No, Twitter, no!
Recently, it was revealed that the world鈥檚 most popular social networking site (depending on who you listen to) is considering . Taking an average word length of six characters, that鈥檚 a leap from around 23 per tweet to more than 1,600. It鈥檚 a bit like swapping a Post-It note for an essay paper.
Now, admittedly, it鈥檚 not a complete surprise. This is the same character limit the company uses for its Direct Messages product.
But it still upsets me.
In today鈥檚 world, verbosity is like a plague. In politics, business, even sport, words are regularly being used more intemperately than ever.
Quotes and company statements that read like a corporate automaton indiscriminately vomiting words. Interviews and social media posts that meander painfully to the point. There is simply no need. Indeed, one of my favourite current tactics for deciding whether the essence of a story is punchy enough is to try to tweet it. If it won鈥檛 fit into 140 characters, then it鈥檚 usually back to the drawing board.
Of course, conciseness should never come at the expense of talking in a way that interests and resonates with your audience. And no doubt many brands (and people) will already be licking their lips at the prospect of having so much more space to get their message across.
Yet, equally, why use 500 words when 50 will do? Or 1,600 for that matter. Reading will always be more important than writing, and communication should never be about long-winded self-indulgence.
So, this is my own personal (and concise!) plea to everyone who works in communications: whatever happens over at Twitter, let鈥檚 keep ourselves and our clients short and sweet.
After all, if we can鈥檛 be trusted to talk clearly and concisely, who can?