Twitter Gets a New Welcome Mat

Twitter recently brought joy to Wall Street with its reported user numbers but is keen on getting more people on board. So, what’s the strategy?

Twitter intends to roll out the red carpet for first-time users. It has overhauled the welcome page and sign-up procedure for newcomers. This might seem insignificant, but as per product manager Christian Oestlien, the revamp took months of preparation and is a significant update in three years.

Twitter has long identified the need for enabling new users to derive immediate value from its platform. Over the past months, Twitter has also been persuading investors about its larger reach, even beyond the 271 million active users. Per Twitter, an equally large number of people view tweets off Twitter or they visit the platform but don’t register.

The recent optimizations are geared towards resolving these exact issues.

While Twitter has made minor tweaks in the past as well, the current changes are rather conspicuous. The most noticeable ones are:

Twitter’s homepage now displays a carousel of images clipped from recent tweets, along with the captions and links. It’s a smart tactic that’s expected to provide potential users a sneak-peek into what they could expect post registration. They could, for instance, catch glimpses of outer space as seen by an astronaut.

In a significant move, Twitter has substantially enhanced its mechanisms for suggesting relevant accounts for users to follow immediately on sign-up. Until late last year, Twitter seemed fixated on promoting celebrities to new users. But with the recent update, the platform now suggests a mixed bag of familiar and famous personalities even without the user explicitly stating their preferences.

In its efforts to scale up and serve its user base better, Twitter is leaving no stone unturned, investing time and effort in streamlining new user onboarding while enriching the overall platform experience.

*This article was updated in 2021 to reflect more contemporary developments.*