Twitter News Blog:
Twitter is far from new but while many people still don't 'get it', there are even more who have great potential but aren't sure how to make an impact on Twitter. Corporations are dabbling for customer support, sales offers and reputation management. Small businesses are either spamming on Twitter or having mainly personal conversations. Many people are simply broadcasting their day without any true interaction with their Twitter followers. This site will hopefully help you to make the most of Twitter
NASCAR drivers have covered a lot of ground this year — and they’ve done it on Twitter. While @JimmieJohnson was 41,000 feet in the air, he
hosted a live chat with fans. When the top Sprint Cup racers took a trip to the White House, they
documented every step of their journey. During the Daytona 500, @keselowski found himself stopped on the track during a fire, and
shared the view from the driver’s seat. And when you watch @KaseyKahne make his way around the track,
you’ll see a hashtag on the back of his car.
It’s clear that Twitter and NASCAR are a great match, and we’re working with NASCAR to bring fans even closer to the track.
On June 10, while the drivers are racing in the
Pocono 400, you’ll be able to get closer to the action as it unfolds on the track with a special experience around the #NASCAR hashtag. During the race, we'll curate accounts from the NASCAR universe and surface the best Tweets and photos from the drivers, their families, commentators, celebrities and other fans when you search #NASCAR on Twitter.com.
We’ll have more to share about our relationship with NASCAR in the coming weeks. Meanwhile, this weekend you can follow the
All-Star race and festivities via these accounts among others:
@NASCAR@JimmieJohnson@keselowski @KyleBusch@KaseyKahne @JeffGordonWeb@KevinHarvickCheering along with fellow fans during the biggest sporting events used to require being there in person, or at least heading to the nearest sports bar. Now, Twitter brings you closer to the roar of the crowd — and the roar of the engines.
Posted by: Omid Ashtari, Twitter Sports & Entertainment Team (@omid)
What do you have in common with Usher, Carrie Underwood, and Maroon 5? You can experience the excitement of the
Billboard Music Awards on Sunday night live on ABC 8pm ET / 7pm CT (8pm PT). Okay, we can’t promise that you’ll literally rub elbows with Alicia Keys, but following the show on Twitter can make you feel like you’re on the red carpet, at the award podium, and backstage with your favorite musicians.
With our
special cast of live-tweeters, you can experience the show through the eyes of the artists themselves and celebrity music fans who will be watching as well. Have you ever wondered what it’s like to take the stage to perform in front of millions of viewers? You can find out by following
@NellyFurtado,
@AliciaKeys, and
@CarlyRaeJepsen, all of whom will be tweeting from inside the awards throughout the evening -- along with other hit acts like
@RedFoo and
@FarEastMovement.
Not every musician in the world is at the Awards, but just about all of them might be watching it! Watch along with artists like
@nadiaali,
@preciousweapons,
@tranquilmammoth, and
@brokenanchor1. And finally, a big night for music also brings out the stars from other areas of entertainment. Also watching and tweeting along will be actors like
@juliannehough and
@TheRealMikeEpps, fashion guru
@NinaGarcia, author Sloane Crosley (
@askanyone) and comedian
@TracyMcMillan. So make sure you
take a look at our list on the night of the Awards.
But before the big night even begins, check out our
Billboard Music Awards list and follow all your favorite artists and the night’s hottest acts. During the show, you can follow the
#BBMA hashtag to see these tweets and plenty more from musicians and fans around the world, and include it with your own Tweets to be a part of the conversation.
With Modern Family stars Julie Bowen (
@itsJulieBowen) and Ty Burrell hosting, the night promises to be full of fun. Here’s a sneak peek of the antics that await -- shared on Twitter, of course:
Posted by Grace Chu Lee, TV Partnerships Team (@gracelee)
Communities are stitched together by numerous kinds of ties. In person there’s the smile, handshake, a shared laugh. From afar there’s the letter, email, a phone call. Twitter has a noteworthy power to bring you closer to a community instantaneously, and this week’s collection of #OnlyOnTwitter moments illustrates how this can be done with photographs.
Whether it’s Broadway actors sharing an intermission break despite being in different shows, or photos from far away that pierce the mystique to show real, human people. Or (my favorite), if on your band’s tour you suddenly stumble upon the Most Awesome Story to Tell Your Friends — with Twitter, you tell it in real time.
Saturday Intermission PicturesThe Broadway community is a tight-knit crew. But on Saturday afternoons, when they're all scattered across different theaters, how do they stay close? Intermission pictures!
Journalist Jacob Weisberg takes you to ChinaOn a trip to China, journalist Jacob Weisberg has been tweeting out photos and observations. This is a great format for feature reporters. Tweeting on the ground doesn't just have to be limited to breaking news. Jacob’s Tweets also offer an immediate and fascinating picture at life behind the Great Firewall.
