Twitter More Valuable As Chat; Not An Essay Platform

Is Twitter more valuable than chat? You might have heard all the chatter recently about Twitter increasing its character count from 140 characters to 10,000 characters. Yes, you read that correctly, 10,000 character count!

Twitter more valuable

Twitter More Valuable As Chat – Not Writing An Essay

140 to 10,000 characters per tweet!

That is like going from a little chat to writing an essay. Is that what Twitter wants to become? It happened last month on Twitter. The feature is intended to provide users with more room to speak their minds without resorting to writing threads or multiple tweets.

However, the main timeline’s character limit will remain 280 characters, with additional text accessible via a “read more” button.

10,000 characters are like a 3 full-page Microsoft Word document and maybe another half page. (Depends on how long your words are).

It looks like this below as you compose your tweet:

a longer tweet

Uniquely, Twitter was founded on short messaging and micro-blogging. Will making this possible change, change Twitter dramatically? Do you think it will make Twitter more valuable to users?

Twitter More Valuable With Upcoming Changes?

As you know Twitter has been making many changes lately. Ever since Elon took over the social media network is constantly changing.  Notice the new logo below? It’s of Dogecoin, the popular cryptocurrency he’s touted for years.

It’s small on the left-hand side of the network.

twtiter new logo

What Else Is Twitter Up To?

Twitter 2.0 is now upon us. Twitter believes that they have a responsibility, as the town square of the internet, to make their platform transparent. They also took extra steps to ensure privacy and safety on the social network would be protected.

Twitter Algorithm Changes

Has anyone noticed their Twitter feed looking a little different these days? Twitter has been playing with its algorithm since Elon Musk took over the social media network. You may not be seeing everyone’s tweets that you follow. Or they may appear at different times than previously shown.

The tweets may be ordered by Twitter Bue subscribers. Then relevance rather than in reverse chronological order. That’s another thing Twitter has been experimenting with. I purchased the Twitter Blue subscription service to test it out last month.

More to come in future blogs about the subscription service, how it works, what it does, and if it is worth it.  Will it make Twitter more valuable to you?

Full-Size Videos Now In Twitter Feed

Twitter’s updated immersive media viewer expands videos to full screen with a single click, allowing you to easily access the full, immersive viewing experience. To activate it, simply tap/click on a video in the Twitter app.

You can see an example from my blogging friend Ryan Biddulph below:

Last, I think this may be Twitter’s answer to video as Snapchat and Facebook are close in their video view counts. Twitter is staying in the social media game by adding this to its latest updates. It will help make Twitter more valuable to the younger audiences.

Your Turn

Do you like the latest changes Twitter is making? Which of the above do you like the best? Do you feel the changes make Twitter more valuable today for users? Please drop a comment below so we can discuss it.

Lisa Sicard

28 thoughts on “Twitter More Valuable As Chat; Not An Essay Platform”

  1. Woah…. Wait….

    Is this actually happening? I had no idea.

    Personally I get frustrated with Twitter’s character limit. I’d like something up to about 2k characters. But 10,000 is a lot!

    Thanks for the heads up Lisa!

    1. Hi Eli, welcome to Inspire to Thrive. No, Twitter just announced a few weeks ago now that they will keep the character count to 140 – Yay! I was so happy to hear about that. You are welcome and have a great day there Eli.

  2. Twitter is definitely going through some growing pains – you’d think they should’ve know by now what they are!

    1. Hi Ana, yes. Those growing pains seemed to come all at once too. I hope they figure it out soon, they are still my favorite. Thanks for coming by Ana and commenting.

  3. I have to agree that 10,000 characters seems a little over the top. Perhaps in the long run people will unfriend people who consistently blab too much on Twitter. I know I would’t follow those sort twitterers.

    1. Hi Peter, yes, over the top is a great way of putting it! Yes, I would say the same too, who has time to read 10,000 characters? I think they will give us an option to click if we wan to read more, I sure hope so. Thanks for coming by and have a great rest of the week Peter.

