According to Twitter, it took three years, two months, and one day from the first tweet sent to get to the billionth tweet sent. Now it only takes one week to send a billion tweets… So how do you ensure your content is seen among all that noise? Let’s explore some specific Twitter best practices.
1) Keep tweets short
There are two reasons why you should keep your tweets short:
- According to Social Media Scientist, Dan Zarrella, the tweet sweet spot is between 120 and 130 characters.
- By providing extra character spacing, users can retweet your content without eliminating any of your copy. If someone reshares your tweet that is exactly 140 characters, they will have to either shorten or delete your optimized content in order to add “RT @username:” at the beginning of the tweet.
2) Include Twitter handle for RTs
The power of social media is reach. If you’re sharing a quote, stat, or article from a brand or user, be sure to include that brand or user’s handle in the tweet. By doing this, you’ll increase your chances of the author see your tweet and might retweet it to their own audience.
The more your content is shared, the more your audience will grow, and the more your messages will be seen.
3) Know the difference between replies versus mentions
Knowing how a social network works can be more important than the content you post and Twitter is a perfect example.
By placing a Twitter handle directly at the beginning of a tweet, you’re directly sending a message to that user, but it is not a private direct message. That tweet can also be seen by anyone who follows both your account and the account you’re tweeting to.
By adding a “.” (period) at the start of a tweet, everyone will see your tweet – regardless if they’re following both account.
4) Use hashtags sensibly
As if seeing #every #other #word in a #tweet as a #hashtag isn’t irritating enough, a study from Locowise revealed that adding a hashtag doesn’t result in any boost to the engagement rate. Infact, their study found that Tweets without hashtags outperformed tweets with hashtags.
I’m not saying abandon hashtags, if there’s a hashtag that is relevant and that stands out, then use it once in awhile.
- Do not use more than one hashtag per post too frequently though as the engagement rate drops dramatically.
- Always think about what hashtags fit your brand.
- Do not include any irrelevant hashtag into your posts. That is spammy behaviour that will be very negative to your brand and will result in a lower engagement.
5) Don’t force trending hashtags
First, top trending hashtags have a short shelf life. According to Twitter, 17% of the top 1,000 search terms on Twitter “churn over” on an hourly basis.
Second, some hashtags have nothing to do with your business. As I’m writing this, #reviviendot is a top trending hashtag… How are you supposed to include that into your business tweets? Stick with relevant “industry” hashtags or avoid them all together.
6) Include visual content
According to Simply Measured, photos are not shared as frequently as normal text-based tweets, however, tweets with photos receive the highest engagement. Twitter supports this and claims that photos receive a 35% boost in retweets. This engagement could be related to the fact that less photos are shared than text-based tweets, but it’s important to test out using visuals in your content strategy.
7) Don’t auto-post content if possible
A common mistake many marketers make is syncing Instagram and Twitter.
When an Instagram photo is shared, a user must click on the link and will then be directed away from Twitter to view the image – it doesn’t appear automatically in the feed. Also, these shared Instagram photos will not be indexed with your Twitter photos which are prominently on your Twitter profile.
According to Simply Measured, photos directly uploaded on Twitter receive about five times the engagement per tweet as photos with Instagram photos.
8) Upload optimized photo sizes
Be sure to optimize your image sizes for the social network you’re using otherwise you risk them being distorted or worse.
Upload images 440 pixels by 220 pixels for the perfect image appearance in a user’s activity stream.
9) Tag users in your photos
Twitter allows you to tag users in your photos so you don’t have to use up your precious 140 character count identifying them in your tweet. Plus, tagging a user will notify them of your photo upload and increases your chances of them retweeting or favoriting your content.
10) Place links 25% into your tweet
According to Social Media Scientist, Dan Zarrella, links placed earlier in a tweet (about 25% of the way) receive much higher clickthrough rates than links placed at the end of a tweet. By presenting the link earlier, you’ll be able to catch your reader’s attention faster – and you’ll stand out as the majority of tweets place the link at the end.
11) Use link shorteners for easy to read tweets
It’s important for your audience to be able to read your content easily. By using link shorteners, your tweets will appear cleaner and be easier to read. Plus, you’ll have the added bonus of using shortened links hosting to track your content.
A link can be around 20 characters before Twitter crops the tweet with an ellipsis.
12) Optimize your publishing calendar
According to Social Media Scientist, Dan Zarrella, the highest number of clicks appear between 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. Monday to Thursday. The data also shows that the best time to get retweet is from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Fridays.
Learn your audience’s habits and tweet when they’re online.