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How do you make sure you actually optimize the 140 character limitation given on each tweet? There are some short rules you could use in order to cut down the number of characters used and still get the message out there.

Use abbreviations

If you need to optimize your message, try to use common abbreviations for often used sentences or words. The same abbreviations you would use in chat, im or SMS is often also valid when using Twitter.

Use external services for URL shortening

One big problem with Twitter is posting urls, often url:s are very long, and take a lot of your 140 characters when posting links to something. If you like to write something that says something about the url you are posting (and that make sense to your audience) you need to use external tools for shortening of url:s. There are numerous of services for this, and a lot of clients integrates these kind of services using API:s. Below we have listed some services for shortening links and some twitter clients that support automatic shortening of posted URL:s.

URL Shortening Services

• TinyURL
• bit.ly

URL Shortening Supporting Clients

• Twitterific (Mac)
• Thwirl
• tweetr

Optimize the message

A tweet should be pretty straightforward as you only have 140 character to work with. Are there any words that you could live without posting? Could you split the message into two posts instead of one? A good rule of thumb to keep is to live by: One Tweet – One URL – One Message.

How would you do when you send SMS

Apply the messaging technique you have learnt to master when sending SMS on Twitter and you will probably come a long way. I believe that the rules opens up for creative solutions. After all, the power of micro blogging is the length of the message.

Summary

When tweeting you have the 140 characters rule to work with. You have to be smart, precise and use external tools in order to maximise the messages you are posting on Twitter. In this article we have pointed you to some ideas and tools you could use in order to achieve this.

Additional Resources

• Big List of URL Shortening Services
• Official List of Twitter Clients
• How we Tweet

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