Should You Invest in Twitter Blue?

Let’s face it – nobody likes switching from a free subscription to a paid subscription. It feels like an annoying long-con bait-and-switch. But it can also feel a little exciting. What is so great about this social platform upgrade, that it needs to be gated with money before you can experience it?  

Twitter hopes your curiosity gets the best of you.  

It offers exclusive access to new functionalities that free platforms don’t have. But is it worth the hype? Read this and decide for yourself!  

What is Twitter Blue?  

Twitter Blue rolled out in early June and is currently only available in Canada and Australia, with loose plans to extend the availability to other countries. It is a paid version of Twitter that offers new functionalities surrounding organization, Twitter creation, and platform experience.   

So far, these functionalities do not have a business account focus and are relevant to anyone who uses Twitter.   

 So far, we’ve only seen the first iteration of this feature – that means they are working out the kinks and finding new ways to make the paid option more enticing to more people. The feature has a fairly short list of benefits, but say they have more on the way.  

Benefits of Twitter Blue:  

Twitter Blue has a few interesting benefits already launched and is constantly promoting that they will be rolling out new functionalities on a regular basis, based on user reactions.   

Book mark folders  

Book mark folders are nifty little organization tools that allow the user to organize saved content by topic, person, or however you want to categorize your thoughts. For example, if you want to sort your saved content by work-related topics, your wish-list purchases, things that make you laugh, and your favorite athletes.   

Undo tweet  

Is there anything more terrifying than hitting send on a post, and then moments later, you see a typo? Or an untagged person? At least with Instagram and Facebook, you can edit a published tweet. But with Twitter, there is no way to change a tweet – the only option is to take the digital walk of shame to delete and repost the original tweet.   

With Twitter Blue, you have a new “preview and revision” stage of the tweeting process to see the final product before hitting send. On top of that, you can have an extra 30 seconds to undo a tweet after publishing, catching annoying and embarrassing errors at the last second.   

Reader mode  

Reader mode is for those who like to spend endless time scrolling through Twitter. The Twitter Blue reader mode gets rid of everything you don’t need and focuses on the things that you do to read longer tweets and response threads. Per the Twitter Blue press release, reader mode makes it “easier for you to keep up with long threads on Twitter by turning them into easy-to-read text so you can read all the latest content seamlessly.”  

App features  

They had fun with some of the benefits, as well! You can add a customizable app icon that will spice up your smartphone device.   

Customer Support  

There is nothing better than reliable and attentive customer support? Sometimes the only way to offer the best of the best support is to only offer it to limited people. That is why Twitter is only offering this customer support to Twitter Blue users.   

Downfalls of Twitter Blue  

While it’s fun to talk all about the benefits, it’s not all sunshine and daisies.  

For one, it costs money. Currently, Twitter Blue costs $3.49 CAD or $4.49 AUD per month. While that isn’t a big price compared to other subscriptions, it is one more monthly cost to add to a very long list of average subscriptions.  

So far, the benefits aren’t ground-breaking. They are fun, good for organization, reading, and tweeting, but many platforms already offer these benefits in their free version (think Facebook’s publishing studio or Instagram’s saved content organization). When other platforms already offer these, why should you have to buy them on Twitter?  

There aren’t yet functionalities that are focusing on growing your bottom line. The current benefits are fun but don’t offer people or businesses reasonable ways to grow their brand or conversions.   

So, should you invest in Twitter Blue?  

The annoying answer is: it depends. Nobody NEEDS Twitter Blue – especially not those who aren’t avid Twitter users. If you are hoping that it will be a sound business investment, then you’re better off spending your $3.49 per month somewhere else.   

But, if you are a Twitter enthusiast that is using the platform often and wants to improve your personal experience, then Twitter Blue can offer value every time you open the app. 

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