Today’s blog post is based on a personal pet hate of mine, and something of a no-brainer that many brands are still failing to do… optimising images for Twitter.
Look at the majority of people browsing Twitter on their phones – they’re scrolling through pretty darn quickly. Which means strong visual content is essential in capturing their attention. If you are successful in stopping them from scrolling, you probably get another 2-3 seconds to encourage them to properly stop and “consume” your message.
This we all know.
So… WHY do so many brands fail to optimise the images they post on Twitter for mobile users on the timeline view?
The number of Twitter pics that require the user to click to expand the photo to see everything astounds me.  Would you publish an advert in the paper with some of the words cut off?
My hunch is that designers still don’t review content as it would appear on a mobile device… which in November 2016 is just unforgivable.
I don’t like to name and shame, so I’ve anonymised this example that I found just 20 tweets into my timeline this morning. Yes you can see what the image is saying in the mobile version… but why design it so it cuts off the “T” – it looks truly unloved đ„.
So brands, can we all make an early new years’ resolution and agree to optimise our photos before posting them on Twitter (and any other social network for that matter)?