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Econsultancy has long been an advocate of <a href="http://econsultancy.com/blog/3069-good-copy-bad-copy">good online copywriting</a>. After all, you can have the biggest budgets and the best marketing strategies, but if your text isn’t up to scratch, you’ll lose out on opportunities. Exactly the same principle applies to Twitter, minus any obvious financial payments. You need to have a strategy in place and this has to be supported by good writing. Interestingly, with Twitter being a free-for-all, you get a mix of commercial businesses, various organisations and countless individuals, all trying to grab each other’s attention. Whichever of these categories you fall into, if you’re trying to utilise Twitter as a communication channel (as opposed to an instant-messaging service), perhaps the best way to think of a tweet is as a paid-search ad. The similarities are certainly there: PPC ads allow a fixed amount of characters and you certainly wouldn’t waste time, effort and resources creating an ad that users will be unresponsive to, so why should a tweet be any different? Both concepts behind Twitter and paid-search are relatively simple enough on paper, but in practice it’s another matter. One of the largest complexities with Twitter is that because users interact with each other on a real-time basis, this means that constantly creating engaging copy becomes fairly difficult to both manage and measure, unlike a fixed paid-search campaign, where variations can be tested. So, as a starting point, you should perhaps consider one major point before engaging with other users, in order to create good copy and maximise the impact of your tweets. Ask yourself why you are on Twitter. Are you operating on a personal or commercial basis? As an aside, it is important to acknowledge that if you answer the latter, you need to understand whether you are an individual ‘face’ of an organisation or if you’re Twittering under a brand name. Following on from this, you have to be clear about your objectives when tweeting. This will help you in creating clear, concise ‘Twitter-copy’ that will engage your followers and help pull in new ones. Are you using it as a customer service support? A brand monitoring tool? A marketing or sales platform? Understanding why you’re using Twitter will help you follow these guidelines and create great copy... 1. Make it personal Everyone loves to see their name in lights. Ergo, everyone loves to see their name being tweeted. It's social media at its best and by treating users as individuals, this will ensure happy followers. Don’t insult, confuse or be offensive. This will backfire in a bad way. 2. Keep it relevant It doesn’t matter what you do or what you know. Investment banker to plasterer, you need to keep your tweets relevant to what you know best. You generally have followers because you’re offering niche communication. Share your knowledge and anything else that may be interesting – no one cares you just made a cup of tea 3. Engage your followers Ask questions, speculate on theories or ideas and invite others to join in. What’s going on in your industry or in the news? What insights or opinions can you offer? Feeding out links is fine, but add commentary if necessary. Make people want to retweet you! 4. Don’t be lazy Don’t use txt spk – it looks terrible. Always finish anything you’ve started, whether it’s a conversation or a follow-up tweet. Always reply to anyone who asks you a question or contacts you with an issue. 5. Offer something that’s wanted Give your followers something they want. This crosses the boundary of relevant information into the territory of online offers, information, free online tools, discounts, job openings, etc. Anything of value that might benefit them in their lives or careers, tweet it. 6. Ask away Don’t be afraid to ask questions or to challenge others. Obviously, this needs to be done in a tactful way; don’t act like a bull in a china-shop. By showing you have an opinion, this generally can help bring respect from your peers. 7. Stand out from the crowd Following from point six; go against the grain if that’s what needs to be done. Again, this needs to be done tactfully. Don’t tweet anything too outrageous, or people won’t take you seriously – recognise that if you have an opinion that contrasts with the general consensus, it can be made diplomatically. 8. Good links There’s nothing worse than an irrelevant link; apart from one that doesn’t work. Check that everything operates smoothly and you’ll have happy, engaged followers. Enough said. 9. Offer exclusives Give exclusive news, offers or insights and you’ll find that your tweets will be full of great content to please your followers, get you Retweeted and entice new people to join your network. 10. Stop. Think. Send. It’s not a bad thing to question your tweets before sending them out. Go back, re-read what you’ve written. Does it make sense? Will it engage your followers? Remember, you only have 140 characters… use them wisely.

