Twitter Changes Things Up as User Growth Stalls
Growth stalls on Twitter as the platform changes timelines, adds new video ad feature
This week Twitter announced its monthly visitors for last quarter coming in at 320 million – which may sound good until you realize this is the exact same number as the previous quarter. Simply put: the platform is not growing.
This disappointing news comes as the social network’s co-founder, Jack Dorsey, returned last year and began making some big changes to the structure of the company and how the platform operates.
One of these changes includes a tweak to the timeline designed to be more in step with Facebook by placing more content Twitter thinks users will want to see first at the top of your timelines as opposed to reverse chronologically – the way the platform has previously operated. The change is being done in order to allow users who follow multiple accounts to get “caught up” on content they may not want to miss, according to Twitter. If this doesn’t sound particularly appealing to you, there are ways to turn this new function off.
Meanwhile, the company also announced (we did tell you they were making lots of changes) a new feature for video ads designed to give advertisers top spot in timelines – as long as they are willing to pay. Called “First View” it allows advertisers to pay more to position their ad at the top of timelines they target. Paying for this feature is limited to select advertisers at the moment, but it will give you that position for 24 hours and not allow users to escape it like they would for Promoted Tweets.
4 blog types to build organic traffic
Content marketers all want to build traffic to our websites, but that’s often easier said than done. Fortunately, there are some easy types of blogs you can create that are good ways to drive visits. According to a recent post by PR Daily, here are the types of blogs you may want to experiment with:
- Listicles: think Buzzfeed and their “Top 10” types of posts we all click on so much
- Reviews: we all have opinions and rarely does everyone see eye to eye – which is part of the appeal
- Thought Leadership: publishing original pieces using your own thoughts and expertise is a great way to generate an audience – so long as you are qualified to write about the topic you choose
- Infographics: easy to consume yet still very informative and eye appealing – assuming you have the means to create