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Using Twitter's Expanded 280-Character Tweets Effectively

by Good2bSocial • November 20th, 2017 • Social Media | Blog

Twitter 280 Character TweetsIn September, Twitter launched a test which gave a select number of users an expanded character count per tweet. The most iconic feature of Twitter has always been the 140 character limit on tweets which reduced tweets to short, direct sentences. The company announced their test was successful and that they are implementing their new 280 character limit for all users.

While some faithful Twitter voices are doubtful, the company has assured its over 300 million users that during the test, only 5% of tweets were longer than 140 characters. It seems that the majority of users, though, are excited about the newly doubled character limit – and for good reasons.

Less editing to get your message accross

Under the traditional 140 character limit, 9% of tweets would hit the maximum number of characters implying that more words were needed to express their full thoughts. While staying succinct in communication is good practice, sometimes you may be forced to eliminate essential words or phrases to make your tweet short enough.

You may have the perfect summary of a blog post or podcast on Facebook and LinkedIn, only to struggle editing out words and finding shorter synonyms to fit all your ideas in a tweet. With the allotted number of characters doubled, users should find it a lot easier to simply say what they mean instead of editing and deciding which keywords to eliminate.

More hashtags and mentions

With more room to write, you’ll have more opportunity to utilize hashtags and mentions on Twitter. As we’ve discussed before, hashtags allow new people to find and follow your account by searching for the hashtags you use. But just because you have more space to use hashtags doesn’t mean you should go all Instagram on your tweets. A good practice is to use two relevant hashtags. 

Mentions are a great way to build relationships and gain more reach on Twitter. You may @ an account if you’re sharing content that responds or relates to something they’ve said. In the struggle to limit tweets to 140 characters, hashtags and mentions are often the first elements of a tweet to go even though they’re two of the most powerful tools for high engagement.

Higher engagement

Speaking of higher engagement, during Twitter’s test in September they found that people who had more room to tweet had higher levels of engagement in the form of retweets, likes, mentions, and followers. Companies including law firms that successfully use Twitter aim to further establish their thought leadership by sharing original content that links back to their website. The higher your engagement levels, the more people find and read your content.

Beyond making Twitter more user friendly by giving the ability to simply say more, Twitter’s new 280 character limit is exciting for law firms attempting to build their following on the platform. With more room to write, you can now utilize more hashtags and mentions and in fact increase your level of engagement with clients and prospects.

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