Six Things Insurance Marketers Can Do with 280 Characters

Twitter has doubled its word count limit. Once given a meager 140 characters, users now have 280 characters to play with. As with other Twitter changes, some users are irate. Others, however, are thrilled they no longer have to make their complex tweets fit into such a limited space. As an insurance marketer, there’s a lot you can do with the extra characters. Here are some ideas:

1. Use standard spelling and grammar. Being a stickler for standard English made meeting the 140-character limit difficult. You didn’t always have room to spell out “because,” for example, so “bc” would have to do. Now, there’s no reason not to write everything out in standard English. If you listen closely, you can hear the cheers of grammar nerds everywhere.
2. Stop using Twitter threads. Twitter threads – where users reply to their own tweets to create long chains of tweets on single topic – have their uses, and they certainly haven’t disappeared. The higher character limit may mean you don’t have to use them quite as often, though. If you can express yourself in a single tweet, do so.   
3. Make your point clear. Did you ever worry your tweets didn’t quite convey the right meaning? With more complicated sentiments, this could be a problem. Now that users have twice as many characters, expressing complex ideas should be twice as easy.
4. Engage more effectively. Effective Twitter use is all about engagement. You’re not just shouting at people – you’re interacting with them. The new character limit doesn’t change that, but it does give you more room to make your responses clear. This may be the perfect time to elicit questions from others, knowing that you can answer them more fully, or to ask questions yourself.
5. Use hashtags. Hashtags are used to categorize your tweet. Other users who search the hashtag can find your tweet. It’s a great idea to use commonly searched tweets -- #insurance, #healthinsurance, #retirement and #retirementplanning, for example – to widen the reach of your tweets. With a higher character limit, you have more space for hashtags. Just don’t go overboard. Many Twitter users find excessive hashtag use annoying.
6. Nothing. Just because you have twice as many characters doesn’t mean you have to use them. As Shakespeare said, “Brevity is the soul of wit.” Don’t feel like you have to max out your character count with every tweet.

Although doubling the character limit might seem like a major change, the truth is that Twitter is still essentially the same. And no, there’s no word of an edit button being made available in the foreseeable future.

Need great content to fuel your social media strategy? Blog writing is a great place to start. Learn more.