Twitter’s Testing a New Layout for Replies, Focused on Improving Engagement
Twitter is currently evaluating potential ways to increase engagement on their platform. Tweet interactions may be undergoing some changes with the help of Twitter users and their feedback. The team is considering threaded replies to individual posts, color coding replies so that users can distinguish between original posts and replies, and green dots that let other users know that someone is active on Twitter at the moments. These potential changes were posted and users provided modifications and suggestions. For example, some people suggested adding a feature that shows users when someone is typing a reply or making replies scrollable with the original post pinned at the top.
Based on this feedback, it seems as though users are simply looking for clarity so that they be more engaged on Twitter. Luckily, the team at Twitter seems to be more than willing to provide that. Although I am not an active Twitter user, I definitely see the usefulness of these changes. To my knowledge, the whole point of Twitter is to connect with users across the globe to discuss and share news. By altering how replies are displayed and adding indicators that make real-time communication feel real, Twitter’s engagement can drastically change and better serve its purpose.
It is so important for major social media sites like Twitter to not only think of ways to improve their channel but to base their improvements on the responses of their users. It is quite unrealistic to expect every user to be content with changes to their favorite platform, but it is crucial to try to accommodate users as much as they can. I believe that Twitter is doing just that be only testing these changes out with users and not making the changes without user feedback.
Boosting engagement on Twitter will not only help Twitter, it will also help businesses. Often times, when a brand or company makes a bad public relations move, they head directly to Twitter to apologize or vindicate themselves. With threaded and color-coded replies, it is much easier for people to see exactly how a brand responded to a scandal as well as how other people reacted to it. The green dot that represents whether or not someone is active on Twitter would also be of service to businesses because more people would be inclined to engage with a brand if they knew the brand was active on Twitter at the moment. Businesses could receive and provide feedback more effectively through the use of these new features. Overall, I believe that Twitter made a great decision to include their audience in the process of improving the engagement on their site. These changes will only benefit that same audience in the end.
