Do you think that Twitter is simply a fun way to connect with your friends and coworkers while keeping up to date on what they are doing? Or, do you think that Twitter can be a valuable tool to advertise yourself, your services and your business while getting your message out to the world?
If you believe that Twitter is a valuable tool, then you will often find yourself concerned with the one major problem that all Twitter users must face: you are only allowed to use 140 characters in each tweet. How can you say enough in a tweet to attract someone to you, to your service, and to your website? How can you use just 140 characters to communicate any form of valuable information to your followers? Also, how can you use just 140 characters to produce any kind of valuable marketing content? Let us look at some answers to that problem.
The Power of Simplicity
Have you heard the expression “less is more” before? It happens to be a truism, not just an expression. Sometimes you do not need a paragraph to get a concept across; sometimes, just one simple sentence or phrase more than suffices. In fact, a simple phrase can sometimes be more effective than a mountain of words.
For example, let us say that you want to draw someone’s attention to your freelance writing services. You could start off with a three paragraph, excellently written description of your services that shows your potential clients that your service is truly superior to any other out there. These paragraphs are found on your website or blog, and would convince anyone to use your services. However, in this fast paced world, how are you going to get anyone else to read this lovely description of your services? This is where your simple, concise, magnetic Tweet comes in. With 140 characters or less, you can draw someone in – intrigue them – and make them want to learn more about your services.
Here is a sample tweet: “Want to impress your target audience? Let me create and write your marketing material for you. Then no one will be able to resist you.” Short, simple, sweet, to the point, and effective. If you include a link to your website or blog, then people who are intrigued by your tweet can read the description of your services on your website and hire you.
The Power of a Picture
Have you ever heard the saying “a picture’s worth a thousand words?” This saying happens to be true. Very true. When you only have a limited amount of space, such as in a 140 character Tweet, you need all of the advantages that you can get. Thankfully Twitter lets you put pictures into your Tweets.
Let us say that you want to post an intriguing Tweet updating your followers on your writing life. After all, giving your followers several fun and fascinating details about your personal life will keep your followers following you. So, you craft an excellent Tweet, but you still want to make it more visible and attractive to your followers. To do this, you need to select a picture that sums up and adds to your Tweet.
Here is an example of an effective Tweet (curtesy of Caitlin @scribblinghappy), complete with picture:
This Tweet effectively combines interesting words and phraseology with an intriguing and relevant picture to make you want to click on the link and read the rest of the article. This is what you are striving for in an effective Tweet – one that will interest your followers, drive traffic to your blog or website, and increase your business.
Sometimes You Can Leave Things Out
This is Twitter after all. You do not have to always be grammatically correct. You can leave out some of your “the’s” and “a’s”. You can look at this article for more information.
Avoid the “To Be Continued” Scenario
When a reader must skip several other people’s tweets to read the second installment of what you have to say, you are very likely to lose your reader’s interest. So, even though it might be challenging to fit everything you have to say in just 140 characters, it will serve you in the long run to do so. Take full advantage of the space that you are given. Do not try for more. Leaving out some words in your message is worth keeping your follower’s attention and admiration.
Take Advantage of the Opportunity to Add Links
You can say a lot in a Tweet, even though it is only 140 characters long. However, it is good to remember that your Tweets are lead-ins. They are for giving your followers quick updates about your work and life, drawing them into following you and looking forward to reading your Tweets, and for leading readers to your blog or website if you have more information or stories that you want to give them. So, if you have a lot of information that you want to give to your Twitter followers, all that you need to do is snag their attention with a short but captivating Tweet, and then include the link to your blog or website so that your followers can read more.
Now that you know how you can say a lot in only 140 characters, you can go to this website if you would like to see some poignant and, at times, funny examples of how real people can get real messages across to an audience in just one Tweet.
Author’s Profile :
Yohana Petrovic is a writer and blogger. She has 10 years` experience in educating and now she is a proofreader at globalessays.org. You can reach her on Facebook: Yohana Petrovic or on Twitter: @YohanaPetrovic