What Teens Know About Twitter Backgrounds That You Don’t

November 23, 2011 By 14 Comments
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Regular readers of this blog will know that I like to work with students from time to time on communications and marketing projects.

This semester I’ve been working with students from Internationella Engelska Gymnasiet again (read about a student social media case study here).

This week they’ve been giving presentations on their first taste of a Twitter campaign.

After reading the excellent Tao of Twitter they started out analyzing how a number of big brands including Starbucks and Subway were using Twitter. They then ran their own campaign to help promote a study programme at IEGS.

All the groups struggled to achieve their goals but one thing that stood out for me was the significance of having a great Twitter background. Starbucks, Subway, and so on tend to have impersonal backgrounds. Sure, they brand the profile for coffee or sandwiches, in this case, but they don’t engage. They are a visual turn off.

Many of the students went for similar, less personal backgrounds, believing it was better to go with a snazzy visual.

However, unlike the groups that went with what was basically relatively anonymous branding, Lovisa and Edward (pictured) along with Isabell and Olof, put themselves out there with a great picture that oozed personality and set the tone of their “brand”.

Although they were marketing to an incredibly difficult audience – 16 year old teens – the background oozes “approachable” and “fun”. Not bad for students not majoring in design.

I think the graphic also helped create a platform for which they can go on to succeed as they expand their text and communication work with video, podcasting and blogging throughout the academic year.

How to Create Personality with Your Business Twitter Background

  • Use bold images that ooze personality
  • Smile
  • Kill the corporate cheese – even if you’re Anna, twittering for Big Bad Brand, show your face, don’t hide behind a logo.
  • Get past the idea that the background should be exactly the same as your website.
  • Make use of all the space available.
  • Don’t go with a generic background – it sucks!
  • Avoid littering it with text. You can’t click on a background url.

What do you think makes a great Twitter background for a business or organization?

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About Jon

Owner of Jontus Media, marketing consultant, lifelong Liverpool FC support and podcaster. Guarded by basset hounds .

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  • http://www.linkama.com/ Kimmo Linkama

    You should also consider Twitter’s fixed-width site. The timeline and sidebar won’t resize on different size screens, so for example the iegs_hu background on a 15″ laptop shows only the back of the head and right shoulder of the guy on the left, the girl on the right disappears totally.

    If you can put some meaningful content in a very small sliver (some 135px, if I remember correctly) to the left of the timeline, that will show, the rest will be hidden under the content.

  • http://www.jontusmedia.com/ Jon Buscall

    Yes, I’m aware that’s a problem. But for branding purposes I think it’s a great picture. They needed to fix the size though, unfortunately

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  • http://www.jontusmedia.com/ Jon Buscall

    Another response to see is Disqus is working properly

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