1. Go to twitter.com and sign-in to your account if you’re not already signed in. You do this along the upper-right hand corner.
2. Once you are signed-in, you will see your menu choices along the top and these include: Home, Profile, Find People, Settings, Help, and Sign out. Click on “Settings.”
3. You now get a sub-menu of choices under the “Settings” section, including: Account, Password, Mobile, Notices, Picture, Design, and Connections. Click on “Design.”
4. At this point, your computer may ask you whether you want to only view the “secure” elements of this page. Click “No.”
5. You will see a collection of “themes” you can select from. Below the thumbnail choices representing your theme choices are two links: Change background image and Change design colors. Click “Change background image.”
6. You will see a “Browse” button to the right of an empty box. This is how you select the graphic from your computer. If you already have your graphic, click the “Browse” button to upload it now and then skip to Step 10.
7. If you don’t have a graphic you will need to create one. Depending upon your monitor’s resolution, it may appear that you have a “lot” of space for your background graphic. Or, it may appear that you have almost no space at all. The “lower” your resolution, the less space you will have. The graphic you use should be optimal for the maximum number of monitor resolutions, so it is best to keep your graphic no wider than 100 pixels wide. For example, our logo is 76 pixels wide on our Twitter page, but there’s still some “room to spare” even on lower monitor resolutions. So, if you’re thinking of uploading the cover to your latest book (which would be a good idea if you’re an author), you may want to consider a graphic size of 100 pixels wide by 150 pixels high.
8. Depending upon the graphic, you may need to “color match” the background color setting from Twitter. Twitter claims to accept .gif images, too, so you may also be able to use a .gif image with a transparent background if necessary. Fortunately, if you’re putting up a square or rectangular image, like a book cover, you won’t have to worry about this.
9. Save your image to your computer and then use the “Browse” button on your Twitter settings page referred to above to upload your image.
10. Once you have uploaded your image, be sure to select it from the thumbnail choices that appear below the “Browse” button. Note: If your image doesn’t appear, it means you indicated that you did NOT want to see non-secure images when you were asked. In that case, you’ll need to leave the “Design” page and then come back, answering the pop-up question properly.
11. Once you have selected your image thumbnail by clicking on it, click on the “Save Changes” button and your graphic will be added to your Twitter page’s background.
12. Congratulations! You’re done, and your branding on Twitter has officially started.
President of Outskirts Press 