This article originally appeared on 60 Second Social.
Finally! Something I have been waiting for Twitter to introduce for a while now and they have at least started testing it. Twitter is now auto-expanding link content in user timelines. The changes started showing up yesterday for some users. It basically makes links shared on Twitter look pretty much the same as links shared on Facebook. So why is this significant?
Well we know that Twitter Cards are great, especially for SME’s. However, Twitter Cards have one big downfall, they currently don’t embed photos on the main timeline in a users feed. In fact to see the Twitter Card in full you have to click on the tweet first to see all of the details and the card with summary attached.
We also know that tweets that have a photo on users timelines get more interaction than just links. This is the exact reason I stopped using Twitter Cards on 60 Second Social a few months ago and opted to post tweets with an image uploaded instead. This means that the photo appears in the timeline of users who follow and overcomes the issue Twitter Cards previously had.
Now the auto-expand feature is not working for every link. It currently appears for users who are running Twitter Cards with the summary view selected. It may not be quite to the average users tastes but for publishers the results will be positive. While people may moan about photos on their timeline for a short while, there is no doubt that they engage with photo content more.
For advertisers who are looking to use Twitter cards to get around Twitter’s 140 character limit and add more to tweets, the addition of auto-expanded links to the timeline will be a big plus. If you are wondering what they look like, here is a glimpse on a screenshot below.
Note that the feature may not be visible to everyone yet, it is currently in testing and Twitter declined to comment on it at present.
About The Author
Mark is the founder of 60 Second Social media where he provides social media news and digital marketing analysis. He has an Advanced Diploma in Psychology and a Diploma in Digital Marketing And Social Media. You can follow him on Twitter here. You can also follow 60 Second Social on Twitter here. Or you can drop Mark an email at, [email protected]
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