Communicating on Twitter is Harder than you Think
Twitter limits posts to 280 characters. That may seem simple, but if you are trying to be informative that can be very limiting. However much more can be communicated by adding graphics or short videos along with those characters.
Even within these limitations there are some general guidelines you can follow to create effective tweets.
- Often there are multiple ways to phrase a thought. Find ways to use the shortest words and fewest number of words possible. This is more of an artform than someone may think at first. It takes time to develop the skill, but by spending some time reading posts on Twitter, it is easy to see what works and what doesn’t.
- You could be tempted to skip periods at the end of sentences to save space. Small word of advice here – don’t do it.
- Use humor whenever possible. The entire point to social media is to be social, and people respond well to humor. They also respond well to negativity, but not in a way that will help build your brand in a positive light. That only works when trying to turn a group of people away from something.
- Get right to the point. Do not throw any segues into a tweet, there simply isn’t space, if you know what I mean. See what I did there?
- Even with only 280 characters available, maintain using proper grammar. Nothing will bring out the negative comments faster than bad grammar in a post.
- Do not write in all capital letters, but do use capital letters appropriately, such as at the beginning of sentences. This matters and should be an iron clad method of using Twitter.
- It is important to have a balance between fun, pithy, and adding value. Not every tweet can be spam or advertisements to buy some product. Keeping a 90/10 ration on this platform is advisable. One advertisement and nine brand building, value adding, or fun statements.
- Don’t always make your statements about you or your brand. For instance, an author that only talks about their books will not find success. A fantasy writer that talks about RPGs or other fantasy writers will find a much larger audience.
Remember, Twitter users absolutely crave interaction. They love it when a brand or celebrity interacts. If they post something, then they go in and look at the users comments and answer one or two. That goes much further much faster than their original post and it shows they care about the public and their fans/consumers.
