A weekly roundup of important social media headlines.
Get the 411 on the latest updates on the social platforms you love (or love to hate). This week, we cover Twitter Articles, their all-new Toolbox full of all the analytics and performance metrics your little heart has desired, and updates to Instagram’s Stories poll feature.
Twitter tests “articles” – A long way to tweet
Are we, as a society, ready to say goodbye to celebrity apologies via Notes app screenshots?
Twitter is testing a new “Articles” option in an effort to allow users to share longer posts within the app. Previously, if you had more than 280 characters of thoughts on a topic, you could find yourself creating long Twitter threads (essentially, replying to your own Tweets). With Twitter’s new Articles feature, users will be able to add blog posts to their profiles and timelines, which can then be shared in Tweet form, not unlike sharing an article in your Twitter feed now – you’ll be able to caption your article when you share it with your followers, but you’ll need to stick to the aforementioned 280 character count limit.
As a leading platform for online discourse, providing a way for users to express themselves in long posts seems like a natural next step for Twitter. The Notes app is said to be shaky.
Speaking of Twitter – Introducing the Toolbox Hub.
Another Twitter update! The platform announced the launch of something called the “Toolbox” Hub earlier this week, which marks a move by Twitter to offer users not only deeper analytics and performance metrics, but also new security measures, content and beyond:
The Twitter Toolbox is your favorite place to discover self-service tools that add new functionality to your Twitter experience. These tools were created by developers to make Twitter better and safer. So whether you want to improve the way you compose and manage Tweets, filter out spam, or understand the performance of your Tweets, there’s a tool for you.
Interestingly, many of the Twitter Toolbox features aren’t free – but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t invest. Take a look at what the platform has to offer and consider whether or not these tools are right for you!
Customize your Instagram story polls
You may have noticed that Instagram made some minor changes to the beloved IG Story Polls sticker. Not only can you now change the color of your poll to match your personal aesthetic, but you can now have up to four responses to your poll. This is great news for those of us who ask tough questions in our Instagram Stories – sometimes a binary is just too limiting, isn’t it?
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