AJ Vaynerchuk

Twitter did some spring cleaning. Part of that spring cleaning was a new profile page display for users who are not signed in. Here is how Twitter described the change:

Since this page is often indexed by Google, we wanted to make sure that new users could quickly see what Twitter was and what it could do, and provide a nice big button for them to join with.

Obviously twitter receives a great deal of traffic from people searching individuals in Google. A quick scan shows that Twitter ranks 7th in Google for Veronica Belmont, 12th for Kevin Rose, 4th for Gary Vaynerchuk and 3rd for Jason Calacanis. These are big names in the industry, and if people are searching these names, they are probably Twitter’s target demographic.

The old profile page display would simply show the individual’s twitter stream. Now, the user will land on the account and see a quick pitch about Twitter. I like the fact that the pitch includes the fact that Twitter is free, this is always a great selling point. I also like the fact that it emphasizes the multiple ways to communicate, and lastly I like that it has a call to action telling the user to join today.

The only negative of this mini-pitch is the fact that instead of scraping my real name (AJ Vaynerchuk) twitter uses my twitter handle (ajvchuk). I assume most of the Google traffic comes from the search of proper names, and Twitter should connect the two.

What do you think of the new profile page display? Do you think it will be effective?