Twitter’s decision to double its 140-character limit to 280 last month naturally prompted criticisms and opposition. Many Twitter users criticized and mocked the character increase, saying Twitter should have addressed serious issues like trolls and fake bot accounts.
As it turns out, people like longer tweets. New research reveals people retweet and like longer tweets almost twice as much as shorter ones.
Tweets over 140 characters were retweeted 26.52 times on average; tweets of 140 characters or fewer were retweeted 13.71 times on average, reveals SocialFlow. SocialFlow, a publishing tool used by approximately 300 major publishers including the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, reviewed tens of thousands of tweets published between Nov. 29 and Dec. 6.
Tweets with 141 to 280 characters were liked 50.28 times on average. Tweets with 140 or fewer characters were liked 26.96 times on average. Clicks per tweet were roughly equal for the two groups.
“If a tweet can hook you in the first few words, we’ll read all of it,” said Frank Speiser, co-founder of SocialFlow.
Twitter’s research showed that 9 percent of tweets in English hit the 140-character limit, much to users’ frustration. When Twitter tested the 280-character limit with a small group of users in September, only 1 percent of tweets hit the 280-character limit, says Twitter Product Manager Aliza Rosen on the company blog. Users in the experiment gained more engagement, acquired more followers, and were more satisfied with their ability to express themselves.
The SocialFlow research, the first study of Twitter engagement since the debut of the new the limit, appears to support Twitter’s decision to increase the limit.
No Attention Span Problem
“It’s a significant bump and one that would seem to put to rest the theory that longer tweets might tax the attention spans of people used to reading those composed of no more than 140 characters,” comments Alex Kantrowitz at BuzzFeed.
Keep in mind some caveats. The figures are averages. It’s possible for a short tweet to garner robust engagement and a longer tweet to go largely ignored. The research only separates long and short tweets. It’s possible that tweets in the mid-range of around 150 characters might generate more engagement.
The data is also specific to SocalFlow’s group of publishers. Other brands and individuals may see different results.
“Longer tweets may get more engagement, but that doesn’t mean everyone on Twitter should start imitating Faulkner,” writes Jake Swearingen at New York Magazine. “Especially for individual accounts, there’s the real possibility that posting entire paragraphs every time you tweet could see you shedding followers (or at least getting muted).”
“I’d be amazed if there aren’t lots of social media managers out there who create content for audiences that don’t actually want lots of words to read,” concurs Dave Musson at Net Natives, a digital marketing agency serving higher education institutions.
Still, public relations and marketing professionals at organizations that communicate complex messages, such has higher education institutions, probably like the longer limit, Musson says.
Bottom Line: Longer tweets gain many more retweets and likes, new research shows. The research shows that criticisms of Twitter’s longer limit were overdone and that people need not fear surpassing the old limit. It doesn’t mean everyone will gain more engagement with long tweets.
William J. Comcowich founded and served as CEO of CyberAlert LLC, the predecessor of Glean.info. He is currently serving as Interim CEO and member of the Board of Directors. Glean.info provides customized media monitoring, media measurement and analytics solutions across all types of traditional and social media.
