Twitter may not be the social media giant that Facebook is. But it’s still a powerful platform for promoting your business online.
After all, 326 million people use Twitter each month. That’s why Twitter is the second most common social media platform used by B2C businesses (with 65% of businesses using it). It’s also the third most common platform used by B2B businesses (with 75% of businesses using it). It beats out Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, and Snapchat.
How do you create tweets that stand out so you can leverage the power of Twitter to boost your revenue and grow your brand? Use these 11 tips to write Twitter content that gets retweets and clicks.
Need some help writing Twitter posts that generate clicks, email sign-ups, and sales?
Download my 7 free social media copy templates + examples.
1. Include a statistic
Because of its relatively short character limit, Twitter is a good platform for sharing small nuggets of information. This is what makes statistics such a great fit for Twitter. Sharing an interesting stat is a great way to grab your audience’s attention and encourage them to click through.
Example: The Food Network includes a statistic in this tweet to raise awareness about International Tiger Day (yes, that’s a thing).
2. Tease your content
Of course, if you want your audience to click through to a blog post or webpage, you don’t want to give too much away in your tweet. Otherwise, they won’t feel the need to check out your full blog post or sales page. Instead, write Twitter content that teases your full post or page by revealing why the info they’ll find there will be valuable to them. And make your audience just curious enough that they feel compelled to learn more by clicking through.
Example: Moz encourages people to click through to one of its blog posts by teasing the value of it in this tweet.
3. Talk to your audience
If you want your audience to connect with your content, don’t just broadcast information to them. Instead, make it feel like you’re having a conversation with them. What’s an easy way to do this? Use second-person pronouns like “you” and “your” in your Twitter content. When you do this, it makes it feel like you’re addressing your audience directly.
Example: Makeup.com uses a second-person pronoun to make this tweet feel more like a personal conversation.
4. Be human
A big part of making your Twitter content engaging is being human. After all, Twitter is a social media platform. So when you’re trying to connect with your audience on Twitter, you want to seem like a human being, not like a faceless corporation (even if you are a large company). After all, people form relationships with other humans, not something that looks and smells like a marketing bot.
Being human on Twitter is easier said than done. But there are some simple strategies you can use to humanize your brand. (And thankfully, they don’t involve sharing your deepest darkest secrets.)
So what can you do? Use humour, inject personality into your tweets, and share fun info about yourself or your team (e.g., favourite foods or movies). It also helps to use a conversational tone in your tweets—the kind you’d use if you were having a casual conversation with someone about your brand.
Related: How to add personality to your copy + free list of 476 power words
Example: Whole Foods uses on-brand humour to engage its followers with this tweet.
Need some help writing Twitter posts that generate clicks, email sign-ups, and sales?
Download my 7 free social media copy templates + examples.
5. Try “personal story” tweets
Another way to humanize your brand is to share a story about something you’ve experienced or overcome. That’s why marketing expert Steve Slaunwhite frames his Twitter content as personal stories. Here’s an example:
“A few years ago, I was struggling to get clients for my web design business. So I created a system that keeps me booked out for 6 months: [link].”
Slaunwhite found that these personal story tweets generated 2.5x the number of clicks as more standard copy formats (e.g., “Having trouble getting clients for your web design business? Learn how to get booked out for 6 months: [link].”)
Example: Amy Porterfield frames this tweet as a personal story that humanizes her content and brand.
6. Start a conversation
Want to engage your audience so they retweet and click on your Twitter content? Start a conversation at the end of your tweets. This prompts your audience to engage with you instead of continuing to scroll down their feed. What’s a good end-of tweet conversation starter? Ask a question like, “What do you think?”
Example: HubSpot engages its audience by asking a question at the end of this tweet.
7. Keep it short
Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should. And tweets are no exception. When you’re writing Twitter content, you can use as many as 280 characters. But data shows that the optimal length of a tweet is 103 characters.
Short tweets are easy to read and digest. And when you make your content easy to consume and understand, your audience has a better chance of seeing it as something they should retweet or explore further.
To keep your tweets short and sweet, use abbreviations (e.g., “&” instead of “and”) and link shorteners like bitly.
Related: How to write clear, concise web copy that converts + free copy planning worksheet
Example: Marie Forleo makes this post easy to consume by keeping it short.
8. Include a call to action
You’re more likely to get people to retweet or click on your tweets if you tell them to do it. In fact, research shows that just including “please retweet” in your Twitter content can increase retweets by 4x. That’s why it’s important to include a call to action (CTA) in your Twitter content. CTAs tell people exactly what to do after they consume your content. So if you want your audience to share your tweet with their followers or check out your blog post, include a CTA that encourages them to do that.
Related: The 62 best words to use in your call to action
Example: Sephora uses a CTA in this post to encourage its audience to buy tickets for the event promoted on the linked landing page.
Need some help writing Twitter posts that generate clicks, email sign-ups, and sales?
Download my 7 free social media copy templates + examples.
9. Use hashtags
You can increase the reach and engagement of your Twitter content by including hashtags in your tweets. Hashtags make it easier for people who are interested in the topic of your tweet to find it. This includes people who are part of your audience but haven’t yet discovered you on Twitter. That’s why including hashtags can double your engagement on the platform.
When using hashtags in your tweets, keep in mind that two hashtags is the optimal number. And be sure to select hashtags strategically for each tweet you share. You can use a tool like Hashtagify to identify the best hashtags for your Twitter content.
Related: How to write good Instagram captions that convert
Example: Essie includes the optimal number of hashtags in this tweet.
10. Include @mentions
Another great way to amplify your reach and engagement on Twitter is to include @mentions in your Twitter content. You can use an @mention to tag a relevant Twitter user or brand in your tweet. When you do this, Twitter notifies the corresponding user or brand. And if all goes well, they’ll engage with you or retweet your tweet to their followers.
Example: eTalk @mentions rapper Drake in this tweet.
11. Don’t forget about visuals
Unlike Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest, Twitter is still home to a large number of text-only posts. But this doesn’t mean you should shy away from using visuals in your Twitter content. In fact, data shows that tweets with images get 35% more retweets than tweets without images.
Tweets with images aren’t just more visually interesting to consume. They can also help your tweet stand out in someone’s feed. So if you want to attract and engage your audience on Twitter, don’t forget to include visuals.
Example: The International Skating Union engages its audience with this visual about figure skater Shoma Uno.
The right Twitter content makes all the difference
When you’re scrambling to get a million things done in a day, it can be easy to get in the habit of mindlessly cranking out mediocre tweets—just to have something to share.
However, if you want to use Twitter to drive traffic to your website, gain leads, and boost sales, remember to use it like the social media platform it is. Avoid sounding like a corporate bot by writing engaging tweets that humanize your brand and include hashtags, CTAs, and @mentions strategically. When you craft the right copy for your tweets, you can leverage the power of Twitter to grow your brand.
Need some help writing Twitter posts that generate clicks, email sign-ups, and sales?
Download my 7 free social media copy templates + examples.
