If you set an account on Twitter after using other social networks, the platform’s algorithm might seem unusual to you. But you will be able to figure it out quickly if you read the tips we’ve prepared for you.
Among social networks, Twitter is a pioneer. The company that celebrates its 15th birthday this year keeps increasing the number of users every year. Three years ago, Twitter had 120 million users. Now, the number has risen to 200 million. The top three countries by the number of Twitter users are:
- USA – 73 million;
- Japan – 55 million;
- India – 22 million.
What makes Twitter similar to most social networks is the fact that users communicate using their native language. This rule also applies to regional offices of international corporations. For example, publications in DHL Mexico and DHL Express France are in Spanish and French accordingly. However, for global reach, companies use English. A good example can be Airbus. In other aspects, Twitter is drastically different from Instagram and Facebook.
The styling of Twitter accounts is quite simple. We have written a separate article on the topic. Now, when you are ready to read Tweets and make posts, let’s find out more about the peculiarities of the social network.
#1. Twitter is about writing texts, but not only
The initial idea was to publish only short text messages — tweets. The number of characters is currently limited to 280. However, since 2011 users can also post photos and videos. The length of videos can start from 140 seconds for most users and be up to 10 minutes if requested. A lot of channels publish visual content with a short caption.
If you also want to post photos or videos, you can use templates. You can design your own template or choose one from Canva.
#2. Evaluate the engagement instead of numbers
When you start running Twitter, you should consider the difficulties of microblogging. There are a lot of posts from other users, and they are quite brief, so it can be hard to follow them. On Twitter, posts can be arranged chronologically or following the principles of the algorithm. It means that some users may not react to your tweets just because they didn’t see them before they left the app.
The obvious way to influence your audience is to post frequently. Obviously, it is essential to find a balance not to spam people’s feeds. To keep your account in order and follow the posting schedule, you can resort to scheduled posting tools.
Irrespectively of the frequency of your posts, track users’ reactions to them. If there are no reactions or retweets, it will be hard to promote your account. That is why a smaller number of followers who regularly read your blog and help you increase your audience retweeting the content is better.
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#3. Use # and @ correctly
Twitter has been the first social network where people tagged recent news and everyday events with hashtags. They actively used this tool for promoting tweets, but later the admins introduced some changes. In the official blog, the administration doesn’t recommend using more than two hashtags per tweet. And marketers recommend avoiding popular hashtags in non-relevant posts.
A positive peculiarity of Twitter is addressing a brand or a famous person directly by using @. Instagram also has this feature. But on Twitter, there is a culture around it — it is not polite to leave a mention without a response. Unlike on Instagram, the tread is displayed both in the addresser’s and addressee’s account.
Some celebrities, like Ryan Reynolds, have a reputation as jokers that can come up with a funny answer to any tweet. However, it is not recommended to abuse mentions because you may come across as a crazy fan. It is obvious, but make sure to answer all the tweets if someone has mentioned you or your company.
#4. Personalize shares and retweets
It feels very natural to share links to news stories and articles from your own website. However, if you leave a link only, the article title and subtitle will be added to the publication. Add a tweet to the link to express your own opinion and spark interest among your followers.
Follow the same scheme when you re-tweet. Add a short comment to the initial post to share your opinion, even if it is different from the tweet author’s opinion.
#5. Use lists
On Twitter, you can read different sets of bloggers depending on your mood and aims. To do so, you need to create lists. You can create a new list on the main page in the desktop version or the pop-up window (you will need to click the profile photo in the app). By default, the list will be public. But you can make it private by ticking the checkbox. You can add accounts to the list by using the search or by opening the account’s page. In the second case, you will need to click the three-dots menu, choose Lists and add bloggers to the required category.
Among all the global networks, Twitter is the most democratic platform. The censorship is minimal, and all users can communicate with each other. Some use Twitter only to read news and don’t write tweets themselves, but the more you read Twitter, the bigger the urge to write your own posts is. In this case, the rules we’ve covered in this article can come in very useful.
