Time for a new #newtwitter. Last week, Twitter unveiled another “new Twitter” with a goal to make the site simpler and less intimidating to casual users and advertisers. The new design positions Twitter as a friendly brand and is expected to connect the widespread awareness of Twitter to greater engagement on the site.
This new version of Twitter divides the site into four areas when you log into your account:
- Home: Includes tweets from everyone you follow on Twitter.
- Connect: Interact with other users and search for users.
- Discover: Search for tweets using hashtags and see personalized news recommendations.
- Me: View your own Twitter profile.
To regular Twitter users, these new sections aren’t really groundbreaking. The information has always been easily accessible, but Twitter’s leaders believe the new design makes these sections even easier to find with fewer clicks.
Of course, it’s assumed that many of these changes are also intended to boost advertising opportunities and interest. On the same note, Twitter has launched brand pages, which are available to a few brands right now, but are expected to roll out to everyone in the future. Twitter won’t charge for brand pages. Instead, the monetization focus will stay on its advertising offerings.
And that leads us to the most significant change that debuted with this most recent Twitter redesign. Now, images and other media that are included within a tweet open directly within each individual tweet (on the side of a user’s screen) rather than in a separate web browser tab or window. This is great news for users and huge news for advertisers. Suddenly, the 140-character limit is gone, because advertisers can include media, such as videos and images, with their promoted tweets. There is no doubt that many advertisers will be very interested in this new feature.
What do you think of the latest Twitter redesign? Is Twitter delivering on its attempt to be the friendly brand? Leave a comment and share your thoughts.
Susan Gunelius is the author of 10 marketing, social media, branding, copywriting, and technology books, and she is President & CEO of KeySplash Creative, Inc., a marketing communications company. She also owns Women on Business, an award-wining blog for business women. She is a featured columnist for Entrepreneur.com and Forbes.com, and her marketing-related articles have appeared on websites such as MSNBC.com, BusinessWeek.com, TodayShow.com, and more.
She has over 20 years of experience in the marketing field having spent the first decade of her career directing marketing programs for some of the largest companies in the world, including divisions of AT&T and HSBC. Today, her clients include large and small companies around the world and household brands like Citigroup, Cox Communications, Intuit, and more. Susan is frequently interviewed about marketing and branding by television, radio, print, and online media organizations, and she speaks about these topics at events around the world. You can connect with her on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, or Google+.
