How many characters should you use in a tweet?
(3 minute read)
You can now use up to 280 characters per tweet, but do you need to?
The social media platform, which now has 330 million monthly active users, said 'we are making this change after listening and observing a problem our global community was having'. Users that were tweeting in certain languages were finding it had to express themselves in just 140 characters and Twitter's goal was to ensure every "person around the world could express themselves easily in a Tweet".
We were intrigued to see what the outcome of this change would be and on first observation we saw many making use of the full 280 characters. But, as the novelty appeared to wear off, everyone seemingly reverted back to what they were doing before.
So, should you start using 280 characters in all of your Tweets?
Simply, the answer is: not for the sake of it.
The amount of content out there is increasing whilst users attention spans are decreasing. The competition for likes, retweets, link clicks etc.. is becoming fierce and we think adding mini paragraphs into the equation won't help you stand out.
Of course, some brands could really make this change work for them. If you're a well-versed writer and have a lot to say that your loyal and engaged audience will love then, by all means, make the most of this new offering. But, for most brands out there we recommend sticking to below the 140 where possible, especially when marketing your products, but feel free to run over once in a while when you need to, the aim was to make Tweeting 'easier' after all.
The most important thing to remember is that it's not about the amount of content you're producing it's about the quality of what you're producing. 280 Characters does not mean you can now write longer, more drawn-out, pushy, sales messages to try and attract new customers, it doesn't work like that and hasn't done for a long time.
Instead, focus on the quality of your content and make sure you are monitoring what works and what doesn't. Getting to know your audience and what they want to hear/see is crucial to social media success.
If you've got any more questions or you would like some help with using Twitter to grow your business then we'd love to hear from you.
