Tuesday morning saw Twitter CEO Dick Costolo take to NBC’s airwaves to announce the latest updates to the site’s profile pages. Despite earlier changes as recently as this past February, the social network is again updating page layouts.
Upon first glance at the new design, it’s immediately clear that Twitter has shifted its focus to becoming a mobile-first social network – taking the rise of smartphones and tablets into account.
“Today’s changes are all about bringing that personality forward. More media forward, more photos forward,” said Costolo on NBC’s The Today Show. “So it’s much easier to see these media experiences and flip through them.”
The new layout instantly draws comparison to Facebook’s Timeline, especially with the featured header image.
Also similar to the Timeline is Twitter’s rollout of the new design – first, users will have a choice whether or not to change to the layout, but eventually all account pages will be switched to it.
The new banner image and mobile-friendly design gives brands all new opportunities to better engage users – research already show images are incredibly effective in user engagement on social networks.
With its two-way conversation capabilities compounded with the new image-heavy layout and advertising platform, Twitter could give Facebook a run for its money as king of social media marketing.
(H/T Mashable, The Today Show)