10 Quick Ways to Sparkle on Twitter

photo by Todd Huffman

  1. Keep it to one idea. Write everything you need to say, even if it goes over 140. Then cut like crazy.
  2. Write like Hemingway: passion, focus, intention. “The dignity of movement of an iceberg is due to only 1/9th of it being above water.” -EH
  3. Be a nexus for others. RT the good stuff and @ reply to help the flow of conversation. “Do what you do best and link to the rest.”
  4. Move away from just reading the news. Help share and create the news. Make a place where people interact with and discuss the news.
  5. Get to the point. 140 characters is more than enough space to say something powerful.
  6. Tweet to celebrities on Twitter. It’s the quickest way to the top. Ask or tell them something important. If they respond, you score huge.
  7. Don’t follow everyone in sight. Take 15 seconds to check their profile and website to see if there’s a real connection to be made.
  8. Use #hashtags to create and track conversations. Join organized “tweetchats” by filtering hashtags with Tweetdeck or Tweetgrid.
  9. You don’t need huge amounts of followers to be effective in your niche. You just need to connect with the right group of focused listeners.
  10. Twitter is an awesome platform to build your brand but it’s not everything. You still need to work hard at your content, service or product.

Yes, these tips are all 140 characters or less, so feel free to retweet (RT) these anytime you want. Credit to @wordful is appreciated — you’ll have to cut and abbreviate some of these to make room for “RT @wordful.” Follow me on Twitter.

Photo by Todd Huffman.

8 Replies

  1. Writer Dad Reply

    Write like Hemingway: That might be the best Twitter advice I’ve ever heard. I might even have to steal it and turn it into a long winded post.

    • Charles Reply

      Sure, take it. Let’s actually make a trade. You can write about Hemingway and I’ll use your Rough Draft post from Collective Inkwell to make my own post on the same topic. 🙂

  2. Tweet to celebrities. That’s a suggestion I’ve never heard before. Very interesting.

    You know… I’d love even more than having Ashton tweet to me… that he send out a link to my blog. That, my friend, would be simply awesome. Like getting on the front page of Digg, or better.

  3. Charles Reply

    @BambooForest Are you being sarcastic? 🙂

  4. Deveena Reply

    Oh, how I wish I had read this stuff before making a fool of myself on Twitter. I tweeted quite terribly. I just couldn’t help myself. Thankfully, Twitter has that amazing little delete icon.

    I did try the “tweet to celebrity” trick, but I think I only offended Martha Stewart on her poor use of grammar. –hanging head in shame–

    Not gonna worry about it though. Doubt anyone would be foolish enough to read my earliest Tweets. From now on, it’s all gonna be high quality stuff. Thanks for the tips Charles. I’m gonna see if I can make a connection with @Oprah, or someone like that, sometime soon. 🙂

Reply