All change at Twitter.
The Twitter news is now coming thick and fast with the company seemingly eager to show it is developing its approach so, I just wanted to share a couple of immediate thoughts.
As I mentioned yesterday, Twitter needs to provide sufficient value to encourage both new users to join and for existing users to stick around.
The news that it is to offer 'Facebook like' business pages may not be universally liked but could potentially be a good move.
Big business
Part of what has made social media so effective is the ability for business to use it as an additional support stream; a social presence gives customers direct access to a voice in the company. Enhancing this relationship could be a good thing for the company itself, their customers and for Twitter.
If companies are making it easier for customers to contact them then this may be a selling point for Twitter itself, people may be persuaded to sign up in order to take advantage of these new pages. There could be concerns that this approach is too different from the normal timeline-based site operation but it need not interfere with that.
My ideas for focused conversations outside of the public timeline follow almost identical lines: companies could pay to brand their profile in order to provide greater control and an additional revenue stream for Twitter. Combining these profile pages with my idea for hashcodes could be a major coup.
Value and discovery
Everything that can be done to enhance the user experience is vital. If accounts are not being used or dumped after, perhaps, being created on a whim Twitter needs to take steps to reverse the trend. Providing a way for new users to more easily find other users or useful, relevant information is vital.
The announcement of more intuitive searches and the advanced search page can help.
The sign up process is now significantly better than it used to be but I would suggest advanced search needs to be advertised at this point to show all the ways to find content which will make your stay more enjoyable.
Those actively using Twitter on a regular basis would now not be without it - that feeling now needs to be instilled in millions more.
