Being as a friend calls me, a pioneer, I love finding things and trying them (trying in every sense of the word!).
One of my latest finds has thrilled me no end 
It's here, http://www.freetwitterdesigner.com/
This nifty little gadget enables you to experiment with having a 'branded' twitter background. Yup a background that matches all your over stuff
Research has shown having consistent branding across various social media platforms and apps increases recognition of the brand. Even if the brand is just you.
For a long time, those of us not skilled or owning photoshop were at the mercy of a graphic designer to create a background for the twitter profiles if we wanted one that 'matched' our websites, forums signatures and business stationary. I say at the mercy, because quite often when you are in a small business you may not have the knowledge or time to brief or explain what you actually require, to a designer. Sometimes you need to dabble and experiment so you know exactly what you want when you order a custom designed twitter background
It's really easy to use and experiment with colours and various shapes and designs. There is also a facility to upload any images or logo's that you already have. You can change the colour of the links, the sidebar and lots of other things too. There are 6 basic fonts and text can be added almost anywhere on the page. There are about 20 different symbols available and each of these can be changed to a colour that suits your needs. They can even be rotated.
When you are done, if you are signed into twitter via the oauth mechanism, the site will upload the background for you. Alternatively you can save the background and it will tell you the settings to change the colour scheme to, and then you can upload it yourself. Uploading it yourself is the only downside to this lovely twitter gadget (does that make it a Twidget? Have I invented a word ). I saved the images but when I tried to upload them, they uploaded blank. This is where I get trying .
The good news is, I didn't break it, the bad news is I have yet to work out how to upload it, I suspect human error. That human being me.
As someone who engages a lot of people in conversation, from friends to other couriers to other bloggers, if you look in my tweet stream you may actually think I don't do anything for a living, in fact another courier on twitter tells me off on a regular basis for not working in the office, because we all know we can't work and tweet at the same time 
. So having a white van or two on my background can only be a good thing
In conclusion, I give the Free Twitter Designer Twidget 7/10 it's a fab way to try out a custom made twitter background and see if it works for you. Note, it's not intended to replace a designer, they are wonderful, lovely, creative people
Sarah
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Sarah Arrow aka @essex_courier is the editor of Birds on the Blog, the business blog with a lively outlook on business, (when she isn't being a courier)
