02/06/11
By Francesca James, @francescaajames, www.letsgetsocialat.blogspot.com
If you've not heard, twitter have very recently launched a new way to instantly follow Twitter accounts directly from the websites and/or blogs you visit and read daily without being redirected away from the content you made the effort to visit initially.
Facebook's influence online was massively accelerated by its 'like' button and now twitter have, in an effort to drive more activity on the site made it easier to follow and connect with users who produce interesting/ engaging content without even having to visit the twitter site, as you would have previously had to do.
The button itself can be placed within a blog post/web page of any third party site by simply copying and pasting a short piece of code.
What does it mean for you?
Here’s a comment straight from Twitter HQ:
"For publishers and brands, adding the Follow Button to your website and using Twitter to stay connected with your audience is a powerful combination"
"People who follow your account are much more likely to retweet and engage with your tweets, and to repeatedly visit your website."
Twitter say that 'the user interaction flow for the follow button was designed to be as streamlined as possible and easy to use for website owners and users.'
There are two simple Follow Button flows, depending on the user’s current state:
Signed in to twitter.com: When clicking the Follow Button, the user will instantly be following the target user
Not signed in to twitter.com: This will open the Intent box and prompt the user to sign in to twitter.com
You can grab your code here: www.twitter.com/about/resources/followbutton
