Here’s How to Make Your Tweets Stand Out


how to be seen on twitter

Twitter is an interesting tool. It is undeniably powerful and effective. But one thing remains complicated with Twitter – the amount of buzz coming from it every single second.

Because it is such a large tool with so many members, you have to really make your tweets stand out if you want to drive traffic and interactions to your site. This primarily comes down to content, and optimizing it in such a way that enforces your overall Twitter strategy.

How can you do this, when so many others are trying to do the same?

The good news is that you are competing for attention within a specific niche pool, which increases your likelihood of being seen, getting a clickthrough to your site (in the case of share links), and having others follow your account, and retweet or favorite your content. The tips below will help you boost your tweets, so they really stand out against the crowd.

How to be Seen on Twitter

Use Actual Quotes From The Content

Sometimes you need more than a snappy title to catch the interest of your potential followers. Rather than copy/pasting the title of a link, try pulling a quote from the text to get people interested in what you have to say.

For example, @Clientsfh will tweet a sentence from within their stories, as their posts don’t have actual titles. They are careful not to give away the punchline, instead enticing people to click through using an engaging segment likely to resonate with freelancers:

how to be seen on twitter
If you quote someone else, be sure to @ tag them, which provides you with a further means of engagement. Put the tag at the beginning of the post with a period at the beginning (such as .@Clientsfh) to show up on the feed of their followers, as well.

Be Bold, Not Bland

“5 Ways To Improve Your Twitter Marketing” or “You’ve been using Twitter wrong from the beginning, and I can prove it!”

Which one of these do you think people are more likely to click on when they see it come up in their Twitter feed?

The first gives direct detail into what will be found, but it is easy to ignore on a live-updating list of content vying for the viewer’s attention. The second doesn’t give anything away, but it promises to. It offers just enough to make the viewer curious about what you might have to say.

Sometimes, you can be even more brash, or even more vague. Just ask yourself, if you saw that tweet, would you want to know what it was about? If the answer is yes -you are on the right track.

Keep Things Short

One of the best examples I have ever come across for promoted Twitter content came from a single word – and a link. The post was a collection of badly made graphic designs that were done by “professionals.” But you wouldn’t have known that from the tweet. What did it say?

It said, “No. [link]”

That is it – just the word no and a link to the content.

Why was this clever? Because it was one word, it offered no information. I had never seen that done before, and yet it somehow managed to deliver. Everything about the post it was linking to was a no.

This kind of tactic can backfire, however, so make sure you are choosing your words carefully. But if you can say it with less – do it.

Use Hashtags…The RIGHT Way

There is a lot of debate about just how you should be using hashtags. Some even don’t think you should be using them at all. Personally, I think it is more about using them to become associated with that hashtag, rather than any real enhancement of your tweet. Sure, you can add context to a tweet using a hashtag, which is a decent method if you are trying to be goofy, funny or sarcastic.

However, as a professional user, these instances won’t be very common. You’re better off focusing on singling in on related hashtags that narrow down what most of your content will be about in the long term:

That way, your tweets start coming up regularly in search, which drives people to follow you, or else follow your links to your site. Relating yourself to a hashtag (or branding your own as seen below) is an instant visibility – and even traffic – driver.

Don’t Forget The Visual Content

Why tell them, when you can show them?

There is a major problem with Twitter users ignoring the potential for sharing photos and videos on their profiles. Sure, as a microblogging site, that isn’t really what it was made for. But it still has the capability, and users like visual content as much as Facebook or Google Plus adopters.

Plus, there is an image and video specific section in search results, right at the top. Add a couple of hashtags, or @ tag some relevant users, and you have a great and targeted way of using visual content on Twitter.

Visual tweets make better embedded tweets as well:

Know What Your Followers Like

It can be easy to fall into the habit of random sharing. But all social media campaigns should have a tone and specific way of marketing. That means knowing what your followers want to see, and what they are most likely to share with their own friends.

Invest in a social media dashboard, such as Hootsuite, to track analytics. You can also use something like Moz for more detailed information. You can see how often certain content is being shared, and figure out what you should be posting more of.

Conclusion

Getting a tweet it stick out isn’t really that difficult. But there is one tip that is more important than any other in social media marketing – be consistent.

So get out there and start tweeting, armed with these tips on how to be seen on Twitter, to make your posts just a little bit better.

Phone Photo via Shutterstock


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Ann Smarty Ann Smarty is the founder of Viral Content Bee, a social media marketing platform, and the founder of SEO Smarty, an SEO consulting and link building agency.

10 Reactions
  1. Nice post.

    The only part where I’m not quite so convinced (and I was surprised when I realised it about myself) is the part about the picture.

    Now, it could just be me. It really could (and I’m happy for it to be). But:

    Whilst I was always told images are good for marketing and have been happy to go along with that, with TWITTER (only twitter) I’ve found that I tune out the tweets with images.
    It is VERY rare I pay them any attention at all.

    On the other hand, those tweets with SHORT first sentences etc (pretty much exactly what you say above) that draw me in get more than average attention from me.

    Not sure what everyone else thinks; could be interesting to find out.

    • Hey Kevin, thanks for your input! Visual tweets are really not as straightforward. As a user, I actually enjoy seeing a relevant screenshot or a cool visual quote within my Twitter stream (I use Tweetdeck to monitor what people I follow tweet). They do draw me in. As a Tweeter, I see higher engagement on visual tweets, but I do agree people may have different experience. Let’s see what others think!

      • Kevin H…

        That’s how you process Twitter. And that’s cool. That’s how it works for you.

        For me, I can get overwhelmed by text, so I prefer a flow of text and images when I’m browsing through my twitter feed, or else they all look the same to me – just rows upon rows of tweets.

    • Kevin, that really surprises me. Posts that include images are 1000x more likely to be noticed and shared by me – and probably many others who follow a lot of people on Twitter. Whenever I’m on a call or waiting for a response on Skype I click to home, scroll through and retweet the most visual tweets. Anyone wise enough to be sharing images is likely to get retweeted most days.

      • Gail,

        no-one was more surprised than me. It was a real shock when I realised I’d scanned through a days worth of tweets and hadn’t “noticed” or clicked on any tweet with an image in. So I went back and looked again; and there were some OK ones there.

        But it did show me that I really hadn’t ‘seen’ them the first time.

        Whilst I agree with you that I am probably the minority (or even the only one; wouldn’t be the first time 🙂 ) made me wonder if it would be an idea in a ‘campaign’ rather than ‘personal tweets’ whether it would be a good idea to schedule in the occasional text only version. Jury is still out.

  2. forgot to tick the ‘notify me’ box 🙁

    Now done 🙂

    Probably don’t need to post this (do you?) to let me get the replies

  3. When I first started using Twitter, I found it visually noisy and very dense. I still do and can only use it for a short while at a time. Saying that, I found your tips useful, especially the bit about placing a period before the @ tag. I didn’t know about that, and find that little bit of information you shared fascinating for some reason. 🙂

  4. I agree on the visual and quotes part. Tweets are not like the old days when people would respond to anything. With so many people on it, tweets need to stand out more by having an edge and that is either through words or visuals.