At its core, Twitter has been almost the same over the past couple of years. While other networks had major changes, Twitter still is the same old messaging network with 140 characters at the center of all activity.
But the truth is that Twitter is changing. Maybe not with big announcements and there are not millions of social media consultants hopping on a zero reach death train.
Twitter works and it still works. But to get the most out of your activity on Twitter you still need to stay up to date with the small adjustments Twitter does make.
Here are the most recent announcements and changes to Twitter from the past couple of months.
Before you read on - we have various resources that show you exactly how to use social networks to gain massive traffic and leads. For instance, check out the following:
FREE Step-by-Step Twitter Marketing GuideFREE Pinterest Marketing Ebook
1. Verify your account
Previously only a hand-selected few accounts on Twitter got the verified badge. Now Twitter announced an official process for users to apply to get their account verified. The verified badge allows Twitter users to easily identify accounts as legit and authentic.
Verified accounts are marked with a small blue icon.
An account may be verified if it is of public interest. That includes „public figures and organizations in music, TV, film, fashion, government, politics, religion, journalism, media, sports, business, and other key interest areas.“
Image Source Twitter Blogs
Twitter says their goals is to „help more people find great, high-quality accounts to follow.“
2. Stickers now also on Twitter
You think you can only add stickers to your images in other social networks? You are wrong. Twitter recently introduced stickers. You can now choose from a variety of stickers and add them to your pictures.
Stickers are available on Android and iOS.
3. More Options with video on Twitter
On most social networks video is becoming more important. Twitter followed the trend and now allows you to upload longer videos. While previously only 30 seconds of video where allowed you can now upload videos up to 140 seconds.
4. Say more in your tweet
We all know that a tweet consists of 140 characters. And that is how it is going to be. But Twitter changes the way it counts the 140 characters – or to be more precise what counts into these 140 characters.
From now on photos, videos and such will not count into the 140 characters. The same goes for the @mentions in replies.
Hey, before you read on - we have in various FREE in-depth guides on similar topics that you can download. For this post, check out:
FREE workbook: CREATE AWESOME BLOG POSTSFREE Beginner's Guide: START A BLOG
5. Retweet yourself
Previously the reply function was disabled for your own tweets. From now on you can retweet and quote tweet your own tweets. This comes in handy if you have something to add to a previously published tweet or want to bring new life to an old tweet.
6. Changes to the @mention
Many Twitter users got the @mention all wrong. Twitter is going to help that with some minor changes on how this works.
- in a reply, the @mention at the beginning of the tweet will still cause the tweet to only show up in the feed of the mentioned account and followers of both accounts.
- A @mention at the beginning of another tweet will be treated as a normal tweet. Hopefully, this will save people from having to put ’.@’ in front of tweets
7. More options to connect
Finding new and most importantly the right people to follow can be a problem on Twitter. To provide more help for Twitter users to find accounts to follow Twitter now revamps the connect tap. Based on who you already follow, the Tweets you like and popular accounts in your local area Twitter will suggest you accounts you may want to follow.
Twitter also offers you the option to sync with your address book.
This update also first rolled out for Android and iOS.
8. Private conversations
You can now directly go from a tweet into a private conversation. Simply click on the message or „Share a tweet via direct message“ button and start a new private conversation.
9. Descriptions for Images
Images in tweets are vital. Tweets with images get more retweets and clicks. Twitter makes this experience available for the visually impaired by allowing Twitter users to add a description to images.
This feature has to be enabled in the settings of your Twitter account: Choose the „Accessibility“ tab and enable „Compose Image Descriptions“.
10. You can now search GIFs
Did you know that last year over 100 million gifs were shared on Twitter? Now Gifs will get more attention with Twitters Gif search feature. This allows you to search the GIF library when you are composing a tweet.
Are any of these changes what you have been waiting for? Or is Twitter still missing out on the one significantly missing feature or option? Let us know what you think in the comments!
Update October 2018:
When we are talking about Changes on Twitter, we also have to mention that the famous character limit of one tweet is no longer real. Today, you can write tweets with up to 280 characters plus link plus @mention. This leaves a lot more room to say something in one tweet. It also makes it much easier to retweet and add comments on tweets.
Join our free Email Course to learn how to grow an audience and traffic from Twitter:
All the basics in 4 Days, 4 Emails!
