No longer do you need to direct visitors to your profile page on Twitter in order for them to follow you. In one click, a visitor can instantly subscribe to your Tweets without leaving your website. Twitter announced the “Follow” button yesterday, May 31, 2011 as “a way to increase engagement with your audience”.
While this sort of functionality from Twitter has been available to developers through their ‘Anywhere API’, the new Follow button offers an easy way to get set up. For individuals, small businesses and companies utilizing Twitter as a social media channel, this button can be implemented into a web site and makes it simple for visitors to subscribe to a Twitter user’s stream.
It seems to be a growing trend with social media that a conversation can start on a web page and continue on to something like a person’s Facebook profile. This is a powerful concept that has driven ideas such as Facebook’s Like Button, where a visitor can “like” something on a web page which notifies all of their Facebook friends. This leads to more conversation and carries the message even further. Similarly, Twitter’s Tweet button allows a person to instantly create a Tweet directly from a web page as one seamless experience. Ultimately, all these tools including Twitters new Follow button make it easier to expand and involve your online audience.
