Design Rangers Camp Blog

Design Rangers has the pleasure of posting this final Twitter article written for us by Tammy Oler – our dear friend and awesome wordslinging partner. Enjoy!

Seven Super Tips for Tweetslingers

In my previous posts, I’ve blogged about why Twitter is important for businesses and what individuals can gain from the service, so today I’d like to focus on how you can make the most of your tweets. First impressions count in the real world, and they’re even more important in the Twitterverse. Whether you are tweeting for an organization or just for yourself, you want to make your 140 characters count!

Here are seven super tips for tweetslingers*:

Ignore the Twitter prompt. The answer to the question “What are you doing?” is just generally not that interesting.  If you’re going to tweet about something you’re doing, make sure that it’s relevant, engaging, and worth the attention of your followers.

Be authentic. This is especially important if you are tweeting on behalf of a business or organization.  Don’t be a billboard or a press release!  Give your tweets a real human voice.

Retweet regularly. Share (and credit!) relevant and interesting blog posts, articles and links that you or your followers will find interesting.  It’s not only good Twitter karma, but it’s also a way to build credibility and your reputation in areas of interest.  (Note: If you aren’t quoting someone directly, you can also use “via @username” to share his/her link while still distinguishing your words.  This also results in Twitter goodness!)

Use humor abundantly. Use snark sparingly.  Know the difference!  Feel free to be funny and thoughtfully critical, but too much negativity can turn off followers.

Use #hashtags to make your tweets more searchable. Words that follow the # symbol in tweets are called hashtags.  This is an informal way of assigning a keyword to a tweet so that others can easily find it.  Hashtags are a method of connecting tweets about the same subject, making it easier for users to find tweets on the same topic. Hashtags are often used by event conference organizers as a way of streaming all tweets about the event.

Revise your tweets. Take a moment before you hit ‘Update’ to check your spelling and read for clarity.  It’s always a good idea to see if you can make your tweet shorter, too.  Shorter than 140 characters?  You bet!  If you want your tweets to be retweetable, you’ll make sure to give your followers some unused characters.

Converse. Social media is just that: social!  Respond to tweets, join in conversations, and encourage your followers to talk to you!

Happy tweeting!

(*Bonus: awesome alliteration!)