Indie Band Picks up a Hitchhiking John WatersJohn Waters was making his way across Ohio with his thumb and indie band Here We Go Magic picked him up. He rode in their van, and they reported the details of the incident on Twitter. (
via DCist)
Posted by Andrew Fitzgerald, Manager, Editorial Programming (@magicandrew)
Every day, hundreds of thousands of people sign up for Twitter to get closer to the things they care about — friends, businesses, celebrities, news and information from all over. If you’ve used Twitter for awhile, you know it can take some effort to find and follow the accounts that really reflect your interests. If you’re signing up for Twitter for the first time, we want that process to be easy and fast.
Currently, when new users come to Twitter, we show them all almost the same suggestions for what or who to follow. That isn’t ideal. Since you have individual interests, you should get individual suggestions. After all, even though millions of people love Justin Bieber, FC Barcelona or Kim Kardashian, not everyone using Twitter may want to follow them. A football fan in Italy who loves to travel may want to follow
@chiellini,
@walksofItaly and
@nytimestravel. An aspiring chef who loves to laugh can follow
@epicurious,
@seriousrecipes and
@SteveCarell. And a mom whose son is traveling in Australia can feel connected to him and keep up with the latest news where he is by following
@smh.
To make it easier and faster for everyone to get started on Twitter, we’re beginning some experiments with tailored suggestions in a number of countries around the world. The first experiment will show new users a list of accounts that we recommend you follow, alongside a timeline filled with Tweets from those accounts. If you’re part of the experiment, you’ll see a Twitter experience that’s relevant to you right when you sign up. (Of course, you can always choose to not follow the suggested accounts that don’t interest you.)
New users may see a list of tailored suggestions (left) and a timeline with Tweets from those accounts (right) as they sign up for an account.
New users may see a list of tailored suggestions (left) and a timeline with Tweets from those accounts (right) as they sign up for an account.If you’re a current user, you may see tailored suggestions in
Who to follow so you can constantly find interesting and relevant accounts that are new to you. In both cases, we hope it’s effortless for the Italian football-and-travel fan to follow
@chiellini,
@walksofItaly and
@nytimestravel. To see which accounts we’d recommend for you, visit our
preview page.
Current users may see tailored suggestions in “Who to follow”.These tailored suggestions are based on accounts followed by other Twitter users and visits to websites in the Twitter ecosystem. We receive visit information when sites have integrated Twitter buttons or widgets, similar to what many other web companies — including LinkedIn, Facebook and YouTube — do when they’re integrated into websites. By recognizing which accounts are frequently followed by people who visit popular sites, we can recommend those accounts to others who have visited those sites within the last ten days.
As always, we are committed to providing you with simple and meaningful choices about the information we collect to improve your Twitter experience. For those who don’t want to tailor Twitter, we offer ways to turn off this collection. As the Federal Trade Commission’s CTO, Ed Felten, mentioned earlier today, we support
Do Not Track (DNT), which is reflected in our
privacy policy as one of the ways you can indicate your preference. If you have DNT enabled in your browser settings, we will not collect the information that enables this feature, so you won’t see any tailored suggestions. We hope that our support of DNT highlights its importance as a privacy tool for consumers and creates even more interest and wider adoption across the web.
Additionally, new users will see an option to “Tailor Twitter based on my recent website visits” along with a link to “
Learn more” when they create an account on Twitter.com. Current users will see a new “Personalization” section in
account settings, with the same option to tailor Twitter. Of course, you can disable these options at any time, which will stop the collection of information for the feature and remove any tailored suggestions we have for you. You can even choose to turn off tailored suggestions from the
preview page (which shows some suggestions we’d make for you).
Every day, experienced Twitter users are brought closer to the things they care about in unique, profound ways. Today’s experiment in providing tailored suggestions lets novice users go from zero to pro faster and more easily than ever before. So even if you’re not a football-loving Italian who wants to travel the world, we hope this experiment immediately makes Twitter yours, and you can start getting closer to the things you care about with just a few clicks or taps.
- Othman Laraki, Director, Growth and International (
@othman)
Starting today, you can discover the best of Twitter in a weekly email digest delivered to your inbox. This summary features the most relevant Tweets and stories shared by the people you’re connected to on Twitter.
Stories feature a design similar to the recently updated Discover tab, emphasizing who shared each story beneath summaries to help you decide which ones matter most to you. Click any headline to finish reading the story, add your take by tweeting directly from the email, and see related Tweets from the people you follow.
This new email digest also features the most engaging Tweets seen by the people you follow, even if you don’t follow those who wrote them. You can see who from your network retweeted or favorited these Tweets and click “View details” to retweet, favorite, reply or view the conversation around them.
We’re rolling out this new email out to everyone over the next few weeks, so keep checking your inbox for new messages from Twitter. Like other Twitter email notifications, you can manage your preferences for this new digest in your
Notification Settings.
-Othman Laraki, Director, Growth and International (@othman)
We provide news, headlines, and stories from Twitter Blogs and Blog Posts.