6 Tools That Allow You To Write Longer Twitter Tweets

I’ve always liked Twitter’s 140 character limitation because it challenges my message to be more direct and succinct, but there are occasions when you simply need a paragraph or two to express what you really need to say. Try for example debating a controversial issue in 140 characters and you might well lose an argument.
So for those times when you want to stay within the Twitterverse without posting a dozen tweets, there are several options available to do just that.  Here are 6 possibilities you should check out, which allow you to write longer Tweets on Twitter.

1. TwitLonger

Topsy’s TwitLonger.com is the site I use via the Twitter desktop client, Tweetie, when I need to get beyond 140 characters.
When you go over the character limit, a pop-up message asks if you want to post your “too long” tweet to TwitLonger.

 

You can also of course write a longer tweet directly on the TwitLonger site, signing in with your existing Twitter account.
The site points out that your Twitter privacy settings are not reflected in Twitlonger, but it does recommend that you not use its services for sending direct messages.

There are several Twitter-related web and mobile applications that support TwitLonger, including TweetList, Twizzle (iPhone/iPod Touch), Twitepad (iPad), and Touiteur (Android).

2. JumboTweet

JumboTweet is an easy to use web client for longer Twitter messages. As with TwitLonger, you simply log into the site using your current Twitter credentials. You can write as much text as you like, and a link to your extended text will be included in your tweet.

 

 

3. ezTweets

When 140 characters is not enough, eztweets is also a web client for longer tweets, but it has an added feature of allowing you to post your tweets to your Facebook account as well as to Twitter.

 

ezTweets will take your longer tweets and split them into two parts.

4. TinyPaste

Okay, say you want to post a longer tweet that includes a list of technical instructions, or you want to highlight a long quote from a webpage.  You might consider using TinyPaste for this purpose.

 With TinyPaste, you write your text, and format it the way you want. After you click the Submit button, you will get a URL link to your post that you can paste in your tweet. So essentially, TinyPaste is like writing longer text in your email or blog.

 

You can also password protect your linked post for say sending a direct private message to your Twitter contact. And on top of that, you can even have your extended post deleted after a specified amount of time.
TinyPaste also provides a bookmarklet and Firefox extension for quickly copying and pasting highlighted text on a webpage.

5. XLTweet

XLTweet is similar to TinyPaste but with less options. You can write longer posts in HTML format.

 

The service will tweet the first 120 characters in your Twitter timeline and add a bit.ly short URL to link to the rest of the post. Your XLTweets will be automatically marked as “favorites” so you can readily find them.

6. Tinychat

 

Now if you find that you want to turn your longer tweets into an extended conversation, you might consider using Tinychat. This site provides users with the choice of creating disposable or permanent video conference rooms.

If you want to have just a private two-way video call, use p2p.tinychat.com. This service requires no signup or application installation. Just direct message the specified URL to your contact and you can easily talk well beyond 140 characters.
The extended tweet services like the ones listed above are very useful if you’re not maintaining a blog site for your extended messages, or if you don’t want to use email to send longer messages to contacts.