Today (07 April 2014) Twitter has announced its latest ‘Twitter update’ to their ‘retweet and comment’ functionality, allowing users to say more about the original tweet they are retweeting by embedding the tweet, rather than just quoting it. But is it a retweet or quote tweet? Either way, it’s a welcome update from Twitter as we’ve often commented that it would be a lot easier if you could provide a comment on what you’re quoting rather than having to simply copy and paste – seems we were not alone in our thinking!
According to Tech Crunch, Twitter started testing this update last summer and has finally rolled it out on the Twitter site and iPhone app today. Sorry to all you Android users out there, you will have to wait a little longer before the functionality is updated.
What is the purpose of this update? It allows users to share and comment on tweets without having to shorten the original tweet. By hitting the ‘quote tweet’ button, you now have the ability to add a comment of up to 116 characters on any tweet regardless of its original length.
Say more with revamped quote Tweet! Rolling out on iPhone and web, coming soon to Android. https://t.co/Bcl3E859ne pic.twitter.com/fioAPPi0nW
— Twitter (@twitter) April 6, 2015
Secondly, it provides a better structure to share a post; it keeps the Twitter feed looking cleaner and sharper and keeps an image that was previously used in the original tweet. With an ever-increasing importance on the aesthetics of a social post, this provides users with a clutter-free experience.
Over 288 million people actively use Twitter on a monthly basis and at Huble Digital we are going to keep a close eye on the levels of engagement that our re-tweets receive. Early predictions indicate that we’ll receive an increase in the level of engagement re-tweets receive over the next few months.
We’re always looking into new ways to improve our social media presence, if you’re looking to improve your social media presence then reach out to us for a chat or take a look at HubSpot’s Social Media Benchmarking Report by clicking here.
