The familiar limit of 140 characters for messages on Twitter is a thing of the past. For marketers, the ability to publish 280-character texts presents a new challenge. If the previous character limit felt as natural as 10 results being displayed per page of search engine results, the new, double character limit takes just as much getting used to.

More doesn’t automatically equal better – we know that from content and inbound marketing all too well. Taking advantage of the Twitter expansion by simply doubling the existing ad texts or hashtags won’t lead to a better response from the target audience. Creative solutions are needed to turn the extra characters into interesting tweets. That’s why we went on a search for tweets from B2B brands that have found clever ways to implement the new 280-character limit.

Before you explore the following Tweet examples: Don't forget to check out our one-stop-shop guide to effective B2B Content Marketing!

Example No. 1: Crazy Gimmicks Involving Your Brand

What is your brand known for? What kind of joke would only insiders from your industry understand? The character expansion gives you the opportunity to playfully interact with your followers. For example, the astonishing first contribution of IT giant Cisco to the #280characters hashtag was 280 ones and zeros:

 

The US-based research firm Illumina had a similar idea and tweeted a crazy 280-character genome sequence:

Example No. 2: Demonstrate Practical Applications

The social media management platform Hootsuite was significantly involved in the Twitter update. Their first tweet after the expansion gave followers tips on how to cleverly take advantage of the new character limit:

 

One of the most important rules for online content is to write short blocks of text that are easy to read and aren’t overlooked by readers when they’re skimming through content. With the above tweet, Hootsuite showed how companies can implement this on Twitter.

Example No. 3: Create Better Link Teasers

With the previous 140 characters, it was often difficult to find a snappy and attractive tagline for the link in a tweet. Now there’s more room for a summary of the content and a message about why people should click on the link. The CEO of General Electric delivered a good example of a successful link in his tweet about an investor presentation:

Example No. 4: Make Tweets More Versatile

Especially with longer and text-heavy tweets, there’s an increased risk that they’ll simply be overlooked or that users will intentionally scroll past them. To make long messages more attractive, we recommend incorporating a variety of elements. With multiple hashtags, a user handle, a link and an image, the computer technology company Dell tweeted an attractive mini story:

Example No. 5: Use Quotes AND Descriptions

The 140-character limit often required content marketers to decide whether to use a quote or a description of the content to generate interest in a linked article. Now you can combine both in a single tweet. In this example, the marketing experts from Salesforce show how a full quote, a link description, a hashtag and evocative emojis can grab attention:

 

Take advantage of the 280 characters creatively and incorporate the other new features, such as the extension of the name length from 20 to 50 characters, in your Twitter strategy. In content and inbound marketing, this results in a variety of new branding opportunities. Simply start with these four steps:

1. Review Your Existing Twitter Marketing Strategy

Before you take advantage of the new opportunities, you should carefully analyze your Twitter activities to date. Take a look at your metrics and find out how recipients and followers respond to your tweets. On the one hand, key figures and indicators are helpful in making comparisons over time. On the other hand, they allow you to stop relying on intuition and gain fact-based insights about which Twitter content has generated the most engagement and the desired response. Find out what’s worked so far – and what hasn’t:

  • Which topics were most successful?
  • How many characters did the most popular tweets have?
  • Were pictures and videos included in the messages?
  • Which links to your website content were clicked on the most?

2. Create and Publish Test Tweets

Take the information and insights gained from the analysis and start a test campaign with longer tweets. Use the collected best practice experience and experiment with the new possibilities. The trial period should be at least one month so that you can build a sufficiently comprehensive and valid database.

3. Analyze the Results and Optimize Your 280-Character Tweets

After completing the test phase, it’s time to take a closer look at the metrics and experience gained:

  • How did the indicators compare to the previous ones?
  • Is there a measurable change in your customer interaction on Twitter?
  • What reactions did the new tweets provoke?
  • Was there an increase or decrease in comments or retweets?
  • Which type of content benefited the most from the new possibilities?

4. Always Keep an Eye on the Added Value for Your Audience

By the way, 280 characters are merely a limit, not a minimum number of characters. Only use the full 280 characters if they actually add value to your message. Regardless of the expansion, it’s safe to assume that Twitter users still prefer short and concise tweets. That’s the charm of the platform.

For this reason, you should also consider the opposite strategy to that of character expansion. Condense your tweets to the shortest possible statement. In Twitter feeds full of long messages, an extremely short tweet will stand out – a new distinguishing feature for which we have the 280-character expansion to thank.

With these examples, you’ve hopefully gained new ideas and starting points for your own social media activities in B2B. How do you plan to use the new Twitter features for your campaigns? We look forward to your feedback!

Sven Montanus

Written by Sven Montanus

From garage startups to tech giants, Sven has just about scrutinized everything that wanted to change the world when he was working as a journalist – an experience that is certainly not a disadvantage in inbound marketing. Hobby wine merchant and hobby chef.