Thursday Buzz: Is Twitter Winning the Battle Against Online Abuse?

Over the past several months, Twitter has made highly publicized efforts to combat trolls and abuse on its platform. The company has implemented new features, including customized muting and collapsing abusive tweets from view.

Twitter told CNBC  (opens in a new tab)it has taken action against abusive accounts 10 times more often in the past year than previously, though it didn’t offer exact numbers. The company claims that abuse reports are reviewed more quickly, and it has introduced functionality restrictions on accounts that have been accused of harassment.

“When accounts are placed under these restrictions, Twitter gets 25 percent fewer reports of harassment about them,” reports CNBC’s Paayal Zaveri. “Additionally, 65 percent of accounts who face these restrictions only face them once.”

While it seems Twitter has made significant progress in cracking down on abuse, BuzzFeed News argues that there is still a lot to do. It uncovered dozens of “clear examples of harassment that, when reported to Twitter, were dismissed as not being in violation of the social network’s rules forbidding abuse,” reports BuzzFeed‘s Charlie Warzel  (opens in a new tab).

Less Traffic, More Conversation

Why I Think Social Media Is For Branding and Engagement, Not Traffic or Revenue https://t.co/5rLqSCX7rn  (opens in a new tab) via @buffer  (opens in a new tab)

— Openwave Computing (@owcsolutions) July 20, 2017  (opens in a new tab)

When social media was new, it was easy for an enterprising association to organically grow followers and reach a wide audience. But a lot has changed since those early days. Social platforms want users to pay to reach their followers, and the overwhelming amount of content online makes it difficult to stand out in the crowd and attract a lot of traffic.

The Buffer blog makes the case  (opens in a new tab) that organizations need to refine how they use social media to fit the platform. “The strategy of batching and blasting marketing messages across various platforms might have been an effective way to drive clicks in the past, but not anymore,” writes Alfred Lua. “And, in mind at least, that’s not a bad thing because: Social media is becoming an engagement channel.”

Lua argues that low organic traffic, emerging chatbot tech, and new algorithms are some of the reasons that engagement—and not traffic—is the future of social media.

Other Links of Note

Infographic of the day. MarketingProfs shares considerations for how to use video in your marketing funnel  (opens in a new tab).

Even Wimbledon champions take breaks. The Wall Street Journal  (opens in a new tab) suggests that you can boost your career success and longevity when you rest like Roger Federer.

Could your event emails use a little help? Eventbrite shares copywriting tips for newsletters  (opens in a new tab).

(Freestocks/Pexels)