Twitter unveiled it’s new profile recently and the new twitter layout makes it more consistent with other social media such as Facebook, Google+ and even Instagram which all feature a large wide cover image across the top. That’s not the only difference though.

I love the look of the whole profile, especially how all my important about information is featured to the left. I was excited to have a bigger canvas for a header image and whipped up a cover image for now that features who I am as well as all four of my main blogs. However I had some trouble with the resolution. You can see on my actual profile that the image doesn’t look as sharp as it should. It looks right on my computer but when it’s uploaded, twitter changes the resolution on me.

New Twitter Layout Features

• Larger cover image (1500×500 but not all of it is visible after upload (bottom cuts off) and the profile image covers part of it as above)
• Larger profile image (400×400)
• About information in left sidebar under image including join date
• Quickly see # of tweets, photos/videos, follower numbers and favourites. If you click on more you can see lists.
• Tweets that have received more engagement are shown in bigger font
• The ability to pin a tweet to the top of your feed to showcase it.
• The ability to view tweets only or tweets and replies.

What You Need to Know About the Header Image

I chose to go with an informational image but you may not want to do that as the image shows up differently in different places. I may be changing my header in the near future. When you are on the main twitter page, the layout is however you had it originally (I had chose this background before) and your header image shows up really small behind your face and cut off in the top left corner. Of course only you see this anyways.

On mobile your profile image has a different spot which makes my layout not look as good as a photograph or generic background would look. Keep this in mind when designing your image since many people access twitter from a mobile device.

What Does This Mean for Me?

New twitter profiles are rolling out over the next little while so if you don’t have one yet, you will soon. Start giving some thought to your images now.

• Think about how you use favourite tweets right now. If you don’t favourite any or favourite most tweets, you might want to reconsider. They are on display more so you might want to refocus how you favourite.
• Consider what tweet you might want to pin to showcase it. If you decide to pin a time sensitive tweet, make sure to come back to unpin it or your account will look out of date and like it’s not important to you.
• Make sure your about section is up to date (and if you are a blogger, please consider adding that word to your bio. Many of us will follow a blogger at the drop of a hat but if you don’t put it in your bio, we might miss that you are a blogger.)

Tell Me: Do you have the new profile yet? Do you like the look of it?