B2B brands have been quicker to adopt Twitter’s new 280-character limit than their B2C counterparts, according to research from SHIFT Communications.
Twitter announced the proposed extension on 27 September, eventually rolling out the new character count to the majority of its global users around 8 November.
The research revealed a significant spike in the length of Twitter posts, especially among B2B companies, with the average tweet count currently sitting at 136 characters (as of 16 November).
This is a considerable leap when compared to B2C brands, who have been much slower to embrace the change, with an average character count of 116.
B2C financial services and B2C airlines were the most verbose sectors, but from then on B2B dominated proceedings: with B2B tech, health and pharma, and B2B security all exceeding the 120 character average.
B2B marketing and PR placed much lower down the rankings, with an average tweet length of 112 characters.
Does tweet length affect engagement?
The research also attempted to determine whether character count had any perceived effect on engagement levels. And after carrying out analysis before the beta announcement, after the beta release, and after the official extension, the research suggests there’s no correlation between character length and engagement levels.
Christopher Penn, VP of marketing technology at SHIFT Communications, said: “More isn’t better. While a 280-character limit is nice for creating tweets with a more natural sound, early indications show no greater engagement now than prior to the limit increase.”
The research analysed 4,832,877 tweets from Twitter dating back to 1 September 2017, comprising accounts with high-frequency publishing schedules and at least 100 followers from 23 industries across B2B and B2C.
