Why I changed my Twitter background

Yesterday I caught a guest blog post on TwitTip (some great Twitter 101 gems in this blog by the way) about Twitter backgrounds and why I should change mine. I had intended to update my Twitter background some time ago but I never got around to doing it because I wanted to list some of my other social network accounts; however, due to the nature of social media, I have yet to come up with the ONE list of my social networks. Since Twitter backgrounds are JPG images, I didn’t have to go back to Photoshop every time to update my ever-growing, ever-changing list of social networks. I think I’m not alone in this.

I’m ashamed. This is the worst possible excuse. If at any point I wait around for the Web to “slow down” or the peak of its dynamic evolution… I’ll be waiting around forever.

I did it. I changed my background. And in the process I revisited my online presence – for example, I’m sticking with Ustream and Qik (because it’s jailbroken-iPhone-friendly) Sorry Kyte, etc. I also made very useful use of Google profiles so that I wouldn’t have to change that static JPEG constantly.

Why:

The default Twitter backgrounds are cool, no doubt, but if you are taking the time to be on Twitter and engage in conversations online you should go big… or go home, offline. Like the TwitTip post says, your background is your first impression on Twitter. If anyone is debating whether to follow you or not a background can help them figure out whether they share a common interest with you and can give them a sense of what kind of person you are – professional, personable, fun, serious, etc. Customized backgrounds are one step towards establishing your personal brand as well. If you have a blog or other social network profiles it helps if your background matches or is somewhat cohesive with the rest of your online personalities. Multiple identities is something that many of us struggle with on the Web but the more time you invest in customizing each of those identities in order to create some unity the easier it will be for others to wrap their heads around who you are. Finally, you can list other sites where people can find you online with a customized Twitter background image. This is a good way to cheat the fact that Twitter only allows you to provide one URL to list under your bio.

NOTE: The goal is not to accumulate more random followers by having a cool background. The idea is to help others determine whether or not you are follow-worthy for them and build relevant communities.

September 19, 2009 Update: Thanks to ClickableNow and the Firefox add-on, the links on my Twitter background are clickable. You should check it out, there much more to the ClickableNow site than just the links. They continue to develop the service so that you too can very easily customize your Twitter background. Thanks to @TDefren and the people at SHIFT Communications.