280 characters 'more engaging' for Twitter users than 140

Despite only increasing its character limit for tweets to 280 from 140 a couple of months ago, Twitter is already recording higher levels of engagement thanks to longer posts, new analysis reveals.

SocialFlow found that longer tweets tended to garner greater levels of engagement among Twitter users in terms of both retweets and likes.

On average, tweets with a maximum of 140 characters received 13.71 retweets and 26.52 likes. In contrast, longer Twitter posts typically received 29.96 retweets and 50.28 likes - double the engagement attracted by shorter tweets.

Speaking to BuzzFeed News, a spokesperson for Twitter explained: "In addition to more tweeting, people who had more room to tweets received more engagement (likes, retweets, @mentions), got more followers and spent more time on Twitter."

It is therefore important that brands bear this information in mind when thinking about their own social media strategies. While it appears that longer tweets may attract increased engagement, it is also vital that their messaging is effective.