Twitter is extremely popular today with over 500 million active users, generating over 340 million tweets daily and handling over 1.6 billion search queries per day. It is a great tool for engaging a global audience into two-way communication. It’s vital to understand the best practices for engaging followers on Twitter not to get lost in this avalanche of messages. Thus, to succeed on the network, you must put a lot of effort.
I’m going to provide 15 simple but profound tips how to write effective tweets.
Choose the appropriate time
Numerous researches show that tweets published during "busy hours" (8a.m.-7p.m.) receive higher engagement than tweets published outside that time frame. Posting in the afternoon during the peak traffic time for Twitter (1-3p.m.) is your best chance at achieving high click-through rate. Posting after 8p.m. should be avoided. Tweet on the days that are the best for your industry.
Tweet four times per day or less
It’s important to figure out how to pace your tweets throughout the day. Plan your tweet schedule according to the days your tweets perform best, and tweet more frequently on those particular days. The more you tweet per day, the less engaging your tweets may become. Your followers will be tired of incessant messages and will not pay attention even to important pieces of news.
Keep it short
Try to make a meaningful message in 10 words or less. Twitter only allows a maximum of 140 characters in each message. Actually you will get better engagement if you use even less. Leave 20 blank characters – enough room for others to add their handles and a brief message and retweet your message. But do not sacrifice really useful information to meet these requirements.
Use appropriate hashtags
Hashtags help make general tweets find more specific audiences. They allow you to be part of focused conversations and track events. According to Buddy Media, tweets with hashtags receive two times more engagement than those without hashtags. But don't overdo it - one or two hashtags are enough. Tweets with one or two hashtags have 21% higher engagement than those with three or more hashtags.
Add links
This will drive higher retweet rates. Tweets with links not only drive a lot of traffic, but they also attract more Twitter users. The research carried out by Buddy Media showed that tweets that contain links receive 86% higher retweet rates than tweets with no links. But be careful with your links - shorten them all with bit.ly and check to be clickable.
Use images
This will drive the highest engagement. Even though followers can’t instantly see an image on Twitter, regular publishing of images has a profound impact on Twitter performance.Tweet a cool picture and there will be good chances that it will be retweeted. Depending on your audience and niche, multimedia shares may make up a large part of your feed.
Think like your readers
To be successful take into consideration what your followers are interested in, and how they want to read it. Your tweets should stand out from the crowd. People will pay attention to something excellent. Chat, ask questions, suggest interesting articles and most importantly help others. Really appealing tweets for reader will be the ones containing user guides, pieces of advice, very important news, warnings, opportunities to get something free, and information about important events.
Sell the headline
Perfectly-written headline with a link sending tweople to your blog or website can often generate immediate retweets. Twitter users love to retweet news headlines to feel the first one to discover that particular story. Promises also work extremely well, but don’t forget you must be honest with your followers. Always mix these headline tweets with your regular conversational tweets not to look spammy.
Pay attention to flawless grammar and perfect spelling
People will judge you on how you write and how you spell. Just because Twitter is only 140 characters doesn’t mean that spelling and grammar don’t matter. Always use a capital letter with each new sentence. Headlines or sentences look and read much better when they're written normally. Avoid text-speak. Don't capitalize everything - it looks like you are shouting.
Use correct punctuation
The pauses must be in the right place. Use full stops and commas, speech marks and parentheses. Don’t end every sentence with an exclamation mark. Put your apostrophes in the right place. Missing or an incorrect use of punctuation will mar the first impressions of your readers. Like it or not, people will think less of you, and less of your opinion.
Be personal...
People prefer to do business with other people. Your followers are more likely to read your updates and keep following you if they sense a real person behind the messages. So use in your messages “I” or at least “we”.
...but not too personal
Keep in mind that people read your tweets and perhaps use them to decide if they want to do business with you.
Reply to everyone
Even if you’ve proven you’re a real person, let people know that you’re listening to them. When people say something interesting, reply to them with something just as insightful. There’s an easy way to prove you’re listening. If they ask questions try to answer within a short amount of time. Give thanks. Let people know you appreciate the sharing of your content.
Use a ‘Retweet’ call to action
Giving followers any type of “Retweet” call to action is extremely beneficial to amplifying your tweets. Social sharing increases when people are persuaded to do so. Data reveals that when followers are specifically asked to “Retweet” by spelling out the whole word, the retweet rate is much higher than with the shortened "RT". But don’t ask too often – this will look obtrusive.
Edit your tweets
Before you publish your message, take time to edit the tweet, read it over one more time to catch any obvious flubs. Edit until your tweets are worth sharing with your followers. Make sure they make sense, are readable and contribute something to your audience’s knowledge base. It just takes a second and ensures you’re sending out a professional-sounding message.
I hope these tips will be helpful for you. Let us all know if you have some more secrets of effective tweets - we'll be grateful! By the way, which tips do YOU consider most effective?
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