One of the services we provide at MWI is helping busy executives manage their Twitter profiles. One of our new team members recently started pumping out tweets for a successful sales executive to help him boost his profile and build an audience. His goal is to share content that is valuable for other up and coming sales people. In reviewing the first batch of tweets our new team member had set up in this executive’s Buffer account, I provided some feedback on how to use Twitter hashtags and handles better and thought it might be helpful for you. I first display the tweet as our team member included it in this sales executive’s Buffer queue (meaning they hadn’t been tweeted yet) and then I show how I would rewrite the tweet.
I should note that this team member got two things perfectly right, so they aren’t included in my feedback; 1) she included an image with every tweet–tweets with images tend to get much higher engagement than plain text, 2) she chose tweets that are a good match for what our sales executive should be tweeting.
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Are #meetings a force for good?: Some questions for the authors of #TheOrg http://buff.ly/1QHBleW @DanielPink
This is a blog post by Daniel Pink with two authors of a book as guests. I would include “by” to make clear who the author is. If you put someone’s handle at the end of a post it can be misinterpreted that you are telling Daniel Pink “Hey, check out this link, I think you’ll enjoy it!” By including “by” this also lets fans of Daniel Pink know that here is a tweet they might be interested in clicking on, since the content it links to was produced by someone they admire.
I would avoid hashtags when I can include handles, since a hashtag for “theorg” is unlikely to generate any sort of attention, but tagging the authors will. In this case it was easy to find the author’s profiles from links within the blog post.
With this feedback in mind, this tweet becomes:
Are meetings a force for good? @DanielPink w/ @Tim_Org @RFisman http://buff.ly/1QHBleW
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5 Really Terrible Ways to Start an #Email http://buff.ly/1M74RW0 @jmbrandonbb
“Email” is such a generic term, and hardly anybody is trying to find all the tweets tagged with “email” so I would redo this like this:
5 Really Terrible Ways to Start an Email by @jmbrandonbb http://buff.ly/1M74RW0 #emailmarketing #sales #bizdev
If this is too long, I would take out “really” since it doesn’t add much to the tweet, and this might allow me to leave the hashtags in.
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What makes #referrals happen? Your actions, NOT your ask! http://buff.ly/1pgEA2Q @gitomer
“Referrals” is not so generic as “email” but it’s still pretty generic. I’m a bit on the fence with this one, so let’s leave it. But I would still make some other changes and additions.
What makes #referrals happen? Your actions, NOT your ask! by @gitomer http://buff.ly/1pgEA2Q #sales #referralmarketing
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Low Tech Ideas Help #Salescommunication http://buff.ly/1M7aSC2 @ScoreMoreSales
I wouldn’t combine “sales” and “communication” because while specific, it’s still not something I think attracts attention. Think of this from the perspective of someone who is heavily involved in sales and is scanning a feed for tweets to read. If they see “#Sales” highlighted, they know “Hey, here’s a tweet about sales, maybe I should pause for a second to take a closer look and see if I want to click on it.” But they might not recognize #salescommunication” as even containing the word “sales” as they’re scanning.
Low Tech Ideas Help #Sales Communication by @ScoreMoreSales http://buff.ly/1M7aSC2 #bizdev
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How To #Sell Almost Anything http://buff.ly/1LRKPny @forbes
This link actually goes to a gallery on Forbes, which we don’t want to link to because they’re not usually super interesting or helpful. I also don’t find it useful to tag @forbes, so I would leave that handle out, even if I were sticking with the tweet itself. In this case I would just delete this tweet altogether.
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Tips to Maximize Time and Get More Done http://buff.ly/1P0gFcz @scoremoresales
This becomes:
Tips to Maximize Time and Get More Done by @scoremoresales http://buff.ly/1P0gFcz #productivity #lifehacks
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The Dead-Simple Guide to Start Sharing #Content as a #salesprofessional http://buff.ly/1pgKQaO @CraigRosenberg
“Content” is too generic and I wouldn’t combine “sales” and “professional” for the reason I mentioned above with #salescommunication. This one becomes:
The Dead-Simple Guide to Sharing Content as a #Sales Professional by @CraigRosenberg http://buff.ly/1pgKQaO #contentmarketing
I took out “start” because the tweet is already long and the word “start” doesn’t seem to add anything.
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Expanding the New Frontier of Account Based Marketing @CraigRosenberg http://buff.ly/24Vtcty #b2b marketing #sales
Since “marketing” is in the original tweet text, there’s no reason to use the word twice, especially when on Twitter we’re always searching to use an economy of characters. Just put a hashtag on the first instance, so:
Expanding the New Frontier of Account Based #Marketing @CraigRosenberg http://buff.ly/24Vtcty #b2b #sales
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Advertising In The Post-Screen World @baldwin http://buff.ly/1TTrRjF #technology #marketing #interactivetech
I would say “technology” is too generic, so I’d remove that hashtag. I’d probably remove “interactivetech” as well as it seems a bit vague. I’d also add a hashtag to “advertising.”
#Advertising In The Post-Screen World @baldwin http://buff.ly/1TTrRjF #marketing
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Offices are Using Psychedelic Hues to Brighten Up Meetings @EricCMack http://buff.ly/226ihyf #bizdev
I clicked through to the gallery (which in this case, contrary to my earlier comment, is actually interesting) but I don’t see that this related to bizdev at all, so I would remove that hashtag and perhaps add “culture” to it.
Offices are Using Psychedelic Hues to Brighten Up Meetings @EricCMack http://buff.ly/226ihyf #culture
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These are basic tips for writing tweets that will increase engagement, meaning retweets, clicks, and replies. What other tweet formatting tactics have you found useful for improving engagement with your tweets? Tell us in the comments below.
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