You may have heard, the word on the grape vine is that Twitter is moving away from 140 characters to a whopping 10,000 characters. Here are my thoughts in a short draft letter to Twitter (FYI, this has not been sent. It is more a summing up of my thoughts) . Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.
Dear Twitter,
(Lets start with the nicities) I hope you had a great Christmas and New Year (It’s always nice to start on a positive note 🙂 )
I recently read something about you that made me think that you have lost your mind. As I read it on a news website I am not sure whether to believe it or not (you know they say you cannot believe everything you read – in this case I hope that is true) . The article said that you were moving from 140 characters to a whopping 10,000.
Having worked in digital marketing for nearly 14 years and being a massive fan of Twitter I feel that this is a REALLY BAD move. Do you want to be Facebook? Are you responding to Facebook’s redevelopment and launch of notes recently? Why are you getting rid of the one thing that makes you unique and stands you out from the rest?
The benefit of the 140 characters to users like me is that it makes us really think about the wording of our tweets. It means that we waffle less and get straight to the point, no faffing around. So why, oh why are you considering changing to 10,000 characters?
As a user of Twitter I personally find sticking with 140 characters a good idea for the above listed benefits but also, it means that when I want to say more I create a blog post and drive people to my site which has many benefits.
On a positive note, you have made some really positive changes of late. Native videos, no more image cropping and Periscope are all fantastic.
So to sum up my feelings, I love you Twitter, just as you are 🙂
Your
Sandra (you can find me at @SandraHennessy)
