10 Tips for Twitter Users from Greenwich Free Press

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1. Pick your “handle,” carefully. Make make it as short as possible, because when someone mentions you, your handle (e.g. Greenwich Free Press handle is @GWCHFreePress ) eats into their 140 character max per Tweet.

2. Embed a Tweet in your website or wordpress blog. It’s easy. Just click on the elipses (…) under the tweet, and then click “Embed Tweet.” Then copy the short code that pops up in the box and paste it into the post you’re drafting.

 

3. Twitter is a great way to introduce yourself to a person, business or non-profit with a shared interest. If you “mention” someone you are following on twitter, they will be alerted with a notification automatically.

4. Keep in the loop. You should follow your competitors to see how they are using Twitter and what information they are sharing.

5. Content. Share your voice and personality. Sense of humor is an asset, but keep your politics to yourself, unless  you’re a political organization.

6. Don’t start a Tweet with @ if you want all your followers to see the Tweet. By starting with @GWCHFreePress, the only Twitter followers who will see it are people who follow both you and Greenwich Free Press.

If you really want to start with @ there is a way to trick Twitter. Just put something in front of the @ symbol. It may be as simple as adding a period.

7. Add a photo. But make sure it is horizontal. Twitter, just like Facebook is set up for horizontal photos. Posting a portrait-oriented photo makes you look like you don’t know what you’re doing. The maximum size you can upload is 5MB. Consider taking a screenshot of your photo and uploading the screenshot instead of the original.

8. Video. Right now you can upload video up to 30 seconds on Twitter, but only from the phone app, rather than a laptop.

9. Hasthtags. Your home page on Twitter will tell you what hashtags are trending. A hashtag is the good old pound # sign followed by a keyword.  But, not only do hashtags eat into your 140 characters, but they are often overused, which is annoying.

A hashtag immediately expands the potential reach of your Tweet beyond just those who follow you. You can reach people on Twitter who are interested in that hashtag phrase or keyword. So pick your hashtag thoughtfully. Tweets containing hashtags can garner more engagement than Tweets without. In other words, you can snag people beyond your followers. But pick the hashtag thoughtfully. An ideal use of a hashtag is around an event or something topical in the news.

10. How to grow your following. Follow other people on Twitter and the chances are that they’ll follow you back. If you decide you don’t like them, you can always unfollow them after the fact.