Social media has a lot in common. And as a way to socialize people on the web, it's a common sense that they want to imitate real-life human interactions. On Twitter's side, the 140-character microblogging site wants to celebrate your birthday.
Twitter may have diminished its shine, but its stopping in searching ways to improvise user experience. Its strategy is not limited to marketing and revenue generations, but also the ways it can connect better with users and keep them all attached to the service.
With plans on its user's birthday, Twitter is wishing people a happy birthday on the day they were born, and also ensure that they receive birthday messages and animated balloons.
"Starting today (July 6th, 2015), you'll be able to show birthday on Twitter profile," said Twitter in a blog post.
Twitter users can now set their birthday date by selecting the edit profile option. After updating the date of birth, as an introduction to the feature, the user will get a screen filled with balloons. And from then, the user will get more timely congratulatory tweets.
More Precise Ads
Adding the birthday date field is a simple task for Twitter, but to some extent, the benefit can exceed expectations. Knowing someone's birthday can open marketers to target better ads. Twitter admits this by saying it will use it to "show you more relevant content, including ads."
Birthday date is not that much of a privacy, but the date is part of a collection of sensitive information such as home address. This kind of data can make people more vulnerable, especially to identity thieves and hackers.
To make sure that users can control their privacy, "Your birth date is a completely optional part of your profile and you have full control over who can see it," said Ricardo Castro, Twitter's Product Manager.
Twitter ensures that the visibility setting for the year of birth is featured separately. And users can share with people to the extent they want. Like for example, users can choose between sharing their birthday with the public, their followers, people they follow, people they follow who follow them back or "only me."
As other companies that depend on advertisements to live, Twitter is dependent on users' data to create targeted ads. But its limitations is pulling it down. Without massive amounts of data collected by the likes of Google and Facebook, Twitter can never achieve their power in delivering powerful ads.
Putting the birthday date field is giving user a better experience, and more fun on Twitter. But for the company, it's just another twist to squeeze more money from advertisers.
The candles and balloons are the show for users. But the cakes are for Twitter, and its aiming to get plenty of benefit the feature. By filling out your date of birth, you're not only getting a screen full of balloons and more timely congratulatory tweets, but you're making yourself an easier target for marketing.
Starting off, Kevin Hart who happens to be celebrating his birthday on July 6th, has his profile page 'decorated' as seen below.
