All Tweets are the same, right? Fewer than 140 characters.

It’s not readily apparent that the length of a Tweet has an impact on the number of people who engage with it. Advertisers who use Twitter to reach their customers need all the insights they can get, especially those who are paying for promoted tweets. A recent study by Track Social, a social media analytics firm, looks at the effect of Tweet length on response levels as measured by retweets.

On Twitter, smaller is not better.

On Facebook, engagement normally decreases as post length increases. Track Social found that the opposite happens on Twitter — engagement increases as Tweet length increases.

With an upper limit of 140 characters, shorter tweets don’t stand out from the crowd and tend to be overlooked. Engagement levels are rather flat between 71 and 100 characters, and decrease as the 140 character limit approaches. 71-100 characters is the sweet spot — enough space to say something that resonates with followers plus room for retweeters to add their own references and comments.

No guarantee of success

Writing a tweet that’s in the middle of the character range doesn’t guarantee increased engagement, and short or long Tweets aren’t doomed to fail. Responses to Tweets depend on many factors, including content, frequency, and timing.

Advice

1. Short, punchy statements don’t work especially well on Twitter.
2. Try using images to effectively increase Tweet length.
3. Avoid pushing up against the 140 character limit whenever possible.