OOPSIE DOOPSIE

Marketing update! It’s time. Too many darn things are happening. I can’t ignore the updates anymore. Today, I’m focusing on that ever-lovin’ Twitter.

//New profile layout

The deets: Your cover image is beefed up to 1500 x 500, you can “pin” a post to the top of your feed, and your “favorites” are now more prominently displayed.

What this means for you: Twitter is starting to put greater emphasis on imagery and beefing up the importance of engagement. Listeners and silent lurkers beware. By allowing you to highlight a post and showcasing favorites, your followers will now get an even better glimpse of what you, or your brand, are all about … therefore, be aware. These are three great opportunities to share even more relevant information with your audience.

//Mute button

The deets: Rolling out to everyone within the next few weeks, users will be able to “mute” a follower. A less harsh option then the “unfollow”, the “mute” button allows you to trim out some of the noise, limit what you see and define as most important and increase meaningful engagement with the brands and users that are actively engaging in the network.

What this means for you: Stop being a robot. Make sure you strike that healthy balance of scheduled posts and real-time interaction with your followers. This will not only show others that you’re a real person behind that avatar but being aware of your level of engagement, and giving the social network the time it takes to curate a genuine following, will be that much more valuable to your account in the long run.

//High engagement posts are highlighted

The deets: Pretty simple – the more interaction a tweet gets (i.e., retweets, favorites, replies), the bigger that tweet will appear in your feed thus showcasing your most popular items.

What this means for you: Watch what is getting the most interaction. Is this what you hoped to see? If yes, KUDOS!!  If not, re-evaluate your current list of followers because that’s the stuff they are liking at the moment. If it doesn’t align, start work on a strategy to capture the interests of your desired target. Keywords and hashtags research can help with this. A few tools: hashtagify.me | hashatit.com

//Twitter cards

The deets: By adding a few lines of HTML to your webpages, you can customize the look of a tweet when someone shares your website’s content. The customization can include {but not limited to} the addition of a page’s summary, summary with an image, video/audio file, product details, gallery of images and more.

What this means for you: This will enhance the user experience and continue to lift the veil of those often shortened URLs. Not to mention, by including a card to a tweet, you own more real estate on a twitter feed thus increasing visibility and the likelihood of a click-through – more than enough reason to do this. {Also, for the person thinking that you don’t have a website that “fits” this need, think again.}

//Direct Response Ad Update: Click-to-call

The deets: Your promoted tweets will now have a “click-to-call” button option.

What this means for you: Well, as a user, you’ll {hopefully} receive well-crafted/clever/smart targeted ads that create greater ease with engaging a brand you may enjoy. As a marketer, it gets your target audience to call you faster from their mobile device. Get this:  a recent study found that over 80% of Twitter users access the site from a mobile device. With the mobile audience growing, providing greater ease with connecting to your brand is necessary. This click-to-call button will only help with this connection. It’s worth the test.

Interested in more? Check out a few past entries: Why Twitter Analytics is the Bee’s Knees | 4 Quick and Easy Ways to Optimize Your Twitter Page

Happy Tweeting!