The rise of Twitter from a minor internet user’s plaything to a major player in the social network field has pushed its developers into finding a suitable balance between features for marketers and everyday consumers.

While many of the site’s users will publish details of what their cat is up to, or what they had for breakfast, the platform is relied upon by many companies across the world to break the barriers down between themselves and their target audiences.

The time these large businesses put into their search for the perfect Twitter marketing strategy rarely goes to waste. A U.S. report in February by J.D Power and Associates revealed that 87% of the consumers questioned felt that positive engagement with a brand’s Twitter presence can have a significant impact on their likelihood to make purchases.

Popularity among both consumers and marketers has led Twitter’s development team to introduce a number of new feature updates over the past year. A recent alteration highlighted the importance of mobile-friendly marketing; allowing easier on-site searching for users on the move.

The search changes were added to when Nick Takayama, a software engineer from Twitter, announced further updates in an official blog post on March 6. In it, he said:

“When you open a link from a Tweet in your timeline, you’ll see that Tweet displayed at the bottom of the app’s built-in web browser. This provides additional context to the page you’re viewing, and makes it easy for you to retweet, favorite or reply to the Tweet as you’re reading an article or watching a video.”

The new developments are likely to make Twitter easier to use and, in turn, even more effective for marketers. The changes are likely to attract even more people to use the site, creating an even larger audience with which brands can connect. To make the most of such an opportunity, businesses that use the hugely popular microblogging site must focus on publishing content worthy of retweets.

Graeme Parton

Graeme has experience creating content for online sources and for the radio, and at university he studied Multimedia Journalism.