Three Tips to Give Your Tweets More Traction

Twitter is an awesome tool. It’s quick. It’s dynamic. It’s fun. It’s informative. It suits our busy lifestyles and short attention spans. It gives us a platform to share our thoughts and enter into other people’s worlds at the same time.

And everyone’s different. In effect the sum of a tweeter’s tweets represents his or her brand and personality to the marketplace.  Cool.

But Twitter can also become very cluttered very quickly and when it does, it’s the cream that rises to the top. Sadly, many a tweeter’s tweets get lost in the crowd, in which case – what’s the point?

So here are 3 tips to give your Tweets more traction …

1.  Space ’em Out

Every serious tweeter knows that crazed feeling you get when you want to go into a tweeting frenzy. You’ve been flat out at work, and now it’s time for a coffee break. You check your incoming stream – wow, a few there to RT. And then this idea and that idea. A great blog post from your favourite blog, and … before you know it you’ve blasted off 8 tweets in 2 minutes.

Been there, done that, got the T-shirt.

But be honest. When you’re on the receiving end of a creative flurry like that, what do you do? When you see 8 tweets from one person all in a row on your incoming stream you … ??? … skip over them, right?!

Especially if someone does it over and over again. In fact, the more they do it, the less you read their tweets.

SOLUTION:  Get yourself a tool like HootSuite (the free one that I use – there are others) that allows you to schedule your tweets in advance. That way you can go ahead and have your purple patch. That’s fine, but tweet numbers 2, 3, 4, …, 6, 7 are schedule in 45 to 60 minute intervals so they float into people’s streams throughout the day. It’s the best of both worlds. You get to have a tweeting frenzy and they see you pop in a measured pattern throughout the day. Perfecto!
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2.  Spread ’em Round

They say a picture’s worth a thousand words. Here’s a picture that makes this point: without a doubt, Facebook gets more traction and engagement than Twitter. The research says that a Facebook to Twitter ration of 20:1 isn’t uncommon. Look at this screen grab from my recent ANZAC day blog post.

What’s the ratio? 19:1

SOLUTION: As well as spreading out our tweets, we need to spread ’em around. Facebook is the obvious one. If appropriate LinkedIn is good and any other social media environment you frequent. Again, a tool like HootSuite let’s you post to all of them at the same time. And for those really important ones, don’t forget your email list with a great tool like MailChimp. By routinely “repurposing your content” across multiple social media platforms you’ll get maximum exposure, maximum engagement and maximum traction for your investment in your tweet.
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3.  Say ’em Well

How do you decide which incoming tweets you read? Probably it’s a combo of two things. First, the reputation that the particular Tweeter has with you. If it’s someone you really like, you’ll engage with pretty much each of their tweets.

Second, it’s the WiiFM factor of the tweet – What’s in it For Me?

The higher the WiiFM factor, the higher the probability of engagement. Consider the difference between these two tweets:

Option 1: My latest tweet about tweeting

Option 2: 3 Tips to give your tweets more traction

Which one would you engage with?

SOLUTION: Really think about your WiiFM factor. Each tweet. Every time. No exceptions. Remember if you want them to read it, it’s not about you, it’s about them.
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4.  Mix ’em Up

Hang on Berni, you said there were only 3 tips. There’s 4!

Yeah, I know. All part of the friendly service here at adifferentperspective. This is your FREE BONUS tip – no extra charge!

Some people are too serious in their tweets. Some people are too flippant. Some people just dish up stream-of-consciousness rubbish about where they’re having coffee today (and who really cares?!). So what do we do to serve up a balanced diet?

Well, here are the 4 main tweet-types:

1.  Self promotion (e.g. I’m excited to be speaking to a stadium of 20,000 eager people who are going to hang off my every word). Well, yeah, okay. But these are way too over-used by some. If you’re going to use this tweet-type, then use it very, very sparingly indeed. People tire of them quickly.

2.  Core Purpose: Many tweeters have a core purpose or mission for tweeting. It’s the serious side of their tweeting. It’s why they tweet. That’s great. Be good at those. Be creative with them. Promote other people’s great material by retweeting and pointing to their blogs.

3.  Personal:  These are about the little things happening in your life. The disasters at the local airport. You just walked into a glass door and whacked your nose. Great service at the local cafe.

4.  Humour: Light hearted stuff that’ll bring a smile to people’s faces (@PeterKerridge_ is one of my absolute favourites!)

A tweeter who is unbalanced by focussing on only one of these tweet-types, tends to bore people. And bored people don’t engage with your tweets.

SOLUTION:  The best tweeters mix these different tweet-types up very deliberately. A clear and creative focus on their core purpose, with a mix of personality and humour and (if needs be) a very sparing pinch of self promotion … tends to get the best results.
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