A Gift from Twitter Just in Time for the Holidays: #NewLook

On December 8th Twitter launched yet another version of its social media platform.

Twitter, not unlike Facebook, gets a lot of slack for changing things up since most people aren’t big fans of change, especially when it comes to a tool they use every day and have become so familiar with.

I am not one of those people. I actually love change, but that’s not the point of this post. The point is to showcase a few of the big changes before all accounts switch over so that you’re familiar with it even before you have to be. The other point is to applaud Twitter for realizing that a lot of people “just don’t get the whole Twitter thing” and that they had to make it more intuitive, allowing new users to see it as the “connection engine” that it is.

So, what’s new? A lot. But most fundamentally, the emphasis on engagement. I hate to say it, but we told ya so.

For starters, with the last update and now carrying over in to this most recent one, new re-tweets and @mentions are being categorized as “interactions” – I love it. That’s what they are: evidence that others are interacting (engaging) with you.

Twitter in my mind has always had two major functions: connecting with others and exploration. They highlight that now, with @connect (much more intuitive than @mentions) and #discover (much more intuitive than “hashtag” especially because of the joking way it is often used).

To that same note, you can see that the search bar has even become so much more user-friendly, explaining it’s purpose right there in the search field.  ”Enter a #hashtag or keyword” draws the connection between search and social and makes the true purpose of a #hashtag much more evident.

 

At the risk of sounding like a sales pitch: Browsing categories is now easier than ever before with visually appealing thumbnails and subheadings, making it easy for the skeptical new user to see the value of Twitter as a platform.

Browsing categories, locally trending topics and twitter search are now all conveniently located in one place, rather than having to switch between sections of the platform, and more fun to look at to boot.

 

 

 

 

And how could you not love the updated “new tweet” or “compose”  button? The quill adds a nice touch.

 

The question now is when we will all have access to this shiny new version. @GetBusyMedia is under the new version, but my personal twitter account @BElizabeth8602 is not. I wonder when we will all be able to bask in the glory of the newly updated, more intuitive and engagement-focused Twitter? If anyone has any insight, please let us know @getbusymedia!

Is anyone under the new version? Your thoughts on the updates? We would love to hear what you have to say!

Don’t forget the hashtag #newlook to follow along with what everyone is saying about Twitter’s #newlook !