Twitter isn’t a bar. And it’s not a car. (I’ll stop rhyming now…) Twitter will cut you off though, alcohol and crazy driving jokes aside (though hopefully the two aren’t related…). If you don’t keep the character limit in mind, your messages can be just as obnoxious.
You only get 140 characters on Twitter—that’s it. If you can’t fit your message in the allotted space, you’ll need to re-write or blog about it and then link to it from Twitter. Twitter is meant for short blasts of information and if your tweet is too long, it will get cut off. Anyone who gets your tweets on their phone has a 160 character limit (normally), and they may not see your entire message. Long tweets decrease the likelihood that people will read them.
Twitter Tip of the Day: Make sure RT @yourtwittername will fit within the 140 characters before tweeting it.
Why? So people can retweet you! For example, if I tweeted the following from Cirrus ABS’ Twitter account:
“Free Social Media Seminar on March 2 at Cirrus ABS, RSVP on our website http://bit.ly/9P9QrS to save your spot in one of two seminars”
That tweet is 133 characters long. If someone wanted to retweet this, Twitter will add “RT @cirrusabs” to the beginning of the tweet, which is 13 additional characters for our username. It would look something like this:
“RT @cirrusabs Free Social Media Seminar on March 2 at Cirrus ABS, RSVP on our website http://bit.ly/9P9QrS to save your spot in one of two seminars”
The red portion of the text signifies what Twitter will cut off. Anyone who wants to retweet this message will have to edit the original post, re-word it (and likely not give @cirrusabs credit), or just get annoyed and not re-tweet it at all.
If you tweet on behalf of a business—there is endless information you can be blasting into the Twitter-sphere. If you post news on your website, have an upcoming event or seminar, giveaways, promotions, press releases, or anything else that is relevant to anyone—let everyone know through Twitter. However, always keep in mind that what you’re sharing is going to be of interest to SOMEONE else, and they might want to help you spread the word.
Never forget re-tweeting is free viral marketing and advertising, so don’t miss out on an opportunity because of a few characters! Leave the extra characters at the bar…
