The launch of brand pages was is big news for Twitter and social media marketing on Thursday, and the company is rolling out updates to the overall organization of content on its site for businesses and consumers alike. Some of the updates may provide social media marketing benefits.
As these images of the updated Twitter brand pages show, the microblogging site’s navigation is now centered around three buttons that appear in the top left side of the website. Home, Connect and Discovery take Twitter users to the various pages available on the website, and the tabs organize features in, (what the company thinks is) a more logical format.
The Home button shows marketers their normal timeline, containing their own Tweets and those of their followers. They can navigate their account from this tab to control who they follow, view various trends and receive new follower recommendations from Twitter.
The Connect tab deals primarily with discussions and activity between the users and their – various contacts. Within the tab, users can click on Interactions or Mentions. Interactions will show new followers and Retweets, while also showing who the user mentioned and who mentioned the user. However, to make it simpler to focus solely on conversations, the Mentions button focuses solely on brand mentions accounts a company has mentioned.
Perhaps the most interesting addition is the “Discover” tab, which unites a user with the Twitterverse as a whole. Within this tab, users can click “Stories,” which will provide links and Tweets about the most important news being shared and discussed by users, which should remind marketers about the value of hitting relevant trending topics in Twitter content. Another sub category, “Activity,” shows users what their contacts have been doing on the website.
The Discovery tab should be of interest to marketers as it enables users to find new followers and add contacts from their other accounts on the web, including Gmail, Yahoo and other popular email platforms. This demonstrates the value of integrating email marketing outreach with social media marketing. Also, Discovery lets users navigate Twitter by category, and businesses that are recognized as thought leaders in their industries might find they come out on top of these categorical classifications.
Naturally, Twitter users are mixed on the design. As one user posted “You know what I’d like to see from #NewNewTwitter? The ability to search for tweets OLDER THAN AN HOUR. Retweet that, friend.” [sic]
However, Twitter is convinced the new features will make the service easier to use – and there is some marketing potential behind the redesign.
With the new design, Twitter hopes it can bring more users to its service. While some have enjoyed the lack of ads, excessive posts and media, others don’t see much value from their personal social media side. Brafton most recently reported that the company has more than 100 million users.
