If you take social media marketing seriously then there’s a good chance Twitter’s new Website Card won’t have passed by unnoticed. Introduced a fortnight ago, it’s the latest attempt by the network to boost advertising revenue by offering a more efficient and effective service to brands spending money on the platform.
Just in case this is all news to you, though, we’ll divulge some details. Put simply, this is one of eight different types of Card now available for those with an advertising budget, all of which take the form of an attachment for tweets, designed to reveal details about any linked content. The following variations are currently available:
Summary Card: The basic card, boasting a title, description, thumbnail picture and Twitter handle attribution.
Summary Card with Large Image: As the title suggests, this is exactly the same as above, only with a larger image.
Photo Card: A more aesthetically pleasing, minimalist version with one single image and prompt.
Gallery Card: Perfect if you have a selection of lovely images that need sharing, the Gallery Card can display multiple pictures at once.
App Card: Showcase your branded apps with the aptly-titled App Card.
Player Card: Embedded video, audio and media player puts your moving content and clips in front of a huge audience.
Product Card: Allows room for information and images focused down on a specific product.
Website Card: Advertise your overall website.
As has been something of a trend on Twitter of late, plenty of people have pointed out how the visual presentation of these cards resembles a Facebook post- more proof that things are becoming increasingly homogenous across the two networks. That criticism aside, there’s certainly plenty of potential for companies looking to improve their return on advertising spend, not least as Cards act as a great testing ground for your content.
By studying the results and insights gleaned from experimenting with Twitter Cards it’s possible to gain a better understanding of which areas of your website  and which type of content works best with which type of card, and in turn this can be used to steer overall strategies across all social media accounts. If a Card performed well with a significant focus on visual aspects then you’ll know to present any similar posts in a similar way, when and where possible. Perhaps not revolutionary then, nevertheless, with the right approach these can come in quite handy.