Twitter to introduce ‘Facebook-like pages’

Reports have begun circulating that Twitter has plans to introduce “Facebook-like pages.”

Techradar and Marketing Magazine report that this would be yet another revenue stream for the company. Followers of the business aspect of Twitter will not be surprised by such reports, especially following last year’s unveiling that the microblogging site would begin monetisation. At the moment, Twitter is driving profit through Promoted Tweets, Promoted Trends and Promoted Accounts and deals with specific partners giving full or partial access to its firehose.

Beyond the revenue streams made available to its users, Twitter has had some others which have been less global. One example would be a microsite Twitter created in conjunction with the US National Football League and Visa for this year’s Super Bowl.

As is to be expected on a story centring on Twitter’s monetisation drive, exact details are scant. However, it is reported that this new service will be similar to Facebook Pages in that it will enable brands to have their own twitter.com page; one that will likely be different than the traditional Twitter account. Like on a Facebook page, brands will most probably be able to communicate to their followers beyond the typical 140 character limit, Marketing Magazine says.

As Rick Mans from Capgemini, an international technology consulting firm, said to ReadWriteWeb:

“I think it would be very useful for brands to have a page that is richer than the current profile page, especially for users who will visit the page of the brand for the first time. That would be the added value for me: having a broader introduction to the brand than just the limited profile Twitter now offers and offer information beyond the traditional Tweet. Integration of branded pages with the existing ecosystem of tools could be interesting.”

However, questions still remain. Unlike Facebook, where users are accustomed to interacting on pages rather than on the news-feed, things on Twitter are the other way around. Users must scan through the 140 character messages that come to them via their timeline, rarely clicking over to a user’s page. And as such, some analysts question just how applicable a model based on Facebook Pages would be for Twitter.

Despite the various questions surrounding Twitter, Rick Mans’ response to these reports show there is a willingness in the business community to try any tool that may make a brand visible to Twitter users. At the same time, there is a careful line Twitter must tread to not alienate its users, and the addition of Facebook elements or changing the Twitter experience may do just that.