Twitter has over 288 million active monthly users. Of those active users, 500 million tweets are sent per day. Twitter is a vast community where your Tweets and voice could be easily lost in the daily shuffle. So how can you create tweets that get noticed?
Here are 7 strategies to get Tweets noticed on Twitter:
Share older tweets. Tweets have a very short lifespan. According to Moz, the average tweet life was 18 minutes in 2013. Today the tweet life is 8 minutes. Therefore, the chances are very slim that the same people saw your first tweet.
You can try using different phrasing for your second tweet. By changing the wording of your tweet can gain more exposure than the initial tweet. You can also look at the analytics of your tweets to see what is working and what isn’t.
Use Hashtags. Hashtags should be used for trending topics on Twitter. They are a great way for your content to reach more people. If you exclude hashtags from your tweets, it will only reach the people you follow. Hashtags can be seen by anyone on Twitter.
I always try to include hashtags with my tweets. My rule of thumb is two include two or three hashtags per tweet. Any more than three hashtags will distract your audience. Hashtags should be used to tell your audience what topic or conversation you would like to initiate.
Promote & Engage. How can you gain attention? You can promote others in a variety of ways in order to gain awareness to your brand. One way you can promote others is by retweeting their tweets. Another way is if you share someone’s content (such as tweeting a blog post). Along with author’s content you should include the their handle in your tweet. Did you love their content? Tell them why in your tweet! You should always share useful and relevant content to your audience. This will encourage your followers to retweet your content. However, simply responding and engaging with others will gain attention and will help create connections.
Lists are a great way to focus on groups of people that are of interest to you. You can become engaged in current topics and trends much easier if you create lists in Twitter. Your timeline can get pretty busy as you gain a following. So you could end up missing important conversations. If you don’t have enough time to create lists, Twitter allows you to add lists from other profiles.
Be Personal. You should make your customers feel like friends on Twitter. How would you talk to friends? You wouldn’t sound like a robot or worse, a boring, cold corporate business. This social site is more casual. Your tweets should be conversational, fun, and friendly while still being professional. You can include entertaining content such as memes, gifs, videos, or images. You can also post about your business from behind the scenes. Is it someone’s birthday? Share how you celebrate in your office! People want to feel like they are interacting with brands that are honest, genuine, and real.
One of Twitter’s newest features allows users to add additional content to retweets. This allows another opportunity for you to add a personal touch. You can ask your audience a question or include your opinion with these retweets. Twitter is a place where you can voice your opinion and interests, so don’t be afraid to say what you think or share who you are.
We are Visual Beings. How often are you including an image with your tweets? Images can make your tweet stand out from others while also improving engagement. According to Hubspot, tweets with images receive 18% more clicks, 89% more favorites and 150% more retweets.
Here are the ideal sizes for Twitter:
For an image to display fully in tact (without cutting off the top or bottom of the photo), it must fit the 2:1 ratio. In-stream preview will always be 440 x 220 pixels. The maximum file size is 5MB for photos and 3MB for GIFs. Acceptable formats are JPG, GIF, and PNG.
Unique Format. Because Twitter only allows 140 characters in a tweet, it can get messy and unorganized sometimes. Your tweets should be short and concise. For best results your tweets should be between 70 – 100 characters if you want more retweets.
When you are crafting a tweet, think of it in terms of a design. What will make the information stand out? Will your audience know which is a link, image, or title? You can try incorporating spaces or symbols in your tweets. I will often separate my tweet content with pipes (or vertical bars). I also shorten any links, which helps drive engagement.
Tweet Frequently. You should be tweeting daily. It has been suggested that you should tweet multiple times throughout the day. However, this will depend on your goals. You should always be consistent when you post on social media. If you don’t have time, you can use services such as Hootsuite or Buffer. We use Hootsuite at Simplexity, which allows you to schedule posts at any hour of the day.
Let’s say you are on vacation for a week. You can still send out tweets while you are relaxing! A word of caution when scheduling your tweets with services like Hootsuite: if you are unavailable for a long period, you may want to assign someone else to engage with your audience.
To Conclude…
We know that getting noticed on Twitter will not happen overnight. It will take time and effort but will be worth it in the end. Do you have any tips for gaining attention on Twitter? Share with us your insights in the comments.
Happy tweeting!
