Twitter 2.0: Changes to the tweetosphere

By Frank Bauch

Its been quite a year for the micro-blogging social networking site from San Francisco. But for all the publicity that Twitter has received this year, there haven’t been a whole lot of changes to the construction of the site. The additions of “trending topics” and a change to the infamous “Fail Whale” logo could hardly be considered revolutionary.

This month, however, twitter made four notable changes to the site – some that could impact its business use, and others that are mostly cosmetic:

1. Addition of Twitter lists. One of the major complaints about twitter was the difficulty of finding certain people on Twitter. On Facebook, if you know someone’s name, and have a general sense of what they look like, you can find their profile. On Twitter, the different account names make that task difficult. Twitter lists will allow people to more easily sort through their followers to find additional contacts that are relevant. Here’s a PR example: If I was interested in finding the appropriate reporter to pitch a story at Fast Company, I could sort through their Twitter lists to see what some of their reporters have written about recently. They’ve got lists for marketing columnists, design columnists, bloggers, and their editorial staff. Other publications have similar lists, and I expect that more publications will pick up this feature shortly.
2. Twitter-LinkedIn connection. LinkedIn announced that they will partner with Twitter to connect tweets to your LinkedIn profile. This could be an excellent upgrade for LinkedIn, replacing the sparsely used LinkedIn status updates. There are plenty of folks who use Twitter for personal use, and those people will not be affected by the connection with LinkedIn. But for business users, the twitter feed will give business professionals a much deeper look into the lives of their professional connections. The biggest impact will probably be for job seekers looking to spread the word about their search, or journalists looking for sources.
3. Easier re-tweeting. This change is unlikely to have a business impact, but it makes Twitter much easier to use. Instead of copying and pasting a tweet, users can now simply click on the recycling symbol to re-issue a tweet. There has been some criticism from die-hard tweeters that you can’t add your own commentary to re-tweets with this feature, but those wishing to add to the tweet can still copy and paste as they did before.
4. Headlines. Without much fanfare, Twitter changed the headline at the top of profile homepages. Instead of asking “What are you doing?” Twitter now asks you “What’s happening?”. The previous statement implies a personal connection to your followers. The new question reflects the increasing belief that Twitter is an excellent medium to spread news. It is unlikely that many people will even notice this change, but it is a signal that we can continue to expect changes that will make the site more about your business than your breakfast.