There’s been a lot of buzz over Twitter’s recent re-redesign, specifically over the new Facebook-esque brand pages. But what kind of impact will this all actually have for brands and marketers?
One of the biggest complaints about Twitter (from casual users to budding marketers) is that it’s not always clear just how Twitter works. In fact, new media strategist Brian Solis says “how do you use Twitter” is still one of the most common searches on Google. That seems to have been a driving factor in this redesign.
In essence, #newnewtwitter overhauls the way Twitter profiles are organized, both on the web and the official mobile app. It puts more focus on tweeting itself, as well as discovery and multimedia content, which has good potential for brands and marketers.
The real stars of the show (as far as we’re concerned) are the new brand pages. Brands now have large customizable headers at the top of their profiles, the option to pin any tweet at the beginning of their timeline, and the ability to separate out @ replies to prevent certain back-and-forth exchanges from diluting their messages.
The underlying purpose is simple: Twitter wants you to use Twitter.com (or it’s mobile app) to tweet. That makes sense. But is it realistic? According to recent research by Sysomos, 42% of the tweets come from a non-official client like Hootsuite and Tweetdeck. (These platforms often have extra features that official-Twitter lacks, like the ability to schedule tweets.) Twitter may be the fastest growing social network, but the way users actually engage with it appears to be split.
That brings us to this week’s question: Will the new Twitter redesign actually affect how marketers and brands use Twitter? Does the new look make Twitter easier-to-use for campaigns and daily management, or do you prefer third-party clients? Moreover, do you think Twitter’s brand pages will play an important role in social media marketing?
We’d love to know your thoughts in the comments!