Twitter is finally allowing for a long-form option on its site, known as “Articles”.
The point of Twitter has always been, short, sharp, hot takes, but considering what an opinionated place Twitter has become, sometimes 280 characters just isn’t enough – and that’s having been extended from 140 characters once upon a time.
So, after years of toiling, sacrificing grammar and context, Twitter is testing out “Articles”, which is a feature that will allow every profile on the platform to create longer posts.
Within the menu tab, a new option has recently appeared called “Twitter Articles”. Here, you can a longer text thought. The details are unclear as yet, but we can assume it is a space for a more permanent means of expressing yourself, given what we’re already doing.
What are we doing now?
Twitter users are innovative and have gotten around the current character limit in a number of ways. Within the app, there is the concept of threads, where you can link Tweet after Tweet in a consecutive chain like a stream of consciousness. Others, who perhaps want to be more careful with their words, tend to write out longer points, or even statements on the Notes app on their phone and post a screenshot of it in a Twitter post. And thus, the Notes App Apology was born.
Then Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey even expressed his will for longer text options with a screenshot of text back in 2016.
How will this affect marketers?
A means of more effectively expressing oneself in more than 280 characters will be appealing to everyone. Yes, there is the Twitter Thread, but it gets complicated when it comes to sharing and is a little messy in concept. People comment on individual points made with general notes, creating branching conversations, things are more easily taken out of context or missed entirely, and it has to be written on the fly, usually with half-finished sentences at the edge of every Tweet.
Marketers will be able to use this new means of speaking to their customers in a number of ways. Updates on changes in the business can be communicated, statements of the priority of the company, or a means of simply showing your newsletter including offers and updates to a wider audience.
