The 280’s the limit!
Earlier this week Twitter rolled out its new 280 character limit to all users, meaning we now have double the room to compose our tweets. It’s a controversial move and hasn’t been met that warmly by everyone - especially those who, like me, have spent many years pining for an ‘edit’ button on published tweets.
Regardless of your opinion though, the update has arrived and it is going to undoubtedly change the way we use Twitter.
However, I would always argue that change is good, and I’m sure it won’t be long before we’ve all forgotten the days of 140 characters and have gone back to moaning about the lack of an edit button.
Could the 280 character limit impact Twitter negatively? Of course it could. Twitter’s USP for years have been its brevity, forcing users to be creative in how they communicate their message and making the news feed incredibly easy to scan.
But it is also going to impact Twitter positively, and it will be interesting to see which impact overrides the other.
There are three key things I think the 280 character limit is going to bring about that will be really positive for the platform:
1. It will be easier to tweet about complex topics. This is particularly good news for a number of our clients. Communicating your message to people who do not have previous knowledge of it is, as we all know, key to any kind of growth. 280 characters gives us just a little more room for clarity. 2. It will allow tweets to come across as more personable. This is great news for businesses and brands because coming across as personable is how trust and loyalty are built on social media. I believe it’s one of the most valuable things about social media platforms and I think change will only increase it. 3. It will change what Twitter is for, and that’s exciting. Exciting because we (Twitter included) probably don’t know what it will be for yet, and exciting because it also paves the way for new platforms to pop up and fill the gap left behind.
I am looking forward to helping clients make the most of this new 280 character opportunity and to seeing what sort of ripple effect it has over the coming months. I still want that edit button though.
Fran Bibby is Social Media Manager at Social Communications, a full-service PR, public affairs, marketing and communications agency.














