Recently, Twitter announced that it is expanding its 140 character limit to 280 characters. Depending on whom you may ask, some would say that 140 characters is plenty, whereas others would argue that it is by far not enough space to completely finish out their thoughts.
Twitter has done an outstanding job branding itself ever since its launch. Over the years, there has been talk about changing the character limit, but nothing has ever progressed. Recently, Twitter has been testing out the 280 limit on select users to see how it plays out for good or bad.
President Trump has made Twitter one of his favorite platforms to state his personal opinions on. This being said, there has been much controversy for whether or not the character limit expansion would be beneficial. Each point-of-view varies on their feelings towards Trump, but this expansion could cause more “hate tweets” or unnecessary arguments since more content can be shared per tweet. Trump taking full advantage of his Twitter privileges has sparked more interest on Twitter as a whole, however leaving America in distress.
From a PR standpoint, I believe that this 280 character limit expansion is a great investment and improvement. People often struggle with their tweets regarding the content, emojis, hashtags, or pictures. It will provide people with more freedom to say what they need to, but will it be too much?
Some concern is over it Twitter is considering increasing its limit to become more like Facebook with a 63,206 character limit, resulting in Twitter not being unique. Twitter is meant for quick updates or expressed thoughts, but if the character limit continues to expand then what will Twitter become?
When testing this new character limit with several brands this past week, some declined the offer since most fans enjoy the traditional brevity of tweets. Twitter’s PR understands that change is acceptable in moderation and is taking in the consideration of the active users opinions.
This latest advancement will truly show if this is what Twitter needed after all to spark a new engagement level with its users!
Written By: Lindsy Hentschel, Junior Account Executive, The Exploration Station … A Children’s Museum
Visit Lindy’s Blog here: https://lindsyhentschel.wordpress.com/
