FOR those who do not like updating their applications, I bet one of the features in Twitter’s most recent update is worth changing your resolution and this will make a ‘good compromise’ just as Twitter did. Web users would have noticed the change in character limit since 19th September but the application update to that effect is just being rolled out.
Twitter has relaxed the rule on what and what consumes your 140 characters to be strictly your very own text. Yes, your quoted tweets, pictures, videos, GIFs (Graphical Interchange Format – a lossless format for image files that supports both static and animated image) and polls no longer add up in the 140 character limit. Thanks to the digital media evolution putting multimedia in pivotal position when talking about content.
Years back, when Twitter was launched, the phrase “content is king” only refers to how creative Digital Media personnel could be in writing, but right now, the phrase cannot be said of text alone without a perfect blend of images, short videos and audios, and GIFs.
The inevitability of multimedia content in social space has made the 140 character limit a huge constraint for users to use rich content in passing information across, users now automate tweets or upload image with lots of texts on it and tweet with shortened URL (Uniform Resource Locator – a unique address for a file that is accessible on the internet, for example “twitter.com”. When you add a protocol, for example, http/https/ftp to your URL, it is called a Web address) which has resulted in little or no meaningful engagement. I was in a Digital Media seminar and one of the speakers delisted Twitter from where one could advertise and expect good return on investment, I presume he said that due to the frustration in managing 140 characters on texts, multimedia, hashtags, full web address, and possibly key players using the @username.
With the new update, users are expected to remain creative with words under the 140 character limit including mentions, hashtags and web address, URL shortener still plays a crucial role, while users are expected to freely use the condiments for viral tweets and meaningful conversations –multimedia.
Very soon, Twitter will further relax its character limit to exclude @mentions and hashtags in order to further encourage real conversations right on the platform and not links redirecting users to other platforms.
These changes should get Twitter back to its high rank in the social media community, and users can stay focused on brief messages that has engagement/viral potentials and relevant to search queries on Google—a feat that has not been well maximised since Twitter partnered with Google.
Expect a few more updates to make Twitter even better. Happy Tweeting!
This piece was sent in by Adefemi Adewumi, Digital Media Analyst at Fluorinet Digital Limited
