Twitter is planning a major advertising push after discovering many people still do not understand how the social site works.
The site has been criticised in the past for being too confusing, and chief executive and founder Jack Dorsey admitted last year it needed to be clearer on how it can be used.
Marketing head Leslie Berland said in a blog post that new efforts will be made to explain to the public how the platform can be a hub to communicate as well as follow news, after research found those who do not use the app regularly struggled to understand it.
She said: "Most didn't know or simply misunderstood what Twitter was for - many thought of Twitter primarily as a social network, a place to find and connect with friends and family members.
"Second, they thought if they wanted to use Twitter, they were 'supposed to tweet every day' and didn't think they would have that much to say. We realised we had some explaining and clarifying to do."
Ms Berland, who joined Twitter earlier this year, added that new video adverts with the slogan, "See what's happening", were being pushed out to try to better explain the site to a wider audience.
She added: "Twitter is where you go to see what's happening everywhere in the world right now. From breaking news and entertainment to sports and politics - from big events to everyday interests with all the live commentary that makes Twitter unique."
The site has around 320 million active monthly users globally - well behind other social platforms, including Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel