Gather ’round, earthlings: The Twitter mothership has beamed down a couple of big updates.
Co-founder Jack Dorsey stepped into the role of permanent CEO. Formerly holding the interim CEO spot, he’s now officially in charge of bringing the big blue bird back into the social media spotlight — and it sure is crowded.
Facebook is regularly amassing 1 billion daily users, and Snapchat is projected to rake in over $100 million a year thanks to their devoted user base and newly developed playgrounds for brands: Discover, Live Stories and (coming soon) Sponsored Lenses.
How is Twitter keeping up with its social competitors? On Oct. 6, Dorsey and Co. announced Twitter Moments.
“Moments helps you find the best of Twitter as easily as tapping an icon, regardless of who you follow. Just visit the new tab called Moments, where you will discover stories unfolding on Twitter,” said Madhu Muthukumar, product manager for Moments.
Moments — a lightning bolt icon next to the notifications tab — attracts Twitter users to a separate timeline filled with the top news stories of the day. It’s a convenient way for new users or those who follow friends instead of news organizations to get their news fix. For the frequent Twitter users, Moments has potential to keep them on the site longer. In a social media world where a user can get lost in all kinds of site-curated content through Instagram’s discovery tab or Facebook’s trending news bar, it was only a matter of time before Twitter joined the party.
Why is Twitter curating a list of news updates for its users? Because when it comes to keeping up on current events, social media users are going elsewhere.
A Pew Research study revealed that 33 percent of U.S. adults use Facebook as the only social media site they get their news from. How many use Twitter as their only stop for news? 2 percent.
When Facebook users look away from the News Feed, they’re greeted by a trending news bar with filters for politics, science, sports, and entertainment. The context-free list is usually composed of names and hashtags that are showing up frequently in people’s tweets. They can reference a big news event, or a trending tweet topic, like, #RuinAMovieIn5Words (Dorothy was dreaming, you dweeb). The Twitter trending bar is great for seeing what some people are excited about, but not for quick news updates.
Moments is here to fill in that gap. It also offers filters for different kinds of updates. There’s a “Today” option for top stories, followed by filters for news, sports, entertainment, and fun. Clicking on a story leads to a condensed timeline of tweets, photos, and videos to expand on the topic. Some of the news updates, after clicking through to a specific story, are exceeding 140 characters as well, which may signal a sea change in how Twitter enforces its signature text limit.
If Moments is a success, then it could assert Twitter at the top social network for news. When it comes to live events, “The proportion of users who say they follow breaking news on Twitter…is nearly twice as high as those who say they do so on Facebook.” When an event is happening live, people choose Twitter’s concise messages and first-come, first-served timeline over Facebook’s News Feed, which organizes posts with a secret algorithm. Score one for the blue bird.
But the blue bird has a lot of flying to do. Can Twitter’s Moments keep the world up on the latest current events better than Facebook? Keep refreshing those news updates to find out.
Hurrdat is a Lincoln, Nebraska, digital marketing agency specializing in social media and content marketing. The company was founded in 2010 and merged with B² Interactive of Omaha, Nebraska, in 2014 bringing even more digital marketing specialties to both firms’ clients. Together they provide a full range of social media, SEO, and website development services to both national brands and local clients. The companies employ more than 80 people in Nebraska and have won multiple awards for their business efforts, company culture, and clients’ campaigns.
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