Throughout its whole life, Twitter has had one thing that has made it unique from every other social media site out there. This site was designed to offer a quick and simple method of communicating with friends, colleagues and consumers. All messages were limited to just 140 characters. This has always been Twitter’s “thing”, designed specifically to keep things short and sweet and essentially limit people from long, drawn out, and boring messages. The 140 character limit originally came from the length of SMS messages, and was previously 160 characters.
People have found some ways to maximize their character limit, such as shortening content links and image links just to make room for more text. But, it still has created some difficulties for businesses who have begun using social media for their own marketing purposes. Obviously, it has worked fairly well so far, but a change in Twitter’s rules has opened new doors to anyone who wants to gain customers by communicating through Tweets.
As of January 2015, Twitter changed the character limit on direct. The new update to these messages actually did a couple of things:
- It lifted the character limit ban on direct messages.
- It allowed users to direct message someone they aren’t following.
- Group direct messages no longer have a character limit either.
This is actually incredibly good news for any business using Twitter as a method for marketing. There are numerous reasons why this is a positive thing. Let’s look at how this is going to improve your business and give you more opportunities to reach customers through the social media platform.
Better Customer Support
As you probably already know, today’s typical consumer is different from ever before. People expect more these days. They don’t want to just be a number in a line, and they don’t want to be just another way to make money for businesses. Companies now have to find ways to offer a better experience for each and every customer and that means treating each of them individually and make things personal.
The lift on the character limit on direct messages means you can provide much better customer service for anyone who reaches out to you via this social media platform.
Of course, customers will be able to direct message you with more information whether they have a question, concern, or compliment. This ensures you have all the details so that you can handle the situation properly. Beyond that, you will be able to reply with a much better answer then you could have offered before. With the old limit, you could merely say thank you. Now, you can address the situation no matter what it may be and show your customers that you do care about them enough to provide them with a thorough response.
Group Messages for Leads
Let’s say that you have chosen to run a contest or some other marketing plan through Twitter. You will need to reach everyone at once with information about the contest, instructions on what they should do, or even to notify the winners. Under the old limit, it was nearly impossible to get everything you needed to say in just 140 characters. Now, you have 10,000 characters to say everything you need to say.
Running campaigns or contests on Twitter is an excellent way to gain leads. Often, your contest will require an email address for the contestants to follow you on Twitter.
Before this limit was dropped, there was no way to provide the information all in one place. Usually, you would need to provide a link, cross your fingers and hope that people actually clicked on it and followed through. Now, you can simply list everything out in one place and make things much easier for your potential clients. We all know that the easier you make things for your clients and customers, the more likely they are to do business with you.
Marketing Through All Outlets
Finally, with the new update, you can control your Twitter and direct messages from anywhere you would like. That’s because this new direct message update is available on:
- Android Devices
- iOS Devices
- Twitter for PC
- TweetDeck
In other words, your business never has to stay at your computer. You will be able to reach out to people no matter where you are. These days, it is vitally important that customer service is available at all hours of the day. If you only respond to people during “regular business hours”, especially on social media, then they will likely get frustrated with the wait.
Thanks to the Internet, customers never switch off. They want to find out what they want to know almost immediately. Waiting from one evening to the next day can be extremely difficult and can even reflect badly when a business has an online presence.
Twitter may seem short and sweet, but it has definitely become a powerhouse in the social media world. Beyond that, numerous businesses have found it a successful way to market their company. The character limit ban had always been a frustration in the past. With that limit now removed for direct messages, it is easier than ever for companies to reach out to their customers and followers. As you can see, this offers you a great advantage. As a business, you will be able to improve your customer service, reach followers at any hour of the day, and make use of helpful and informative group messages too.
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