Lately all of the social media juggernauts have been undergoing some major changes in order to make them more intuitive, attractive and powerful when it comes to engaging your target audience. Facebook has rolled out some important changes to Pages, LinkedIn has rolled out Showcase Pages and now Twitter is rolling out an entirely new Twitter Profile layout.

For those of you who have been avoiding Twitter, this just might be a the perfect time for you to get started. Why? This new design is the most straight-forward of all of the previous incarnations and will help you get started quickly with great new features.

Just so you know, this change is going to be rolled out first for the web version of Twitter, which is what we will focus on in this article (not the mobile version).

Now here are the top 6 new features and changes to your Twitter Profile you need to be aware of:

1. New Header Image. In order to bring your Twitter account to life, Twitter has now introduced a massive new image-driven layout to show its dedication to the visual. These layouts will be slowly rolling out to all Twitter users, and those who create a new account can receive one right now. For best results the image should be 1500 x 500 pixels. Make sure that this image is cohesive with your brand and other social media images. My top tip is to choose some of the branding from your online point of sale (website) and recreate it here. Using online photo/image editors you can do this yourself, but of course a graphic designer can be an absolute asset.

2. Larger Profile Pic. Now you will be able to showcase your brand logo with a larger more vibrant image on your Twitter profile. The new size for the Profile Pic is 400 x 400 pixels.

3. Profile Layout Change. You will now notice that there is a 3 column view where on the left hand side all of your most important information is instantly visible. Your name, bio, location and website will be prominently featured on the left hand side (much like the recent changes that Facebook made to their Pages). Also in the left column you will find all of your photos and videos. Another upgrade is that underneath the new header image are tabs (which will also be used on Facebook Pages) that break down your profile into the following choices: Tweets, Photos/Videos, Following, Followers, Favorites, More (which include lists). This design has streamlined all of the noise on Twitter so that navigation and engagement can be more straightforward.

4. Pinning Tweets. Much like Facebook, you will be able to “Pin” Tweets to the top of your Twitter feed so when people visit your profile they will be met with what you deem to be the most important information for them to engage with first. This is a great self promotional tool to get your message across to the masses.

5. Larger Popular Tweets. If one of your tweets is getting a lot of attention, it will appear bold and larger than your others so that it pops out in your feed. This is a great tool to track successful tweets and monitor them, as well as showcasing your most popular content to your target audience.

6. Filter Tweets. This is a great new tool that will help visitors to your Twitter profile filter your tweets based on their own personal criteria. So for example if someone comes to your profile and filters your tweets using “promotion”, only your tweets with the word “promotion” will show up. This is a great way for people to engage with the content they want and for you to search for information that your business may need (ie: competitive analysis).

I’m sure that this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the changes that Twitter is going to be making – but I like the direction that they are moving in. There has even been talk of removing hashtags (#s) and @ replies in order to make the platform more intuitive!

If you are having problems making sense of Twitter and not sure how to get the traction that your brand deserves on Twitter, let us know.