A bit before Twitter's IPO announcement @marshafriedman's lead social media strategist, started to notice a few changes. She shared four of these, and how they might affect you. I invite you to leave a comment on whether you think these will improve the user experience (tweeters and/or followers).
No more “automatic follow-backs” means the size of your following will grow more slowly. Some applications, such as HootSuite and ManageFlitter, allowed Twitter users to set up their accounts to automatically become a follower of anyone who first followed them. That allowed audiences to quickly swell – but it also removed human oversight. The result: Some of your followers, and some accounts you followed, would be fake, inactive or otherwise non-genuine connections.
I have to agree with Marsha and Jeni (the strategist who took note) that Twitter’s shutting down the ways huge audiences of fakes can grow will aid in proper valuation for the IPO. It also gives potential followers a more realistic view of an account's influence.
• You can no longer remove fake or unwanted followers en masse. Twitter enforces limits on how many accounts you can proactively follow, so it’s important to periodically clear out the fakes, inactive accounts and other unhelpful followers. Previously, you could use SocialOomph and Manage Flitter to detect and delete these followers in large bunches, which saved time.
According to Jeni, you now have to go through your followers one by one to delete them. I've done this over the time that I've had a Twitter account, so it shouldn't be a big issue for smaller users.
• Improved technical support – in some ways. Before the recent changes, if you ran into a problem with your Twitter account, you went to a “help” web page, filled out a form describing the problem, and submitted it. Then you had to watch your email for a confirmation and reply to the confirmation within 48 hours in order for your “case” to move forward.
According to Jeni, this pesky process still exists, however, the ‘help’ page now offers troubleshooting, which makes it easier to fix some problems. The downside? You’re forced to click through multiple steps and take certain actions before Twitter agrees that you have a problem and allows you to send a request for support.
• More advertisements. As Facebook did when it went public, Twitter is now offering users the option to pay for their posts to achieve more visibility. So now, you may find a post from an account that you don’t follow appearing at the top of your news feed.
“Most recently, I’ve been getting posts about McDonald’s new Mighty Wings,” Jeni says. “It’s mildly annoying if it’s something you have no interest in, but it can also get confusing. You may see it and think, ‘Did I follow McDonald’s?’ and check to see whether you did or not, especially if you’re close to your limit on followers.”
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