An average of 350,000 tweets per minute is sent out on Twitter.
Each tweet has a shelf life of approximately eighteen minutes at best. So, if you want to be seen and heard, you have to master the game.
Don’t worry — it’s not as hard as it sounds. Here are thirteen simple tactics you can start using to become a Twitter power user.
1. Be accessible
Find your niche and represent it in your handle. What do you want to tweet about? My Twitter handle, for example, is @travelchronicle, since my account is dedicated to travel. So whether you focus on social media, engineering, DIY crafts, etc., your tweets and handle should reflect this, making you more accessible to the masses. So if you want to write about technology, your handle shouldn’t be @SuzieQ123.
Find your niche and represent it in your Twitter handle Click To Tweet2. Use photos as much as possible in your posts
We are visual creatures, and a photo will grab attention over a bunch of words. As a writer, this is a hard pill to swallow, but it’s the truth. A photo of a beautiful sunset in Thailand is going to pique interest, and ultimately push people to read your article.
3. Master those 140 characters
If you love to tell elaborate, never-ending stories, this might be the hardest part for you to get used to. That’s not what Twitter is about. Even if you have to revise your tweets two, three, or even four times to make the most out of each word. It’s an art, really. Aim to create impact with every word. If you need inspiration, start reading some haikus. Seriously, it will help.
To take it a step further, if you leave extra space, it leaves room for a retweeter to add their own comments. Dan Zarrella has found in his research that tweets that use 120 to 130 characters experience much higher CTRs.
4. Be a Tease
If someone obtains all the information they need just by glancing at your tweet, then what motivation do they have to click your link? Hold some information back, and tease your audience into wanting to know more.
We are curious creatures, always looking for something new to learn. Spark interest through the highlights of your links’ content, and leaving your reader impatient to know more.f someone obtains all the information they need just by glancing at your tweet, then what motivation do they have to click your link?
Hold some information back, and tease your audience into wanting to know more.
5. Learn how to properly use hashtags
Most Twitter users don’t scroll endlessly through their feeds, especially if they’re following thousands of people. If they are interested in a topic, they’ll likely search the hashtag instead. Think about what you’re trying to convey and choose the most specific hashtag possible. For example, if your topic is hiking the Appalachian Trail, don’t use general tags like #travel or #outdoors.
Instead, use #hiking and #AppalachianTrail. Since these are more specific, people who find your tweets through your hashtag are more than likely going to click through to your link. Also, be sure to economize your hashtags. Choose about three pertinent hashtags, because posts with too many hashtags are distracting and difficult to read.
6. Talk about and link to infographics
There’s nothing like infographics on Twitter. They’re visual and a great way to present a ton of information in a small space, so infographics are commonly searched for. Infographics receive 746% better CTRs than tweeted articles. Even just including the hashtag “infographic” can bring your tweet more views.
7. Be smart about how and when you post
Posting round-the-clock might seem like a full-time job, but it doesn’t have to be. Connect your blog with your Twitter and other social media channels so that each time you publish a post it automatically gets shared. Use services like Buffer and HootSuite to schedule your tweets a week at a time so that you maintain consistency.
8. Ask questions
This tip has two purposes. First off, people love to share their opinions. Ask questions within your tweets and readers will be eager to share their thoughts, making your tweet more engaging and increasing your CTR.
The second point of asking questions is to gather more information on what your audience wants to read. By surveying them, you can discover what people want to see more of, and what kind of content they’re prone to engage with.
9. Promote Your Tweets
Sometimes, no matter how well you craft your tweet, or how enticing your photo is, there are still not enough people clicking. The way to change this is to expand your audience. Higher visibility inevitably leads to more engaged participation.
Starting with a small budget, target the kind of demographic you want following you and sharing your tweets. Avoid promoting to people who already know about you, because if they’re already following you and failing to click through your tweets, paying for your tweet’s exposure won’t change their actions. A new audience promises new interactions.
10. Use analytics to your benefit
Which of your tweets are driving the most traffic to your blog or Facebook page? Use the analytics provided by Twitter and other tools, and take note of what your most popular content, types of tweets, and hashtags are. You’ll also discover your peak times for posting. Use both to your advantage when creating and scheduling your post, increasing your CTR while improving your time efficiency.
11. Target the right people
Follow people who interest you. If someone intrigues you, it is very likely that you share commonalities. If this is the case, not only will you want to hear what they say, but they will probably want to hear your voice as well. Once people take an interest in who you are and what you have to say, they will delve deeper into your tweets.
12. Choose a purposeful profile photo
Make people want to get to know you and what you’re about just by looking at your photo. So if you’re promoting health and fitness, don’t upload a photo of you and your buddies drinking beer.
If you are using Twitter to promote your bicycling adventures, your profile photo could be you on your bike or of you holding an award you won during a race. Just make sure it conveys your purpose at a glance and people will be more apt to take notice of your tweets.
13. Talk about Twitter
It might seem counterintuitive, or self-referential, to tweet about Twitter when you’re already on the platform. Still, research has that Twitter users want to know more about it. Every day, more and more people are trying to better understand social media. So, it makes sense that tweets including the word “Twitter” have a 23% better CTR than the average tweet.
There are many ways to increase the power of each individual tweet. These 14 ways are proven to improve the clickthrough rate of your tweets, making your time on this social media platform much more effective. After all, the point of using Twitter for business is not to waste time.
What do you think of these Twitter tips? Do you have any other suggestions for increasing your click-through rate on Twitter? Leave them in the comments below!
