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Twitter: Tone

Twitter: Tone

Like all online writing, tweets are usually conversational, positive, and have a dash of humor.

Now you’ve got the added challenge of keeping yourself under 140 characters. When your writing is so short, every word — every letter — counts.

What are the best practices for twitter tone? Let’s take a look!

1. Follow the Brand Voice

Your client will tell you the tone that they want, but what does “informative” or “fun” mean to them?  Take a look at their previous tweets to find their style.

Just like a logo, voice identifies a company, so consistency is important.

2. Stay Super Short

140 characters is super short, right? Nope. Using all 140 characters is like writing a twitter essay.

70-100 characters is the most-read tweet length. Twitter is the prime place to hone your editing skills; cut every word you don’t need, and shorten the remaining words.

Short tweets are not only read more, they’re also easier to retweet.

3. Be Purposeful

To stay concise, each tweet needs a purpose. Do you want readers to answer a question, laugh, buy your product?

You only have room for one purpose per tweet, so identify your goal and focus all your words on it.

Rule with Verbs

Speaking of eliminating words, which ones should you ditch and which should you keep? Adverbs and adjectives are the first to go. Instead, strengthen your verbs.

Weak and wordy: It rained heavily today.

Strong and short: It poured today.

4. Ask Questions

Readers are selfish. They’re supporting you by reading your tweets, but if those tweets are all about you (or your client), they’ll stop.

Asking questions moves attention from you to your readers. Questions engage readers, and they generate response and retweets — perfect for publicity.

5. Create a Call to Action

Calls to action (what you want your reader to do) are important in all online writing. Since tweets are so short, your call to action might be the whole tweet, such as asking a question.

Saying, “Please Retweet” is a popular Twitter call to action. When readers retweet, your tweet shows up to their followers, so your content reaches a wider audience.

You’ll seem egoistic if you always ask for retweeting, but don’t be shy either.

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