Twitter for most us, limits us to 140 characters. Recently, Twitter has been testing out raising the character limit to 280. Double the original amount. You might have already seen accounts with big followings test out the new format. The funny thing about increasing the limit is that Twitter was meant to be a platform for quick and short messages. As fast as you hear a bird, well, tweet!
140 character limit means that you have to get your point across in the shortest amount of words and concisely. This helps get the point across quickly. People already have a thought process when visiting certain sites. You go to Twitter to read about breaking news, quickly gather information from multiple sources, and keep the ball rolling.
Facebook is meant for you to take your time, look through family pictures, see what friends are sharing. The level of activity is much lower than Twitter. Instagram, personally, falls in between Facebook and Twitter. You go through Instagram at a quicker pace than Facebook but there is a little more hesitation because they are visual posts. Minimal or no text at all, same thing with videos.
So taking into consideration how quickly we disseminate information on Twitter compared to other platforms, is there really a right time to tweet?
First, you have to define what you want to get out of tweets. Is it clicks, likes, retweets, replies, followers, or impressions? What’s right for you might not be the right thing someone else is looking for.
When should you tweet? There are some givens. Think about when you personally have more time to look through social media. In the mornings when you wake up, during your lunch time, right after work, and during or after dinner.
That’s 4 maybe 5 time slots that will have the most impressions. If that’s what you want your goal to be, those are perfect times!
But you can see which times are the peak for the volume of tweets that go out. That means that there’s greater competition at those times if you want more than impressions. You are fighting to grab people’s attention. What should you do then?
What should you do then?
Test! Tweet during those high volume times, tweet during the times mentioned above, tweet when you think no one is one. You never know what’s best for your twitter and when your followers are on.
See what times get more likes or retweets, or clicks. You also have to take note of what you’re are tweeting. Inline images see higher engagement than tweets that don’t have inline images. Video also has higher engagement than a text-only tweet. If you want to reach followers in different time zones, try posting the same content in eight-hour intervals. Set a schedule and if you tweet at certain times for a while, people know to expect a tweet then!
Learn about the 5 things you should know about Twitter while you’re at it.
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