With over 17 million users in the UK, Twitter is one of the most popular social networks.
Twitter is great for staying up-to-date on current events, for networking with other professionals, and for promoting your business or website.
Isn’t there a character limit on Twitter?
Yes! One of the unique features of Twitter is that you’re limited to the number of characters you’re able to include in a message (called a tweet), which is currently set at 280.
Back in 2006 when Twitter launched, they limited tweets to 140 characters. This was mainly because prior to the smartphone, Twitter was an SMS based service. 140 characters enabled people to receive the message and a user’s handle via a single text message.
It actually wasn’t until 2017 that Twitter increased their character limits to 280 per tweet, which was widely celebrated by its users.
Isn’t 280 characters still restrictive? What if I have more to say?
There are some people that would prefer to see Twitter abandon its character limits altogether, and I can understand that perspective.
But keeping tweets short is one of the things I personally like about Twitter.
It’s what makes it unique.
It forces people to be concise and focused.
It helps you to keep up-to-date on topics that are important to you in bite sized chunks.
But if there are occasions where you need more than 280 characters, this is where a Twitter thread can be useful.
What is a Twitter thread?
A Twitter thread allows you to group a series of tweets together.
So as an example, if you have a list of “Top Tips” for a particular subject, you’re no longer limited by trying to fit them into 280 characters.
You can create a thread that has a separate tweet for each tip.
Want to see what I mean? Check out this example from Dickie Bush.
What are the benefits of creating Twitter threads for my business?
The main benefit of a thread on Twitter is that it enables you to communicate more information than the usual 280 character limit.
This makes threads great for providing more in-depth advice, expertise, tips, stories and other content that educates and inspires your audience.
An experiment by Buffer showed that threads get more impressions and more engagements than standard posts. So, if your objective is to reach and engage with your audience on Twitter, it’s worth considering threads.
Another feature of threads is the ability to keep adding new tweets to the thread once it is created.
Why is this useful? Imagine you’re at a business conference, and you start a thread talking about the venue and your excitement in tweet 1, and the running order of speakers in tweet 2. You could include your main takeaway point from the first speaker in tweet 3, your main takeaway point from the second speaker in tweet 4, and so on.
You could include all your thoughts from a two-day conference in one thread that keeps everything together for your audience.
How do I create a Twitter thread?
It’s easier than many people think!
Twitter now has native support for building threads. When you’re composing your message, all you need to do is press the “+” button and it will start the next tweet in the thread.
You can check out the official Twitter guide to building threads here: https://help.twitter.com/en/using-twitter/create-a-thread
But if you’re planning on creating Twitter threads on a more regular basis, there are tools that make the thread creation process a little easier.
What are the best tools for helping to create Twitter threads?
Thread Creator is relatively straight forward to use and has a good free plan for users that want to post no more than one thread per week, and include no more than one image per thread. If you want to upgrade to have unlimited posting, unlimited scheduling and unlimited images there’s a paid plan that stats at $15 per month.
Typefully is another easy-to-use tool, that doesn’t have the posting limitations of Thread Creator on the free account, but unfortunately doesn’t allow any scheduling for free users. If you choose to upgrade (around $8 per month) it enables scheduling, analytics and your ability to add videos to threads.
There are plenty of other thread creation tools out there, such as Chirr App and HypeFury — if you’re interested in doing more with Twitter threads, it’s worth taking a look and seeing which is best for you.
How long should a Twitter thread be?
When you’re initially publishing a thread, the maximum number of tweets allowed is 25.
So in terms of limits, stay within 25 tweets. That’s still a lot of information!
I’ve had a good search around for any good statistics about what the ‘optimum thread length’ might be, but I’ve not found anything that felt accurate enough to share with you (if you do find anything, please let me know and I’ll update this article).
In the absence of accurate data, I would suggest you decide on the ideal length of your Twitter thread depending on the needs of your target audience, what you want to say, and how you can say it most effectively.
My advice would be to make your thread as long as it needs to be, but no more. The longer a thread is, the less likely users are to reach the end.
Things to consider when creating your first thread
Planning
Twitter is designed for quick updates, it’s not uncommon for people to quickly compose a single 200 character tweet off the top of their head.
But to have the best chance of success with threads, you need to be a little more planned.
Think about what you want to say, and the most effective way to say it across a number of tweets.
A compelling first tweet
Your first tweet is really important. It needs to capture the audience’s attention and encourage them to keep reading.
Make it clear that is a thread
In your first tweet, draw attention to the fact that you’re writing a thread. A lot of people use the thread emoji (🧵) or just simply say “A thread 👇”
Include a call to action to share or follow
Make it easy for your audience to know what you want them to do when they reach the end of your thread. An example might be “if you found this thread useful, please hit retweet so others might learn from it”
Hopefully, after reading this article you’ve got a better understanding of Twitter threads, and how they can be a great way to share longer stories, and lists of tips and advice with your audience.
With stronger reach and engagement on threads compared to standard tweets, they are something that any business that is active on Twitter should be experimenting with.
If you need any support or advice on how to approach Twitter threads, please just drop me an email.
