Twitter recently unveiled a site redesign that now integrates photos and the first frame of Vine videos directly into tweets. Previously, users needed to click on links to access attachments.
The media site’s blog announced that with the new update, “timelines on Twitter will be more visual and more engaging: previews of Twitter photos and videos from Vine will be front and center in tweets.”
This redesign was aimed at enhancing the user experience in general, but it also has some exciting implications for brands on Twitter. Marketers can now feature their advertisements prominently in tweets, rather than waiting for followers to click to see more. However, although normal tweets will have these previews of attached content, promoted tweets have yet to integrate the new in-stream design.
If this redesign succeeds in making Twitter ads more enticing, Twitter could bring in some serious ad revenue and quickly drive up bidding prices. The social media company is hoping to raise nearly $1.5 billion with their impending IPO.
While there’s great potential for these changes to make a difference in the way brands advertise on Twitter, there’s a fine line between what makes ads more effective and what makes ads more bothersome to consumers. The update places ads more prominently in users’ feeds so that they can see them while scrolling through the site. Though this benefits brands trying to get their message out, it could be received as spam if these ads become too frequent or distracting.
There have also been some issues with sizing due to the way images are cropped when in the preview. Now brands will have to create content with this display in mind so that they don’t run the risk of losing important context clues or creating strange framing of their images.
Despite these problems, it appears that the display upgrade will not only be well received by general users, but will also prove to be of huge value in the long run for brands trying to push their content further.
[Source: Twitter]
