Discover 6 Powerful Ways to Shorten Twitter Updates

Twitter is designed to use the SMS (Short Message Service) to send out is updates, and for the majority of SMS systems, the characters are limited to 160. Twitter has to track on the username in front of the update (which can be up to 15 characters long) so Twitter chose 140 characters as the limit.

The question is “How can I update tweets that are less than 140 characters?” But with some practice and these powerful tips below, you will find yourself having no problems to fit your daily activities in a limited space.

• Take advantages of the symbol forms on your keyboard. Use “&” or “+” instead of “and”, “$ ” instead of “dollars” or “money”, “%” instead of “percent” ect.

• Use common abbreviations. Email, instant chatting services, and other Internet communications have a wide variety of abbreviations available such as, BTW (by the way), FYI (for your information), LOL (laughing out loud), and TTYL (talk to you later) also a most recent one, SMH (Scratching My Head), ect.

• Find shorter words. Here is a key point to shortening your Twitter updates, use synonyms instead of longer words. Here is an example, instead of “disappointed” replace with “mad”; instead of “however or therefore” use “so”; instead of “super amazing unbelievable” replace with “cool”.

• Avoid repetition and worldliness. If you’re close to the 140 character mark, replace words like “very close to” to “near” also replace “at this point in time” to “soon”.

• Be precise. You cannot afford to waste words on Twitter. Your tweets should indicate a single thought, idea, action, reaction, event, or location. Remember to discuss that one idea in a way that gets right to the point and let your followers know what needs to be said.

• Shorten your URLs. It is common for web address to be long and detailed with many different characters some may even exceed the 140 character mark! To minimize a website address in size, use a URL shortening service such as TinyURL, Snurl, or,a most common, bit.ly.

In addition to common symbols found on a common keyboard there are many more available. Twitter supports a character set known as UTF-8, which you may copy if make a Google search. Some characters include, “€… ™ ¢ © £” by typing a sequence of numbers on your keyboard while holding the “alt” key.

These tips above should provide you with enough advice for you to shorten your updates and receive more traffic.