Twitter’s new features present new challenges and opportunities for brands
In honor of the World Cup, and our internationally shared love of all things fútbol, Twitter has joined forces with Bing so users can easily translate tweets and participate in conversations about the same topics, no Rosetta Stone required. Simply click a translate button and BAM! tweets are magically transformed into your native language.
How else has Twitter been keeping things real and fresh lately? Well, in addition to changes in management, they’ve had some other exciting news like their recent acquiring of Snappy TV, which is a service for clipping, editing and sharing clips from live broadcasts in almost real-time.
Also, as of June 18 Twitter is supporting GIF-like videos. As it turns out, the files aren’t actually GIFs (!!) as originally thought, but they function like them, appearing in your timeline with a play button like other video content such as Vines. The videos can be uploaded with the gallery button under the text box the same way you would upload a photo. Several brands are already experimenting with this new feature including Absolut Vodka, Ritz Crackers, Wendy’s, Charmin and Victoria’s Secret. It will be interesting to see if the GIF-like function has any longevity, especially for advertisers. How long will tweeps put up with wannabe GIFs in their stream from brands before getting annoyed and potentially unfollowing or muting?
That’s right I said muting, which is another feature Twitter rolled out a while back that might have slipped under your radar. The muting feature allows users to mute a person or brand they follow, essentially allowing them to remove that user’s tweets from appearing in their stream while still remaining a follower. Users can easily unmute other tweeps. The person who has been muted will not know and if they mention you or retweet something you’ve said then you will see it in your notifications.
Implications for brands?
You bet. Now with the mute feature, it’s more important than ever to remain conversational and make sure communications are matching what your followers will tolerate. It’s a reminder to make sure the messages you put out are relevant and that you aren’t inundating your followers with Twitter posts.
As with any changes, consider how this can play a part in your social media marketing and spend some time reviewing your outreach and how the audience is responding.
