Twitter recently announced that they will be expanding the character limit from 140 characters to 280 characters. Now this is a big move by the social media giant considering the 140 character limit that millions of Twitter users got used to. Currently this feature is made available to a few selected Twitter users. Twitter will be testing the new framework before it does a broad roll out of the new character limit.
Most Twitterati reacted furiously to this move, some welcomed it, and some denounced the idea. Twitter has introduced this new limit in order to attract new members who they believe will join Twitter once the 140 character restriction is taken off. However there are several marketers who have not liked the idea because while they have spent years to perfect the art of writing an effective message in 140 characters, they believe the 280 character limit will take away the sheen from Twitter. There are many brands for example JetBlue, Wendy’s, and others who have created massive engagement through rigorous ways of creating and publishing effective messages in 140 characters.
The longer tweets will bring new users to the platform, but the worry is that the feature won’t cater to Twitter’s power users which include news organizations, journalists, politicians, and experts that brands specifically target on the platform. The longer tweets are also difficult to pop up organically in the newsfeed which will result in less organic reach.
Longer tweets will also mean less tweets that contradict Twitter’s goals. For marketers it will not be of much use because Twitter is extensively used as a live event tool and the short message format was effective rather than the proposed passage format.
The new format will currently be accessible to a few only and the impact this change causes will reach us as more people start using it. Till then marketers should brace themselves as to how they can use the new Twitter Format.
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