The first thing you see when you log into a website, your eye is drawn to the banner, this is very important for making a first impression. The same goes for your social Media sites like Facebook’s cover photo, and now Twitter has adopted a similar format with the Twitter Header image as well.
This is just as important as your website header, your logo or your business card. It is the first impression, it can be the difference between getting a new customer or losing the potential forever. It has to convey you and your business at a glance. More importantly it has to look good, not look poorly cropped or misaligned.
Here are some things to keep in mind when you are creating your header image.
Layout
With Facebook and now especially with Twitter the actual Avatar image will overlap onto your cover or header image. Meaning you have to take this into account when creating on your layout. The Facebook cover is 851x315px with a square Avatar overlapping in the lower left.
Twitter’s new Header is 1200×600px with the Avatar in the middle. Twitter will also add your twitter name, @handle and bio information in the lower half of the image. The text is white so make sure the lower half of your image is solid enough to contrast this text and make it visible. Twitter also adds some processing to the image and adds a gradient, this means that your created image will not match exactly what’s displayed. So keep your design nice and smooth and avoid some pixel perfect details if possible.
Get your Business Across
Whether its your logo, a picture of your staff and premises, or one of your delivery vans, choose an image that conveys what you are and sums up what you do at a glance, to show potential customers that you offer exactly what they need. A picture paints a thousand words so choose something meaningful to get your ideas across.
Be Consistent to your Brand Logo
Building a constant awareness of your brand is so important, your style or logo can stick in a person’s mind more so than your name. Make sure you have consistent branding across all media formats. Have the same logo, fonts, colours and slogans in your header that you have on your business cards, website or billboards.
Happy Branding!