• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Social Media Examiner

Your Guide to the Social Media Jungle

  • 🔥 Free Newsletter
  • ⭐ FREE Web3 Course
  • 💡 Society
  • 🗓️ Our Events
    • Social Media Marketing World 2024
    • Other Industry Events
  • ⚙️ Tools
  • 🎙️ Podcasts
    • Social Media Marketing Podcast
    • Social Media Marketing Talk Show
    • Web3 Business Podcast
    • Our YouTube Channel
  • 🎯 Partner With Us
    • Podcast Sponsorship
    • Email Sponsorship
      • Email Newsletter
      • Dedicated Email Blast
    • Event Sponsorship
      • Social Media Marketing World
    • Tools Sponsorship
  • 👋 About Us
    • Our Story
    • Articles
      • Web3
      • Instagram Marketing
      • Facebook Marketing
      • YouTube Marketing
      • LinkedIn Marketing
      • TikTok Marketing
      • Expert Interviews
  • Search
  • 6 Ways to Improve Your Twitter Marketing Results

    by Tim Soulo / January 19, 2015

    social media how toAre you satisfied with your results on Twitter?

    Ready to improve your Twitter marketing plan?

    Even if you've been on Twitter a while, there’s plenty you can do to increase followers, retweets and replies.

    In this article I’ll share six tips to help you get more return from your Twitter efforts.

    improve twitter marketing results
    Discover six ways to improve your Twitter marketing results.

    #1: Turn a Pinned Tweet Into a Feature Box

    The Feature Box is an email form you place at the top of your homepage, which offers your website visitors a freebie in exchange for signing up for your email list.

    You can add a similar feature to your Twitter profile page by combining two of Twitter’s native features: a lead generation card and a pinned tweet.

    moz feature box
    Pin a feature box to your Twitter profile to capture email addresses.

    Simply create a Lead Generation Card that includes an incentive for people to opt in. Offer regular email updates, a special freebie or a subscribers-only discount. Pin the tweet to the top of your Twitter profile and you’re all set.

    By default the lead generation card will save all your email leads in a .csv file which you can later download and use at your convenience. Plus, some email marketing tools like MailChimp add all new leads from the Twitter card directly to your email list, which is super handy.

    #2: Communicate Less and Tweet More Links

    It’s a common myth that one of the best ways to get new Twitter followers is to engage in conversations, but a recent study by Dan Zarrella looked at the “reply rates” of about 130,000 random Twitter users and discovered that highly followed accounts tend to converse less.

    Keep in mind, the study results don’t suggest that Twitter conversations have a negative effect on your following, just that conversations aren’t what motivate people to follow you on Twitter.

    According to another study by Dan Zarrella, the way to get more followers is to invest more time tweeting relevant links to your followers, rather than communicating directly with them.

    dan zarrella study graphs
    Tweeting lots of useful links brings new followers.

    Talking to people on Twitter will help you get your first couple hundred of followers. However, there’s no way to further scale this activity.

    #3: Reconsider URL Shorteners

    Back in the day, people used link shorteners to save extra characters in tweets.

    3 Days of World-Class Training—Zero Travel!

    Social Media Marketing World

    Travel to Social Media Marketing World off the table? Get all of the great content at a fraction of the price with an On-Demand ticket.

    That’s full access to recordings of every keynote, workshop, and session—the ones people travel thousands of miles to see. Don't wait. Get your On-Demand ticket and enjoy actionable content that you can watch anytime, anywhere.

    GET YOUR ON-DEMAND TICKET NOW

    If your primary motivation behind using URL shorteners is to simply save some extra characters – you no longer have to worry about that. Today, Twitter counts any link (no matter how long or short it is) as exactly 22 characters.

    tweet with a lengthy url
    It’s no longer necessary to use link shorteners to save characters. No matter what the length of the link, Twitter URLs only take up 22 characters.

    Twitter also applies its own link shortening service (t.co), which checks the URL for viruses and malware, to every tweeted link.

    Still, many people continue to add shortened links to their tweets even though the benefit of using them today is arguable.

    When people use third party tools to publish tweets, they stack more link shortening services on top of Twitter’s default one — resulting in multiple redirects and increased page load times.

    Here’s a real example of what might happen “behind the scenes” as you click on a shortened link in your Twitter feed:

    Tools Resource Guide

    Looking for something to make your life easier?

    Discover the tools we recommend to drive engagement, save you time, and boost sales across your entire marketing funnel or business.

    Whether you need help planning content, organizing social posts, or developing your strategy, you’ll find something for every situation.

    FIND YOUR NEXT FAVORITE TOOL
    latency data for shortened urls
    This might happen “behind the scenes.” URL shortening services stack on top of each other, which alters page-load times.

