Elon Musk is throwing the book at Twitter Blue to try to get people to purchase it. The latest? A whole 4,000 Twitter characters if you become a subscriber. Four. Thousand. Characters.

For someone who likes to write long form and not be constrained by these character limits, it’s probably enticing. But this is in no way a reason to get Twitter Blue. In fact, it will do more harm than good to your Twitter strategy.

People Do Not Read on Twitter

It’s just a fact. It’s a quick skim to see if there’s anything they need to know. So if you don’t make it fast and easy to let them know what you’re talking about, they’re onto the next tweet in a flash. You probably have about two seconds to get their attention. Do you really think anyone will read 4,000 Twitter characters. No. They’re going to be reading the other shorter tweets that know how to get their point across quickly.

It Does Not Show All Twitter Characters

You read that right. There is a “Read More” link people will have to click to read the whole tweet. No one will click it. Your grandma might. If she’s bored. But that’s it.

I know what you’re going to say. “But Betsy, I have such an interesting post. EVERYONE will click that button to read more.” Nope. It’s not that interesting for people that are doing a quick doom scroll on their lunch break. I take it back. Your grandma didn’t even click “Read More.” She was too bored.

You Are Putting Your Content in the Wrong Place

The number one reason to not take advantage of this feature is that your long form content really only belongs in one place: your website.

Social media is for dating. You flirt. You give people a reason to want to know more about you. It’s fun. It’s light. You keep anything that is at all heavy on your website where they’re more likely to do something about it, because they already know you. If you bring all your heavy baggage onto your first dates and social, bless you. No one is going to want to get to know more about you. Learn to tease them enough to get them to do the next thing.

And why is it really bad to give up ownership of your content in the pursuit of those Twitter characters? You could be doing work to rank for keywords on your website with this and getting people there in multiple ways. You are giving that up and giving it to Twitter instead. Be selfish. Create a beautifully optimized post on your website and then link to it on your Twitter with a flirtatious tweet with your keywords in it. Your page will be in search results and your tweet will also be in search results. Twice the fun with one post.

There may be some enticing features for your brand with Twitter Blue. But I assure you this is not it. You’re better off keeping those long posts on your website and learning how to write succinctly for Twitter. Go spend your money on something that will get you more bang for your buck. And if you don’t know what that is, let’s talk.