can be had with images and information on the right as well, but bear in mind that content on the right typically won’t be viewable by those with smaller resolution monitors (800 x 600 or 1024 x 768 for example), but those with higher resolutions should have no trouble viewing your creation.

To tile or not to tile?
That is the question. If your background tiles attractively, do so. If not, a good suggestion is to enter the hex code of a brand color or other coordinating color into the “Background” box on Twitter’s design tab. This will be less jarring should someone reach the borders of your image. This is typically only a concern with visitors who have the largest resolution monitors.

Have fun, be inspired, and put your best social media face forward.

@Thubten
CEO of WePost Media