By Meg Hodson
Twitter is the social media platform I use most often. For me, it's the perfect mix of promoting my blog, getting news, catching up with friends, following brands, and spying on celebrities. But I know for many of you, Twitter can be overwhelming at first. A lot of the standards and best practices for Twitter are like a foreign language. Or, maybe you are good at the basics of Twitter, but aren't getting a lot of engagement.
Well, I am here to help! I've compiled a list of some of the best ways, in my opinion, to make your tweets stand out, get noticed, and engage.
1. Catchy Phrasing. No one, I repeat, NO ONE, will pay attention to a boring tweet. Seems obvious, right? So, it's important to be creative with your tweet. For example, if you are sharing a tweet about a recipe you posted on your blog, don't simply provide the name of the recipe and the link. You need to go beyond. Maybe it would sound something like this: "My mouth is already watering over these delightful fluffy rolls! Better ck. out the recipe here ----> (insert shortened url)" Now you want to click!
The same holds true when you are direct tweeting or retweeting from a website, Pinterest, Klout, etc. When you hit "tweet", a window pops up and there is usually a pre-entered tweet to send through. This is only a suggestion! You can manually click on the text and add to it, rearrange, and make it your own; it personalizes the tweets and will make it stand out among all the standard tweets that come from others from the same site.
2. Call To Action. So often, I see tweets that should be ones that get retweeted a lot. For some, that does happen. But for others, it does not. When it seems appropriate, put a call to action in your tweets. For example, if you are promoting an event, you might compose a tweet like "RT if you are attending the charity event for breast cancer this Saturday in Portland!" I often use RT (retweet) and PLS RT (please RT) in my tweets.
Another call to action is asking for a reply to your tweet. I was tweeting a lot during the Superbowl this week and during the Bruno Mars performance. You might have had a tweet like "Reply with your favorite @brunomars song!"
3. Hashtags. Hashtags are a mainstay of Twitter and are becoming common on other platforms as well, like Instagram. They make it easy to navigate topics that users are interested in. Thus, if you want someone to find you that is not following you, hashtags are a must.
And don't forget to include hashtags when you reply to a tweet (even if the original tweet had a hashtag).
4. Know Your Abbreviations. Twitter is littered with shortened abbreviations. Some might be obvious or common, like the "RT" I mentioned above. But there are quite a few that do pop up that you want to familiarize yourself with. I found a good list on another blog that you can check out: Click here.
5. Tag People. Use the power of Twitter to connect with friends, celebrities, and brands directly. Research the brand you are looking for on Twitter and make sure the profile has the blue check mark that show's it's a verified account. In your tweets, tag the company or brand; you may also to create a hashtag out of the company, too. For example, if you are sending out a tweet about Coca-Cola, consider adding @coke and #coke.
Happy tweeting!
