Do you know about the big changes Twitter just made to the little ole’ tweet?
Up until now you didn’t really have 140 characters to say what you wanted since @names, videos, photos and all types of images would cut into your character limit. This was somewhat frustrating since visuals have always been a great way to stand out on Twitter. In fact, numerous studies have shown that media and visual attachments on tweets are a huge factor in boosting your engagement and retweets.
However, this has all changed with the newest Twitter update! Woo hoo!
Now (drumroll please)...
-Photos
-GIFs
-Videos
-Polls
-@names (in replies)
-Quoted tweets
Will not count toward your 140 characters.
Here’s how Twitter put it....
Say more about what's happening! Rolling out now: photos, videos, GIFs, polls, and Quote Tweets no longer count toward your 140 characters. pic.twitter.com/I9pUC0NdZC
— Twitter (@twitter) September 19, 2016
Besides the fact media, photos and @names in replies won’t count toward the 140 characters, there are also a few other AWESOME changes in this update...
#1: When you start a tweet with a username it will NOW reach all of your followers.
If you are reading this saying “Huh?”
Until now, tweets that began with usernames were visible only to users who followed both the person who sent the tweet and the person named in the tweet. This meant that if I sent a tweet like this silly one...
Only people who followed both @Twitter and me would actually see it. To get around this you could add a . before the @username if you wanted everyone in the Twitterverse to see it, like so....
With the new update you no longer need to type .@!
FYI this doesn't apply to replies. If you want a reply to be seen by all your followers, simply retweet it for more exposure.
#2: Need more than 140 characters? Just Quote Yourself!
A few months ago Twitter added the ability to retweet your own tweet. This was great if you felt a really good tweet went unnoticed BUT it's also a great way to continue your own conversation without adding a separate tweet. Now users won’t have to scroll in the timeline to see the Part 1 of your 2-Part tweet.
Sounds confusing...but it's SUPER simple. If you need more than 1 tweet to express yourself, simply share your first tweet like this one and hit retweet....
and add the rest of your message where it says 'Add a comment'....
It's kind of like getting 280 characters! Shhhh... Don't tell Twitter! ??
One of the reasons I love twitter (and many people love twitter) is it’s all about conversations. NOW with this update we have less barriers with the actual conversations we are having.
Twitter CEO, Jack Dorsey explained....
“Generally, we want to make sure we’re encouraging a whole lot more conversations on Twitter. This is the most notable change we’ve made in recent times around conversation in particular, and around giving people the full expressiveness of the 140 characters. I’m excited to see even more dialog because of this.”
Let's continue the conversation! Let me know what you think of this new change in the comments below or on Twitter!
Just learned about the new BIG change on Twitter thanks to Share on XSee you on Social!