    #4: Ask Twitter Influencers for Help

    Content doesn’t spread automatically. You need to get retweeted not just by people you know, but by the right people.

    According to BuzzSumo who recently studied the share counts of more than 100 million articles, when influencers share your content, the reach increases substantially. If one influencer shares a piece of content, it will get 38.8% more social shares. Three influencers double the social shares and five influencers quadruple them.

    It’s important to network with influencers and develop relationships with them. Then, when you have an important piece of content you’d like to get seen, you can ask the influencers you know to share it.

    #5: Use Twitter’s Recommend Feature

    Recommend is a native feature of Twitter’s tweet button that many people don’t pay attention to.

    After a visitor tweets an article from your blog, the window recommends they follow you on Twitter, if they don’t follow you already.

    twitter recommend button
    Use the Twitter recommend feature to build your following.

    This is an excellent way to grow your Twitter account, since people who just tweeted your article are likely to want to follow you.

    Look at the code of your tweet button and make sure the recommend field contains your Twitter username. To double-check you’ve set up the feature correctly, ask a friend to unfollow you on Twitter and then tweet an article from your blog. If the recommend field contains your Twitter username, you’re all set.

    twitter button settings
    Input your Twitter handle into the recommend box in your tweet buttons settings.

    Note: If you use a plugin or service to create tweetable links in your articles, be aware they may use “recommend” to promote their own Twitter accounts on your blog. For example, if you use ClickToTweet, visitors who tweet from your blog are asked to follow @ClickToTweet on Twitter.

    To avoid promoting third-party services on your blog with the Recommend feature, try an alternative like Click To Tweet by CoSchedule for WordPress.

    #6: Repeat Article Tweets

    Ever worry that if you tweet the same article more than once it’ll irritate your Twitter followers? Don’t.

    According to a study by Wisemetrics, the second tweet of an article gets as much as 86% of the performance as the first tweet.

    wisemetrics repeating tweet data
    Don’t worry about over-tweeting the same content. The second tweet gets 86% the engagement of the first one.

    Clearly the performance will fade with each new tweet, but considering your followers are probably in different time zones, you still need to tweet your most valuable content more than once.

    When you publish an article, send a tweet right after the article goes live. Then, send a second tweet a few hours later, one more the next day and another within a week.

    After that first week, feel free to tweet your old articles whenever it’s convenient or appropriate. Your new followers will appreciate it, since the content will be new for them.

    Conclusion

    Just about everyone has an opinion on Twitter marketing. The key is to be careful who you listen to. Generic tips may backfire, so adopt tactics that are backed by real numbers and case studies.

    In the end you’ll spend less time and money on Twitter, and will reap the rewards of a smarter marketing plan.

    What do you think? What are your best Twitter tips? Have you seen other great articles with Twitter research? How does it affect your everyday Twitter routine? Please leave your comments below.

    how to improve twitter marketing
    Tips for improving your Twitter marketing.

    Get Your FREE Course: Web3 for Beginners

    Web 3 for Beginners

    Curious about Web3, but don't know where to start or who to trust?

    Introducing Web3 for Beginners, a course taught by Michael Stelzner, the founder of Social Media Examiner.

    Learn the basics of Web3 and apply it to your business with this FREE comprehensive course.


    CLICK HERE TO GET FREE ACCESS

    Tags: Twitter

    About the authorTim Soulo

    Tim Soulo is a former professional DJ, who quit his career to study content marketing and principles of virality on Social Media. Download his free ebook with useful Twitter tools.
    Other posts by Tim Soulo Âť

    Get Social Media Examiner’s Future Articles in Your Inbox!

    Get our latest articles delivered to your email inbox and get the FREE Social Media Marketing Industry Report (39 pages, 50+ charts)!

    Industry Report Cover

    Worth Exploring:

    Facebook

    Marketing Help Explore More →

    Instagram

    Marketing Help Explore More →

    YouTube

    Marketing Help Explore More →

    Linkedin

    Marketing Help Explore More →

    Web3

    Marketing Help Explore More →

    Social Media Marketing Industry Report

    Get Free Report →

    Social Marketing Trends

    The data you've been missing!

    Need a new plan? Discover how marketers plan to change their social activities in the 14th annual Social Media Marketing Industry Report. It reveals what marketers have planned for their social activities, content marketing, and more! Get this free report now and never miss another great article from us. Join more than 400,000 marketers!

    Enter your email to get
    our free report:


    Footer

    Your Guide to the Social Media Jungle
    Copyright © 2023 Social Media ExaminerÂŽ
    All Rights Reserved. Terms of Use | Privacy Policy.

    Helpful Links

    • About us
    • Our content via email
    • Our podcasts
    • Our YouTube channel
    • Our live show
    • Our industry report
    • Sponsorship opportunities
    • RSS
    • Accessibility