Many people, including myself, wondered when Twitter^R would catch up with Google+^R, YouTube^R and Facebook^R in the design of the user’s profile page. Now, we have our answer. The new Twitter profile page has the popular large header image with the familiar profile photo at the lower left corner. Besides the new increase in image real estate, there are other new features that make the new profile page more user friendly. Let’s take a look at what’s new and how we can customize the new design.

Once you log in, you will be asked to upload a new profile photo at the larger 400 x 400 pixels size and a new header image at 1500 x 500 pixels. You have the option to resize and edit these images when you upload. One feature that seems to have not made it into the new profile page design is the background image that floated behind the tweets. Remember how the Twitter background image became a popular way to brand your Twitter account? If you had a great background image that reflected your brand, you might want to incorporate the design elements from the background image into your new header image.

Under the profile photo, you will see your profile name, description, the date that you joined Twitter and an external link to your website. To the right is the list of tweets in the new larger text size. In an even larger text size are the new Best Tweets which are your most popular tweets. One very nice new feature is the Pinned Tweet, which works like a sticky post in a forum or a pinned post on Facebook. You get your choice of one tweet that can be pinned to the top of your profile page.

The new Filtered Tweets feature is for those times when you feel overwhelmed with tweets. Under your new header image are the filtering links that will filter by the number of Tweets (default), Following, Followers, Favorites, Lists and the new Photos/Videos. Under these links, is another new feature that gives you two options to view just Tweets or Tweets and Replies.

It will be interesting to see how companies such as PepsiCo^R, J. C. Penney^R Co. and Amazon^R use the new larger header image to enhance their branding and marketing.

Twitter Header Image Gallery at Flickr
https://www.flickr.com/photos/twitteroffice/sets/72157643560484885/