Is Twitter's 10K Character Limit Good for Business Marketing?
First it was Moments. Then they traded out stars and Favorites for hearts and Likes. Now Twitter might be altering one of its original features, the 140-character limit on tweets.
Twitter is apparently toying with the idea of upping that limit to 10,000 characters, and users are already up in arms. But could this be a good thing for your small business?
You Look a Little Different -- Did You Change Your Character Limit?
So what will these novella-length tweets look like? According to Re/code, Twitter is testing a 10k character version of the platform that will maintain the same appearance for each tweet, but add a call to action (like a "read more" button) that will indicate there is additional content. Users could then click on the tweets to expand them to see the full content. Although the design has not been finalized, Twitter is planning to prepare its analytics and measurement partners for the longer tweets beginning later this month.
Utility and Power
As news of the potential move leaked, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey responded with a screenshot of text (since the response exceeded the current character limit):
"We've spent a lot of time observing what people are doing on Twitter, and we see them taking screenshots of text and tweeting it.
Instead, what if that text...was actually text? Text that could be searched. Text that could be highlighted. That's more utility and power."
That utility and power might be meant for advertisers, who could possibly get more data on the tweets consumers are engaging with and this get more face time with their target audience.
Targeted Tweets
Any time you can get more of your message to potential customers, that's a good thing. And any time you can get more information about those potential customers is also a good thing. The only downside is that users may see fewer tweets by spending more time on the longer ones. That means being smart with how you tweet and grabbing (and holding) the attention span of Twitter users not used to long reads.
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Related Resources:
- Twitter to Expand Tweet's 140-Character Limit to 10,000 (The Wall Street Journal)
- 7 Twitter Mistakes Small Businesses Should Avoid (FindLaw's Free Enterprise)
- 10 Legal Tips for Small Businesses on Twitter (FindLaw's Free Enterprise)
- 10 Ways to Ruin Your Twitter Reputation (FindLaw's Free Enterprise)
