Twitter has introduced a new feature to user profiles, the ability to add a custom header image. This does make profile pages look more appealing and also allows you to insert a marketing message or two if you so wish.
Facebook users are used to having a cover photo on their profile and business pages and these have proved popular with most users now taking advantage of the option to express their personality through a cover image.
A Twitter header image does not only appear on the main Twitter website but it is also available when looking on the profile page via Android and iOS devices, as long as you are running the latest version of the Twitter app.
It does work in a slightly different way to a Facebook cover image due to the positioning of your profile image and also your name, location, website and bio are all displayed over the image, centre justified. Facebook do not officially allow sales messages, website addresses or calls to actions to be included in a cover image. Twitter has no such requirements and instead I envisage that marketers will start to change the way that they structure the bio of a Twitter profile to take advantage of the new way that the bio is displayed. I do like the overall look of the new page layout and while it may not improve the user interface it does improve the look and feel of a profile page and may help to make Twitter a more engaging platform for users.
It is easy to add a cover image to your profile page:
- Go to settings
- Choose edit profile
- From the menu on the left of the page choose “Design”
- You will then see that among the options is a new “Header” option
- Click “Change header” and select “Choose existing image”
- Select the image that you would like to use and scale it using the slide control
- Click on “Save”
- Click on “Save changes”
You should now have a cover image available to viewers of your profile. Twitter recommend using an image that is 1200×600 pixels in size.
The image I have used is going to be my new logo and a brief description of what I tweet about, web design, search engine optimisation, social media and life. I have added an image of how my profile looks on a PC.
So far I have not seen much evidence of people or brands using this new feature but it is bound to prove popular over time. So why not get one step ahead of the competition and create your own Twitter cover image? You can follow my tweets @michaelwalmsley.