Social media platforms are reigning in the amounts of duplicate information being shared across their platforms. Just this week, Twitter announced it will be implementing stricter control on users exploiting bulk-tweeting tools and automation. The purpose behind these stricter regulations is to reduce the amount of duplicate or false information being spread by multiple accounts. Bulk tweeting is a group of identical tweets which have been scheduled in advance and sent by numerous accounts, or one tweet which is retweeted by many other accounts.
WHAT’S THE REASON BEHIND THE RESTRICTIONS?
Much like Facebook’s latest changes to its algorithm throughout users’ news feeds, these stricter regulations prove Twitter is addressing the problem of users with ill intent having the ability to spread large amounts of bad information throughout their platform. Many online social media sites are constantly striving for improvement. Their goals is to prevent misuse of their platforms by spreading bad information or propaganda far and wide through the abuse of multiple channels or re-sharing of the original post containing fake news
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING?
These changes will affect the way social media management operates for marketing departments. These automated tools have been assisting marketers in sharing promotional links and information. While it won’t prevent social media marketing from being effective, it will alter the way in which this kind of marketing works. Real-time updates for emergencies and natural disasters, as well as RSS feeds, will still be permitted through the use of automation; however, it will only be shared from a single account moving forward.
What does this mean for social media marketing? It presents you with a challenge! Time to step up your game. Your primary goal will be providing quality content, diversified information, and an enhanced user experience. Algorithm changes will need to be closely monitored since automation will no longer be an option to repeatedly share those promotions in an attempt of reaching those consumers.
IS THIS THE END OF AUTOMATION IN SOCIAL MEDIA?
Automation is not completely out of the picture. However, when scheduling tweets, ensure those tweets aren’t sending out inappropriate messages in case of some major event taking place out in the real world. If some tragedy hits the news, the last thing you want is for an automated tweet to send out the wrong or insensitive message. Keep in mind, those tweets can’t be retweeted or duplicated by any of your other Twitter accounts, regardless of if the tweets were published in real time or are scheduled for future posting.
It’s like playing that old game Telephone, where the story that is heard and then shared at the beginning of the line ends up a completely different tale by the time it reaches the end of the line. Rather than enabling and allowing the spread of bad propaganda, Twitter is attempting to shut that Telephone game down so that users get accurate and up-to-date information. They want to provide their users with a service full of integrity and truth, not a platform for fake news and bad content.
These new guidelines must be in force and being used by March 23, 2018. With Twitter modifying the function capabilities of its own Tweetdeck, they are recommending developers of other social media platforms to get on board with these actions as well.
