Twitter is 140 characters of of monochrome text.. right?
Well, its multimedia credentials have just been pumped and given a boost by reaching for the steroids. The humble messaging service initially invented for one company’s internal use is continuing to enrich and grow the different multimedia platforms it supports with its “New Twitter” user interface where you can view a photo on Flickr or a YouTube Video directly on Twitter without visiting the media site itself.
Twitter brings it to you without leaving the comfort of your Twitter “Lounge”.
It has supported for a few months now the social media platforms YouTube, Flickr, USTREAM and iTunes song previews as well as share music with your friends by linking your Twitter account to Ping, iTunes’ new social network for music.
Twitter announced recently that it is now adding more multimedia platforms that can be viewed actively in the right pane when you click on the arrow on the the tweet displayed in the left pane of the “New Twitter” interface. It only works if the link is from the the multimedia platform (eg Slideshare) rather than a post link which has the embedded photo or presentation. I tested one of the new platforms “Slideshare” and took a screen shot to show you how it displays.
The additional platforms supported include.
- blip.tv: Watch more than 50,000 independently-produced Web TV shows.
- Instagram: View mobile photos, personalized with Instagram’s colorful filters.
- Rdio: When a subscriber Tweets out a song, Rdio members can listen to full-length songs right inside the details pane, for the first time ever. All other Twitter users will hear 30 second song previews.
- SlideShare: Read and share entire presentations, directly on Twitter.
- Dipdive: See photos, videos and new works from Dipdive’s community of artists.
So how would this be useful to your marketing as a company?
Well, you could promote your “How To” YouTube videos for your products or directly display a company presentation in Twitter with only one click within Twitter itself. It decreases the number of clicks and hence reduces the friction of your multimedia content being viewed.
Give it a go and I look forward to hearing your feedback.
Image by mamuso