  4. Barbara Radisavljevic

    There are times when I could really use a few more characters — especially when retweeting someone with a long Twitter handle. I often have to modify those tweets before passing them on, usually by eliminating hashtags, if possible. I’d love a 300-character limit, but 10,000 characters is too much. I don’t like having to pay to be seen. What’s the use of following someone if you don’t get to see their tweets? What’s the use of posting to a vacuum? It’s hard enough for a person to start an account and develop a following now.

    1. Hi Barbara, you can use more characters now with the RT (quote) feature but not very long indeed. It is like that with Facebook too, not everyone sees your posts that you are friends with. If you engage there you will see them more, I think maybe that is what Twitter may be striving for. It’s an ever ending changing enviornment. Thanks for coming by Barbara and have a great rest of the week!

  5. Hi Lisa,

    Thanks for the updates on Twitter. I hope Twitter doesn’t do this as well. Although I find it restrictive and a small character count could help (no more than 160), I find that it is a good way to put your info short and sweet and to the point.

    Thanks for the update. Keep them twitter updates coming.

    Barbara

    1. Hi Barbara, you are welcome. I love that it IS short and sweet. We shall see how it develops and if they leave an option to see longer tweets vs them just being in the stream. Thanks for coming by Barbara, I hope all is well your way!

  6. Hi Lisa,

    Thank you for staying on top of all the Twitter news.

    I had heard talk about possibly going to the 10,000 characters per tweet. Personally I think that’s WAY too much because it does veer away from why Twitter started in the first place. Granted, programs and platforms are changing all the time and it’s something we have to learn to accept.

    I think maybe going 300 characters tops would be much better just so you can say a little more. Like we have to sometimes finish what we want to say in a few tweets or take the conversation off Twitter. I’ve always thought that count was really low, especially when someone has a very long title for their post & you can’t get anything else in.

    I was talking just yesterday about how things continue to change and because these are free platforms we’re using we have to learn to adapt whether we like it or not. I’ve never been good with change, I just get so comfortable with what works ya know!

    It will be interesting to see what they do and I have a feeling the paid tweets are on their way. It’s obvious they hired Jack to make some major changes because those investors are eager to make money. Yeah, it will be very interesting Lisa, thanks for this update and I know as soon as any definite news is announced, you’ll let us know.

    You have a great day girl, I sure will.

    ~Adrienne

    1. Hi Adrienne, you are welcome. It’s almost a full time job of late. I like that idea, of 300 characters Adrienne. A little more sensible. Right, they are FREE platforms and I think many forget that at times. Someone, somehow has to pay. Whether we have to put up with ads or spend the money ourselves to get posts noticed, that what it will be. Conversational ads have started and they look really cool for those that need them. I hope to stay on top of it Adrienne. Thank you for coming by and enjoy the rest of your week there.

  7. Hi Lisa,

    I’m so glad you decided to talk about this. When I heard the news about extending the characters, I was furious! Imo, it will make it like Tumblr or Facebook. What I love about Twitter is it ISN’T the other two. It’s quick and to the point. It’s easy to scroll through the feed and read blurbs, not novella’s. I really hope Twitter decides against this or if they do go with it, move it to a separate platform or something. I hate to see my beloved Twitter end up in the trash along side of Googe Plus.

    Thanks for sharing! Looking forward to seeing what your readers say.

    B

    1. Hi Brenda, thanks, I had to, right? Me too, I love the quickness of it as you know. I think they may give an option to click over it if you want to read more, let’s hope so. Are you on Periscope yet? I think that is exciting and I must use it more to explore. You are welcome. I hope you have a great rest of the week Brenda!

      1. No, I’m not on Periscope nor do I plan on it. Video isn’t my thing.

        Are you looking into it? Donna Merrill is the Peri queen!

        1. Yes, thanks for that tidbit, I will check her stuff out. I don’t like being on video but it is the NOW thing.

  8. Hi Lisa,

    Thanks for sharing the Twitter Updates, or planned updates, here. And thanks for your last post on the Twitter Share Count too.

