News
Robyn Hardman, Digital Consultant
Let’s Get Visual: Twitter Ditches Character Count for Images
After Twitter announced that they were excluding images from the 140-character count, the social media team at Mighty – and the rest of the world, probably – was over the moon. The feature’s finally arrived, and offers the perfect way to boost your Twitter engagement.
According to Twitter, tweets with an appropriate image attached to them see a whopping 313% increase in engagement, but it could sometimes involve levels of skill akin to witchcraft (or a big graphics budget) to get all of the content you need into a tweet alongside the right image. So it’s great news that Twitter is now ignoring images in its character count, giving keen tweeters a much greater opportunity to get their message across.
Our next Chef’s Table event takes place on Thursday 27 October – book today! Find out more: https://t.co/yZfGtB8olS pic.twitter.com/Q7mRO50S0O
— The Old Stocks Inn (@OldStocksInn) October 13, 2016
Utilising an image with this Old Stocks Inn post resulted in a total of five likes over 24 hours – an increase on text-only posts by The Old Stocks Inn's account, which usually only gain one or two likes in a day without any additional hashtag participation.
The new image rule applies to all images, and you can post up to four in one tweet. It’s had a bonus effect for Tweetdeck users, too, by stopping scheduled tweets containing an image from taking up a further character. The best part, however, is that this new feature makes it easier than ever to fit a link into a tweet, helping to increase web traffic and, ultimately, conversions. So there’s a lot less word Tetris involved to create some impact!
Even though the new introduction has been a blessing for marketeers and social media managers worldwide, there are still some important things to bear in mind when adding those images to a post:
- The images you add need to be relevant to the information in the tweet – if not, it won’t achieve that increase in engagement.
- Tweets are meant to be short and snappy, so overloading images with too much additional text dilutes the message.
- Less is more – unless a tweet benefits from using lots of additional images, those that contain one strong graphic or photo will be more eye-catching than tweets using multiple photos.
Although other promised features haven’t yet been introduced – namely links and usernames being ignored in the character count – this is a much-needed step, and one that is sure to produce a noticeable boost in engagement for brands worldwide.
Enjoyed this post? Why not power up your marketing plan with some of our other blogs:
- And we’re rolling! The best uses of Facebook Live
- Getting a brief shouldn’t be mission impossible
- 2016 Chateau Impney Hill Climb races ahead
Found this helpful? Sign up for our newsletter!
Our monthly newsletter brings together the best of our blogs, work and news in one handy email. Why not sign up today to find out more about all things social media, PR, design and digital?