Now that the doubled character limit of 280 has been implemented across accounts (I still know some people who haven’t been able to use 280 characters yet) I wanted to do a follow up to my previous post. The first and most important thing I want to touch on is what people are using the extra characters for…
Why We Can’t Have Nice Things
This is why we can’t have nice things. Did you know too many hashtags actually HURTS your engagement? pic.twitter.com/IazH3NnbsN
— Beverley Theresa ? (@hellobeverley) November 27, 2017
Too Many Hashtags on Twitter
WTF is with people using all the hashtags in the entire world?! If you’re not sure what I’m talking about here are some examples (and sorry, I probably should have edited out usernames, but I am too lazy and I know you’re smart enough to find these tweets if you really wanted to):
Too Many Mentions
How many mentions are too many mentions? This many:
Just yuck. STOP. If you want to get attention or market to specific accounts, pay for ads or do it in a more organic way. Mentioning companies or people you’ve probably never engaged with in hopes that they’ll share your content or visit a link is a horrible way to use Twitter. It’s like when you approve new LinkedIn connection requests and the first message you get from that connection is them trying to sell you something.
Twitter Isn’t Instagram
AHHHH! It blows my mind people still auto post to Twitter from Instagram. So, first, stop! And second, what the heck is this:
Yes, brah, your photo is actually super cool, but those hashtags and the “. . .” line breaks, we can tell it’s from Instagram. Because of the character limit change, expect to see more tweets like this. Unfortunately.
Okay, I’m done complaining…
Social Media Automation Tools – Have They Caught Up?
The answer is, YES. And I’m so grateful. I was thinking it would take some tools forever to implement the character limit change when scheduling out content, but nope, all the tools I use were quick to make the change. (This actually helped me less stressed out with the change. Isn’t that sad? That I was stressed out over 140 characters doubling?)
Attention Span
While there are many people using the 280 character limit to their advantage to publish long ass tweets, I’m grateful that this isn’t a common occurrence on the accounts I follow. I don’t mind when people @reply with long tweets, it definitely makes conversation easier, but tweets that are a paragraph chunk are usually skipped over by me.
What Do Twitter Users Think of the Change?
I did a Twitter poll and asked for feedback.
Here’s what some of my homies had to say and for the most part, I totally agree.
Some people don’t care, like, at all.
COULDN’T care less (and that’s my answer)
— Levi Breederland (@Levisan) November 28, 2017
Honestly, don’t care. I think I’ve used 280 once since it’s been implemented.
— rev recluse (@revRecluse) November 27, 2017
Qyn has a good point. Before people had to do threads to expand on tweets or to tell a proper story. Also dat good grammar doe.
I like that I don’t have to spend time editing words to be shorter to get under the limit on a barely too-long tweet. I graduated from high school, I want to use dat good grammar everywhere dammit! Also threads are like half as long… less scrolling is best scrolling.
— Qyn (@Qyn) November 28, 2017
Tweet storm? No. Never. Please don’t.
Not in love with it. They are testing a “tweet-storm” feature now. It looks like they are trying to encourage longer form content on the platform.
— Jordan Scheltgen (@cavejordans) November 27, 2017
A great suggestion from Chad. Some people don’t deserve nice things all the time.
In my ideal world all Twitter users would only be allowed five 280-character posts a month of something along those lines.
— Chad Huculak (@northsidechad) November 27, 2017
I’ve noticed Ryan has become more active on LinkedIn. Could it be his new fave social media channel?
Twitter has stayed static for user growth for last few years. This change is blah.
— ᴿᵞᴬᴺ ᴴᴼᴸᵀᶻ ᴹᴬᴿᴷᴱᵀᴵᴺᴳ (@RyanHoltz1) November 28, 2017
YES. Ain’t nobody got time for that.
I find myself skipping over 280 character tweets. It’s silly, but they ruin my Twitter browsing flow.
— Sarah (@SmileandConquer) November 28, 2017
What Are Your Thoughts?
Your turn! Tweet me or leave a comment below and tell me how you feel about the 280 character limit.
In my opinion, I think Danika sums it up best with this tweet:
It’s nice knowing you don’t have to shorten words just to fit.
Just because there’s more characters to use doesn’t mean you need to use them all every time
— Danika Eats Tea (@TeaEatIt) November 28, 2017
Til next time, I’ll be watching your tweets!
