Today, with very little advanced warning, Twitter finally launched its new Brand Pages, or ‘enhanced profile pages’. The irony is while they’ve been teasing the public with this update for months, the fact that they chose today to announce it came with no forewarning or fanfare. Here are the two main changes to Twitter Brand Pages.
“So today’s changes are all about bringing that personality forward, more photos forward, so it’s much easier to see the media experiences and flip through them,” said Twitter CEO Dick Costolo on NBCs Today Show earlier today.
The 2 main updates to the Twitter Enhanced Profile Pages are as follows:
- Twitter header photo– You can now display your brand prominently and immediately engage with your profile visitors. To select from the pre-loaded themes or upload your custom image, visit the design tab within your Twitter settings page. Use the image cropper to make the best selection. An automatic gradient will appear on the profile header. Image maps, animation or flash are not allowed. The image maintains 2:1 aspect ratio on all screens (minimum 200px x 100px). For best results, choose a profile header that is 1252px x 626px as it will display best among all different types of media devices.
- Pinned tweet– Display the most important content on your profile. Select any of your Tweets to pin to the top of your profile timeline. Manage your pinned Tweets from the advertiser campaign dashboard. If you select more than one Tweet to pin, we will display the most popular Tweet.
To read the official statement from Twitter, please click here.
While Facebook and Google+ both also have header photos, Twitter is unique because existing user profile images will be superimposed over the center of the header rather than off on the bottom left, where they appear on Facebook, or to the right, where they appear with G+. Therefore, it will take a little strategy when creating your Twitter header photos. Mashable put together a brief video on how to make creative header photos.
How to Add a New Twitter Header Photo
- First, visit your profile page either on Twitter.com or via your mobile app.
- Click on your name in the upper left hand box. This will take you to your profile page. From there, choose ‘design’. Or you can also visit Twitter.com/Settings/Design
- Once on the design page, either select a photo from your existing library or upload in one from your desktop.
- To upload a header photo from a mobile app, visit to the “Me” tab, click the settings button (gear), tap “Edit profile” and then “Header.”
Here’s a video to walk you through how to update your Twitter Header Photo:
In addition to the header images, the layout also has bigger photo thumbnails in the left rail (where six are displayed in two rows instead of the previous four in a line). Meanwhile, the tabs on the left rail linking to user’s followers, favorites and users they follow — which are of more interest to Twitter’s power users than they are to the average consumer — are being given less prominent real estate, since they’ve been moved up somewhat and are no longer in the center of profile pages.
Have you updated your Twitter header photo or pinned a Tweet yet? Leave us comments of your experiences below!