Twitter decided to eliminate the Deck.ly feature from TweetDeck to promote consistency throughout its services, and it also announced Twitter Web Analytics.

Twitter announced its first change to TweetDeck, the popular social media dashboard application it acquired earlier this summer, in the form of nixing the Deck.ly capability. Though marketers will have to stick to keeping Tweets brief in light of this change, they might like a separate development that will give more insight on Tweet content engagement.

The Deck.ly feature enabled users to tweet longer than the basic 140 characters by including additional information through a shared link. While some enjoyed the ability to post longer Tweets to their account, the feature was problematic for Twitter once it assumed control of TweetDeck.

For social media marketers, the effects may be minimal as most opted against using Tweets longer than 140 characters in their social media marketing campaigns. Additionally, it will help promote consistency throughout Twitter posts, the company said.

Marketers may find shorter Tweets foster more engagement … or they might see Tweets of maximum length drive interaction on the microblogging site. Either way, they’ll be able to discern which social content on Twitter drives clicks back to their site with the announcement of Twitter Web Analytics. The development enables marketers to see how much traffic they derive from the microblogging site, as traditional analytics tools often fail to accurately measure Twitter referrals.

The change to potential Tweet lengths and new Twitter analytics data might be especially valuable in marketers’ minds in light of the recent news that the site has surpassed the 100-million user mark.

Joe Meloni is Brafton's former Executive News and Content Writer. He studied journalism at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and has written for a number of print and web-based publications.