Social Media Changes

Posted on October 9, 2017 by sharonmostyn

Special thanks to Chris Jones for moderating last month’s Marketing #SMChat! I’m so jealous that they talked about book marketing while I was away!

Social Media Changes -> Twitter Updates Character Count

This week, our Marketing topic is Social Media Changes: Twitter updates the maximum character count. During the 9/27/17 chat, Creativation Marketing suggested Twitter’s new 280 character limit would be a great topic. We reached out to Inc. columnist Tom Popomaronis and we’re thrilled that he agreed to join us! It will be interesting to hear Tom’s insights on the new character limit as well as find out if any of our #SMChat participants have the updated 280 character count change their Twitter account.

In her September 26, 2017 blog post announcing the change, Twitter Product Manager Aliza Rosen shared research stating that only 9% of Tweets in English reach the 140 character count limit and most Tweets have only 34 characters. As someone who often reaches the character limit, I’m surprised that it’s so low!

According to Fast Company editor Harry McCracken, the new 280 character count may be too much, too late for Twitter. #BlogChat founder Mack Collier seems to agree that Twitter is mainly useful for chats these days and LinkedIn is where the connections are being made.

Here are the questions we’ll be discussing on #SMChat:

What do you think prompted the change from 140 characters to 280 now? Can’t people edit to 140 characters after 11 years?
Twitter is already not counting elements such as @names, photos, and polls against the 140-character count, so why add more characters?
Will the change to 280 characters “save” Twitter or harm it? Does it need saving? What’s next?
10 years ago, Robert Scoble said he’d pay $20/month to have 280 characters. Do you think that’s Twitter’s new monetization plan?
Does Twitter’s character limit inhibit social media conversations? If so, how do you explain the popularity of Twitter chats?

Please join us Wednesday, October 11, 2017 at 1PM ET – we look forward to your insights! Have more questions you want answered, insights that will take more than 140 (or 280) characters, or won’t be able to make the chat but want your voice heard? Please leave a comment below!