Don't simply accept Twitter's defaults
Twitter is perhaps the go-to social-networking site for anyone looking to share interesting information, tawdry gossip, breaking news, or knee-jerk reactions. Nonprofits should not only be using Twitter to broadcast their own pertinent information about their current successes and their upcoming events but also to share similar information about the efforts of their peers. Even more so than Facebook, Twitter can turn a pithy announcement into a viral retweet.
Content is certainly king, so don’t simply slap down the occasional message just to keep your tweet stream trickling. That said, your organization’s tweets are competing against 400 million others every day. How are you going to stand out from the crowd? For one thing, don’t simply accept the generic colors and designs that Twitter offers its members. Let’s see how to brand your Twitter account with your colors and logo.
The logo/image is the easiest thing to customize and can be done right within Twitter. Moreover, you can pick one of their 25-odd backgrounds or tweak the colors of those backgrounds. If you want to create a pattern, be sure to test its ability to tile seamlessly, to avoid awkward and unsightly lines.
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If you want to take your customization to the next level − and any nonprofit or charity should − a wonderful and free tool is FreeTwitterDesigner.com. Though still listed as a Beta platform, we found it reliable, easy to use, and plenty flexible to brand your account with the colors, shapes, and images that will make your site a real standout. As the screenshot shows, you can add your organization’s colors to the background and sidebar, you can add shapes and customize them with shadows and embosses, you can even add your own call-out message to your site. Once you establish the look you want, FreeTwitterDesigner can connect directly to your account and upload your creation, or it will save a .jpg file for you to upload yourself. What we especially liked about the platform is that it offers WYSIWYG simplicity as you tinker with exactly what you want from their tools.
If such tools still do not give you exactly what your charity or nonprofit wants, you can turn to online design services like TwitterAndBeyond.com (though their inability to spell ‘professional’ properly is rather unnerving). The going rate is about $100 for a custom background, though you don’t enjoy the cooperative development of your project that you’d get from a design firm.
Other opportunities to customize in this manner exist, and there is no reason your organization shouldn’t use one of them to brand your Twitter presence and distinguish yourself from the crowd. Fine design won’t make up for indifferent content, but you don’t want your good work to go unnoticed in an undifferentiated Twitter account either.
