It has been a relatively recent buzz that twitter is all set to exclude links and pics from the 140 character limit and is on the path to implement this change. As soon as this news came out, people came to me with a barrage of questions. So instead of answering them one by one, I thought it will be a good idea to make full post with all questions and my responses to them
What does this mean?
To put it in very simple words, you have all 140 character available to say whatever you want to say as text in your tweets, you no longer have to worry about the total length when you have a link or a picture to share along with the text. So the fine art of tweet fitting now works with the whole 140 characters for text alone.
Will URL snippers go out of business?
Not necessarily. The url shorteners actually do more than just shortening the URLs that you share. They allow you the ability to personalize and even brand your short urls and these are considered a good thing in the social media world. And not to forget the very powerful analytical angle that url shorteners bring in. While twitter analytics can give you a rough idea with a ballpark figure, you really need deep analytics if you are a serious twitter user who wants to measure and optimize traffic, impressions and engagement
I am a blogger, what changes for me?
Rejoice! You don’t need a title to fit in 110-120 characters so that it is shareable without distortion on twitter! You have the full 140 characters and this fits very well along with your SEO requirement of 160 characters. In short, you get creative leeway of about 20 characters with the title even if you are not using your own personalized short url. But from a branding perspective, the personal url is a winner and that is why I use quill.link for this blog.
Even if you are not using a shortener, this is good news because now your permalinks can be as long as you want them to be and they can be shared just as they are on twitter. Big change from all the hassles that one had to go through to keep them short and sweet and all that.
I am just a casual tweeter, what should I change?
Nothing at all. Just tweet, retweet, interact and enjoy!
I am a content writer at an agency that does SM for clients, any change for me?
Yes my friend! You have 20 more characters to play with in tweets now! And the additional freedom of having leeway in having really long links like http://ohmygodiwrotethistoimpress.com/posts/greatones/readthisfantasticartclenow and not get pulled up for writing it like that.
If you have any more questions, let me know and I will answer them for you.
Remember, Have fun!
