8 ways to personalize your Twitter page

The easiest option. Twitter gives users some options to personalize their page.

Insert a link to your own website

Whether you use it for personal or professional reasons, be sure to include it. Mentioning a blog or website on your Twitter page is a way of adding some extra exposure for it. You can add it by going to:

* Settings (top of your Twitter page)
* Account

On that page you will find the "More info URL" box where you can insert the web address.

Update your bio

When people find an interesting Twitter page one of the first things they'll look at is the bio. These 160 characters say everything about the person(s) behind the account. You can add the bio by going to:

* Settings (top of your Twitter page)
* Account

In the box next to "One Line Bio" you can add a short bio (as stated maximum of 160 characters).

Change your picture

That's the default Twitter picture for your account to the right. Not much to look at huh? Twitter gives you the opportunity to change your account picture to the one you want. You could change it into a picture of yourself or maybe a graphic that represents you in some way. Resolution is not a problem (Twitter will resize it) but it shouldn't be larger than 700k and be in a JPG, GIF or PNG-format.

You can change your picture by going to:

* Settings (top of your Twitter page)
* Picture tab

By clicking the "Browse" button a box will open and you'll be able to navigate to the folder which holds the picture. Select the picture you desire and by clicking "Save" it will be uploaded to Twitter and it will be displayed next to your name on your page.

Select a different theme

Twitter has options to personalize your background with their own templates. You can find these design features by going to:

* Settings (top of your Twitter page)
* Design tab

In the design tab you will see 12 different themes. When not changed from first signing up, the default theme will be displayed. Just clicking on one of the themes will select it as your new current theme.

Use a background color

You're not restricted to using one of the themes. If there's just a single color you want to use as a background you can do so. Select the "Don't use a background image" button on the design tab and the default background color will be displayed. You can change that color to your liking by clicking the "Change design colors" button on the same tab. When clicking the background color you'll get a color circle where you can pick the color or type the color code if you know it.

In the same tab you can edit the colors for text, links, sidebar and sidebar border. Editing the color works the same way as editing your background color. This also works when you have selected one of Twitter's own themes or have uploaded a background of your own (more on that later) to further personalize your twitter background.

If you don't like the themes that Twitter provide and you want to display something else, there's an option for that as well. Only restrictions are that pictures must be smaller than 800k and should be a GIF, JPG or PNG-extension.

Let's say that you have a photo of yourself you would want as a background. You can add it by going to:

* Settings (top of your Twitter page)
* Design tab
* Change background image

This will open a smaller window. By clicking the "Browse" button a box will open and you'll be able to navigate to the folder which holds the picture. Select the photo and by clicking "Save changes" it will be uploaded to Twitter and it will be displayed on your page.

As a default Twitter will anchor the picture in the top left corner of your page. Depending on the size of the picture, this will leave room which will be filled by the default background color or the color you picked yourself. A solution for this is to check the "tile background" box which can be found in "Change background image". That way the picture you uploaded will be repeated across your page.

Many have used wallpapers to brighten up the desktops on their home computers. You can also use one as your Twitter background. Uploading a desktop wallpaper picture works the same as you would with uploading a picture. Just make sure that it's no more than 800k and is a GIF, JPG or PNG-file.

Word of warning though. Wallpapers are meant for display on a PC desktop. Because Twitter uses an amount of screen real estate to display your tweets, a large part of the wallpaper will not be displayed. Also, when someone with a lower screen resolution watches your Twitter page, a large part of your wallpaper will not be seen by them. Only the text box and the Twitter logo will be resized to the screen resolution of the visitor.

Here are some resources if you want to use a desktop wallpaper as your Twitter background:

Free Wallpaper Download

Free 4 U wallpapers

Free wallpapers

Wallpaper pack

Image courtesy of Free Wallpaper Download.

Because of the growing popularity of Twitter, there have been sites that want to enhance the Twitter user experience popping up all over the internet. Some of these specialize in providing optimized backgrounds for your Twitter page. With downloading or installing the designs you can personalize your page in no time. Uploading these backgrounds works the same as uploading any other picture.

Some sites that provide backgrounds are:

Twitterpatterns

Twitter background images

Twitter gallery

Tweetstyle

Twitter backgrounds

Powerpoint or Keynote are not the first pieces of software that come to mind when you think about designing your own Twitter background. But these two programs fro creating presentations have an option to export one of the slides as a .jpg file. As long as the picture sticks to the maximum measurements and file extensions things should be OK and uploading is the same as with every picture you want to use in your background.

Tomas Carillo saw that opportunity as well and created a blog post where he not only provided both a Keynote and Powerpoint template but also a step by step how-to.

If all of the above seems like too much work for you, you could always go the pro way. There are professional designers out there who will design your background for a price. Although you undoubtedly will get a professional looking page, this might only be a good option for a business Twitter page.

To give you an idea of how creative and great a personalized Twitter page can look, here are some examples:

Mr Tweet

Darren Rose from Problogger

Keylimecreative

Images courtesy of Kasper Sorensen.