With Twitter’s latest update, Natasha Jewett’s job became a lot easier.
The UF finance sophomore manages the social media for a Miami children’s boutique, and she often posts photos of clothing the store sells.
But before the social media platform Twitter updated its 140-character limit to no longer count media such as photos, videos and GIFs as characters, the 19-year-old said it was difficult to effectively promote clothing to customers.
“Sometimes it would take me 15 minutes to craft a tweet,” she said. “I would need to delete an entire picture to accurately describe the photo, but then the clothing item wasn’t represented well enough visually.”
Twitter, which made the change Sept. 19, will no longer count polls, quoted tweets, photos, videos and GIFs against a user’s character count. It also added the option of posting virtual stickers on photos.
Amanda Bello, a UF English junior, says she posts tweets about 15 times a day. She said Twitter provides her a platform to express opinions and random thoughts.
With the update, the 19-year-old said she has more room to work with when crafting tweets.
“Sometimes, a good picture can add to the overall point of a tweet,” Bello said. “It’s amazing that now pictures won’t restrict our ability to get our full point across.”
Bello said the success of a social network is largely dependent on its ability to adapt to the needs of the consumer.
“Twitter clearly saw a need for a change and they made it happen,” Bello said. “Now the app is better because of it.”
