Twitter Launched Group Direct Messages and Mobile Video Camera

I woke up this morning realizing that there is an update on Twitter. Just like any Twitter fan boy, I updated it without checking what the update was all. My first assumption was the minor updates most apps have and it wasn’t a big “oh-wow” type of thing.
Twitter did said about releasing something new real soon and to be really honest with you, I didn’t expect these to come at this moment!
When I saw this post on The Next Web, I knew that I was missing something out – big time.
 
video_blog_image
 
I knew something was amiss when I use Twitter today. But with having several conference calls via Skype, I didn’t have time to test out the new Twitter.
 

What was the Twitter update this time around?
Two things: Group Direct Message and Video Capturing (mobile video experience)

 

Twitter Launched Group Direct Messages and Mobile Video Camera

 

1. Group Direct Message

The whole idea behind this new function is to allow you to start conversation with any of your followers with a twist. People involved in the private group chat can communicate with one another without the need to follow them. This means that anyone in the Twitter group can see the post / update / chat.
Here’s an official video from Twitter itself:
 
http://youtu.be/XNnVH-mwSdM
The whole ideology of the group chat is pretty clear and simple:

  • Easy adding followers to the chat
  • Followers who was added would get a notification

Here’s a food for thought: Would this new approach affects how Twitter Chat will operate down the road?
 

2. Capture and share video directly from the Twitter app

In my previous post on Twitter marketing strategies, I talk about engaging with your followers.
Now, here’s the truth — you can’t converse properly in just 140 characters, can you?
You may even hear that majority of marketers take a chunk load of their time to make the tweets perfect and clickable. Do you really think that’s the whole case?

You know, planning for the right tweet and that’s all it takes? Not in a million chance!

They use images, videos and all forms of media supported by Twitter to make you click on them. Seriously.
And this brings us to the next part of this post, enhanced video capability using Twitter app (at the moment, it is only for iOS users).
Vine is made popular with the 6 seconds video share and this new Twitter update allows you to take video over 6 seconds and nothing more than 30 seconds. A pretty good overlapping business strategy with Vine, if you ask me.
For iPhone users, you are in luck. The new Twitter mobile video experience allows you to upload videos from the camera roll directly (which is really awesome to say the least).
The Next Web reported that this new Twitter feature is a direct competitor to Instagram (owned by Facebook). Thinking back, it makes sense as people are still using Twitter for real-time sharing especially when they are at events or functions as Twitter makes it easy to have two-ways conversation.
While posting images directly to Instagram is great, most of us feel that Instagram is just a phot0-sharing platform instead of a conversation builder.
In this leads us to one thing; Twitter new mobile video experience may just be the next big thing in the social media industry!
 

What do you think?

I want to wrap up this post with a quote directly from Twitter’s blog:

Ultimately, we believe there is something for everyone at any time on Twitter, and we want to make finding your niche simple from the start.

Personally, I think Twitter is evolving rapidly in giving what the users want and not just the plain schedule and post tweets.
Leave a comment below and tell me what you think about these new features on Twitter.
 
See also: How Twitter Users Can Better Filter Content