If you’ve studied any Twitter tips, on this blog or elsewhere, you may be familiar with the recommendation to tweet in 120 characters or less. Some marketers suggest the best tweet length is 100 characters or less.
But do you understand why this is the recommended length of a tweet?
Are you making my life easier?
How easy do you make it for your Twitter followers to share your tweets?
If I’m using a third party Twitter client (such as Hootsuite, TweetDeck, etc.), and I try to retweet your tweet and include ‘RT @username,’ will I have enough character space? Or will I have to modify your original tweet to accommodate the 140 character limit?
This is a big deal. I want to use the classic ‘RT @username’ when I retweet because I know you’re more likely to see the retweet.
If I can simply hit retweet without modifying the tweet, the likelihood of a retweet increases significantly, versus a tweet that I have to change in order to make it fit. Please, don’t make me work too hard to share your content.
Why tweet in 120 characters or less?
I know you may hear this tip all the time, but you may not know why. The reason why you try to tweet in less 120 characters is so you leave space for the retweeter’s username. It’s that simple.
When you’re tweeting, abbreviate your tweets to less than 120 characters and your chances of being retweeted increase exponentially.
If you can tweet in 100 characters or less, you’re not only leaving enough character space for the retweeter’s username, but you’ll also leave space for a comment. That’s even better! Many times, I’ll see a great tweet, and I want to make a comment as part of my retweet, but there’s not enough space for me to do it.
When you retweet a thought/article/etc., you are sharing it with your followers. When you can include a comment with the tweet, it lets your followers know what you think of the quote/article, and why they should read it or share it as well.
And there you have it, the great mystery behind the “best tweet length is 120 characters or less” tip!
Ciao,
Tweet me @MissKemya
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