by Edie Melson
@EdieMelson
Twitter, as many of you already know,
is my Social Media Sweet Spot—my easy button, if you will. It’s my go-to place
to send and receive information. Because of that, I compose all my social media
updates from a Twitter mindset. So no matter where I'm sending the update, I
compose it with Twitter in mind.
I know that Twitter is NOT
the sweet spot for many of you reading this blog.
Part of that is because you’re not
really sure what constitutes a good tweet. You’ve heard just enough about
hashtags and twitter etiquette to make you cringe at the thought of composing
your own tweet. So rather than failing, you either stick to retweeting what
others share or just pass on the whole thing.
Today, I’m going to break it down for
you and share my tips to composing the (almost) perfect tweet every time.
Twitter Basics
I have four types of updates I share
on Twitter (and all social media).
An insightful
quote or thought.
A question to
get the conversation started or make us think.
Something
funny, because let’s face it, we all need to laugh.
A link to information I find valuable
and think will enrich your life.
But What IS a
Perfect Tweet?
The definition can vary widely,
depending on who you ask. But since you’re reading my post, I’m going to give
you my definition.
A perfect tweet makes someone’s life
a little bit better, and does so in a way that’s easy to share with others.
Components of
a Perfect Tweet
There are certain things that good
tweets have. Not every tweet will have every one of these, but here are the
list of things that make a tweet good.
- An attention
grabbing headline—this is the
main focus of your tweet and can be a statement or a question. It makes others
what to learn more, take action, join the conversation and/or share what
they’ve read.
- A clear
attribution—I’m a writer, so authorship is
important to me. If someone says something brilliant, I really want them to get
the credit. So when possible, I include the person’s name and/or twitter
handle. (A twitter handle is your Twitter user name. My Twitter handle is
@EdieMelson).
- Hashtags—stop groaning! You knew I was going to include
this one. A hashtag is a number sign (#) that’s put in front of a group of
letters and/or numbers. This makes that particular topic searchable anywhere
within the Twitter universe. There is a specific number of hashtags that’s
ideal. For the highest number of shares, use two. One is good, two is best,
three or more is not so good.
- A link—if you’re referencing something you’ve found
online, you’ll want to include the URL. Be sure to shorten the link. Hootsuite
will do it for you, but if you don’t use Hootsuite or a scheduling program, I
recommend www.bitly.com. If you’re just posting a question or a quote, there’s
not always a reason to include a link.
There is a general order in the way
you arrange the components of your tweet.
Do NOT start your tweet off
with an @ sign (Like @EdieMelson) unless you are replying to something I said.
A reply tweet will only be seen by those who follow BOTH you and the person
you’re replying to.
Hashtags can be used at the
beginning, middle or end or your tweet. But the best way to use them is
organically, within the body of the tweet. Second would be toward the end.
Lastly, at the beginning.
Finally, we all know Twitter limits
tweets to 140 characters. But I do NOT recommend you use all 140 characters.
For one, if someone retweets your update, something will get lopped off the end
of the tweet because the retweeters info will be added to the beginning of the
tweet.
So ideally, keep your tweet to under
120 characters. But remember, this is just a guideline, not a hard and fast
rule!
Here's the order I tend to like best:
• Headline
• Attribution
• Link
• Hashtags
Example and
Explanation
Here is a tweet I composed for this
post:
Tips
for Composing Effective #SocialMedia Updates – via @EdieMelson #writing http://bit.ly/1LZyiMe
Breaking it
Down:
Tips for
Composing Effective Social Media Updates—is my
headline, my attention grabber.
#SocialMedia and #Writing—are the two hashtags I’ve
chosen to use. They reflect the focus of the tweet and are popular hashtags.
@EdieMelson—is my attribution. I used it in this tweet
because I’m composing the tweet for ClickToTweet, which means someone else will
be sending the tweet out. If I was just sending this out, I would NOT use
@EdieMelson because the tweet would originate with my Twitter account and
everyone already knows it’s me.
http://bit.ly/1n1vohq—is my shortened URL or Link. This URL will take
the person clicking on it directly to this post.
Common
Questions
1. What if the
blog post I'm referencing is a guest post, which attribution do I use - the
author of the post or the owner of the blog? If possible, it's good to use both
attributions. Here's how I would handle that:
2. What if the
person I'm referencing doesn't have a Twitter handle or I don't have time to
research it? People who
don't include their social media info is a big pet peeve of mine. If it's not
easy to find, or you can't find it, just use the person's name.
3. What if I
don't have room for everything? This
happens frequently with Twitter. After all, we only have 140 characters.
If I don't have room to include the author of the post and the blog
name, I prioritize and use the author's name. If I don't have room to use two
hashtags, I only use one. The key is to stay flexible and don't overthink this.
4. Do I have
to always use two hashtags? No,
use the hashtags that make sense and what you have room for.
Now it's your turn. What questions do
you have about composing updates? Do you have format you like to use? Be sure
to leave your thoughts in the comments section below.
Many of you know that I spent all of last week directing and teaching at The Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writers Conference. 
