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Twitter Dives Into Live Sports

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Earlier this year, Twitter made a $10 Million deal with the NFL to livestream Thursday Night Football games this fall. Today, they've begun testing the new functionality that will presumably be used for that partnership. A new page is live with a Wimbledon live video stream and a feed of tweets using the Wimbledon hashtag.

Personally, I prefer a two-screen setup, but having this all-in-one view would have been very useful for me a few years back. I can see college students and others who rely heavily on a laptop making the most use of this. And I'd love to see them bring it to awards shows, the World Series, and other events that dominate water cooler conversation. 

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🔗 Twitter to Loosen 140-Character Restriction | Twitter Blog

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Finally, the day is coming. Twitter officially announced today that they soon will be loosening up their iconic 140-character limit. I've always been a proponent of Tweeting in 140 characters or less, but the way they are going about this is exactly the way it should be. Rather than abolishing the limit all together or agreeing on a new number, they are allowing @names and media attachments to be exempt from the limit. This keeps the spirit of the 140 limit while acknowledging the reality of Twitter in 2016. Honestly, it's overdue, but I'm glad to see it happening. Maybe soon you'll be able to edit typos in Tweets? Fingers crossed...

“In the coming months we’ll make changes to simplify Tweets including what counts toward your 140 characters, so for instance, @names in replies and media attachments (like photos, GIFs, videos, and polls) will no longer “use up” valuable characters.”
— Todd Sherman, Sr. Product Manager

Coming soon: express even more in 140 characters | Twitter Blog

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🔗 New Twitter Connect Tab Suggests Accounts to Follow Based on Your Behavior | Twitter Blog

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Twitter has suggested people to follow for years. Since the ill-fated Suggested User List, which led to a small number of celebrities like Ashton Kutcher gaining an extreme number of followers in the early days, Twitter has tried to be more strategic in the way they recommend new accounts. This is a logical progression in their ongoing effort to suggest people you might want to Tweet with.

“To give you the best recommendations — which we’ll continue to refine over time — we look at who you already follow, Tweets you like, popular accounts in your local area, what’s happening in the world right now, and more. We’ll also let you know exactly why we’re showing you each recommendation.”

A better way to connect with people | Twitter Blog

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🔗 Facebook Has a Problem With Sharing | Inc

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This is pretty timely for me, as I deleted th Facebook app from my phone earlier this week and I haven't missed it yet. I definitely haven't regularly updated my status in years, either. Most of what I see there are articles shared by my friends, plus the updates of the small group of my friends who use Facebook as though it were Twitter. If it weren't required for my job, I could probably stop using Facebook all together and I doubt I'd miss it. 

According to confidential data obtained by The Information, more than 60 percent of users share no personal content in a given week, while the remaining 39 percent share an average of five posts.

​The Worst Thing That Could Happen to Facebook Is Already Happening | Inc

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🔗 Twitter Rolls Out GIF Search | The Verge

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The day we have waited for is here.

“The company said today that it will begin rolling out a GIF button on iOS, Android, and the web. Tap it and you can search for GIFs using keywords, then insert them into your tweets and direct messages with a tap. The feature is powered by GIF search engines Riffsy and Giphy.”

Twitter rolls out native GIF search powered by Giphy and Riffsy | The Verge

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3 Amazing Conferences You Wish You Could Go To

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Originally posted at the Likeable Media Blog.

When you work in marketing, it’s essential to stay on top of current trends and always keep an eye to the future. One of the most fulfilling and enriching ways to stay ahead of the pack is by attending conferences. They give you an opportunity to meet with like-minded thinkers, hear new perspectives on familiar issues, and engage in conversation with industry thought leaders. While world-famous conferences like SxSW and TED get bigger each year, small conferences are also thriving. Let’s take a look at three conferences that can really deliver value, even if you haven’t heard of them!

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5 Ways You Should Be Using Twitter, But Probably Aren't

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Originally posted at the Likeable Media Blog.

I’ve been on Twitter for almost three years now. When I joined, I tweeted for a few weeks, but didn’t really see the point at first. I all but abandoned it for several months. But when I returned, I became a complete addict! I found a core group of interesting, engaging people to follow who shared a number of common interests with me. Once I began to attach personalities to those user names and avatars, I started to see the value that Twitter could have for me personally. And yet, people still ask me, “How do you tweet so much? Don’t you ever run out of things to talk about?!” It actually is a valid question: what exactly do we use Twitter for when we’re not just sharing the mundane details of our everyday lives? Let's take a look at some really fun and interesting uses for Twitter that you may not have thought of!