#Twitter280: does the end of brevity mean an end to creativity?
It’s been almost a fortnight since Twitter announced its expanded 280-character limit, and the dust is just beginning to settle in the Twitterverse.
The doubling of each tweet’s capacity may sound small, but with most of our brains now wired to the 140-character limit it’s no small shift.
As we all begin to shift our minds and content towards this expanded limit, we thought we’d take a moment to share the diversity of perspectives across the industry.
Trevor Young (aka The PR Warrior) – Zoetic Agency
Melbourne-based PR Warrior Trevor Young isn’t a fan of the changes, arguing that the 140-character limit forced us to be better communicators. His post provides a nice overview of the pros, cons and considerations the new limit now presents to communicators. Read more.
Catherine Wilcox – Manchester Metropolitan University
Wilcox’s view is similar to that of Young, seeing Twitter’s former brevity as an enabler of its users’ creativity – what she calls ‘the social media equivalent of a haiku’. She admits it’ll be difficult to re-wire her mind to enjoy the new experience that expanded character limit brings, but equally that this outrage will settle. Read Catherine’s piece on The Conversation.
Dhariana Lozano – Supremacy Marketing
Over on Social Media Today, Dharina Lozano also shares her love for the previous 140-character limit, but provides a nice, practical list of eight ways marketers can immediately consider experimenting with Twitter’s expanded limit. Worth a read and thinking about how you can try these in your upcoming content activities.
Angela Watercutter – WIRED
Watercutter argues that the new character limit is forcing brands and users to become creative all over again – it’s ‘the thing that took most mastery’ when Twitter launched and is giving brands and individuals a fresh chance to master a new limit and the creative scope that comes with it. She also notes that many of the positive responses to date have come from brands, and includes some early examples of how brands are embracing the change. Read her full piece on WIRED.