Econsultancy has long been an advocate of <a href="http://econsultancy.com/blog/3069-good-copy-bad-copy">good online copywriting</a>. After all, you can have the biggest budgets and the best marketing strategies, but if your text isn’t up to scratch, you’ll lose out on opportunities. Exactly the same principle applies to Twitter, minus any obvious financial payments. You need to have a strategy in place and this has to be supported by good writing. Interestingly, with Twitter being a free-for-all, you get a mix of commercial businesses, various organisations and countless individuals, all trying to grab each other’s attention. Whichever of these categories you fall into, if you’re trying to utilise Twitter as a communication channel (as opposed to an instant-messaging service), perhaps the best way to think of a tweet is as a paid-search ad. The similarities are certainly there: PPC ads allow a fixed amount of characters and you certainly wouldn’t waste time, effort and resources creating an ad that users will be unresponsive to, so why should a tweet be any different? Both concepts behind Twitter and paid-search are relatively simple enough on paper, but in practice it’s another matter. One of the largest complexities with Twitter is that because users interact with each other on a real-time basis, this means that constantly creating engaging copy becomes fairly difficult to both manage and measure, unlike a fixed paid-search campaign, where variations can be tested. So, as a starting point, you should perhaps consider one major point before engaging with other users, in order to create good copy and maximise the impact of your tweets. Ask yourself why you are on Twitter. Are you operating on a personal or commercial basis? As an aside, it is important to acknowledge that if you answer the latter, you need to understand whether you are an individual ‘face’ of an organisation or if you’re Twittering under a brand name. Following on from this, you have to be clear about your objectives when tweeting. This will help you in creating clear, concise ‘Twitter-copy’ that will engage your followers and help pull in new ones. Are you using it as a customer service support? A brand monitoring tool? A marketing or sales platform? Understanding why you’re using Twitter will help you follow these guidelines and create great copy... 1.  Make it personal Everyone loves to see their name in lights. Ergo, everyone loves to see their name being tweeted. It's social media at its best and by treating users as individuals, this will ensure happy followers. Don’t insult, confuse or be offensive. This will backfire in a bad way. 2. Keep it relevant It doesn’t matter what you do or what you know. Investment banker to plasterer, you need to keep your tweets relevant to what you know best. You generally have followers because you’re offering niche communication. Share your knowledge and anything else that may be interesting – no one cares you just made a cup of tea 3. Engage your followers Ask questions, speculate on theories or ideas and invite others to join in. What’s going on in your industry or in the news? What insights or opinions can you offer? Feeding out links is fine, but add commentary if necessary. Make people want to retweet you! 4. Don’t be lazy Don’t use txt spk – it looks terrible. Always finish anything you’ve started, whether it’s a conversation or a follow-up tweet. Always reply to anyone who asks you a question or contacts you with an issue. 5. Offer something that’s wanted Give your followers something they want. This crosses the boundary of relevant information into the territory of online offers, information, free online tools, discounts, job openings, etc. Anything of value that might benefit them in their lives or careers, tweet it. 6. Ask away Don’t be afraid to ask questions or to challenge others. Obviously, this needs to be done in a tactful way; don’t act like a bull in a china-shop. By showing you have an opinion, this generally can help bring respect from your peers. 7. Stand out from the crowd Following from point six; go against the grain if that’s what needs to be done. Again, this needs to be done tactfully. Don’t tweet anything <script src="http://econsultancy.com/javascripts/tiny_mce/themes/advanced/langs/en.js?1249994178" type="text/javascript"></script> too outrageous, or people won’t take you seriously – recognise that if you have an opinion that contrasts with the general consensus, it can be made diplomatically. 8. Good links There’s nothing worse than an irrelevant link; apart from one that doesn’t work. Check that everything operates smoothly and you’ll have happy, engaged followers. Enough said. 9. Offer exclusives Give exclusive news, offers or insights and you’ll find that your tweets will be full of great content to please your followers, get you Retweeted and entice new people to join your network. 10. Stop. Think. Send. It’s not a bad thing to question your tweets before sending them out. Go back, re-read what you’ve written. Does it make sense? Will it engage your followers? Remember, you only have 140 characters… use them wisely.

2009-03-19T16:45:14+00:00

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No one can deny the phenomenal rise of Twitter over the past few months. But with a massive 750% growth rate within 12 months and hundreds of tweets every second, it means there is an awful lot of ‘noise’ being channelled through the medium. So how can you make yourself heard through all this activity? What will make you stand out from everyone else? Although there’s no definitive rule, we’ve come up with ten tips to guide you in the right direction.

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<div style=""> Download Econsultancy's <a href="http://econsultancy.com/reports/social-media-and-online-pr-digital-marketing-template-files">Social Media and Online PR</a> Template Files, which you can adapt and use for your own projects. Get up to speed with the <a href="http://econsultancy.com/reports/online-pr-and-social-media-trends-briefing">Social Media Trends Briefing</a> (June 2009) and, if you need examples of great innovation within social media and online communities, then download our <a href="http://econsultancy.com/reports/innovation-report">Innovation Report</a>. </div>

<div style="color: #000000; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; background-image: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; -webkit-background-clip: initial; -webkit-background-origin: initial; background-color: #ffffff; background-position: initial initial; margin: 8px;"> Download Econsultancy's <a href="http://econsultancy.com/reports/social-media-and-online-pr-digital-marketing-template-files">Social Media and Online PR</a> Template Files, which you can adapt and use for your own projects. Get up to speed with the <a href="http://econsultancy.com/reports/online-pr-and-social-media-trends-briefing">Social Media Trends Briefing</a> (June 2009) and, if you need examples of great innovation within social media and online communities, then download our <a href="http://econsultancy.com/reports/innovation-report">Innovation Report</a>.  </div>

Copywriting for Twitter: 10 ways to make every tweet count false

2009-03-20T09:18:00+00:00

10-ways-to-make-every-tweet-count-copywriting-for-twitter

2009-04-29T23:03:36+01:00

2009-08-11T23:15:17+01:00

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