Earlier this month, Twitter announced a programme in which they will be rolling out Facebook-esque profiles for businesses.
The announcement, which was coupled with the introduction of a major redesign, is hoping to expand the number of brand pages on the platform.
Twitter’s existing brand pages have been under the radar, especially compared with the buildup around Google+ brand pages, which were launched early last month. But according to reports, Chief Revenue Officer Adam Bain said that he’s spent the better part of the past year meeting with marketing officials, and brand pages were a recurring and frequent request.
For Twitter, launching brand pages could be a way of challenging Facebook as the traditional secondary branded destination for a company after its own website.
Here in the Tanka office, we have the argument that most Businesses that want to be on Twitter, are already on Twitter. But can this big new re-design strategy be the thing to convert those who aren’t?
So far, Twitter will be rolling out the new corporate design with a few big businesses already participating: American Express, Best Buy, Bing, Chevrolet, Coca-Cola, Dell, Disney, General Electric, Hewlitt-Packard, Intel, JetBlue, Kia, McDonald’s, Nike, PepsiCo, Staples, Verizon Wireless, NYSE Euronext, Heineken, Subway and Paramount Pictures to name a few.
The question now remains, will this Twitter business page strategy become available for small, local businesses? Or will it remain exclusively for large corporations?