Twitter Brand Pages Are Here
Posted by Patrick Murphy on Tue, Dec 13, 2011
Last week Twitter revealed their most drastic design changes yet. They’ll be rolling out slowly over the next few weeks, but we’ve taken a good look at the previews. For the user, there are four key elements: a newly designed homepage timeline (for both web and mobile interfaces), a new hash tag interface, an easier way to see things that are ‘@’ related, or related to you, and a much nicer user profile.
For brands, there is a much newer brand-specific profile page. Not everyone can see them all just yet, but we’ve seen some examples from the likes of @McDonalds, @JetBlue and @AmericanExpress, and we like what we see! Big changes include a new profile banner that stretches across the page, just below the profile information, and the ability to pin a specific tweet at the top of the brand’s stream. This will give brands a new ability to define themselves on Twitter, instead of using personal profiles.
The significance of the pinned tweet
The pinned tweet may not seem like a big deal on the surface, but it is an extremely useful feature. It is really effective when used to promote your most valuable content, like videos, images, competitions or white papers. This means you can continue to converse with other Twitter users while still making your most valuable content visible to the first time user. In the new design, images and videos can be seen inline within the Twitter stream, making access to media for users that more engaging.
For brands, these videos or photos can be set to open automatically, which adds a new media dimension to brand pages. This further adds to engagement potential.
The new Twitter pages allow brands to put their logos and messages front and centre on the platform. Is this a move towards a more “Facebook” style of doing business? Only time will tell.
What do you think of the new Twitter brand pages? Let us know in the comment section below.
Don't forget to check out FREE whitepaper '10 Tips on Monitoring Social Media'!
