Twitter is seeing big growth as a result of its move last September from a 140 character cap to a 280 character cap. Growth both as to more engaged users and its market value.
BuzzFeed News reports, via SocialFlow findings, that tweets longer than the old 140-character limit are generating much more engagement than tweets that are under 140 characters.
While the number of clicks on a link in Twitter were comparable before and after the change, retweets and likes were nearly double for tweets over 140 characters,
The findings mirrored Twitter’s own test results. From a Twitter blog post announcing the increase:
In addition to more Tweeting, people who had more room to Tweet received more engagement (Likes, Retweets, @mentions), got more followers, and spent more time on Twitter. People in the experiment told us that a higher character limit made them feel more satisfied with how they expressed themselves on Twitter, their ability to find good content, and Twitter overall.
In addition to increased engagement, Twitter’s stock price is up about 40% since the change to 280 characters.
Though Twitter’s ad business has not grown significantly, Motley Fool reports Twitter’s licensing of data, an alternative means monetization, is growing extremely well. And bottom line, increased engagement is the starting point for increased revenues — and the market may reflect this.
I am enjoying the 280 characters. Allows me to “micro-blog” if you will, greater showcase influencers and strategic partners and has significantly jumped engagement on my tweets. Looks like I am not alone.
For legal professionals, Twitter is going to grow in importance. Especially so for legal bloggers – to build a name in a niche, build relationships and grow a following to amplify your blog posts.