Twitter Tests New Professional Account Options, Including Updated Link Buttons and Shopping Tools

Twitter’s slowly adding more options to its Professional Accounts tools, with new, variable link CTAs now being rolled out to business users in the app.

As you can see in this example, posted by app researcher Nima Owji, Twitter’s adding another new profile ‘Spotlight’ option, with a customized ‘Link’ display, in which you can choose from various CTAs for a prominent button on your profile page.

The new link CTA button will include a range of text options, which could provide another way to drive more direct traffic from your Twitter profile, and enhance the value of its Professional Account options.

Twitter first began testing its Professional Profiles in April last year, with selected brands taking part in the initial beta program. Twitter then opened up the option to all brands and creators in March, with all businesses now able to include various additional info panels on their main Twitter page, including business category, location, contact info and more.

As you’ll note here, Twitter’s also developing its new shopping options, with ‘Shop’ being another option within your Pro profile spotlights.

On that front, Twitter is also developing a new product management platform to assist in building your in-app product showcase.

As you can see in this example, Twitter now has a new ‘Shopping Manager’ platform, which will enable brands to upload and manage their product catalog, in alignment with in-app display.

Twitter’s been working to integrate more shopping options, via on-profile displays, in-tweet product presentation, new ad formats and more.

Though the bigger question is whether consumers actually want to shop within social apps.

Amid the pandemic, when we were all stuck at home, eCommerce rates soared, exacerbating previously established and steadily growing trends. Many viewed this as a signal of things to come, and predicted that consumers would never go back to in-store shopping at the same rates.

But for the most part, they did. Despite eCommerce providing more convenience, and many users getting more exposure to their online shopping options, online sales, in large part, have receded back to the mean, still growing, in line with broader trends, but not at the transformative rates we had seen due to the COVID lockdowns.

That’s impacted the overall social commerce push, with Meta and TikTok, in particular, reporting less than expected interest in their evolving eCommerce offerings.

Which could also impact Twitter, and its add-on sales tools. Of course, it’s worth Twitter trying, and these new features could be of significant value within different contexts, and for different brands.

But the enthusiasm around the potential of in-stream commerce has died down somewhat, just at the time that Twitter looks to be making a bigger push.

Which could mean that this sees limited take up, and limited interest from businesses and consumers alike. But again, it’s worth an experiment, and there may be ways for Twitter to encourage more eCommerce activity via these evolving options.