Twitter begins promoting content longer than 140 characters

Twitter just published a great blog post promoting #longreads, a hash tag that provides more in-depth context and content than 140 characters can ever provide. By searching #longreads, you’ll find tweeted suggestions of long articles and short stories by studious fans of great journalism and long form writing.

Twitter suggests the following related accounts to consider following if #longreads strikes your fancy:

@longreads: Run by the creator of the hashtag, this account shares the most popular articles and credits whoever surfaced it.
@somethingtoread: Shares select essays and articles that have been saved on @instapaper
@ifyouonly: If you only have time to read one thing…
@longformorg: Shares long-form reads from the past and present.
@sportsfeat: A companion to the account above but devised specifically for sports features.

If you’re a fan of long reads, highly recommend you stay tuned to TNW on the weekends where we run a series of editorial magazine length pieces about particular topics. Some of my personal favorites: WordPress, the free software with the big economy, What is the Technological Singularity?, How the Internet is Revolutionizing Education and The Rise of The Mobile Social Network.

We also suggest you check out LongReads.com, a wonderful site that hands picks some of the finest long reads on the web. It’s also worth noting Instapaper provides a similar service.