New Twitter Updates You May Not Yet Know About

By now there’s no denying the power of Twitter and all of its 140-character limit glory.  First, let’s look at the numbers.  According to Twitter’s website, as of June 30, 2015 the user breakdown goes a little something like this:

• 316 million monthly active users
• 500 million tweets sent daily
• 80% of active users are on mobile

Take it a step further and you can even get a sense of the type of demographics for active Twitter users thanks to a Pew Research Center report tracking the major social media outlets (like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Pinterest):

• 23% of all internet users are active on Twitter
• 20% of the entire adult population (18+ years) are active on Twitter
• 32% of active users are 18-29 years old
• 29% of active users are 30-49 years old
• 26% of active users make $75,000 or more annually
• 25% of active users make $50,000 – $74,999 annually

To put it simply, that’s a lot of people around the world and a lot of untapped potential to increase your brand’s awareness.  The key to successfully inserting your brand into a conversation on Twitter is by finessing your campaigns, staying diligent in your efforts and staying abreast of any new features that Twitter releases in order to improve your businesses’ relationship with consumers of all ages, backgrounds and geographies.  Of the latest changes and updates featured by Twitter this year, there are two that we are particularly excited about at McCauley Marketing Services: expansion of the 140-character limit and the rolling out of the ‘Buy’ button.

140-Character Limit

Say whatever you want but keep it brief – 140 characters brief.  Since the beginning of Twitter’s existence, they’ve been characterized by the character limit and there has long been a debate over advertisers wanting more flexibility when it comes to promoting their brands on Twitter.  The plan to expand the character limit is currently speculation but it’s suggested that Twitter could be releasing a new product that would allow advertisers to publish long-form content to their accounts.  In the past Twitter has been headstrong on not pushing the boundaries too far for their character limit but they are hoping to increase their audience and attract businesses to use their platform directly.  Other suggestions on how to tweak the character limit include removing links and user handles (like our Twitter handle @McCauleyMkting) from the count.  We’ll see where this actually goes (since it’s speculation), but at least Twitter has ended the character limit rule on private messaging and is clearly trying to find ways to make Twitter more advantageous for everyone involved.

‘Buy’ Button

Since we first learned of Twitter’s initiative in 2014 to bring ecommerce to Twitter users, we’ve been intrigued.  Now it seems that they are ready to leave the testing phase and offer a ‘Buy’ button to as many as 100,000 merchants as they are in the process of integrating with ecommerce software company Shopify.  The companies Shopify already partners with would allow these businesses the opportunity to sell their products directly within tweets using Shopify’s software.  Basically Twitter is trying to make it more advantageous for advertisers and businesses to generate revenue by tapping into larger audiences who share special interests in the products they are offering.  Eliminating the amount of steps a consumer needs to take to finalize a purchase, plus the fact that mobile shopping has increased exponentially in recent years, could be successful for both Twitter and brands; guess only time will tell.

Elements of social media are always going to keep evolving as consumers demand more.  As marketers we need to make sure we’re staying on top of the trends and inserting our brands into conversations that are appropriate.  Conversations are the heartbeat of Twitter and the easiest way to start building a relationship outside of your brick and mortar shop with consumers.  Don’t take this potential lightly – it could be costing you money.  Let’s keep the conversation going; head to the McCauley Marketing Services Facebook, Twitter and Google+ pages to keep up with the latest social media updates and let us know your thoughts on the newest marketing and advertising evolutions.