Twitter introduced new features into their platform this past week including Direct Messaging, a new home page, and selling tickets for sporting events.

Direct Messaging

Twitter users can now opt in to receive direct messages from any other Twitter user, whether you follow them or not. This change aims to make it easier to make introductions and connect with new people which is a natural use of social media. This takes away the hassle and delay of customer service when contacting a brand on Twitter and they ask you to follow them in order to DM. However, this does allow brands to initiate a conversation with consumers and they need to evaluate if sending DMs will be the most beneficial form of communication before reaching out.

This feature has been criticized before because trolls have taken advantage of messaging but since users need to opt in in to receiving messages, this should reduce the amount of trolling.

New Home Page

In an effort to increase their MAU number and no members using their service, Twitter revamped their home page to make it easier for site visitors to find information. While existing users like to see everything going on in their feed, for new users it can be overwhelming. With this adjustment, it could be easier for visitors to look up content and make the transition to a Twitter user.

Sports Sales

The Atlanta Hawks are one of the first teams to use Twitter’s Buy feature for ticket sales. This seems like the best application of Twitter’s Buy Now feature as fans can buy last minute tickets and teams increase their chance of having sold out crowds by letting fans know about extra tickets in a convenient way.