Dear “Twitter Clause” – Can I Please Get These Four Things For Christmas? (or at least for 2015)

I really like Twitter a bunch. I do. Super Dig it!
That being  said, I could totally and utterly “love” Twitterâ¦if somehow for Christmas (or maybe just for 2015) Twitter added these four things that I believe would revolutionize, re-engerize, and just do a lot of awful lot of good all around. Here goes:

(1) Stop penalizing me for including a photo with my Tweets
You send me emails telling me how awesome it is to add images to my tweets. You show me stats which show that each tweet with a photo is likely to get so many more retweets and favorites, it’s just crazy. But then if I actually add an image to my tweet, you subtract characters from my 140-character limit per tweet. You basically penalize me for doing the thing you’re asking me to do. Please let me add an image and still have my 140 characters. I promise to add more photos in 2015 if you do. We all will.

(2) Give me one 10 or 12-character hashtag for free
You’re penalizing me again â” I know that using hashtags will expand the number of potential people who read my tweets, but I already added a photo to my tweet, and I could barely say anything cohesive when I had the full 140-characters. Between losing characters for the photo I attached, and being penalized for adding a search term (hashtag), I spend 15-minutes just to get my tweet under the limit with what little is left. I usually don’t even add hashtags â” I just don’t have the room. Plus, I often say lots of inappropriate words during this frustrating pruning process so I have to stay clear of children or small pets during this critical phase of the tweet-shortening process. Could you please give me just one hashtag per tweet “on the house?” â” without subtracting from my 140-charaters? Make it a 10 or 12 character limit, and make it just one hashtag for free per tweet (so things don’t get out of hand) and we promise to use more hashtags in 2015.

(3) Give us a 50% discount on links
I use bit.ly like a boss. It really helps. It does. But even using bit.ly, sometimes the link eats up so many precious characters. I looked at a bit.ly link I created last week and it took 14 character’s out of my allotment. When you see something starting with http:// have your magical unicorn of backend database stuff automatically give us a 50% discount, and only count it as 7 characters instead of 14. Please help me to share more stuff and I promise to share even more stuff in 2015.

(4) Let me buy an extra character or two with the proceeds going to charity
Sometimes I just can’t make my thought or idea fit. I’m two characters away from making it fit, and I’ve cut and cut, but I just can’t make it work. There are times where if I could buy two or three characters for a buck a piece (so $2 or $3 total) that would be the fastest two or three bucks I would spent all week, especially if I knew the proceeds went to charity. Each week you could choose a different charity (might I suggest, for week one, that all the “character buyers” contributions go to the Springs of Hope Orphanage in Kenya. They need the help like you cannot believe. It’s just 33 kids, but it’s 33 kids that matter. Please, let us give a buck for each extra character in 2015 (you could limit the extra characters, so maybe the maximum you could buy would be 10-characters, so a $10 limit per tweet). It could do a lot of good in the bigger picture, and I promise to buy a few extra characters fairly often in 2015. Especially in that first week. ;-)

So there ya have it. This is perhaps not the most photography or Photoshop-related thing that I’ve covered here on the blog, but I’m hoping that somebody at Twitter might be in the Holiday Spirit this year and take the time to give it a read, like you just did. Hey, ya never know, right?

Here’s wishing you all the best Monday you’ve had all year!

Cheers,

-Scott

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  1. I completely agree!

    I’m guessing those “elf’s” below are not Twitter users; because if they were, they would understand our frustration with all of these things!

    I was going to experiment with naming photos with one letter/number….LOL

    The “links” is what I have the most problems with, because those do need hashtags to make sure they are seen by those who need to see them!

  2. Wow, great ideas. If only someone could create a social media tool that would allow you to use more than 140 characters, post pictures and links and long URL’s and hashtags, oh my. Maybe Santa Zuckerberg can grant your wish? : )

    1. I go one farther: I connected my Facebook to my Twitter in both directions. It winds up being truncated with a shortened URL. As long as I don’t include a link to an outside site when I’m updating Facebook, that shortened URL on Twitter leads right back to my FB. If I do include an outside site link I try to remember not to include too much commentary. It all works out pretty well.

  3. Sheryl Underwood from The Talk uses some site that lets her keep saying whatever, but it unfortunately takes you off of twitter to another site to continue reading her tweets. I don’t care for it though, if the tweet is too long, I don’t bother going to see the balance of it, lol… really don’t care.

  4. I don’t do twitter but a friend is a busy guy there and he said he finally got it one day on an elevator: think “ledes” and “headlines” not “paragraphs”. Love your recent activity on LRkillertips lately – some really good stuff.

  5. I understand but disagree. Short and sweet is what makes it good and reading efficient. Already the feed is too much stuff. Your suggestions will just add more busyness to what by definition keeps it useable. If I want to read more I’ll got to your facebook page or link if the headline gives enough information to make me think it’s worth the extra click and page load. Keep up the good work, Scott. It was good to see you in Charlotte this year.

  6. Looking at this from the perspective of my day job of software architecture, I can tell you the technical reason why this won’t ever happen; or at least won’t happen any time soon… Twitter’s specification has been adopted by so many integration partners and businesses utilizing their API (Application Programming Interface) and have coded software interfacing with Twitter to be limited to 140 characters. Even if they modified the specification, the “legacy” or “Version 1” crowd would still only be looking to accept and/or display 140 characters. It could take years for the legacy limit to be lifted. Until such time everyone’s Tweets that exceed 140 characters in limit would be truncated (chopped off) and defeat the efficacy of the solution.

    Don’t call me names now – I promise I am not the Twitter-Scrooge.

    1. Nah, Twitter doesn’t care about people using its API. Heck, they actively discourage it. They could increase the character count at the time they officially decide to cut out all third party Twitter clients, and use this as one more way to force people to use their own bad client.

      The original reason for the limit was because Twitter was set up as an SMS app and had to abide by those length restrictions. (162, characters, I think?) I don’t know how many people still use SMS to update their tweets or receive them, though. I have to imagine those days are gone, though maybe it’s still popular somewhere overseas?

      This would all require Twitter to have a coherent vision, which is another thing the company lacks.

  7. I have to agree with most. The purpose is more of a headline to get you to an article, webpage, gallery, etc. I understand the gripe when I post a blog from my site and the headline reads off one thing and then it starts putting the article in. Doesn’t make for a good tweet. Happy Holidays Scott, great job picking up on LR Killer tips. Matt was such a slacker :). (Hey at least Twitter doesn’t have some algorithm that hides what you say from the 100,000,000 followers and just show it to 14 people. *ahem* FB #contentkillers

  8. Just checked out your twitter feed and caught up on the Grid (love that the vid was embedded). You achieved a maximum rediculosity in the last episode and inspired a logo. Thanks for the laughs!

  9. 140 makes it harder to market and sell the way most sellers would like. This is good by me.
    I follow Scott and others that have no intention of ever looking at, or following me. A one sided relationship at 140 is do-able, but expand that, and I will bail on the constant sellers/ego strokers.

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