Starting today, September 19, you should be able to post slightly longer tweets.
Twitter announced its planned changes months ago, but it wasn’t until last week that we heard an update about when those changes would go live.
The social network still hasn’t confirmed the date on their blog. The date comes from The Verge, who reported last week that the changes would come September 19 after talking to “two sources familiar with the company’s business.”
What Does the September 2016 Twitter Update Include?
It’s unclear how many of Twitter’s planned changes will be released today. Any remaining changes not included in today’s update will likely be rolled out over the upcoming weeks.
The most likely changes will allow you to add content to your conversation without having to shorten the conversation itself. Essentially, Twitter is ensuring that you’ll truly have 140 characters of text per tweet. Anything extra, like @names in Replies and media attachments (images, videos, GIFs and polls), won’t count toward your 140 characters.
This change, while noticeable, stays true to Twitter’s product. The company’s vocal users have historically resisted big changes, such as when rumors surfaced that Twitter was considering expanding the character limit to 10,000. A change that revolutionary would have completely changed the product and, potentially, its user base.
What Does Twitter’s Update Mean For Your Brand?
According to Twitter’s blog, new tweets beginning with @mention will now show up to all of your followers – there’s no longer a need to use .@mention as a workaround. And in the case of a reply, you’ll now have the option to RT your own reply so that it shows up for your followers.
This means that you’ll need to be thoughtful about the tweets that you send to your audience. If your followers see you sending the same tweet at the same time to dozens of people, you may seem spammy. It’s important to slightly alter the language and timing of your tweets to keep your interactions as authentic as possible.
The September 2016 Twitter update will also allow you to have more engaging conversations with your audience. Replying to people and adding media attachments won’t decrease the amount of characters you have, meaning you can have longer and more meaningful replies to users who interact with your brand.
As always, we’ll be sure to keep you updated on these changes and how they could affect your brand’s social marketing strategy.
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