Twitter is rolling out some major new features

Twitter which is signing up 370,000 new users daily on average are redesigning their site to make it easier for users to navigate and find related information, making Twitter much more of an information resource, rather than just a place to network.

This is big news and we can already predict that engagement levels will rise.

Forrester analyst Augie Ray said the Twitter redesign should help improve engagement with users.

"Twitter's new Web functionality is a significant evolution that promises to attract more visits to Twitter.com, improve Twitterers' interactions with content and each other, and ease adoption for Twitter newbies"

Watch the introduction video above and find out more over at the Twitter Blog Post titled "A Better Twitter": http://blog.twitter.com/2010/09/better-twitter.html

The influence over numbers argument

The above table from http://www.emarketer.com/, which is backed up by an ExactTarget study, reproduced by eMarketer, assists with the "influence over numbers argument" on Twitter, as it shows that US Twitter user's in April 2010 were far more interactive online, than general internet users.

The results table indicates that US Twitter user’s were more likely than general internet users to post to forums, to write their own blog, comment on blogs and post ratings and reviews.

What this means for brands and companies, is that the people on Twitter are far more likely to be the ones that create the noise online and encourage conversations about a topic elsewhere online.

The ExactTarget study also explored Twitter users’ motivations for following brands and companies on Twitter, the majority wish to get updates on future products (38%) followed by staying informed about company activities (32%). This is followed by finding out about discounts and sales. Pretty interesting chart, and one that is now stuck up in the Social Media Office.

Within the communities we work on for brands we have asked the question, which social networks do you reside? From close review we have identified the above to be the case that "Daily twitter users comment and upload content at least twice as much as average".

We have formed some great, profitable relationships with bloggers on Twitter for clients, profitable in that they provide interest to our clients community groups (we PR them to the community) and they help increase our clients reach for little more than a friendly conversation.

Find out more about the ExactTarget study, including the motivations of Twitter users over at the eMarketer site:

Author: Sarah Griffiths

Geek Video of the month

The Galaxy Tab. Potential iPad contender?

We have talked quite a bit about the iPad on this blog, so we thought to shout about one of the so called challengers to the Apple iPad: introducing “The Galaxy Tab”.

We like the fact that they show a number of scenes on the video which are missing with the Apple devise (walking down the street, riding a bike etc). They are also pushing the most used smart devise features on the video, these being: Navigation, eReading, Web Browsing, Augmented Reality & Video Conference.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab was launched in Berlin on the 2nd of September, read the press release on the Galaxy Tab mini site:
http://galaxytab.samsungmobile.com/press/pressrelease.html

The smart device is being marketed as the 7 inch tablet which brings "more possibilities on the go". If you have any thoughts, we would love to hear them.


Author: Sarah Griffiths

eBay Launch Favourite Charity Campaign

A new eBay for Charity feature allows you to set your favourite charity on eBay, so that you can support them whenever you buy and sell.

To celebrate the launch of ‘My Favourite Charity’, eBay is awarding grants of up to £5,000 to the three charities that receive the most votes as favourite in September.

Visit My Favourite Charity to see which charities Tess Daly, Sharon Osborne, Helen Mirren, Roger Moore, and other celebrities have chosen, and then choose your favourite charity.

Ebay state that: “your contributions have so far raised over £19m in the UK. Along with the benefitting charities, we'd like to thank you for supporting good causes on eBay”.

We are big fans of the layout of the Ebay for Charity page, good mix of useful links, video and social media. Loving the ribbon idea too.

Learn more about eBay for Charity or follow them on twitter here.

Author: Sarah Griffiths