BW Communities

Shop While You Tweet

Business World Jul 06, 2015

Twitter is the latest social networking site to enter the e-commerce space; it announced the testing of its new Product Pages, which will have information about products such as images and videos along with a description, price, and an option to buy, book, or visit the website for more information. Twitter has now joined other social media networks such as Google, Pinterest and Instagram that have recently come up with shopping features for users. Earlier, Instagram launched its call-to-action button that allows users to shop for products or install apps from a post directly. Pinterest too launched buyable pins, while Google launched a buy button on YouTube videos. In an official blog, Twitter says, “We’ll show you images and a description right above the Tweets that are most timely and relevant to you. These may be Tweets from accounts you follow, relevant news updates, or popular content about the [product].” Besides this, Twitter is also testing ways for people and brands to share Twitter collections of products and places. Users will be able to browse collections from influencers they follow and get more information about products or places they find interesting. Twitter is undergoing a leadership change at the moment as its CEO Dick Costolo is stepping down from the company effective 1 July 2015. The company has appointed its co-founder, Jack Dorsey (also co-founder of Square), as an Interim CEO till the board searches for a new candidate.  <table align="right" border="0" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="3" style="width: 300px;"><tbody><tr><td><img alt="" src="http://bw-image.s3.amazonaws.com/vr-14jul.jpg" style="width: 300px; height: 298px;"></td></tr><tr><td>Illustration by Champak Bhattacharjee</td></tr></tbody></table>BRAND BUZZ Help At Hand Social media management dashboard Hootsuite has launched Suggestions for mobile, a standalone iOS app that makes discovering, scheduling and sharing content on social media easier. The app allows users to obtain a real-time feed of suggested content that correlates with their interests; easily select relevant articles, which reduces the time spent searching for content or news; share content on any selected social network; and auto schedule to post content at the optimal time to reach followers. DIG THE DATA Young & Loyal According to a Convince and Convert report, 66 per cent of Americans in the age group 18-24 are more loyal to the brands they follow on social media, while the same was true of only 39 per cent Americans aged 55 and older. It appears that brand enthusiasm, as reflected by social media engagement, dulls progressively in older generations. Brevity Is Virtue Statistics show that Tweets with around 110 characters (instead of the Twitter limit of 140) get a significantly higher number of re-tweets. Basically, re-tweets are easier with shorter posts; plus, followers needn’t edit tweets in order to add their own caveat when re-tweeting. LEADER David Cameron @David_Cameron Prime Minister, UK “We must end Labour’s welfare merry-go-round and aim for a higher wage, lower tax and lower welfare society.” Kaushik Basu @Kaushikcbasu Chief economist, World Bank “If the US protected its auto industry from global competition in the 80s/90s it would have a larger auto industry today and a smaller economy.” (This story was published in BW | Businessworld Issue Dated 27-07-2015)