Backed up by research from Hubspot, here are seven tips to help you drive your Twitter marketing forward.
1. Use Both “Title Tweets” and “Copy Tweets”
“Title tweets” start each word with a capital letter — just like a headline. They are tweets with just the title of a blog post or article and the link to that article. There are no extra words. However, a “copy tweet” presents the article or blog post as a sentence or question.
Hubspot’s research showed that their average tweet copy got an average of 98 clicks, while headline-based tweets got an average of 110 clicks.
Insider Tip: The fundamental rule of clickable tweets is the same as the rule of clickable headlines. No matter how amazing your content is, few people are going to click through to read it if they’re not immediately captivated by your headline. Read 15 Ways To Crack Captivating Headlines to find out more about creating better titles for your tweets.
2. Include Shortened Links
A URL shortener is an online tool that converts a regular URL into an abbreviated version that is around 10 to 20 characters long. Use a third-party tool like Bit.ly to help you do this. Here’s what a bit.ly link looks like when it’s shortened.
Insider Tip: Don’t necessarily place the link at the end of the tweet. Zarrella’s analysis of 200,000 link-containing tweets concluded that putting the link approximately 25% of the way through would achieve the highest CTR.
3. Add Images To Tweets
Adding visual appeal to your tweet is a smart way to make your content stand out among a sea of tweets.
Insider Tip: You can add up to 4 images to your tweets ( all you have to do is click on the photo icon after you have added your first image, then add up to 3 more images) so take advantage of this and create a carousel of images to draw a reader’s eye.
4. Ask For Retweets
Twitter uses Likes and re-tweets as indicators of popularity in the algorithm.
Insider Tip: Though I’d be wary of over-doing this strategy (from a narcissistic viewpoint) it appears that you can also increase your exposure by liking and re-tweeting your own content. An experiment from Buffer found that retweeting their own tweets generated significantly higher click-through and engagement rates.
5. Add A Call-To-Action
What kind of action do you want your followers to take when they read your tweet? Whether it’s “Sign Up Here” or “Download Now”, adding a call-to-action to your tweet increases engagement by 13% according to Hubspot.
6. Recycle Tweets
At about 18 minutes, tweets have the shortest lifespan of any social media post. Even though the latest Twitter algorithm means that posts are no longer displayed chronologically, Twitter is fast-paced, and messages get buried quickly. To counter this, you need to share your post multiple times on Twitter to increase visibility (use a scheduling tool to optimize the times you post it).
Insider Tip: Practice writing multiple versions of your tweets. Then A/B test them by changing some keywords, playing with the structure, etc. to determine which works best for your specific audience. This doesn’t mean you should post the same update every time. Using best practice headline tips, write multiple versions of tweets to post — and don’t forget to include a compelling image too.
7. Tweet About Twitter
According to Hubspot, if it makes sense for your account to tweet about social media — do it. It found that their tweets that included links to blog posts and offers about Twitter and other social media topics received 22.5% more clicks on average than the average clicks for a tweet during a set period of time.
Insider Tip: From the Neil Patel playbook:
How can you talk about Twitter if your subject has nothing to do with Twitter? Try one of these:
- Hey Twitter users….
- Best thing on Twitter all day…
- You needed this in your Twitter feed…
- Twitter is raving about…
To Sum Up
The key to success with Twitter, as with life, is to work smarter not harder. Implement these tactics the next time you post on Twitter and watch your engagement rate rocket.
You might also like to read What To Post on Twitter: A Cheat Sheet For Healthcare Tweeters
Health Care Social Media 