The New Twitter: Design, Functionality and Strategy

There have been a lot of changes to a range of social sites over the past few months, but none quite as excellent,

as Twitter. For some reason, the Twitter team really gets it right.

There are a whole new range of possibilities to consider early this year,

as they roll out a dazzling variety of changes, that are making businesses smile all the way to the bank. Today, we take a closer look at your future

Twitter strategy.

Redesign and Simplicity

Twitter’s mantra has always been about simplicity, and they do a great job of keeping that intact with these

new changes. The redesign has shifted their basic navigation buttons to the

left, instead of the right – and the three main buttons are now home,

connect and discover, at the top.

The most interesting is the discover tab that pulls in articles and posts from

around the internet, that have been tweeted about.

Twitter Brand Pages are Coming

Aside from small improvements to search and navigation – the biggest

change was the introduction of Twitter brand pages. Right now, you can’t set yours up yet, but the microblogging platform plans to open them to the

public in the next few months. This is what you’ll want to keep an eye out

for, as it enhances your business profile on Twitter. More clicks, media

and sales are on the horizon.

The brand pages are outstanding. They’re reminiscent of Youtube’s

brand pages, only they’re much easier to look at, and use. When the brand pages are rolled out, you’ll be able to

display a much larger logo or avatar to your fans – and you can upload a

‘banner’ graphic below your information for better brand identity.

In the spirit of providing great content to your Tweeting fans, you can also pin certain tweets to the top of your page.

This means businesses can promote certain tweets continually, without

having to tweet a million times about something important. On the right,

you’ll have a list of your information – like who you’re following, and what

lists you’re involved with.

But I have to say – the best part of the new brand pages is the media

functionality. Now, each tweet that contains a video or image has the

ability to expand that media right on the page. And every single reply that

you get from fans is detailed below the tweet, so that others can join in the

conversation more efficiently.

Improved Communication Across The Board

This has turned Twitter into a much more convincing social community. Before, on personal profile pages,

messages were disjointed and it was difficult to keep track of group

conversations. The new layout means that videos and images are equally as

important as Facebook videos and images – as they prompt additional

interaction.

Brand page owners can set certain tweets so that the media is open, for visual impact, to enhance their pages. The pitfalls of this new functionality

are already becoming apparent. Coke for example, spends a lot of time

replying to individual tweeters, which makes their brand page seem one

dimensional.

The new layout and design will have Twitter marketing strategists searching for ways to even out the content influx

and replies. Timing, scheduling and media are definitely going to become more important. All in all, a fantastic

step up for Twitter. We can’t wait until we can get our brand page up!

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