Will Longer Tweets Help Twitter?

Social media site

has struggled with dwindling user engagement figures and the inability to turn the site into a money-maker. However, CEO Jack Dorsey has set out a plan to revamp the site in order to gain more users and keep advertisers interested. Many believe a big part of that plan will include

users are allowed to type from 140 characters to 10,000 characters. Currently, users can send direct messages that are up to 10,000 characters, but public posts are limited to just 140.

Dorsey has been open about the company's struggle to decide whether or not an increased character count would be good for the site. On one hand, customers appear to be demanding more space to express their thoughts. Many users upload screenshots of text in order to get around the 140 character limit. Not only might such a decision improve the site's user engagement, but it would allow advertisers more space to push their products. Instead of making users click a link to get to more information about a service or product, advertisers could include more relevant information in the tweet itself.

However, Twitter has made its name in the social media world for allowing only short, to-the-point tweets. Many of the site's most popular users got their clout by carefully crafting witty tweets that get their message across in as few characters as possible. The 140 character limit was initially meant to foster creativity and keep up with users' demands for faster browsing and getting rid of it may alienate some users.

Since launching in 2006, Twitter has been unable to turn a profit and many believe that change is necessary to turn things around. At the time the site was created, mobile phones limited text messages to 160 characters, so the limit made sense as it allowed people to post to the site via their phones. However, now that smartphones have done away with such obstacles, many believe the rule is obsolete.