How-To: Take Advantage of Twitter’s New Profile Layout

How-To: Take Advantage of Twitter’s New Profile Layout


Twitter’s newest site change is one that will be familiar, especially to Facebook users.

Twitter’s new profile design features bigger profile photos, wider cover photos, and featured tweets that you can “pin” to your page, showing off your favorite ones.

If it seems similar, that’s because it looks incredibly similar to Facebook’s own profile view that features large photos and even larger background cover images.

At first the design was rolling out to certain users, but now anyone can turn on the new look. If you don’t have the new profile page yet, fear not. You can enable it right here.

But once enabled your profile will look odd. Your profile image will be a little blurry, as will your cover image. You won’t have a pinned tweet, so your last tweet will be what people see when they check out your page.

So what should you do to fix these issues and keep your profile looking current? Check out these four tips to help you optimize your Twitter profile and stand out among the rest.

Use a Larger Profile Photo

Up until this point, Twitter’s avatar photos have been notoriously small, and visiting a profile gave you a tiny 73 x 73 pixel image. The only way to see a larger image was to click on the actual photo, an extra and unnecessary step.

Twitter’s new recommendation is a 400 x 400 pixel photo, which displays a lot more detail than its miniscule predecessor.

Use a Larger Cover Photo

Previous cover photos were 1252 x 626 pixels, making them large, but not too engrossing. Now, Twitter is recommending a cover image that’s 1500 x 500 pixels, and will span the entire browser window.

You can use this cover photo to show off high-resolution photos of your small business or portfolio, giving everyone who visits a strong sense of what your work or small business is and how it looks. If you’re not ready to put up your own image, Twitter offers a very modern set of cover images that you can use.

Pin Your Best Tweets

Twitter’s new profile view allows you to display the best side of yourself. Don’t let your “Hey, what’s up!” tweets be the first thing new followers see, wow them with your best, most engaging tweets.

Show off your best, most engaging tweets by “pinning” it to the top of your profile, making it larger and the first tweet they see when followers or visitors check out your page. You can only pin one tweet at a time, so it would be a good idea to switch it up every so often, just to keep repeat visitors to your profile engaged.

Tweet More Photos

Sure, tweets are limited to 140 characters, but a picture’s worth more than a thousand words. Pictures are worth interaction with your followers. Tweets with images receive more engagement than those without, according to Buffer. And since the new profile layout lets you easily see your posts with photos, it’ll make your profile look much more exciting, encouraging your followers to share your content.

With Twitter’s new profile set up, you’ll be one step ahead of your competition, and your business and personal brand will look more professional and current than the rest.


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