GV Twitter Template Guide
From Global Voices Wiki
The main GV Twitter account is @globalvoices, but twitter is so popular and fun that it makes sense for us to create specific accounts for different parts of our community. Specifically, its useful for the Lingua translation groups to set up language-specific accounts that show headlines from their lingua sites.
This document will explain how to set up a nice GV design for your twitter account and will link to graphics you can use to spruce it up. None of the instructions here are rules, they are just ideas and suggestions for those who want them.
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[edit] Naming conventions
For the sake of consistency we recommend that new Lingua sites set up Twitter accounts using naming conventions matching those that already exist.
For instance:
@globalvoices{lang_code} (i.e. @globalvoicesnl) (Dutch Lingua)
@gv{in_language} (i.e.@gvenespanol) (Spanish Lingua)
@gv{language} (i.e @gvbangla) (Bangla Lingua)
[edit] Colors
To start we can set up a nice simple theme with shades of green and grey that match our site. Twitter doesn't give you that much control so I've kept the colors simple and classy.
Below is a screenshot of how your color settings in Twitter should look. You can access your color settings by logging into the account, going to SETTINGS > DESIGN and clicking the "Change Design Colors" button.
Just in case the colors are as follows:
background: #f7f7f7 text: #030 links: #390 sidebar: #f0ffe1 siebar border: #cf9
[edit] Graphics
In twitter there are two main graphics you need to worry about. One is the little avatar icon that they call picture, the other is your background image.
[edit] Twitter Avatar
Twitter needs a small icon to represent you in other people's feeds and at the top of your page. It is 73px wide and tall at the top of your page and 48px in other places (even smaller in iPhone apps etc). This means its best to upload a 73px by 73px JPG image as your avatar and let it size it down to 48.
For most GV accounts you can just use this small avatar. Download it to your computer, then upload it to Twitter in SETTINGS > PICTURE settings panel:
If you want to customize it a bit and add something (be careful: it might not look good at smaller sizes!) you can use this much bigger Photoshop (psd) file. After making changes remember to resize it to 73px before uploading it to Twitter: GV Twitter Avatar Template
[edit] Background Image
With twitter background images you have a lot more options. They can be any size and you can have them repeat across the page if you want. The main thing to watch out for when designing twitter background images is that they look very different depending on exactly how wide your browser window is. After choosing a background, try making the window wider or thinner and see how it looks. It will never look perfect in all situations but you can make sure it never looks awful.
For GV twitter accounts I recommend using the following background graphic. It is nice and simple and IMHO never looks terrible:
Note: Twitter offers one option below the background image uploader: tile background. If you use the image above you probably don't want to have it tiled because it won't look right, the cut off corners are meant only for the top corner of the page, the other tiles will just look broken.
If you want to modify this image (maybe you think it should be smaller or bigger, maybe you want to add text at the bottom) you can use the following Photoshop file as a starting point: GV Twitter Background Template
Again: Remember to resize the image before uploading it to Twitter. This version is extra big so that you can make changes and still have it look nice in the end. If you want it to be the same size as the default one then make it 275px wide.
