Twitter was designed as the social media site for very short messages. For years, the limit was 140 characters. Then, in November of 2017, Twitter doubled this, allowing for 280 characters. Actually, this feature was released incrementally over the fall. Although there were press releases and an official announcement, many people were not aware of it. Most of the discussions were on blogs specializing in technology or social media, such as TechCrunch. Now that the changes have been in effect for a few months, it’s interesting to look at the results and whether or not this change has significantly altered the way people use Twitter.
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We’ve taken a big step towards bringing the functionality of our WordPress plugin and our web app closer together. The same themes you can use to display your ClickToTweet links in WordPress are now available as a Javascript embed from inside the ClickToTweet app.
Twitter has introduced a couple of important updates in the last few months. Although various news and tech sites have reported these changes, many users are still not aware of them. First of all, the allowable number of characters in a tweet has doubled from 140 to 280 characters. On December 12, 2017, Twitter announced another new feature that has the potential to truly transform the way people use the social media site.
It’s now possible to connect a series of tweets and create long threads. This, in effect, lets you write long-form posts as you can on Facebook, LinkedIn, Medium, Tumblr or, of course, your own blog. Combined, these new features mean that Twitter is gradually moving away from the original concept of short tweets. Let’s look at how Twitter has moved in this new direction in stages and some of the implications of these changes.
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As Twitter has increased the long-standard character limit from 140 to 280, we’ve updated our web app and Click To Tweet WordPress plugin to do the same. The changes are available immediately for our web app. However, you will need to upgrade your WordPress plugin in order to take advantage of the higher limit.
We suggest you give it a try. Through Twitter’s own testing, they revealed that users that took advantage of the higher character limit received “more engagement (Likes, Retweets, @mentions), got more followers, and spent more time on Twitter.”
Paid users can also go back and edit their existing CTT links and expand them beyond the previous 140 character limit (free users can do this with up to 5 of their saved links).
Happy (Click To) Tweeting!
Social media sites have long been criticized for not doing enough to stop online bullying, harassment, “fake news,” hate speech and other such problems. In some cases, these platforms are used by extremists to encourage violence or terrorism. At other times, individuals, whether celebrities or ordinary citizens are targeted by bullies and trolls. Twitter, in particular, has come under fire for its vague and inconsistent policies on these matters. The company has recently released a calendar describing its plans to crack down on issues such as violence, hate speech and sexual content. Among the issues addressed are:
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Twitter, which has already been around for 11 years, is a powerful marketing tool for businesses of all types and sizes. While not as large as Facebook, it provides features and benefits you can’t get anywhere else. Many people, however, don’t utilize or even know about all of the ways you can market yourself or your business on Twitter. While it’s helpful to create engaging tweets, there’s much more you can do as well. Let’s look at some innovative strategies for Twitter marketing.
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As America faces two consecutive devastating hurricanes, Harvey and Irma, social media is full of posts. The same is true for terrorist incidents such as the recent attacks in Manchester, England. Social media can provide valuable information and help to raise awareness of victims’ needs. Twitter, in particular, is helpful for providing real time information.
Yet there’s a dark side to the roles played by Twitter and other social media sites during such events. In some cases, the hyper focusing on traumatic events makes it even harder for victims. Misinformation can put people in more danger. Finally, trolls and dishonest people can exploit victims. Let’s look at some of the pros and cons of social media during disasters.
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If you’ve been online for any length of time, you’re probably familiar with the problem of trolls. On Twitter, trolls can operate in a number of ways. One of the most annoying is when you get notifications from people you don’t know. In some cases, these may be spammers.
There’s also the growing problem of cyberbullying. Twitter has recently updated its settings, making it easier to avoid notifications from people who don’t follow you.
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Twitter has made some interesting changes and innovations over the years, including video apps, an advertising platform and more advanced customer service options. Over the last few years, Twitter has also gone to great lengths to make their service more accessible to mobile users. Of course, more and more internet users now access the web via mobile, so it makes sense that social media companies would create mobile-friendly apps and features.
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Twitter has struggled with growth over the last few years. Although it’s remained one of the most influential social media companies, it was widely reported new members weren’t signing up and that usage was declining. The latest numbers, however, reveal that Twitter has turned a corner and is once again on the upswing. Currently, the site boasts 328 million active monthly users, which is the strongest performance in two years. Twitter has been historically vague about disclosing its numbers. For example, it doesn’t like to release information about daily active users. However, the overall trend seems to be positive, most likely in response to certain key changes the social media network recently implemented.
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