BusinessWeek Syncs Social Hub with Twitter

Many of BusinessWeek’s staffers have used the micro-blogging platform Twitter for some time, but now the publication is taking things a step further by syncing comments left on its social networking site, Business Exchange, to Twitter.

The move was revealed in a post on the Business Exchange blog earlier this week. Simply by linking their Twitter accounts to BusinessWeek’s social network, users’ comments will simultaneously appear on Twitter, along with a link back to the Business Exchange page. It’s a feature that many of their active users have been waiting for.

BusinessWeek no doubt hopes that the Twitter sync will encourage more user participation in Business Exchange, which is a business-based social network that builds communities around a multitude of topics. To date, according to Elizabeth Holmes writing for WSJ’s “Digits”, only around 3% of its active users leave comments.

In preparation for the Twitter tie-up, Business Exchange has made changes to its comments section. Comments have been renamed ‘reactions’ and users have just 120 characters to express themselves despite Twitter’s 140 character allocation – the other 20 characters being reserved for the back-link.

As per many other big brands, it appears even major media companies are now beginning to see the benefits of embracing the popular micro-blogging platform.