Twitter Gets a Facelift

Twitter has decided to give its site a facelift by making its home page more user-friendly and easier to navigate. This photo on the left shows exactly what the new Twitter will look like once you log on. They decided to make it a split screen so don't have to navigate away from your live Twitter feed. Also, you will no longer have to click "more" at the end of your feed in order to see more tweets. Instead, it will just be a rolling feed of tweets that is constantly updated and never ending. You just scroll down as long as you like through your Twitter feed. 

The right side of the home page will be blank until you click on a tweet, link, mention, hashtag, photo or video off of your Twitter feed. The right side then magnifies the content you had clicked on from the left side. You will be able to scroll down the right side as well and see related tweets to the content you are viewing. Another cool feature is the "mini profiles." Instead of getting taken immediately to someone's profile when you click on their name, you are shown a small box with their number of followers, following, posts and their profile sentence with the option to view their full profile.

Now you're probably wondering where your "toolbar" went... Don't worry, Twitter did not get rid of it! It is now located along the top of your home page, making the page more streamlined. Also, the "search box" is moved to the top as well. And don't fret, Twitter isn't changing everyone's account overnight like Facebook does. It has started this week and will be spreading to users over the next few weeks. You do not have to use the new Twitter and will be given the option to go back to the old Twitter if you prefer. They will not have this option forever, only until everyone is familiar with the New Twitter and then it will become the only version. 

I believe this is very smart of Twitter because it will keep users happy since this new version is not forced upon them. I am very excited about this feature because it will be easier to view photo's and video's which I never would click on since it opened a new web page. Overall, I think Twitter is moving in the right direction with its new version for our extremely fast-paced society. Good job Twitter!

Funny story, just as I went to post this blog, Twitter asked me if I would like to try the new version... Of course! 

Every Shopaholic's Dream

I was inspired to write this blog after last class when we compared different bourbon Facebook pages. I thought to myself "what would I be interested in researching" and then it showed up right before my eyes: H&M popped up on my mini-feed. H&M is a swedish based fashion store with locations all over the world (it is one of my favorite places to shop even though the closest store is 5 hours away.)

Anyways, I dived into the Facebook page and was excited to see how engaged they are with their followers. Since this is an international company, the Facebook page is global as well. With over 3,600,000 million followers, fans around the world post their opinions, thoughts and idea's every few minutes and if anyone asks a question, H&M is quick to respond. You can customize your own H&M page, tag photo's of your H&M look, see upcoming events and store openings, and contact the customer service hotline directly from Facebook. My favorite part of their page is their competition among fashion blogs to win an exclusive video at the H&M fashion show of a new designer line. Not only is it very engaging for the consumer, but it really pulls in social media because you have to apply a widget to your blog in order to track the readership for the competition.

Speaking of social media, on the H&M website, there is a "social media room" where they have all of their social media tools linked to one source. The best way to describe it is that it's like a "mini Twitter feed" constantly being updated whenever anyone tweets @H&M , posts on their Facebook page, comments on their YouTube Channel or writes a blog post about H&M. This is a great marketing tool because H&M is so engaged in every aspect of social media that they should be. They didn't overdo it and try to grab a piece of every social media available, which is what most companies are doing. Instead they made very smart decisions to keep it simple and easy to manage. Plus, they understand that in today's fast paced world you have to keep up with your consumer which is why they jumped on the social media train as soon as possible. They just created an iPhone App which allows you too receive special offers and discounts because you are an "exclusive customer." I am very impressed with H&M and can't wait to see how they continue to utilize social media in the future.

VMA's Overload Twitter

I've been procrastinating this post because I hadn't sat down and figured out what I wanted to blog about. Well lucky for me, I came across this topic tonight, while watching the VMA's. MTV launched an app called the MTV VMA Twitter Tracker, it is a web-based, visual app that tracked trending topics live during the show. You were able to see how many tweets were posted per topic. Then, the topics are ranked according to how many tweets were posted, so the order was constantly changing.  Some of the top topics were #ladygaga, #justinbieber, #kanyewest, #taylorswift, and #vma. The top four topics were presented first with huge images of the artist and how many tweets per minute are coming through. Along the top of the app, you are able to view any of the 50 VMA topics and tweet live your opinions as well. Also, in the bottom left corner is a timeline to see how many tweets went through per minute and who at that exact time were the four top trending topics. Not only did this timeline build during the entire show, but it is still increasing even though the VMA's just started their first replay.

Throughout the show,  MTV kept TV audiences updated with how many tweets were coming through on Twitter. The hottest topic however, was in the very beginning of the show. Rihanna made a surprise appearance to sing "Love the Way you Lie" with Eminem as the VMA's opening performance. As soon as she stepped on stage, Twitter went over capacity due to more than 4,700 tweets per minute about #rihanna. As of right now there have been 2,059,418 tweets about the VMA's since they started at 7 p.m.,

I think this was a very smart move for MTV. Obviously, they appeal to a younger market, so incorporating what we know and use so well, really helped engage the audience. I was on Twitter during the show because I wanted to see everyone's opinion and catch up on what I missed in the beginning of the show. MTV's app is fascinating to me and definitely a breakthrough in the interweaving of online, mobile and television all into one social media event. It will be interesting to see if other networks follow suit and incorporate social media directly into their programming. It is a step in the right direction and a great solution to what the future of social media plus traditional media can create.

And 8 minutes later, there are now 2,097,783 tweets, with that number still rapidly increasing.

Welcome!

This blog is for my Marketing 420 class: Social Media Marketing. Over the next few months, I will be blogging about anything that strikes my interest concerning social media. Hope you find it interesting!