If you are going to be retweeted by others on Twitter, you should stick to using only 120 characters. This prevents your tweet from getting cut off.

I know, I know; I can hear you now saying that there are applications that you can use that will allow you to type more characters. These applications will include a link so that readers can click it and see the rest.

But the hard truth is that we are no longer a nation of readers, we are a nation of scanners. We want to scan and not click else where if we do not need to.

So why limit your tweets to 120 as Rob Cairns suggested in yesterday’s post? Twitter allows you to use 140 characters. The 120 character limit leaves 20 characters for the retweeter’s Twitter username. It also leaves room for their comment when possible.

 

When someone retweets or shares your tweet, you do not want the message cut off. This is what will happen if you go beyond 120 characters. Why? The retweeter’s username gets placed in there with your message. That can be up to 15 characters, for newer Twitter users. The old limit early in Twitter was 20 characters.

 

See how a retweeter’s username takes up space. This is what you have to keep in mind if you want to be retweeted and have an effective tweet. You do not want your tweet cut off at a key point.

Please remember: If you are going to be retweeted by others on Twitter, you should stick to using only 120 characters. This prevents your tweet from getting cut off.

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