Twitter is following in the footsteps of Facebook and Google by offering Twitter brand pages along with the most comprehensive re-design it has ever undertaken. By doing so, they hope to create a more inviting interface for new users while offering better user experience and functionality to existing users. Of course, these pages also make it easier to promote its advertising services (Not that Twitter would ever admit to this as a big driver of these changes).
What are the major changes?
Home
“Home keeps everything you’re interested in all in one place.”
This is basically the default homepage feed re-organized. Here you can view tweets from people you’ve followed. Selecting “Open” lets you view all the @replies and retweets for that tweet so you can view the tweet as part of a conversation, rather than just a single out-of-context tweet. You can also view videos and photos right within the timeline of tweets when you click on the photo link.
Connect
“Connect is your way to keep the conversation flowing”.
This is divided into “Mentions” and “Interactions”. You will find you @replies and mentions in your Mentions tab. The new “Interactions” tab shows you how others have interacted with your tweets – including who follows you, retweets or favorites one of your Tweets, or adds you to a list. You can also enter a username on the type search bar to” learn more and connect instantly”, as Twitter explains.
Discover
“Whatever you’re curious about, Discover will help you find out more”.
This is their updated search results page. It moves beyond finding random tweets based on hashtag searches and uses your connections, location and language to filter results and identify stories and trends that are most relevant to you. The more you use this feature, the more relevant the results will become as it discovers more about you.
Me (Twitter Profile)
“The Me tab is your opportunity to introduce yourself to the world”
Meet the revamped version of your Twitter profile. Information has shifted to the right, and from your profile people can see a gallery of images and videos you’ve recently shared. This is where you also engage in direct message conversations.
Brand Pages
Instead of a “me” profile page for users, companies have the option of creating a brand page. What’s most significant is the additional space given for extra branding in quite a premium spot.
Mobile app
The mobile app has been given the same layout design to streamline the interfaces across Twitter properties.
Embeddable tweets
Instead of embedding widgets with multiple tweets, you can now embed one single tweet on your website. Users can reply, retweet or favorite to the tweet directly from your website. You can find the embed code by clicking on the “Open” option on the tweet and then on “permalink” to be directed to the permalink page. Private accounts will not have this option.
Tweet buttons have also received an upgrade. When a reader clicks on the tweet button on your website, you can specify a specific hashtag or @mention to appear when the tweet pop up window appears for users to edit tweet content. This makes it easier to have readers mention your Twitter account or hashtag when they tweet your content to their followers.
Thoughts
Twitter and Facebook have become the two default social networks for businesses to promote their brands on. Previously however, there was no real difference between Twitter accounts for brands and those for individual users. This meant branding was extremely limited. Now brands will have their own destination page which will be great for brand building and awareness. And anything that helps with free exposure for businesses is fine by me.
But more importantly, what do you think? Do you like the direction Twitter is heading in or do you prefer the good old Twitter. Let us know in the comments below.
And here’s the official video to help you get a better visual of the revamped social site: