Long-form content is the New Meta!
Long-form content is the New Meta!
How 𝕏 has moved towards long-form content.
Long-form content in Shorts generation
Joe Rogan's popularity made it clear to the world that people love to listen to hours-long conversations about interesting topics in a chill atmosphere. It brings people's authentic self and makes for a great conversation.
In a world where human attention span has come down to 8 SECONDS, TikTok, Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts, Snapchat’s Snaps and Tweets are getting shorter by the day, it’s interesting how the long form has made a place for itself.
Long-form posts on 𝕏:
Twitter began as an SMS text-based service with original tweet length limited to 140 characters.
This was partly driven by the 160 character limit of SMS at the time, with 20 characters reserved for commands and usernames
But gradually, it has moved towards long-form posts so much so that the algorithm incentivizes long-form posts over short form now.
After Elon took over, the character limit was increased to 4000 for premium customers and a month later.
He announced that 𝕏 is working to expand the tweet limit to 10,000 !
Why Long-form content is the new Meta?
𝕏 is moving in long-form direction in several ways-
News Articles were recently introduced on the platform which naturally need more that 4000 characters and Elon already confirmed introduction of 10K limit long-form posts in works.
Tucker Calson and several other creators and companies are already posting almost hour-long recorded and live videos on a regular basis.
𝕏 Spaces, which is a long-form audio conversation medium, is getting more popular every day.
Recent announcement of upcoming video calling features and Game streaming.
Why creators should move towards long-form posts:
Many 𝕏 users have claimed that the Algorithm boosts long-form posts. While there is no official confirmation from 𝕏 on this, there is merit in the claim that long-form posts are incentivized.
𝕏 Ad-revenue monetization depends on two things -
Number of ads shown to your posts
Profile clicks
The first one is pretty obvious-
Engaging Long form post -> audience spend more time on your post -> more ads shown
But does it increase Profile clicks?
What does data say?
Any post with more than 280 characters is called a long-form post.
I compared my long-form posts/replies with short-form posts, I looked at impressions and engagement generated and converted profile clicks -
Findings:
Since the reader invests longer time on your post, she is more likely to engage.
The magic happens at 280+ tweet length mark. That's when profile clicks start increasing exponentially.
Engaging Short form posts also result in profile clicks, however with limited potential.
I have written mostly short-form posts and only a few long-form. But the stark contrast in impact is clearly visible from the chart.
My overall average Engagement rate was also dwindling. Writing long form posts/replies improved it, with average Engagement rate reaching 9% for long form posts from 2.34% overall.
Its not all about the numbers though:
Long-form content allows us to be free and more expressive in our stories. A good story needs many things. It needs a plot, history, a setting, characters, different point of views a climax and everything in between.
Whether you are writing educational content, uplifting or motivational stuff, want to share political or historical point of views or just sharing your experience for the day, long-form makes it better.
Everyone loves a good story, and we need more storytellers.
It’s ironic how a website which started as a microblogging site with 140-character length limitation now incentivizes long-content in more than one way.
A word of caution:
The 𝕏 algorithm also tailors the timeline for each user based on their personal interests, preferences and behavior.
This means that users who engage more with long-form content will see more of it on their timeline, while users who prefer shorter and snappier tweets will see less of it.
You should monitor your analytics and see how your long-form tweets perform compared to your shorter ones.
I hope this analysis helps you understand the 𝕏 algorithm better.
Let's have more stories. Until Next Analysis! Cheers!