Twitter is an awesome social media marketing tool and I’ve been using it for years to generate enormous relevant traffic to my blog. Twitter has a cool interface that lets you tweak the way you want to engage with your users. For example, they optimize the way images look on their wall and allow you to add #hashtags to organize information. Many companies have capitalized on the popularity of Twitter and introduced FREE tools you can utilize to find trending #hashtags, which has made them enormous money through upgrades and marketing. For example, I’ve been using hashtagify.me/ for years and find it to be a vital source of information I need to ensure my tweets get in front of the right people. If you don’t have social media profiles, then I suggest you get started right away with setting up the “3” most popular accounts: Facebook, Twitter, and Google+. There are many others but this will be a great starting point.
Anyway, over the months, Twitter has been making changes to their interface. I would like to go over a few changes currently made to their platform.
Retweet with Comments
This is an awesome change to their interface and it allows people to add their personal touch to “retweets”. At one point, you were only able to retweet the EXACT “tweet” posted by someone else, but with this current change, you’ll be able to do more. For example, the next time you want to “retweet”, you can do it and add your own personal thoughts at the same time. This allows you to leave the original “tweet” and NOT have to change it around to add your own message.
Here’s a quick illustration of a “retweet” on JohnChow.com…
You’ll notice from the illustration that Twitter has added a comment box before I post the “RT”
Don’t Need to Follow for Direct Messages
At one point, for you to send a message to someone else, you would have to follow them before being able to message. Twitter is now giving you the option to turn this feature on or off, allowing you to receive direct messages from others. Again, this is an option you will need to adjust within your privacy settings, however, I encourage you to think about a few things before playing around with this setting. For example, think about the benefits of turning this feature on and letting people send you a message WITHOUT following you first. Here’s something to think about…
If you’re a company and people want to send you a complaint, wouldn’t you prefer they do it in private instead of having it posted on their entire wall? Remember, if you expect people to follow you to send a DIRECT message, then anything they send through will be posted to their followers.
New Policy
Twitter is changing the way people will treat each other online. Twitter has taken a hard step against direct threats against people or those who encourage violence against others. This is their way to ensure people feel safe using their platform and the big brands can flourish without having to deal with a declining audience. You have to remember, Twitter can drive enormous traffic to a brand, but if you have people afraid to use the platform because of abuse, it will affect the whole Twitter culture.
New Home Page
Twitter has made adjustments to their homepage, making it way more interactive. Before, you’d be asked to sign-up or log in, but things have changed for the better. For example, going forward, when you arrive on the Twitter homepage, you’ll see relevant topics you can click on to take you to a complete timeline based around that topic. The new homepage hasn’t been rolled out yet, but is promised to be way more engaging, giving people several reasons to join twitter. The basic premise is if you can show them the value, then they’ll love to join.
