What I'd do with Twitter

Everyone's putting in their two cents on what they'd do if they were chosen as CEO for Twitter. Well, the first thing I'd do is decline (I'm not CEO material) but here are the changes I'd make.

First the "Do this immediately" list:

Double maximum tweet length to 280. Yes, that number is just as arbitrary as 140, but it's a first easy step to loose the bounds without changing the nature of Twitter.
Change the video landing page. If you get a link from third party software or something to a video uploaded to Twitter, you get a very stark page, no text, no links, just the video. Make that page part of the Twitter experience.

Longer term:

Allow third party clients again. Set requirements for how tweets are to be displayed, require them to also display sponsored tweets. But allow mixing with other services. Don't be the one left out.
Have a way to add "long-form" text to a tweet, the way pictures are attached to a tweet.
Make links attributes to the link, rather than part of the link (and so part of the 280 characters)
Have a way to "follow" hashtags or search terms so they automatically appear in the timeline.

Posted on June 19, 2015, 9:15 pm

Donald Brown
@GadgetDon