Great, you have a Twitter for your YouTube channel! Now what? Uh, you need to promote your channel of course! You see any of these big time YouTubers and 9/10 times they have some sort of custom Twitter background. On this background you find a number of things, but mostly you’ll find their “brand”; brand being their YouTube channel name with some sort of design. I’m going to show you how and what you need to do to have a grade “A” Twitter background that will promote your YouTube channel.

Before we begin, you’re going to need some sort of photo editing program. If you have Adobe Photoshop, great! If not, don’t worry about having to run out and spend a few hundred dollars getting it. There’s a way to download the CS3 version for free via a torrent, but I don’t want to risk the legal stuff telling you how. So I suggest going to Aviary.com! It’s a great photo editing site that has programs just like Adobe Photoshop, and it’s free! Just note that this tutorial will mostly focus on steps done in Photoshop for the shake of time and length.

The first step is to find or take a picture of you. By having an image of yourself included in the background you increase the strength of your brand. Remember, your face is on your YouTube videos and this is how generally most people will recognize you. Put your face out there more and you’ll gain more attention. After you pick your picture, upload it into Photoshop, and start deleting the background. I often use the eraser tool. This is how it should look like once you’re done.

You can now start to get creative from this point. I used a brush to produce a type of frame around my image and cleaned it up. Whatever you do is up to you, and once you do it… stop! You now need to open up a new file before you go any further. The dimensions for this will be 240 width by 645 height in pixels. I choose this dimension, because I find it’s the best size for nearly all screen sizes.

Now that we have our template for our Twitter background the next step it to insert our image into it. First make sure to resize it within the dimensions give to you earlier. Keep in mind this shouldn’t take up more than 1/3 of the background. You’ll need to copy and paste the image into the new template (HINT: use the dash square tool). Also take this time to pick up a main color for your background.

From here, the content you decide to place on your background is up to you. However, here are some suggestions:
-ALWAYS have your YouTube name somewhere in the design. Remember BRAND BRAND BRAND!
-If you have an upcoming video, work the title and release day into the design. Don’t just throw it in there.
-You might want to consider having an image in there that correspond with your upcoming video.
-Stick to just a few colors, no more than three (not including your real life picture). Otherwise it looks messy and might draw attention away from it.

The last step for your Twitter background design is to add all your links and wanted information. ALWAYS have your YouTube channel link in there. Some people are not smart enough to put two and two together and figure out your link. Also, if you have a website or a side project you’re working on you should include them. This brands yourself a little more and gives people the chance to know you. I personally like to keep this part simple instead of jumbling it up with e-mails and screen names. Once you’re done save your file as a JPEG. Make sure to save your original file for reference use and future use.

Here’s the easy and final part; uploading your background onto twitter! Once you’re logged in go to the setting tab on your page and click on it. Next click on the Design tab and go to “Change background image” at the bottom. From there you’ll have the option to upload your Twitter background image from your computer. Now click on “Change design colors” and select the same background color as the main one of your image. This creates the illusion that they’re one in the same.

There you have it! Your very own customized Twitter background that will make you stand out even more as a YouTuber! If you any questions feel free to ask and I’ll try my best to answer them. I’m currently offering my services to make a background for only $3 USD. Just send me your request at zjames@pausestoprewind.com with the subject line “Twitter background”. Also, make sure to look out for the article “Promoting your YouTube on Twitter in 5 ways” coming out this Thursday.