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Twice the Tweet: What 280 Characters Means for Marketing

By October 2, 2017 No Comments

Twitter announced this week that they will be testing out longer tweets for some users; twice as many characters to be exact. Although the change is rolling out slowly, with only select users gaining access to 280 characters long before others, social media marketing agencies like Social Media Energy are at the ready to make the most of this Tweet revolution. With twice the Twitter power, social media marketing via Tweeting is about to take a turn.

While longer tweets may concern some brands, they hold some serious marketing potential if used correctly. Many marketing professional worry that 280 characters will dilute Twitter feeds and take away from the discipline it takes to squeeze hard-hitting promotions into 140 characters. Here at Social Media Energy, however, we are excited at the prospect of fitting more into each post, so brands can bring a new level of transparency where before they were limited in what they could say.

One of Twitter’s justifications for expanding Tweet capacity is to reach more users who may have been deterred by such stringent limits as 140 characters. Of course, this has social media marketers chomping at the bit to get their hands on those extra characters as soon as possible. More users mean more audience to reach, and at Social Media Energy we love to reach more people. An expanding platform gives marketers more to work with to expand brand reach.

Our friends over at Social Times agree with us in that the new 280 characters on Twitter must be handled correctly. No, we will not be just copying and pasting posts from other non-limiting platforms like Facebook. No, we will not be filling those 280 characters with dozens of hashtags (although we at SME love a good, properly created hashtag campaign). We WILL, however, use the newfound freedom to have deeper, fuller conversations with customers. We WILL be using longer tweets to fully explain rules, regulations, and terms for our kick-ass giveaways.

Although change is scary for some, we at Social Media Energy are ready to roll with the new structure of the Twittersphere. Our writers and strategists can use any social curveball as an opportunity to maximize reach and enhance brand reputation. If you’re not quite ready to tackle 280 characters on your own, Contact Us to get your social strategy started!

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