Recently, both Twitter and LinkedIn announced that they are making design changes that will upgrade the look and feel of their social networks. The changes are designed to help users better customize their profiles. For companies, Twitter and LinkedIn will offer better branding opportunities.
Twitter and LinkedIn are both making efforts to change things up so that they look more like Facebook and Google Plus. And there’s nothing wrong with that. The cover-style photo added to the top of your profile will provide ample branding opportunities, and, in the LinkedIn re-design, it will soon be possible to highlight your company’s products and services.
The new designs will be interactive and engaging, and offer an up-to-date and refreshed look for the social networks. It will also make it easier for you to establish your brand identity and even share more about your business with customers.
Twitter changes focus on the increasingly visual nature of the Internet. You can create a “cover image” that can include your brand logo, or other image. You should be careful of how you size the image, though. If you put something smaller than 640 pixels wide as your cover, chances are that it will look grainy. The maximum original size is 1252 pixels wide by 626 pixels tall. Choose a cover image that looks good in a wide format.
Bergeron Creative’s Twitter page is an example of how a brand can take advantage of the new format.
Another change is that you can more easily add photos to your profile, on the left. This offers the chance for you to share your products, including images of them in use, easily. The more visual Twitter is a positive addition, along with the “expanded tweet” change added earlier this year. Twitter is becoming more user friendly, as well as brand friendly (think hashtag pages for Twitter), and that provides you with more opportunities.
My Twitter page is an example of how you can brand yourself within your organization’s brand utilizing the new format.
Al Bergeron’s Twitter page shows how you can create an identity system that allows you to consistently present personnel under your organization’s brand utilizing the new format.
As a company, a presence on LinkedIn can be a real advantage. Now, thanks to the design changes for company profiles on LinkedIn, you can really take your brand strategy to the next level.
Like Twitter, LinkedIn is adding a cover image to company pages. Previously, this image was not customizable. Now it can be. Additionally, you can easily share company updates – including contests and promotions – using LinkedIn. While this feature existed, it wasn’t as obvious. The same is true of the content targeting feature offered by LinkedIn. It is easier to target specific audiences with the new design.
Your company summary will be moved to the bottom of your page, so it will be especially important to make sure that your cover image and your updates are interesting enough and engaging enough to encourage visitors to scroll down to see what you’re all about.
The products and services section of your company profile has been shifted to the right sidebar, making it easy for visitors to see what you offer. It’s also easy to see recommendations, and testimonials – vital for businesses that want to highlight their strong points. Because these sections will be more prominent with the new design, make an effort to gather more reviews from others so that they can be highlighted on your page.
Overall, the main change is the customizable cover image. However, both LinkedIn and Twitter are adding some more subtle design changes that should prove useful to businesses, and help you more effectively share your brand.
What do you think of the Twitter and LinkedIn redesigns?
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