Writing for Twitter
So what’s all the fuss about Twitter?
Well Google is in the early stages of a dance with Twitter’s owners. Looks like they may buy Twitter. There are about 60,000 tweets (single messages) sent every hour. Stephen Fry, The Guardian and the UK Government use it to send updates.
If you’re still not convinced watch this video from the TED series of lectures:
Writing for Twitter
People use Twitter to do and say any number of things. The first thing you need to work out is why am I doing this? Some of my clients are letting their customers know about special offers. Some of my friends update their friends with information on their social and family lives. So, let’s assume you are in this as a professional, rather than a social, communicator.
Strategic tips:
- Find out what others are tweeting about you. Search using Twitter’s search engine. You may be surprised.
- Be genuine.
- Try to help people.
- Watch your ratio. If fewer people follow you than you follow, people will assume you are a spammer. That may be because you are.
- Consider using a professional. But if you do they need to respond to direct messages quickly.
- Make a Tweet plan, aim for 5 tweets a day. One could be an image, one a witty comment, one a promotion, one a helpful resource. Schedule these throughout the day. Twitter can waste your time!
- You could supplement your 5-a-day with a few spontaneous unplanned messages.
- Be patient.
- Twitter is a public medium, don’t twitter about anything that shouldn’t be made public.
- Plug moderately. Of course you should mention special promotions (that may be why folks are following you), but there should be some behind-the-scenes stuff in there too.
- Use Twitter to ask questions. This shows you are interested in your audience. The questions will prompt a conversation and may draw lurkers into active engagement. The answers will give you valuable insights into your customers.
Writing those 140 characters
- Be clear. Be concise. Remove redundant words. Hey, it might even make you a better web writer. Be simple. Write ‘use’ rather than ‘utilise’, ‘buy’ rather than ‘purchase’. Drop articles (a an, the) unless they are needed for clarity. You know, basic web writing rules, only more so.
- Don’t use the full 140 characters so that others can retweet your message without cutting it.
- If you write it yourself, get some of your personality in there.
- Don’t overdo it. Others will be annoyed (and ‘unfollow’ you) if you are tweeting every half an hour all day.
- Use shorthand codes to make the most of those 140 characters. RT means retweeting what someone else has written. See this list of popular Twitter shorthands. But don’t use txt speak.
- Use labels so that people know immediately what the subject of the post is. For example Reading:, Laughing at:.
- Use ‘hashtags’. Including #nyfw will enable those searching for messages about New York Fashion Week to find your tweets.
- Talk directly to others in your circle by using an @ command before their username.
Ok, now create your profile and away you go!