Some of you may have already experienced the upheaval of the fan-favorite social platform, Twitter. While Facebook is still “winning,” Twitter comes in at a close second followed by LinkedIn and Pinterest, according to eBizMBA. It’s cutthroat competition out there. Maybe that’s why Twitter has opted to look the same as Facebook?
Bold accusation, I know. I’ll let you be the judge, for now. Then I’ll delve into the most obvious of comparisons. Below is an example of McDonald’s new profile, deemed by Twitter as “the whole new you.” The idea behind the change supposedly stemmed from a bigger need for us to “express ourselves through new and improved web profiles,” according to Twitter designer David Bellona.
Take note of the gigantic cover photo *cough, cough* I mean, header photo followed by the left justified profile picture. Ringing any bells yet? These huge header photos are ironically even bigger than the traditional Facebook cover photos, which makes me wonder if Twitter is suffering from “little man syndrome.”
Perhaps the most shocking (and awesome) change is the way your tweets are now organized and categorized. Your tweets are separated into three categories – Best, Pinned and Filtered. The Best tweets are the ones that receive the most engagement and will automatically appear slightly larger than the rest of the content, making them easier to find. Pinned tweets are the tweets you choose to showcase by pinning them at the top of your page, yet another salute to Facebook’s design. And finally, a Filtered tweet is a new function that allows you to view your news feed, or uhh timeline, based on the content. These filters include photos/videos, tweets and tweets/replies.
This revolutionary change is great for brands that are image oriented and may be a temporary fix to everyone affected by Facebook’s organic reach that has been plummeting. But wait, don’t most people access Twitter via their phone? If you answered yes, you’d be correct. When asked about the possibility of a change for mobile devices, Twitter refused to comment. So no change as of yet but I’d keep your eyes peeled.
No one likes change. We get it. Sorry, guys. That’s just the way the cookie crumbles. Lucky for you, only 10% of Twitter users have this new look. The rest of us must simply wait and prepare over the coming weeks.
Ready yourself by getting the down-low on these brands that have already been converted:
Are YOU excited about the updated Twitter?
