X, formerly known as Twitter, has always been a great place to drive traffic to external content. However, in Musk’s most recent change, the way that these links display on the platform is changing.
Currently, when sharing an external link on X it displays with an image, headline and a brief description of the link. Certain tools and plug-ins can be used in order to customise the information shown.
The upcoming changes are designed to shrink the height of tweets, allowing more posts to fit on the screen at one time.
Confirming the reports, Musk tweeted: “This is coming from me directly. Will greatly improve the esthetics.”
Reportedly, once the changes come into place, external links will display an image only, with no added text. Clicking the image will direct users to the full article. If marketers wish to include any additional information it will need to fit within the 280-character limit. Another option is to edit the featured image to include the desired information.
These changes will force marketers to rethink and update their strategy in order to continue driving traffic from X to external sources. It will likely take some testing to find what is the most effective. This isn’t the first big change Musk has supported that has a large impact on how marketers use the platform, and it likely won’t be the last.
