Twitter introduces Follow button
Microblogging platform enhances social graph with Like-like button
Twitter has unveiled a Follow button, looking and working rather like its existing Tweet button, but for immediately following a user rather than sharing information. According to a blog post by Twitter's Brian Ellin, more than 50 sites had already added the button by the time it was officially launched, "making it easy for you to discover the Twitter accounts of your favorite reporters, athletes, celebrities, and other personalities". Said sites included IMDB, Fox News, The Telegraph and Wired.
As with Facebook's Like button, the Twitter Follow button is a shortcut to engagement, enabling a user to immediately follow someone with a single click, rather than having to access the user's feed and then follow from there. In the aforementioned blog post, Ellin argued that people who follow your account are "much more likely to engage with your Tweets, and to repeatedly visit your website," and with Facebook's Like button having proven phenomenally successful, Twitter no doubt hopes its equivalent will help its service grow and enhance its social graph.
Adding a Follow button is a simple process, and Twitter offers the usual button-creation page. Like the Tweet button, the Follow button also has JavaScript call-backs, enabling you to send data to your analytics engine. There are also a number of customisation options, providing the means to change the appearance of the button and the information displayed on your website.
The Twitter Follow button's arrival follows rumours that Twitter is to launch its own photo-sharing service (named 'Twimg') and possibly also have a level of integration into Apple's upcoming mobile operating system upgrade, iOS 5.
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Comment: 1
We added the button to our site at http://www.zabisco.com this morning - we really like that it also incorporates the option to view the account's Twitter stream before following (click on the username to go to their Twitter page) which is good for users who want to see what you have to say before committing.
One problem we have found is that styling is limited on the button, so it's quite small and not quite as good looking as our previous option. Hopefully the styling will be adaptable in the future.
You mention in this article that the Follow button is the equivalent of Facebook's 'Like', but I'd have to disagree. Facebook's 'Like' allows users to 'like' the content on that webpage, whereas surely the equivalent of the Follow button would be a Facebook button that allows users to 'like' a company's Facebook PAGE - in the same way that you can follow a company on LinkedIn.
And that's brings me nicely to my next point. Rather than following Facebook and attempting to get the success from their button that the 'Like' button has brought Facebook, Twitter have in fact put forth something which provides improved functionality for a very different purpose. I would suggest, therefore, that it is Facebook which should be inspired to improve its offering - let's have a Facebook Follow button!
For companies using Facebook Pages, I'm sure the functionality to allow users to immediately 'like' their page from a third party website would be a welcome addition. I'd say we'll see something like that very soon.