Twitter was launched in 2006, but back then it was called Twittr and nobody, not even its founders, Biz Stone, Jack Dorsey and Evan William could have imagined that the company will become a $25 billion behemoth within 7 years of its launch.

With around 232 million monthly active users, Twitter is a popular social network and just about everybody who wants an active social media presence, whether it’s a business or an individual, usually has a Twitter account. Some of them are active contributors, while others just use their accounts to read Tweets. One of the reasons for this sterling popularity of Twitter is its evolution. Over the years, its kept improving its features to make life easier for the Twitterati and upping the ante on the platform’s user engagement.

It has now come up with a new interface for Twitter conversation. And like with everything else that Twitter has come up with over the years, it has its share of supporters and haters. When a user hates a particular feature of a technology, it means he actually cares about the company and wants it to deliver only the best features. So, a section of Twitterati hating the brand new Conversation Interface is not necessarily a bad thing.

So let’s take a closer look at the New Twitter interface for Conversations and all that it brings to the table for the user.

What is it?

The purpose of ‘Conversations’ is to better dialogue between two Tweeples. Since the time it was launched, Tweets appeared in reverse chronological as and when they were filed in. This has now been abandoned and Tweets will now be shown in a chronological order within a user’s normal stream so that Tweets between the user and another person are easier to follow. The idea is to initiate and keep track of the real-time dialogue that will happen between you and the person you are conversing with on Twitter.

With this new interface, Twitter has made it simpler for following connected conversations. You can see up to three sequential Tweets in your home timeline, and if you want to see more Tweets that are a part of the conversation all you need to do is tap a Tweet. This will allow you to see replies from people who you follow and also from those who you don’t follow.

These conversations are connected to one another with a blue vertical line, just so you are aware that what you are following is a single conversation.

Image Source: https://about.twitter.com/products/conversations

The Benefits for Marketers

While naysayers will find fault with lots of things that the Conversations feature brings to the table, what Twitter has tried to do is improve the relevance of engagement by giving users a better way of interacting with content and taking part in on going interactions. But, in today’s world where every new feature of any new social network is seen through the prism of business benefits, it’s important to look at the new Conversations interface in terms of what it brings to the table for businesses.

Improved Engagement

The new interface has been developed with the critical objective of increasing and improving conversations, something that Twitter felt, it wasn’t doing well as compared to its competitors. This has automatically resulted in a marketing benefit, where in the new ‘conversational Twitter’ offers deeper insights to marketers about the keywords they are targeting. What’s more, with conversations becoming simpler and easier to track, marketers have a chance to engage their Twitter audience naturally in a conversation. They can explore newer and better ways of engaging customers, knowing they can keep track of every conversation at an individual level.

Track Conversations

Marketers now have the opportunity to follow conversations based on what they bring to the table. These could be your ordinary customers, influencers, brand advocates or something else. For example, if you’re selling a mobile app, and have started a conversation with a brand influencer in that particular domain, you can keep track of the various conversations your brand is having with the influencers. This also helps you gauge the interest of the influencers in your brand.

Another benefit that it brings to the table is target conversations and also helping marketers make relevant contributions to a conversation when the target influencer/brand advocate/customer is most likely to see them.

Immediate Feedback and Better Customer Experience

Before Conversations it was not easy to follow discussions that mattered. Now, you can follow the conversation of customers and get his/her feedback on your products and services. They can actually get in touch with a customer service representative directly on Twitter or take a screenshot of a conversation with the representative and send it to a manager if they aren’t happy with the service.

The new Twitter Interface for conversation helps avoid clutter and also enables the management to respond faster to customer service complaints. This is one of the biggest advantages of this new feature.

Criticisms are a Par for the Course but Benefits Abound

Agreed there are quite a few people who aren’t too happy with conversations, but here’s the truth: not everybody is satisfied with a new feature; there are always dissatisfied souls out there. But, there is no doubt that the new interface is a highly beneficial feature and over time the criticism about the ‘thin blue line’ will fade. Already we are seeing very few people complain about this feature as they are getting used to it.

While this feature made its appearance in mid-2013, we’ve just begun to witness its improved contribution to social media marketing via Twitter. Let’s hope, 2014 brings in even more features that will benefit both marketers and individuals in more ways than one.

Author Bio:

Jeff Davis is living in California and currently associated with Quick Laptop Cash – A place to sell laptops online. He has been into this field since last 6 years and responsible for troubleshoot issues; interact to discuss projects, technology solutions.