What Twitter’s New Character Limit Means For Car Dealers and Garages

Twitter have doubled the 140 character limit to 280 this week, to ensure users can express themselves more easily, whilst still keeping it quick and brief. A test was launched in September, with many taking part tweeting the new full 280 limit in the first few days, but this soon subsided as the novelty wore off. In the past, 9% of English language tweets hit the 140 character limit, but when the limit was doubled to 280 in the test, only 1% reached the limit.

There was a concern that users’ timelines would fill up with extra-length tweets, but it didn’t happen, in fact only 5% of tweets sent in the test were longer than 140 characters with a mere 2% having a character count of over 190. Twitter think the character limit usage will spike again with this week’s launch, but expect it to return back to normal soon after.

What does this mean for Car Dealers and Garages who use Twitter as a marketing tool?

It Could Actually Save Time
Getting your point across can take quite a bit of time tweaking your tweet to cram it into 140 characters without it losing its meaning – particularly when posting a link within it that takes up character space – so having extra characters to play with should actually mean it take less time to compose your tweets.

Customer Service
You’ll have twice as much room to give detailed responses to your customers and potential customers, especially if answering a question or responding to a customer issue, without having to send multiple tweets to respond adequately.

Hashtags
Don’t be tempted to stuff the new character limit full of hashtags. Research by Buddy Media showed that tweets with 1-2 hashtags have 21% higher engagement than those with 3+. Your tweet won’t look very nice littered with hashtag links, so if your tweet is difficult to read, the user will likely scroll on by.

Brevity is best
Don’t feel obliged to use 280 characters in every message though – double length tweets every time you post might mean followers might learn to scroll past your tweets amongst others on their timeline that keep theirs short, so keep it brief.

Above all, keep your followers engaged. Users of our Dealer Management System, DragonDMS, can tweet vehicle stock images, prices and text directly to Twitter, but this shouldn’t be the only type of tweet you post. Mix your sales and offer messages with tweets such as handover photos with happy customers and quotes from customers’ reviews of your business. You could also publish blog stories on your website about charity or local community involvement, news and interesting things happening in your business, and tweet links to those to bring traffic to your website.

Re-tweets that your target audience will enjoy reading are also a good way of keeping your followers’ attention, ideally with an emphasis on car related tweets or relevant news, but keep it professional and avoid anything controversial.

Dragon2000 have been helping dealers and garages drive their businesses forward since 1995. Talk to our team today on 01327 222 333 or email sales@dragon2000.co.uk to find out how our dealer management system, car dealer websites and mobile apps can help your business increase profits and reduce costs.