    I think 10k is excessive. Maybe 140 is too restrictive, especially when an image consumes some of those characters, but that is the Twitter brand. Why not build on that uniqueness rather than falling into line with G+ and FB. Ultimately it probably comes down to Twitter’s bottom line, and if they think there is more money to be made changing then they will.

    Time will tell…
    – David

    1. Hi David, nice to see you back here. You are welcome. Yes, but going from one extreme to another is odd. I think you are right, it’s about money to be made in one way or another and in a way I can’t blame them. It’s like all social media, we can’t expect it be totally FREE and void of ads and all. It’s a service, someone has to pay. Thanks for your input and have a great rest of the week David.

  9. Hi Lisa,

    Sometimes I had to switch to Facebook of Google+ in order to explain something. Due to the 140 chars limit. That was very painful and weird.

    Other times I shared a post via Triberr or JustRetweet and it wasn’t displayed on Twitter. Due to 1) very long headlines (on Triberr) or 2) way too long tweets (JustRetweet counter doesn’t work properly)

    So extending the 140 limit is welcome.

    But 10k chars… That’s way too much. I don’t think that blogging on Twitter is something useful. I guess that so many chars are useful only to spammers. Plenty of space to copy a whole salesletter and then add one hundred hashtags

    1. Hi Adrian, LOL, yes, I can understand why. Yes, those long headlines can get you….Imagine 10,000? But if its an option to see the rest vs forcing us to read it all – I think it would be okay in the long run. It will be very interesting to see how this one develops on Twitter. I could see the spammers doing that now Adrian. Thanks for coming by and for your input on this. Have a great rest of the week!

  10. Hi Lisa,

    Lots of information there about Twitter.

    Yes, I read about using 10,000 characters per tweet, but that just wouldn’t be Twitter any more I think – it would be a mini blog post, or very similar to what’s shared on G+ and Facebook! I think Twitter’s always been known for its 140 characters and has risen to where it is because of it, so they should stick with that. If at all, they could let it remain as 140 characters, and perhaps have a – read more – option, which can expand to more characters. Let’s see what they come up with eventually. Change for the better is always good though.

    Thanks for sharing. Have a nice week ahead.

    1. Hi Harleena, I know right? I agree it wouldn’t quite be the same Twitter. I think that’s what they will be doing Harleena, a read more option and that would be okay I think. We shall see when it happens. I usually do like change but this will be interesting to see how it plays out. Thanks for coming by Harleena and have a great rest of the week!

  11. Hi Lisa,

    Twitter is going through a lot of changes…thanks for staying on top of that and sharing it with us. I don’t mind the changes but I sure hope they don’t start charging to have our posts visible in their stream.

    I remember hearing about Twitter making changes to their characeter count in the news. I’m all for adding more characters but I was thinking more in the links of 150-200 limit. I personally prefer it to a 10K. To me, Twitter was about keeping tweets creative, short and sweet. I guess we’ll have to see how it goes.

    Hope you’re having a great week so far!

    Cori

    1. Hi Corina, you are welcome – becoming almost a full time job now, LOL. I sure hope not with the charging.
      I agree as you know with short and sweet Corina. That’s why I’m there. Week is going well so far. I hope yours is too and thanks for coming by and taking the time to comment.

  12. Hi, Lisa; Thanks for the Twitter updates. While I often get frustrated with the 140 character limit, 10,000 seems way over the top! Who has time to read such a long message anyway? Why not cap it at 200 or 300?

    1. Hi Debbie, that was my first reaction. I think from the CEOs tweet, they may give us option of seeing longer ones but the short 140 will remain in the feed. Let’s hope so! Thanks Debbie for coming by and commenting on this one.

  13. Personally I think people would continue using Twitter in the same way the did until now. At least the old school users, maybe the new ones will find this useful, who knows. Anyway it can´t harm anyone being able to write more characters, is up to ourselves to use them or no. Regards.

    1. Hi Ivan, welcome to Inspire to Thrive. You make a good point. Except if it slows down our feed, we will have to see how it plays out. Thank you for coming by and have a great day.

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