Twitter announced on its 10th anniversary year that it’s about to double its character limit. The face of social media has altered over the last decade and Twitter is not a platform that would lag in the race. Twitter permits the users to express more freely in a single tweet which increases its popularity in the stride. To top it, the 280 word limit (which was previously 140) would not be hampered by the images, videos, or GIFs attached to the tweet. This decision of Twitter experienced mixed reactions. Nonetheless, it is commonly acknowledged that the doubling of character limit of tweet is going to have an impactful result on the digital marketing strategy of the companies.
Here we list the ways the doubling of character limit will change the pattern of marketing in a constructive way.
Twitter provides the platform to promote the products through crisp messages and visuals. The changes brought to surface by Twitter removes the restriction on the pictures and length of videos. These visuals can be put to use to create a story for the customers that catch the fancy of them. A survey suggests that Tweets that contain an appeasing visual story, engages the audience 313% more in comparison to simple texts. To engage the customers, a marketing official can come up with a resonating tweet containing text characters and images.
The 140 character limit of Twitter prevented the display of full length URLs. The promotional companies had to resort to non-branded URLs that were shortened to meet the character limit. The new features of Twitter will remove this hurdle and enable the companies to flaunt their online presence to the world. Study suggests that the full length branded URLs are able to catch the attention of 39% more audience.
In the last decade, the face of social media has altered and influencer tweets are a thing. The 280 character limit will ensure that the brands follow the disclosure rules. The influencer tweets will have to exhibit sponsorship notices, leading to greater transparency. This smart move of Twitter will be beneficial for the users by diminishing the probability of false or misleading tweets.
It is crucial for social media marketing to use “Tone of Voice” that would create a positive impact on the audience. 140 characters were not enough to serve that purpose as messages had to be concise and full sentences could not be tweeted. The doubling of the character limit would strengthen the relationship with the customers by facilitating stronger communication. The ability to add links, graphics, and avoidance of abbreviations, increase website traffic. This profits both Twitter and the company promoting its product through the platform. It would also improve the brand image that would further attract potential consumers.
The consumers are aware of the power of the social medial platforms to perturb the reputation of the company or brand. According to the recent survey, approximately 30% of the consumers voice their complaints on social media networks, such as Twitter. The increase in the word limit of Twitter would permit the companies to reply to the queries of the client and at the same time, provide insightful information to attract new customers. Previously, the breaking down of messages due to character limit reduced the impact of it on the audience. It also meets the need to elaborate on a topic such as offering a solution to the issues raised by the clients. Besides, the long videos and images can be added to the tweet which is used to give a detailed reply to the questions of the consumers, further making it look interesting and enticing them.
Of course, there is always a flip side to every coin and few thumbs down of increased character limit must also be considered.
It has been said that the essence of Twitter laid in the 140 character limit of the tweets. The promotional team of the companies struggled to cram their views in short texts which honed their creative skills. The lack of challenge and enthusiasm among the marketing team, made them lazy while developing content of advertisement through Twitter.
The ability to write long tweets makes the posts less straightforward or focused. However, the doubling of character limit will leave Twitter as a mere branded content medium. It would be used for business purposes without delivering the impact that was created by the 140 character limit. Leveraging business and promotional purposes will be better served by this change, but lengthy messages would result in customers scrolling past them.
Before the launch of the increased character limit of Twitter, a test group were allowed to use 280 characters in a tweet. Post the initial enthusiasm of the users, it has been noticed that only 5% of the test group member’s tweets contained more than 140 characters. And only 2% of them usurped more than 190 characters while tweeting. This reflects that the users are overwhelmed with the dramatic increase in the character limit. Likewise, it is not necessary that the marketers require using all the characters for messages. It can also be used to take more feed, use links, or create hashtag. The companies are also used to promote their brand through taglines, single sentence messages, and hashtag campaigns. Thus, the increase in word limit does not make the digital marketing team much enthusiastic.
However, the not so exciting opinion pertaining to the increase in character limit by Twitter can also be optimistically used by the digital marketers. For example, the marketers can think in this way that long texts will provide them a larger canvas to showcase their creativity. Instead of being sceptical about the change, they must acknowledge that creativity is not limited to short tweets. Similarly, if Twitter becomes a branded content medium, then that would create a window of opportunity for the promotional team of the organizations. They can use more taglines, links, URLs, visuals to leverage their brand image. The companies must adapt to the changes and use every aspect to its advantage.
