Twitter, the popular micro-blogging site, became a sensation in no small part due to its famous limitation: a user must encapsulate every post (or ‘tweet’) into 140 characters. While this constraint applies to everyone, one feature that is highly customizable is the background of a user’s Twitter page. The founders of Tweety Got Back have jumped to forefront of this market niche by offering hundreds of custom-made backgrounds that anyone with a Twitter account can install with a simple click.
Founded by Boulder natives Rachel Ryle and Heather Capri, Tweety Got Back has gained notoriety by offering a user-friendly browsing experience as a visitor chooses among free backgrounds ranging from World Cup soccer teams to Justin Beiber. Most of the work was designed by Capri and Ryle, and more recently, by independent artists who provide their work to the site to gain greater exposure.
Capri and Ryle initially gained interest in the field by designing backgrounds for the once-popular social network MySpace. Beginning in 2006 the women first designed their own pages, after which friends began asking them to lend their expertise. Capri and Ryle soon realized that this was something they could do for a living. Remembers Capri, “Our MySpace theme site, called MySpaceOrYours.net, became very popular, almost overnight. It was then that we knew going into business together would be worthwhile.“Almost overnight our site – then called MySpaceOrYours.net – became very popular. So we decided to go into business together.”
Yet over time a fundamental problem emerged in the business model: MySpace stopped growing and its user-base began migrating to rival Facebook a platform that doesn’t allow users to customize a background. Fortunately for Ryle and Capri, the micro-blogging social media site Twitter began gaining traction just as MySpace was beginning its death spiral. The transition to microblogging backgrounds was agreed upon and the women formed the new company and launched in November of last year.
Twitter is a much different animal than MySpace. With over 100 million users around the world, the mircoblogging service is understood to cater to a wider demographic than the teenage-student set, including celebrities, news organizations, and politicians. This breadth of users allows Capri and Ryle a terrific scope in creating their art, as they sample liberally from sports, holidays, movies, and other artists. With over 700 designs on the site, it’s improbable that a visitor would walk away empty handed.
Once a visitor has chosen a background from the Tweety Got Back website, the user is asked to log into their Twitter account. Once accomplished, the person is automatically redirected back to the Tweety Got Back website to confirm the selection. When verified, the background is automatically installed. This “one-click” system is unique to the company, as other firms require users to download background images, save them locally, and then manually upload them to their Twitter profile. Add the burden of copying and pasting matching color codes and the end result is daunting process for the casual Twitter user. Ryle believes that, “besides the quality of our backgrounds, the ease-of-use that developer Ben Brightwell built into the site is our greatest competitive advantage.”
While many artists likely believe their work to be high quality, the backgrounds of Tweety Got Back have been recognized by independent judges. In June, AppStorm published an article entitled “50 Fabulous Twitter Backgrounds.” Of the fifty backgrounds selected twenty-two were sourced from Tweety Got Back. Seven of the selected were designed by the artists with whom the company has partnered, while the remaining fifteen came from Capri and Ryle. “We were so thrilled,” notes Capri. “The AppStorm article was a complete surprise, but definitely a welcome one.”
Ryle and Capri have just recently turned their attention toward finding a way to monetize beyond site advertising. With mid-term elections approaching in November, Ryle and Capri have started customizing political themes for campaigns. This product includes a unique background for the candidate as well as a background available to the candidate’s supporters. Campaigns seeking to leverage social media while simultaneously reinforcing the brand every time a user signs into Twitter now have the option to take outreach to the next level. “It’s like putting a campaign sign in your front yard, but a digital version of that,” says Capri. In developing their campaign strategy, the company designed a background for Colorado Representative Jared Polis, available for download here.
While backgrounds on the site are free for individual users, Capri and Ryle plan to grow the company by soon introducing a pro account version that will add additional features and greater customization for a fee. With such plans in the works, the women are quite excited about the future. “We hope our users enjoy our new themes and features as much as we enjoy developing them,” says Ryle.
