What the New Twitter Features Could Mean for Marketers and Advertisers
New Twitter Features
Buzz around new Twitter features has been going on for some time now. Twitter has always been known for brevity, but the newest features to the world’s most popular social media platform could change that dramatically in the coming months.
Well-known technology news website, Recode, recently reported that the new Twitter features include dropping the 140-character limit and could increase it to thousands in a project aptly named “Beyond 140.”
Inside sources have indicated the company is testing a version of the product that will still display the traditional 140 character set but will feature an option to expand the view to reveal additional content.
Introducing the new Twitter features is Twitter CEO, Jack Dorsey. In recent months, he has been introducing a wide range of new Twitter features to expand the capabilities of the shorthand social networking service.
Read Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey’s update below:
— Jack (@jack) January 5, 2016
What Does This Mean for Business?
The impact of the new Twitter features for marketers is incalculable and can only serve to increase the viability and attractiveness of advertisers looking to use the space. Currently, advertisers have to contend with compelling a click-through conversion to an off-site destination. This forces a user to decide to either break their Twitter experience or ignore the message.
The potential change to the ecosystem that the new Twitter features will bring will allow advertisers to benefit from using the initial character limit as a call to action for a more detailed and expanded view without ever leaving the Twitter platform.
The inherent risk coalesces in how products, services, and social media users shift their usage potentially. This could cause an increase in the signal-to-noise ratio as they flood the system attempting to take full advantage of the new character limit.
The new Twitter features may also have a negative impact on our overseas cousins in Asia with whom the 140-character limit hits a sweet spot as a single character can often represent an entire world in the Japanese, Korean, and Chinese written languages.
The Challenge of Change
Enduring change is paramount to the survival of any technology company and Twitter is getting in front of users who may be demanding more of the service while keeping in the spirit of its initial purpose.
The chief concern of the new Twitter features, aired by users:
- An increase in spam messages specifically in the overuse or misuse of hashtags and mentions
- The platform becoming “the next Facebook,”
- A preference for the implementation of an Edit feature.
Response to the potential new Twitter features has been tepid at best with news outlets often understanding the need for the change but cautiously optimistic on what it can mean for the evolution of the company.
While users often act abrasively to change, the online community usually displays a level of resilience as long as the platform remains viable. Twitter, which is home to over 300 million active users, has no peer in the space and we can’t foresee the change causing any sort of catastrophic loss.
What do you think of the new Twitter features?
