SMO: Effective Tweets | The Digital Clicks Blog
Twitter is great; there’s no doubt about that. For many businesses, it has provided a vehicle for Internet marketing success. It’s not simply a case of being on Twitter; however, like any written medium, it’s all about connecting with your audience and establishing a lasting relationship that’s built upon interesting posts. Without further ado, here are some general rules of thumb for SMO and making the most of your tweets: Originality: While tweeting the title of an article you’re linking to is informative about the content of the post, it doesn’t always relate to users or grab their attention. Coming up with your own unique and creative tweet description will separate you from the masses who shared the article/site. Being Concise: With only 140 characters to express yourself, it’s no secret that shortness is key. Try and narrow your tweets down to the key points; it may surprise you how much fluff you can cut out. Tweet Headlines: While being concise and original are both important, your tweet should always be straight to the point and say exactly what it needs to whilst being eye-catching. Statistics: Using interesting facts or statistics in a tweet can catch a user’s eye. If you’re posting an article, use a great statistic from the article rather than its title when sharing it on Twitter. Human Interaction: Above all, this is what Twitter is about. People don’t want to follow a Twitter profile that spams them with monotonous drivel. Act like a person and connect with them; it doesn’t hurt to reply or retweet them occasionally too. Tweeting at Appropriate Times: This means knowing exactly what time your demographic is online and when they’re most active online. If you’re trying to target secondary school students, for example, there’s no point tweeting during school hours as the majority won’t be there to read them. The cleverest time to target that particular demographic would be around 4 p.m. when they’re all just arriving home and eagerly checking their online accounts. Focus: It’s always best to choose a topic or an area of interest and generally stick to it. This way, we get a level of continuity and consistency. People like to know what they’re getting. Discuss and Interact: As your pool of followers grows, keep them in the loop. You want to engage with followers, not all the time, but every so often. This reminds them that you’re aware of their presence and value their voice. Linking: 140 characters isn’t enough to say what you want; in these cases, you should always link to a much bigger article. Not only this, but people are far more likely to interact with a tweet that contains a link than an empty tweet. While it is not a form of link building, it will still drive more traffic to your site and therefore can help boost search engine optimisation in the long run as well. Thought Provoking: A tweet that doesn’t make a reader question their own opinion on a topic or cause them to think about acting on a situation is wasted. Everything you post should be geared to provoke some kind of reaction. Always keep in mind that you should not just be taking one of these tips and following it religiously, but rather taking all of them into account when writing every single tweet that you post.