Twitter ramps up visuals on newsfeed

Oct 30, 2013 | Online advertising, Social media, Twitter marketing

Twitter has revamped its social network to favour image- and video-sharing by showing visual media directly within the Twitter timeline. View an example of the new mobile layout in this Vine video below: The move comes as Twitter prepares to go public in a matter of weeks, and the change will also present Twitter’s advertisers […]

Twitter has revamped its social network to favour image- and video-sharing by showing visual media directly within the Twitter timeline.
View an example of the new mobile layout in this Vine video below:


The move comes as Twitter prepares to go public in a matter of weeks, and the change will also present Twitter’s advertisers with more opportunities to get attention-grabbing ads in front of users – leading to more revenue for the company.
Previously, users had to click on a tweet to view the embedded multimedia. Twitter has long acknowledged that pictures and video are some of the most often shared content in social media.
Although the change does not affect the basic mechanics of how content is shared, it will likely alter the feel of Twitter, which long clung to its roots as an 140-character, text-based service invented in an era before smartphones existed.
The most re-circulated tweet in Twitter history, for instance, was a picture sent from President Obama’s account on Election Night in 2012. Three words – “Four more years” – captioned a photo of Barack and Michelle Obama embracing the moment the president declared victory.
“These rich Tweets can bring your followers closer to what’s happening, and make them feel like they are right there with you,” Michael Sippey, Twitter’s vice president of product, said in a short blog post Tuesday. “We want to make it easier for everyone to experience those moments on Twitter.”
Read the full blog here

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