This week on the TEC blog, we're re-sharing a well-liked post from our archives! Former Social Media Coordinator Jean Mathew shares four great tips you can use to help gain more traction on Twitter. Read on for more!

*****

Being good at social media is important for everyone. And I mean everyone. From Starbucks to The Editing Company to your own personal account—recognizing the potential of a robust social media presence is key! For the rare breed of niche and underground businesses, not having some or all social media could potentially be a component of their brand. For the rest of us, social media efficiently tackles some big jobs: keeping in touch with our audience, sharing our products and services, receiving feedback and creating a sense of community.

I’ve been working as TEC’s Social Media Coordinator for the last four months. It’s been a blast so far! This blog is about some of the work we’ve been doing on the social media side and the key components that are readily transferable to your own social media strategy.

Use Graphics to Catch the Eye

Think about the way you scroll through Twitter. There are probably a ton of single line tweets that you scroll right past, but an image of puppies? Someone recognizable? A video? Your finger is now hovering a fraction over the phone screen and you take an extra second to read a short comic strip before the scrolling continues. For these reasons and more, graphics are an instant hit and a major component of your Twitter strategy!

How to Use Your Blog Resources

The Editing Company’s blog is a treasure trove of resources. TEC editors tackle various topics every week and share their insights, and have written on everything from the prefix “post-” to strategies writers can use to find agents. With all of this quality content, we want to make sure that the articles reach the audience. However good your content is, if no one’s looking at it, then what’s the point? To make sure the articles are getting out there and seeing the light of day, each new blog is posted to the TEC Twitter feed, promoted a couple of times a week, and the tweets are paired with a graphic to help draw attention to the content. We also pay attention to our analytics, and if an older blog is seeing some increased views and activity, we send out a tweet promoting it as well.

It’s important to note that retweeting is a wonderful and amazing tool. You should fully take advantage of rehashing old material or simply resurfacing it with a quick retweet. Bringing back older material keeps your social media active, allows you to draw a little extra attention to your old stuff, and saves you time on planning. When you post to Twitter, remember to add a graphic! For a tweet about blog content, a clean graphic with the title of the article is sufficient for grabbing attention.

Try Out Campaigns

A campaign can be as simple as asking people to retweet a post and follow your account in order to be entered to win a prize or reward of some sort. Retweeting can help your tweet circulate in a number of far-reaching spaces, helping you connect with a steadily growing number of followers. The campaign drums up increased engagement and reminds the community that this business is busy, thriving, and very much active.

Another thing to keep in mind when putting together a social media campaign is the timing at which you start the campaign. The best case scenario is beginning a contest that sets out to do more than one thing. Every contest targets engagement, but what about increasing clicks to your profile? These profile visits mean more people are aware of your business. The more people who know about your business, the more likely you will receive new clients. Or even better—what if you launched a new service alongside this contest? In this way, you can promote your services while still reminding followers to participate in the contest. Raffles and contests are great ways to engage with the community. When you do start one, be sure to strategize well! Take advantage of almost guaranteed success.

Writing Clean Copy

This last bit is not so much about our social media, but the copy of social media in general. On Twitter, take advantage of hashtagging and mentioning others. Curating tweets so that they include some of these features will positively influence their reach. Even though you have a character limit, be conscientious of unwieldy and chunky copy. Social media copy at its finest is crisp, clean, and very easy to read. When you balance all of these elements together, you have an incredibly beautiful Twitter page. And don’t thank me—thank Twitter for giving us all very intriguing opportunities with a user-friendly interface. And we at TEC wish you the best in your social media journey! 

Want a monthly editing tip? Sign up for our monthly newsletter and have 
helpful editing tips delivered directly to your inbox.