Surprise! Twitter just announced the rollout of their new profiles. New users will have the new profile from the beginning and the rest of us will start getting it over the next few weeks.
Twitter has this to say about the new profile:
“Starting today, it will be even easier (and, we think, more fun) to express yourself through a new and improved web profile.”
Apparently you’ll be able to “use a larger profile photo, customize your header, show off your best tweets, and more.” And it will look something like this:
Does This Look Familiar?
That’s probably because it is. Twitter is continuing to take steps toward being more like Facebook and less like Twitter. This shouldn’t come as a huge surprise, but it’s still interesting to see how Twitter is evolving to accommodate the image-heavy preference of online users.
Recently, users have noticed a slight change in the look and feel of their Twitter newsfeed. The buttons used to retweet and send a direct message to others look a little different, there’s more use of white space, and the layout across the top has a bit more space.
However, with the launch of the new profile, they’re taking it beyond small design changes. Now they’re looking to revamp the entire Twitter experience. Twitter has been known for very limited self-expression, by design. Short bios, short tweets, and small images are what we associate with Twitter.
But now Twitter is starting to evolve. The new profile gives the user an opportunity to be more creative with a larger header image and profile picture to play with. Plus, you can showcase Tweets by “pinning” them to the top of your page (which sounds like another social network!).
What does this mean for marketers?
The Twitter layout change doesn’t mean much just yet, except that you should take advantage of this opportunity to further extend your brand the second the new profile is rolled out to your account. Mashable provides some great steps on how to update your profile here.
As an online marketer (and hopefully a content marketer, too) you should be incorporating more and more images into your digital and social media strategy. People like images. People click on images. People are busy and sometimes they’d rather see an image that takes two seconds to view than read your long, wordy post about… what? I don’t know, we already forgot.
Of course, there is a time and place for excellent text content, but it should also include a great image to go with it… especially on social media.
But not just any old image.
When it comes to choosing images, especially those for a fresh new profile pic or header image, make sure it’s high resolution and strategically chosen.
Think about what you want someone to see. This is your first impression in many cases… as important as packaging is to packaged goods.
These are some of the best tactics to consider implementing in the near future on your new Twitter profile. If you’re reading this thinking, “I don’t even have a Twitter account for myself or my business,” then this should serve as a great reminder to not sit on the sidelines any longer while 645 million+ Twitter users interact on this platform without you. Just think, you could be one of the first with the new profile!
