Twitter clampdown to boost ad appeal
Twitter is looking to gather more data about the way consumers use the platform in a bid to make the platform more appealing to advertisers and encourage users to stay on the service for longer.
The social media company is clamping down on third party developers such as Echofon and Tweetbot that use its API to create their own consumer facing Twitter clients.
Those apps will now have to gain permission to use the platform’s API, meaning Twitter will now have more data on how users are interacting with the service in order to improve the product.
Twitter says this will prevent malicious use of the Twitter API and will help the company gain an understanding as to what types of applications are accessing it in order to evolve the service for developers. By increasing the amount of data it gathers, Twitter will also have a more impressive portfolio of information to present to advertisers.
Other requirements for third party consumer facing app developers will include a 100,000 maximum user cap, unless they have special permission to have more. The changes will be implemented by March 2013.
The new guidelines will act to dissuade developers from creating sites that mimic the mainstream Twitter experience, as it looks to protect its brand equity and encourage consumers to use its official apps and desktop client.
Meanwhile, Twitter is also actively encouraging the development of social CRM, analytics and social influence applications as it places a focus on garnering data from its platform to make it more appealing to advertisers and influencers.
Beyond changes to its API , Twitter is looking to introduce new ways for developers and brands to build content and experiences into the platform via its new service Twitter Cards over the coming months.
Twitter Cards make it possible for brands, publishers and developers to attach media into their tweets such as the summary of a news story, photo, audio or video.