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Twitter’s Plan to Remove Share Counts Could Impact Your Site

Updated on by in Social Media

Twitter is a leading social media platform and just about every business that is worth its salt has an active Twitter handle. Ever since people discovered that social media is not just a place to share gossip and show off their ‘selfie’ skills, they have been using Twitter to make money. You can do social media marketing as a career to make that money or choose some other avenue. However, one thing that is notable about all online businesses is that they are not static. They are constantly changing as changes are being made to the online platforms to improve user experience.

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So what has Twitter done recently to change their site? Well, a few months ago the company stated that they will be releasing some new, fancy tweet buttons. This is not exactly something to write home to your parents about. However, the moment you discover that the social media company is planning to remove the number of shares from its buttons now you will be tempted to tell everyone in your contact list about it. As in the whole Twitterati generation has grown to so accustomed to finding the share button somewhere and then you wake up one day and the company has decided to get rid of it?

Why make such a move?

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Remember when it was mentioned earlier that most online businesses keep changing because they want to improve the user experience at all times? Apparently Twitter wants to do the same thing. They went ahead to explain the move using a bunch of big, technical terms. The company stated that the goal is to simplify the Tweet button. To achieve this simplification they have to remove the share counter from its position alongside the button. It does make sense, right?

It is all good that the company wishes to make the Tweeting experience simpler and more enjoyable. It will be simpler alright but enjoyable? Perhaps not so much! A majority of social media users want their experience to remain the same. They do not want to start learning how to use the platform all over again. Twitter says that those people who do not fancy having this ‘simplified’ experience can take up a solution that is available- Gnip. This is a good solution but you know who is going to be affected- it is people like you who want to have a website or app developed for you.

Services becoming more costly

Twitter said, about the issue of not wanting this simplification, that you can access the full archive search counts from Gnip. This is just another way of telling you that you need to make a payment in order to find out how many shares you have gotten on the platform. Just as a by the way, Gnip is property of Twitter. It is their data business that they acquired some time in 2014. Accessing the full-archive search counts from Gnip is not going to be a free service. You will pay a significant amount of money.

Many people who have gotten in touch with Gnip to find out about the prices simply are feeling distressed. They claim that they will have to revise their prices upwards if they are going to take the Gnip path. This means that services like app development, website development, local SEO services and a good number of other services that support online business are going to become a bit more costly.

Professionals have been testing the potential solutions that are available to keep their prices as they are but nothing seems to be working for that. Sadly there is none of the paid data streams that are provided by Gnip which can be equated to that social share count that has been in place since before some Twitter users discovered how to use the platform itself. Apparently the charge is a staggering $300 each month.

Is it greed or genuine concern?

The biggest corporations in the world are the greediest of them all. It would not be a surprise if this was Twitter’s decision to scrap the bucket for some more cash. Other companies have done it so why would Twitter not do it? However, there are some technical factors at play. Twitter stated that some third-party developers have been using the private JSON endpoints to retrieve a simple share count of practically any URL they want. These are the people who have partly forced Twitter to take this action. Now that Twitter is shutting down these endpoints to avoid those simple share counts.

To this end then that is a good because now you as a blogger can get an exact share count. The simple share counts can fool you to think that your site is performing so well. The problem that many in the business of web development and SEO have is the fact that Twitter is not very clear about this step they have taken. They should have given a clear solution for the problem and done so at a transparent fee. You do not need to call Gnip so that you can find out how much they charge for these services. On top of that many people do not fancy the removal of the simple counts. In as much as they are not entirely accurate there is nothing much that is wrong about them.

Bring in experts

One mistake that many website owners make is failing to hire professional expertise in a bid to save money. Now this is a wrong move as it can cost you a fortune in the process. The end result is that you will end up losing more than you earn. To understand how such a move by a social media platform might affect your site’s performance on the search engines or the worldwide web, it is important to seek professional guidance.

Bottom line

Twitter is here to stay. Whether they make such unpopular decisions, the platform is really a great way to market your products and promote your website. The only thing that you need to be careful about is how such changes can impact your website. This is where SEO professionals come in to help you out.

Author: Derek Iwasiuk

Derek Iwasiuk runs Engagethecrowd.com, a national digital search engine optimization firm headquarted in Minneapolis. Also spends a lot of his free time educating the minds of thousands of young SEO’s and top agencies.

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