Twitter is sexy because you gotta get to the point.
Concise writing is the future of writing. It’s what the old world of writers who suck up to book publishers for book deals don’t understand. No one is coming to save writers. The TikTok attention epidemic is already here.
As writers, we’ve got to save ourselves. Enter Twitter…
How to crush it on Twitter right now
The current twitter environment requires writers to publish tweets every day. Most of us use tools like Hypefury or TweetHunter to schedule our tweets and save time.
The time commitment is low because, let’s face it, it takes 60 seconds to write a tweet. Booyah! That’s why twitter is great for beginners. It helps new writers form a writing habit that will likely change their life 12 months later.
Tweets aren’t enough.
A writer must also write 1–2 tweet threads a week to succeed. A tweet thread is just a series of short tweets connected with grey lines.
They’re popular because they allow you to go deep on a topic. But because of the character limit on a tweet you’ve got to write each tweet (paragraph) in your thread with navy seal precision and conciseness.
Write tweets and post tweet threads and you’ll crush it in the current environment until…
The new Twitter feature writers are going to lose their minds over
Jane Manchun Wong is naughty.
Somehow, through some secret society, she got access to a new Twitter feature. It’s called Twitter Articles.
*Lets off glitter cannons and screams*
As the name suggests we will soon be able to publish full articles on Twitter. No more character limits. No more need for Twitter threads that give us 5000-foot views of topics we want to go deep on.
Here’s what it looks like:
Taking people off Twitter to read your full-length articles on your WordPress blog or newsletter is a pain in the ass. This new feature is logical.
I love how the right-hand side of the toolbar has a button called “Top Articles.” Finally we’ll be able to easily see what the biggest written articles are on the internet.
The new article feature also has a focus mode (see below). It removes those annoying sidebars that distract you when you’re trying to write beautiful words that can change the world.
Twitter Notes. Image Credit-Jane Manchun Wong via Twitter
There’s some speculation the new long-form writing feature may be called Twitter Notes instead of Twitter Articles (the same name Instagram used for their feature). The beta version shows the word “note” in quite a few places, and “article” in others.
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- Twitter Notes. Image Credit-Jane Manchun Wong via Twitter
My big Twitter prediction
The current version of Twitter is free. I predict Twitter may look at what newsletter platforms are doing and go “why don’t we turn on paid subscriptions for long-form content?” It would make sense.
Suddenly, newsletter platforms would have massive competition.
They’ll be behind the 8-ball too because Twitter has hundreds of millions more users than them. I believe if this Twitter Articles feature launches it will take off. I believe it can give birth to a whole new generation of writers.
Twitter has a low barrier to entry. It’s not so serious like other writing platforms. Users can let their hair down and publish long-form content off the cuff without having to think about editors, publications, or distribution.
Because there are already so many content creators on Twitter, it won’t be hard to find a vibrant community to exploit the potential of what’s possible.
Some of the biggest names on the internet still have Twitter accounts and use them daily. Imagine if they all start publishing long-form articles too.
It’s a bloody exciting time to be an online writer!
The kickass strategy to steal
Being early to a new content platform is often a bad idea. Just look at News-Break-My-Nuts.
The chance of failure is high. The chance you spend your precious time on it and then it dies like MySpace did is high. But with Twitter the platform is already proven. It’s been around for ages.
Being early to a new feature on an already successful platform is one of the best ideas you can execute on.
We all know when a new feature launches on platforms like Twitter and LinkedIn, the algorithm owners give a lot of extra juice to creators who use them because they want to justify their investment.
For the first time in your creator life, be early to a great feature that can give you an unfair advantage. I do it all the time.
Why not you?
Closing Thought
Another new place to write can only be good for the Creator Economy. These are boom times for us all. Plant your stake in the ground. Own a slice of writing heaven.
I’m dying to know: What do you think about this new Twitter Article feature? Let me know in the comments section.
