Since we’ve gotten our blog back up and running a couple of weeks ago, we have discussed things ranging from the Importance of Pinterest to Your Business, Pillars of Online Marketing, and the Facebook Fake Out. But we haven’t given much love to Twitter, so thats what I’m going to do – show some love to Twitter! In the past couple of months Twitter has introduced handful of updates and changes, but there are 3 that really stick out to me that take Twitter to a new level and really enhance our experiences as users on the social media platform. These 4 updates/changes are: Cover photo for profiles, the “Discover” tab makeover, expanded tweets, and the ability to advertise on your background image. All four of these updates are important and useful in their own way.
1. New Cover Photo For Profiles. Similar to what Facebook did a couple of months ago with their Timeline profile, you can now have a cover photo on your Twitter profile. Previously, you only had your profile image (which is very very small), and your background image, which were nice, but I always felt like something was missing. Now you have your profile image, but also a nice big cover photo that surrounds it. This update is purely aesthetic, but it definitely add’s a nice visual appeal to Twitter that was not there before. The description of yourself also becomes more front and center than it was before – so use it wisely. Your profile image is now the center of the cover photo when your viewing a profile page, and you can play around with your profile image and cover photo to have them line up and match (like below). I really like this update and I think its a great way to show off who you are as a brand. Anthony Quintano from NBC News has one of my favorite cover photos so far – he matches the profile image and cover photo up perfectly!
The Today Show uses the cover photo well too, with a collage of images
2. Discover Tab. The discover tab is a somewhat new feature on Twitter (less than a year old). Its purpose was (and still is) to help you find news, stories, videos etc that interest you and that you would personally find most relevant. It would pull things in from all over the internet and show it to you based on your followers, who you follow, things you tweet, retweet etc. It’s still doing that, but they’ve enhanced it. It is now a constant stream of tweets, that are automatically expanded to show you the most relevant images, videos, etc in regards to what you’re looking for (and what they think you want to see). This update to Discover is more about enhancing your experience on twitter, and making you stay on the social network longer. If you can get the news you want, and see everything you want to see right there, why leave at all?? I do find the Discover tab useful (not everyone does). If I’m bored or in need of inspiration, its a good place to look, I always find really interesting articles and news there.
3. Expanded Tweets. This update happened over the summer, but it really enhanced the Twitter experience for me, and I’m sure for many others as well. Before this update, when you clicked on an image link, video link, etc it would take you to another page to view whatever that link was. Now when you click on the image or video link it expands, and you can view it right then and there. It was quite honestly a pain in the neck before when clicking on an image and video link I wanted to see, especially on my cell phone. But this update makes you able to see what you want to see right when you want to see it. Of all of the recent updates Twitter has had, this one I am most happy with!
4. Advertising on the Background Image. It was just announced today that you can now advertise on your twitter background – whether if its for your own brand, or someone else’s, it is now officially allowed. This was never against the rules, but Twitter never condoned it before either. A Twitter spokesperson says: “The space is the users to customize, and we encourage them to be clear if they are promoting something there, for money or other consideration.” I imagine people will pay large sums of money to those that have millions of followers, to get their advertisement on their background image. Celebrities like Kim Kardashian, Just Bieber, and Lady Gaga will see a pretty penny from this! As well as popular brands.
And there you have it!
