How The Platform Is Trying To Get Back To The Top
Twitter is well-known for its strict rules on messages that can be tweeted. Perhaps this quirk was what set apart it apart from the pack and made it so popular with the first round of millenials. However Twitter has become less and less popular in the recent years and has recently made big changes to expand its popularity and compete with other social media platforms.
In this blog, Hollywood Branded breaks down the new changes to Twitter's rules, and what brand managers need to know on how theses changes will affect what they post on social media.
So What's Up With The Changes?
Twitter was one of the first big social media giants. But after years of ruling at the top, the platform seems to be losing more and more users by the day. While still heavily used for marketers and journalists, the overall stock value - and even word of mouth support - has been steadily dropping.
Despite introducing new features and trying to appeal to the millenials that made the platform what it is, Twitter has failed to make changes big enough to attract the main demographic's attention.
By making the platform more accessible in the coming months by phasing out these rules, Twitter may win back the hearts and social media postings of millenials and celebrities alike.
Let's check out these new changes.
Media Attachments - Without The Character Price
Currently, media attachments like photos or videos take away from the 140 allowed characters, allowing the user to have less space to comment on what they posted.
However, this rule is going by the wayside allowing users to attach GIFs, polls, pictures, videos and even quoting tweets without being penalized characters in their tweet. More to say!! (and we all know people love to say more if given the opportunity).
Another very important part of this new rule is that links will also no longer take up part of the character count - so you can comment on the link you posted. This will make a big difference for those wanting to comment on shared articles they link to in the tweet.
Adios To The Confusing "@" Rules
When directly tweeting someone, if you use their username, @Hollywood_PR for example (yours truly), at the beginning of the Tweet, it will send them a direct message - but only if they follow you.
In order to tweet at someone publicly, you would need to add a "." before the handle, aka ".@Hollywood_PR".
Yes, we know this is confusing, especially if you don't have much practice with it or understanding. Don't worry. This is one of the rules that Twitter is doing away with. We can all collectively breathe a sigh of relief over that one.
You Can Now Retweet The Smartest Person On Your Feed - Yourself
Yep! You can now retweet or quote tweet yourself! That 3am tweet that was so clever but no one saw it? Well retweet or quote it around 5 pm so everyone can see it (or a year later so people remember how clever you are).
All jokes aside, this can be very helpful for brand marketers looking to push out a particular message to different crowds at different times of the day. It will make scheduling sooo much easier.
There is a science behind when tweets are published and their corresponding audience and popularity. This will give marketers and brands a chance to experiment with their demographics and particular messages.
Replying To Tweets
Currently when replying to tweets, their user's handle is automatically included in the reply - taking away from the 140 character limit.
Now, the replies will still include the person's handle, but the handle won't count against the limit - again, more space to say what you would like to say!
When Can We Expect These Changes?
Well, Twitter released this message via a blog post and said that the rules will begin taking effect in the upcoming months. Of course, like any big change on a social media platform (like Instagram's new icon), people need a chance to get used to it.
We'll see what will become of these new changes and Twitter itself, and be sure to follow @Hollywood_PR to keep up with what we think of the changes too!
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