Tweeters or Buyers?

Alyssa Evans | @lyssevans

Monumental changes are being made to Twitter and these changes are not what the common user would expect. What is so new about Twitter? Through exclusive offers Twitter users may soon be able to purchase merchandise on the site.

So how does it work? As of now, Twitter is performing a test on the new buying portion of the application. Only a few users will see the “buy” button in tweets.

Other forms of social media are not far behind. Facebook and Pinterest are working towards achieving the same buying goal in their own way.

There are many changes being made to the privacy policy on the application now. Since credit card information will be used for buying, the privacy settings need to be adjusted. Once a transaction is completed, the card information will be automatically saved in the user account. Unfortunately, the only way to remove this information is manually.

How are U.S. consumers going to react? A large amount of personal information is going to be stored. Could this new addition to Twitter be going too far?

From greater security measures to increased personal information storage, the new inner workings of Twitter are going to be very different. The dynamic behind the application isn’t just going to focus on the simple tweets of users. People are going to use their accounts for more than seeing what is trending in the world. Tweets are going to be more complex with the option to buy or accept offers from major companies.

Overall, Twitter is going through major transformations. Some changes are going to be made public, while others are behind the scenes. Will the motives behind users change? Will more buying be done than tweeting?