Writing Twitter Tweets

Twitter is a social networking site called a micro-blog. Blog posts are called tweets. Tweets generally answer the question “What are you doing?” However, you can tweet about a variety of things, not just about what you’re doing.

The challenge Twitter presents is getting your message across in 140 characters. You may think 140 characters isn’t long enough for a message, but if you go on Twitter and read the various tweets, you’ll find that you can communicate quite a bit of information in 140 characters or less. You just have to master getting your point across in the least amount of words. What this means is you can’t add any extra fluff, which is one of the reasons why Twitter has become so popular; you have to get to the point. Learning  how to tweet can help you with your copywriting skills.

The different types of messages you can tweet are what you’re doing (the basic question Twitter ask), inspirational quotes or sayings, links to interesting articles, and marketing messages. You will see all these kinds of tweets as you explore Twitter and you may find other kinds of tweets too.

As you type your tweet, Twitter will tell you how many characters you have left. You can also use a character counter. The one I use it at http://www.longhurstsolutions.com/character-word-counter.html. Either type in your text or paste it in the block provided and hit count. Using the character counter will allow you to try and compare different wording of the same message. This is also a useful tool for developing different versions of your marketing tweets, which will allow you to test the versions. (You can also use a character counter for other applications or platforms that require character limits.)

If you want to link to an article or a blog post, you’ll need to shorten the URL because many URLs are too long and will go over the 140 character limit. There are several URL sites that will shrink the URL for you, such as TinyURL.com and BudURL.com. Just do a Google search on “trim URL.”

Some third party Twitter applications will also provide a tool to shrink URLs, such as TweetLater.com, which allows you to plan and schedule your tweets ahead of time, and TweetDeck.com, which lets you manage your twittering. Some of these sites and third party applications also track how many clicks your links get.

Mastering your tweets on Twitter is not as difficult or challenging as you might think. Take the time to review how others are tweeting and take advantage of available tools to help you. Be sure to follow me and I’ll follow you back too. Find me at http://twitter.com/allenyoli or search for my user name, allenyoli.

Happy Business Building,

Yoli