---
title: "What Is Twitter Now?"
url: https://burnaze.com/article/009383da-4951-47d6-939c-2e78f879a6f9
source: "1851 Franchise"
original_url: https://1851franchise.com/what-is-twitter-now-4506
category: "Technology"
topics: ["Technology"]
published: 2016-05-05T01:20:52.000Z
modified: 2026-11-01T04:13:43.627Z
image: https://newimage.1851franchise.com/cdn-cgi/image/quality=85,format=webp,width=1280,height=720/story/featureImage/296473c0eb86e75f86ec210c5f8cc2cd4167160504204152.jpeg
---

# What Is Twitter Now?

**TL;DR:** Twitter's decline in popularity among marketers has led to a shift in focus from its use as a social media platform to discussions about the company's challenges and leadership. Twitter is now listed as a News app in the iTunes store and is no longer categorized as a social media app.

*originally published in 1851 Franchise on 2016-05-05. [Read the original](https://1851franchise.com/what-is-twitter-now-4506).*

## Story

But many marketers are no longer talking about Twitter, or at least not as much as they were just two years ago. Lately most mentions of Twitter lead to conversations about the company itself and not how marketers are actually using it. Everyone wants to share ideas on the Twitter’s challenges, share price, and CEO rather than how they’re telling their own story on Twitter.

**If Twitter’s not Social Media, what is it?**

**It’s News**

As of last week, Twitter is listed as a **News** app in the iTunes store and is no longer categorized as a social media app.

I’ve always thought of Twitter as a news distribution channel. It looks like Twitter and Apple finally agree. The smartest Public Relations execs were releasing official news and statements on Twitter as far back as 2008.

If your side of the story is not coming up in Twitter searches, it’s just as inexcusable as not being seen on Google search results. Get to it!

**It’s a Link Library**

Twitter is to articles and blog posts what YouTube is to videos. It’s a vast vault of searchable content. Note, YouTube is also not really “Social” anymore, unless you count engaging with trolls…

**It’s a Customer Service platform**

You can complain on your Facebook page all day about Brand X, but Brand X will never see it. You can complain on Brand X’s Facebook page all day and perhaps no other customers will see it. Tweet once and anyone paying attention will see it. Then the response clock starts running!

**It’s the place to “Also Share” your social media posts**

Twitter may not be the center stage for your content marketing, but it is a main gate. All social platforms must enable one-click Tweeting of your article, blog post, update, video, image, pin, story, audio clip, or future type of content. Even if you think most of your target audience is not active on Twitter, remember the Link Library idea above and make your content easy to find in any future Twitter search.

## Entities

- 1851 Franchise (publication)
- General (sector)
- Facebook (company)
- Twitter (company)
- Google (company)
- Apple (company)
- social media shift (topic)
- news app (topic)
- customer service platform (topic)
- link library (topic)

---
Originally reported by 1851 Franchise (https://1851franchise.com/what-is-twitter-now-4506). Summarized by Burnaze (https://burnaze.com/article/009383da-4951-47d6-939c-2e78f879a6f9).